Santa Sleuth (13 page)

“It wasn’t the fact that you hired Ellie?”

“Actually, no.”

“Oh.” I frowned. Zak had a tone in his voice that hinted that his news wouldn’t be good.

“I’m afraid we’re losing Will Danner.”

“Why?”

Will was the math teacher at Zimmerman Academy. We’d just hired him over the summer and he seemed to be fitting in perfectly. The kids loved him, the staff loved him; I couldn’t imagine what could have happened.

“It seems his father is getting on in years and Will feels he won’t have all that much time left with him. They hadn’t been all that close as of late and he wanted a chance to spend time with him while he could.”

“I guess that makes sense. I’d do the same thing if I were in his shoes. Where does his father live?”

“Florida. He told me he applied for a job at the university near where his father lives at about the same time he applied to work for us. He never heard back from them, so he took the job we offered him. Then, out of the blue, he received a call from the university offering him a job a few days ago. When they first called him with the news he assumed the job was for next school year, but they wanted him right away. He hates to leave us in the lurch, but the job was too perfect to pass up.”

“Does Phyllis know?” Will and Phyllis had been dating, and it seemed to me they’d been getting kind of serious.

“No. He wanted to wait until after Christmas to tell her. He felt I should know right away because he’ll be leaving right after the new year and we’ll need to find someone to replace him. He figured the right thing to do was to give me as much notice as possible, but he did request I not say anything to anyone else, including Phyllis.”

Suddenly I wished this was news Zak hadn’t shared with me. I was going to be seeing Phyllis several times over the next few days and I wasn’t good at keeping secrets.

“Do you know what you’re going to do about replacing him?” I asked.

“I have a few people in mind for the job,” Zak answered, “though I haven’t had a chance to speak to any of them yet. I can fill in myself for the short term, but I do hope to have someone in place before our trip.”

“What trip?”

“That’s the next thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

Seemed Zak was full of surprises tonight.

“We’ve been invited to a murder mystery weekend in February.”

I grinned. “That sounds awesome.”

“So you’re interested in attending?”

“Heck yeah. Where is it?”

“Ireland.”

“Ireland, the country that’s halfway around the world?” I clarified.

“That would be the one. Do you remember Piper Belmont?”

“The woman we met on our honeymoon?”

“Yes. She contacted me through my business e-mail, which I’d given to her husband Charles. She remembered that you were fascinated by the idea of visiting a haunted castle and managed to finagle us an invite to an event she’s attending over Valentine’s weekend.”

“Get out! The murder mystery is being held in a haunted castle?”

“It is.”

“This just keeps getting better and better.” I paused. “What about the Academy?”

“Phyllis can handle things while we’re gone.”

“What about the kids?”

Zak adjusted his position on the sofa. He turned his body so he was looking directly at me. “My first thought was to ask Ellie to stay with them, but then I wondered if maybe we should revisit the idea of hiring some help.”

“Like a nanny?”

“No. Not a nanny exactly. I think the kids are too old for that. But it would be nice to have someone who can help out with the errands and housework and can be here when we aren’t.”

“Like a maid?”

“No, not exactly like a maid either. I was thinking of an assistant of some sort. Of course it would need to be someone we both liked and the kids were comfortable with. Maybe someone a little older, so there wouldn’t be any territory issues with Pi. We don’t have to make any decisions right away. I’m sure we can find someone to stay at the house with the kids while we’re away. I just wanted you to start thinking about a more permanent solution.”

“Okay. I’ll think about it.”

I turned to watch Pi as he walked into the room, thereby pausing the discussion.

“Jeremy and some of the guys are going to get together to jam. I thought I might join them. He’s coming to pick me up. I’m going to crash at Duke’s, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I smiled at Zak. Were we actually going to be alone in the house? It had been forever.

“Sounds good,” Zak answered. “Have fun and we’ll see you tomorrow.”

He turned to look at me after Pi left. “It looks like Santa just granted my Christmas wish.”

I grinned back. “So how exactly should we spend our evening alone?”

