The Blonde Before Christmas: a Barb Jackson Mysteries holiday short story by Anna Snow Read Free Book Online

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    "She's headed toward the coffee shop. Come on." I grabbed Kelly by the forearm and tugged her along behind me. "You're taller than I am, so keep eyes on her."
    "You're the boss," she said.
    When we finally made it to the coffee shop, the woman we assumed was Bambi had just taken a seat near the window with a steaming hot cocoa and a scone.
    I contemplated ordering my own before questioning her, and my expression must've said so, because Kelly gently redirected my course from heading for the counter to heading to her table.
    "Be good and ask your questions. Then I'll get you a scone," she whispered.
    I rolled my eyes so hard I almost saw my own brain.
    "Excuse me," I said lightly. "Are you Bambi?"
    The woman glared at me through wide green eyes.
    "Who wants to know?"
    "I'm Barb Jackson. I, um, found Marvin last night."
    "Oh," Her expression shifted from slightly irritated to just plain dismal. "Have a seat." She waved me toward the chair across from her. Kelly grabbed one from another table, spun it around, and straddled it, because that's just how Kelly is.
    Bambi glanced at Kelly, then back at me.
    "I understand that you knew Marvin. I'm sorry for your loss," I said.
    "Oh, uh, yeah. Thanks. We were on and off for a few weeks, but we broke up for good last week."
    "I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't know that you were a couple."
    Kelly shot me an I-told-you-so look.
    "Yeah, well." She shrugged. "He couldn't keep it in his pants, you know? I can't live like that. I deserve better."
    I totally understood where she was coming from. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but was it enough to lead to murder?
    "Do the police have any leads?" I asked in my best I-really-care voice.
    "I don't know." She shrugged. "They came around and asked me a bunch of questions, but if you ask me, they need to look into that little whore he was seeing on the side."
    "Do you know who he was seeing?"
    "Yeah, I know who she is." She grimaced. "She works part time at the Gap, but like me, helps out with the Winter Wonderland set up for the little kids over the holidays. Her name is Addison. But right now she's Addie the Elf," she said in a sarcastic singsong tone.
    "Did you see Marvin yesterday?" Kelly asked.
    "I didn't talk to him. I hadn't seen him in days because I'd been out with the flu, but the day before yesterday when I came in to pick up my check, I saw him talking to Reginald, the mall supervisor, and this girl from Forever 21. I don't know what he did after that. I had a checkup with my doctor at ten o'clock that morning to get cleared to come back to work that day. I was at the doctor's office most of the day because of this crazy flu hitting everyone so hard."
    "I'm sorry you were sick. Do you know what they were talking about?" Kelly continued her line of questioning with a soft expression.
    "I don't know really." She shook her head. "I just figured that she was another one of his sidepieces. Marvin really liked the ladies."
    From all of the cheating husbands that I'd caught over the years, I knew that being a ladies' man could lead to a lot of trouble. Maybe Marvin's cheating ways were what had led to him getting killed.
    Kelly glanced at me, and I nodded curtly.
    "Thanks for talking to us. We have to be going. I'm sorry for your loss," Kelly said and stood. I followed her lead.
    "Thanks," Bambi said and waved before digging into her scone.
    Kelly and I approached the counter.
    "Well, if we can find out what time Marvin was killed, we might be able to rule Bambi out as the killer. She said she'd been out with the flu but was being cleared to come back to work that day. If she was at the doctor while he was being killed, that's a pretty solid alibi."
    "Maybe. I'll call Mona and see if she can find out the time of death for us. We need to talk to Addie the Elf and then see if we can find that girl from Forever 21. It sounds like Marvin was a busy guy."
    "Do you think one of them killed him?" she asked.
    "I don't know, but I'm definitely not