Hoppy Holiday Homicide

Chapter Two

Mags looked absolutely adorable wearing my Santa-print dress. She complemented the look with a fuzzy white beret and then asked for my help applying that new cranberry stain to her lips and a bit of blush to her cheeks.

“Selfie time!” she cried, maneuvering her phone to capture a photo of us from several angles.

“Wow, we really do look alike,” I said when she showed me the resulting pictures. Despite her fairer coloring, we both had the same brown eyes, perky nose, and heart-shaped face. She had the perfect poise of a supermodel while I had somehow managed to give myself a triple chin and the viewer a front-row view straight up my nostrils.

This right here was why I didn’t find myself addicted to social media the way so many others in my age bracket tended to be. I’d much rather be behind the camera than in front of it, but if given the choice, I’d go for no cameras at all. I could thank being raised by two newscasters for that.

“You’re way more photogenic than me,” I mumbled as Mags texted our selfie to a few family members back in Georgia. I hadn’t met any of them yet and wasn’t super thrilled with the awful photo being one of their first introductions to me.

“It comes with lots and lots of practice,” Mags revealed with a coy smile. Unlike me, she seemed much more comfortable interacting with people online as opposed to in person. “I’m on screen a lot for my candle-making videos, so I’ve learned my angles.”

“Girls!” Nan called from the bottom of the stairs that led to my bedroom tower. “Ready to paint the town red? And green?” She chuckled at her own joke as she moved down the grand staircase and into the foyer.

Mags looked to me for confirmation as she stuck her phone into her small handbag and pulled at the hem on her borrowed dress.

A huge smile crossed my face as I yelled, “Coming!”

Mags, the animals, and I pounded down the two flights of stairs to the foyer where Nan had relocated to bundle up in an eclectic assortment of bright pink winter wear.

Nan pulled out a tiny brown jacket and knelt to the ground. “Paisley, come here, you sweet dog!”

The Chihuahua ran, her whole back half wiggling with joy. “Yes, Nan. Coming, Nan. I love you, Nan.”

While she called me “Mommy,” her greatest loyalty definitely lay with Nan. I’d asked her about that once, and she said that she couldn’t remember what it felt like to have a mother since she’d lost hers when she was still too young to remember. Since Nan insisted on being called Nan by everyone who knew her—and because she couldn’t communicate with Paisley the way I could—the little dog had taken to referring to me as Mommy.

She stood mostly still now as Nan worked her legs and head through the little brown jacket, which upon closer inspection was actually a reindeer costume. The hood had two tall, erect antlers that put Paisley off balance somewhat as she hopped away from Nan and attempted to prance about the house.

“Mags, you look lovely,” Nan said as she straightened back into a standing position. “And you’re well-matched to Paisley in that Santa dress, which is good because I’ll need you to keep an eye on her while we’re out.”

“Oh, are you not coming?”

Nan shrugged into her hot pink coat lined with black faux fur around the collar and cuffs. “Of course I’m coming. But I need both arms for hugging all my old friends who only journey home for the holidays. Paisley will have a much better time with you.”

I stepped forward and grabbed Octo-Cat’s neon green leash and harness from the back of our coat closet. He hated having to wear it, especially since he’d gotten better about being off leash during our outdoor adventures. Unfortunately for him, I’d be with Mags the whole time today, which meant I couldn’t use our ability to converse to keep him in line.

At the end of the day, safety won every time, which meant the harness was non-negotiable. Of course, that didn’t stop my cat from trying.

“I’m not wearing that,” he said, glaring at me as he spoke. “Last time you put it on me, Santa Claus got murdered. And before that, you granted me a favor in exchange for my compliance. That was a long time ago, so as far as I’m concerned, you owe me a whole new favor if you expect me to wear that thing today.”

I shook my head and bit my tongue to keep from talking. The favor he’d tricked me into granting was the purchase of this giant manor home, since he didn’t like my previous rental. As much as I liked the luxe estate now, I didn’t think him wearing the harness a handful of times over the past year and a half was anywhere near equivalent of an ask.

I reached for Octo-Cat with both hands and he swatted at me.

“No, Angela. No!”

“I don’t think he wants to wear that,” Mags said with a nervous laugh. “Why are we bringing him, anyway? It seems to me that an outdoor festival wouldn’t be very fun for a cat.”

“Trust me, I’ll never hear the end of it if I leave him behind,” I said, then quickly added, “He’ll be yowling for days to punish me, and mostly at night, because he’s got an evil streak a mile wide.”

“Smart cat.”

“You have no idea.” I chuckled with relief. You’d think I’d be better at minding my secret after so much time, but you’d be very, very wrong.

“Well, here.” Mags grabbed Octo-Cat so quickly neither he nor I saw it coming. “Let me help.”

He struggled and spun in her arms, but Mags held on tight while I worked the harness onto his furry little body. “You will live to regret this, Angela, and it might not be all that long.”

I set him on the ground and stifled a laugh as he took a couple steps, twitched, and then frantically began to lick his fur where it touched the neon green straps.

“Are we all ready to go?” Nan asked cheerfully, completely unbothered by the angry kitty standing near her feet. While Octo-Cat generally held me to a higher standard of behavior and let Nan’s foibles pass by unmentioned, one of these days, he’d get her, and he’d get her good. Hopefully, he’d at least wait until after the holidays.

A minute later we’d all piled into my sedan, and less than fifteen minutes later we’d arrived downtown for Glendale’s Holiday Spectacular.

Even though it was early, we had to park several blocks away in order to get a spot.

“Wow,” Mags said when downtown finally came into view. “It’s like we’re inside a snow globe.”

We had half a foot of snow at best, but Mags never got white Christmases at home in Georgia, so I let her enjoy the moment without explaining the snowfall was actually light for this time of year.

“Welcome! Welcome to the Holiday Spectacular!” Mr. Gable, the owner of our only local jewelry store and the head of the planning committee, greeted us with his pet rabbit in one hand and an old-fashioned camera in the other. He wore a Santa costume without the classic fur-trimmed coat, revealing black suspenders on top of his thick wooly undershirt. “Have a seat on the sleigh. Let Santa and E.B. take your picture.”

“E.B.?” Mags asked as she and I slid into the rear seat of the sleigh and Nan jumped up front with both animals.

“It’s short for Easter Bunny,” I explained, having just met the bunny for the first time myself earlier that month when we went to the pet store for photos with Santa and ended up solving a murder mystery instead. “Apparently, she was an Easter gift for the grandkids gone wrong. He was quick to rescue the bunny and give her a better life, and the two have been together ever since.”

Mr. Gable set E.B. in the nearby nativity scene which had been lined with hay and outfitted with food and water for the little rabbit, then he stepped forward to take our picture.

“Do you see that?” Octo-Cat demanded just as Mr. Gable instructed us all to say cheese. “That ridiculous rabbit has the exact same harness as me. I’ve never been so humiliated in all my life. Oh, you will pay mightily for this, dear Angela.”

Sure enough, E.B. also wore a neon green harness, although she didn’t seem to mind nearly as much as Octo-Cat did. In fact, she’d already fallen asleep cuddled up sweetly in baby Jesus’s manger.