The Mystery Before Christmas

Chapter 11

Hope, who knew Carolyn Worthington quite well, offered to call her and set up an appointment between the two of us. Carolyn wasn’t busy today, so Hope arranged with me to meet with her within the hour. Carolyn was a rich woman before moving to Foxtail Lake. When she’d chosen the area to be her new home, she’d looked for a large parcel of land on a lake where she could build her mansion. I’d never had the opportunity to meet Carolyn or to visit her home to this point, so even though I was expecting vast luxury, I was truly amazed at how vast and luxurious her estate was.

After parking in the circular drive, I rang the bell and was greeted by a woman dressed in black and white. I was escorted into a room, which I assumed was a parlor of sorts, and asked to wait. After a few minutes, a woman dressed in riding clothes emerged from the hallway.

“Callie Collins?”

I stood. “Yes. I’m Callie.”

“I’m Carolyn Worthington. I understand you want to speak to me about Secret Santa.”

I nodded. “Yes. That is correct. I’m doing an article for the newspaper.”

“Normally, I don’t do interviews, but Hope speaks highly of you, so I decided to make an exception. I was just about to exercise my stallion. If you’d care to join me, we can chat while we ride.”

“Ride?”

She slapped her riding gloves across her palm. “You do ride, don’t you?”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. No. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve never been on a horse in my entire life.”

She looked me up and down. “You’re dressed fine for the task, and I have a gentle mare that needs exercise. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

“But…”

“Don’t worry. We’ll take it easy.”

I was trying to figure out how I was going to get out of there when a man poked his head in through the doorway.

“Your ride is here,” he informed Carolyn.

“Wonderful.” She looked at me. “Are you ready?”

Ready? Was she kidding? I was here to interview the woman not to break my neck.

I frantically tried to come up with a plausible reason why it might be a better idea to simply wait for Carolyn to be freed up rather than to join her on her ride, but I was so terrified I couldn’t speak. A man, also dressed in black and white, picked us up in a vehicle that looked like an enclosed golf cart. It must have had four-wheel-drive since I noticed it moved along just fine over the hard-packed snow on the drive.

The small vehicle pulled up in front of a large building which, I was soon to learn, was an indoor arena. Apparently, Carolyn loved to ride, and she’d built the facility so she could safely work her horses even in the dead of winter. She must have called ahead and let them know she had a guest because the man who met us was leading two very tall horses.

“This is Gaia.” She introduced me to the horse I would be riding. “She is very gentle, and she knows exactly what to do. Really, you just need to climb up and hang on.”

I looked at the horse, who was quite a bit taller than I was. “Climb up?”

“Brantley will show you to the mounting platform.”

Carolyn took the reins of the second horse and accepted a small boost from Brantley, who then led the horse I was going to ride over to a set of stairs leading to a small platform. Once I climbed up onto the platform, I just needed to swing one leg over, and I would be sitting on the monster who I was sure was going to toss me onto the track once she figured out that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I swallowed and considered my options. I could run screaming from the building, but that wasn’t going to get me the interview I wanted. My only choice was to throw caution to the wind, toss my leg over the saddle, and then hang on for dear life.

I held my breath as my backside settled on the saddle. The horse didn’t move an inch. Okay, so far, so good. I had no idea what to do at this point. Brantley handed me the reins and schooled me to hold them gently. According to the man, who I imagined was some sort of handler, Gaia would follow along with Carolyn, so there was no need for me to do anything. I certainly hoped that was true because in this moment, doing nothing was really the only option I had.

“Just let Gaia take the lead,” Carolyn advised as the horse began to walk.

I nodded as I held onto the saddle with both hands. I was holding my breath so I really couldn’t speak at that point. At first, I was absolutely terrified, but after a minute or two, I began to rock with the rhythm of the horse beneath me and no longer felt quite as certain that I was going to die. It helped that Gaia didn’t need to receive instructions. She seemed to know what to do and simply did it.

