WG2E All-For-Indies Anthologies: Winter Wonderland Edition

by Scott, D. D.

  “Oh, the ones with toffee?”

  “Absolutely.” My sister Kiki’s toffee cupcakes were known far and wide. She didn’t make them often, but when she did, the confections attracted a long line of locals to the Skullduggery Inn.

  Looking for an opportunity to escape, I said, “I need to go check on the puppies in the pet car. I’ll catch you later.”

  “See you,” said Olivia as I made fast tracks away from her.

  Refreshments had been set up in the second car and I grabbed a cookie as I sidled past the line of people waiting for punch.

  By the time I made it to the pet car, I found Noreen Swinson entertaining several kittens with a long strand of plastic beads. She waved it to the left, and several furry paws popped up to bat at it; then she waved it to the right, and the kittens scrambled to bat it again. Too cute.

  “Aren’t you worried they’ll break the beads?” I asked.

  “I used bead wire to strand it, so I doubt they could hurt it.” She pulled a compact, clear bag from her enormous rhinestone-bedazzled handbag. The bag contained a roll of bead wire, a wire cutter, superglue and small zip-lock bags holding various colored beads. “I can easily repair it if I need to.”

  “It looks like you’re ready to make jewelry at a moment’s notice.”

  “I never know when I’ll have some spare time or the muse will strike.” She tucked the bag back in her purse and bounced the long strand of beads for the kittens again.

  I was ready for some puppy love after all the cold shoulders I’d received for consorting with the enemy, so I stepped into the puppy pen primed to spend the ride playing with the rescue animals.

  Five minutes and lots of puppy kisses later, the train whistle blew. After several shudders and bumps from the engine, the Winterland Express was underway.

  I’d bonded with one of the puppies, a really cute brown and white spotted one I dubbed Snuggles. He gave me another lick, this time on my nose. I surreptitiously wiped my nose with my sleeve as Mrs. Henderson dashed into the pet car.

  “You won’t believe it,” she told Noreen Swinson. “White shoes.”

  Noreen’s forehead creased. “Dolores?”

  “I couldn’t believe my eyes when she boarded the train, bold as anything. Between her and Olivia, I think we have a mutiny on our hands.”

  Noreen set the kitten she had been holding back into the pen, then straightened her dress. She reached into her ginormous handbag and pulled out a felt shoe bag. “I was afraid of this, but I came prepared.”

  “You brought shoes?”

  “Black pumps, size seven.”

  Although I’d suspected that being president of the charity league had gone to Noreen’s head, I hadn’t realized exactly how controlling the entire group had become. My decision to stay out of it had been inspired. I gave Snuggles a quick smooch while another puppy, a tiny black one, shimmied into my lap.

  Noreen had left a couple of kittens out of their pen and one of them decided that the black puppy’s tail was perfect for batting through the wires of the pen.

  It didn’t take me long to step out of the pen and ultimately find myself buried in puppies and kittens. I was mid giggle when Noreen returned.

  “Oh,” she said. “You’re still here.”

  “I’m having way too much fun to leave. I’m so glad the charity league is going all out to create a no-kill shelter for these babies.” The local shelters had been transferring puppies and kittens from one shelter to the other in order to save their lives until they could be adopted. A no-kill shelter was desperately needed.

  “It’s a worthwhile project.” Noreen opened the restroom door. “If you’ll excuse me.”

  Her gaze flitted to the animals swarming my lap.

  Feeling a little embarrassed to be discovered on the floor covered in fur, I sat up and placed the animals back in their respective pens. Just as I dusted off my skirt, Mrs. Henderson entered the car.

  “I thought I’d find Noreen here,” she said.

  “I’m sure she’ll be out in a moment.” I indicated the restroom. Mrs. Henderson seemed inclined to wait, so I sought a safe topic of conversation. “How is the fundraiser going?”

  “Far better than we’d hoped. Ticket sales have been brisk. Just for today’s launch and reception, we sold sixty-five tickets.”

  At $100 each, they’d made $6,500 today. It was a good start.

