by Jessica Beck
Aunt Della patted her friend’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean to leave the burden of dealing with most of the finances to you. I’ll be over first thing tomorrow morning, and we won’t rest until we’ve got it all sorted out. How’s that sound?”
“I’d appreciate all of the help I can get. Are you making any progress on Cheryl’s murder?” Henrietta asked the police chief. “The entire town is buzzing about it.”
“We’re following up on some leads,” Cameron said.
“That’s cop talk for you don’t really have a clue, isn’t it?” I said.
“Pat, I wasn’t speaking in code. We’ve got a few theories we’re actively pursuing right now. That’s what professionals do, you know. We investigate, interview, and evaluate the evidence.”
“It sounds as though anyone could do that,” Annie said, backing me up.
“Not without our resources,” he said.
“Let’s talk about something less depressing, shall we?” Serena asked. “How long are we going to have those snowmen looming all over town? I saw one the other day that I could swear was staring straight at me.”
“I don’t know. I kind of like having them around,” the mayor said.
“Of course, they do have a certain charm,” Serena added, quickly backpedaling from her former position.
“That’s because you’ve never had one try to kill you,” Aunt Della said.
“Do you really think that was an attempt on your life?” Davis asked her.
“All I’m saying is that it’s odd that it happened precisely when I was standing under it.”
“I don’t know,” Cam said. “It all sounds a little too farfetched to me.”
“So you’ve said,” Aunt Della said.
We weren’t getting anywhere, though Annie and I kept trying to draw out our guests about the murder and the other attempts on Della’s life. Finally, Annie pulled me aside again.
“Pat, the more we speak with these people, the more I believe that none of them had anything to do with the attempts on Aunt Della’s life. It’s Gary White. I just know it.”
“What should we do about it?”
“I know you’re not going to like this, but we need to tell Chief Cameron our theory, and more importantly, we need to give him that tree branch.”
I looked hard at my sister before I spoke. “Are you sure that’s the next step we should take?”
“It’s making me paranoid just having that thing in the back of my car. The sooner we can hand it over to the authorities, the better, as far as I’m concerned.”
I realized that Annie was probably right. There were things we could do just as well as local law enforcement, but this was in the police department’s area of expertise, not ours. “You’re right. Let’s do it.”
I walked back into the dining room where everyone was still chatting and cornered the chief. “Do you have a second?”
“Why?” he asked skeptically. I clearly was not one of his favorite people at the moment, despite his earlier apology, but perhaps that was about to change when I told him what I’d found.
“It’s important.”
That quieted the crowd.
“Fine,” Chief Cameron said reluctantly. “What’s up?”
“Let’s find Annie first,” I said.
“We’ll all be right here when you’re finished,” Aunt Della said, and then she turned to Henrietta. “Did you do something different with that famous casserole of yours?”
“I added bacon bits,” she said proudly. “Did you like it?”
“I could really tell a difference,” my aunt said, neatly sidestepping the question. I’d tasted it, and Della had been right. The stuff had been dreadful, with or without the added bacon bits.
Annie was waiting for us by the door, and as Chief Cameron approached, he said, “Okay, you two. Make it quick.”
“We found the real murder weapon. It wasn’t the flashlight,” I said without preamble.
“What are you talking about?” he asked. I had his attention now.
“While I was gathering some firewood under Davis’s deck, I stumbled across a sawn-off tree branch with hair and fiber still clinging to the bark. Somebody’s trying to set the mayor up to make it look as though he’s the killer, but we have a hunch who really did it.”
“Where is it right now?” he asked. “I’m warning you, if you’re playing games with physical evidence, I’m locking you both up on the spot.”
“The only reason we moved it is because we were afraid someone might try to use it against him,” I said. “It’s out in Annie’s trunk.”
“Actually, it’s more of a cargo area,” she corrected me.
“I don’t care if it’s a kangaroo pouch, let’s see it.”
I called out, “We’ll be right back, Aunt Della.”
Annie looked at me with approval as Della answered, “Take your time, dears.”
Once we were outside, I told the chief, “We think you should be looking at Gary White for the murder.”
“Why would you think that?”
“He had a fight with Della and threatened her. Besides, he’s the only one of our suspects who could possibly want to frame the mayor for it.” I explained our rationale proudly.
The pride didn’t last very long. “I hate to burst your bubble, but Gary’s got a rock-solid alibi for the time of the murder.”
“What?! That’s impossible!” Annie and I had been so sure of it.
“How could you know? He was canoodling with one of his employees all night, and she’s signed a statement that he never left her sight covering the entire time we know that Cheryl was murdered.”
“And you believe her?” Annie asked.
“I do. She’s my cousin, and she doesn’t lie. Tillie might not use the best judgment when it comes to her personal life, but I’ve never known the girl to lie to me. As far as I’m concerned, you can take it to the bank.”
“So, where does that leave us?” I asked.
