The Blonde Before Christmas: a Barb Jackson Mysteries holiday short story (5 page)

"Ms. Jackson? I didn't think I'd see you again." Eric, the security guard we'd met before, stepped toward me and held out his hand. I took it.

"It's nice to see you again. You remember my friend Kelly."

"It's nice to see you again, Kelly." He nodded once at her then shook her hand.

"I'm surprised the mall is open today after what happened."

"We couldn't close. Not on Christmas Eve." The portly man standing to Eric's left stepped forward. "I'm Reginald Moore, the mall supervisor."

I introduced Kelly and myself.

"I know who you are," Reginald said. "Eric pointed you out last night. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Finding a
body
," he said, whispering the last word, "has to be a traumatic experience."

I glanced at Kelly. "Um, sure. It was horrible," I lied. I mean, it wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't traumatic, either. "Did you know him long?"

Reginald shook his head. "No. Actually I'd never met the man. We were in search of a Santa because our first one quit to take a job at the Northside Mall, and Bambi recommended Marvin."

"Does Bambi have a job here other than as an elf on the holidays?" I asked curiously.

Eric was regarding me with an odd expression, but I ignored him.

"Yes, she works up in human resources but comes down and helps out as an elf during the holidays." He pointed to the tree. "It gives her some extra hours, and you know we all could use some extra cash this time of year."

"Certainly," I agreed. "How did she know Marvin?"

Reginald frowned. "Now, I don't know that really." He rubbed the small patch of hair on his chin. "I never thought to ask."

Something caught his attention. "If you'll excuse me, I have something to take care of. It was a pleasure meeting you ladies." 

"It was nice meeting you," I said to Reginald as he hurried away.

I turned to the security guard. "It was good to see you again, Eric." I smiled at him.

He squinted his eyes at me. "Nice seeing you again too, Ms. Jackson." Then he leaned down and whispered in my ear, "I thought the police were handling the case."

"They are," I assured him, "but they need a little help from time to time."

"Do they know that?"

"Not exactly."

His expression lifted, and he smiled. "If you need anything, just let me know."

I nodded and tossed a salute his way.

When we were out of earshot of Eric, Kelly said, "So now we know how Marvin the alcoholic got the job as Santa. He and Bambi were having a fling, and so she gave him the job."

"We need to talk to her." I said.

"I knew you were going to say that."

We stopped beside the winter wonderland scene when we were right next to the red velvet rope separating us mere mortals from the great Santa Claus (number three).

"It looks like all of the elves are wearing name tags," I said. "Can you see them well enough to read the names?"

"No." Kelly shook her head. "But I'm thinking that one right there is Bambi." She jerked her head toward a tall, buxom redhead with obviously plastic-surgeon-altered body parts.

"Why do you think that's her?" I asked with a frown.

"I just do."

I shrugged.

We stood beside the tree and watched as the woman we assumed was Bambi shot T-shirts and other fluffy goodies out of her air cannon. After about five minutes she stopped and stood on a stool.

"Boys and girls, Santa will be taking a thirty minute break, but don't worry because he'll be right back, so have your lists ready."

She stepped down from the stool and ducked under the red rope.

"She's headed toward the coffee shop. Come on." I grabbed Kelly by the forearm and tugged her along behind me. "You're taller than I am, so keep eyes on her."

"You're the boss," she said.

When we finally made it to the coffee shop, the woman we assumed was Bambi had just taken a seat near the window with a steaming hot cocoa and a scone.

I contemplated ordering my own before questioning her, and my expression must've said so, because Kelly gently redirected my course from heading for the counter to heading to her table.

"Be good and ask your questions. Then I'll get you a scone," she whispered.

I rolled my eyes so hard I almost saw my own brain.

"Excuse me," I said lightly. "Are you Bambi?"

The woman glared at me through wide green eyes.

"Who wants to know?"

"I'm Barb Jackson. I, um, found Marvin last night."

"Oh," Her expression shifted from slightly irritated to just plain dismal. "Have a seat." She waved me toward the chair across from her. Kelly grabbed one from another table, spun it around, and straddled it, because that's just how Kelly is.

Bambi glanced at Kelly, then back at me.

"I understand that you knew Marvin. I'm sorry for your loss," I said.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Thanks. We were on and off for a few weeks, but we broke up for good last week."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't know that you were a couple."

Kelly shot me an
I-told-you-so
look.

"Yeah, well." She shrugged. "He couldn't keep it in his pants, you know? I can't live like that. I deserve better."

