The adults were a different story altogether. They were surly and abrupt and seemed more in a hurry to get the children away from Santa than to let them enjoy the experience. The women in particular seemed to dislike him, which Gemma understood. He certainly had that ick factor and he flirted openly with each and every one, no matter how many children they showed up with.
Ralph the Elf was another adult that didn’t seem to be too pleased with Santa. He appeared to be trying to organize the children waiting in line to talk to Santa but he wanted the line to be perfectly straight, like little soldiers. He also shushed the children often and made one or two of the small ones cry. More than once, Gemma caught him glaring at Santa. She smiled to see Santa ignore him and keep encouraging the children to, well, act like children at Christmas.
After the lunch rush, Mitch came to take Holly to lunch. Gemma watched the couple walk away hand-in-hand, smiling at one another as they weaved through the crowd. Gemma and Mitch didn’t always see eye to eye, but that didn't mean that Gemma wasn't happy for her best friend. What was important was that he adored Holly and treated her like a princess. With his partnership in the law firm imminent and the success of HealthGems, they were well on their way to being a power couple.
Gemma returned to her inventory, trying to keep close track of sales in case they had to place a quick order to replenish supplies. They planned to keep HealthGems open during all mall hours and until it closed on Christmas Eve. It excited her to see that, from the way the morning had gone, they would have to reorder some things that were already gaining in popularity.
She made a mental note to place a new order first thing Monday morning. Last year, they had actually outsourced the manufacture of their jewelry to a great little plant in Detroit. The plant stored their items, drop shipped the online orders and responded quickly to their every need.
Gemma ignored her growling tummy, stood up straight and stretched, only to see Santa coming toward her. It was apparent from his unsteady gait to the renewed twinkle in his eye, he had drank most of his lunch.
“Hey, beautiful,” he slurred, leaning across the counter.
“Hello,” Gemma said, taking a step back. The man reeked of the smell of alcohol.
“It’s too late for lunch but whatcha doing later?” he asked, stroking his beautifully groomed beard with one hand. He was obviously proud of it.
“Um, I’m probably going to be right here till closing,” Gemma answered with a small smile. Then she fiddled with a turquoise watch, trying to look busy.
“Oh, me too, but after that I thought maybe you and me could go out.”
Gemma swallowed hard but didn’t reply.
“You know, a little dancing, a little drinking, and who knows...” he let the sentence dangle with a suggestive wink.
Gemma tried to smile again but she was sure it just came across as a grimace. Luckily, Santa was probably too drunk to notice. “Oh, I’m going to be dead on my feet by tonight,” she said. “Probably go straight to bed.”
The minute she said it she knew it was the wrong choice of words.
“Bed would be nice,” he said with a grin and continued to stroke his beard.
“Alone. To sleep,” Gemma said firmly.
“Well, maybe some other night then,” he said, his attention wandering to a dark haired woman wearing yellow spandex pants and a low-cut top who passed by the kiosk.
“Never in a million years,” Gemma said under her breath.
“Hey beautiful,” Santa said to the woman. “It’s too late for lunch but maybe we could get together later.”
The woman simply sneered at him, quickened her pace and moved away.
“Sam McLear!”
Everyone in the vicinity stopped and turned at the sound of that shrill, angry voice that went through Gemma’s head like a nail.
Santa turned toward the woman and smiled, holding out his arms. “Rosalie,” he said in greeting.
“Don’t you Rosalie me,” she snapped, avoiding his outstretched hands. “I’ve been looking for you for a week.”
“Well, I...”
“Where the hell have you been?” Rosalie demanded to know. With her hands on her slim hips, she stomped her tiny foot. Her curly black hair flew around her head, completely out of control. Her clothes had seen better days.
“Well, I was...”
“Don’t hand me any more of your lies,” Rosalie continued her tirade. “I need that child support money and I need it now.”
Santa was still smiling, beaming at this petite woman as if she was the love of his life. “I’m buying Mikey a bike.”
