Killer Christmas Cozies Read online

  Danica swiped a tear from her cheek. “Geez, I’m usually not this emotional. I can’t afford to let people see me as weak, not when I have a son to raise. Dawson’s the most important thing in my life. I don’t know if I can risk not only my heart, but Dawson’s heart as well. What if it doesn’t work out? What if Zane leaves and Daw—”

  “Danica, no one doubts your love for your son. Anyone who knows you can see you love him. But you deserve happiness, too. I’m just asking you give Zane a chance. Let him show you the man he can be for both you and your son.”

  Danica reached over and hugged me. “Thank you, Gracie. I’ll think about what you said.”

  Evie gave me a thumbs up from her location at Nic’s shoulder. She couldn’t hear us, but she obviously knew what we were talking about.

  “I need to run into town,” I said. “I have deliveries this afternoon.”

  “You go on,” Danica said. “We’ll be fine.”

  I motioned Evie over. “I’m gonna go ahead and make my afternoon deliveries. Will you keep an eye out on the pre-cut lot for me? I’m sure Danica will be fine, but just in case?”

  Evie grinned and adjusted her elf hat. “You know I will. Who all do you have to make deliveries to today?”

  “Mostly just getting rid of excess product. I’ll swing by the cemetery and see if any graves need fresh wreaths. I also heard through the grapevine there are some houses that could use a little extra food, so I’m going to drop off the leftover cookies, brownies, and other goodies we haven’t sold yet. No sense in us sitting around eating it all. Also, I’m going to stop by and see if Lillian needs anything.”

  “That’s nice of you. Just be careful,” Evie said. “I still have a bad feeling about Gretchen. Don’t tangle with her.”

  ***

  By the time I finished delivering the wreaths and food, I was good and mad at Jake. How dare he tell me he’d call me and then just forget about me! Thankful I only had one more stop to make. I steered the Chevy toward Lillian Candace’s place.

  I knocked on the door, and a few seconds later I heard the click-click of high heels on tile. The door swung open and a solemn Lillian Candace stared back at me. She was dressed in a long-sleeved black sweater dress that hit her at her shin, and her hair was pulled back in a messy knot on top of her head.

  “Hello, Gracie. What can I do for you? I don’t want to sound insensitive, but I just got back from the funeral home and I’m exhausted.”

  I held up my wreath. “I won’t stay long. I just thought maybe you’d like to have this wreath for your door. I noticed the other day you didn’t have one.”

  “Come in.” Lillian stepped back away from the door and let me inside. “That’s very kind of you. I haven’t had the energy to decorate much the last few days.”

  “Of course not.” I bit my lip. “Do you have a wreath holder? I have an extra one in my car if you need it.”

  “There’s one in the hall closet. I keep it there because I usually like to hang various holiday wreaths on my door. Fourth of July, Christmas, Easter, you know what I mean?”

  I nodded. “I do the same thing.”

  There was an awkward pause as she walked over to the closet and rummaged around for the wreath hanger.

  “How’s everything else going?” I bit my lip then rushed ahead. “Have you heard anything new from Sheriff Matthews? Does he have a main suspect in mind?”

  A shadow passed over Lillian’s face. “I’m not sure. He called last night and said he wanted to come by and see me sometime today for a few more questions. I have no idea what time to expect him.”

  I better get out of here. No telling what he’d do if he caught me here.

  “Well,” I said as I backed up toward the front door. “I guess I better get going. Only a few more hours left until we close down the Christmas tree farm for another year. I’ll just set the wreath over here, and when you find the hanger I’m sure you can handle it on your own.”

  Lillian gave me a tight smile. “I hope you do well with sales. Unlike Bert, I don’t wish for bad things on people.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Do me a favor, Gracie, and hand me my coat.” Lillian picked up an empty hanger from inside the coat closet. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I just walked through the door.”

