I wrote down Lila’s name first. Not as a suspect, but as a person who likely had some valuable information. She’d know what the protocol was for getting in to see the mayor, for one thing. Open door policy or not, she was the first line of defense. It seemed to me the mayor would want to be informed if someone was there to see him, even if they had an appointment. But Lila had let me find my own way back to the mayor’s office without so much as a call to let him know I was there. Lila. I pushed the pen into the paper next to her name, thinking about her. She’d freely shared that the mayor had a number of visitors that day, and I hoped she’d be as open with me on my next visit.
Marvin Easterly. He was livid when he loudly voiced his opinion to the mayor, arguing that the neighboring farm land should remain rural. He did not want a factory encroaching on the peace and quiet he and his neighbors had been accustomed to forever. Marvin didn’t strike me as a violent man, by any means. But that was no guarantee he hadn’t lost his cool, grabbed the snow globe, and hit Frosty with it before he could stop himself.
Rosalie Gorman. She’d been angry when she left her meeting with Frosty at Brew Ha-Ha. Stormin’ Gorman. The only thing I knew about her personal or family life was that she was divorced. I realized the times she’d come into Curio Finds, my guard had gone up and I hadn’t been overly friendly to her. Her personality was on the brash side and off-putting to me. Professionally, Rosalie was ambitious and had built a successful real estate business. She’d also been elected to serve the city by a majority of the people.
But according to her city council reputation, Rosalie was difficult to work with, at times. She pushed and pushed and pushed when there was something she really wanted. I’d known many people like her, more than I could count, during my years in Washington, DC. I’d heard she’d gotten nasty with a few people on different occasions, both inside and outside of council chambers. If I decided to apply for the vacant council seat and got appointed, I’d need to find an effective way to work with her. When I was younger and greener, people like her tended to frighten me because I didn’t know what they were capable of. Now I was more wary than anything else.
Harley Creighton. He had very strong opinions and had “butted heads” with the mayor time and time again during his stint on the council, according to Frosty. Word was he had aspirations of running for mayor someday, after he had gained some experience in city government. And he would run against the sitting mayor, if he had to. But from what I had overheard him saying yesterday morning, which the mayor later confirmed, Harley Creighton was giving up his seat. Would he change his mind now that the man who caused him so much grief was gone for good?
Had Marvin visited Mayor Frost at his office, he would have gone in the main entrance. The public entrance. Rosalie and Harley, on the other hand, would have had access through the back entry, either with a key or an identification card they swiped. Lila told me the mayor had keys, but that may have included a key card.
My cell phone rang in the bedroom and I managed to get to it before the fourth ring when the voicemail picked up. I snatched it off the nightstand, pushed the Talk button, and sat down on the bed. “Good morning.”
“Good morning? Holy moly, Cami, have you seen the news?” Pinky was pumped.
“By seen, do you mean on television?”
“Yes, a bunch of my customers were talking about how all the major Twin Cities’ channels had a blurb about Mayor Frost’s suspicious death on their early morning news broadcasts. Since we don’t have a TV here, I turned the radio on to our local station and just caught it there.”
My heart pitter-pattered. “What are they saying about the mayor’s death, exactly?”
“Okay, what they said on the radio was, ‘Lewis Frost, mayor of Brooks Landing was found dead in his office yesterday afternoon. He died under suspicious circumstances, and it is under investigation.’” Pinky recited it like she was a newscaster herself.
“So they didn’t get into any details, and I’m selfishly glad they didn’t name the person who found him. Not that they usually do, but they often say, ‘was discovered by a coworker or family member,’ something like that.”
“No, they didn’t say ‘local business manager,’ thank goodness. And I kept my big trap shut this morning with everyone talking about it here, too.”
“I appreciate that. When she finds out, Sandy Gibbons will be hounding me before you know it.”
“That’s for sure. Cami, when I heard it on the news like that, it seemed even more real than it did last night.” Pinky’s voice quieted.
“I know what you mean. Tragic news takes time to really sink in.”
“When he didn’t stop by for his usual cup of coffee this morning, it made me so sad knowing he’ll never walk into Brew Ha-Ha again.”
“It’s very sad. We’ll all miss him.”
“There are customers coming in, so I gotta go.” Pinky hung up before I had a chance to tell her I’d be there as soon as I got ready.
Erin phoned me halfway through my morning routine. “Cami, how are you holding up?”
“Pretty good, I guess. More than a little shocked.”
“I can’t begin to imagine. I wanted to check in with you before my students arrive, see if you need anything.”
“I don’t think so, but thank you.”
“All right, well I’ll stop in at your shops after school, see if you and Pinky need help.”
“Good, I’ll see you then. ’Bye, Erin.”
“Toodles.”
• • • • • • • •
The bell on Brew Ha-Ha’s door dinged when I stepped into the shop. Pinky glanced up from her task of whipping up frothy Cocoa Coffee Delights. It was her drink special of the day I noticed when I glanced up at her sign. There were a number of customers at the counter so I headed to my back storeroom, dropped off my coat and things, then returned to lend a helping hand. We kept busy for another ten minutes until everyone had a beverage of some kind, and most of them had a muffin or scone besides.