  Noreen exited the restroom. “There you are, Agnes. Did you have any more luck than I had with Dolores?”

  Mrs. Henderson gave her a sly smile. “I reminded her about the pie bake-off.”

  Mrs. Henderson was one of the judges and Dolores had been perfecting her strawberry pie recipe. It sounded as though switching shoes had become a new form of contest-fixing, but I doubted anyone would complain, since the pie bake-off was another of the charity league fundraisers.

  Mrs. Henderson handed the shoe bag to Noreen, who replaced it in her handbag. They exchanged a long look between them that I couldn’t quite decipher, but I dismissed the thought, assuming it had something to do with the bake-off.

  “Have you seen any of the decorations?” asked Noreen, pointing out the windows as Mrs. Henderson entered the restroom.

  “I was too busy playing with the puppies,” I said, feeling guilty that I had missed some of the league’s hard work. I turned my gaze outside. The snow bank created by the artificial snowmaker dazzled as if set ablaze by the setting sun. Adults and children were lined up in order to take their turns snowboarding down the hill. “Wow.”

  “We’re quite pleased with how it turned out.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  Mrs. Henderson emerged from the restroom. “I’d better get back to protecting the punch. I have it on good authority that DeeDee’s husband intends to spike it. I asked Dixie to guard it, but you know how easily distracted she can be.”

  With that, she hurried off, leaving me with Noreen.

  Assuming she wanted more compliments, I said, “The charity league’s hard work is paying off.”

  “Thank you,” Noreen said. “I’d better go help Agnes. I so do not want it to get out that charity league members staggered off the Winterland Express.”

  Almost on the heels of her departure, the Berry twins showed up and took turns in the restroom. We’re the same age, mid-twenties, and I always really liked each of them.

  They’re both gorgeous redheads and have similar outgoing personalities. But Jenn is more serious and Julie is more frivolous, which was readily apparent in their attire. Their mother had forced them to wear matching clothing through middle school, but they had finally rebelled during their high school years. Now Jenn wore pastels, while Julie’s bright primary colors looked almost clown-like.

  I considered them friends, although we hadn’t hung out much recently, but it was good seeing them again.

  After they left, there was a temporary lull in restroom traffic, so I decided to visit the place myself.

  Like the rest of the train, it had been decorated with Mardi Gras beads, purple and green streamers and a heavenly-smelling bowl of potpourri. I noticed Noreen’s jewelry-making bag tucked away on the counter behind the bowl, and made a mental note to remind her she’d left it there. Evidently she felt the muse strike in interesting places.

  When I emerged, DeeDee and her husband stood waiting outside the restroom door. What was this, Grand Central Restroom?

  Although I was thoroughly entertained between the hillside decorations and the puppies and kittens, I couldn’t help noting that it seemed almost every single member of the charity league visited the restroom.

  When Dixie took her turn she said, “Too much cider.”

  Apparently there was a whole lot of punch drinking going on, and I wondered whether DeeDee’s husband had successfully spiked it. And if he had, what exactly he spiked it with.

  Loud voices erupted from the other train cars and the train started to slow, as if it hadn’t been slow enough already, so I presumed we were nea
ring the Skullduggery Inn.

  Then a woman’s loud voice rose above the sound of the squealing brakes. I couldn’t make out all of the words, but it sounded like something about a stolen necklace. Then it dawned on me, the loud female voice belonged to Olivia.

  Dread crept up my spine. Could her half-million dollar necklace have been stolen?

  The thud of running footsteps approached, and Mrs. Henderson entered the pet car. Her face was grave and her expression was drawn. “We need you, Ashley.”

  “For what?” I asked, placing poor Snuggles back in the pen. “Did I overhear something about a stolen necklace? Is it Olivia’s?”

  “She’s making a huge scene about it. I’m sure she just dropped it somewhere.”

  “We’re not at the Skullduggery Inn yet, so why did the train stop?”

  “So no one can get on or off the train.”

