Frosty the Dead Man (A Snow Globe Shop Mystery)

by Christine Husom

  “The adoring public. Huh. You’re finishing up here, so I’ll leave you to it.”

  I followed Mark to the door and locked it behind him then completed the rest of the closing up shop duties. As I was about to turn off the overhead lights in Curio Finds, Nicoline walked by and raised her hand in a small wave of acknowledgment. Did she live nearby so the shops were on her often-trod walking route? One of these days I’d find that out.

  My cell phone rang and I pulled it out of my pants pocket. “Camryn speaking.”

  “Cami, it’s Mom. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to Camryn. After all you were Cami most of your life.” It’s not that I didn’t like my given name of Cami. In fact, I loved it. But I had my name legally changed when I worked in Washington to give it a more professional edge.

  “Sorry, Mom, I didn’t look at the dial. Not that I’m paranoid, but I keep expecting Sandy Gibbons to call and pump me for more information.”

  “Glory be, she probably will do that, won’t she? The reason I called, and this is last minute, but your dad and I have got some lasagna in the oven and we hope you can join us for dinner.”

  The thought of their homemade lasagna made me salivate, literally. Like Pavlov’s dog. Then my stomach responded by making noises that sounded like cats meowing inside of it. “I’d love to. Can I bring anything, like a bottle of wine?”

  “No, we have that, too.”

  “I’ll be there shortly.”

  • • • • • • • •

  My parents held me, each in own their tender way, and it brought tears to my eyes. The trauma of finding Mayor Frost really hit me when I was in their arms. Even more than when I’d been questioned by the police, even more than when I’d told my friends the details, even more than when I’d talked to his son about it. And then I thought about Jason, and the next thing I knew loud sobs were erupting from somewhere deep inside of me. My parents knew how to coax them out of me like no one else in the world. I didn’t cry often, but every once in a while I wept like there was no tomorrow.

  “There, there, it’ll be okay,” Dad said.

  I nodded and sniffled. Mom handed me a tissue and they guided me into the dining room where the table was nicely set.

  “How about a glass of wine to settle your nerves?” Dad said as he filled three glasses and handed one to me.

  “Thanks.” I took a sip of the dry red wine and smiled. “I started feeling bad for Mayor Frost’s son, and that’s what got me.”

  “It’s such a sad thing. We’d heard he had a son, but not much more about it than that. Cami, why don’t you go ahead and sit down? I’ll bring out the lasagna and then we’ll talk some more,” Mom said.

  “I’ll help.” Dad followed her to the kitchen.

  I took my place in front of a big bowl of my favorite salad, a perfect complement to the main dish. Romaine lettuce tossed with sweet red peppers, grape tomatoes, carrot ribbons, cucumbers, an assortment of olives, and dry ricotta cheese. It was dressed with vinaigrette made of red wine vinegar, olive oil, honey, garlic, Italian parsley, oregano, and basil. A basket of crusty bread with pats of cold butter sat next to it.

  I took another drink of wine then leaned my head back and breathed in the glorious smells wafting in from the kitchen. My parents carried in three plates and Dad set one in front of me. A generous serving of lasagna filled a fourth of the plate. They settled into their chairs and then we bowed our heads for prayer. Dad asked that the food be blessed for the nourishment of our bodies and that Mayor Frost’s family find comfort and peace.

  “Start the salad, Cami,” Mom said when we raised our heads again.

  Fresh greens tasted especially good to me in the winter, and I loaded my plate then passed it on. I helped myself to a piece of bread and then passed that, too. After we’d all munched on the tasty meal a while, my parents asked about my day.

  I told them how it had started with a woman who was in Brew Ha-Ha early, waiting for me to open the shop. “She said she was interested in snow globes. But she acted more like a police officer.”

  Mom chuckled. “You’re funny.”