I totally understood where she was coming from. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but was it enough to lead to murder?

"Do the police have any leads?" I asked in my best
I-really-care
voice.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "They came around and asked me a bunch of questions, but if you ask me, they need to look into that little whore he was seeing on the side."

"Do you know who he was seeing?"

"Yeah, I know who she is." She grimaced. "She works part time at the Gap, but like me, helps out with the Winter Wonderland set up for the little kids over the holidays. Her name is Addison. But right now she's Addie the Elf," she said in a sarcastic singsong tone.

"Did you see Marvin yesterday?" Kelly asked.

"I didn't talk to him. I hadn't seen him in days because I'd been out with the flu, but the day before yesterday when I came in to pick up my check, I saw him talking to Reginald, the mall supervisor, and this girl from Forever 21. I don't know what he did after that. I had a checkup with my doctor at ten o'clock that morning to get cleared to come back to work that day. I was at the doctor's office most of the day because of this crazy flu hitting everyone so hard."

"I'm sorry you were sick. Do you know what they were talking about?" Kelly continued her line of questioning with a soft expression.

"I don't know really." She shook her head. "I just figured that she was another one of his sidepieces. Marvin really liked the ladies."

From all of the cheating husbands that I'd caught over the years, I knew that being a ladies' man could lead to a lot of trouble. Maybe Marvin's cheating ways were what had led to him getting killed.

Kelly glanced at me, and I nodded curtly.

"Thanks for talking to us. We have to be going. I'm sorry for your loss," Kelly said and stood. I followed her lead.

"Thanks," Bambi said and waved before digging into her scone.

Kelly and I approached the counter.

"Well, if we can find out what time Marvin was killed, we might be able to rule Bambi out as the killer. She said she'd been out with the flu but was being cleared to come back to work that day. If she was at the doctor while he was being killed, that's a pretty solid alibi."

"Maybe. I'll call Mona and see if she can find out the time of death for us. We need to talk to Addie the Elf and then see if we can find that girl from Forever 21. It sounds like Marvin was a busy guy."

"Do you think one of them killed him?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I'm definitely not ruling them out."

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

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 with one but treated the other like she had something that not even a shot of penicillin would clear up.

Either that woman was Addie, and Bambi was still ticked off about the whole Marvin cheating thing, or Bambi had an aversion to little people. Addie was about four-and-a-half-feet tall and had short brown hair. She smiled a smile that lit up her entire face at the children waiting in line as she passed out candy canes. She didn't have Bambi's height, or curves, but she was still pretty.

"That has to be Addie," I said and motioned to the small woman Bambi had snubbed.

"Yeah, that's my guess." Kelly grinned. "She's treating that little one like she has the clap or something. There's no way that's not Addie."

A moment later, the woman we assumed was Addie ducked under the rope and hurried off toward the food court.

We followed as quickly as possible and spotted her again heading straight for the restroom.

We waited a few seconds then followed Addie inside.

Much to my surprise, the women's room was nearly empty. A mother and small child moved past us, and another woman finished applying her lipstick and left.

I took a peek and saw that all of the stall doors were standing open except one.

I pulled out a ChapStick while Kelly adjusted her short messy hair, and we made ourselves look busy until the stall door opened, and Addie appeared at the sink beside me.

"Hi," I said cheerily.

"Hi, yourself," she said with a smile. "Some crazy day out there, isn't it?"

"Absolutely," I agreed. "I was surprised that the mall is even open today after they found that body last night."

I watched for any reaction from Addie. Her face paled a bit, but she continued washing her hands. "Sad, that was." She nodded.

"Did you know the man?" I asked gently.

"I'd known him for a little while. He was a nice guy. A little misunderstood but a good guy all the same."

I put the ChapStick back into my purse. "I'm sorry for your loss. Were you two close?" I asked with what I hoped was a concerned expression.

Addie shut off the faucet and moved to dry her hands. "Kind of. We'd been seeing each other, but he ended it the day he was killed. It's all right, though. We parted on good terms."

"Were you working when they found him?"

She shook her head. "No, I was picking my mom up from the airport, so I was gone all day yesterday." Addie eyed me suspiciously, and I decided that it was time to wrap up this line of questioning.

"Well, I'm sorry for your loss. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," she said and made her way out of the restroom.

"Do you think she was lying?" Kelly asked after we left the restroom.

"I don't know. She didn't seem too torn up about Marvin's death, but who knows? Everyone grieves differently."