“He doesn’t need a bike,” Rosalie threw her hands up in despair. “He needs new shoes like his other three brothers. I need money to pay the electric bill, to pay the water bill.”
“Okay, okay, honey. Just calm down. I have a plan to make up for all of this,” Santa said, as if suddenly realizing that he needed to soothe her.
“You always have a plan, Sam,” she snapped and folded her arms across her chest.
“No, just listen,” Santa said, touching her shoulder to guide her to a spot where they could have a more private conversation.
Gemma watched from the corner of her eye as the couple talked, Rosalie seeming to listen to his plans for a moment before shaking her small fist in his face. She finally stomped off down the mall.
Santa watched her go and then turned to stagger back to his post, weaving in and out of shoppers. As he passed Gemma he looked up, grinned sheepishly, and said, “She wouldn’t really kill me. She says that all the time.”
The minute he returned to Santa Land, she heard Ralph the Elf admonishing Santa for his behavior even as he helped the older man with his hat. Gemma kind of felt sorry for Santa. No one but the children seemed to like him very much.
Gemma spent the next few minutes explaining how their jewelry worked in greater detail to a group of sisters. Their mother had diabetes, they informed her, so she made a few suggestions for their purchase. As they wandered away to discuss this, Gemma glanced up to see a familiar face. A familiar, handsome face that broke into a wide smile when he saw her looking. Dressed in a bulky hunter green sweater and jeans that fit him well and completely unaware of how handsome he was, Nick Leonard made his way through the crowd toward her. He was carrying a tall cup with a familiar logo on it in each hand.
She’d known Nick since they were in the second grade, had, in fact married him - a playground wedding under the monkey bars complete with daisies that she and Holly had picked at recess. He'd brought her a gold ring that came from the wrapper of one of his dad's cigars. Their guests at the reception were served PB&J sandwiches and Capri Sun.
Gemma had been engaged to Nick for real when her parents were killed, and she had broken his heart when she informed him that she needed a break. He struggled to understand why she couldn’t go through with the wedding, but like a true friend, he remained close.
Lately, he’d been burying himself in his work at the newspaper as a beat reporter. He worked hard, looking for that front page story which would lead to a better job with a larger, maybe a national, paper.
“Hey, baby,” he said, leaning across the counter and kissing her forehead. She inhaled his scent.
“Hey, yourself,” she said, genuinely happy to see him, but eyeing the cups.
“Pumpkin spice latte for you,” he said with a grin.
“You are my best friend,” Gemma said as she took the warm cup in her hand, popped the little plastic lid and took a sip. “Ah, just what I needed.”
“Sales good?” he asked.
“Yes. Very,” she told him, almost giddy with excitement. “What have you been up to this morning?”
“Oh, just regular reporter stuff,” he said with a grin. “There was a fight at Walmart.”
“You’re kidding me?”
Nick shook his head and a dark curl strayed onto his forehead. Gemma reached up and pushed it back into place, a familiar gesture to both of them. Hol
ly Jolly Christmas played over the PA system. “Two ladies fighting over a set of towels.”
Gemma almost choked on her latte. “Towels!”
Nick nodded. “I turned in that story already.”
Gemma hid her giggle over the thought of two people fighting over towels and sipped her sweet, hot beverage.
“I’ve been busy interviewing the downtown business owners about this year’s sales. I’ll turn that story in later today. I wanted to check out sales here and maybe talk to some of the artisans and shop keepers.”
“Everyone seems to be doing well,” Gemma assured him, gazing down through the long building at the busy kiosks.
“Something else is going on though,” Nick told her. The sudden change in the tone of his voice had Gemma’s full attention.
“There’s been a rash of shoplifting incidents downtown,” Nick said.
“It’s that time of year,” Gemma reminded him.
