by Tonya Kappes
“But she changed so much. Marsden’s like a different town.” Coral said. Her schoolgirl cover had slipped and she’d revealed her passionate future journalist side.
“You really are quite interested in all this, huh?” Ted said, lips pursed.
Coral nodded. She was interested and knowledgeable, just not for the reason he thought. Her thoughts were focused on her name on a byline, not her name in public office.
“Sharon Major did a lot of things that went beyond her role. I can tell you that as it’s well documented. Some of the things she did were highly inappropriate.”
“Such as?” Coral asked. Her eyes gleamed with excited anticipation for whatever Ted was about to share.
“I really can’t say any more about that,” Ted said. He looked at his watch and Sandy felt certain he was about to create an excuse to end their conversation.
“It’s a shame,” she said on impulse. “I mean, we only know what a Mayor should do based on her example.”
Ted took a deep breath and looked at the floor, then murmured, “And that is the problem with people abusing power.”
“Huh?” Sandy asked. She leaned in towards him but Ted didn’t repeat his words. A speck of fake snow clung to his right shoe and he frowned at the sight of it, then bent to swipe at it with an outstretched ring finger.
“Ugh,” he groaned, and then landed on the floor with a dull thud. Coral and Sandy turned to each other and then each let out a scream.
“Help!” Sandy shouted as Coral dropped to the floor and looked at Ted’s unconscious frame. The guards from the stage were by their side within moments, followed by a medic.
“Is he dead?” Coral shrieked, her composure gone as the adults took charge. The medic dropped to the floor and Sandy averted her eyes.
“He’s fine. Fainted, I think,” the medic said. “Ted, can you hear me?”
“He has tablets,” one of the guards said. He bent down and shouted to Ted as if he had lost his hearing and not his consciousness. “Ted? You take your pills, buddy?”
“You know him?” the medic asked.
“Sure,” the guard said. “I do security for all the Mayor’s events.”
On the floor, Ted began to stir. The medic cautioned him to move slowly, and gradually he shifted into a sitting position. Trails of sweat ran down his face and his eyes seemed to struggle to focus.
“Is he okay?” Coral asked, mouth open.
“I told you not to lift the damn chairs,” the guard said. He’d sat on the floor next to Ted and watched him carefully.
The adults did what adults seemed best at in Sandy’s opinion. They forgot that Sandy and Coral were there as they fussed over Ted and chatted amongst themselves. Sandy met her sister’s eyes and shrugged. Clearly, their interrogation of Ted was done. They were kidding themselves thinking they could get to the bottom of a real murder.
Someone had managed to break the oversized candy cane from Santa’s Grotto, dragged it across the centre to the stage, and beat Sharon Major to death. That much was obvious. Getting past the basic facts was just beyond them.
They should leave it to the professionals.
Sandy slumped down to the floor and propped her chin in her hands, deflated.
“What’s wrong?” Coral asked as she sat down beside her. “You look miserable.”
Sandy didn’t reply. She thought back to the scene on the stage and gasped.
“What?” Coral asked.
“The candy cane,” Sandy blurted out. “It’s huge.”
“Yeah?” Coral asked, brow furrowed.
“Look at the state of him,” Sandy whispered with a glance towards Ted Burton. “He’s collapsed after carrying a plastic chair.”
Coral still gazed at her, clueless.
“Whoever did this is strong!” Sandy exclaimed with a struggle to keep her voice low. “It’s not Ted, there’s no way he could chop that candy cane down and beat someone with it.”
Coral gasped and covered her mouth. The medic and guard paid them no attention, still focused on Ted Burton.
“You’re right,” she said with a frown. “And I’m out of ideas.
Chapter Seven
The upstairs hall had no windows and the heat from the shops below rose to the second floor, gradually shifting from cozy to stifling. Women began to remove scarves and an elderly man across the room used his folded newspaper as a fan. The tinny tunes of festive muzak filled the air and the young, reedy man sat next to Sandy hummed along with every new song, hopelessly out of tune.
“This is miserable,” Sandy admitted after a while. The crowd had grown quiet after Ted Burton’s fainting spell, and although he’d addressed them and assured everyone he was absolutely fine, an air of discomfort remained.
“Maybe it was one of the guards?” Coral suggested. She’d still got her shell suit jacket on despite the heat. She’d sleep in the damn thing if she could.
“You’re just clutching at straws,” Sandy said. “Let’s face it, we need to leave this to the police.”
“Fine,” Coral huffed, then got to her feet and walked away. Sandy rolled her eyes but kept a close eye on her sister. She didn’t want them to be separated with a killer on the loose. To her horror, Coral walked straight across to James Gridley, who opened the slit of an eye and then pretended he hadn’t seen. Coral said something, and he opened his eyes, grimaced and jumped up, and made his way straight towards Sandy.
Sandy wasn’t attracted to James, not one bit, and so she felt furious as her cheeks began to flush. It was as if they were traitors, except there was no secret for them to reveal. It was ridiculous.
“Erm, hi,” she said as James stood over her in tracksuit bottoms with two stripes and a tear near his knee. Coral dashed across to catch up with him, her face flustered. Did they have a history of rosacea in the family or something, Sandy wondered.
