Christmas Shop Murder Read online

  Chapter Three

  The smell of turkey was already floating through the air and the sound of kids watching the annual parade on television were exploding out of the family room. Thanksgiving morning had dawned and the entire family was here bright and early to help cook. In the state of Minnesota, a bed and breakfast owner has to live on site which means that hardly ever is it just our family in the house. But on holidays the people who are staying are usually in town for their family and so they spend most of their time out of the B&B.

  I was hiding in my room for a few moments with Mandy as I told her all of the details from the confrontation with Claire. When I got back home, I looked up the guest register and Claire was indeed staying here. I figured as much because it was here or the motel and the hoity toity types tended to stay at the B&B. I hadn't actually seen her here, though, because if I had I'm sure some choice words would have come out. I'm often told I need to try to keep my mouth shut but in the moment, I forget.

  "We should probably go out and see what we can do to help," Mandy said. She was always concerned about making sure she was a good guest, although she isn't really a guest. Mandy has been my best friend since I was little and had spent so much time at our house that she is like the sixth child. When we graduated from high school, Mandy's parents had retired to Florida and left the Donut Hut to her so she had actually spent time with my parents when I was living out of town.

  "I think you've already done enough," I said. As expected, she had brought over two dozen fresh donuts because even on a holiday, she didn't sleep in. Mandy had a deal on holidays that instead of opening up the Donut Hut, people could order donuts ahead of time and she would deliver them before getting to our house to celebrate. Unfortunately, it meant that I've eaten half a dozen donuts in two days.

  "Don't blame my donuts for your inability to stop eating them," she warned. "Besides, your Thanksgiving pants are leggings so you don't have to deal with tight pants."

  My love of holidays extended to my wardrobe. My Thanksgiving outfit was a pair of leggings with cartoony turkeys all over and a long tunic top that said 'Thankful' across it in beautiful writing. It was holiday themed without being too over the top, unlike most of my Christmas sweaters.

  "Let's go help out," Mandy said. "We could probably get the appetizers going so we have something to eat besides the donuts."

  When it comes to holiday in the Schmidt family, the name of the game is food. No matter the holiday, we eat all day long. On Thanksgiving we start with Mandy's donuts, move on to appetizers before we eat the big meal, which is followed shortly after by dessert and eventually, leftovers dinner. It was an all day affair and at the end of the day, we always watched our first Christmas movie of the season while trying to digest the day's food.

  My stomach didn't really need the reminder that we weren't even to the second round of food for the day, but I followed Mandy to the kitchen where I dutifully sliced cheese to display along with different sorts of crackers while Mandy dumped olives and pickles into bowls.

  I managed to steer away from most of the appetizers so that once we were all seated at the table for real dinner, my stomach had plenty of room for all of the traditional foods. For Thanksgiving, we used the table downstairs in the dining room where we served guests their breakfast. We also set up a card table just off to the side for the kids. There were only three kids so far, but once someone else decided to have a few more we'd need to expand the kids table.

  For now, the large, solid wooden table was lined down the middle with a festive maroon runner that had the outlines of gold leaves stitched on it. On top were platters with sliced ham and a big one holding the whole turkey. The meat was flanked by large bowls of mashed potatoes, scalloped corn, and stuffing. A tureen held homemade gravy and loaves of fresh baked bread were set out with butter dishes at the ready. There was even a bowl of canned cranberry sauce that had been ceremoniously dumped out of the can in one piece and set next to my sister Trina's spot. She usually ate a can of cranberry sauce all by herself.

  We all floated to our spots and began my favorite Thanksgiving tradition of all. We went around the table and each of us took a turn saying what we were most thankful for. We couldn't repeat what someone else said and any genuine answer was accepted. This year, I said that I appreciated the comfort of family, friends, and my hometown.

  Then my dad stood up and carved the turkey. No one was allowed to take any food until my dad had carved and distributed some turkey to everyone's plate. After that, it was a semi-controlled free for all. As we stuffed our faces with the delicious feast, the talk turned to the confrontation at the Christmas Shop. Of course Tank and I had rehashed it all for our parents, but now we took turns telling the entire table all of the nitty gritty details.

  "What do you think you're going to do about it?" my dad asked as he quietly buttered his piece of bread.

  "I'm sure not going to let that woman come in a bully Sue, that's for sure," Tank said, slamming his fist on the table. We all jumped as he raged on. "She thinks she can just come in and kick out a hard working business owner to open a dog washing store? She's got another thing coming."

  "And you Pumpkin? What are you going to do?" my dad asked calmly before taking a bite of bread.

  I sat back and thought about it for a moment while I ate another piece of turkey. I had thought a lot about what had happened, but not so much about how to respond to it. I didn't technically work for Sue, but I enjoyed volunteering to help her.

  "I think I'll volunteer to help out a bit more," I said. "If I can just help her make a good profit this holiday season, maybe Claire will rethink her plan and let Sue keep the Used-A-Bit open."

  Tank snorted and I shot him a look. I remembered what it was like to be seventeen and think I knew exactly how the entire world worked. He sheepishly went back to eating his mashed potatoes.

