Free Trouble Under the Tree (A Nina Quinn Mystery) by Heather Webber Page A

of
murder.
    But I still doubted she had anything to do
with Lele’s death. It didn’t make sense, unless I was missing
something big.
    I noticed that every hair on her head was
fluffed and perfect. “How come you’re not wet?”
    Anger tightened her lips. “Because I was in
Santa’s Cottage when the sprinklers went off, firing Santa.”
    “What? You fired Drunk Dave?”
    “He was drinking on the job again. Never hire
family, Nina. I’m never going to hear the end of this at family
gatherings.” She shook her head, then looked at me slyly. “Speaking
of hiring, I poached one of your hired hands to take over Santa’s
job. I hope you don’t mind, but I was desperate to fill the
position, and when I walked out of Santa’s Cottage, there was the
perfect man standing there. I asked, and he accepted.”
    I hoped she wasn’t talking about Kevin. He
couldn’t pull off the elf look, much less a respectable Santa.
    “Who?” I wavered between admiring her
go-get-’em attitude and being really angry she hadn’t asked me
about it first.
    “Donatelli Cabrera? He’s starting as Santa
this afternoon.”
    Mr. Cabrera? As Santa? I tried not to laugh.
He wasn’t a little-kid kind of person, though he tolerated
teenagers fairly well.
    “Good luck with that.” Across the atrium,
someone fired up a wet vac. “Are you sure opening today is a good
idea?”
    Her gaze snapped to me. “Yes. Today. No more
delays.” Her eyes filled with tears. “If this place doesn’t turn a
profit over the next few weeks, it’s doomed, Nina. Then what will
Benny and I do?”
    I didn’t have an answer for her, but seeing
those tears helped me forget that I was miserable and wet and just
wanted to go home. I would stay and help as long as she needed
me.
    It was, after all, what friends were for.
     
    ***
     
    I was thinking about sabotage as I hauled a
trash bag out to the Dumpsters behind Christmastowne.
    It was a lot to think about.
    Between the lengthy delays opening the
village, the power outages, the wires on the Christmas lights
having been cut, the fire in the men’s room...
    But if it was sabotage, who was the saboteur?
And why? What was there to gain, other than to bring misfortune to
Jenny and Benny?
    Did they have any enemies? With the way Jenny
snapped at her employees, I had a feeling any number of them might
want retaliation against her.
    I propped open a fire door and sucked in a
breath as a cold wind crawled under my skin. Snow fell in light
flakes, dusting the back parking lot in a covering of white.
    How did the toy donations factor into all
this? Was their disappearance part of the sabotage? In the midst of
what had happened with Lele, I’d almost forgotten about the thefts.
If Riley was certain some were missing, I believed him. Little
escaped that boy.
    Then there was Lele. How did her murder
factor in? Had it been a case of mistaken identity? Or had she seen
the saboteur at work and was killed to keep her silent? Or did it
have something to do with the “sordid” goings on she mentioned to
Mr. Cabrera?
    Snowflakes tickled my cheeks as I dragged the
bag down a path to the Dumpster. All these questions were giving me
a headache. For a second, I stopped, and just listened to the
silence—that eerie, beautiful quiet of snow falling.
    Then I came to my senses and realized I was
freezing. I quickly finished dragging the trash to the Dumpster and
heaved it over the side. On the way back, I saw that my footprints
had already been covered up with snow. At the rate it was falling,
Jenny wouldn’t have to worry about opening on time—because no one
would be going out in this weather.
    I needed to herd my ragtag crew together and
send them home before roads became too treacherous to travel.
Picking up my pace, I frowned when I saw the door I left ajar
firmly closed. I tugged on the handle, but it didn’t budge. The
makeshift door stopper I’d used had been dislodged by the wind.
    Wonderful .
    I banged on the metal door for