by Jeff Shelby
“Canceled?” I asked. “Really?”
He nodded grimly. “Absolutely. The committee does not have the funding to purchase new pieces. And if we don't have a sleigh and Santa, there's no parade. If there's no parade, the festival itself is probably a no-go. We had an emergency committee meeting an hour ago. There's no way forward if everything is gone.” He smiled weakly. “A Christmas festival and parade don't look much like Christmas without the decorations.”
“The sleigh is gone, too?” I asked. “I hadn't heard that.”
He nodded again. “Yes, ma'am. It was in one of the barns at the fairgrounds. I went to check on it myself after everything disappeared overnight. But it's gone, too.” He stroked the fur on his hat, almost as if he were petting a small animal curled up in his lap. “Did you notice the wreaths were gone, too?”
“The wreaths?”
“The wreaths that are attached to the street lamps?” he said. “Just above the ribbons?”
“Oh,” I said, nodding. “Of course.”
“Twenty-four of them,” he said. “Gone. And those things cost a pretty penny.” He shook his head. “Just gone.”
He looked completely defeated. I felt sorry for him. When Will told me about the missing Santa, I hadn't thought too much about it. But now, seeing Oliver's resignation, I felt badly about the things having gone missing.
“Do you have any idea who might've done it?” I said.
He started to say something, then looked down at his hat. He thought for a moment. “No, I can't say that I do, right at this moment. I can't say that I do.”
Just like when he'd told me about taking over the committee, there seemed to be something behind his words that he wasn't sharing. I wondered what it was.
Oliver looked to the window.
The snow was still coming down, covering everything in sight.
He sighed and shrunk into his chair. “I can't believe we may have to cancel Christmas in Moose River.”
FOUR
Oliver was there for an hour, giving his full report to Ted, who seemed almost relieved to be getting an official complaint. It would give him leverage with Priscilla to at least take the thefts more seriously.
After Oliver left, I pulled on my hat and coat, and walked two doors down to the The Grounds Hog, a new coffee shop that had opened just before the holidays. Moose River had nearly every type of shop one could want, but it had always been missing a local coffee shop. The Grounds Hog fit the bill. A great location on Main Street, with plenty of comfy seating. It had quickly become a hot spot in town, with book clubs and volunteer groups meeting regularly at the shop. It didn't hurt that the coffee and the baked goods were better than anything you could get at the chain stores on the other side of town.
Christmas carols played from hidden speakers and the warm, inviting interior smelled like cinnamon and coffee. Half of the tables near the front window were filled. A small Christmas tree stood in the corner, with small coffee-themed ornaments hung from its branches and white twinkly lights peeking from behind the boughs.
The young girl behind the counter waved at me. Her pink hair and the small silver ring through her nose still made me smile every time I saw them. “Hi, Daisy,” she said.
“Hey Whitney,” I said. “How are you?”
She pointed to the window. “Wishing I was in Florida right about now.”
I laughed. “Yeah, it's pretty heavy out there.”
“Are you one of those Minnesotans that loves winter?”
I nodded. “Pretty much. Until I get sick of shoveling in the spring.”
She sighed. “I already miss my flip-flops.”
“But it wouldn't be Christmas if you were in flip-flops.”
“When I lived in Florida with my family, we'd celebrate Christmas by walking on the beach,” she said. “Breakfast, presents, sand. My dad used to joke that the sugar sand beaches were our version of a white Christmas.”
I smiled. “That doesn't sound terrible, actually.” I thought about my family’s own recent trips to Florida. We’d done an amusement park vacation one year and then used Florida as a launch point for a cruise we’d taken. I hadn’t experienced Floridian sugar sand beaches, but I definitely remembered the sun and the warmth
“It really wasn't,” she said, grinning. “The usual?”
The other thing I liked about a local coffee shop was that the employees got to know you and what you liked to drink. For me, it was a gingerbread latte that I'd been drinking since Thanksgiving. I just thought it was fun to be able to go in and order the “usual.”
“Yeah, and can I get just a regular black coffee, too? I'm gonna bring something back for Ted.” Even though there was always coffee on at the station, it was never as palatable as what the shop brewed. He was probably going to need a good-tasting cup of coffee to make it through the day.
“Yep. Give me just a minute.”
She rang me up, I paid her, and then she went about making the drinks.
The silver bells tied to the doorknob chimed and a rush of cold air blew in behind Ava Bradshaw. She was dressed in leggings and a big, thick pea coat buttoned up to her neck. A red and green scarf was wrapped around her neck and a matching headband covered her ears and forehead.
She pulled the headband off and shook the snow from it and her hair. She looked around the shop as she wiped her feet on the mat, and then smiled in my direction. “Hello, Daisy. How are you?”
I smiled back. “Hi, Ava. I'm good. How about yourself?”
Her smiled broadened. “Wonderful. Just wonderful.”
Ava was a little older than me, but looked a little younger. Big blue eyes, long blonde hair, and a figure that she worked on regularly at the community center gym. I'd gotten to know her through 4-H, as she did quite a bit of volunteering around town, and I'd worked with her the previous year when I'd volunteered for the Christmas committee.
