A Yuletide Wallop Read online

“I don’t know, I wouldn’t tell you if I did know.” Jim crossed his arms. Cookie had gone too far with that last question. “They are good people,” he hissed at them. “I won’t let you go harass them, if they are even still in town.”

  “So they stayed in town?” Verny asked standing from her seat. Jim looked at her wearily, there were only a few places to stay in town and even fewer options for someone on a budget. Which a transient Santa was sure to be on a relatively tight one.

  “Thanks, Jimmy,” Cookie said patting him on the head and hopping off the desk. They had all gone to school together, making Josie the odd man out.

  “Ugh,” He groaned pushing Cookie’s hand off his head. “It’s Jim,” He added with finality. The women were already leaving though. Josie gave him a polite wave and a shrug as if to apologize for their behavior but also to say, ‘what can you do?’

  “There are probably two options as to where they could be staying,” Verny said with confidence. Before working for Josie at the deli, she worked for the town as a concierge of sorts to tourists. She knew the prices of every bed and breakfast, inn, hotel and motel within a twenty-minute radius. Jim had already told them that they had stayed in town, so that narrowed it a little bit further. “As luck would have it, they are right across the street from one another.” She smiled wide. Apparently meddling was not something she minded at all anymore. One might even say she was thrilled by it.

  “You mean the motels?” Cookie asked, knowing the answer. There were a lot of inns and bed and breakfasts in town, but only two motels. These motels were on the edge of town, near to the beach but not close enough to charge for it. They were also across the street from one another and owned by the same family, but they were completely separate businesses. They even had different names and rates.

  “It’s got to be,” Verny said pulling her keys out of her pocket. “I’ll drive us there then?” She asked rhetorically. If she had asked for real, they might have argued with her being the one to drive them there. Verny’s car was comedically small and dangerously old. It was the kind of car where you could only get into the backseat through the front door and the passenger seat had to awkwardly fold and push forward, but it was never quite enough space to comfortably get through. The last time they had all gotten into her car, it was Cici’s first time driving with her permit. It ended with Josie getting sick, Cookie almost getting a concussion and all of them swearing to never drive with Cici again.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Josie asked standing outside of the car while the other two climbed in. “Why don’t we just tell Gideon or Abel? They can handle it.”

  “Josie, they probably won’t even be there anymore. It’s already been a few days, more than likely they are long gone,” Cookie said with a shrug. The excitement wore off a little bit, much to Verny’s dismay and Josie’s preference.

  “I’m not sure we should go running after people who disappeared after a murder,” Josie whispered harshly at them.

  “You think they did it?” Verny asked, the excitement was building once more. “You do!” She exclaimed seeing Josie’s expression. “That’s why you don’t want to go, you’re scared.”

  “There’s no real evidence,” Josie objected. “I don’t know if they did it or not, but they certainly look suspicious. So we should tell Gideon and Abel about it and move on with our lives instead of risking them.” She crossed her arms in a huff.

  “She thinks they did it,” Verny said smiling at Cookie. It wasn’t often that they got to tease Josie about anything, she was far too practical for that. At this point though, Verny and Cookie were so swept up in the case they kind of forgot about the reality behind what they were doing. It was because of this that they were able to find humor in Josie’s reaction.

  “I think they might know something,” Josie admitted.

  “So, let’s go see if they are there,” Cookie said, starting to get into the car once again.

  “What if they are?” Josie asked.

  “Then we’ll leave and let Gideon and Abel know what we know. If they aren’t there and we send Gideon and Abel, then we’ve wasted their time. At least this way we can give them something concrete.” Josie gave Cookie a look and the same look to Verny. She knew they were manipulating her into going and she also knew that she was going regardless. She just liked to make her stance on everything very clear from the start. That way when it turned out they were doing something foolish, she could tell them that she told them so.

