A man in a sport coat got up and tapped a microphone, causing a squeal of feedback that made everyone cringe and laugh. “Now that I have your attention…” He chuckled nervously. “Sorry about that. Thank you to everyone who came out to support the school. We really appreciate it. And now, we’re going to do the basket drawings.”
Everyone cheered, and Juniper smiled at me and crossed her fingers. It wasn’t that big of a surprise when they read off the number of one of my tickets as the winner of the spa package.
Juniper let out a happy yelp. “You won!”
“We won,” I corrected her. “Next day off, we’re there.”
One of the volunteers brought the basket to me and checked my ticket number. The thing was half the size of Juniper and filled with about fifty pounds of lotions and balms and body butter and toner and cleanser and a ton of other stuff I couldn’t use up in a year if I showered every day.
Cooper’s eyes widened. “That is some basket.”
“Worth every penny.” I’d be sure to let my dad know his money had been well spent. “I might have to take a cab to get it home, though.”
I could lift the thing, I just wasn’t sure I could see over it.
“I’ll carry it home for you,” he said.
“Thanks.” That might give me another shot at quizzing him about the elevator, but at this point, I wasn’t sure I cared about that stupid thing anymore.
Juniper peeked around the side of the basket. “Since Cooper’s going to help you with the basket, Pete and I are going for a walk. I’ll see you at work tomorrow. Cool?”
“Cool.” I was happy for her. She deserved a nice guy. And Pete was about as far into the nice guy category as you could get.
As they left, Cooper and I headed out too. The air probably felt chilly to him, but it felt like summer to me.
“Which way?” I asked.
He tipped his head around the swathe of ribbons tying off the top of the basket and nodded to the left. “Main Street is that way.”
So was Greyson. I decided to head us in a different direction to avoid a possible testosterone show down. Which might be kind of hot, but I wasn’t interested in pitting these two guys against each other. “Can we go a different way? You know, so I can learn more of the town.”
“Sure.” He went right, and I followed at his side.
We walked without talking for a block, and I was happy to continue like that, but he cleared his throat and broke the silence.
“You think something bad is going on at the toy store. How bad?”
“Bad enough that employees are leaving.”
“Could be that manager. I’ve heard Juniper and Buttercup talk about him. He seems like he might be tough to work for.”
I nodded. “Yep. Could be.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“I don’t know what to think.”
He went quiet for a long time before speaking again. “If you haven’t figured anything out by the start of next week, I’ll see what I can do about telling you more about the elevator.”
A chance at the elevator was the only reason I agreed to let Cooper carry the basket all the way up to my apartment. Plus, he was already on the approved list, so there was that. But seriously, his potentially helping me with the elevator was the biggest break I’d had since I’d arrived.
Which was sad, because it was still just a possibility, not a definite.
He put the spa basket on my kitchen counter and looked around. “Nice place. It’s just like Juniper’s and Buttercup’s.”
“I suppose they all look the same except for the bigger apartments on the third floor.”
Spider came running out from the bedroom, meowing for food.
Cooper squatted down to greet him. “Hey, buddy, what’s your name?”
I leaned on the counter, watching. “I haven’t gotten around to teaching him to speak yet. His name is Spider.”
“Aren’t you a handsome fellow?” Cooper scratched Spider’s head and squinted at me. “You named your cat Spider?”
“I inherited him with that name.” I shrugged. “He seems to like it all right. I’d hate to change it and give him some kind of identity crisis.”
Cooper scratched him some more. Spider’s eyes were closed, his purring cranked up to eleven like Cooper’s affections were the best thing he’d ever experienced. Yeah, okay, they weren’t awful, but still. Spider could have liked him a little less. But Cooper had always had a way with animals. It was one of the things that had made me fall for him.
“Hey,” I said. “Don’t go trying to make my cat like you more than he likes me.”
Grinning, Cooper stood. He stared at me for a long moment. It was a little unsettling. “You know, you remind me of someone.”
I laughed, trying to cover the sudden onset of nerves. “I get that all the time.”
He walked over and planted his hands on the counter, framing me in his arms. That left about three inches between us, chest to chest. Not nearly enough for proper airflow. Then he leaned in closer. “I know it’s just my mind playing tricks on me, but I feel like I know you better than I really do.”
“Is that why you agreed to tell me about the elevator?”
The right corner of his mouth quirked up. “I said I might.”
I shrugged like it didn’t matter. “I don’t know what the big deal is about that thing. It’s just an elevator.”
“I could say the same thing to you. What’s it matter? That elevator doesn’t have anything to do with toy store employees leaving. How could it?” He laughed, a deep throaty sound that sent a shiver through me. “You winter elves are so nosy.”
“Why? Did Buttercup and Juniper try to get you to tell them about it too?”
He shook his head, his eyes lit with a dark, wicked gleam I remembered very well. He was going to kiss me.
I did not want that. Except I sort of did. I closed my eyes and groaned at the battle going on in my head.
Cooper must have read that as me being all swoony with need, because a second later his hot mouth was on mine.
Warmth seeped through me from that single point of contact as though I’d drifted into a sunbeam. It spiraled into me, slow and lazy, turning my bones soft with the kind of languid heat normally brought on by an August afternoon.
