Candy Cane Murder (13 page)

T
he mall was closing. Hannah could tell by the long string of cars coming toward her as she approached the entrance. One frustrated Christmas shopper was beeping his horn, as if the sound might make the dozens of cars in front of him go faster.

Hannah turned in at the outside entrance to Bergstrom's Department Store. There was no one behind her and the parking lot that flanked the Christmas tree lot at the side of the store was deserted. Hannah pulled right up in the loading zone next to the lot and jumped out of her truck to rush toward the door. She ran past a sign saying that they were expecting a fresh shipment of Douglas fir trees tonight, past another that listed the prices per foot, and around the corner of the building to the entrance. The bright lights were off and there was only dim lighting inside the store, but she hoped she could catch an employee leaving late who would call Cory and ask him to come down from the penthouse and talk with her.

The door was locked, but she could see someone moving inside. Hannah hammered on the door with gloved fists until she got his attention and he moved toward her. The lights were dim, but as he drew closer she realized that he was in a Santa suit.

“I'm Hannah Swensen and I need to see Cory,” she shouted, hoping he could hear her through the heavy glass door. “It's really important.”

“Hold on,” the man dressed as Santa shouted back. Then he unlocked the door and ushered her in.

“Is Cory still here?” Hannah asked him.

“He's here.”

The Santa gave a chuckle and pulled off his hat, white wig, and beard. It was Cory! Hannah was so startled, her mouth dropped open.

“I didn't recognize you in that costume,” she said, feeling a bit embarrassed. “I guess you must have been playing Santa tonight.”

“That's right. The guy I hired to replace Wayne called in sick.”

“Well, you make a great Santa,” Hannah complimented him, and then she got down to business. “I came out here to ask you a couple of questions.”

“Ask away.” Cory said.

“The first thing I need is the name of Melinda's gardener.”

“Why do you need that?”

Hannah was all ready with her excuse. She'd devised it on her drive out to the mall. “I told Mother about Melinda's beautiful solarium and one of her friends wants to hire her gardener to do something similar on a smaller scale for her.”

“Okay. It's Curtis something-or-other. I can't think of his last name right now, but he comes tomorrow and I'll get his card for you.”

“There's one more thing.”

“What's that?”

“I'm having trouble with the timeline on the night that Wayne was killed. I saw him leave the inn the back way, wearing his Santa suit. And that's the last time I saw him alive. I found his body later in the evening.”

“Right. What's troubling about that?”

“Cyril Murphy was out in front of the inn, working on Florence Evans's car. He didn't see Wayne walk past and Wayne had to walk past him to get to the path where I found him.”

“That's easy to explain. Come with me for a second. I need to turn off more lights.” Hannah walked into the interior of the store with Cory as he continued to talk. “Wayne wouldn't have said anything to Cyril. For one thing, they were on the outs because of the limousine thing. And for another thing, Wayne had laryngitis. If Cyril didn't see him, Wayne probably hurried on by and figured that was a good thing.”

“That's exactly what I thought, at first. But when I went out to the inn tonight, I talked to one of Sally's guests and her room has a perfect view of the side of the building and the path to the parking lot. She was in her room when Wayne left the stage. She heard the applause he got. That's when she started watching for him to pass by her window. But he never did.”

“She must have looked away for a minute or two and missed him. I watched him walk around the corner and then I dashed back in. It was cold out there! And I know he didn't come back inside for any reason. I was standing right there waiting for you, and I would have seen him down at the end of the hall.”

“I'm sure you would have.” Hannah gave a quick nod. “It's not like he could blend with the party crowd. That Santa suit would stick out like a sore thumb.”

“You're absolutely right. Do you mind if I take this off, Hannah? These things are really heavy.”

“Go ahead.”

Hannah watched while Cory took off the top part of his Santa suit. He was wearing a regular shirt under it and that gave her an idea. “Think about this, Cory,” she said. “What if Wayne was wearing regular clothes under his Santa suit? Then he could have taken off the suit, hidden it somewhere, and slipped back inside. Would you have seen him if he'd done that?”

Cory began to frown. “I'm not sure. Maybe not.”

“Was Wayne in the habit of wearing regular clothes under his Santa suit?”

Cory's frown deepened. “I don't know. Let me call Melinda and I'll find out.”

As Cory disappeared around the corner, Hannah came close to laughing. He looked ridiculous in big red Santa pants with white fur cuffs, topped by a regular shirt. It reminded her a bit of a centaur, the top half of a man rising from the back half of a horse. If he'd greeted her that way at the door, she would have recognized him immediately. But it was almost impossible to tell who was inside a Santa suit. Unless you recognized the voice, of course.

It was one of those frightening moments of clarity when the pieces of the puzzle flew together from every direction. They locked into place with a series of lightning fast clicks, sounding like a million tiny firecrackers that illuminated the dim and confused picture in her mind. Cory killed Wayne. He'd rolled Wayne's body behind the snow bank, planted the candy canes so someone would discover him, and then, while everyone was waiting for Wayne to appear as Santa, he'd put on another Santa suit, perhaps even the one he was wearing tonight, and appeared in Sally's kitchen as Santa Wayne with laryngitis. It was the reason he'd seemed a bit confused when Sally had handed him the receipt from Mayor Bascomb. Santa Wayne would have known what it was, but Santa Cory didn't.

Immediately after the party, Santa Cory had stepped outside the back door, ditched his Santa suit, and stepped back in, dressed for the party.

He used me as his alibi and I fell for it!
Hannah thought, gritting her teeth.
Norman's gut is right. Cory is probably in it with Melinda.
And at almost the same time she had another thought that had her moving at top speed toward the door.
He knows I know and he's going to kill me!

A third thought, one in bright neon capital letters for emphasis, flashed across the screen in her mind. RUN, it said. RUN FAST!