  “Fine.” She said tersely. She crossed her arms and waited for Cookie to awkwardly crawl into the back seat of Verny’s car. Since she didn’t want to go at all, it seemed only fair that she didn’t have to clamor into the backseat. Once Cookie got situated Josie nodded satisfied and got into shotgun position.

  Chapter Eleven

  Verny insisted on parking down the street from the motels, as if that would be less suspicious. They drew even more attention to themselves by parking on the side of the street and walking the few blocks down to the motels. On the way out of the car, Cookie almost fell and landed stuck in between the passenger seat and the door. With a huff she pushed herself out toppling ungracefully onto the ground.

  “Good grief! Remind me to bring a pry bar next time I have to wedge myself into the back of your car. A person could lose their family jewels trying to get out of that vehicle of agony.”

  “Don't be so dramatic,” Verny said slamming her car door shut for the third time. The long doors on these cars couldn't hold up to the constant pull of gravity and were hanging, causing the user to have to pull the door up and then closed. Verny was just catching on.

  “Which one should we start at?” Cookie asked in a whisper, even though no one was around them. She stood, wiping the dirt off, and trying to maintain her dignity. Josie and Verny were not helping as they giggled at her misfortune instead of answering her question. She looked between the motels as if that could help her decide. “Should we split up?” she asked.

  “No!” Josie replied in a shrill whisper. She copied Cookie’s volume even though she didn’t mean to. “We’re not splitting up,” she said louder this time. Cookie shot a glare at her.

  “Let’s start at Shoreline,” Verny said definitively. She was always the one to make decisions when it came to the three of them.

  “I have a good feeling about it.” Her good feeling was mostly due to the fact that they charged slightly less over at the Shoreline Motel than at Beach Way Motel. The reason why they did this was a mystery. The motels were literally mirror images of one another on either side of the street. Logically, they should charge the same at both, realistically that’s not what they chose to do.

  “It’s so empty,” Cookie commented looking at the parking lot. Each room had a parking spot in front of it and only two or three rooms had cars parked in front.

  “It’s slow for them this time of year,” Verny shrugged. “In the summer there are so many tourists that the inns and bed and breakfasts all fill up, the overflow comes and fills up the motels and then it spreads out to neighboring towns. In the winter there aren’t enough tourists to fill up the nicer places, so not many people stay here.” She had learned all this from both her time as a concierge but also from when she dated, for a short time a long time ago, one of the employees at the motel. It was practically all he talked about, tourism and how their town should never have become dependent on it.

  “Should we ask inside?” Josie suggested. She still felt uneasy and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. She hoped futilely that they would just go into the office and ask if anyone named Dan or Crystal had checked in or out recently. The clerk would answer them yes or no and that would be that. Josie knew that the office would never give out information about their guests. It was a motel, sure, but a well-run one at that.

  “No, we shouldn’t ask inside,” Cookie said like it was the most foolish suggestion she had ever heard.

  “Well, then what are we supposed to do?” Josie asked, cr
ossing her arms.

  “We can see if we can hear or see anything from the rooms with cars outside,” Verny suggested. Before Josie could protest, she and Cookie were on the move. They ran towards the room on the far side of the building and hid behind the window. Josie huffed, but followed them anyway. They looked ridiculous, like they were playing a game of hide and seek. Lucy and Ethel definitely. Josie figured she was Ricky.

  “I’m not sure that this is the best idea,” Josie whispered at them. Cookie grabbed Josie by the arm and pulled her closer to where they were standing.

  “This is the only idea,” Cookie replied in a harsh whisper. “Shush!” She said as Josie looked like she was going to start talking again. Whoever was inside had started talking. Verny peeked around the side of the window and shook her head.

  “Not this one,” she said with a shake of her head.

  “How do you know?” Cookie asked trying to peek around her. Verny swatted her back.

  “Because there are three young kids and their grandmother in there.” She pushed them towards the next motel room with a car parked in front. Before they got there, an argument broke out inside.