Damn summer elves.
My hands went to his chest and I was about to push him off when I realized doing that might ruin my chances at finding out about the elevator.
Also, he was an amazing kisser. I let the kiss go on a little longer, because I’d kind of missed them. Even if the jerk had dumped me. Good kissing was good kissing. But letting this happen was only making things worse, and no matter how we’d ended in college, using him now wasn’t right. Even if my end game was solid.
Snowballs.
With a soft sigh, I broke the kiss and pushed him away. “I can’t do this, Cooper. I like you.” Sort of. “But I can’t be more than friends with you.” And even that would take some doing once he knew who I really was.
He took a step back and bent his head, whether in disappointment, anger or regret, I couldn’t tell. Knowing him, though, anger wasn’t likely, but without being able to see his eyes, I wasn’t sure.
I was about to say something placating, when over his shoulder, I caught a glimpse of the snow globe on the side table. A blizzard stormed inside the glass bowl. Nice timing, Dad.
“Look, Cooper, thanks for everything, but I should really get to bed. It’s been a long day, and I have work in the morning.”
His head came up, and he finally looked at me. “I know you.”
I froze, stuck between panicking and deciding if I should tell him the whole truth before this got really ugly. “What—”
“I mean, I know your type. You’ve been hurt before. I get it. I’ve been hurt too.”
I exhaled and nodded quickly. Good enough for me. “That’s right. That’s why I just want to be friends.”
He stuffed his hands in h
is pockets. “Exactly. We need to get to know each other. Take things slow. I shouldn’t have kissed you. It wasn’t the right time. I’m sorry.”
Now I felt like a heel. “No, it was fine. But yes, too soon. Don’t feel sorry about it, okay? It was a good kiss.” Too good. I hadn’t really wanted to stop. On the side table, snowmageddon raged on. “Thanks for tonight. I had a great time.”
He smiled. Crisis averted. “Me too. See you soon?”
I nodded. “Definitely.”
His smile stayed in place as he let himself out.
The door closed and I bolted the lock, then ran for the snow globe and pressed the button. “Hey, I’m here.”
My dad’s face appeared. Looked like he was in his office at the house. “Hi, honey. Did I catch you at a bad time? You look flushed.”
“Must be the lighting.” Not the kissing. “I was just getting in from a dinner at the fire hall. I met the sheriff and asked him about John Does, that sort of thing. He said there’s been nothing, but I also got the sense he thought there wasn’t really anything for me to worry about concerning the missing employees.”
“That’s because he probably doesn’t know what we know.” My dad’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe you should pay him a visit, tell him who you really are and see if that changes his reaction.”
“Shouldn’t you be the one to do that? You are the Winter King.”
“No. That would make this an official inquiry, and I don’t want to tip off anyone just yet.”
“Okay. I can’t go see him tomorrow, and the day after is Sunday, and I don’t have any idea if the sheriff works Sunday, but Monday definitely.”
“Good.” He shuffled some papers. “So I called because I had the Financial Department send me a complete reporting of the Nocturne Falls store. Expenses, overages, the whole lot. I figured that would make it look more like a general inquiry than a targeted search. Anyway, it took some digging, but I found the name of the cleaning service.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d already done that after he’d gone to so much trouble. “Great.”
He pulled out a sheet of paper. “This is a copy of an invoice. Says Brite Star Cleaners.”
I squinted at him. “What’s the date on that invoice?”
His gaze shifted. “Last month.”
“Okay, something’s not right. Is that the only cleaning service he had listed?”
“As far as I know. Why? What’s wrong?”
I sighed. “I slipped into Toly’s office late last night and did a little investigating on my own.”
“Jay, I don’t like the sound of that. What if you’d been caught?”
“Then the gig would have been up, I guess. Depends on who caught me. What’s the worst Toly could do? Fire me?”
“Let’s hope.” He shook his head. “What did you find?”
“An invoice for a different cleaning service. Thrifty Maids.”
We stared at each other for a second. Then my dad spoke. “He must have fired this one and hired Thrifty Maids.”
“Or he’s covering something up. I told you, the cleaning service seemed to have completely emptied Bertie’s apartment.”
“I wish you had some proof.”
Spider flopped down on my feet and started rolling around, showing me his tummy. “Maybe I do.” I reached down and checked Spider’s name tag. Bertie’s address and phone number were on the back.
I scooped Spider into my lap so my dad could see him. “Remember how I said I have his cat?”
“Yes.”
I held Spider up so his tag was visible. “Bertie’s name, address and phone number are on the back of Spider’s name tag. So that’s proof that his cat was left behind. And the other workers know about Bertie having Spider. At least Buttercup and Juniper do, the two women who also live on this floor.”
“But Toly lives upstairs.” My dad was catching on.
“Right. If Bertie got Spider after he moved in, maybe Toly didn’t know about him.” I grimaced. “Or maybe Toly did know about Spider and didn’t care. Maybe he was going to pay the cleaning service to get rid of Spider too.”