  "I think that's probably the best idea," my dad said. "If anyone else is able to volunteer their time, that would help Sue out a lot. Or maybe just spread the word about the Christmas Shop. The more we can do without Sue spending money on personnel or advertising will help. Except you Tank, obviously you are her one employee."

  Everyone started murmuring around the table, planning and plotting with each other about how they could best help Sue and the Christmas Shop. One thing is for sure: when you ask the Schmidt family for help, by golly we will give all the help we can.

  Chapter Four

  Black Friday dawned much too early. I had worked retail in high school and remembered dragging myself to my car at four in the morning to go in and ring up purchases of shoppers who were much too enthusiastic much too early in the morning. I have vivid memories of standing at my register when they opened the doors, watching people come running in to grab a shopping cart with one hand and a complimentary cup of coffee with the other hand. While the coffee was a great idea, most of it ended up on the floor as the customers ran to shove deeply discounted toasters and DVD players into their cart. It had not been a great experience and I had vowed to never work Black Friday again.

  But here I was again, thirty years old trudging through the frost to the old station wagon I drove while clutching two travel mugs of coffee I managed to pour myself so I could go work a cash register once again. I did want to congratulate myself on thinking of bringing two coffee mugs because as I settled myself into the car, one of them was close to being drained already and I knew I would finish it before I even got downtown to the shop

  It was my own fault. I had volunteered to work the early shift so that Tank could come in later. He had been so tired lately and out and about at all hours of the night. I remembered being in high school and sacrificing sleep for fun with friends, so I didn't fault him for that. But if we were truly going to help Sue, he needed to be well rested to help with the Black Friday rush. It was the grand opening of the Christmas Shop today, so we were hoping for a big crowd.

  I wound the station wagon around the lake that sits in the middle of S
hady Lake as it's namesake. Thankfully the streets were not slippery today but when they were, the winding road could be treacherous. As it was, it was pitch black with only the street lights to shine a little light down which I was grateful for because I was realizing the headlights on the station wagon desperately needed to be cleaned.

  As I parked in the public lot across the street from the Christmas Shop, I could see Sue standing on the sidewalk outside. She was rubbing her mittened hands together and I could see her breath as it hung in the cold air. I hoped she hadn't been waiting too long because it was so cold, but I figured I could make up for it by running out for coffee and donuts a little later. It was so early that Mandy was still in the process of making the donuts for the day. That was a discouraging thought.

  Even my winter jacket couldn't keep out the cold enough. If November was already this cold, I shuddered to think what the rest of the winter would be like. I pulled my hood up onto my head after I locked my car and hustled across the street. It was so early that the traffic light wasn't even on yet. Shady Lake didn't get a lot of traffic at night, so the streetlights downtown switched to just a flashing yellow light at around midnight and switched back to using all of the colors around five.

  "Hi Tessa, I'm awfully glad you agreed to help out at such an early hour," Sue said cheerfully. She was beaming from excitement. "I know there isn't much to set up right now, but I want to make extra sure everything is in place for the grand opening and I could sure use a second pair of hands."

  "Well it was me or Tank and I just knew that even if he was able to get himself out of bed, he would be walking around like a zombie for a few hours before actually waking up," I said with a smile. Even yesterday Tank had been a zombie until after the appetizers had been set out. "I thought I was the better choice."

  Sue laughed a twinkly sort of laugh. She was so genuinely happy that she looked about to burst. She pulled a bunch of keys out of her purse and started sorting through to find her key for the store. The keyring was so large that it looked like every key she had ever had to anything was on it. I could see keys of all shapes and sizes, from car keys to gym locker keys. After looking through them all a few times, she looked up at me with a puzzled expression.

  "That's odd," she said with her eyebrows knit in confusion. Her keys jangled as she kept looking through them. "I don't have my key."

  "You don't have your key?" I said. That didn't seem like a good sign for opening day, although judging by her key ring I could understand how she had misplaced it. "Where else could it be?"

  "I guess it must be in the door," Sue said with a shrug. She slapped her forehead lightly. "I'm a bit more forgetful than I used to be."

  I was not surprised in the least that she couldn't find her key in all of that mess, I just hoped the key would be in the door otherwise the entire Grand Opening would be totally derailed.

  "I'll check the door, but why would you take the key off of the keyring?" I asked.

  "Oh, I'm just so excited about the grand opening that I probably took it off so I wouldn't lose it," Sue said with a laugh. "And then look what I did. I lost it. It must be somewhere around here though."

  I walked up to the front door as Sue continued to fumble with her keyring and sure enough the key was in the lock but the door was also cracked open. It wasn't open much because we hadn't even noticed it from a few steps out, but that was probably because it was still so dark. The door was open enough to make me suspicious.

  "Sue, the key is here but the door is also open," I said. "I'm not sure we should go in. Maybe we should call the police to come check it out first."

  "Oh, it's probably nothing," she said with a smile. Nothing was going to get her down today. "I'm sure I just didn't get it all the way shut and the wind blew it open a little."

