Mistletoe Man - China Bayles 09 by Susan Wittig Albert Read Free Book Online

crestfallen, and I knew
she hoped I'd come up with something more sure-fire. "I'll talk it over
with Sheriff Blackwell," I added. "He's a good friend of my
husband's, and it happens that he's coming over for dinner tonight." My husband. Like
"Mom," the words had the power to jolt me into the sudden awareness
that my life had radically changed.
    "Is Mike still the Pecan Springs police
chief?" Donna asked.
    I shook my head. "He was just filling in
until the City Council hired a new chief." McQuaid had left Houston
Homicide some years before, earned a Ph.D., and joined the CTSU faculty. He was
a natural for the job of interim police chief, and had been the Council's first
choice for the permanent position. But he took himself out of the running when
our friend Sheila Dawson applied for the job, and was as glad as I was when she
got it—or at least, that's what he told me. "Chief Dawson will be there
tonight too," I added. McQuaid and I tried to get together with Sheila and
Blackie at least one Saturday night a month. "Maybe the four of us will be
able to come up with an answer to your problem."
    "I keep tellin'
you," Aunt Velda said jovially. She had taken off her Klingon badge and
was polishing it on her sleeve. "Carlos ain't no problem. My friends
upstairs'll take care of him."
     
    Chapter
Three
     
    The ancient Italian opinion that mistletoe extinguishes
fire appears to be shared by Swedish peasants, who hang up bunches of
oak-mistletoe on the ceilings of their rooms as a protection against harm in
general and conflagration in particular.
    Sir James George
Frazer The Golden Bough
    Sitting under the mistletoe (Pale green, fairy
mistletoe) One last candle burning low, All the sleepy dancers gone, Just one
candle burning on. Shadows lurking everywhere: Someone came and kissed me
there.
    Walter de la Mare
     
     
     
    Twilight was falling and Donna and I
had just finished loading the wreath boxes into the truck when Terry drove in.
She climbed out of the borrowed car and came toward us.
    "Hello,
China," she said, hardly smiling.
    If you didn't already know, you'd never guess that
Donna and Terry are sisters. Donna is slender and decorative, while Terry
looks as if she'd be more at home behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer rig.
If this had been summer, the blue heart tattoo on her right bicep would've been
visible, but she was wearing a corduroy jacket zipped to her chin, and a black
cowboy hat, cocked at a combative angle. She has a tough face, and she doesn't
smile easily. She's not a woman you'd want to cross.
    "Donna told me that you've got a problem with
Lizzie," I said, gesturing toward the old brown van, which was parked
alongside a red Ford pickup that sagged in the right rear. The truck's
passenger-side door was slightly concave and the broken window was covered with
a taped-on piece of cardboard.
    Terry's strong mouth
tightened. "Yeah. Swenson dumped sugar in the tank, and it gummed up
everything. Looks like I'll have to pull the head and replace the valves. Maybe
the carburetor, too. We'd get a new van if we weren't trying to pay off the
note on this place."
    "We don't know it
was Swenson," Donna said in a nervous tone.
    "Don't be a
fool, Donna," Terry said sharply. "Who else would it be? Auntie's
Klingons?" She slanted a glance at me. "Donna give you a rundown on
the situation?"
    I nodded. "I
suggested taking a flash camera with you when you go on watch at night. You might
get enough evidence to stick him with felony criminal mischief. Another
alternative is to try for a restraining order. That way, if he comes around you
can call—"
    "Call who?"
Terry asked curtly. "The county mounties don't cruise out here. By the
time the sheriff shows up, the damage will be done. Anyway, we don't want
people messing around. This is our place, and it's private." She grinned
mirthlessly. "But I've got a shotgun. That'll take care of the bastard,
and we won't have to wait for the law to get around to it."
    Donna gave me an anxious