“I don’t know about the two of you, but it leaves me exactly where I was before. Like I said before, we’re making progress, and we’ll continue to work toward finding the killer until we’re satisfied that we’ve got the right person.”
Annie popped open her trunk, and for a moment, I was afraid that someone had broken in and stolen the branch in question, but to my relief, it was exactly where we’d left it. The police chief leaned over and picked up the branch, being careful to use the edge of a small plastic bag to grab it. As he held it aloft, I noticed a glint of light coming from the house, and when I turned, I saw every last one of our dinner guests watching us closely. Why was I not surprised? “What should we tell them when we go back in?” I asked the police chief.
“Tell them whatever you want to,” he said. “I’m taking this straight to my office and having my people check it out.”
“You’re just going to leave us here?” Annie asked.
The police chief’s only response was just to smile at us as he walked away, so my sister and I had no choice.
We turned and walked back inside.
It didn’t take long for the party to break up, especially when Annie and I feigned ignorance about why the chief had left so abruptly. No one was willing to push us any further, but it seemed as though we’d suddenly all run out of things to talk about.
After our guests were all gone, something suddenly occurred to me as we were helping our aunt clean up the kitchen. “I never got any ribs!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make some for you when we get back home,” Annie said soothingly.
“Just for me?”
“You can share them if you want to,” my sister said with a smile.
“And if I don’t want to?”
“Then they are all yours.”
“I hope that won’t be anytime soon,” Aunt Della said.
Annie had told me about her plans to stay longer if needed, and I’d agreed. “Not if we haven’t made any more headway than we already have. You might have
a hard time getting rid of us.”
“We’ll never know, because I’ll never try,” she said. We finished the dishes, and Annie stifled a yawn.
“I’m exhausted,” she said. “Is anyone else tired?”
“I could go to sleep right here,” I admitted. It had been a long and stressful day.
“Then let’s all call it a day and get a fresh start tomorrow,” Aunt Della suggested, and Annie and I heartily agreed.
All in all, the evening had been a bust, but we couldn’t let that discourage us. I took up my place on the couch again and tried to get to sleep, but something kept nagging at the back of my mind. Had I missed something over the past few days, something that held the key to our investigation? Whatever it was, I couldn’t put my finger on it. The only thing I could do was try to wipe my mind clean, get some sleep, and come at it from a different direction the next day. Even if the sleep didn’t help, at least I’d get some rest.
Unfortunately, a long and uninterrupted sleep was the last thing the night had in store for us.
I woke up an untold time later in a cold sweat, and I could swear that the temperature in the room was ten degrees colder than it had been when I’d first gone to bed. My dreams, more like nightmares, had been haunted by frigid plywood snowmen chasing me along the river path, taunting me with dollar signs that had sharp sticks slashing through them. I knew that it meant something, but I couldn’t for the life of me tell what it was.
I looked around and saw a faint light on in the kitchen, so I got up to investigate.
I found Annie standing in front of the refrigerator peering inside.
“Can’t sleep either?” I asked her.
She looked startled suddenly seeing me standing there. “Patrick, you scared the fool out of me. Did I wake you up?”
“No, I had a bad dream,” I admitted.
“Was it cowboy zombies?” she asked. I’d had that nightmare once, but in my defense, I’d only been eleven years old at the time.
“No.”
“Were you falling through space again?”
“No, it wasn’t that, either. Would you give me a chance to tell you?”
“Sorry,” she said. “What was it about?”
“I’m not sure I want to tell you now, especially if you’re going to bring it up again later.”
“What if I promise not to? Come on. Spill it. You know you want to tell me,” she said as she got a can of soda and put it on the counter.
“It was about those plywood snowmen that are all over town,” I admitted.
“I’m with you on that one. Those things look cool in the daylight, but at night they’re downright wicked. What possessed them to paint those leering grins on them?”
“I don’t know, but that wasn’t the worst part. They were chasing me all through town, and I woke up just as they nearly caught me. Annie, it was in the exact spot where Cheryl Simmons was killed.”
“How awful,” she said. “That must have been terrifying.”
“It was bad enough, but they were carrying dollar signs. Instead of the lines through the shapes, though, they were sharpened sticks.”
“Sticks? How odd.”
“As if snowmen coming to life and harassing me wasn’t enough?” I asked as I grabbed a bottle of water for myself. I didn’t know how my sister could drink soda before going to sleep, but I knew that I could never do it.
“What do you suppose it means?” she asked me.
“Beats me,” I said as I cracked the plastic top open and took a healthy swallow.
“You know what? I might know,” Annie said without touching her own drink. The expression on her face told me that she was on to something.
“You’re kidding.”
“Hear me out. What if your subconscious mind was trying to tell you something. I’ve been wrestling with something, too.”
“Angry snowmen?” I asked her.
“Of course not, but we’re missing something, and it’s right under our noses.”
“I know the feeling.”
“Who could it be, though? Our reasoning about the others is sound. Unless…”
“Unless what?” I asked her when she didn’t finish the sentence.
“What if the killer never made it onto our suspect list?”