Hannah ran faster than she'd ever run in her life, and she arrived at the heavy glass door, breathless. Locked. It was locked and Cory had the keys. There had to be another way out!

Another thought flashed through Hannah's mind.
They expect another shipment of trees and I parked in the loading zone.
The moment it occurred to her, Hannah rushed toward the annex.

The annex was a large enclosure with three cinderblock walls. The fourth wall was the back wall of the store. In the summer, this area was used as a garden center and shade cloth was attached to form a temporary roof. In December, a sliding roof was attached. It was capable of being opened when the weather permitted, and closed at night when the store was locked. Right now it was locked and a single rope of white twinkle lights were strung across the ceiling to provide a bit of light. Tall space heaters, the type used in patio restaurants, sat every few feet to provide warmth. Now they were cold and dead, the way Hannah would be if she didn't get out the delivery door and into her truck before Cory caught her.

Dozens of frozen trees were stacked by the far wall, far away from the nearest space heater. They were still in their protective netting and they looked like cone-shaped green carrots. Employees would take them into the thawing and flocking tent, a large area draped with heavy construction plastic that held in the heat from several space heaters. The trees would thaw and their branches would loosen so that prospective buyers could see their real shapes.

The delivery door was right in front of her. Hannah grabbed the handle to jerk it open, but the corrugated metal door didn't budge. It was locked. The stacked trees she'd seen must have been the Douglas firs and they'd been delivered already.

Hannah eyed the wall. It was at least twelve feet high. Even if she could somehow manage to climb it, the sliding roof was closed. There was no escape there. Her only chance of surviving was to hide and hope that Cory hadn't seen her dash into the annex. He couldn't search the whole store. It would be impossible. She might be able to elude him until time for the store to open in the morning.

Attempting to think positive thoughts was difficult. It was cold in the annex and although she was dressed for winter, a parka wouldn't protect her all night. If Rayne Phillips on KCOW television was right, and Andrea had reported it accurately, it was going to be a bitterly cold night.

The warmest place in the annex would be the thawing and flocking tent. Hannah lifted the flap, dashed into the tent, and gave a huge sigh of relief. The large area was filled with thawed trees and their branches would hide her from view. And it was at least twenty degrees warmer than it had been in the main part of the annex.

Hannah chose a spot in the very center of the group of trees waiting to be flocked because those had the fullest branches. The tree in front of her bore a tag saying that it had been purchased by Doug Greerson for the lobby of the Lake Eden First Mercantile Bank. The word “
white”
was written under Doug's name and Hannah knew that he always ordered a tree flocked in white, and Lydia Gradin, his head teller, trimmed it with blue lights and decorations.

At least there was no snow on the ground. Hannah shifted from foot to foot, trying to stay warm. She judged it to be several degrees above freezing in the warming tent, but the frozen ground beneath her feet seemed to send up cold waves through the soles of her boots, and she shivered. It would help if she could move closer to the space heater, but the trees surrounding it were just starting to thaw and their branches weren't full enough to hide her.

Hannah glanced at the tree on her left. It was for Bertie Sraub, the owner of Lake Eden's beauty parlor, the
Cut 'n Curl
. Naturally Bertie's tree would be pink. Two cans of pink flocking sat on the ground under her tree, caps already loosened, all ready to be used in the morning. The former owner of the
Cut 'n Curl
had decorated the shop with pink flamingoes. While Bertie wasn't as wild about the huge birds as the former owner had been, she did like pink and she'd left the walls and the shades that color.

Hannah's heart leapt into her throat as she heard heels clicking against tile. Someone was coming! The door to the annex opened, letting in a bright burst of light, and Cory stood there in silhouette.

“I know you're here, Hannah. I saw you run in the door.”

Hannah's heart raced, thumping so loudly she was almost afraid he'd hear it. Cory knew she was here! But perhaps he was just faking, hoping that she'd panic and give away her position.

“Guess the cat's got your tongue, but that's fine. We can do this the hard way. I haven't played Hide 'n Seek since I was a kid. You can change hiding places if you like. I'll be right back.”

The door closed, cutting off the bright light. Hannah wasn't sure whether Cory had left, or not. It didn't really matter. She had chosen the optimal spot and she wasn't going to move unless she had to.

A weapon. Hannah glanced around in the dim light and cursed neat employees. There was nothing useful on the ground, no carelessly dropped screwdrivers, hammers, or metal Christmas tree stands. Except for the two cans of pink flocking under Bertie's tree, the area was as spotless as an army barracks right before an inspection.

Hannah moved quickly, flipping off the caps and shaking the cans of flocking. She didn't have much in her arsenal, but she planned to use what she had. If she could hide here until Cory lifted the flap and came into the tent, she could hit him in the face with…

There was an explosion of lights and sound that made Hannah's senses reel. Cory had turned on the bright lights and music. Santa's Winter Wonderland tree lot was in full swing. Through Hannah's slightly blurred perspective behind the plastic sheeting, the red and green Christmas train chugged its way around the perimeter of the area, the colored lights on the huge Christmas trees in the corners flashed on and off, and the loudspeakers blared the strains of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” sung by a chorus of penguins with red and green stocking caps next to the cash register.

For one long moment, Hannah just stood there, too shocked to do more than blink. And then she saw Cory coming straight toward the thawing and flocking tent with an ax in his hand, and her survival instinct kicked in.
When in doubt, attack.
It was one of her father's favorite phrases. She'd always thought it was original with him until she'd heard it in an old movie. But it seemed appropriate now, and Hannah wasted no time thinking about it. She just waited until Cory lifted the flap and stepped inside, and then she hurtled forward and blazed away with double-barreled spray cans, covering his face with pink flocking before he could even raise his arms.