A woman around my age wearing a stylish fur hat and a long wool coat walked up from the back seating area and stopped. “When does Curio Finds open?” she said.
I’d extended the hours for the season, opening at nine instead of ten. The clock read 8:34. “I can open now, if you’ll give me a minute to turn on the lights.”
She narrowed her eyes on me then smiled. “I’d like that. I arrived early, thinking you’d be open at eight. I have an interest in snow globes.” Have an interest in? The way she said it sounded official, professional.
As far as the specialty shops in the area, most opened at ten. Eight o’clock was considered early in Brooks Landing, unless you had a hardware store or lumberyard or restaurant or coffee shop. Other retailers opened at nine. Antique, shabby chic, and shops like ours that sold collectibles opened at ten. I don’t know when those norms were established, but I figured they were based on customer traffic and the hours the majority of people shopped.
The woman followed me into Curio Finds, keeping a respectable distance. I flipped on all the lights and unlocked the entry door. But I kept the sign turned to the Closed side until later. I slid in behind my checkout counter and turned the key in the cash register, ready to ring up the day’s sales.
“Anything in particular you’re looking for?” I said.
“No. But thank you.” She looked like she was on a mission as she examined one snow globe after another. I knew from past dealings that some collectors took their searches and their finds very seriously.
“Are you a collector, a dealer?”
“You could say I’m a collector.”
Her answers were curt enough to cut me off from further probing. She picked up a snow globe we’d gotten in the infamous order yesterday. The order that included the scary bear scene, the one that had been used in Frosty’s murder. She held up one that was far less ominous
and featured a woman standing with her arms in the air, like she was welcoming the falling snow. A cabin, much like the one in the scary bear snow globe, stood behind her. The mood in that scene was the polar opposite of the bear scene. It would have been my choice, hands down, between the two. But the unnerving one had sold immediately and the soothing one was still on the shelf.
The woman studied it for a time then asked, “Where did this come from, a supplier in Minnesota?”
“No, as a matter of fact, it’s from overseas. From a new company—new for us, that is. We got our first shipment yesterday, as a matter of fact. Their name is . . . let me look at the invoice.” The sheet I needed was conveniently lying on the counter in a pile of recently received orders. “It’s Van Norden Distributing out of Amsterdam.”
She nodded. “You said your first order from them arrived yesterday, so that means you’re expecting more?”
“We are, but I’m not sure when.”
“Okay, thank you.” She set the snow globe back on the shelf and made her way out the door. Her manner and behavior made me curious, and drew me to the window to see where she was headed. She slipped around the corner and disappeared from sight.
I flagged Pinky down when she passed by the archway. “Who was that woman?” I said.
“No clue,” she said with a wave of her dish towel. She joined me in Curio Finds.
“Has she ever been in your shop before?” I said.
“Not that I know of, but it’s possible. When it gets crazy busy, sometimes it gets to be one big blur of who is gracing me—and my business—with their presence.”
“That’s true enough. Pinky, think about it: did anything about her, that woman, I mean, strike you as odd?”
“Like what?”
“For one thing she was here very early, hanging around, waiting for me to open.”
She shrugged. “Some people are early birds. They like to get up and on with their day, so it doesn’t seem all that odd to me.”
“Maybe not, but she guessed we opened at eight, and the shop hours are posted in my front window and . . .” I pointed to the sign on the wall next to the archway, “. . . right there.”
“Not everybody notices signs.”
“That’s true, but I was standing right next to it when she asked me.”
“I repeat, not everybody notices signs.”
“But she seems like the kind that would. In fact, I could have sworn she glanced at it when I was answering her. And then when she checked out my shop, she looked at the stock of snow globes we had. After she found one she seemed very interested in, she asked where it came from, asked if we were getting more, and then left.”
“Cami, why are you making such a big deal about this? Maybe that sixth sense of yours is out of whack because of the way you found Frosty yesterday and now you’re going to start wondering if everyone is up to something or other.”
I lifted my shoulders in a quick shrug then nodded. Pinky was probably right. Not that I had a sixth sense per se, but my regular five senses did seem like they were on heightened alert. And likely would be until Frosty’s killer was found and put behind bars. I looked at Pinky’s Betty Boop clock. Lila would be at her city hall post soon.
Pinky’s phone rang and she went behind her counter to answer it. “Brew Ha-Ha, how can I help you? . . . Hi, Emmy. . . . Sorry to hear that, but we’ll be fine here. You take care of yourself. . . . Thanks and ’bye.” She hung up and told me what I’d surmised; Emmy was under the weather and couldn’t come to work.
“I hope she’ll be okay. Oh, and that reminds me, Erin said she’d come by after school. It looks like we’ll need her help after all.”
Pinky nodded. “Things work out somehow.”
“Hey, Pink, do you have any groceries to pick up or need a break before the midmorning rush?”
