“It very well could be,” Tabby said, happy that the sheriff was bouncing ideas off her again and not mad anymore.
“I have gone through the evidence boxes from the robbery at least five times and have come up with nothing new. The coroner did say that the angle of Dave’s wounds show that his assailant was right handed and shorter than him,” he confided in Tabby.
“Jack Fletcher is shorter than Dave Tullinson,” Tabby said. “But, why would he attack him now? It doesn’t make any sense after all these years of living together here in town. Everything always seems to lead back to Samuel Benson.”
“I’m doing a thorough background check on him, believe me. By the way, I let Tillie reopen the research area downstairs at the library. There were too many fingerprints to sort through and nothing else in the area to help us solve the murder,” the sheriff said. “Speaking of the library, do you want to hear something weird?”
“People are seeing Mrs. Piper’s ghost in the library?” Tabby asked.
“You heard already?”
“Tillie told me she saw the ghost standing behind the front desk the day after the murder. She didn’t want me to tell anybody she saw it. She was afraid everyone would laugh at her and think she was crazy.”
“Well, now there’s about ten crazy people who have seen her. She stands behind the front desk, drifts down the stairs towards the research area, and disappears. I really shouldn’t say crazy people because my wife is one of the ones who has seen her.”
“Sheriff, have you ever heard of the Floater?”
“Sure, but I’ve never seen him. Plenty of people have witnessed him wandering around the cemetery though. Why?”
“Betsy told me her mother used to chase the ghost around in the cemetery thinking he saw where Bender hid the money. My mom told me it started showing up shortly after we moved here. I never heard of it and was just wondering if you had,” Tabby commented.
“It’s one of those ghost stories that too many people have witnessed just to brush it off. Everyone that has seen him says it looks like he’s looking for his own stone; like he doesn’t know where he was buried. He’s still around. I think he was last spotted a couple of weeks ago,” he said, refilling his coffee cup.
“By the way, my mom is going away for two weeks and she asked that I keep an eye on her shop. In her infinite hippie wisdom, she disconnected the alarms on the shop. Could you and your deputies help watch the shop at night while she is gone, please?”
“Sure, we’ll put it on our list to check on our nightly rounds. She won’t be here for Christmas?”
“No, she finally got a spot on that ghost cruise that she has wanted to go on forever.”
“You have to love Samantha Moon. She is definitely her own person,” Sheriff Puckett chuckled. “Does this mean that you will spend Christmas with Greg?”
“I’m not sure if he’s going to spend it with his aunt in Larsen or not. Why?”
“I just didn’t want you to be by yourself on Christmas. You are always welcome to eat holiday dinner with me and the wife,” he answered, heading for the door.
“I appreciate that, thank you. But, I’m sure if Greg isn’t around, I’ll be spending the day with Jenny and her mom,” Tabby stated.
Janice came back from lunch shortly after the sheriff left. She was quiet and not her normal self. Tabby knew something was wrong.
“What’s wrong, Janice? You’re awfully quiet,” Tabby inquired.
“Did you know that Dave Tullinson was buried yesterday? He had no service, no family to say goodbye, and the town didn’t even acknowledge his passing like they did for Mrs. Piper. He lived here his whole life and died alone,” Janice complained. “How does that happen?”
“As far as Mrs. Piper’s service, Betsy arranged that for her mom. Dave was married a long time ago, but was divorced. His wife took the kids and moved away. His mom and dad passed so he had no immediate family in the area. It is kind of sad that no one even asked about a service for him.”
“He was cremated and then his ashes were buried by the funeral home. Whipper Will Junction prides itself on its people caring about each other and looking out for each other. He was the locksmith here for over thirty years. I think the people of this town failed Mr. Tullinson miserably.”
“You’re right, we did. I don’t know what we can do about it now, though,” Tabby said.
“I went and put some flowers on his grave,” Janice commented. “Maybe, you could do the same thing?”