  “Sure.” I leaned over and grabbed the black coat off the arm of the couch. “Do you have any plans for Chri—”

  I gasped when I noticed a button was missing from her winter coat. I lifted the coat up closer to see the other buttons, when Lillian let out a long sigh.

  “I was afraid of this,” Lillian said.

  I looked up in shock and my insides started to shake.

  Lillian Candace had a Glock .40 pointed straight at me.

  Chapter 11

  “What’s going on, Lillian?” I asked quietly, dropping the coat. “I don’t understand.”

  The gun in Lillian’s hand shook dangerously before she slammed her other hand under her shaking one for a better hold. She stepped back from the coat closet, her back to the hallway that led to another part of the house.

  “What’s going on is I killed Bert,” she said softly. “And now I’m going to have to take care of you like I did Sheriff Matthews before I can finally leave this horrible town.”

  My heart fell into the pits of my stomach, and I swear I could feel a slow burn spreading throughout my body.

  “What did you do to Jake?” I whispered.

  “Pretty much the same thing I did to Bert.”

  I whimpered and covered my hand over my mouth. “No!”

  Lillian sighed, her whole body shaking from the exertion. “The Sheriff was getting too close. I knew it early this morning when he came to see me.”

  “Is he dead?” I sobbed.

  “Sheriff Matthews?” Lillian shrugged. “I’m not sure. I haven’t checked on him lately. I really did just get back from the funeral home before you stopped by. But I do know I hit him pretty good, and his breathing was shallow, but I don’t think he’s dead…yet.”

  I bent over at the waist and sucked in huge gulping breaths.

  “Where is he?” I demanded. “Where is Sheriff Matthews?”

  “All in good time,” Lillian said. “Right now I need to figure out what to do with you.”

  I looked around wildly, trying to find a way out or a way to subdue Lillian. I figured my best bet was to keep her talking until I could figure something out.

  “Why did you kill Bert?” I asked.

  Lillian shut the closet door, her back still to the hallway. “I really hadn’t planned on it. It just happened. You have to believe me about that, Gracie.”

  I tried to nod, but I was shaking too badly to manage.

  “Do you know what it’s like to be the most hated woman in town?” Lillian suddenly demanded. “To have people point and whisper…to have conversations stop when you walk into a room…to never be invited to parties or have true friends?”

  I swallowed. “No.”

  Lillian let out a bark of laughter. “Of course you don’t. You didn’t have the unfortunate pleasure of having a horrible human being for a step-brother.”

  “Okay. I understand why you may have wanted to kill Bert. I’m not going to lie, a lot of people have had that thought. But why act on it?”

  A tear fell from Lillian’s eye. If I didn’t already know she may have killed Jake, I might have felt sorry for her. “Do you remember the day you saw me in front of the café?”

  I nodded. “Yes. You were standing in front of the bulletin board.”

  “I wanted that house. I wanted to move into a little place of my own. To finally start living. To maybe get a job, meet a nice guy, have a family of my own.”

  A shadow caught my eye, and I nearly screamed in relief when I saw Jake slowly sliding his body down the narrow hallway wall. Blood was streaming down his head. He winced and mouthed for me to be quiet. I focused back on Lillian, but she was too far gone to even notice I hadn’t been paying
attention to her.

  “After we left your farm the other day with the Christmas tree, and he’d made all those people angry…well, we were both in a foul mood. To make me feel better, I asked him to take me by somewhere. He did, and when I pointed out the house and told him I wanted to move in there and finally start living my life…he laughed. He laughed.” More tears fell from her eyes. “He laughed at me and said no way was that happening.”

  “I’m so sorry, Lillian.”

  Lillian snorted. “Yeah, well, not any sorrier than I was. The house was off Highway D, surrounded by trees and pretty much nothing else for miles. As luck would have it, we got a flat tire. Bert told me to stay in the car while he changed it. Only the more I thought about it and how Bert was never going to let me live my own life…the angrier I got. I stepped out of the car and stood behind him. He yelled at me to get back in the car.” Lillian closed her eyes briefly for a second. “I don’t know what happened then. It was like I was outside my body. I noticed the tire iron on the ground next to him. I picked it up, raised it above my head, and hit him as hard as I could. I’m pretty sure that first blow killed him, but just to make sure I hit him again.”