Nick shook his head. “No, this isn’t just normal petty theft. It’s serious. I’m not trying to scare you. I’m only telling you because I want you guys to be aware. You're not that far from downtown.”
“There’s security everywhere,” Gemma assured him. Even as she spoke Grady Jackson sauntered by. “See?”
The two watched him as he made a beeline for Santa Land and whispered something in Santa’s ear. Santa gave him a thumbs up sign and the two men parted ways.
Nick promised to come by later and take her to dinner while Holly held down the fort. Gemma agreed, thinking she would have to eat something long before then but she could grab something quick from the food court.
As she watched Nick walk away, the confusion over her feelings for him returned. Had she made the right decision breaking off their engagement? All she knew was that the sudden death of her parents had sent her into an emotional tail spin and she began to question whether she loved him enough to be his wife. As long as she had questions, she didn’t plan on making that decision. He had remained a good friend throughout it all, a shoulder to cry on, and strong arms to hold her when she needed him. She’d dated a few other guys during the year but mostly she’d spent all of her time with Holly, creating HealthGems.
“He’s not going to wait for you forever,” Holly said, coming up behind her.
“I don’t know that I want him to wait for me. I may never get over this,” Gemma said taking another sip of her latte.
“You will,” Holly said, squeezing Gemma’s fingers.
Before Holly could say anything else, Santa began a rousing chorus of Jingle Bells and every child in the area joined in. Ralph the Elf, who had been trying to organize the line and placate impatient parents, threw up his hands in disgust and walked away from the crowd.
Chapter Three
“I don’t understand,” Holly said, shaking her head and staring at the piece of paper in front of her.
“What don’t you understand?” Gemma asked.
She had been out to a late lunch with Nick, hurrying back with a sandwich because she knew Holly would be hungry. Their kiosk had been so busy for the past two days that neither of them had taken much time away from it. Thank goodness Holly’s mom Brenda had offered to help during the week days.
“There are some discrepancies in the numbers,” Holly said, clicking her pen rapidly - a sure sign that she was worried about something.
“Maybe we just miscounted,” Gemma suggested.
“Maybe you miscounted,” Holly said, a smile softening her words.
“It’s a distinct possibility,” Gemma agreed.
Despite her creative, artistic nature, Holly was deadly with numbers. She counted everything two or three or more times until she was absolutely sure she was correct. But they’d been there for two days and the big shopping weekend was almost over. It was entirely possible that Gemma had miscounted something. Or that Holly was tired.
“Eat first. We’ll worry about that later,” Gemma said, offering the sandwich she’d purchased for her friend’s lunch.
They talked about how to divide up their schedule beginning Monday morning. The mall didn’t open till ten but was staying open till ten every night in the attempt to draw in more business. Gemma volunteered to come in early and open up the kiosk. Then Holly’s mom, Brenda, who knew their product as well as they did, had agreed to work in the slower middle of the day, with Holly coming in around mid-afternoon. Gemma would come back to help Holly with the busy evening hours. It was a grueling schedule but both women knew they were in for a long, rewarding December.
While the evening wore on, Gemma watched their customer closely. One or two picked up the rings they’d put out on the counter for display and for more serious customers to try out. It would be easy for someone to slip a piece of jewelry in their pocket when no one was looking.
Later, as they were closing up, Edna and Bill came over to their kiosk. They both looked distressed, Bill more than Edna. He kept glancing over his shoulder at Santa Land, where Santa was telling some fantastical story to the last of the children.
“What’s wrong?” Gemma asked.
“Someone stole some of our things,” Edna said softly.
“Not someone...”
Edna held up her hand cutting him off. “We don’t know that.” And then she turned to Gemma. “We were wondering if you guys were missing anything.”
Holly joined them just in time to hear her question. “I believe we are missing some things. Not a lot but enough to get my attention.”
Edna and Bill exchanged glances.
“Some of the other kiosk owners are complaining, as well as the manager of the GNC, Mona over at Mona Joys, and the Bath and Body Works lady,” Edna told them.