  This did not bode well. As we walked through the cars toward the first, I asked, “Has Olivia retraced her steps?”

  “She was only in the first car and the refreshment car. Everyone has walked it several times without success.”

  The necklace was significant enough that it should have been easily found. “When was the last time someone saw it?”

  “The Berry twins said they saw it on her shortly after the train left the station.”

  “So why do you need me?”

  “She’s claiming that someone stole it. We’ve called the police, but you’re the only person who was nowhere near Olivia or her necklace since you were in the pet car the entire time. We thought you might be able to help.”

  Mrs. Henderson led me past all of the passengers in the refreshment car and into the first car, where we found Olivia and Noreen talking with the train’s engineer, who had stepped out of the engine car.

  “Thank heavens you’re here, Ashley,” said Olivia, looking frantic. “Someone on this train stole my necklace and no one is getting off until they’ve been searched.”

  That earlier dread I mentioned about Olivia’s necklace being stolen came back two-fold now because I feared where this was leading. “Searched?”

  “You’ll have to do it,” said Noreen.

  She wanted me to search people? She had to be kidding. “Someone could have stolen the necklace and handed it off to me,” I suggested.

  Olivia shot me an annoyed look. “Did someone hand it off to you?”

  “Of course not, but still …” The last thing I wanted to do was spend time patting down the members of the charity league, although each and every one of them had five hundred thousand good reasons for taking Olivia’s necklace. “I think we should wait for the police to arrive.”

  “Considering how many mystery novels you read, this should be a piece of cake for you,” said Olivia. “For heaven’s sake, Ashley, you run a mystery weekend at your inn. This is right up your alley.”

  I sighed. Loudly. “It’s not that easy. My skills are centered on creating clues so other people can solve the mystery.”

  “A deputy from the Sheriff’s department is on the way, but I think it would be best if we found the necklace before law enforcement arrives,” said Noreen. “Think of the scandal.”

  Noreen Swinson lived for scandal. I narrowed my eyes at her. She didn’t look all that upset considering how torqued she got over the white shoes. Since she was the charity league ringleader, my bets were on her being the one who absconded with said necklace.

  “Fine. You’re first,” I said. If Noreen had the necklace, we could be on our way in only a few minutes.

  “What should I do?” asked Mrs. Henderson, apparently feeling left out.

  “You can organize everyone for the search.” Her southern elegance would have everyone eating out of her hand. They wouldn’t in the least mind being ordered around by her. “Tell them to line up. There are sixty-five people on board. It will take some time to search them all.”

  “You sweet thing, that’s such a fine plan.” She gently cleared her throat. “But I’ll have to find a man to search the gentlemen on the train. It wouldn’t be appropriate for a lady to do it. Searching is too intimate to be done in public, so you can use the restroom to pat down the ladies.”

  The engineer said, “I’ll take the men. We can do it in the engine car.”

  DeeDee’s husband, who’d been hovering nearby, wobbled forward. “You can start with me.”

  Considering his lack of coordination, I presumed he’d been tippling whatever he’d brought to spike the punch.

  “Let’s get started,” I said to Noreen, signaling her to return to the pet car with me. “How many women are on board?”

  “Thirty-seven.”

  Fun and joy. I hoped I was right and Noreen had the necklace.

  Once we reached the restroom, I wasn’t quite sure how to start the pat-down. I’d seen body searches on TV, but usually they were looking for weapons, not jewelry. The good news was Olivia’s necklace was rather bulky, what with all those emeralds and diamonds, so it should be fairly easy to find.

  I started with quick pats on Noreen’s arms.

  “Not like that,” she said. “You’ll have to really search. Start with my pockets.”

  Several embarrassing pats later, I came up empty. Noreen didn’t have the necklace unless she’d managed to swallow it. “How about your handbag?”

  She handed it to me and I looked intently, even checking the lining and taking Dolores’s white shoes out of the shoe bag, but the necklace wasn’t to be found. “Oh, I just remembered. You left your jewelry-making bag here.”

  I pointed to where it was sitting on the counter.

