Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I stopped him there. I knew how the bag worked. Every elf who lived at the Pole did. It was one of the most widely known magical creations that came out of the NP, but also the most secret. It was basically a direct portal from the NP to wherever the bag was. I also knew every store had one, enabling them to get whatever stock they needed, whenever they needed it. Other stuff could be sent through it, but nothing living. Otherwise, I could have saved myself eighteen hours in coach.
And of course, the big man had the original Santa’s Bag. Hence the name. How else do you think he delivers that many toys to that many houses? The bag gets refilled after every couple of stops.
It was a good system. Actually, it was a great system. Uncle Kris invented it himself, but then, he was the head tinker. And I didn’t need Toly to give me a twenty-minute lecture on how it worked.
Toly ignored my interruption and finished his spiel about the bag anyway, making me wonder if he was dense or just stubborn.
An hour later, the tour was over and I was on the floor, literally, stocking the bottom shelf in the puzzle and game department. I was supposed to be checking SKUs and moving the oldest inventory to the front, but frankly, my desire to be employee of the month was non-existent.
And what was Toly going to do? Fire me? I guess he could, but—
“Excuse me, I need some help.”
At the sound of the pleasant male voice, I looked straight into the legs of a man in uniform. Be still my heart. I followed the navy blue pants up to a utility belt and zeroed in on the firefighter’s patch on the guy’s sleeve.
Firefighters were hot. No pun intended.
My interest screeched to a halt at his face. The guy was a summer elf. Summer elves are those disgustingly flawless, California-types that are perpetually tan, have natural sun-kissed highlights in their perfectly tousled dirty-blond hair, and sport the kind of smiles that toothpaste companies rode to fame and fortune.
This guy was built like Disney’s idea of a surfer. Tall with broad shoulders that tapered to a ridiculous vee at the waist, then right back out again at the thighs. He was muscle-y in that easy, ropy sort of way that implies a lot of outdoor activities as opposed to time in a stinky old gym. If that wasn’t enough, he had a jawline that could shelter a small nation, blue eyes the exact color of a cloudless June sky, and a tiny, crescent-moon birthmark on his very firm right butt cheek.
That part I knew because this wasn’t just any summer elf, this was Cooper freaking Sullivan, my ex-boyfriend from college. And the biggest mistake of my life. The iceberg to my Titanic, if you will.
The years since college had been kind to him, sharpening the edges of a face that had once held a lot of boyishness and turning him into something far more manly. Because that’s what Cooper needed. To be more manly.
As if.
What were the odds of us ending up in the same town? “Cooper,” I muttered.
His brows lifted. “What was that?”
Snowballs. I remembered the bracelet. He didn’t know who I was. I stood up, brushed myself off and forced a smile. “I said super! What can I help you with?” How about a nice kick in the babymaker? Huh? How about we start there?
“Great. I need some toys.”
Apparently, becoming manlier had made him dumber. “You’re in the right place.”
“Yeah, I guess I am,” he laughed. Oh, that laugh. It sent a tingle right down into my girly-parts. Traitorous, wanton girly-parts.
My new goal was to make this as quick as possible. I checked his hands. No wedding ring. Didn’t mean he wasn’t married. Focus. “What kind of toys?”
“The station is doing some raffle baskets for the Nocturne Falls Elementary School fundraising dinner this Friday night, and I’m in charge of getting some toys to fill them.”
That was not going to be quick. I glanced over at Juniper, but she was busy at the register. And Toly was at lunch.
And this was technically my job. Fake smile still firmly in place, I grabbed one of the big canvas shopping totes the store provided and looked Cooper square in the face. “Okay, great, let’s get started.”
“Awesome. I’ll be back after lunch to pick the stuff up and pay for it.”
“You’re leaving?”
He stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Sure, we do these baskets every couple of months, and it’s the same thing every time. I put my order in, one of you fills it for me, then I pay. Well, the station pays. But you know what I mean.”