“I will, I promise. I’ll also talk to someone at the Whipper Will Daily News to do an article on him,” Tabby stated. “His murder did get pushed to the side in the shadow of Mrs. Piper’s murder.”
“I feel better. Do you want me to finish up the boxes that need to be mailed?”
“Sure, just make sure you don’t mail Marmalade. She’s been sleeping in one of the boxes under the table for over an hour now,” Tabby said, smiling. “I think I’ll do some dusting.”
The jars of jellies and jams didn’t stay on the shelves long enough to collect dust with all the Christmas shopping that was being done. Tabby walked around, flicking the feather duster here and there, not really hitting anything she was aiming for. Her mind was elsewhere.
She had to figure out who the driver of the get-a-way car was. If everyone else that was involved in the bank robbery was a local, it would make total sense that the driver would be a local too. Who else could have been looking for the money all these years and no one noticed they were doing it? Or, this person could have given up and moved away; they could also be dead already. There were just too many possibilities.
“Tabby? Earth to Tabby! It’s time to start closing. Do you want me to stick around and help you?” Janice asked a second time.
“Ah, no. I’m good, thanks. You can go,” she answered.
“Boy, when you are trying to figure something out, you go to LaLa Land,” Janice exclaimed.
“I’m sorry. This bank robbery thing is driving me crazy,” Tabby offered up.
“I suggest you give it a rest. Don’t you have company coming over tonight?”
“You’re right. I need to get this place closed up,” Tabby replied.
“Don’t forget that I’m off tomorrow. I’m going to Larsen to do some Christmas shopping. Do you need anything?”
“I have done most of my shopping online. Things should start arriving this week,” Tabby said.
“That’s kind of the easy way out, sitting in front of a computer, don’t you think?”
“I never thought of it that way, I guess. I still have some shopping to do,” Tabby commented. “Maybe, I’ll head to Larsen next week to finish what I need to get done.”
“That’s more like it. I’ll see you Friday,” Janice said, heading out the back door.
Tabby closed the shop and went up to the apartment to start dinner preparations. The cats were running helter-skelter around the place as they had been sleeping most of the day in the shop and had energy to burn.
“Go ahead, guys. Go nuts now so you don’t take it out on my poor tree when it is set up,” Tabby said to the cats, watching them run up and down the hallway after each other.
A loud knock sounded on the back door. Tabby looked out the peephole and all she could see was pine branches.
“Open the door, it’s me,” Greg yelled.
He entered holding Tabby’s tree and Jenny followed behind with eggnog and a bottle of wine. Greg set the tree against the wall just inside the door. The cats, seeing something new to play with, headed straight for it. Marmalade sniffed it twice and walked away. Ghost decided to try to climb it.
“I knew you were going to be trouble. No, bad cat,” Tabby said, grabbing Ghost out of the tree and tapping him on the butt.
“You are going to have your hands full with that one,” Jenny laughed, watching the white cat run up the hallway into the bedroom after getting scolded.
“I’m afraid you’re right,” Tabby agreed.
Greg ha
d taken his coat off and was standing next to the stand with the tree.
“Can one of you hold this so I can crawl underneath to see how much the trunk needs to be trimmed to fit into the stand?”
Tabby walked over and held the tree as asked. She glanced out the window and saw someone in a long winter coat with the hood up and a scarf hiding their face, watching her apartment.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, letting go of the tree and taking off.
She didn’t even stop for her coat and was out the door. Greg was struggling to get out from under the tree that had fallen on him and Jenny ran to help lift it off him. They watched through the window as Tabby ran across the street and looked up and down Main Street. She returned several minutes later.
“Next time, a little warning, please,” Greg said, picking pine needles out of his hair.
“I’m sorry, but my stalker was back again,” she apologized.
“You have a stalker and you just run right out after them?” Greg asked in disbelief.
“I know who she is; she’s your friend from the bakery. Sheriff Puckett paid her a visit the other day and I thought she was going to stop, but apparently she’s not.”
