Holly and Homicide by Leslie Caine Read Free Book Online

nine to five, and to toss candy and trinkets to the children.”
    “Chiffon, I respectfully disagree with your plan,” Sullivan said. (I also disagreed, but not “respectfully.”)
    “You don’t like Santa’s sleigh?” she asked, drawing her pretty lips into a pout. Santa would disapprove of her facial expression.
    “I can take or leave the sleigh idea,” he continued. “But this is a large, three-story, historical home. It’s not the type of place that can be made to look like a little gingerbread house by slapping up a fake exterior. It’s just too grand and too regal. That would be like putting baby clothes on an adult. It won’t be cute; it’ll just be ridiculous.”
    “I was planning on a tasteful display of Christmas lights, and a single candlelike lamp in each window,” I interjected.
    “Lights are useless during the day,” Chiffon retorted, “and we can put lights over our gingerbread façade. Besides which,
Henry
is in charge for this year. That means he gets to choose the Snowcap Inn’s appearance. Remember? So what he says goes.” She gave Henry a Marilyn Monroe-esque smile, complete with batted eyes. “Henry?”
    Detesting being asked to “remember” something that I couldn’t possibly have forgotten, I was rapidly reassessing my opinion of her as a “nice enough” person. Meanwhile, Henry had looked almost ill at Chiffon’s tacky suggestion, but kept looking in turns at each of the three partners of Snowcap Inn as if to gauge their reactions. He must have been truly torn—wanting to massage Chiffon’s ego without pimping out his elegant home.
    Henry forced a smile. “I’ll go with whatever the majority of the board decides.”
    “I’m voting to dress up the inn in gingerbread,” Chiffon declared, raising her arm so high she was rising from her chair.
    “Let’s go with Erin’s tasteful light display,” Audrey said, making it a tie vote.
    We all looked at Wendell, who, as the tie-breaker, appeared to be cursing under his breath. “Er, I’ve got to go with my gut here and say that men shouldn’t be involved in anything that has to do with gingerbread.”
    “This from the man with the biggest sweet tooth in town,” Chiffon said. She winked at him flirtatiously.
    “Give us an answer, one way or another,” Mikara said sternly.
    Wendell drummed his fingers on the table, then said, “Henry told Chiffon to decorate outside, and he’s in charge of such decisions this Christmas. Next Christmas, when the permanent staff is in place, things will be different. This year, if Chiffon has her heart set on gingerbread, we should let her have her fun.”
    Chiffon bounced in her chair like a cheerleader. “Hooray! This is going to look so great, guys! You won’t regret it.”
    “Oh, we’ll see about that.” Audrey fired a paint-peeling glare at Wendell. He winced, then averted his gaze. “But so be it.” I knew her well; she was simmering, but was far too classy to throw a scene. “I might as well take this opportunity to unveil my design for the house’s interior.”
    “You’ve designed the
interior?
Isn’t that kind of what we’re paying Gilbert and Sullivan to do for us?” Chiffon asked with a sneer.
    “I meant with regard to the
holiday
decorations.”
    Chiffon gave Audrey a long look. “Weren’t Erin and Steve the ones who put up the tree and the lights and all those garlands in the hall? They’re all kind of spectacular, don’t you think, Audrey?”
    “Of course. Erin and Steve are spectacular designers. Even so, Henry asked me to do this, so I did. There are sixteen rooms in the entire house—counting the four small bedrooms. My idea is that each of the eight rooms on the main floor and the four large bedrooms upstairs should be decorated as one of the twelve days of Christmas.”
    Sullivan and I looked at each other. I could immediatelyenvision one of those lovely round miniature pear trees centered on top of the desk in the lobby where everyone would see it