As much as I wanted him to go, I also didn’t want to get this wrong and give Toly a reason to reprimand me. “I don’t know your budget, or what kinds of kids these are, or the types of toys they might like, or—”
“You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“Yes!” That might have come out a little louder than intended. “And I could use a little direction.”
“Hundred bucks a basket. One for boys, one for girls, that sort of thing. Age range is elementary school, and educational stuff goes over big with the parents. And they’re the ones who do the bidding, so we like to make them happy. Cool?” Then he leaned forward, and the stupid scent of all summer elves, a vague coconut suntan-oil smell, wafted over me, bringing with it a whole blizzard of memories. “Or would you like me to help you so you can go to lunch with me?”
Now that was the Cooper I knew. Super flirty, over-confident and completely full of himself. But he was a fireman in this town, and I’m guessing that made him pretty connected, so I couldn’t really afford to muck this up. He might be useful at some point. Plus, I was getting good at fake smiling for his benefit. “As fun as that sounds, I only get twenty minutes for lunch, and I don’t think I’m supposed to leave. Not on my first day. I’m sure I can pull this order together.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. You go enjoy your lunch…” I made a show of peering at his name badge. “Fireman Sullivan.”
He grinned. “You can call me Cooper.”
I could think of a lot of other names I liked better. Fake smile fake smile fake smile. “Okay, then, Cooper. See you after lunch.”
He left, and I’m pretty sure he made finger guns at Juniper on the way out. Or maybe he just waved. Whatever. I was actually happy he’d left. Having to spend more time with my ex than I already had wasn’t something I wanted to do.
Summer elves were the exact opposite of winter elves. Their powers went in the direction of fire and heat. Which made it pretty funny that Cooper had ended up as a fireman. He would have made a better arsonist. But I guess being fireproof was a big perk in his chosen profession.
Some people said the Vikings were descendants of the summer elves, but that sounded like a good PR job to me. Whatever. Vikings were dumb too.
By the time I pulled toys for the baskets and calculated the totals to make sure I hadn’t exceeded the budget (which required several swap-outs), Juniper had gone to lunch and come back and was now showing me how to log my break on the computer. I was starving and in desperate need of another Dr Pepper. And a nap, but that wasn’t happening.
Naturally, Cooper showed up at the register just as I was about to leave.
“Oh, good, a customer,” Juniper said. “Hey, Cooper.”
“Hey, Juni.” He smiled at me. “And new salesgirl.”
Juniper smiled back. “This is Lilibeth. Today’s her first day.”
He nodded. “So I heard. Nice to meet you, Lili.”
“Lilibeth.” I smiled tersely.
Juniper looked at me. “Cooper’s a friend of mine.”
I bet he was. “How nice.” But if Juniper liked him, I’d better cool it. “Always good to have a fireman on call, huh?”
She nodded. “Let’s ring up this sale, then you can take your lunch.”
More fake smiling ensued. “I’m your willing pupil.” My stomach protested, but what could I do?
We rang Cooper’s stuff up while he made small talk about the lunch he’d had at Mummy’s D
iner. I may have said something about pie. The register wasn’t too hard, basically a touch screen setup that was remarkably similar to the inventory computers used at the Factory. (Those were all hardwired, which was the only way to guarantee them functioning in the NP.)
Finally his stuff was bagged. He whipped out the fire station’s credit card, and Juniper showed me how to run it. He signed the receipt and that was that.
“Thanks for your help, Lilibeth. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around. So long as you don’t disappear like the rest of them.”
I went on full alert. Was the problem with the shop’s employees that widely known? Or did he know more about it because he was an elf too? Or friends with Juniper? A part of me died inside as I knew I was going to have to talk to him some more to figure it out. “Nope, I’m here for good.”
“Nice to hear. Juni needs the help, don’t ya?”
Juniper nodded. “That’s for dang skippy.”
“See ya.” He left, bags in hand.
I sighed, glad he was gone but even happier that I was finally going on break. “I get twenty minutes, right?”