“So, what is it you want to ask me?” Carolyn asked once both horses had settled into a slow stroll around the arena.

I let out the breath I’d been holding, took in another, and answered. “As Hope told you, I’m working on a series of articles featuring Secret Santa.”

“Yes. She did mention that.”

“One of the angles I am looking at is the man or woman behind Secret Santa. Who is this person? Why are they anonymously bestowing what, in many cases, are very substantial gifts to the residents of Foxtail Lake?”

“And you think I might be Secret Santa?”

“I have a list of several prospects who have the financial means to be Secret Santa.” I looked around at the private arena, which was larger than a city block. “Obviously, you fit that description.”

She smiled. “Yes, I do have the financial means to be Secret Santa, but I’m afraid I’m not. I do love what this man or woman is doing. I give away quite a lot of money myself each year, but it never occurred to me to have so much fun doing it. The whole Secret Santa thing is really pretty ingenious.”

“So you didn’t pay up Grover Wood’s mortgage? He said that you were friends.”

“Grover and I are friends, and if I’d known how much trouble he was in, I would have gladly helped him out. But the thing is, Grover didn’t confide in me. I knew he’d been in an accident, and I did take care of some of his medical bills that he probably doesn’t even know I paid, but I didn’t know about his situation with the bank and his mortgage. I guess I should have done more to check in with him after the accident. Once he was laid up, and I no longer ran into him around town, checking in with him sort of slipped my mind.”

Well, that was disappointing. “And the flowers for the church?”

“What about them?”

“Did you donate them? I understand you received a large shipment of flowers right about the time someone donated a bunch of flowers to the church.”

She laughed. “I did buy flowers, but they are for a cocktail reception I am throwing tomorrow evening. I didn’t donate the flowers to the church, nor would I have done so. I give a cash donation to the church each month, so as far as I’m concerned if they really needed flowers, they could have used some of the cash I donated to buy them.”

“So you didn’t buy Billy Prescott a new wheelchair or Stephanie Baldwin an oven?”

“I did not.”

“And you didn’t help Connie Denton buy the diner or provide for snow removal for Gilda Frederickson?”

“I’m afraid not.”

I glanced down at the horse beneath me. She’d been walking along so effortlessly that I’d almost forgotten I was riding her. “Do you have a guess as to who might be responsible for all these gifts?”

Carolyn didn’t answer, but she did look thoughtful. Eventually, she spoke. “Are you sure you want to ruin everyone’s fun by outing Santa?”

“Actually, I don’t, but it is the job I’ve been assigned by my boss, and I really like my job. A job that I’ve barely begun. This is a good opportunity to show everyone that I have what it takes to be a good reporter.”

Carolyn didn’t answer at first. She seemed to be thinking things over as the horses slowly plodded along. Eventually, she spoke. “It seems to me that one of the most important attributes a reporter can possess is the ability to know the difference between reporting the news and manipulating the news.”

I frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Right now, there is an individual out there who is going around town gifting the town’s residents with exactly what they need. Writing a story about this mystery Santa, and the good he is doing would fall under the category of reporting the news. But what do you think will happen if you out the guy or he or she finds out that you are planning to reveal Secret Santa’s identity?”

“I suppose that you are thinking he or she might stop delivering the Secret Santa gifts.”

“He or she might. And if he or she does stop delivering the gifts as a direct result of your article, you will have gone from reporting the news to manipulating the news.”

I took a moment to consider this. I supposed Carolyn had a point. If I did reveal Secret Santa’s identity and he stopped delivering his gifts, I supposed I’d have a different sort of story to write about, but it would be a story that came about because of my actions, so it would be one for which I was responsible. Angering Secret Santa was the last thing I wanted to do. Actually, angering the entire community was the last thing I wanted to do, but angering Secret Santa came in a close second. The question was, how was I going to keep both Secret Santa’s secret and my job?