  “How silly of me,” she said, scooping up the bag and returning it to her purse.

  “Not so fast,” I said. “Let me look inside it first.”

  She handed me the bag with a far-too-innocent expression on her face, so I thought for sure the necklace would be inside it. Unless Olivia’s diamonds and emeralds had turned into plastic beads, the necklace wasn’t there. I gave the bag back to Noreen and she put it away.

  When I opened the restroom door, I found a long line of women waiting for their turn to be searched, busily chatting away about this latest scandal.

  The Berry twins were first and I took them one after the other. Jenn’s gaze darted everywhere but at me, making me think she felt guilty about something. Although she didn’t have the necklace, I wondered if she knew something about the necklace’s disappearance. “Do you know what happened to the necklace?”

  Her eyes flared. She leaned in as if ready to share a deep dark secret. “Don’t you think it’s possible that Olivia hid it? Maybe you should search her, too.”

  “Good idea.”

  Forty-five eternally long minutes later, I’d gotten quite accomplished at patting people down. I’d finished searching all of the women, including Olivia, and hadn’t found the necklace.

  “Shouldn’t the deputy sheriff be here by now?” I asked Noreen.

  “Let’s go check,” she suggested. “The deputy could be up front and we wouldn’t have a clue.”

  “Maybe the engineer found the necklace on one of the men,” I suggested.

  “We can but hope.”

  When we reached the first car, we learned that the first three cars had been searched in case the necklace had been stashed there. The engineer and DeeDee’s husband went to the pet car to search it now that we were no longer conducting our pat downs.

  That was when the deputy sheriff arrived. Deputy Nancy Malone was an attractive blond with a good head on her shoulders.

  “Has the necklace been found?” she asked, apparently having been briefed by the dispatcher.

  Noreen brought her up to speed on our lack of results from the searches.

  Deputy Malone nodded. “A team is currently walking the track in case someone threw the necklace from the train.”

  Shortly afterward, the sheriff and two other deputies arrived. The sheriff began questioning the other passengers and Deputy Malone started her own searche
s, beginning with me.

  She and I returned to the pet car so she could make sure I didn’t have the necklace. Once that was completed, she began searching the other women.

  I found this somewhat annoying since I’d apparently gotten up close and far too personal with the members of the charity league for nothing. I climbed into the puppy pen and lifted Snuggles into my arms, all the while going over events that had unfolded. Why hadn’t we found the necklace?

  Headlights from an approaching sheriff’s cruiser beamed into the pet car, reflecting off a brooch worn by Olivia, who waited impatiently for the deputy to find her necklace.

  Noreen had left the long strand of plastic beads behind in the cage. With my free hand I picked it up and ran it through my fingers.

  Then everything clicked.

  I looked at Noreen and her handbag. I glanced at Mrs. Henderson’s ears. I noticed the collar on Jenn’s silk shirt. I studied Dixie Sullivan’s hat. Could it be?

  Then I glanced back at Olivia.

  My goodness.

  “Noreen, you left your beads behind,” I said, gesturing for her to come join me at the puppy pen. As she stooped to collect the strand of beads, I whispered, “I know where the necklace is.”

  Her face drained of blood and she stood back up before gathering the beads. “You do? Don’t you think you should tell the sheriff?”

  “I could, but think of the scandal.”

  “I’ve been thinking of that all afternoon.”

  “I’m sure you have,” I said, reaching my index finger to her purse and running it down the gems on it. “In fact, I’m certain you have.”

  I looked at Olivia again. She stood near the restroom, biting her lip. I’d be biting mine, too. “Olivia, have you seen Snuggles?”

  Her face broke out in a warm smile as she looked at the puppy in my arms.

  Oh, yeah. I knew what happened to the necklace. “Come and see him.”

  She came forward and took the puppy from me.

  I stepped out of the pen and stood beside her. “Is your necklace insured?”

  “Of course it is.”

  “I wouldn’t call the insurance company just yet,” I said. “What a lovely brooch you’re wearing.”