I hugged my little baby closer. I couldn’t imagine what might have happened to my boy if I hadn’t rescued him. Because make no mistake, he was mine now.
“That makes it seem like Toly’s involved in this.”
I nodded. “It does.”
“Might be time for this to become an official investigation.”
“And if Toly finds out and takes off? Or worse? No, Dad, not yet. Let me talk to Juniper tomorrow. See if she knows anything about the cleaning service. There could be a logical explanation. Like you said maybe he recently hired the Thrifty Maids service and fired the other one. Maybe that’s why you don’t have any invoices from them yet.” Except the Thrifty Maids file I’d seen in Toly’s office had held more than one invoice. Still, I wasn’t ready to jump to conclusions.
“I guess. But that doesn’t explain what happened to everything in Bertie’s apartment.” His gaze shifted to Spider. “I’m willing to give it a few more days, but get that cat a new tag and put the old one in a safe place. We may need it as evidence of just how much Bertie left behind.”
“Will do.”
“And you be safe too.”
I nodded. “I’m not doing anything you wouldn’t do.”
He snorted out two streams of ice vapor. “That’s what I’m worried about. Love you.”
“Love you.”
My dad’s image disappeared and the snow in the globe settled. I gave Spider another hug, then slipped his collar off and pried the tag free before putting his collar back on. “I’m getting you a new tag as soon as I can. This time with my info on it. You cool with that? Being my cat, I mean?”
He rolled over and put his feet on the back couch cushions so he could stare at me upside down.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Dinner?”
His ears quivered. Oh, he knew that word.
I got up, tucked his name tag into the zipper pocket of my purse (the only safe place I could think of), then fed him a can of Chunky Chicken Deluxe.
While he snarfed that down, I fixed myself a plate of the last remaining goodies from Delaney’s, grabbed a Dr Pepper, and went to the couch to do a little more research. The conversation I’d had with Juniper and Buttercup earlier in the day about magic skills had made me curious, as had the possibility that Cooper had raised about employees having more than one job.
I put my snacks and drink on the coffee table, fired up the TV for company, and retrieved the files I’d brought with me.
Chocolate in one hand, I spread the files out on the coffee table with the other, opening them so I could see each employee’s data sheet.
While a rosemary-scented s’more cookie melted over my tongue, I studied the info about the six employees who’d disappeared.
Not a single secondary job that I could see but maybe that wouldn’t be listed. I’d have to ask the girls about that.
I read on. The six all had different qualifications. Some had skills in customer service, some had high marks in organization. Bertie had been an exceptional tinker. Not on Toly’s level, but very good. Maybe with more time, just as good.
Hmm. Had Toly seen him as competition? If Toly was losing his magic, wouldn’t another elf with similar qualifications and strong skills be a threat?
I ran with that idea. But not very far. If my hypothesis was true, and Toly had gotten rid of Bertie, I still had no reason for him to get rid of the other five employees.
Surely they weren’t all threats.
I popped a coconut bonbon in my mouth, grabbed the first two files and sat back to study them. I reread the employee assessments, finishing up with the magic-skills evaluation. Both were close enough to consider them on the same level.
Repeating the process, I found all six employees to be on par with each other. Which was to say, they were on the higher end of the magic spectrum. And in that respect, on par with the file my fath
er had set up for Lilibeth.
From what I knew about Juniper, having skills that strong wasn’t a requirement, but having some magic was. Buttercup was loaded with magic based on her hair color, no matter what she’d told Toly. I had no clue about Owen, but if Toly had talked to him about handling the shimmer, clearly he had strong skills too.
The company definitely preferred a certain skill level in those it hired for their stores. That explained why the process of getting chosen was so rigorous. Toly had to know that. He had access to these files just like I did. Which meant he had to know Buttercup and Juniper had lied to him about not being able to handle the shimmer.
Unless Juniper really was telling the truth. Her hair color seemed to imply she was, but all elves had some magic.
I let out a frustrated sigh. Once again, I was getting nowhere and figuring out nothing. I power walked a couple laps around the living room in an attempt to shed some of the tension building in my muscles.
When I sat down again, I placed the employee assessment sheets next to each other in two rows of three so I could see them all at the same time. I stared at them without really knowing what I was looking for, just letting my mind wander and my eyes glaze over.
Then they focused of their own accord on the picture of the third employee to quit. Franny Isler.
I picked up her sheet and studied it. There was something about her picture. Maybe because her wavy silver locks reminded me of Lark a little bit.
I brought the picture closer. My mouth fell open. Could it be? The realization hit me like a blast of arctic air.
Franny Isler was the woman I’d seen tonight at the firehouse. The woman I’d seen jogging at the park. Sure, that woman had short blonde hair and her ears weren’t pointed, but the face was the same. I’d known that woman seemed familiar but hadn’t been able to figure out why.
Until now. I’d been looking at her picture for days in her employee file.
It had to be her. It was her. Or a version of her.
But what on earth did that mean?
The only thing that stopped me from getting to work earlier than I did was a round of texting with Greyson to finalize our evening plans. As it was, I beat Juniper to the store by seven minutes and, I think, impressed Toly just a little bit.
Miss Frost Solves A Cold Case Page 13