“Yep. You doing all right? You look tired.”
I smiled and meant it this time. Her concern was sweet. “Just hungry. I’ll be back in twenty.”
“Okay.”
I made it upstairs in record time. Spider was sprawled out on the bed, luxuriating in a sunbeam cutting across the duvet. I couldn’t tell if the place had been cleaned yet or not, so I checked the trash. It was empty. And the bathroom smelled like lemon. Yep, the service had been here.
That was fast. But I guess there hadn’t been much to do seeing as how I’d just moved in.
I tossed a Hungry Man meatloaf dinner in the microwave, grabbed a Dr Pepper and drank half of it on my way back to the bedroom. I retrieved the snow globe from the suitcase in the closet and brought it back out into the living room. I thought about checking in with my dad, but all I wanted to do was eat then sit in peace for a few minutes.
I drank the remainder of the soda while I was waiting on my lunch to finish heating up. Twenty minutes was not enough time. Spider came out from the bedroom, all loose-boned and sleepy-eyed. He blinked up at me and ran his pink tongue over his chops.
“Are you telling me to top off your bowl?” I looked. It was half-empty. I guess he was making up for all those days without. I refilled it, which left about two more refills in the bag. “Cat food just moved to priority status.”
The microwave beeped. I took the food out and peeled the plastic back, releasing a cloud of steam. Way too hot to eat.
I waved my fingers over the top, chilling it down a bit. Then I devoured it, polishing off another half bottle of Dr Pepper in the process. I was starting to feel elf again.
Good thing too, because my break was over in six minutes. Just enough time to hit the little elf’s room, brush my teeth and get back downstairs. Maybe workers were leaving because there wasn’t enough time to eat a proper lunch. I knew not bothering to give notice and leaving all your stuff behind was a pretty extreme reaction, but hey, people did crazy things when they were hungry.
I made a mental note to tell my dad about the insufficient breaks when I checked in, even though I knew it wasn’t enough of a motivation.
Juniper was still at the register when I got back. I tucked my purse away and reported for duty.
“Feel better?”
“Less like I’m going to die, yes.”
She nodded. “I get hungry on the job all the time. You know how it is with this metabolism.”
“That I do.”
She shuffled closer. “If you need a little something…” She reached back into one of the cubbies and pulled out a metal cash box with a handwritten label on a strip of duct tape that said feminine supplies.
“Cool, but it’s not that time of the—”
She opened the box. It was filled with candy bars.
I snorted. “Oh, those kinds of feminine supplies.”
“Yeah, I had to label it like that because when I tried just keeping a bag of candy under the counter, Toly and Owen went through it on the first shift. Just you, me and Buttercup know about this.”
“Buttercup?” Some elf names could be a bit much, but that was really pushing it.
Juniper rolled her eyes. “Don’t give her any grief about it. Her mother was a big Princess Bride fan.”
“No grief from me.” Especially seeing as how I was an actual princess.
“Good. The only rule of the box is we all replenish the stock.”
“Got it.”
She gave me a stern look. “And no generic crap either.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
She broke into a smile. “I’m so glad you’re here. I mean, Bertie was cool and all, but he was a little odd.”
Just what I needed; a chance to talk about the missing elves. “Bertie. That’s the guy I’m replacing?”
“Yep.”
“So he was odd? How?”
“Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, but—” A customer came in. Juniper smiled and greeted the woman, waiting until she got deeper into the store to continue. “He was pretty hung up on how powerful he was. As if you couldn’t be a high-magicked elf and still be fun. I felt like telling him to get over himself. You can’t work in one of the stores unless you have a reasonable amount of power, just in case you have to help with the shimmer.”
Shimmer was a term elves used sort of the way witches used glamour. In this case, Juniper was probably referring to the frost on the windows and icicles on the eaves. “Really? I thought that was the manager’s job.”