  My stomach flipped and I was afraid I was going to be sick.

  “I shoved him back in the car and drove back here. I wasn’t sure yet what I was going to do, but the more I thought about it the more I realized there were a lot of people angry at Bert. Any one of them could have killed him. All I needed to do was get rid of the body. I remembered the fight Bert had with Zane, and I figured your farm would be a perfect place to dump him. If I was lucky, Sheriff Matthews would just assume Zane killed him. So I drove out to your place, opened your gate, turned off the headlights, and drove down to where all the trees were still needing to be cut.”

  My mouth dropped open. “That’s a horrible thing to do to my family…to my brother. Your brother may have been a jerk, but mine isn’t!”

  “Don’t call him my brother!” Spittle flew out of Lillian’s mouth. “He was not my brother.”

  I surreptitiously cut my eyes to Jake. He had a gun pointed at Lillian. She just didn’t know it.

  “How do you think Sheriff Matthews caught you?” I asked.

  Lillian sighed. “I thought I had everything planned out. I stashed Bert’s car about a mile from our house in the woods and walked home that night. I spent those hours perfecting my story. But I made a mistake. I should have just said I didn’t know where Bert went that night, that he grabbed his keys and left. But I’d told the Sheriff that Bert had gotten a call and then he left the house. I guess Sheriff Matthews is a pretty smart guy because he got the phone records and saw there was never a call that came in to the land line or Bert’s cell. Then when he asked to see my coat this morning, I panicked. I came over here to the closet and as he was talking, I picked up the gun off the top shelf just like I did with you.” Lillian started to laugh. “I have to say it gave me great joy to know I took him by surprise.”

  “And then what? You took him to a back room, tied him up, and hit him over the head?”

  Lillian frowned. “That’s exactly what I did. How did you know that?”

  I smiled coldly at her. “Here’s where the joke is on you, Lillian. I know what you did because Sheriff Matthews is standing right behind you.”

  With a startled cry, Lillian whirled around, gun raised in the air, moving the gun back and forth between Jake and myself.

  “Lillian, I want you to put the gun down,” Jake said. “No one else needs to get hurt.”

  “I’ll shoot her,” Lillian screamed as she turned the gun back on me. “I swear I’ll shoot her.”

  I’m not sure what made me suddenly remember the sparring match Zane and I did the other morning—maybe it was the whole life-flashing-before-your-eyes thing everyone always talks about, and I was feeling grateful that, unlike Lillian, I had a great brother—but that morning’s sparring match flittered through my mind. The minute she turned the gun onto me, I lifted my leg and kicked the gun out of her hands.

  I’m not sure who was more surprised…me, Jake, or Lillian. Once I got over the shock, I leaped into the air and jumped on top of her. The force of my body weight took her down hard. I heard something snap.

  “I’ve got her,” Jake said. “You can get up now.”

  Lillian’s screams filled the air. “You cow! You broke my leg!”

  I looked down…and sure enough, Lillian’s leg was bent at an odd angle and a bone was sticking out. I felt myself dry heave.

  “Go stand over by the wall while I cuff her,” Jake said. “I need you to call nine-one-one and make sure I get an ambulance. She took my cell phone so I had no way of calling for help.”

  I pulled out my cell phone and did as he commanded. A few minutes later I shoved my phone back inside my coat.

  Handcuffed and lying on her stomach, Lillian had been reduced to whimpering on the floor.

  “How’d you get a gun?” I asked.

  “She forgot to check for my backup.”

  I laughed. “Rookie mistake.”

  Chapter 12

  “I can’t believe all that happened in the short time you were gone,” Evie said again for the tenth time.

