The Inn at Holiday Bay: Note in the Nutcracker

by Kathi Daley

  “So, they put the letters in his mouth?” I asked.

  She nodded. “The difference is that Lacy told me that your guest just found the note stuffed into the mouth of the statue, but according to my mom, the nutcracker they used was hollow, so the kids would put the notes in the mouth of the nutcracker, and they’d fall into some sort of hidden compartment. At the end of the evening, someone would retrieve the letters and give them to each child’s parents, although as far as the kids were concerned, elves took the letters to deliver to Santa.”

  “That is a fun story,” I said as the woman began unloading the groceries from her cart. “And I guess it might explain why Pamela decided to write a letter and then put it into the mouth of her family’s nutcracker.”

  “I think it was a thing in the area for a while, so if Pamela was a kid back in the fifties and sixties, then she might have been exposed to the tradition, although I don’t think it retained its popularity for too many years.”

  By the time we’d finished our conversation, the woman had been checked out and had said her goodbyes. I loaded my few items on the conveyer belt and then checked out as well. Once I’d paid and loaded my items into my SUV, I headed to Velma’s Diner.

  Velma was one of the first people I met after arriving at Holiday Bay. She’s the one that got Georgia and me together, and she is also the one who guilted me into giving Rufus a home. When I’d first discovered that my new home came complete with a trespassing cat, I’d been determined to have him removed, but then I met Velma, and she convinced me that the cat I was very sure was the last thing I wanted, was actually the very thing I needed.

  “Hey, Velma,” I poked my head into the kitchen of the diner after I arrived.

  “Abby! How are you, girl? It’s been a while.”

  “It has. I’ve been meaning to stop by, but I’ve been struggling with deadlines and haven’t come into town. I love your decorations. It seems like you’ve added some new items since last year.”

  Velma paused to look around the diner. Her eyes settled on the miniature village, complete with a train. “I did get a few new items. The apple barn and the skating rink in the village are new, and I added some greens to the hostess station and the red bows at the end of the bar used to be green. I doubled the number of lights around the window, so it will really sparkle on those dark and gloomy days, and the bell on the door was replaced with one that doesn’t jingle.”

  “You didn’t like the jingle?” I asked.

  “On busy days, it made me totally nuts.”

  I laughed. “Well, everything looks perfect.”

  “I have been enjoying the festive atmosphere. We closed thirty minutes ago, but I can make you something to eat if you want.”

  “No, thank you.” I picked up a snow globe that was sitting by the cash register and gave it a shake. “I appreciate the offer, but I really need to get back to the inn. I’m in town on a grocery run for Georgia, but I wanted to stop in and say hi while I was here.”

  Velma took off her apron and set it aside. “Well, at least have a cup of coffee. I feel like we haven’t chatted in much too long.”

  “I’d like that.” I set the snow globe back down where I’d found it, and headed toward a booth while Velma grabbed two cups of coffee.

  “So, tell me what is new with you,” Velma started.

  I jumped right in with my story about the nutcracker, taking a brief detour to tell her about Mylie and her bachelors. As predicted, Velma got a kick out of the idea of a real-life dating game going on out at the inn and promised to come by at some point and check out all the contestants.

  “I hope you don’t end up with a lot of drama like they do on The Bachelorette,” she chuckled.

  “I don’t think Mylie’s quest to find her one true love will be anything like that.” At least I hoped it wouldn’t. “She seems pretty serious about the whole thing, so I think that she will approach the task with a bit less drama and a bit more strategy.”

  “Seems like an odd way to find a husband,” Velma pointed out.

  “I guess it is, but she’s a sweet thing, and I don’t have the impression she plans to do anything to hurt anyone. Based on what she’s said, I think that her life has been in a bit of a holding pattern since her grandmother got sick. Now that her grandmother has passed on and Mylie is free to pursue her own plans, I think it is really hitting home how much time she has lost. She wants children. Three at least. And while she certainly isn’t old, she isn’t young either. If she is serious about finding the right guy, settling down, and building a family, I can see where she might realize that time is running out. I feel like she deserves a chance to go after her dreams and plan to support her effort.”

