Кэти Дэйли - The Mystery Before Christmas [calibre]

“Yeah,” he replied. “I had heard that. I hope he had savings to see him through.”

“He had some, but not enough,” Giovanna answered. “In fact, from what I’ve heard, he was on the verge of losing his house and had even been looking for a place to move to when he found out that Secret Santa had made all his back payments and even paid his mortgage three months ahead.”

I realized this meant that someone at the bank probably knew who Secret Santa was. The odds were that Secret Santa had written a check, which could have been mailed in, or he’d made the payments in person. Perhaps a chat with our friendly bank manager was in order.

“Grover is about as happy as I’ve ever seen anyone,” Giovanna continued. “I don’t know who is doing these good deeds, but I sure am thankful. Grover is a good guy. He didn’t deserve to lose his home.”

“It does seem as if Secret Santa knows just what to give those most in need,” Cass agreed.

“He’s been a godsend, that’s for sure. Everyone is talking about the gifts and the people they’ve helped. Some are referring to the Secret Santa phenomenon as The Foxtail Lake Miracle.”

“I guess Foxtail Lake was due for some good karma,” I said. “I know Tracy’s death was hard on everyone.”

“It really was,” Giovanna agreed.

“Any idea who Secret Santa might be?” I figured I had to ask.

She vigorously shook her head. “No idea.” She looked directly at me. “And even if I did know, I’d never tell.”

I had a feeling that protecting the identity of Secret Santa had become a popular trend.

“Seems like your crusade to identify Secret Santa isn’t going to make you any friends,” Cass pointed out after Giovanna took our order and left.

“I was just thinking the same thing.” I’d chatted with him about the series of articles Dex wanted to do leading up to the big reveal and how this could be good for both the newspaper and for me while we’d been playing with the dogs. “I really want to be the one to do the series. Dex is going to do it with or without me, so my refusal to reveal Secret Santa isn’t going to keep his identity a secret. And the story idea was mine in the first place. I should be the one to see it through. But I do realize that by outing Secret Santa, I could be damaging my popularity in the community, which is also important to me.”

“It does seem as if you are in a tough spot. Any idea what you are going to do?”

I groaned as I leaned back in the booth. “Not really. I suppose I’ll just do the first article, which is about the gift recipients, while I continue to look for the man, or woman as it may be, behind the whole thing. And then, once I figure out who Secret Santa really is, I’ll decide what to do. Maybe Secret Santa wants to be found. Maybe Secret Santa is actually after the publicity and will be happy to do the interview.”

“Then why all the secrecy?” Cass asked.

“I suppose it could be possible that Secret Santa just wants to build hype.” Even as I said this, I knew that it most likely wasn’t the case, but it certainly would make things easier for me if Secret Santa did want me to out him at some point before my deadline rolled around. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything?”

Cass paused, looking me in the eye. “I do hear things from time to time, but I’m not sure I want Secret Santa to be unmasked any more than the rest of the town does.”

I slowly exhaled. “I get it. I do. But I could use some help. Dex really wants this series for the Post. It’s a big deal for him. It’s a big deal for the newspaper. It’s even a big deal for me.”

Cass laid his hand over mine. “I know. And it is pretty awesome that the Post is interested in running the articles. I’m sure Dex is over the moon at the opportunity to put the Foxtail News on the map.”

“So you’ll help me?”

He nodded. “Yes. I’ll help you, but keep in mind that finding out what really happened to Buford has to be my priority.”

“I know, and I respect that. If you need to toss around ideas relating to Buford’s death, I’m more than happy to help you with that as well. It seems to me that the real challenge here is going to be to investigate the case while keeping Mayor White off your back.”

I didn’t know Mayor White well. He hadn’t been mayor when I’d lived in Foxtail Lake before, but in the two months since I’d been back, I’d definitely decided that the guy was not someone I respected. It seemed to me that he cared a lot more about keeping up appearances than he did about getting to the truth. I understood that Foxtail Lake was popular with the tourists from the valley due to its small-town appeal and that a murder in the idyllic small town put a damper on the image he was trying to project, but to manipulate the facts relating to a murder just to keep up appearances was downright unethical in my book.

“He has been pretty vocal about the fact that he doesn’t want to stir things up now that everything is starting to settle down following Tracy’s murder,” Cass agreed.

“Personally, I wish the guy would realize that finding justice for Buford if he was murdered is more important than keeping up the illusion that our little town is above such ugliness, but I guess in his mind, keeping his citizens happy is what is going to get him reelected.”

“And I suppose to a point, he is not wrong in that assumption.” Cass took a sip of his beer. “Let’s not ruin our meal with talk about politics. How is Gracie doing with her co-chair responsibilities?”

“Okay,” I answered. “The committee that Gracie is co-chairing with Hope Mansfield is handling all the holiday events for the town. The tree lighting is Friday, followed by the opening of the little Santa’s Village on Saturday. The Santa’s Village will run all month, and the big Christmas in the Mountains event will take place on Main Street the following weekend. It’s sort of a big deal, but I guess you know all this since they have done it for years, and you have lived here forever.”

“It is a big deal and a lot of work.”

“It is. I sense that Gracie is excited about the holiday this year and happy to be involved, but I also get the feeling that now that it is here, she is beginning to feel the pressure of being one of the chairpersons. I plan to help her as much as I can. I think she has the events for this weekend covered, but I suspect she’ll need help with the event on Main Street two weekends from now.”

“Gracie is one of the most organized and energetic seniors I’ve ever met. I’m sure she’ll do fine, and Hope tends to help chair most of the events in town, so she knows exactly what to do. Since the tree lighting is this Friday, are you still planning on volunteering at the shelter?”

I nodded. “Actually, I am. The tree lighting is at six, so I’m going to go straight over there from the shelter. Maybe we can go together and then grab dinner after.”

“I’d like that. Assuming things go smoothly at the tree lighting and I don’t have any arrests to process.”

I raised a brow. “Do you generally have arrests to process after the tree lighting?”

“Not normally, but there was one year when some college kids from out of town decided to show up blaring their own music. This angered those who were trying to enjoy a holiday moment, causing a rumble of sorts between the locals and the valley kids. And then there was another year when two of the guys from the lodge got into a fistfight over the correct words to one of the carols sung by the group.”

“You’re kidding,” I chucked.

“Dead serious. Folks around these parts take their carols seriously even if they don’t always know the words as well as they think they do. Most folks won’t haul off and punch the person next to them if they mess up the words, but it has happened.”