Free Cowabunga Christmas by Anna Celeste Burke

worrisome
was the fact that security patrols monitored the grounds of the resort at
night. Surely, runners loading a truck at the dock would have been nabbed
unless the guard on duty was in on it, too.
    I felt
like I had dodged a bullet when I made the first call to the detective and got his
voice mail instead of speaking to him. Now, after finding that note, I wanted
to talk to him. Sooner rather than later!
    “Why
do you suppose he doesn’t call us back, Brien?”
    “It’s
Christmas Eve, Kim. Even cops get time off to spend with family. We have to be
patient. He might not even check his messages until tomorrow, or the day after.
It could be another day before Mitchum picks up the messages we left. Don’t
worry, we can always call 911 and get the cops out here pronto if anyone
hassles us. I’m sure management has them on alert if there’s any sign of trouble
here at the resort.” Brien reached out and took my hand. “Besides, if anyone
tries to get to you, they’ll have to get past me first!”
    “I
know that, Brien.” I squeezed his hand. He was so handsome in his silk Aloha
shirt and black slacks—another of the outfits Jessica had helped him pick out. It
was obvious Brien had a say in this one. The Aloha shirt had Santas on
it—surfing Santas. I couldn’t help but smile, despite my uneasy feelings about that
note.
    “ Leave
it alone if you want us to leave you alone .”
    Short
and to the point, the message was clear. Scrawled on a plain piece of paper, the
note had been placed in an envelope with the hotel logo on it and slid under
the door. Brien had opened the envelope and pulled the note from it before
realizing it contained a threat. I had gone immediately to the bar area in our
sitting room and taken a clean, unused little plastic bag from the ice bucket.
We stashed the note and envelope in the bag until we could pass it along to
Mitchum.
    Sitting
across from Brien in the glow of candlelight, amid the clatter and chatter of
the Christmas Eve crowd, I had this moment of clarity about our good fortune. I
felt certain that encounter earlier in the day with Bad Santa had been intended
to send a similar message to the one in that note. Back off. Get out of the
way. Let it go—or else! We were lucky the warning had not been delivered more
ruthlessly.
    “Why
is it bad guys always see more crime as the solution to getting away with the
crime they’ve already committed?” I wondered aloud.
    “Once
you cross a line, it’s easy to cross it again, Kim. It’s like a snowball
rolling downhill.”
    “What?”
I asked, sipping the champagne that had been poured shortly after we sat down.
    “Think
about the first crime as this little snowball you make.” He wadded up his
napkin in a little ball about the size of his fist.
    “You
plan to throw it to cause a little mischief, but it’s not like it will kill
anybody or anything, right? So you give it a toss and it starts rolling.” I
watched as he became more animated. He made these circles with his fingers.
Then he stretched his hands farther and farther apart as he continued to speak.
    “It
gets bigger and bigger and starts smashing things as it rolls. Soon, if you
have any sense you’re like, ‘Oh no, Man, what have I done?’ You get out, right?
Most of these guys don’t have any sense, Kim and they start acting like
Godzilla or King Kong—a big, ugly monster like that.” He was now snarling, swinging
his arms, and making motions like Godzilla or King Kong attacking the Empire
State Building. I was fascinated. So were kids at several tables seated around
us.
    “Then,
boom!” he said, slamming his fists on the table top causing it to rattle,
shaking everything on it and making a resounding noise. Loud enough to be heard
above the steady hum of background sounds, including Christmas music being
piped in—Oh Holy Night. A hush fell, and much of the motion in the room ceased.
My quick, surreptitious scan of those around us picked up astounded