  By the time everything was settled, Lillian was taken away, and the EMTs looked after Jake’s head wound, it was nearly four o’clock. When I finally called Zane and told him what had happened, he and Evie decided to close down the Christmas tree farm for the year and wait for us at the house.

  I plunked down a mug of hot cocoa in front of Nic, then sat down at the table. Dawson was in the front room watching A Christmas Story while Zane, Jake, Evie, Danica, Nic, Miss Claws, and I sat around the table discussing what had happened.

  “I can’t believe you took Lillian out with a roundhouse kick,” Zane said.

  I shrugged. “I’m pretty proud of that move.”

  Zane leaned over and gave me a one-arm hug.

  “One thing I don’t understand,” I said to Jake. “How did Gretchen know exactly how Bert was killed? I was so sure she was the killer because of that. I overheard her telling her friends he was hit from behind a couple times.”

  “Gretchen’s uncle, Pete Brown, is the county coroner,” Jake said. “When you asked me about his death being leaked, it got me wondering. So I asked Pete if he’d maybe said something about the death. He admitted he had.”

  “What will happen to Lillian?” Danica asked.

  “It won’t be good,” Jake admitted. “It would have been one thing if she’d just pled to Bert’s murder. She might have gotten leniency. It was continual mental abuse what Bert did to her. But when she took me hostage, it upped the ante enough to where she will probably go away for a long time.”

  “That’s too bad,” Evie said. “Lillian was never an evil person. She’s really sweet under all that crazy.”

  I chuckled. “You have no idea just how much crazy came out at the end.”

  Meow!

  “Yes, yes, I know.” Nic leaned down and picked up Miss Claws. “I’m afraid Miss Claws is correct. We need to be going now. As you know, I have a full night ahead of me.”

  I grinned. “You mean delivering gifts to kids all over the world?”

  Nic put a gloved finger to his nose and tapped while he winked at me. “Ho ho ho. That’s exactly right, Miss Gracie.”

  At the front door, we all hugged Nic and Miss Claws goodbye. They hadn’t been here long, but in the week I’d known them, they’d brought such joy to my life.

  “Will I see you next year?” I asked, tears filling my eyes.

  Nic patted me on my shoulder. “Now that your brother is here, I think you’ll be fine.”

  I bit my lip so I wouldn’t cry. “You don’t know that.”

  Santa threw back his head and laughed. “Ho ho ho. Actually, Miss Gracie, I do know that. You all will be fine. If sometime in the future I feel you may need me, I’ll be back. But right now, someone else will probably need me more next year.”

  I
hugged Nic one more time before he sauntered out the front door, the bells on his boots and belt jingling. He rounded the corner toward the back of the house and soon was out of sight. I shut the door as we all walked slowly back to the kitchen.

  “He sure was an odd one,” Jake said.

  “I still say there’s something not quite right about him,” Zane insisted.

  “Oh,” Evie said, punching Zane on the shoulder, “you’re just mad because he knew all the naughty things you did as a kid.”

  “Maybe he really was Santa,” Dawson said. “Mommy told me that sometimes Santa needs help and that’s why there are a lot of Santas during Christmas. But there is a real Santa, also. Maybe Nic was the real Santa.”

  Heavy footsteps echoed off the roof. I looked questioningly at Zane. I was about to head back outside when the unmistakable sound of sleigh bells filled the silent night. “Ho ho ho. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

  Startled, we looked back and forth at each other in complete shock before scrambling out of the house and down the front stairs. Pushing, shoving, and laughing, we came to a sudden stop in the front yard.

  But as we looked up into the night sky, all we could see were a handful of falling stars blazing quickly across the horizon and disappearing into the darkened night.

  Christmas Parties are Murder

  Jenna St. James

  Copyright © 2017 by Jenna St. James.

  Published by Jenna St. James

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Jenna St. James Books

  Ryli Sinclair Mystery Series (cozy)