My cell phone buzzed. I grabbed it. The display read a number that I didn't recognize.

"Barb Jackson," I answered the call.

"Barb, this is Eric. I have the information you need."

"Great. Let me have it."

"The woman you're looking for is Chelsea Bettencourt. There were four men and one woman working in that particular store that night. Since she was the only woman working that night, I'm going to assume that she's the one you want to find. She's also working today. I figured you'd want to talk to her."

"Thanks, Eric. You're a lifesaver."

"It's my pleasure. If you need anything else, just call this number."

I slid the phone into my jeans pocket. "That was Eric, the security guard. He said we're looking for a woman named Chelsea."

"Then let's go find her."

The smell of fresh pretzels, popcorn, and cookies permeated the air around me as we passed stand after stand and vendor after vendor on our way to Forever 21. My stomach growled. The fact that I'd just had a second macchiato and orange crème scone didn't seem to matter. The holidays, with all of the fantastic food, always made me hungry.

We found the shop we were looking for near the farthest end of the mall. The entrance was done up in Christmas decorations like the rest of the building, but the inside of the store looked and smelled like a teenager's bedroom put on a case of Axe body spray and then threw up.

Teens and their parents busily pulled clothing off of racks, and harried looking salespeople assisted those who needed it.

We stepped inside and looked around.

"Any idea which one is Chelsea?"

"Nope." I shook my head.

"So, how are we going to go about this?" Kelly asked.

"Just like this."

I walked up to the closest salesperson. "Excuse me, but can you tell me where I might be able to find Chelsea?"

The guy looked down at me. "She's in the back on break. Is there something I can do for you?"

I was tired of messing around. I wanted to go home, take a hot bath, and pet my cat, so I decided that the direct approach was the best way to go about speaking to Chelsea.

"I'm Barb Jackson of Jackson Investigations, and this is my friend Kelly. We need to speak to Chelsea about Marvin Garvin."

The man's face paled, but he nodded. "I'll be right back."

Kelly looked at me quizzically.

"What? Not everything has to be a covert operation. Besides, the caterer is delivering the food for Christmas dinner at my place around five o'clock, and I have to be there in case Mona gets held up at the station, and Mandy's already gone back to her place. I agreed to be one of their last deliveries this year since our dinner isn't until tomorrow."

A moment later a tall, thin woman with a short brown bob hairstyle came out of the back and approached us.

"I've already talked to the police."

"We know that. We just have a few questions. It won't take but a minute."

She crossed her arms cross her chest, eyed Kelly, and then glared at me. "Fine. But make it quick."

"Were you and Marvin seeing each other?"

"Sort of."

"Care to elaborate?"

"We'd been seeing each other on and off for about a month. He wasn't sure he was ready to be with me."

Apparently Marvin wanted to be with everyone at the same time. This was the third woman we'd talked to today who was romantically tied to Marvin. I needed to get a good look at un-dead Marvin when we were finished talking to Chelsea.

"When was the last time you talked to him?"

"The day before yesterday. We had dinner. Then I came back here and finished my shift, and Marvin went back and finished his. I didn't see him yesterday at all."

That was because he was dead beneath the tree, but I kept my mouth shut.

"The mall closed at 10:00 pm that night, didn't it? The twenty-second?" I asked.

"No," she said and shook her head. "On the twenty-second we closed early, at 9:00 pm. Some employees stayed a little later to straighten up the wonderland scene, but we actually closed at 9:00."

"Did you see Marvin after the mall closed that night?"

"No. We were supposed to meet at my place, but he never showed up. I figured he went back to Addie or Bambi and let it go. He was hot but a little bit of a drunk. I could do better." She shrugged.

I was still a bit curious as to what alive Marvin looked like. "You wouldn't happen to have a picture of Marvin, would you?" I asked.

Chelsea pulled out her phone, clicked around on the screen, then handed it to me. The brown-eyed, blond-haired, handsome man staring back at me was not what I expected to see. Marvin Garvin was in his mid-to-late thirties, had a strong jaw, and a warm smile. I could now see why the ladies had been drawn to him.

I showed the pic to Kelly, and she raised her eyebrows with surprise.

"Thanks for your time." I handed the phone back to Chelsea.

"No problem." She waved and went back to the back of the store to finish her break.

We left the store.

"Barb."

I jerked my head around and stared into the face of the man I'd been dodging.

Detective Smith.

He didn't look happy.

"We need to talk."