Zak sat back as if considering my question. “How about we start with a swim in our heated pool and take it from there?”

I wrapped my arms around Zak’s neck. “Should I get our swimsuits?”

Zak found my lips with his. “I’m thinking no.”

I groaned as I leaned into Zak’s body. “I’m thinking no as well.”

Chapter 11

Wednesday, December 23

Both Ellie and Phyllis volunteered to help with the Secret Santa deliveries, so we decided to divide and conquer. Alex was with me, Pepper joined Ellie, and Phyllis and Eve paired together. We divided the number of stops into thirds and began loading the three vehicles with wrapped gifts, food hampers, and gift cards. Alex and Eve had called ahead and gotten delivery instructions for each residence, which were neatly typed out and distributed to each team. We all agreed to meet in town at one o’clock for lunch so we could regroup and redistribute some of the deliveries if necessary.

“This is really fun,” Alex said as we pulled up to the Anderson house. The Andersons had four children, so there were a lot of gifts to drop off. Mrs. Anderson had arranged to take her children into town for a few hours so we could leave the wrapped packages without being detected; she wanted to be able to tell her children the gifts were from the real Santa.

“I’m having the best time,” I agreed. “Giving back to others really does a lot for one’s holiday spirit.”

Alex looked down at the instructions sheet. “Mrs. Anderson left a key under the blue planter on the left side of the porch. She said we should leave the gifts in the last room on the right once we’re in the hallway. The door locks, so she wants us to pull it closed behind us. We can just leave the house key in that room as well.”

The Anderson family lived in a fairly large house in a nice neighborhood. They’d fallen on hard times financially when Mr. Anderson lost his job over the summer. He was currently working in a town four hours away and was only able to come home on weekends. The Andersons were trying to regain their financial footing, but Mrs. Anderson confessed that her four children most likely wouldn’t have had much of a holiday if not for Secret Santa.

After we delivered all the gifts that had been set aside for the Anderson family we continued down the list. Next up was Rina Bolder and her three children. Rina’s husband had passed away after a long illness the previous winter and she was working several jobs in an effort to make ends meet. Rina was at work that day, so she’d instructed us to leave the gifts in her detached garage. She’d left the side door unlocked and a blanket for us to toss over the pile should one of her older kids come looking.

Alex and I continued our mission, going from house to house until it was time to meet the others for lunch. We’d decided to meet at Rosie’s, which was bittersweet now that I knew she planned to sell the restaurant. Rosie’s had been around longer than I had been alive, and it would seem odd if the new owner opted to change the name, menu, or interior.

The scent of cinnamon, apple, and pumpkin greeted me as we walked in. Rosie’s staff must be making pies. One of the best things about the restaurant were the pies and other pastries, which were baked fresh each day. Rosie tried to offer as many seasonal choices as she could, so the menu for the baked goods tended to change every day.

Christmas carols played softly, adding a festive atmosphere to the busy restaurant. Alex and I took a minute to watch the progress of the miniature train Rosie set up every year during the holidays. Ellie’s mother really had a knack for creating a cozy environment. I just hoped the new owner would adhere to the rustic charm the popular café was famous for.

Alex and I stopped to hang an ornament on the tree that towered two stories high next to the floor-to-ceiling rock fireplace. It was a custom at Rosie’s for customers to leave ornaments, which were displayed from one year to the next. By this point the giant tree was heavy with ornaments from years gone by, but visitors took great joy in trying to locate the offerings they’d left during Christmases past. I had to wonder if Rosie would leave the ornaments behind for the new owner to display or if she would choose to take them with her. I had quite a few ornaments on the tree myself, but given the fact that the others were waiting, I didn’t stop to try to locate them.

“What a fun yet exhausting morning,” Phyllis commented as I slid into the booth next to her.

“We’re almost two thirds finished,” Eve said.

“That’s wonderful,” I commented. “Alex and I only have about half of our deliveries completed.”

“We have less than that,” Ellie chimed in. “Elizabeth Proctor was home when we dropped the gifts by for the twins, and Beth and Pepper had to talk about each and every package.”