“Then I’d say we’re out of luck.”
“Pat, I’ve got it,” she said suddenly. “Who’s been hanging around us the entire time, but we haven’t suspected them even once?”
Then I got it myself. “Henrietta Long. It’s all about the money, isn’t it? That’s why the snowmen were chasing me with deadly dollar signs. That’s brilliant, Annie.”
“Don’t give me the credit. You’re the one who figured it out, at least on a subconscious level,” she said. “The only reason Henrietta could possibly be so reluctant to close the books on the Winter Wonderland must be because she’s been stealing from the accounts. Once they do a final reckoning, her thefts will be discovered, so she’s got to stop that from happening.”
“Even if she kills our aunt,” I said, “someone’s going to eventually figure it out.”
“Not if she blames Aunt Della for all of it,” Annie said. “In a way, it’s perfect, since our aunt won’t be around to defend herself. We’re not going to let that happen, though, are we? I’m going to call Chief Cameron right now.”
Annie never got a chance to make that call, though.
“Put down the phone,” a voice from the edge of the other room said as she stepped out of the shadows.
It was Henrietta Long, and she was holding a pistol in her hand.
“That’s why I was so cold,” I said, dumbfounded that we’d figured it out, but it was still going to be too late. “You snuck in through a cracked window. Did you unlock it during the party?”
She smiled. “Oh, I did it well before that. While you were outside cooking, I opened it even before I announced my presence. Remember, Annie?”
“I remember,” my sister said. “You don’t have to do this, you know. I’m sure we can work something out.”
Henrietta laughed, but there was no joy in it. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. I can’t afford to make restitution, and besides, even if I still had the money, I can’t bargain away what happened to Cheryl.”
“Why did you kill her?” I asked, seeing a form creeping down the stairs just behind her. We must have woken Aunt Della up, but did she have any kind of weapon to defend us all with? Just a short piece of closet rod, not much bigger than the branch Henrietta had used on Cheryl, and the killer had a gun in her hands.
“I thought she was Della,” Henrietta explained a little petulantly. “She was wearing your aunt’s coat, and when I saw her walking down the path, I hid behind a snowman until she passed me by. When she walked past me, I took a swing at her head. She fell from the impact, and I was going to drag her body into the trees, but then it started to roll down toward the water, and I couldn’t stop it. I panicked! As I raced back up the path, I thought about chucking the branch in my hand, but then I decided to use it to my advantage. Why not frame the mayor with the crime? That would surely divert suspicion away from me. I was about to call the police this evening to let them know where they could find the weapon I’d used, and then you two had to go and ruin everything. I haven’t even been able to go back home, since you told the police chief that I was the killer.”
“We thought it was Gary White,” Annie confessed without thinking. I’d been hoping to use the threat of arrest against Henrietta to get her to spare our lives, but I couldn’t blame my sister for blurting it out.
That made Henrietta smile. “So, Cam’s not coming for me? Then I still might be able to get away with this. All I need to do is get rid of the three of you, and then I can blame it all on Della.”
“How are you going to explain three more homicides and pin it on our aunt?” I asked her as Della got closer. Henrietta seemed as though she’d lost her mind completely with her insane plan, but I needed to keep her talking
to give Della a chance to act.
“I won’t have to. They’ll find your bodies in the morning, they’ll go down as three more random acts of violence, and I’ll act as shocked as everybody else that this could happen in our quiet little town.”
“Exactly how many times did you try to kill our aunt?” I asked her.
Henrietta frowned in frustration. “More than I thought I’d need to. First I tried pushing that wretched plywood snowman off the roof onto her, but the wind caught it on the way down and missed her by a mile. Then I trailed her during the parade, fighting through the crowds, acting as though I just wanted a better look at the festivities. When the opportunity came, I shoved her right in front of the fire truck, but Davis was standing nearby, and he pulled her back to safety! I could have screamed in frustration.”
“And the poisoned food at the supper?” I asked her. Even though we might all be about to die, it was good to know that Aunt Della hadn’t been crazy. Those really had been sincere attempts on her life by a very determined amateur killer.
“I knew Della was allergic to seafood, so I dosed her chicken with some ground-up shrimp. I thought it would kill her, but it just made her throw up, and after that, she was fine! I didn’t know that at the time, though, so when she ran to the restroom, I grabbed her plate and tossed it in the garbage before anybody discovered her body. After that, I knew that I had to get rid of her once and for all, so I cracked a window here earlier. Things would have been so much easier if you two would have just stayed where you were, but in a few minutes, my worries will all be over. My plan is perfect this time.”
“Maybe not so perfect after all. That gun doesn’t have a silencer on it,” Annie said. “Davis will hear the gunshots.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” Henrietta said. “I’ll just grab a pillow to shoot through, and then we’ll be set.”
As Henrietta turned to reach for a nearby pillow, it was time to act.
I couldn’t wait for my aunt anymore, so the second Henrietta turned her back, I leapt at her.