“Becky Tillman is your stalker?” Greg asked surprised.
“Yes, she is. She made up one excuse after the other why she was watching me and my shop, none of which I believed,” Tabby answered. “And now she’s back out there tonight at it again.”
“I’ll have a word with her tomorrow,” Greg replied.
“No, I think I’ll let Sheriff Puckett do that, although it didn’t seem to make a difference when he told her to stop last time. This time, I will threaten her with a case of stalking for which I can have her arrested,” Tabby stated.
“Why is she stalking you?” Jenny asked.
“She said she was checking out my clientele to see if we could do business for the weddings I plan. I think she was lying through her teeth. I would bet my last dollar there is a different reason she’s watching the shop or me.”
“Promise me that you’ll talk to the sheriff tomorrow,” Greg insisted.
“Janice doesn’t work tomorrow so I can’t leave the store, but as soon as the sheriff comes in for his afternoon coffee, I’ll tell him what happened here tonight. I just wish one of you had seen her standing out there.”
“She’s gone now, and I doubt that she will come back tonight. Let’s get this beauty of a tree decorated and eat supper; I’m starving. Before you dropped the tree on me, I did manage to get the measurements for how much of the trunk I will have to trim down so it fits in the stand,” Greg said, picking up the tree. “I’ll be right back in.”
While Greg stepped out on the back porch to do his trimming of the tree trunk, Tabby and Jenny set the table for supper. He came back in the house just as the wine was being poured. It took him two minutes to place the tree in the stand, level it so it was even, and tighten the spokes to hold it firmly in place.
“Ghost can’t even knock this one over,” he said, wiggling the tree around and pulling on the lower branches like the cat might do when playing.
“Supper’s ready,” Tabby announced.
The next hour was spent eating and laughing. Tabby couldn’t finish her piece of steak, so Greg happily offered to take it off her hands. They cleaned up the supper dishes and settled into the living room to decorate the tree.
Greg started with the purple twinkle lights and then the purple garland. While he was doing this, Tabby and Jenny started the first batch of thumbprint cookies that had to be baked for the upcoming Stroll. As the cookies baked, the trio began the ornament phase of the decorating.
Glass ornaments covered the tree, except for the bottom two layers of branches. Tabby had purchased a variety of purple, non-breakable ones so that if the cats decided to play, they could bat them around the house and not hurt their paws on glass slivers.
The ornaments that she bought from the tree farm, and a few remaining ones that weren’t smashed when her last apartment was broken into and trashed were placed on the tree. Jenny’s gift ornament, the S.S. Tabby, was placed at the top of the tree to protect it from the cats. Silver strands of tinsel finished off the tree.
In between the wine drinking and the decorating, they managed to bake twenty-five dozen thumbprint cookies. She gave Jenny and Greg their ornaments. Greg recognized what the lantern symbolized right away. Jenny loved her bowling ball ornament. It was almost eleven o’clock when her company left.
Tabby sat in her recliner which had been moved to the opposite end of the room to accommodate the tree. Finishing the last little bit of wine left in her glass, she was mesmerized by the purple twinkle lights reflecting off the silver tinsel. It was the prettiest tree she had ever had. The cats had laid down on the tree skirt and gone to sleep, curled up together.
She went into the spare bedroom and brought out what few gifts she already had wrapped. The cats didn’t like the presents taking up their space and refused to move. She placed the gifts to each side of the tree and left the front open for them.
Tabby unplugged the lights on the tree and in the window. She went to her bedroom expecting the cats to follow, but they didn’t. It was something new and they were going to sleep under the tree instead of on the bed with her.
Around two in the morning, she was awakened by the sound of Ghost chasing ornaments in the hallway. She put her pillow over her head and went back to sleep.
CHAPTER 11
* * *
Tabby stayed in the shop all day working with Thelma. Sheriff Puckett came in for his usual pick-me-up, as he called it, and Tabby told him about the events of the night before. He promised to go talk to Miss Tillman immediately.
