Hi ,

“Why is there a dead Santa on the floor of your shop?”

Tess looked at the formerly jolly man wondering the same thing. He’d staggered through the door, making his way toward her with a pained expression, but not saying anything.  He was nearly to the back of the store when he’d pitched forward, falling in a heap, his signature red hat askew on his head surrounded by Damaris lingerie from the rack he made a desperate last effort grab at before collapsing under the mistletoe hanging by the shop’s Christmas tree. Initially, Tess thought he’d had a heart attack. The knife in his back suggested otherwise. 

She lifted her gaze to Detective Daniel Showalter, her long-time friend and surrogate brother, who despite the oddity of seeing a dead Santa on her floor, didn’t seem very surprised by it. He cocked his head, waiting for her answer.

“It’s day twelve.” 

One blond brow rose.

“You know. The twelve days of Christmas? Every day for the last twelve days, Santa has been bringing me gifts from Jack.”

Daniel’s eyes nearly did an eye roll. “Doesn’t he know the twelve days are after Christmas?”

“It’s romantic, Daniel.” Tess couldn’t see how her best friend Kate was so ga-ga over a man who wouldn’t know romance if it hit him on the head.

He sighed then nodded toward the sitting section she’d recently added to the store. “You know the drill. Why don’t we sit and you can tell me how romantic this is.”

It was her turn to roll her eyes, but she agreed knowing the crime scene techs needed to deal with dead Santa.

“We could go to my office.” Tess wanted a cup of peppermint mocha to stave off the chill of Santa’s demise. 

“I prefer to stay out here.” Daniel nodded for her to take a seat on the couch. When she added the sitting section to her store, she was thinking it would make the store posh, like the shops in New York. She never considered it would become an interrogation area.

Tess sat, but as usual, Daniel remained standing. He wasn’t going to spare her his macho cop routine. 

“So, Santa has been coming every day for the last twelve days?”

Tess nodded.

“Same time every day?”

Tess sat back on the couch, knowing she would be there for some time. She’d already closed up the shop, as a dead Santa wouldn’t be good for business. Regina, her store manager, had left after the first round of police interviewed her. Tess figured she’d given her statement, so there was no reason for her to stay, especially since she had children and it was Christmas Eve.

“Not today. He came earlier today. The Santa Station closed around noon and I was planning to close at three.”

“So when did he arrive today?”

“About one.”

Daniel wrote her answers in his notebook. “How well did you know him?”

“I only knew him as Santa who brought me gifts the last couple of weeks.”

“What about Jack?”

“I don’t know. I think he only knows him as the mall Santa.” Tess wasn’t looking forward to telling Jack about Santa. 

“I’ll need to talk to him.”

“He’ll be here around three.” Tess looked at her watch. Time flies when Santa dies. It was quarter to three.

“Did you happen to see anyone when Santa entered the store? He couldn’t have gone far with that knife in his back.”

Tess shook her head. “By the time I realized what was going on and looked, everything looked normal outside.”

“How about before?”

“No. Just the regular gawkers and perverts. Although …” She let her comment hang, not sure if the strange man staring through her window earlier in the day warranted a mention. She wasn’t kidding about men peering through her windows, staring at the mannequins dressed in the latest couture French lingerie, imagining things she didn’t want to think about. But this man had been different. He was looking through the window, not at the mannequins or racks of lingerie. Instead, it felt like he was looking at her and Regina. 

“Although what?” Daniel prodded.

“There was a man earlier peeping through the window.”

“You just said that was normal.”

“It is, but he wasn’t like the others. He watched me and Regina with an odd expression…like he was angry at us.”

Daniel frowned. “Did you recognize him?”

“No. And most of my gawkers are regulars. But I’d never seen him.”

“Did he come in or say anything?”

“No. I was getting uncomfortable and was about to call security, but then he left. I think he got a call on his cell phone, because he was talking on it as he walked away. I never saw him after that. I probably misread him. Or maybe he was supposed to meet someone here and was mad that he didn’t see them in the shop. It’s probably who called him.”

“Probably.” But Daniel’s tone suggested he’d look into it, an idea that was confirmed when he asked for a description. “We can look for him on the mall security tapes.”

“He’s was an older white male, maybe in his sixties. I couldn’t see if he had a full head of hair, because he was wearing a cap. You know, like golfers wear? It was dark. Black or brown. The cap, not his hair. He did have gray hair below that. I couldn’t tell his eye color. He wore a dark wool coat and I think had dark pants on. He had a scarf, some sort of green plaid. It was hard to tell how big he was, because of the coat, but I wouldn’t say he was lean.”

Daniel wrote down her description. “Height?”

“From here, looking outside, he came to just about shoulder height to the mannequin with the Christmas teddy on.”

Daniel turned his head and to look toward the front window. The mannequins stood on a platform and she knew he was doing mental gymnastics to determine the man’s height based on where she was in the store, distance to window, and level of the sidewalk. 

Tess wanted to ask him what he thought of the teddy. She knew Kate bought one as part of his Christmas gift. As much as she’d enjoy watching him blush and then bluster that it wasn’t any of her business, he was working and needed to focus on finding Santa’s killer. 

