Free A Wee Christmas Homicide by Kaitlyn Dunnett

goods. Well, not only for that. “Did you hear anything strange last night around midnight?”
    “A car backfiring?” Liss threw out the cliché, then abruptly sobered. “You know, something must have awakened me in the wee hours. I don’t remember hearing anything specific, but once I was awake, I wasn’t able to get back to sleep for ages.”
    “I don’t suppose you looked at a clock?”
    “Sorry. I just tossed and turned a lot and finally put the pillow over my head. I know I fell asleep at some point, but only because I jumped a foot when my alarm clock went off.”
    “I’m surprised the hammering didn’t wake you.”
    “What hammering?”
    “Thorne nailed plywood over what’s left of his window.”
    Liss inhaled the rest of the coffee in her mug and got up to refill it. “So, you’ve got no idea at all who did it?”
    “Nope. Any suggestions? I’d dearly like to solve this one. It’s my first real case since coming on the job.” The scene, however, had been sadly lacking in clues.
    “I suppose it could have been someone ticked off at the prices Thorne was charging.” Unasked, Liss brought Sherri a cup of coffee, already doctored just the way she liked it.
    “Maybe, but if it was a collector, why not break the window and steal the bear?”
    “Nothing else was damaged?”
    “Nope. Just one shot by someone with a pretty good aim.” Sherri sipped cautiously at the hot liquid and decided it was cool enough to drink without scalding her tongue.
    “Could it have been personal? Vindictiveness toward Thorne himself? Get back at him by destroying the most valuable item in his store?”
    “Who’d hate him that much?”
    “His ex?”
    “Too obvious.” Sherri would check it out, of course, and very often the simple answer was the right one, but it didn’t feel right to her. “I’m still inclined toward random violence as the answer.”
    “I don’t much care for that explanation.” Liss shivered.
    “Most likely it was just a prank.” She put more reassurance than she felt into her voice. She suspected she’d be doing a lot of that today as she talked to other neighbors. “A stupid prank, but then most pranks are pretty dumb.”
    “Teenagers?”
    “Could be. Jeff wants me to ask around to find out if anyone heard or saw anything out of the ordinary last night.”
    “Man I wish I’d decided to get up and look out the window.” Liss shook her head. “What woke me probably was your gunshot.”
    Sherri nodded and took another sip of coffee. “Don’t feel bad. Thorne’s bedroom is upstairs over his shop. Granted, it’s at the back, but after he heard the noise, he still waited several minutes before he decided to go check on things.”
    “Why on earth didn’t he take the bear out of the window when he closed for the night? Put it in a safe or something?”
    “What? Miss catching a potential customer’s eye? He had a light shining on the darned thing.” A thought occurred to her. “I wonder…is it possible Thorne could have shot out his own window? He has insurance on the stuff he sells, right?”
    Liss’s laugh was short and humorless.
    “What?” Sherri liked Thorne for the villain.
    “He’ll get his window replaced, but no insurance company is going to pay him his asking price for that bear. At best, he’ll be reimbursed what he paid for it—less than five bucks wholesale. No wonder he’s upset!”
    Damn, Sherri thought. I knew that. I must be more tired than I thought.
    She’d worked part-time at the Emporium for years. She’d even had her name on the store’s checking account for a while. Margaret MacCrimmon Boyd, Liss’s aunt and business partner, formerly the sole proprietor, had made sure Sherri was familiar with everything about the store, from order forms to their insurance policy.
    “Someone shot it.” Liss shook her head. “That doesn’t make a lick of sense. Steal it, maybe. But destroy it?”
    “One for the books, that’s for sure. I wonder if the news