Free Santa Sleuth by Kathi Daley Page B

talk to Kelly. It turned out to be a short but emotional conversation. Kelly admitted to putting sleeping pills in Jason’s whiskey in a moment of weakness, but then assured us that she had regretted it immediately and would never have attempted something like that again. I wasn’t 100 percent sure I believed her, but she did seem sincere in her assurance that she hadn’t killed Jason.
    After we left Kelly we headed over to speak with Tina Littleton, who again admitted to stalking Riley when Jason first broke up with her but swore that her love for Jason was in the past and she hadn’t given him a thought in months.
    “What now?” Ellie asked after we finished with Tina.
    “I need to pick Scooter up in half an hour and I wanted to drive around the neighborhood where Cupcake went missing to tack up some flyers on stop signs and telephone poles, so I guess I’ll take you home.”
    “Cupcake?”
    I explained about the missing dog and the little girl who had asked Santa for a Christmas miracle.
    “Wow, I hope you find the dog. How awful to lose a beloved pet so soon after losing your mother.”
    “I really want to find this dog, but I have to admit the odds aren’t good. She’s been missing for a long time. Besides, it’s been snowing off and on for over a week. Unless she found someone to take her in I’m afraid a little dog like Cupcake might have succumbed to the cold.”
    “I’ll keep an eye out for her,” Ellie promised. “In fact, I’ll take some of those flyers and pass them out during Hometown Christmas this weekend. Someone has to have seen her.”
     
    Later that evening, Zak and I sat nervously in the community center waiting for Scooter’s play to begin. Pi was hanging out with friends and Alex was sitting with Phyllis and the girls with whom she shared her home. I’d told Zak the outcome of my afternoon’s sleuthing while we worked together to clean the kitchen after dinner. Ellie and I had given it our best shot, but it turned out we weren’t any closer to solving the case than we’d been that morning.
    “I can’t believe how nervous I am,” I said to Zak. “I realize Scooter is only an elf and he doesn’t even have any lines, but I still feel butterflies in my stomach.”
    “Me too. I can’t help but have flashbacks to my own Christmas play when I was in the fourth grade.”
    “Were you an elf too?”
    “The Christmas tree. And, like Scooter. I didn’t have any lines. All I had to do was walk out onto the stage and stand there, but the costume only had a small opening for me to look out and I couldn’t see very well. I tripped over someone’s foot and fell flat on my face.”
    “Oh, no.” I laughed. “Were you embarrassed?”
    “Traumatized was more like it. Like this play, mine was held on the Friday evening before winter break and I spent the next two weeks trying to convince my mom that we should move to another school district.”
    “I take it you were unsuccessful.”
    “I was. But as it turned out, all my angst was for nothing. By the time we returned to school everyone had forgotten about the play and the subject of my pratfall never came up.”
    The lights dimmed.
    I took Zak’s hand in mine and gave it a squeeze. I really hoped Scooter didn’t trip. Maybe he would recover, but I wasn’t sure I ever would. I’d never really understood why my dad would get so nervous when I had athletic or academic competitions as a child until I became a surrogate mother. The desire for your child to be successful really is an all-encompassing yearning that I would be willing to bet is built into our adult DNA.
     
     

Chapter 7
    Saturday, December 19
     
     
    Today hadn’t gone at all as planned. I’d meant to spend the day with the family at Hometown Christmas, enjoying the festivities with a little sleuthing on the side; instead, a huge storm blew in, knocking out power to the entire area and effectively closing down the town. The community center was powered by backup