  “Well, I wish her luck as well. It’s not as easy to lasso a husband as one might hope it would be.”

  “I agree,” I said after taking a sip of my coffee. “But she seems to have a pretty easygoing attitude about the whole thing, so I’m sure it will be fine. And with the items on the list she found in the nutcracker she has also committed to accomplishing, she is going to be too busy to get herself into too much trouble.”

  “You know, I’ve been thinking about the nutcracker,” Velma said. “I never heard of the custom of putting a letter to Santa in the mouth of one, but I do remember my mom had a bunch of nutcrackers when I was growing up. Big ones. Little ones. Some were plain, and others were brightly decorated. She really loved her collection and would add to it every year. They really were very popular for a while, and I know Mom cherished hers. She’d make a big to-do when she brought them up from the storage closet in the basement.”

  “Do you still have them?”

  She shook her head. “No. I think my sister ended up with them after Mom passed.”

  I knew that Velma and her sister had been estranged for decades and really wanted to use the opening to ask her if she’d reconsidered her stance on contacting the woman I’d tracked down, but I didn’t have a lot of time and didn’t want to get into such a serious discussion, so I decided to let it go for now.

  “I don’t suppose the name Pamela rings a bell with you?” I asked.

  “I’ve known a few Pamela’s in my time,” Velma answered. “When did you say this letter was written?”

  “I really don’t know,” I admitted. “The nutcracker is more than fifty years old, but I suppose that someone could have put the note in the nutcracker as recently as last year. Lacy is trying to track down the history of the piece, so we might be able to narrow things down a bit. I can call and give you a better date once she speaks to the niece of the man who owned it last.”

  “Please do call me with an update. You know how I love a good mystery.”

  “I will.” I picked up my mug and finished off the last of the coffee. “By the way, I know this is a busy time of year for you, but we are planning a lot of activities out at the inn. You should try to come by if you have time.”

  “I just might do that. I’m working through the weekend, but I’m going to close the restaurant on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.”

  “Well, definitely plan on joining us. I know Georgia is planning traditional meals for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner. And I’m sure she will do a big brunch on Christmas morning as well.”

  “Thank you. I might take you up on your invitation. I don’t really have anything else going on.”

  “Royce isn’t going to be in town?” Royce Crawford was Velma’s ex and her sort-of boyfriend now.

  She paused. “Actually, I’m not sure. He was invited to spend the week with his daughter in Maui, but as of the last time I spoke to him, he wasn’t sure he was going to go. He’s supposed to fly out on Monday, but as of two days ago, he told me he was still on the fence.”

  “Daughter?” I asked. “Why is it that no one has ever mentioned that Royce has a daughter?” I asked.

  “She’s actually a stepdaughter, but the two are close and have maintained a relationship in spite of the fact that Royce has been
divorced from the stepdaughter’s mother for years. I guess they’ve established a tradition of getting together over the holidays every couple of years and this year she wanted to go to Hawaii. Initially, he accepted, but I could tell he’d all but talked himself out of it. I guess he might still show up here at the last minute, but at this point, I’m not counting on him being here.”

  I glanced at the clock on the wall. I enjoyed chatting with Velma, but I really did have to run, so I said my goodbyes after promising to be back by in the next day or two. By the time I got back to the inn, Annabelle was home from school, and Annabelle, Jeremy, Christy, Haley, and Mylie were sitting at a table with Georgia decorating dozens and dozens of sugar cookies.

  “Wow. That is a lot of cookies,” I said.

  “We are going to make some for everyone,” Haley informed me.

  “And making cookies is on the Christmas list, so we’ll have something to cross off as well,” Mylie added.

  “Yes, Georgia mentioned that,” I said.

