Trouble Under the Tree (A Nina Quinn Mystery) (21 page)

Maria twisted the cap off her bottle water
and pouted at it.

I poured a healthy dose of brandy into my
coffee. “Why?”

“I don’t know. But you should have seen his
face when someone told him who I was. Priceless.”

I looked up at her pictures. “Do you mind if
I look through these?”

“Not at all,” she said. “Do you think Benny
was being questioned about the murders?”

“No,” I said, scanning each photo I came
across.

“Then what?” Emily asked.

Shoot. It would be out soon anyway. “He kind
of got a little aggressive with me in his office the other
day.”

“Aggressive how?” Maria asked.

“He didn’t like me saying no to him.”

She jumped up. “I’ll kick his ass!”

I smiled. “Been there, done that. And I’m
pressing charges. Unfortunately, it will be a he said, she said
kind of situation. But I won’t back down.”

“That’s terrible, Nina,” Emily said. “I
think, though, that I can help you.”

“How?” I asked.

“There’s a hidden camera in Benny’s office.
I’d just need to get back in to get the disk.”

Maria squealed. “That’s fantastic!”

I agreed. “That’s some of the best news I’d
heard in a while.”

Except… “Do you think you can accidentally
lose the footage of me going through the employee files before
Benny came in?”

Emily’s eyes widened. “Why were you going
through the files?”

“Trying to get more information on Glory
Vonderberg. Not that it helped. Turns out that other than creepy
taste in men, her record is clean.”

Emily smiled and said, “I’ll make sure those
frames on the footage are deleted.”

I kept scanning pictures until I came to the
morning Lele was killed. There were dozens of shots—all of which
the police would probably like copies of.

Still going through the various shots, I
zeroed in on one of them.

I blinked, rubbed my eyes, then blinked
again. It was a picture of Santa dragging “his” sack through
Christmastowne.

Only Santa wasn’t a he.

It was a she.

Maybe my instincts weren’t off after all. I
turned around to show the photo to Emily when I heard a car coming
up the driveway.

She stood and looked out the picture window.
“Who could that be?”

Maria and I both took a peek.

Glory Vonderberg had pulled into the
driveway. Benny sat in the passenger seat.

“What are they doing here?” Emily asked.

Nothing good, I was sure.

Through the windshield, I could see Glory and
Benny talking.

“What’re they saying?” I asked Maria.

“Benny just asked whose house this was and
why they were here. He’s worried they’re going to miss their
flight.”

“Wow,” Emily said. “You’ve got amazing
hearing.”

Maria laughed. “Lip-reading.”

“Oh!” Emily smiled, then frowned. “They’re
skipping town?”

“Apparently,” Maria said, peering out the
window. “Glory just said that he didn’t need to know whose house
this is, and to please calm down about the flight. She said she had
something to take care of and wouldn’t be but five minutes.”

“It probably has to do with this.” I showed
them the Santa picture.

“Oh my God,” Emily said.

“What is that?” Maria asked.

“Proof that Glory killed Lele,” I said, my
pulse kicking up. I pushed my backpack and the photo into Maria’s
arms. “Take all this and go out the back door, hide somewhere safe,
and call Kevin. My cell phone is in my purse. Stay outside, no
matter what. She doesn’t know you’re here, and I’d like to keep it
that way, understand?”

She nodded and ran for the back door.

Emily grabbed my hand. “What are we going to
do?”

I jumped at the knock on the door. “We just
won’t answer.”

“I’m okay with that,” she said.

Glory knocked again. We stayed perfectly
still. Then watched in horror as the door knob turned.

Glory stuck her head in. “Hello! I thought I
heard voices in here.”

Emily said, “Glory! What are you doing here?
Isn’t this a pleasant surprise?”

Glory’s eyes widened when she saw me. “Well,
doesn’t this save me a trip to your place? Hello, Nina.”

“Hi, Glory.”

That’s me. Nina Colette Pretend I’m Not
Scared to Death Ceceri Quinn.

Glory walked amid the pictures. “So it’s
true, Nancy. You’re Carrie Hodges’s mother. Benny said so, but I
didn’t quite believe him.” She wrinkled her nose. “Sometimes he’s
not the most reliable. Should I call you Emily now?”