  “Emmy called in sick, and that reminds me I need to call her when I get home to see how she’s doing.” I went through the list of people I’d talked to: Lila at city hall, Sandy Gibbons, Margaret at the police station, Rosalie Gorman, Harley Creighton, Marvin Easterly, and the young woman, Nicoline. I shared my concern about the bruise I saw on her face. They asked me questions about each person and offered their opinions and assessments.

  Then I went over some of the things Jason and I discussed, about his father and how he had women vying for his attention. And that he’d had problems with his sister. I didn’t get into details about their mother’s pendant, however.

  “Cami, why do you suppose Jason told you personal things about his father and his aunt?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess he needed someone in Brooks Landing to talk to, besides the police that is.”

  10

  After I got home I turned up the thermostat and was putting the leftover lasagna and salad my parents had given me in the refrigerator when my home phone rang. The caller ID read Lewis Frost and sent a dozen chills up my spine.

  “This is Camryn.”

  “Camryn, hi. It’s Jason Frost.”

  “Hi, Jason.”

  “My cousin Anne is here and I told her about the diamond, so we started talking about Grandmother’s pendant. She said Dad kept it in a case in his safe. And she knew where he kept the code. Long story short, we looked in the safe, and it’s not there.”

  “Your grandmother’s pendant is missing?”

  “All I know is it’s not where Dad kept it.”

  “Did you call the police?”

  “No, I didn’t want to dial nine-one-one. I’d rather talk to either the assistant police chief or an officer named Mark. They’re the two I met with earlier. I tried the numbers listed on their business cards, but both of them went to voicemail and I didn’t leave a message.”

  I didn’t think they’d care in this case, but I didn’t specifically have permission to give out their personal cell phone numbers. “How about I give them a call and they can call you back?”

  “You could do that, but we thought of something else that would be faster.”

  What, pray tell? “Oh?”

  “Dad has a portrait of Grandmother hanging in his den and she’s wearing her diamond pendant. You have that photo of the diamond on your phone. Anne suggested we compare it with Grandmother’s diamond, see if it looks like the same one.”

  And I thought I had wacky ideas at times. But if it helped Jason and Anne feel better, like they were doing something to help with the investigation, it was a simple request. And something that was easy enough for me to do.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have the police bring you their photo?” I said.

  “At this point I don’t know what I’d report to the police. And I trust you. The pendant isn’t in the safe, but Dad might have put it somewhere else. We’re thinking that if the diamond looks like it was from Grandmother’s pendant, then the chances are he had it at his office. In that case, the rest of it minus the big diamond was probably stolen.”

  There was some logic to that. “Okay, I can be there in a few minutes.”

  “Or we can come to your house,” he said.

  “How big is the portrait?”

  “It looks like two feet by three feet.”

  Very large. “I don’t want you to run the risk of wrecking it, so I’ll come there.”

  “You know where my dad’s house is?”

  “I do.”

  After we hung up, I called Erin and told her where I was headed and why. When I told my friends about the diamond I’d left out the part about taking a picture of it. First Erin scolded me for keeping it a secret then she said, �
��I’ll go with you.”

  “Not necessary, but thanks. The reason I’m calling is to ask you to call me at eight thirty.”

  “Cami, I don’t like all this cloak-and-dagger stuff. What if it’s a trap? You should call Mark, let him know.”

  “I know it’s not a trap, but I’m taking extra precautions by calling you. Will you call me then?”

  “Fine. Yes, I will do that. And I agree that Jason Frost seems like an up-and-up guy.”

  “He’s a teacher, you know.”

  “I guess it takes one to know one.”

  • • • • • • • •

  Anne was standing in the spacious entryway ready to greet me after Jason let me in. They looked like they could be brother and sister, with the same striking blue eyes, chestnut brown hair, straight noses, lips that were on the thin side. Anne was several inches shorter, but came across as more of a powerhouse than Jason did.

  “Thank you so much for coming over,” she said. “This may seem a little crazy, but Jason and I are beside ourselves after what happened to our dear Lewis. And then when we found out Grandmother’s pendant might have factored into that, it makes it all seem that much worse.”

