Кэти Дэйли - The Mystery Before Christmas [calibre]

“Was your purse out of your sight during services?” I asked.

“Briefly. I’d left my coat and purse in the pew during communion. I wasn’t worried about it since I was in a church. I didn’t think anyone would bother my personal possessions.”

“So someone who was also at church on the day the gift card was delivered is most likely Secret Santa.”

She shrugged. “I would imagine that to be a true statement.”

I paused and considered the situation. “Did you ask anyone in the area if they’d seen who’d slipped the gift card into your purse?”

“No. I didn’t even notice it until after I got home. I really have no idea who might have gifted me the snow removal, but I will say that I am extremely grateful that they did. There was no way I was going to be able to handle it myself.”

I narrowed my gaze. “Had you handled it yourself in the past?” The woman looked to have been in good health before her fall, but she still seemed much too old to have shoveled her own snow even last year when she had two good hips.

“I’ve always shoveled my own walk. I have a service that does the driveway. I suppose if I hadn’t been gifted the snow removal this season, I would have found a way to cut costs to pay for it myself, but now I can have clear walks and keep my cable for the winter. I’m very grateful for that.”

“It was a thoughtful gesture,” I agreed. “I don’t suppose you have any idea who Secret Santa actually is?”

“Not really.”

“But you must be curious.”

“I guess I am curious, but I figure that if the person behind the gifts wanted to be identified, they would have left a card. I actually think the mystery as to Secret Santa’s identity makes the whole thing a bit more magical. I mean, even as a kid, wasn’t it the fact that Santa was a secret to wonder about but never to know that really drew you in?”

I supposed it was. I also supposed that it made sense that if Secret Santa had purchased the gift card from Smitty, then Smitty must know who Santa was. Maybe it made sense to add the individuals who had sold the goods to Secret Santa to my list of people to talk to.

“So of all the people in town that Secret Santa could have chosen to give a gift to, any idea why he chose you?”

She tilted her head slightly. “You think Secret Santa is someone I know. A friend, perhaps.”

“It makes sense. Not only did he choose you to receive a gift, but he seemed to know exactly what gift you would appreciate the most.”

“I guess you make a good point. But I know a lot of people in town, so I’m not sure that really narrows things down for you.”

“No, I guess it doesn’t.”

“What I do know is that I was feeling sort of down and sorry for myself after my accident. I guess I let my bad mood affect me more than I should have, and I suppose I might have been letting that bad mood affect others. But then someone I may not even know did something wonderful. The gift of snow removal might seem small to some, but for me, it was a sign that there was still hope and goodness in the world. It meant someone was thinking of me and cared about my happiness. Until you are in the position of needing to rely on others, you really can’t know how much a simple act of kindness can mean. Secret Santa gave me more than a gift card. He reminded me of the joy of the season, and for that more than anything, I am eternally grateful.”

Chapter 6

My next appointment was with Connie Denton. Secret Santa had given her a down payment on the diner where she’d worked as an employee for twenty years. I assumed the down payment on a diner would be a considerable amount of money, which made it seem even less likely that the transaction had been handled anonymously. Connie had suggested I come to the diner during the brief lull between the breakfast and lunch crowd, so timing my visit was important if I wanted her to have time to chat.

The Foxtail Diner had been in Foxtail Lake since there had been a town. I wasn’t sure exactly how long the diner had been around, but I was pretty sure that Connie was at least the fourth or fifth owner. It was nice that she’d been able to buy the diner where she’d worked for so long. Cass had told me that she planned to leave the diner exactly as it had always been, menu and all. Everyone in town was happy that Connie had gotten the help she needed to buy the diner. An out of town buyer might have felt the need to change everything, and that wouldn’t have gone over well with the town’s residents, who seemed to appreciate tradition.

“Callie,” Connie hugged me when I walked through the door. “I was so happy to hear that you were back.”

“It’s good to be back.” I’d hung out at the diner, eating burgers and drinking shakes for most of my high school years. I’d meant to come in before this but somehow had never gotten around to it. “And congratulations on buying the diner.”

Connie grinned. “Can you believe that Santa just gave me the down payment on this place? I mean, who would do something like that? When the loan officer, who by the way, had just turned me down for not having a down payment, called and told me that a down payment had been provided by an anonymous donor, I didn’t believe him. I actually thought he was pulling my leg, and the whole thing was just some cruel joke. But he insisted that he was telling the truth and suggested I come down to discuss the loan now that the down payment obligation had been met. I was totally in shock. I’m still in shock. Very, very grateful, but utterly and completely in shock.” She took me by the hand. “It’s pretty slow right now. Let’s grab a booth in the back, and we’ll chat.”

I let the woman, who I estimated to be in her early to mid-forties, drag me toward the back of the diner.

“It seems as if the Secret Santa gift was really a gift to the town as well as to you personally,” I pointed out. “This place has a lot of history. Tradition. I understand business owners wanting to retire and move off the mountain, so I understand that businesses must trade hands from time to time, but if the diner had been sold to someone from out of the area, the history and tradition that is so important to the town could very well have been lost.”

She raised her brow. “That’s true. Personally, I don’t plan to change a thing other than to add a special of the day, which I’ll describe on the chalkboard near the front counter. That will allow me to experiment a bit with new dishes without having to change the menu.”

“I think that is a wonderful idea.” I looked around at the brightly decorated space. Carols played in the background, garland lined the counter, and the same train and miniature village that had graced the place when Gracie was a girl were still displayed. “So it sounds as if the money for the down payment was delivered directly to the bank.”

She nodded. “I knew that buying this place was a longshot, but I also knew I had to try in spite of the fact I have about ten dollars in my savings account. I filled out an application for a loan, and quite frankly, I was assuming they would turn it down right away, but much to my surprise, I was assigned a loan officer. Randy Trainer. He is actually the only loan officer at the local bank, but he still took the time to help me through the process. He told me right up front that the odds of the bank giving me a loan with no down payment were slim to none, but he also reminded me that there was really nothing to be lost by trying. He got creative and assigned a value to my personal possessions, including my old clunker of a car. He figured that if we assigned a value and then used the value as collateral that might get the board to approve at my application, but it didn’t work. Randy really did the best he could, but I had nothing to work with. He called and let me know that he’d done what he could, but that the bank wasn’t going to bite. I’d accepted that, and then he called back to let me know that an anonymous donor had put up the down payment, and we were back in business.”