“Excuse me, Detective Showalter.” A uniformed officer with a buzz cut on his head and peach fuzz on his face interrupted. “There is an elf outside who says he might have information.”

“Elf?” 

The officer shrugged. “Says he worked with Santa.”

“Of course he did. Send him over here.”

Daniel returned his gaze to Tess. “This is going to be a nightmare.”

She agreed. “I hope the press doesn’t print Santa is dead. The kids that can read will be devastated.”

Daniel swore. 

“You should call Kate. She’ll do the story right.” Tess said of her friend and local broadcast journalist. 

He glared at her. “I don’t need press here now.”

“I’m just saying.”

Daniel held back any further retort as a string bean of a male barely out of his teens, dressed in green tights, a pointed hat with a red pompom on the tip, and bells on his curly-tipped shoes approached. He was craning his head to look over the racks of lingerie to where Santa still lay dead. Normally, a young man like him would be overwhelmed by the sexy clothing, but apparently, a murdered Santa was more interesting than intimate wear.

“What’s your name?”

The sternness of Daniel’s tone had the elf jerking his attention toward them. “D.J. Boone.”

“Have a seat D.J.” Daniel nodded toward the couch. Tess scooted over to make room for him.

D.J. cast another wide-eyed glance toward Santa before sitting down next to Tess. 

“Would you like some hot chocolate?” Although Tess wanted to hear what D.J. had to say, she was dying for a cup of coffee and offering something to D.J. was a good excuse to get one.

 

But D.J. shook his head. “No. Thank you, ma’am.”

“What’s Santa’s name?” Daniel didn’t ease into the interrogation. Tess didn’t blame him. It was Christmas Eve after all. They were all due at the Senator’s for dinner by seven. Tess wondered if Daniel would be able to solve Santa’s murder in time. Although most murders took weeks, months or even years to solve, on occasion one was solved within hours.

“Ray Quinn.”

“You worked with him?”

D.J. nodded. “Down at the Santa Station.”

“How well do you know Quinn?”

D.J. shrugged. “Only as Santa.”

“Sorry, excuse me, Detective.” The uniformed officer approached again. He jerked his head toward the door of the shop. “There’s another elf.”

“That will be Heather. She works with me and Ray.”

“Send her over.” Daniel blew out a breath. Tess didn’t blame him. It was strange to be interviewing elves.

Like D.J., Heather was dressed in green, although her elf dress was barely able to conceal her cleavage. She knew it too, if the way she sauntered toward Daniel was any indication. Tess enjoyed that Daniel appeared more perplexed than impressed with her elven assets. 

“Oh my God. Is that Ray?” Heather looked at Daniel and then at D.J.
D.J. nodded. 

“How’d he die?”

“What’s your name?” Daniel ignored her question.

She frowned. “Heather Simpson. What’s Ray doing here?”

“How well do you know Ray?”

Heather’s attention returned to Daniel. “Just as Santa.”

“You three work together, but don’t know each other very well?”
Heather rolled her eyes. “This isn’t a career. We only started working together around Thanksgiving.”

“Not from a lack of trying,” D.J. muttered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Heather whipped around to him.

“Sit,” Daniel demanded.

She huffed, but sat on the other side of Tess.

“What does that mean?” Daniel directed his attention to D.J.

“I just think she and Santa know each other better than she says.”

“You’re a liar.” Heather tried to jump from her seat, but Daniel stepped closer, blocking her from standing. 

“You have a thing for Santa?”

Heather sat back, crossed her arms over her chest. “He looks different out of the costume.”

“Is that a yes?”

Tess wondered how Daniel could take either of the elves seriously. Each time they moved, bells jingled and pompoms bounced. 

“No.” Heather glared at Daniel. “Not that he wasn’t interested, but he was trying to work things out with his wife. That’s why he took this job. To make some extra money.”

“This isn’t all he was doing either,” D.J. piped up.

“You’re just pissed because he got the Santa job over you.”

“You wanted to be Santa?” Tess looked over the skinny young man. Was there enough padding in the world for him to pull that off?

“I was going to be Santa, but then Ray showed up.”

“So he got the job instead of you?” Daniel’s scrutinizing gray eyes focused on D.J., who must have felt them because he squirmed in his seat. 

“Yes.”

“How much money is there in being Santa?” Tess asked, wondering why anyone would kill to be Santa.

“It’s not the Santa money, it’s the rich guy paying Santa,” Heather said.

“I think they were doing something illegal.” D.J. sullenly sunk back into the couch. 

“Rich guy, huh?” Daniel turned his gaze toward Tess, obviously thinking the same thing she was. Except Jack wasn’t doing anything illegal.

“Why do you think he was doing something illegal?”

“Because it was all hush hush. They met away from us and rich guy would always pass something to Ray. It looked nefarious.”

D.J.’s choice of words made Tess think he was in college and trying to use big words.

Daniel’s attention was distracted. “Is this the rich guy?”

D.J. turned his head. “Yeah, that’s him.”

Jack strode from the back of the store toward them, his brilliant, blue-green worried-filled eyes on Tess. 

 

Was that fun? You can pick up Death Under the Mistletoe for 99 cents at Amazon, or if you get the complete Valentine Mystery set for half-off, it's included free.