  “Of course.”

  “Let me help you with your coat.” Jason eased it off my shoulders and handed it to Anne, who hung it in the closet. I stepped out of my boots and patted the phone in my pants pocket.

  Jason pointed. “This way to the den. The police and county deputies went through the house last night and finished up this morning, looking for possible clues. I don’t know if they found anything. They didn’t say one way or the other.”

  “When they’ve figured it all out, you’ll get the full report. But they’d be happy to answer all the questions they can in the meantime,” I said.

  Jason attempted a smile, but Anne looked even sadder. We trekked around the edge of the sunken living room to the den. When we stepped inside and I looked around, my first impression was it would be a room I’d love to relax in, or work in, or take a nap in if I lived there. It had old dark paneling that went halfway up the walls, with book shelves that started where the paneling ended and followed the rest of the way to the ceiling on three of the walls. The fourth wall featured their grandmother’s portrait in the center, and it was flanked by a window on either side.

  I pulled out my phone, found the photo then enlarged it. I reverently walked over to the image of Jason and Anne’s grandmother and studied first her lovely, serene face and then the pendant hanging on her chest. That’s quite the rock, I thought, trying to maintain a neutral expression. I looked at the photo of the diamond, but I was not qualified to determine if it was the same one as that in the pendant. Especially given the slightly different angles of the two.

  Jason reached out his hand and I gave him the phone. He looked up and down, down and up, and then passed the phone to Anne who did the same. They shrugged and shook their heads, then Anne handed me back the phone.

  “Anne, how about asking your mother to take a look at it, see what she thinks?” I said.

  She shook her head. “No, I’d rather not get her involved. Not yet anyway.”

  “Okay, well, the police can have the diamond analyzed by an expert, and compare it to the pendant. That’d be the only best way to tell with any certainty,” I said.

  Jason nodded. “Anne was right, we aren’t thinking very clearly.”

  My cell phone rang and startled all three of us. Erin was right on time. “Excuse me a minute, I better take this. I turned and pushed the talk button. “This is Camryn.”

  “You’re alive and all right?”

  “Yes, thank you. Sorry, but I’m finishing up at a meeting. Would it be all right if I called you back in fifteen minutes, or so?”

  “Sure. And Mark’s here, so I had to tell him why I was calling you.”

  “Thank you, and I’ll get back to you shortly.” I turned back to the cousins. “I should get going, but if there’s anything else I can do, feel free to call me anytime.”

  It took a few minutes to say our good-byes. I sensed they wanted to pull information out of me that I didn’t have. And there were questions I wished I could have asked them, but they were personal ones about their family and none of my business. We shook hands and they thanked me again.

  As I stepped outside, a blast of frigid air took my breath away. The wind had picked up and felt even more bitterly cold than when I’d arrived at Frosty’s house. I sat in my car a moment, letting the engine warm, and looked around at the Christmas light displays shining brightly from a number of the neighborhood houses. The warm glowing rays they cast out in every direction helped chase away some of the night’s darkness. It was the inviting welcome Frosty had when he arrived home at night, and something he could appreciate when he looked out his windows.

  I hadn’t strung lights on my own house, and I made a mental note it was something to think about. It was my first Christmas living in a house, after all the years in apartments. Between managing Curio Finds and all the other things that had happened, it hadn’t occurred to me to decorate my house. I hadn’t even put up a Christmas tree. In fact, I’d never done so in all the years on my own.

  Pinky phoned me when I was about to drive away. “I just talked to Emmy, and she’s got a pretty bad cough and doesn’t want to spread the bug to us, or to our customers, so she won’t be in tomorrow.”

  “That’s too bad, for Emmy more than for us. I meant to call her to see how she was and sort of got sidetracked by something.”

  “I’m afraid to ask what that was.”

  “I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. See you then.”