Whitney took her order and went to go make her drink as Ava walked over to me. “Busy day for you, I'll assume?”
“Busy day?” I asked, not understanding.
Her eyes widened. “Yes, what with all of the thefts going on.”
“Oh. Right,” I said. “Yeah, Ted said we've had a lot of phone calls. Kind of a bummer.”
“A bummer,” she repeated, pursing her lips. “Yes. Perhaps the committee is experiencing a bit of bad karma this year.”
“Bad karma?”
Ava cleared her throat. “You know I am no longer on the committee, correct?”
“Yes, I heard that earlier,” I told her. “Oliver Berg is chairing it, I hear?”
“Oliver Berg,” she said much in the same way someone would repeat the name of a fatal disease. “Yes. He is indeed. I would say that maybe this is what happens when you have an inexperienced leader at the helm.”
I wasn't sure how Oliver's lack of experience was tied to the thefts, but it seemed clear there were some hurt feelings. “I just hope everything can be found sooner rather than later.”
Whitney held up a cup. “Here you are, Ava.”
“Yes,” Ava murmured. “Sooner rather than later.” She pulled her headband back on over her ears, carefully adjusting it until she was happy with it. “I'm not sure I'd count on it, though.” She picked up her cup from the counter and headed back out into the snow.
“Okay, Daisy, you're all set,” Whitney said, pushing two tall cups with lids onto the counter. “I brewed some fresh coffee for Ted.” She nodded toward the door. “I gave her the last of the old batch. Figured Ted deserved fresh coffee more than she did.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Not your favorite customer?”
She shrugged. “Oh, I don't know. She just feels a little snooty to me. And ever since she lost her spot on the Christmas committee, she's been in a bad mood.”
“Yeah, she didn't seem too upset about the missing decorations,” I said.
“I heard about that.” Whitney grabbed a towel and began wiping down the counter. “That stinks. And no, I'll bet
she's not. Especially after the way it all went down.”
“It all went down? What do you mean?”
She wadded up the towel and leaned against the counter. “I wasn't there, obviously, but I've heard the same version from a few different customers. She was not happy about being removed from the committee and fought it the whole way. I guess it sort of blindsided her and she went ballistic, yelling and screaming at everyone when they voted to put Mr. Berg in charge of it. I heard that they were going to ask her to stay on, but when she lost her mind, they kicked her off.” She raised her eyebrows. “I heard it was quite the show.”
I turned to the window. Ava was just finished brushing the snow that had accumulated on her windshield and climbing into her big SUV. She was smiling as she turned on the car, and wipers swished back and forth across the windshield. I thought it was interesting that she'd had a blowup with the committee and even more interesting that someone who'd been incredibly invested in the Christmas festivities was almost happy that a wrench had been thrown into the works.
I grabbed the coffee from the counter. “Thanks, Whitney. For the coffee. And the information.”
FIVE
I trudged back through the snow and after I pulled off my coat and hat, I set my coffee down and walked Ted's down to his desk.
“Went over to The Hog,” I told him, holding it out. “Thought you might want this.”
He reached for it. “You're the best, Daisy. Thanks. How much do I owe you?”
“Not a dime,” I told him. “But I do have a question.”
His eyebrows lifted as he removed the lid from the cup. “Oh yeah?”
“What do you know about what went down between the Christmas committee and Ava Bradshaw?”
He made a face. “Oh, boy. That was a doozy.”
I leaned against the door. “I thought it was odd that Oliver was chairing the committee. Ava's done that for as long as I can remember.”
“Seventeen years,” he said, nodding. “I don't think anyone saw it coming.”
“What happened?”
He took a long drink from the cup and set it down on his desk. He leaned back in his chair, folding his hands across his belly. “Well, I'm still not exactly sure. It sounded like a bit of a coup.”
“A coup?”
“Maybe that's being overly dramatic,” Ted admitted.
I tended to agree.
“Every year, the committee meets for the first time in October,” Ted continued. “They do some general planning and what not. Assign jobs, go over the budget, things like that. They meet informally all year long, but that's the first official meeting. When they got to new business on the agenda, all heck broke loose.” He rubbed at his chin. “They have to go through and nominate all of the committee members and their positions, then vote on them. It's always been a formality. There's no real election or anything like that. But Oliver Berg's name was thrown out as committee chair and he was formally nominated.” He paused. “Now, I wasn't there, so this is all secondhand information, of course. My understanding, though, was that Ava was taken by surprise, but didn't take it very seriously. She thought she had the votes.” He frowned. “She did not, and Oliver was nominated to run the committee.”
“Yikes,” I said. I was already creating a mental list of questions in my head.
“Yikes is right,” he said. “Ava was shocked, at first. She thought it was a joke, but she quickly realized it wasn’t. She then went about making a real scene, I guess, letting each person on the committee have it and telling them what she thought of them. Bridges weren't just burned. They were torched, blown up, and demolished.”
“Why would they remove her?” I asked. “If she'd been doing it seventeen years, I'd think she had it all figured out.”