  “I really love the list idea,” Christy said as she used frosting to create a mouth on the snowman. “I feel like it is going to provide the incentive to do a lot more than I otherwise would have while we are here. At times, I tend to put things off if I’m not faced with a deadline, but I am competitive, so having the list to complete should get me up and out the door.”

  “Noah is going to come over tomorrow to help us build a snowman,” Haley informed me.

  “It’ll be good to see him,” I said. “I thought maybe…” My phone rang, interrupting me. “It’s Lacy. I’m going to take this in the other room.” I left the room, and the others continued the conversation as to which items on the list should be tackled next.

  “Hey, Lacy,” I said after answering.

  “Elizabeth Warrington called me back.”

  “Did she know about the history of the nutcracker?”

  “She did. Unfortunately, it is a sad story.”

  “How sad?”

  “Sad. Apparently, Elizabeth’s great-uncle, Herbert, purchased the nutcracker back in nineteen fifty-nine from an estate sale that was held right here in Holiday Bay. It seems that a large estate was being liquidated after a woman named Hilde Norwood was murdered, and her husband, Jeffery Norwood, was sent to prison for killing her.”

  Oh, this did sound bad.

  Lacy continued. “The couple had an eight-year-old daughter, Pamela, who was sent to live with the woman who had been acting as her nanny at the time of her father’s conviction.”

  “Wow. That is so sad. Even sadder than I had imagined.”

  “I know. When you asked me to look into the history of the nutcracker, I was hoping for a cheery and heartwarming Christmas story.”

  “Did Elizabeth Warrington know anything else about what happened?” I asked.

  Lacy answered. “She told me that both Jeffery and Hilde were archeologists, who traveled extensively, so they were rarely home. The couple was fairly well off, although Elizabeth didn’t know where their wealth had come from. What she did know is that they owned a very nice estate where Pamela lived with a nanny. She also had a tutor that came by five days a week, and the family employed a part-time cook and tri-weekly housekeeper.”

  No wonder Pamela wanted time with her parents above all else. The poor thing.

  Lacy continued. “At the time of Hilde’s murder, the couple had been working a dig in South America said to be worth millions. There had been some talk at the time of the murder that a break-in had occurred, and Hilde’s death had been the result of a robbery gone wrong. But in the end, the prosecution was able to provide evidence that demonstrated it was actually Mr. Norwood who’d killed Mrs. Norwood. He was arrested, tried, and sent to prison.”

  I thought about the note. “When did the murder occur?”

  “Christmas Eve nineteen fifty-eight.”

  Oh, God. That poor child. “Did Elizabeth know anything else?”

  “She didn’t know the specifics, but I looked the murder up online. I didn’t really expect to find anything, but the regional paper uploaded all their back issues to the web a few years ago, so I was able to pull up the article that had been written by a local reporter at the time of the murder.”

  “And?”

  “And I was able to find the name of the nanny Pamela had been sent to live with after her father was sent to prison. From there, I was able to find an obituary for the woman.”

  “So, the nanny is dead?”

  “Yes. She has been for seven years. But the obituary listed her next of kin, which allowed me to track down the daughter of Pamela’s nanny. She informed me that Pamela is still alive and living in the area. After a whole lot of persuasion on my part, she agreed to give me Pamela’s contact information.”

  “And?”

  “And Pamela is willing to speak to us this afternoon. It’s odd, but she actually seemed quite enthusiastic about the idea.”

  I raised a brow. “That surprises me. If anything, I would have thought she’d be reluctant to dig up such a sad memory.”

  “I was expecting her to turn me down flat, and when she didn’t, I had to regroup a bit. She really seemed interested in meeting today, so I decided to rearrange things to accommodate her. I was supposed to pick the kids up from their various activities, but I managed to convince Lonnie to take over carpool duty, so if you are up for it, I think we should go and speak with the woman this afternoon.”