  “Why would you do that?” A man’s voice shouted. “I mean, why?” He was screaming loudly enough that they could hear him clearly and they weren’t even standing close to the door yet. “Crystal, just tell me what happened!?” At the mention of the name, all three women exchanged wide eyed glances.

  “I already told you!” A female voice was yelling now. “I have told you a thousand times what happened.”

  “A man is dead!” Who the women assumed was Dan shouted.

  “Oh my Lord,” Josie whispered. “We have to get out of here.” She tried to pull Cookie and Verny towards the car. The other women were frozen still. They remained transfixed listening through the tissue paper thin walls to the arguing couple inside.

  “I know that!” The woman screamed back. “Don’t you think I know that?”

  “We need to call Gideon and Abel,” Cookie said quietly. “Josie, you go call, we will stay here and make sure that they don’t get away.”

  “That’s not a very good idea,” Josie whined. “We should all leave and call Gideon and Abel together.”

  “I’m not sure about that,” Verny disagreed. “If they did kill Al, we don’t want to let them get away.” At the mention of Al, Josie’s disposition changed. She didn’t like the notion of someone getting away with the murder of their friend.

  “Okay, no we don’t want to let them go, you’re right. I’ll call them and then I’ll be right back with you,” she whispered. Josie scampered away from the other two. The couple were still shouting, but after the woman screamed to keep their voices down, they were harder to hear. Josie made the phone call as quickly as she could.

  Cookie and Verny had decided to sit down at the picnic table off to the side. They were clearly trying to look normal and not succeeding. They kept on looking back at the door to the motel room and then at the sky and all around.

  “They are on their way,” Josie whispered sitting down with them. “Should we just stay here then? Don’t you think we look a little obvious?”

  “Pack faster!” They heard the woman, Crystal shout from inside. The man, Dan, ran out the door with a slam, making all the women jump in surprise. He looked around but didn’t seem to notice the women or care that they were there. Dan threw a bag into the trunk of his car and ran back into his motel room. The door slammed but reopened, just a crack. They exchanged a look and Cookie made a same split-second decision. She jumped up from the table and took off for the door to the motel room without really thinking it through. But she rarely did. Verny and Josie looked at one another and not knowing what to do ran after her.

  They burst through the door, surprising both themselves and the two inside the room. It only takes a moment for things to happen, and when they do, they happen fast. Dan tossed the bags down onto the floor, freeing his hands and putting them up in surrender. Crystal on the other hand dove for the bedside drawer and pulled a gun on the unsuspecting women.

  “Who are you?” Crystal demanded. “Dan, close the door,” She ordered. He looked bewildered but did what she told him to do.

  “We’re no one....we must be in the wrong room,” Josie said quickly. All of them had their hands up and were huddled as closely together as they could be.

  “My name is Verny, this is Cookie and that’s Josie,” Verny said, her voice was steady, but her hands were shaking. She had seen in one of her soap operas that if you are ever in a hostage situation you need to make the hostage taker think of you as a real person. That was what she was attempting to do, but it was easier said than done.

  “What are you doing here?” Crystal asked, cold as ice. None of them for even a second thought that she would hesitate if it came time to shoot.

  “We were just taking a walk around the motel, checkin it out,” Josie said meekly.

  “Yeah, just in the neighborhood,” Cookie assured her.

  “You think I’m dumb?” The woman asked. “I know that you all work in that sandwich shop in town.” Josie looked at her friends.

  “We’re just friends of Al,” Verny said shaking her head. “We know that you found him dead and we asked around to try and find you.” Verny was no good at keeping secrets.

  “Why did you want to find me?” The woman asked. Her calm demeanor changed, and her voice and hands were no longer steady.

  “We just wondered if you knew anything. We felt that you were probably just scared by what you saw and what happened,” Josie assured her. Dan was just stood like an idiot the entire time. He looked between the women and Crystal unsure of what to do or who’s side he was meant to be on.

  “Just tell them,” he said softly. “Don’t make it worse than it is.” Crystal glared at him but was backed into a corner now.