  I didn't think that sounded right as the door in front of me was one of those old, solid wood doors that was pretty heavy. But maybe she was right. Either way, we needed to get inside to get things set up for the Grand Opening. The only problem was that the light switches were all at the back of the store so we would have to walk through the darkness to get there. That did not sound like a fun way to start my morning.

  Chapter Five

  I opened my large purse and dug my arm straight down to the bottom. There was a heavy duty flashlight down there that would come in handy. Ever since Peter had died, I had found myself starting to panic if I was ever somewhere where it was too dark so I had bought a giant pack of heavy duty flashlights at a club store and planted them around everywhere I would possibly need one. It weighed down my purse quite a bit, but also came in supremely helpful at times like this.

  Sue looked confused as I pulled out the big, blue, metal flashlight and hit the rubber button to turn it on. The powerful beam reflected off of the glass of the front window and lit up where we were standing. If I was going to carry around a flashlight, I wanted to be carrying one that really worked.

  "I don't think we should go charging in there, just in case," I said. I tried not to let my voice shake. It wasn't the open door I was afraid of; it was the utter darkness of the store. "Let me go first so we don't get caught unaware by anything that may be in there."

  "Oh Tessa, I think you are just being silly," Sue said with a giggle. "Caught unaware by what? But if it makes you feel better, then lead the way and I'll come behind."

  I slowly pushed the door open and shone my flashlight around the room. It didn't look like anyone had been in here stealing anything or causing mischief. Everything looked to be in place, so I slowly started to make my way to the back of the room.

  The Christmas tree next to the front door was still decorated beautifully. The table of jewelry looked like it hadn't been touched at all. The large, wooden nativity set was still in place on the shelf. From the front door, everything looked okay, so I pushed on.

  As I walked, I shone my flashlight around all of the displays and aisles. All of the shelves were as neat and tidy as we had left them two days ago. A sparkle of light flashed behind me. I jumped, unsure of what had just happened. When I turned, I saw that Sue had plugged in the large Christmas tree by the door that I had decorated earlier in the week. The familiar glow was somewhat comforting, but I knew I needed to keep going. Sue gave me a sheepish shrug and I knew that I was being a bit too jumpy.

  I kept slowly trudging through the store flashing my light all over. I know Sue thought I was being ridiculous, but something about that open door had given me a bad feeling, even if it was barely open at all. Until I looked at every inch of this store, I would be nervous and jumpy.

  Suddenly my flashlight hit a large, shadowy object on the floor towards the back of the room. I stopped dead in my tracks, too far away to tell exactly what it was. But there was something about it that I just didn't like. The pit of my stomach felt heavy as I looked at it. I decided that I would need to take a closer look, no matter how badly I wanted to just turn and leave.

  "What is it Tessa?" Sue called. She was still standing by the Christmas tree, nervously rearranging a few ornaments and straightening out the tree skirt and fake presents underneath.

  "There is something big on the floor over there. It isn't moving, but I don't know what it is."

  "Oh I'm sure it is probably that giant, red ribbon thing that Rich brought over to cut for the grand opening," Sue laughed. "I can't believe he spent so much time tracking down where to buy one. You should have seen him carrying it over. He looked like he'd shrunk. I laughed so hard I nearly split a seam."

  But the shape on the floor did not look like a gigantic ribbon. It looked too dark to be a big, red ribbon. It was too far away for my flashlight beam to really hit it properly though. I'd have to get closer to figure out exactly what it was.

  "Stay there," I said. "I'm going to make sure of what it is."

  I crept slowly towards the object. I was hoping that I was just being silly and would find that it was indeed the ribbon, but I had a bad feeling about all of this. Instead of being red an
d shiny like the giant ribbon, the object on the ground stayed black even as my flashlight beam hit it better.

  "It's just the ribbon, isn't it," called Sue from over by the door. She was still giggling at the memory of Rich carrying the gigantic ribbon down the street, but I was too focused on the object to laugh along.

  As I inched closer, the object took on a distinctly human shape. I feared for a moment that it was someone sleeping who I would accidentally startle awake. Shady Lake didn't tend to have a large homeless population and those transients we did have were steered towards the shelter that is run by one of the churches in town, especially if it was wintertime. Minnesota winters can be downright brutal and we don't want anyone to be stuck outside.

  I shone my flashlight towards where I thought the face should be to try and catch a quick glimpse but couldn't see anything. Whoever it was had their arm thrown over their face. I started to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. If this person was sleeping, they were a very heavy sleeper.

  I looked around a little bit to look for some clues as to who this might be. If it was a homeless person, they didn't appear to have much luggage with them. Wouldn't a homeless person have some bags along with them? Further down the aisle was a larger bag that might have been either a purse or tote bag, but I couldn't tell in the dark and either way it wasn't big enough to fit someone's entire life. My flashlight beam also caught a twinkle of something gold laying under the lip of one of the shelves. I filed that away in the back of my mind to look at once I'd figured out who was sprawled out in the middle of the aisle.

  Gently, I put my foot on the person and shook them, just a little bit to try to wake them up. I wanted to make sure I had my hand free in case I needed to defend myself. Some people startle awake and after a few bad experiences trying to get my brothers out of bed and ending up being hit in the face, I didn't let myself be caught unaware.