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

ruling them out."
    "We have a pretty good list of suspects. Now, let's get you that coffee and scone."

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    I made short work of the coffee and scone then dialed Mona's cell phone number.
    "How's it going, sweet cheeks?" she answered happily on the third ring.
    "We have some leads, but I need to know if you can find out the time and official cause of death?"
    "Well, you're in luck. I was just about to call you. I did a little snooping while Smith and his replacement were at the mall asking questions. Time of death is 11:00 pm, December twenty-second, and the cause of death looks to be blunt-force trauma to the head."
    "11:00 pm on the twenty second? But that would mean that he was there almost a full day before I found him last night."
    It looked like Bambi was still in the running as Santa's killer.
    "That's what the report said, doll. How about you? Have you learned anything new?"
    "We're getting some leads but nothing promising yet," I said.
    "Ooh, give me the deets," Mona said cheerfully.
    "It looks like Marvin was seeing someone other than Bambi. She said she thinks he was stepping out on her with a couple of women who work here in the mall. Apparently Marvin was quite the ladies' man. We don't know for certain, but we're about to look into it."
    "Well, good luck. Call me when you get something else."
    "Will do." I disconnected the call.
    "So, Santa was killed the night before you found him. How did no one see him throughout the entire day? I mean, you just caught a glimpse of his boot and knew to take a closer look."
    "I'm a private investigator. I'm naturally curious. I'm sure everyone else was just worried about getting what they needed and getting out of the shopping madness intact," I said and looked at the clock on my phone.
    "We need to talk to Addie and then the girl from the other store, whoever she was," I said as we stood. I tossed my empty cup in the trash can.
    "And how are we going to do that?" Kelly asked. I thought for a minute. "Follow me."
    We exited the coffee shop and reentered the maddening crowd of people waiting to meet Santa. There was a slight buzz from some of the shoppers about the body found the night before but nothing loud enough for the kids to hear, thank goodness.
    I picked up speed and worked my way around the crowd until I found the person I was looking for.
    "Eric, I need your help with something."
    The handsome security guard smiled down at me. "Now, how'd I know that I'd hear those words out of your mouth before this day was over?"
    I smiled. "I need to know who was working in one of the stores late on the night of the twenty-second."
    Eric smiled at me and shook his head. "The minute your friend mentioned that you were a private investigator and that you'd found a dead body last night, I knew you'd want a piece of the action. Give me the info you need, and I'll see what I can do."
    I gave him the name of the store. "If you could get that information to me as soon as possible, I'd really appreciate it. Here's my cell phone number."
    "I'll get right back to you." He nodded once at me then turned and strode away in the direction of the store in question.
    "Now, on to finding this Addie woman Bambi told us about," Kelly said.
    "Bambi said that she works as an elf this time of year, so let's work our way back around to the front of the tree and see if we can spot her."
    I followed Kelly around the tree. The line of children was thinning and now only extended a little way past the food court, but there were still countless shoppers milling about.
    The new Santa was starting to look a little haggard, and the elves weren't looking much better.
    We were a ways back from the tree so the name tags they wore were useless to us.
    "Which one do you think is Addie?"
    "I don't know." Kelly shook her head and tiptoed up to get a better look. "There's Bambi." She pointed to the woman we'd just talked to.
    I watched the interaction between Bambi and the other helpers. She was friendly