“It is, and Toly does it, but once a week we do Snowy Saturday and that’s a little bit more intense so he likes to know there’s back up. Plus, sometimes he’ll ask an employee to handle it so he can have a break. It’s no big deal. If you’ve got the skills.”
“Snowy Saturday?” I’d never heard of it, and I was pretty sure if the company had mandated it, I would have. I’d be checking with my dad all the same.
“On Saturdays, we make it snow in the store, but it can’t accumulate for obvious reasons, like damaged merchandise and customer safety. That, plus the normal shimmer wears on Toly sometimes, I guess. Anyway, like I said, it’s no big deal since it’s just one day a week. And it brings in a ton of customers, so we always make our quota.”
“There’s a quota?” I’d never heard about one before.
“Sure. Personally, I think that’s why some of the elves have left. Plus, Toly can be a bear to work for. If you don’t perform, you’ll know it. He’ll call you into his office and have a talk with you about your salesmanship and blah, blah, blah.”
Add that to the list of stuff I didn’t know. I kept going with the questions. “There’s been a lot of turnover? That’s unusual for these stores. How much turnover are we talking about?”
Juniper thought a moment. “I think five workers since I’ve been here.”
“You ever get called in for a talk?”
“Just once, but I’ve noticed—”
Toly waddled out from the back room at the same time as a new batch of customers came in the front door.
“Dinner after our shift?” she asked.
“I’m in.” There was no way I was missing the rest of this conversation or a night out with Juniper. I liked her a lot. Not that I was trying to replace Lark, but well, maybe I was a little. Was that so awful? I’m not ashamed to admit I was a little desperate for a friend, as sad as that was.
Yep, that’s me. Princess Pathetic. Fortunately, Juniper had no idea. About either of those things.
At four fifty-five, I met Owen and Buttercup, who was pretty much the exact opposite of my mental image of someone with that name. Short, spikey blue-black hair, heavy black eyeliner and pierced ear tips, which made mine hurt in sympathy. But she was sweet and, just like Juniper, happy to have another female on staff.
Owen was nice, but quiet. And he blinked a lot.
At five
p.m. our shift was over, so Juniper and I ditched our aprons and bolted for the elevator.
“I’m on two,” she said as she pushed the call button. “So is Buttercup. Owen’s in the other apartment upstairs next to Toly and across from the corporate digs. Which means you must be on two also.”
“Yep. I wonder if you’re across the hall from me.” The doors slid back and we got on.
“You might have gotten Bertie’s old place.”
“No, I’m in 2D.”
Her brows lifted. “How do you know which apartment Bertie was in?”
Snowballs. I thought for a second as the doors opened and we got out. “About that…” I gave her a quick rundown about hearing Spider crying, but told her I’d picked the lock. Telling her what I’d really done would reveal me as royal. Then I said I’d done some snooping while I was in there and figured out who lived there. I hoped that covered my slip.
“I’m glad you saved Spider.” She seemed mostly convinced, but Juniper was sharp. I wasn’t calling myself clear yet. “You can pick locks, huh?”
I shrugged. “Everybody has skills.”
“Sure, but mine probably won’t lead to me getting arrested.”
“You’d be surprised.”
She laughed. “Change and meet back here in fifteen?”
“Deal.” Once in my place, I switched out of jeans into black leggings, a snug tunic top and my black boots. Then I grabbed the snow globe and gave it a shake as I carried it into the bathroom with me to touch up my makeup.
My dad showed up as I was adding some eyeliner. “Hi, sweetheart. How was your first day?”
“Good.” Not counting the part that included Cooper Sullivan.
“Any news?”
“Nothing concrete. Toly’s a bit of a task master.”
“Is that your take or the opinion of the workers you’ve talked to?”
“Both.” I put the eyeliner away and did a quick dusting of powder to get rid of the shine that had accumulated after a day in the store. “I hope to know more about the workers who’ve left after tonight.”
“Why? What’s going on tonight?”
Miss Frost Solves A Cold Case Page 5