Cynthia Manson (ed) (65 page)

The queen and Snowdrop appeared,
highly indignant. Brooks, now holding Dopey firmly by the collar, demanded the
other three dwarfs. The two girls, subdued and totally bewildered, pointed to
their dressing room. It was empty, but a tumbled heap of costumes on the floor
showed what they had done. The sergeant appeared, breathless.

“Take this chap,” Brooks said,
thrusting the now fainting Dopey at him. “Take him down. I’m shopping him. Get
onto the management to warn all departments for the others.”

He was gone, darting into the
crowded toy department, where children and parents stood amazed or hurried
towards the lifts, where a dense crowd stood huddled, anxious to leave the
frightening trouble spot.

Brooks bawled an order.

The crowd at the lift melted away
from it, leaving three small figures in overcoats and felt hats, trying in vain
to push once more under cover.

They bolted, bunched together, but
they did not get far. Round the corner of a piled table of soft toys Father
Christmas was waiting. He leaped forward, tripped up one, snatched another, hit
the third as he passed and grabbed him, too, as he fell.

The tripped one struggled up and on
as Brooks appeared.

“I’ll hold these two,” panted Tom
Meadows through his white beard, which had fallen sideways.

The chase was brief. Brooks gained
on the dwarf. The latter knew it was hopeless. He snatched up a mallet lying
beside a display of camping equipment and, rushing to the side of the store,
leaped on a counter, from there clambered up a tier of shelves, beat a hole in
the window behind them, and dived through. Horrified people and police on the
pavement below saw the small body turning over and over like a leaf as it fell.

“All yours,” said Tom Meadows,
handing his captives, too limp now to struggle, to Inspector Brooks and tearing
off his Father Christmas costume. “See you later.”

He was gone, to shut himself in a
telephone booth on the ground floor of the store and hand his favorite editor
the scoop. It had paid off, taking over from the old boy, an ex-actor like
himself, who was quite willing for a fiver to write a note pleading illness and
sending a substitute.

“Your reporter, Tom Meadows, dressed
as Father Christmas, today captured and handed over to the police two of the
three murderers of Mrs. Fairlands—”

Inspector Brooks, with three frantic
midgets demanding legal aid, scrabbling at the doors of their cells, took a
lengthy statement from the fourth, the one with the treble voice whose nerve
had broken on the fatal night, as it had again that day. Greasepaint had
betrayed the little fiends, Brooks told him, privately regretting that Meadows
had been a jump ahead of him there. Greasepaint left on in the rush to get at
their prey. One of the brutes must have fallen against the wall, pushed by the
old woman herself perhaps. He hoped so. He hoped it was her own action that had
brought these squalid killers to justice.

This page is an extension of the
copyright page.

We are grateful to the following for
permission to reprint their copyrighted material:

“The Carol Singers”
by Josephine Bell, copyright © by the Executors of the
Estate of the late Josephine Bell, reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown,
Ltd.:
“Murder
At Christmas”
by C. M. Chan,
copyright © 1990 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of the
author;
“
Kelso’s
Christmas”
by Malcolm
McClintick, copyright © 1984 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by
permission of the author;
“The
Christmas Bear”
by Herbert Resnicow. copyright © 1989 by Davis
Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of the author; all stories have
previously appeared in
ALFRED
HITCHCOCK MYSTERY MAGAZINE,
published by BANTAM DOUBLEDAY DELL MAGAZINES.

“Christmas Cop”
by Thomas
Adcock. copyright © 1986 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission
of the author;
“On
Christmas Day in the Morning”
by
Margery Allingham, copyright © 1952 by P. and M. Youngman Carter Ltd.,
reprinted by permission of the Estate:
“I Saw Mommy Killing
Santa Claus”
by George Baxt.
copyright © 1990 by Davis Publications. Inc.. reprinted by permission of the
author;
“Mystery for Christmas”
by Anthony Boucher, copyright © 1942 by Anthony Boucher,
reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.:
“The
Spy and the Christmas Cipher”
by
Edward D. Hoch. copyright © 1990 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by
permission of the author:
“Supper
with Miss Shivers”
by Peter
Lovesey, copyright © 1991 by Peter Lovesey, reprinted by permission of John
Farquharson. Ltd.:
“Dead
on Christmas Street”
by John D.
MacDonald, copyright © Dorothy P. MacDonald Trust, reprinted by permission of
Diskant Associates;
“Rumpole
and the Spirit of Christmas”
by
John Mortimer, copyright © 1988 by Advanpress Limited, reprinted by permission
of Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.;
“Who
Killed Father Christmas?”
by Patricia
Moyes, copyright © 1980 by Laura W. Haywood & Isaac Asimov, first appeared
in WHO DONE IT?, reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown. Ltd.;
“But Once a Year... Thank God!”
by Joyce Porter, copyright © 1991 by Davis Publications,
Inc., reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.;
“The Plot Against Santa Claus”
by James Powell, copyright © 1970 by James Powell,
reprinted by permission of Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc.;
“Father Crumlish Celebrates
Christmas”
by Alice Scanlan Reach, copyright © 1967 by Davis
Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of Samuel French, Inc.;
“A Matter of Life and Death”
by Georges Simenon, copyright © 1952 by Georges Simenon,
reprinted by the Author’s Estate;
“Santa
Claus Beat”
by Rex Stout,
copyright © 1953 by Rex Stout, reprinted by permission of the Estate;
“
Twixt
the Cup and the Lip”
by Julian
Symons, copyright © 1963 by Julian Symons, reprinted by permission of Curtis
Brown, Ltd.;
“Christmas
Party”
by Martin Werner, copyright © 1991
by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of the author; all stories
have previously appeared in
ELLERY
QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE
,
published by BANTAM DOUBLEDAY DELL MAGAZINES.

“Auggie Wren
’s
Christmas Story”
by Paul Auster,
copyright © 1990 by the
New
York Times
, reprinted by
permission.