Emily let go of my hand and sat down. “Either
one. Why don’t you have a seat. We’ve got coffee. Freshly baked
bread. Brandy.”

She was stalling. I loved that about her.

Glory lifted an eyebrow. “Brandy’s good.”
When Emily went to reach for the decanter, Glory said, “I’ll get
it.” As she slowly poured, she added, “I think you both know why
I’m here.”

“Nope,” I said and looked at Emily. “Do
you?”

“I never did like you,” Glory said to me. “A
little too nosy for your own good.”

Hmmph
. As if this was the first time I
heard that.

Glory glanced around the room, looking at
pictures. While her back was turned, I very quickly dropped one of
my mother’s sedatives into the snifter she’d left on the table.

“When I found the hidden camera in my shop, I
thought Jenny had put it there.” Glory picked up her brandy and
sipped. “You know, to catch me and Benny in the act. Never even
suspected you, Nancy. I knew there was something off about you, and
I’m really disappointed in myself. I usually recognize a good con
when I see it. It takes one to know one, you see.”

I silently urged her to drink the whole
snifter in one big swallow. Chug-style.

“No,” Emily said, “I don’t see.”

Glory drank a little bit more, then plucked
some pictures from the clothesline. She dropped them on the
table.

One was of her, one was of Lele at the
reindeer kiosk, and one was of Fairlane as Mrs. Claus. “Take a good
look,” Glory said. “See the family resemblance?”

My eyes widened. There was a resemblance
there. The hair, the eyes, the ego. Especially between Glory and
Fairlane.

“My dearly departed sisters. Too bad. So
sad.”

Emily gasped. “Sisters?”

Why oh why hadn’t I checked to see what
Glory’s maiden name had been? I’d bet my favorite sheep-printed
pajamas that it was Walters.

“Older, of course,” she said, fluffing her
hair. “But I was the brains behind the business. Obviously, since
they’re gone, and I’m still standing here.”

This explained why the payoff money had been
divided into thirds. “You killed them both.” I thought about making
a run for it, but I couldn’t leave Emily here alone.

She finished her brandy and refilled the
snifter. She took the decanter and swung her arms in wide arcs,
emptying the rest of the liquid onto the walls, the
floors—everything. “Yes. Just like I’m going to kill the two of
you.” The decanter came down on Emily’s head with a sickening crack
of glass against bone.

Emily slumped off the sofa.

I backed away slowly, looking for anything I
could use as a weapon.

There was nothing.

“If only you minded your own business, Nina,”
Glory said. “It wouldn’t have come to this.”

“How so?”

“You were snooping in Benny’s office, weren’t
you? When you came onto him?”

“Me? Come on to him? Right.”

“I never did see you as the vindictive type,
though. Just because he didn’t return your advances was no reason
to file false charges against him.”

“He attacked me.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Benny’s
too sweet for that. But he’s also the nervous sort and is afraid a
jury won’t see things his way. I don’t think he’d do well in jail.
And,” she laughed, “I know I wouldn’t. It’s best just to get rid of
you once and for all. Then Benny and I will run away together. I
have more than enough money to take care of us.”

I prayed Maria had skipped Kevin altogether
and called 911 straight off. “If you have enough money, why did you
set out to con Benny?”

“Because, Nina,” she said snidely, “I want to
keep
having lots of money. Thankfully, there are always
plenty of marks. Foolish men.” She shook her head.

She was cra-zy. I inched another step
backward. I was almost flat against the wall. “Why kill your
sisters?”

“Still nosy to the end.” She moved closer,
with nothing in her hand but the brandy snifter. “Well, I suppose I
can grant you a dying wish. I made the mistake of falling for a
mark. But I wasn’t the only one.”

“Fairlane?”

She laughed. “Hers was a bigger mistake,
because only I was willing to kill for him. Though, mea culpa, I
have to confess that I killed Fairlee by mistake. I thought she was
Fairlane—I came up on her from behind. Not that it mattered, she
still had to go—she would have known too much—but imagine my
surprise when I discovered my mistake.”

Nope. There was no imagining that. “Didn’t
Fairlane suspect you?”

“Not in the least. She thought Lele had been
mugged or something. Fairlane was never one to concentrate too much
on anyone else.” Her eyes darkened. “Until Benny. Again, her
mistake.” Suddenly, her hand shot out and she doused me in the
brandy. “It’s your mistake, too, going after him. Sexual battery?
Please. You should be flattered he found you the least bit
attractive.”

