Jolly Dead St. Nicholas (42 page)

“You don’t like him, do you?” Adelaide asked her son.

Daniel met her gaze. “I don’t trust him. He’s a little too oily to suit me.”

Ethel put the Waldorf salad in the refrigerator. Wiping her hands on her apron, she took up a position next to her husband’s chair. “Tell them about mayor’s court on Wednesday, Carl.”

“I’ll bet it was packed,” Adelaide said.

Carl nodded then chuckled. “Our lion painting vandal came before me. Lloyd Fletcher was there, of course, to make sure justice was served.”

“Did you throw the book at the kid?” Vernon asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

“I fined him three-hundred dollars and sentenced him to one hundred hours of community service at Sustenance and the thrift store,” Carl replied.

Daniel smiled. “No jail time, which made Lloyd unhappy, I’ll bet.”

“I couldn’t see any sense locking the boy up where he can sit around all day and get fed at the town’s expense. Let him work it off. He’ll have to get a job to come up with the three hundred dollars, too,” Carl told them.

James went to the refrigerator and took out a casserole dish, which he put in the oven. “My special candied yams,” he explained. “Oh by the way, Marsha Burns, who worked for the Hatfields in their insurance office, has agreed to take the job as church secretary. She starts tomorrow.”

“I’m so glad to hear that. She was so worried about finding work,” Adelaide said.

“Well,” James said, “thank you for recommending I talk to her, Adelaide.”

A knock on the back door signaled the arrival of Officer Judy Hess. She came in carrying an armload of presents, which Carl rushed to distribute under the Christmas tree in the living room.

Adelaide noticed that Judy’s gaze sought out Daniel immediately. She also saw the smile on his face at the sight of the young woman.

After brushing the snow from her jacket, Judy hung it on one of the pegs by the back door. She seemed at ease, very relaxed. “Thank you so much for inviting me. Mom and Dad aren’t eating until this evening. We exchanged gifts last night. Something smells delicious.”

Her good mood seemed to perk Daniel up, Adelaide noticed. She had a feeling that Judy’s presence in Daniel’s personal life could be a positive thing, if he’d only allow it.

Just as they were sitting down to eat, Dora Carmody knocked on the back door. The snowfall had increased in intensity.

“I can’t stay,” she said as she stepped into the kitchen. “I just wanted to bring by this black forest cake. I made two.” She put the cake on the counter.

“Did Anita and her family make it in?” Adelaide asked. Dora’s daughter and her husband, Josh, lived in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

“They did. They came with wonderful news. I’m going to be a grandmother!”

Adelaide gave Dora an awkward hug, since the cast made things difficult. “Congratulations. I’m so happy. Give them my best. What about Paul?”

“He’s working at the pub today. You’d think Marty could close one day a year, especially on Christmas.”

Once Dora was gone, Adelaide rejoined her guests in the dining room, where she shared the good news with them.

They were just about to have dessert, which included the black forest cake as well as the pumpkin pies Ethel had baked, when the front doorbell rang. This time Daniel answered, returning seconds later followed by Rudy and Tina Engler.

“We can’t stay, but we wanted to bring this by to you, Adelaide. It’s from Leon, it arrived yesterday,” Tina told her.

The package was big and square, wrapped in brightly decorated Christmas paper. It had been Leon Engler’s habit since he was a child to give Adelaide a gift at Christmas time, a token of gratitude for all the help she’d given him with his studies. Through the years the gifts had progressed from homemade items to ones purchased with money he’d earned himself.

“Open it now, Mother,” Daniel urged.

“Sit down for some dessert,” Ethel said.

The Englers joined them at the large dining room table. Carl got up to go get more dessert plates and silverware.

With Vernon’s help, Adelaide managed to get the box open. Inside was a hand carved cuckoo clock. The detail was intricate, the colors bright and cheerful. Tears sprang to her eyes. “It’s lovely,” she managed to say.

“Leon called from Germany this morning. He said to thank you for the sweater you sent him,” Tina told her.

They chatted over dessert and coffee for a half-hour. The talk was congenial, with no mention of the traumatic events that had occurred recently. After the Englers left, Adelaide led everyone into the living room, where they opened the remaining gifts. The Henshaws went home first, followed soon by Judy, James, then Vernon.

Once it was just her and Daniel, Adelaide prepared them steaming cups of hot chocolate, which they drank at the kitchen table.

“Your team of officers really came through for you that night in the basement, Daniel. But you still have a problem to clear up.”

“The mole,” Daniel said.

“Someone leaked sensitive information to the press during the Hatfield investigation. The sooner you find out who that was, the better.”

“Luke and I are working on it, believe me.”

“You’re a good cop and a wonderful chief of police. But there are forces in this town who want to see you ousted. Lloyd Fletcher and Ed Lucas seem to be getting closer each day. Watch your back, son.”

Daniel sighed. “Don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye on Ed. Truthfully, I’m more worried about Lloyd and his growing contingent of casino backers.”

“We can’t let thugs like that Bruno person I encountered in Columbus get a foothold here, Daniel.”

“Then we need to begin educating people about what it would really mean to have a casino here in Crescent Falls.”

“We also need alternative ideas. I’d say it is time a citizen’s task force was formed to look into other ways of bringing much needed income into our small town.”

“Take the idea to the next council meeting, Mother. You’re a force to be reckoned with when you are touting a noble cause, everyone knows that,” Daniel said with a grin.

By seven o’clock Daniel was gone and Adelaide was alone in the big house.

She sat propped up against the arm of the living room sofa, her legs covered by one of Ethel’s hand-crocheted afghans. The only light came from the Christmas tree in the front window. She cleared her mind of pressing political matters and let thoughts of her late husband take their place.

“Well, Albert, another holiday has come and gone without you. Oh, how I wish you could have been here this year. You absence is like an empty hole in my life. Daniel is hurting and I don’t know how to help him. You’d know what to say, wouldn’t you? You always did have a way with our son. He loved you so much. So did I. We both still do. I don’t think love dies when our loved ones leave this earth. It wouldn’t make any sense if it did.

“I’m so lucky. I had you for my husband. I have a wonderful son, good friends and my health. No one can ask for more than that, can they? Still, if I had one wish, it would be to see you one more time, to hold your hand, to hear your voice.”

The soft sound of feet on the hardwood floors alerted Adelaide to Oscar’s presence. He jumped up onto her lap, nestling on the afghan, purring loudly. She stroked the cat’s soft, thick fur as she looked at the Christmas lights, feeling Albert’s loss as acutely as ever.

Carol A. Guy is a former newspaper reporter who traces her love of a good mystery back to the first time she picked up an Agatha Christie novel. “As a teenager, I typed my first short story on a little portable typewriter my father got me. He assumed I’d use it for homework; little did he know!” Carol is the author of a true crime book, a suspense novel, several cozy mysteries and, more recently, two paranormal mystery/romance series. She makes her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.