Half an hour later, the Sheriff returned to her shop. He spoke to Becky Tillman and she vehemently denied being in front of Tabby’s shop the night before. She claimed to be in Larsen Christmas shopping and produced receipts from the stores where she had been. The receipts all had times stamped on them to prove her whereabouts. She had not returned to Whipper Will Junction until well after Tabby saw the figure across the street.
“If it wasn’t Becky, then who was it?” she asked the Sheriff, mystified.
“I don’t know, but I think we will add your place on to our nightly list to watch over,” Sheriff Puckett replied.
“I would really appreciate that,” Tabby said.
“I would, too,” Thelma piped in. “I don’t want anything to happen to my best friend’s granddaughter. Her Gran would haunt me the rest of my living days.”
“I believe she would,” the sheriff laughed. “Will I see you at the Stroll Saturday night, Thelma?”
“I’ll be right here passing out cookies. Greg said he would give me a ride home afterwards so that I could come and participate,” she answered, smiling. “I’m sure everyone would miss my singing if I didn’t show up.”
“That they would, my friend, that they would,” the sheriff agreed.
On Friday, when Janice returned to work, Tabby spent the day baking more cookies. She didn’t want to run out and she wanted the strollers to have the option of eating more than one cookie if they chose to do so. She finished right at closing time. After she closed the shop, Tabby joined Greg at the diner for supper.
Tom Montgomery was back behind the register with a white bandage covering his right temple. He was another one that loved to sing Christmas songs while he worked. He greeted the young couple with a huge smile.
“Mr. Montgomery, I am so glad to see you out of the hospital. How are you feeling?” Greg asked, shaking his hand.
“Much better, thank you,” he answered, grabbing two menus. “Your normal booth?”
“Yes, please,” Tabby replied. “Have they got any leads to who it was that robbed you?”
“No, nothing yet. It was definitely a man, but I didn’t recognize his voice.”
“Sheriff Puckett will get him, don’t you worry,” Tabby assured the diner owner.
“I have no
doubt in that, but the money will probably be long gone. It’s a shame, too. It was one of the busiest days we’d had all year,” Tom stated. “All we can do is move forward. At least he only clobbered me on the head and didn’t shoot me. I guess I can be thankful for that.”
“It shouldn’t have happened in the first place, Greg stated.
“I’m just glad to still be around for the holidays,” he said, moving aside so they could crawl into the booth.
“Well, we’re glad you’re around, too,” Tabby smiled. “I don’t think this town can take another murder.”
“Have a good meal. Bea will be right over to take your order,” he said, walking away and breaking into a song.
They enjoyed their supper while listening to Tom sing and then Greg walked Tabby home. They both wanted to get to bed early as tomorrow would be a long day for both of them; and for the whole town. It was the busiest shopping day at local establishments’ and went right into the Christmas Stroll from four in the afternoon until eight at night.
Greg had already put a sign in the flower shop window stating that he would close at noon and be at Jellies, Jams, and Weddings for the Stroll. He would drive the van to the parking lot behind Tabby’s store and bring in the buckets of red and green carnations that he would hand out.
He walked in the back door calling out as he entered with the first bucket of flowers. He poked his head through the curtains. Thelma was manning the register waiting on a long line of customers, Janice was helping people find what they needed, and Tabby was setting up tables near the wedding section to the right of the register.
“Thelma, tell Tabby that I’ll be right in to help her,” Greg said.
Six buckets of carnations were unloaded from the van and hidden in the back room. Greg was sent down to the cellar to get two more folding tables. The tables were placed in an L-shape and covered with red tablecloths with a white lace overlay. Battery run candlesticks were placed at the back edge of the tables with holly winding in and out of the brass holders. A large crystal bowl holding mini candy-canes had been placed on the end where the hot chocolate would be served. People were already helping themselves to the candy.
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