Page 26 of Cowboy Stolen Kiss for Christmas

Laura was amused by the way her words became muffled by her next gigantic bite. “You must have worked up an appetite rebuilding my block tower after accidentally knocking it down earlier.”

“Holding grudges, are we?” Lucy munched her way with gusto through the delectable sandwich as they strolled back to the toy store.

A loud mechanical wail shrilly rode the breeze, making them slow their steps.

Lucy abruptly swallowed the bite she’d been chewing. “Is that a security alarm?”

“I think so.” Laura turned to scan the row of holiday boutiques on both sides of the street behind them. “Hopefully, it’s just a test.” Or maybe someone had burned a bag of popcorn and set off a smoke detector. She doubted it was much more than that. This was Pinetop, a peaceful little town whose crime rate had to be down near zero.

The shriek of a police siren joined the melee, verifying that what they were hearing was not, in fact, some sort of security alarm test. Lights flashed, uniformed officers ushered the crowd back, and police tape was rolled out in front of one of the shops.

“It’s the jewelry store!” Lucy craned her neck for a closer look, but the number of spectators standing between them and the store quickly swelled. It was difficult to make out much of what was happening.

“Nothing we can do,” Lucy muttered, half turning away. “Let’s get out of here.”

Laura agreed. And though she was dying to know what was going on, she knew the best thing they could do right now was stay out of law enforcement’s way. It wasn’t like they’d been close enough to witness anything useful. It was with a heavy heart that she returned with her sister to the toy store.

Their mother, who’d been covering the showroom floor while they were away, gave them a sweeping look of concern. “Why the long faces?” She was wearing a Mrs. Santa outfit today, complete with a white wig and silver spectacles that her sharp eyes didn’t require for reading. Her Asian features gave the outfit an exotic twist that rarely failed to make her girls smile.

However, Laura couldn’t have felt less like smiling. Sadness tightened her insides as she shared the unfortunate news. “It appears that All That Glitters was robbed.”

Her mother yanked off her spectacles. “But you were just there! So were we! How in the?—?”

“I don’t know,” Laura shook her head. “We never made it inside. They were wall to wall with people, and there was a huge line snaking down the sidewalk. It would’ve taken hours to get through it.”

“Are you sure it was the jewelry store?” Ayaka Lee worriedly twisted the new bracelet around her wrist.

“Very sure,” Lucy declared flatly.

“On their opening day, no less,” their mother sighed. “What a shame!”

Laura nodded, wishing she knew more. In the entire year she and her family had lived in Pinetop, she couldn’t recall hearing anything about a store being robbed. Or any shoplifting being reported. Or vandalism. The worst thing she’d witnessed before today was a deputy issuing a citation to a driver who’d blatantly run a stoplight.

The jewelry store robbery felt new and sinister, like things around them were changing and not in a good way. She wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Word quickly spread around Pinetop about the shocking theft that had taken place in broad daylight. Cell phone video clips of the incident flooded social media.

According to the news anchors, nobody the sheriff and his deputies interviewed was a hundred percent sure what had happened, not even the patrons who’d been standing inside the jewelry boutique. One second, the place had been filled with happy, chatting customers. The next second, the security alarm had gone off. Nobody recalled seeing who broke the glass on the display case in question, and nobody remembered seeing anyone reach through the broken glass to steal anything.

More than a dozen diamond rings had simply vanished. A special bulletin was released to the public, announcing that the store owners were turning over their security tapes to the police. Laura could sense that the citizens of Pinetop were taking a collective breath and holding it. She did the same, anxiously keeping an eye on the news updates on her phone app for the rest of the afternoon.

Lord willing, what was recorded on the footage would lead to an arrest.

Sheriff Dean Skelton paced his office as five o’clock approached. His lips moved in silent prayer for a report back from the forensics experts he’d reached out to. Since it was a Friday afternoon, he knew the chances were slim he’d hear anything before the close of business today. However, he’d implored them to put a rush on it, assuring them he’d pay extra for a same-day turnaround. He’d take any news at all at this point.

Nothing like this had ever happened in Pinetop before. Naturally, the mayor was clamoring for an answer. So were the local news anchors and everyone else. Something like this could really damage the family friendly atmosphere the citizens had worked so hard to build. Safe streets, homes, and businesses were an integral part of what attracted vacationers to come shop in their small-town boutiques instead of spending their hard-earned money in bigger cities.

I need to get to the bottom of this, and soon.

The phone on the sheriff’s desk lit up with an incoming call. It was the forensics office. Drawing a deep breath, he took a seat in his swivel chair and reached for the receiver, knowing he probably wasn’t going to like what they had to tell him.

He didn’t.

Apparently, both security cameras had been pushed far enough to the side so that neither had recorded who or what had shattered the display case. It wasn’t a simple setup error on the security company’s part, either. Or a coincidence. Someone had tampered with the cameras.

A carefully coordinated kind of tampering, as it turned out. The video feeds of both cameras shifted to other parts of the boutique in one well-synchronized movement. It happened so quickly that only a stick-like blur had been captured by the video feeds. The forensic team’s working theory was that retractable wands had been employed in the diversion.

From the loud cheering in the background of the clip, it was additionally determined that the thieves had made their move right after the announcement of a winner to the jewelry store’s second giveaway. One happy woman could be seen joyously clasping on another one of All That Glitter’s custom gold bracelets.

While the video cameras recorded the cheering and clapping of the onlookers, the owners of the jewelry store had simultaneously suffered a loss of nearly a hundred thousand dollars in stolen gems.

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