“Go on then, ask me yoursen,” he muttered as his small dark eyes pierced her gaze.
“Erm…” Sandy began. What on earth had Coral done?
“I was asking James if his family had the craft shop,” Coral said from behind him, her eyes wide.
“Oh, yeah,” Sandy said. “I just wondered.”
“What’s it to you?” James sneered.
“Nothing, really. I liked going in it, that’s all. Has it moved?”
“Moved?!”
“To another town, maybe?” Sandy asked. She wanted the ground to swallow her up.
James Gridley let out a mean laugh. “Just come out and say it, huh?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Sandy objected.
To her horror, a fat tear slipped from James’ cheek and landed on her shoe. She averted her gaze but it was too late. He had seen that she had seen. With a shake of his head, he turned on his heels and stomped away to the farthest part of the room from them.
“What on Earth was that about?” Sandy asked Coral. “And why did you go over there like that?”
“Be easy on him,” Dorie urged as she tottered across the room in her heels. Nobody else appeared to have paid much interest to the exchange, but trust Dorie to have noticed.
“I was only asking about the craft shop,” Sandy said.
“Touchy subject,” Dorie said with a smile. “It had to close. His dad couldn’t afford the rents. Not with people going to Partner’s instead.”
“Oh,” Sandy said as she thought of her excitement to go in the chain store earlier that day. “Well, I didn’t mean to upset him. I thought it might have just moved.”
“Did you ask him that?” Dorie asked. Sandy nodded. “That’s what’ll have upset him, I bet. The shop hasn’t moved, but his dad has.”
“For work?”
“Out of embarrassment, I reckon. He’s gettin’ on a bit, James’ dad. It were a shock when they found out they were expecting, cos of their age. He asked everywhere when he closed the shop, applied for anything he could see, but nobody were hiring blokes his age. In the end, he upped and left.”
“Wow,” Sandy said. She looked across towards James, who had adopted his previous position and had his eyes squeezed closed.
“It’s the same sob story all over town,” Dorie said with a shrug. “This is exactly what Ted Burton was warning Sharon Major about in that memo.”
“I thought being Mayor was just ceremonial?” Sandy said, thinking back to Ted’s words.
“It should be,” Dorie admitted. “That’s why Sharon was so unpopular. She went past what a Mayor should do. It was all for the good of Marsden, and her own name of course. She did really think this was the way to get the place on the map, the trouble is a lot of people have ended up worse off.”
“Was he on our bus?” Coral asked, tilting her head towards James Gridley.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Dorie asked. She pulled an Estee Lauder lipstick from her handbag and applied a fresh coat, then blotted her lips with a tissue. Sandy watched, transfixed. There were some things a father just couldn’t teach.
Coral and Sandy looked at each other and nodded.
“We’ve been trying to investigate,” Sandy explained with a sigh. She dug into her own pocket and pulled out the bus ticket. “And we found this on the stage.”
Dorie peered at it and frowned. “So what?”
“Well, don’t you see? It means the killer was on the same bus as us three,” Sandy explained.
Dorie screwed up her nose. “Somebody was on the same bus as us, and on the stage at some point. But you can’t say it’s the killer.”
“Huh?” Coral asked.
“You’ve taken one plus one and skipped to three, girls. Imagine how many people have been on that stage today, with all the preparations. Anybody could have dropped this.” Dorie said.
Sandy groaned. She was right. “We’ve been wasting our time. The one clue I thought I’d found isn’t even a clue!”
“Oh, hush,” Dorie said. “It’s a worthy thing to do, to try and get involved, but some things are best left to the professionals.”
“You don’t believe we can do it,” Coral sulked.
Dorie cocked an eyebrow towards her and a wicked smile crossed her freshly painted lips. “I believe you girls can do anything you set your minds to. Just stay safe, yes?
Chapter Eight
“The police are here!” someone called as the door at the back of the hall opened. A buzz of excitement passed through the crowd and most people who had been sitting got to their feet.
Two police officers and an Alsatian entered the room.
James Gridley really had fallen to sleep and the canine sniffing him as they walked past startled him. A wave of terror passed across his face until the officer holding the lead pulled the animal away.
“Everyone, please remain calm. The police are here. We will, of course, all follow their instructions in a calm and composed manner.” Ted Burton announced, his voice still weakened from his collapse. He gave the crowd a reassuring smile and then returned to the plastic chair.
“You’re in charge?” One of the officers asked Ted, who nodded. “We need to do a head count and get a list of who’s here, and then we’ll start questioning people.”
“There’s an office you can use,” Ted said. He pointed behind him, to a door with a STAFF ONLY sign on it.
One of the officers slipped into the room for a moment, then returned and nodded to his colleague, who began moving around the room, taking down each person’s name and contact number in his pocket notebook.
“So…” the other officer began to speak to Ted Burton. The dog remained alert by his side.
“It’s getting awful hot in here, officer,” Ted interrupted the officer. “Our water supplies won’t last long enough for you to interview everyone in here. And plenty of these people need to get home.”