  “That Santa was a creep,” Crystal said. “He kept on asking me out but wouldn’t take no for an answer. That morning I was working, and he got a little too close for comfort. It was self-defense. I didn’t mean to kill him.” Crystal even mustered up a few crocodile tears as she spoke. The women knew that her story couldn’t be true. If there was one thing that they learned from this, it was that Al was extremely loyal to Dotty.

  “Al wouldn’t have done that,” Verny said stubbornly. Even with a gun to her face, she couldn’t stand a lie. The woman looked bewildered at the accusation. She looked at the women in front of her and then back at Dan. Her hand was shaking badly and the gun was too as her story began to crumble.

  “No, I guess he wouldn’t have,” Crystal admitted.

  “What?” Dan asked quietly. “What do you mean?” He stared at Crystal shocked, clearly, she had spun a story for him and he believed her completely.

  “No, he wouldn’t have,” Crystal repeated. “I never really knew the man. I thought it was you!” She yelled suddenly. She turned her gun on Dan, his arms were still up in surrender. As the gun was trained on him, his arms shot up even higher.

  “You tried to kill me?” He asked, enraged. “Why would you do that and then try and run off with me?” He was yelling again. Josie looked at Cookie and Verny...they were staring at the couple intently. Verny turned her head to catch Josie’s eye.

  “Stay where you are!” Crystal shouted pointing the gun at them once more. “Yes, I tried to kill you, you were stepping out on me!” She yelled, pointing the gun at Dan again. She wasn’t so much pointing it anymore as she was waving it around the room trying to point it at everyone all at once. “I didn’t know that you had switched shifts with that man. I thought it was you, he was dressed in the same Santa costume and I only saw him from behind.”

  “I was ending it,” Dan said. “I went to end it. That’s why I switched shifts with Al.”

  “So I was right?” Crystal screamed at him at full volume. “You were cheating on me?” She was crying now, and the gun was unequivocally trained on Dan.

  “Drop your weapon!” Gideon shouted enter
ing the motel room, closely followed by Abel. “Drop it now!” He yelled. The woman looked around startled but dropped the weapon immediately.

  “Hands behind your head! Down on the ground!” Abel said. Crystal complied and laid down. Gideon placed her in handcuffs and read her her Miranda rights. Once Abel was satisfied that Crystal was apprehended, he placed Dan in cuffs and read his rights to him as well. Dan hadn’t done anything to Al himself, but he had kept it a secret when he knew Crystal had killed him. They had tried to run. Gideon and Abel planned to charge them with as much as they could.

  Josie, Cookie and Verny were in a bit of hot water themselves, not with the law, but with Gideon. They hadn’t exactly listened to him and wound up facing the barrel of a gun. I told you so was not enough for Gideon, so he read them the riot act. That is, of course, after making sure that they were all okay.

  Chapter Twelve

  “So, I guess it wasn’t the curse after all,” Verny said with a wry smile to Lightening. She was absentmindedly stroking Buttercup, a fact that Cookie was reveling in, but was also not something she planned on pointing out.

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” the stubborn old man replied. “I think it’s awful bad luck to be killed by mistake. One might even say such bad luck must be a curse.” He crossed his arms as though he had given irrefutable proof of the town being cursed. Josie had a feeling that he regretted saying anything about the curse. Not only was the teasing from Verny and Cookie relentless, he clearly didn’t believe it anymore, he was just doubling down out of stubbornness.

  “Is it the town’s curse, Al’s curse or just Santa’s curse?” Abel asked with a grin. He had joined in on the teasing as well. You could tell that he was coming up to living in town for a year, and was finally being adopted as a real townie.

  “It’s certainly not Santa’s curse,” Lightening said, using his cane to punctuate how serious he was by tapping it on the floor. He had since been convinced to take up one of the vacant Santa positions, which was Josie’s reasoning for thinking that he didn’t actually believe in the curse in the first place.