The Mystery Before Christmas

Chapter 25

My late-night chat with Alastair had been helpful. I knew he was right in his assertion that if I had a question for Hope, I owed it to her to ask instead of harboring unconfirmed suspicions. I wanted to catch Hope before she got busy, so I decided to go to the library before I had breakfast. The library didn’t open until nine, but I knew Hope was usually there by seven-thirty to shelve books and get the place ready to open. Hope was the library’s only paid employee. Everyone else who staffed the place was a volunteer, so Hope made sure that she did everything she could to justify her salary.

When I arrived, the front door was open, which should have alerted me that something was up but didn’t.

“Hope,” I called out. “It’s Callie. Are you here?”

I didn’t see or hear anyone, but Hope’s car had been in the lot, and the door had been open, so she had to be here somewhere.

“Hope,” I called again. “I found a candy cane walking cane that I think will make an awesome prop for the Santa House. Are you here?”

I noticed the door to the room which held the reference books was open, so I headed in that direction. When I entered the room, I saw Hope tied to a chair with a piece of duct tape over her mouth. I started forward, but something in her eyes alerted me that I should actually drop and roll, which I did before I’d even had the chance to think it through. After I ended up on the floor on my back, I sat up and turned quickly, only to find a short and chubby man with a bat standing over me.

“Who are you?” the man demanded.

“A friend of the library here to do my volunteer shift.” I held out a hand as if the gesture alone would somehow ward the man off.

“You’re early,” the man replied.

“I am. I like to arrive early to help get things ready for the day. Sometimes it’s tough in the winter, it’s just that… duck,” I shouted after feigning a shocked expression and crossing my arms over my head.

The man must have responded to the panic in my voice since he lowered his head and crossed his arms over his head as if to protect himself from whatever was about to fall on him. This gave me a split second to jump up and scoot behind one of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

“Very clever,” the man said once he realized that something falling on his head had never been a possibility. “I won’t fall for that again. Now, come on out.”

I could see the man or at least portions of the man between the books that were lined on both sides of the stack. I slowly made my way around to the end of one of the rows. I circled around to the next row and waited. I could hear the man breathing, and occasionally, I could hear the scuffle of his boots. I knew if I was going to get out of this alive, I needed to keep my wits, so I continued to move slowly through the maze created by the rows and rows of bookshelves. Once I’d made my way to the end, I knew I’d need to double back. I needed to figure out a way to both escape and help Hope without getting either of us killed.

I tried to still my breathing so that the man with the bat wouldn’t hear me and hone in on my location. Of course, all I really wanted to do was hyperventilate, so keeping my breath shallow and quiet was a challenge. Eventually, I was in the position I wanted. I could sense the man several rows over. The bookshelves were stacked back to back, so I knew that if I pushed on the books on my side of the stack, they would fall to the floor on the other side of the stack. Preparing to make my move, I set my body and then used my cane to push the books from the far side of the row onto the floor. The man came running toward the sound of the falling books. I only had a second to respond, but I managed to keep my wits as I looped my way around from the row where I’d been hiding, which allowed me to sneak up behind him. I raised my cane and hit the man as hard as I could while he was standing with his back to me. It didn’t knock him out as I’d hoped, but it did divert his attention long enough for me to shove a book cart into his legs. That had him on his knees. I grabbed my cane and hit him again. It seemed to do the trick, and he fell helplessly to the floor.

“Are you okay?” I ran over to Hope.

“Tie him up. Hurry, he won’t be out long.”

I untied the ropes that had been secured around Hope’s hands and feet, and then used them to tie up the man who I was sure had planned to kill both of us. As soon as he was secure, I called Cass, who promised to be right over.

“What happened?” I asked Hope after I allowed myself a moment to breathe.

“He was waiting for me when I arrived. He jumped me before I even knew he was there.”

“Why?”

“For some reason, he thought I had Buford’s money. He was determined to get it, and I was sure he was never going to let me go until he did. I’m sure he is the one who killed Buford and Ford. When he tied me up, he made a comment about not making the same mistake again. He said he was going to be sure to get the money before he let his temper get the best of him.”

“Cass and I discussed the fact that Buford and Ford might have been killed by someone looking for Buford’s money.” I looked at the man, who I suspected would turn out to be Jason, the sister’s kid. “I’m not sure if you heard, but part of the money was found in Ford’s wall.”

“I heard. Actually, I’m the one who told Cass to look for it in Ford’s house.”

I turned and looked Hope in the eye. “Are you Secret Santa?”

Hope froze. “Why would you ask that?”

“It has been theorized that Buford decided that he didn’t want the money gifted to him by his sister. He didn’t want the nephew to have it either, so he decided to give it away. Since he had no idea how to go about doing that, he enlisted the help of someone in the community with the resources and knowhow to determine who needed a gift from Secret Santa the most and how to get it to them. I thought about the people I’d interviewed and realized that when all was said and done, everyone who received a gift was linked to you in one way or another. It really does make perfect sense.”

She shifted nervously in her seat. “You know that I can’t confirm this suspicion of yours.”

“Why not? What is so awful about being Secret Santa? Why don’t you want anyone to know?”

Hope took my hand in hers. She gave it a squeeze and looked me in the eye. “Being Secret Santa isn’t awful. It is a tremendous gift. A gift that has not only enriched my life but has enchanted the entire community as well. Revealing the identity of Secret Santa would strip away the wonder that everyone seems to feel. If you really think about it, the best part of the gift is the magic of not knowing, of letting the imagination you thought you’d lost somewhere along the way, run wild with possibility.”

I knew Hope was right. I knew that by revealing Secret Santa’s identity, I would be robbing the community of the fantasy that had captured everyone’s imagination. I also knew that I had a responsibility to Dex. What I didn’t know was what in the heck I was going to do.