Dripping wet, I tried not to take offense at
what she said and focused on the fact that the sedative was
starting to take effect. Her words were starting to slur. I had to
figure out how to get out of here. Emily was bleeding profusely on
the floor, and heaven only knew where Maria was.

“Does Benny know you killed them?” I
asked.

“No. Like Fairlane, he’s also a little too
focused on himself. But I can change him.”

I glanced around. I was cornered near the
fireplace. I could charge and take her out the same way I’d done
Benny. It was my only option at this point. I was just getting up
the nerve when Glory grabbed a box of long stem matches from the
hearth. She very carefully lit one and held it up.

She started to sing “Let it Snow,” and my
panic rose.

When she got to the part about the fire being
delightful, she dropped the match. The brandy that she’d sprayed
earlier went up in flames.

I was still dripping, and suddenly I realized
why she’d soaked me. I gulped as flames licked up the walls—and
dangerously close to Emily.

Swallowing hard, I fought the images that
popped into my head of those charred gingerbread men I’d seen in
Glory’s shop.

No use. I could see them, clear as day, on a
metal tray, charred almost beyond recognition. Fear swept over me,
making me shiver.

“You’ll warm up in a minute,” Glory said. She
lit another match and eyed me with a look that seared into my soul.
“Your turn.”

Run, run, fast as I can…

Smoke filled the air. It was now or never. If
I was going down, I was taking Glory with me.

I put my head down to charge when I saw
something out of the corner of my eye. I drew in a breath.

“Hey, psycho killer!” Maria shouted.

Glory turned just as Maria threw Flash’s
baseball at her head. The ball hit Glory in the center of her
forehead and she fell with a clunk. The match she’d been holding
hit the floor and flames leapt and caught on Glory’s jeans.

“Grab Emily’s arm,” I choked out. The smoke
was growing heavy as I lifted Emily’s other side.

Together, Maria and I dragged Emily outside.
Benny took one look at us and drove off in a flurry of tire
squeals.

As I headed back into the house, Maria
grabbed my arm. “You can’t go in there!”

“I have to get Glory. I can’t leave her in
there.” As much as she might deserve it, my guilt-o-meter would
never allow it.

Slowly, she nodded. “I’ll go, too.”

“No! The baby. Stay here with Emily. Put
pressure on her head wound.” I could hear sirens in the distance.
The police would be here in a minute. Everything would be okay.

After stripping off my soaked shirt, I
dropped to my knees in the doorway. I crawled toward where Glory
had fallen, but she wasn’t in the spot she’d been a minute ago.

I glanced around but couldn’t see much father
than what was directly in front of my face. I backed out and
slipped when my hand landed on a ball. Flash’s baseball. Thank God
it had been in my backpack.

I picked it up and was almost to the door
when I saw all the pictures above my head ignite. I quickly thought
of Emily and all she’d already lost. I took a deep breath, stood
up, and plunged back into the house. I quickly found what I was
looking for—the scrapbook Maria had made—and headed back for the
door.

Woozy, I stumbled and fell to my knees. I
gasped for breath that wouldn’t come.

Flames danced around me, and panic beat
fiercely through my veins.

“Help,” I cried, though it came out in a
pitiful whisper.

I tried to move forward but was frozen.

I was going to die.

A tear slid out of my eye, and I tried once
again to move toward the door. I managed a few inches. If that.

I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see the
flames. It was bad enough I felt the heat.

My head spun. I fought for every last breath.
And just when I thought I couldn’t drag another into my seared
lungs, I felt a strong pair of arms wrap around me.

I opened my eyes and saw Kevin’s face two
inches in front of mine.

“Don’t worry, Nina,” he said. “I’ve got
you.”

It was the last thing I remembered before
everything went dark.

Chapter Twenty-three

Early Christmas Eve morning I was wrapping
presents. Today was the big Ceceri-clan get-together at my parents’
house where we would all exchange presents, eat, drink, and be
merry. Well, most of us would be there. My brother Peter couldn’t
make it this year for Christmas, but he would be here for New
Year’s. Brickhouse and Mr. Cabrera couldn’t make it, either, even
though my mother had declared them honorary family members. They
were away at a little inn in the country…