“No, I’ll be good until later.”
“Then if it’s all right with you, I’d like to go talk to someone about something.”
She put her hands on her hips and lowered her chin. “Really, Cami, like you can’t say who it is?”
“I’ll tell you when I get back. That way, if someone asks for me you can say I had an errand to run, and if there is a particular person or two that wants details, you won’t have any.”
“Ah, you mean like Assistant Chief Clint or Officer Mark or Sandy Gibbons.”
“Or anyone. Thanks, I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
• • • • • • • •
I definitely chose the wrong time to visit Lila. When I rounded the corner to her desk, who but Sandy Gibbons herself was there interviewing her. Pinky had jinxed me by saying her name out loud mere minutes before. Both women turned their attention to me before I could slip away unnoticed. But I tried to make a quick getaway anyway.
“Camryn Brooks, you come back here.” Sandy slid her chair back then planted her hands on Lila’s desk and pushed herself up. “Lila here tells me you were the one who discovered Mayor Frost’s body in his office yesterday.”
Lila’s face colored. She bent her head down and her eyes found something on her desk she was visibly more comfortable focusing on than me.
“I’ll come back later,” I said and tried again to run away.
But Sandy was on my heels. She grabbed my arm and turned me around. “Please, Camryn, I just have a few questions.” She was no spring chicken, but she had impressive strength. And I was convinced it was just as well to get her inevitable questions answered, and the sooner the better.
“Sandy, you probably know better than I do what I can or can’t say. And the less I say for the newspaper, the less trouble I’ll be in with the police for saying something I shouldn’t have.”
Sandy ignored my concern and lifted her hand, revealing the pen and notepad she was holding. She shifted the pen to her right hand, prepared to write. “So, tell me, why were you in the mayor’s office in the first place?”
Golly, that was a whole other can of worms. “I had something I wanted to talk to him about. Something personal.” But it was something that could become public before long, depending on my decision.
“Personal? Ha. Well, I’ll respect that, for now. Lila left work as you headed on back there. Everyone else was gone for the day. Then what?”
“I knocked on Mayor Frost’s door—”
“So his door was closed.”
“Yes, but he was expecting me so I knocked again then went in. And I found him lying on the floor, not breathing.”
“What else did you see? Evidence of a struggle, a fatal injury, what?”
“Sandy, the police are doing the investigating, so you’ll have to ask them.”
“Well, they’re calling it a homicide investigation so I know you must have seen something to back that up.”
“I told the police everything, but that’s all I can tell you.”
“Camryn. Okay. So what did you do after you found him?”
“I ran to the police station and called for help. And they did. Help. That’s all I have to say.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
Sandy let out a loud breath and stuck her pen and notepad in her pocket. “I’ll see if the police have any more information to share then.” She looked at Lila. “Thank you,” she said then headed down the hallway, no doubt marking the police station as her next destination.
“Sorry, Camryn, I didn’t mean to speak out of turn, telling Sandy that,” Lila said and stood up.
“You didn’t speak out of turn. I am the one who found him. I know how persuasive Sandy can be. I’ve been through this before. It’s just that if word gets out who found Mayor Frost, all kinds of people will ask me for the details. It’s human nature.”
“I suppose that’s true. I have to confess that I want to know more. I mean, not the really bad parts, but I want to know
what happened to our mayor.” Tears filled her lower lids and she sniffed. “He was almost like a grandfather to me. Maybe not quite old enough for that, but Frosty was the kind of guy I’d want for my grandpa.”
Lila was sincerely distressed. Not that I suspected she’d had anything to do with his death in the first place. I reached over and put my hand on her shoulder for a moment. “How long have you worked here?”
She sniffled. “Just over eleven years.”
“So you’ve gotten to know a lot of people, seen a lot of changes around here in all those years, huh?”
She nodded.
“When I worked for Senator Zimmer in Washington, even though I didn’t work in constituent services, I know there were always people who were upset with decisions she made. Most e-mailed or phoned, but there were some that stopped by to talk to her in person. And once in a while their conversations got close to being rowdy.”
Lila thought for a second then smiled. “I know what you mean. Mayor Frost had the best temperament for handling people like that.”
“When I stopped by yesterday, you said that he’d had a number of visitors. I happen to know a few people who had words with him earlier in the day, at Brew Ha-Ha.”
Lila raised her eyebrows. “Really, like who?”
“A farmer from Chatsworth Township, two of the council members. Do you remember who Mayor Frost’s visitors were yesterday, before I got here?”
“I suppose it doesn’t hurt to tell you, now that he’s gone. Marvin Easterly, the farmer from Chatsworth Township you’re probably talking about, came by and was in the mayor’s office a while. Then I heard Harley Creighton talking to him in the hallway and it was loud enough for me to hear all the way back to my desk. He was saying something about quitting, and that really surprised me because I thought he loved his job, at least that’s what I’ve heard him say more than once.
Frosty the Dead Man (A Snow Globe Shop Mystery) Page 7