“It’s a fair question.” He gave a half-hearted shrug. “I think Ava just rubs some folks the wrong way. Having all of that Christmas power might've gone to her head a bit and people may have decided they'd had enough. That's just my own guess. I don't know for sure.” He paused. “I do know that we got a call as it was all happening, though.”
“A call? Here?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma'am. I don't remember who, but we got a call that there was a disturbance at the library. I was on duty, so I took the call and went over there. Ava was still yelling when I got there. Took me a few minutes to figure out exactly what was going on. Her son was there, too. Howie. You know him?”
I nodded. “I've met him once or twice.”
“He was there and trying to get her to leave,” Ted explained. “I guess someone had called him, too. He was trying to calm her down, but calm had already left town. Once I figured out what was happening, I told her she needed to go. I wasn't going to arrest her or anything like that. She was screaming like a loon, but she was just upset. She wasn't going to harm anyone. And Howie was there to take care of her, so I just wanted to get her outside so she could cool off.”
“Did she? Cool off?”
He shrugged. “I guess. We walked outside and she was huffing and puffing. Then she started crying. I felt bad for her, actually. If Howie hadn't been there, I would've offered to drive her home. She wasn't really coherent. I think she was in a state of shock. And I guess I can understand that.”
I nodded slowly. I could, too. If she hadn't known it was coming, it would've felt like a punch in the face. I just wasn't sure what the impetus was for having her removed from the committee.
“I went back in and talked to Oliver and some of the other folks,” he said. “They were pretty rattled and thanked me for coming. They told me that they'd offered her another position on the committee, but she told them what they could do with that. I guess it wasn't pretty.” His cheeks flushed red. “A lot of curse words, apparently. So, at that point, they felt they had to kick her off the committee entirely.”
“That's a lot of drama,” I said.
“People take the Christmas festival and parade seriously around here. You know that.”
I did know that.
“I'd really like to know why they thought Ava should be removed,” I said.
“I asked a couple of questions, but didn't get any real answers, and I didn't think it mattered, to be honest with you,” he explained. “Wasn't my business because they'd gone about it fairly. I was just there to keep the peace. Once Howie got her out of there, my business was pretty much done.”
“Sure,” I said. “Still. I'd like to know more.”
He sighed and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his desk. He picked up his coffee and stared into it for a moment. “Yeah, I suppose. This Christmas is turning out to be anything but merry.”
SIX
I finished my shift at the station, then slowly worked my way home. There were several more inches on the ground and traffic had come to a standstill as plows worked to clear and treat the roads. The walk home was cold and slippery, but I was more than happy to not be stuck in a car, sitting and waiting.
I was barely in the door before the chaos started.
“Mom,” Emily said, barreling into the kitchen. “I need to go Christmas shopping tomorrow. So I need the car. Alright?”
“No, it's not alright.” Will came in behind her. “I have to work all day at Bullseye, so I need the car.”
“That's not fair!” Emily cried. “I have to get presents. I haven't had time because I've been at school and I had no way to get them.”
“Ever heard of the Internet?” Will asked. “And maybe you should think about buying your own car.”
“Maybe you should think about buying your own car since you don't have anything to spend your money on,” Emily fired back. “It's not like you're in college and having to pay for stuff like me.”
It was great having Emily home for the holidays, even though I hadn't missed the friction between her and her brother. Even though she'd only been gone a few months, she looked older to me. She'd trimmed her hair and was wearing her makeup just differently enough for me to notice.
; My kids were all growing up.
Too fast.
Jake smiled as he came into the kitchen behind them, two days worth of beard on his face. “Welcome home, honey.”
I bent down and untied my boots. “Yeah. Look, we'll figure it out. We'll get everyone where they need to be.”
“Why don't you have Andy take you shopping?” Will said, referring to Emily's boyfriend.
“Because he's still up at school,” she said. “I finished my finals early. So it might be a little hard for him. And, plus, Mom said I could use the car when I came home.”
Will glared at her. “I don't think she meant for the whole time.”
“She said I could use it when I needed it.”
Will sighed. “I liked it better when you were away at school.”
“Enough,” Jake said, his voice firm. “Everyone back to their own corners. Your mom and I will figure out the transportation issues and all will be well in the world and there will once again be peace and joy this holiday season. Or something like that.”
They each stormed off, unsatisfied with the results of the conversation.
“So, how was your day?” Jake asked, leaning against the kitchen counter. “And how much fun is it to come home to all this all of the time?”
I finally got the boots off and stepped out of them. “My day was fine.” I went over and hugged him. “Warm me up.”
He put his arms around me. “Anytime. Everyone has to be good at something.”
I leaned against him, soaking in his warmth. He really was like my own personal heater. “Have they been fighting all afternoon?” I asked.
“I can't say,” he said. “I've only been home an hour. I can say they've been fighting for that entire, hour, though.”
“Happy holidays.”
“It's the most wonderful time of the year,” he reminded me. “Oh, and the girls are upstairs wrapping presents, so we've been given strict orders to not enter their zone without first seeking permission.”
“Which means we're probably going to need more wrapping paper, given that they are going to end up wrapping each other up.”