  I paused before I answered. I had to hand it to Lacy, she’d executed an impressive piece of detective work, but Pamela’s situation was so sad, and I’d been trying to put sad and depressing behind me this holiday season. “Are you sure about this?” I asked.

  “I am,” she answered. “When I first found out about Pamela’s parents, I wanted to cry. I still want to cry. But there is also a part of me that wonders what happened to that little girl. Did she grow up in a home with love and warmth? Did she find a way to work through the tragedy and go on to live a happy and productive life? I guess that until we speak to her, we won’t know the rest of the story. And it may indeed be even sadder than we know. I guess if I am honest, there is a part of me that wants to leave well enough alone, but the fact that I happened to buy the nutcracker after you admired it, and that a guest at your inn happened to find a letter left for Santa more than sixty years ago, seems to demonstrate to me that maybe we should be involved. I mean, what are the odds that I would even be able to track down the person who put the letter in the nutcracker after all this time, and that she’d be willing to speak to us? After everything that has happened, our being involved feels predestined somehow.”

  I took a minute to consider this. “I guess our meeting Pamela might be predestined, and if the woman wants to talk about her experiences, I suppose we might be able to provide a service, but talking about the letter might also bring back horrific memories for her.”

  “It might, but she wanted to meet with us,” Lacy reminded me.

  “What exactly did you tell this woman when you spoke to her on the phone?” I wondered.

  “Just that we’d found her letter in the nutcracker and wanted to return it. Her first reaction was amazement that the letter was still in the nutcracker after all these years, but once she got over that shock, she told me that she really wanted to meet with us and would be home this afternoon. I asked her if there was a time that was better than others were, and she said that if we wanted to stop by around three o’clock, that would be perfect. Since Lonnie agreed to pick up the kids and give them a quick dinner, if need be, I’m totally free this afternoon. So, what do you think?”

  “Honestly, I’m conflicted.”

  “I know. But now that I’ve called the woman, I sort of feel like we should follow through on what has been started.”

  Chapter 4

  I was filled with trepidation as I picked Lacy up at her home. She’d gone to a lot of work to track Pamela down, and I wanted to support her in her desire to meet with the woman, but I had a bad feeli
ng about things. Before I left the inn, I made sure Georgia made a copy of the letter for her own use, and then I put the original in my purse. I just hoped the letter didn’t bring back long-suppressed emotions that Pamela had filed away in the back of her consciousness many years ago.

  Pamela lived in an older, yet well-kept neighborhood, in the next town over from Holiday Bay. She was an attractive woman who seemed fit and healthy for her age, which I estimated to be sixty-nine based on the information I had available to me. She greeted us at the door and invited us in.

  “I still can’t believe you found my letter to Santa.” She said after offering us tea and showing us into the sitting area.

  “The fact that the letter was there in the mouth of the nutcracker for more than sixty years is pretty amazing,” I said. “If the man who bought the nutcracker back in nineteen fifty-nine hadn’t kept it in his library where it basically sat undisturbed all this time, I’m sure it wouldn’t have still been there.”

  “It’s hard for me to really wrap my head around the idea that that old nutcracker has been sitting not fifty miles from my home all this time with my letter still inside. I’m glad that you decided to take the time to track me down after you found it.”

  Lacy offered the woman a gentle smile. “We know what happened on Christmas Eve the year you wrote the letter. We were hesitant to contact you for fear of stirring up painful memories, but in the end, we decided you might want to know about the letter. Now, I’m glad we followed through.”

  The woman’s hands were shaking as she looked down at the letter. I couldn’t begin to imagine the images the reminder of that particular Christmas must have conjured up.

  “When I called and spoke to you earlier, it seemed as if there was something you wanted to speak to us about,” Lacy said, thereby breaking the silence.

  Pamela didn’t answer right away, but eventually, looked directly at Lacy and spoke. “Yes. I will admit to being shocked when we first spoke, but after I had a minute to think things through, I realized that you must be the miracle I’ve been waiting for.”