“I understand,” the officer said, in a tone that suggested he also didn’t care. “But I know you appreciate how important a murder investigation is, especially at the early stages.”
“Early stages?” Ted hissed to him. “We called for help two hours ago!”
“Sir, we got here as quick as we could.”
Ted shook his head, saw Sandy watching him, and forced himself to smile. “Of course, I know you did. It’s just been worrying, for everyone.”
“I appreciate that,” the officer said. “Let’s get things moving.”
The officer scanned the room and then turned to the person closest to Ted, where the second officer had begun taking names. “You, ma’am, you’ve given your name to my colleague? Come with me, then.”
Sandy turned to Coral and grabbed on the sleeve of her shell suit.
“What?” Coral hissed, smoothing the fabric down.
“We need to figure this out before they do,” Sandy said.
“I thought you said it was all hopeless and we should just give up because we’re total losers?” Coral whined.
“Oh, stop,” Sandy scolded. “You want your name in lights, remember? Come on, we don’t have much time. Let’s just think it all through.”
“Okay,” Coral agreed with a grin.
“The bus ticket’s been a red herring all along, it’s distracted us.”
“So forget that, what do we know?”
“We know the candy cane was the weapon.”
“And that someone strong had to break it somehow,” Coral said.
“That’s it!” Sandy exclaimed, “How do you even break a thing like that?”
Sandy cast her mind back to the stage, to the candy cane on its side. The bottom, where it had been broken, was jagged and sharp.
“A saw or something?” Sandy guessed, unfamiliar with DIY or tools.
“Yeah,” Coral agreed. “It hadn’t been pulled off the base, had it? It had been cut.”
“So there’s a tool somewhere that’s been used.”
“That’s no help to us,” Coral muttered. “We’re stuck here. We can’t go off and look for it.”
“Maybe we don’t need to,” Sandy said, a theory emerging. “Maybe it’s in here, with the killer.”
Coral’s eyes widened and Sandy knew that her sister had had the same thought as her. “Oh my God. What do we do?”
“Well, we’re not going to sit back and let the police take the credit for our work!” Sandy exclaimed.
“Maybe not, but I’m not going to confront a murderer myself, Sand. And neither are you.”
“It’s nearly our turn. We just tell the police our theory and ask that they thank us when they announce it,” Sandy said with a shrug.
A movement across the room caught Sandy’s eye and she gasped.
“Too late for that,” Coral said. She jumped to her feet and Sandy followed.
“Stop!” They called in unison across the room. The person who had stood up and approached the door that led to the stairs turned and faced them. The officer with the notebook turned their attention across the room, and the second officer and the dog returned from the office room.
All eyes focused on Sandy and Coral, awaiting their next move.
“We know you did it,” Coral called across the room.
“Girls.” The officer with the police dog called, “I need you to sit down and leave this to me and my colleague.”
“We know why you did it,” Sandy shouted. She reached across and linked her hand through her sister’s as the killer began to stalk across the room towards them. The scene unfolded as if in slow motion. Sandy felt Coral’s fingers dig into the flesh of her hand. Pain throbbed through her skin as the killer approached. The officers began to approach; their movements steady and composed. They were too far away though, the killer would get to Sandy and Coral first.
Sandy let out a scream as the killer reached into their pocket and produced a craft knife, the overhead lights glinting against the metal blade.
“That’s how you cut the candy cane down, isn’t it? And then you killed Sharon Major.” Sandy asked as she and Coral backed up towards the wall. There was nowhere to go.
“You�
�ll pay for this,” the killer said as he advanced towards them. “I knew you were sticking your nose in for no good.”
“That’s not it,” Sandy objected, her voice high. “I’m sorry about what’s happened to your family. I really am.”
“You know nothing about my family,” the killer replied. The mention of his family stopped him in his tracks for a moment and Ted Burton saw his chance. He rose to his feet as quick as he could, realising that his vision was getting worse. The doctor’s words haunted him as he took each step forward. Stage Four. No options left. Weeks, not months. They were the words that had given him the courage to send the damn memo, and to make sure it got leaked. And they’d give him the courage now.
He placed himself in between young James Gridley and the teenage girls who had worked it all out. He couldn’t even remember their names.
“It’s over, James,” he said, and he held his hand out for the knife.
James sneered at him. “You’re all the same. You wouldn’t have made things any better for my family than she did.”
The officers closed in on James as he raised his arm over his shoulder, pulled back, and prepared to strike with the knife. Ted took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Sandy and Coral screamed.
And then there was a thud, as a body fell to the ground. Sandy peeked through her hands to see James on the floor, the police officers man-handling him. Ted Burton slumped to the floor, unhurt, and turned to check on the girls, who began to sob.
“It’s okay now, it’s okay,” Ted said, as much for himself as them. He pulled them into him for an embrace, and they all began to chant the same words. “It’s okay now, it’s okay.”
Chapter Nine
Sandy and Coral were taken to Marsden Hospital, despite assuring the emergency services that they were unhurt. The kindly doctor who met them in the A&E reception from the ambulance allowed them to stay in the same curtained-cubicle while he examined them each in turn.