  “Oh, all right then. Night, Cami,” she said and disconnected.

  When I pulled into the back alley to access my garage, a Brooks Landing police car was idling beside it. I drove into the garage and parked. After I got out and was closing the garage door, Assistant Chief Lonsbury stepped out of his car with a sour look on his face. “I understand you’ve been busy, out making a house call.”

  Was it possible the news about the diamond photo had traveled from Erin to Mark to Clint that fast? “Come in,” I said, knowing that’s what he intended to do, with or without an invitation. I made a production of rattling my keys and then inserting one in the back door lock. Clint reminded me about keeping my house locked every chance he got. And I didn’t need another lecture, so it was a great relief I’d remembered to lock up when I rushed over to Frost’s house.

  At least the house had warmed up while I was gone.

  “Don’t worry about your boots.” I noticed he wore lace-ups and it would take too much time for him to take them off and put them back on again for what I hoped would be a short visit.

  He ignored my suggestion and bent over and had them untied and off in seconds. “I learned to speed dress a long time ago.”

  Okay then. “Have you eaten supper?” I think the only reason that popped out of my mouth was with the hope it would ease the tension a bit and get him to stop staring so intently at me.

  His eyebrows lifted out of the frown. “No, I guess I haven’t.”

  “I ate at my parents’ house and they sent the extras home with me. How about some lasagna, made by my Italian father with help from my Scandinavian mother?”

  “Thanks.” He managed a half smile. That’s when I noticed how weary he looked.

  “I’ll have it ready shortly.” With a full stomach, he might just go a little easier on me.

  Clint moved in beside me as I got the dishes of lasagna and salad out of the refrigerator. “Camryn, what were you thinking?” Oh, oh, he was launching his attack before he ate.

  I dished up a huge portion of lasagna onto a plate, popped it into the microwave, and set the timer for two minutes. Then I turned to face him. “I went over to help Jason Frost and his cousin. You had talked to Jason about the diamond on his
dad’s office floor. So they wondered if it was from their grandmother’s pendant, but unfortunately the pendant was not in the mayor’s safe where he kept it. They thought if he had it at his office, maybe someone stole it from him, minus the diamond.”

  “And they asked you to go over there to show them the picture you just happened to possess to compare it the portrait of their grandmother who was wearing it.”

  “Yes.”

  “And how did you get the photo of the diamond in Mayor Frost’s office?”

  The time for the confession had arrived. “I took it.”

  Clint exhaled a long “Aaaaah.” He held out his hand. “Let me see your phone.” I gave it to him and with a couple of swipes of his fingers he had the diamond photo on the display. “You took unauthorized pictures of a crime scene?”

  “I took one, and not of the crime scene, just of the diamond.”

  “The diamond was part of the crime scene. Why did you do that?”

  “It looked so odd lying there, and I’d never seen a diamond that size before. I don’t know.”

  He took another look. “It’s going away.” He deleted the image then handed the phone back, lifted his arms, and ran his hands through his hair. The microwave beeped and I removed the plate and carried it to the table, along with the container of salad and a bowl to put it in. The bread was in a bag on the counter. I grabbed that and some silverware to complete the setting. Clint watched in silence then walked over to the table, slipped off his jacket, hung it on the back of a chair, and sat down.

  “What would you like to drink, water, milk—”

  “Water’s fine.”

  I got us each a glass and debated whether or not to join him at the table. My manners won over my desire to escape to my bedroom and lock myself in, so I sat down in the chair at his left. If he wanted to give me the evil eye I wouldn’t be conveniently located across from him. He’d have to turn his head to do it.

  The thing I noticed the couple of times I’d seen Clint eat was how intensely he concentrated on his food when he did. Maybe it was a cultural thing in his family. One where you talked before and after the meal, but not during. My family kept any number of conversations going during every meal. I decided to remain silent and appreciate the quiet. When Clint moaned a pleasurable, “Mmmm,” I considered it a good sign.