“She asked me about the gifts,” Pepper defended herself.

I knew Beth was almost as boisterous and outgoing as Pepper. I imagined Ellie had had her hands full getting Pepper back on track.

“We can take a few of your deliveries,” Eve offered Ellie. “So far we’ve had really easy ones to empty homes with easy access.”

“It might be a good idea to redistribute things a bit so we can get the deliveries finished within the time frame we gave the recipients,” I agreed.

“We’ll just need to be sure to transfer all the packages with the correct names,” Eve reminded us.

I was about to comment when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw the call was from the sheriff’s office. I slid out of the booth to take the call outside.

“Hey, Salinger,” I said.

“It’s not Salinger. It’s Janice.”

“Oh, hey, sorry,” I apologized to the sheriff’s secretary. “I just assumed it was Salinger when I saw the number. He said he’d call me today.”

“Has he?” Janice asked. “Called you?”

“Not yet. Why?”

“He took off on his snowmobile yesterday afternoon and I haven’t seen or heard from him since. It’s not like him not to check in if he isn’t coming into the office.”

My heart started to pound. Janice was right. It wasn’t at all like Salinger to go off the grid. I hoped he was okay.

“He told me he was going to snowmobile up to the summer cabins to see if Blugo was hiding out up there,” I explained. “That’s what he was supposed to call me about. In fact, I thought he was going to call when he got back yesterday, but I sort of forgot about it. There’s a lot going on this week.”

“I’m really worried about him,” Janice answered. “Should I call down to the county office?”

Salinger would be mad if he wasn’t actually in any danger and we called his arch rival at the Bryton Lake office for no reason.

“Zak and I will take a ride up to the cabins to see if we can pick up his trail. Maybe he got stuck or something. I’ll call you when we get back, and if he’s still missing then, yeah, you should call the county office.”

When I returned to the table I explained the situation. It was decided that all the remaining deliveries would be divided in half and Alex would join Ellie’s group. I called Zak and told him about Salinger’s disappearance and he agreed to get our own snowmobiles fueled and warmed up while I finished my lunch and made the trip home.

The snow had settled and the sky was blue, so the trip out to the old cabin road was actually fun and relaxing. Zak and I had decided that if Blugo was squatting in one of the cabins, and Salinger had managed to get himself into a sticky situation by going after him, we didn’t want to announce our own arrival by roaring too close to the cabins with the powerful machines, so our plan was to snowmobile partway in and then continue via snowshoe.

I’d been so busy that I hadn’t been out for a good snowshoe for quite a while, so I found that, despite the reason for the outing, I was looking forward to it. Besides, any alone time with Zak these days was something to cherish.

We didn’t speak as we drove the snowmobiles through the deserted forest. The fresh powder made for a challenging course, but Zak and I were both experienced with the machines we drove. The fresh white snow set against the blue of the sky was breathtaking. Throw in snow-covered trees and the lake in the distance and you had a winter scene worthy of the cover of a greeting card.

Zak pulled his machine into the trees when we were about a mile from the tract of summer cabins. We’d decided this was a good place to hide the snowmobiles while we continued on foot. We had both dressed in insolating layers and the air was still, so as long as we weren’t stuck out in the elements after the sun went down, we should be able to retain our body heat.

“What a gorgeous day,” I stated as we began our trek toward the cabins.

“It really is. If we weren’t tracking down a killer it would have been fun to bring the dogs. I feel like we’ve been so busy lately that all we’ve managed are short walks near the house.”

“Maybe we can take a day hike after Christmas,” I suggested. “Hopefully things will slow down a bit. Between the Secret Santa project, baking, shopping, wrapping, and everything else, we’ve both been really busy. By the way, did you ever find that computer you were trying to locate for Pi’s gift?”

“I located it, upgraded it, and wrapped it. It’s under the tree next to Scooter’s skis and Tucker’s bike. What did you decide to get for Alex?”

“I bought her a bunch of clothes, which she said she wanted, but I really want to find something else. Something personal. I just haven’t decided what yet. Any suggestions?”