“You want to know what I think.” Bill began.
Edna tried to stop him but this time she was unsuccessful.
“I think it was that drunken Santa, Sam McLear, who managed to steal from us.” Bill said, his face turning red as his anger flared.
“That’s a pretty strong accusation,” Holly said.
“It was either him or one of those guys pretending to be elves,” he snorted.
Gemma didn’t think Santa was sober enough to steal from anyone, but she kept that thought to herself.
“I’ve seen him hanging around over here,” Bill said, as if to prove his point.
“He just keeps asking me out,” Gemma said. She didn't know why, but she felt the need to defend Santa. “I think he’s harmless - just annoying.”
“Have you talked to security?” Holly asked.
“I mentioned it, but G.I. Joe blew me off,” Bill said, rolling his eyes.
Gemma almost giggled at that description of Grady Jackson. He certainly was all spit-shined and sharp creases, down to that buzzed haircut.
“Maybe if we all went to him at the same time...” Edna suggested.
Holly looked at Gemma. “I’m sure we’re missing some rings, a pendant and at least one of those watches,” she said.
Then Gemma remembered what Nick had told her about the thefts downtown. “Okay, let’s find Mr. Jackson.”
They didn’t find the head of security until they were locking up for the night. Gemma saw Bill and Edna walking with him toward their kiosk. He looked concerned and seemed to be giving them his full attention.
“Tell him,” Bill said when they reached the spot where Holly and Gemma were standing.
“I’ve made a list,” Holly said and pushed it toward the security guard. “It looks like three biorhythm rings, a heart rate pendant and a watch.”
Grady Jackson studied the list for a moment. “When do you think this happened?”
Gemma shrugged. “It’s hard to say exactly.”
He glanced up at her.
“I heard other shop owners were having a problem as well,” Gemma added. "It's been busy."
“No one else has said anything to me,” he said, still holding Holly’s list. “Listen, could you write down the approximate value of these items, just in case?”
&nbs
p; Holly found a pen, added the numbers to her list, and handed it back to him.
“Thanks,” he said with a little smile. “You folks do the same. Tomorrow I’ll have my guys talk to everyone and gather as much information as we can.”
“Shouldn’t we alert the police?” Gemma asked.
Jackson looked indignant. “If we can’t get to the bottom of this pretty quickly, yes. But until then we really don’t have much to go on. I mean, do you guys have any idea of who it might have been?”
Gemma thought about all of the people she had talked to over the weekend. After a while all the faces blurred into one and she was sure it was the same for all the shop owners. Everyone shook their head except Bill. He looked pointedly at Santa.
Grady Jackson followed Bill’s gaze and then laughed. “Sam McLear? That old coot? He can barely stand up much less steal anything.”
Well, there was at least one thing they agreed on.
“I’ll also see if the owners will let me pull in a few more guys. The more eyes we have on the place, the better we can protect you,” Jackson added, taking charge of the situation.
They all agreed that seemed to be a good course of action, at least temporarily, and the meeting was over. Gemma and Holly locked everything up except their order list, which Gemma planned to work on before she came into the mall.
When they left, Grady Jackson was having an animated conversation with Santa. Gemma hoped no one else had accused the old man of theft. Surely, Jackson knew better than to make an unwarranted accusation. She didn’t exactly love Santa, but she didn’t want to see anyone lose their job, especially at this time of year. For once Ralph the Elf seemed to be leaving Santa alone.
While she waited for her car to decide to go into drive, she thought back to when Santa had been at their kiosk. If he stole something from them, he was quicker than she imagined he could be. The more she thought about it, the more she was sure he wasn’t the culprit. She also tried to remember if he’d been over at Bill and Edna’s kiosk and she couldn’t readily say whether he had or had not.
Mall Santa Murder: A Cozy Christmas Mystery (Gemma Stone Cozy Mystery Book 1) Page 2