Page 38 of Home for Christmas in July

He freezes the image. The angle’s not great, and theresolution is grainy. In addition, the man is wearing big oversized sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled down low.

“But he wasn’t part of that group,” Xander continues.

He restarts the recording. The cluster of men streams through the door with the guy in the hat and glasses at the back of the pack. When they reach the sidewalk, the rest of the men turn left, and this man peels off to the right.

“Huh. Can you print a screen capture of him?”

“Sure.”

As he hits the button to print the photo, I say, “Do you have security cameras on the back of the building?”

“Of course.”

“Have you looked at the footage from behind the shop?”

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Can you switch to that camera?”

He clicks some buttons and pulls up the camera feed. It has a view of the bench where Noelle and I sat and a partial view of the alleyway between his building and the next one.

“All right, cue it up to the time when that man left.”

He fusses with the keys, and I lean in. We see nothing but an empty courtyard for a while. The guy in the hat and sunglasses appears at the edge of the alleyway. As we watch, he crosses the yard on a diagonal, heading toward the library.

“Can you?—?“

“Should I call the county police?” Xander cuts me off, interrupting someone for what may well be the first time in his life.

I consider my answer. “Nothing’s missing, right?”

“No. But he’s up to something.”

“Oh, no doubt.” I agree. “But if you can hold off for acouple hours, I’ll circle back with Noelle and see if we can figure out what’s going on. We haven’t opened the clue yet. It might give us some ideas.”

He mulls it over for several seconds, then nods, and hands me the printout. “I can do that.”

“Thanks.”

I’ve got my hand on the doorknob to leave when he says, “By the way, I heard Josh had to leave town. I’m glad you’re getting back in the Santa saddle.”

Me, too. But before I can engage Santa mode in earnest, I need to figure out what the man in the video is up to.

CHAPTER 17

Noelle

After a thorough search of all three floors, I haven’t come across a man wearing a hat and sunglasses, and none of the patrons remembers seeing anyone who matches the description. I lean against the railing at the top of the stairs to thumb out a quick email to Sunny’s parents to let them know what happened. Then I forward a copy to the entire library staff, asking everyone to keep an eye out for the misanthropic menace.

Stymied for now and unsettled by the rotten behavior, I head back to the desk and I pick up my mug for a much-needed swig of what’s probably lukewarm coffee. It’s halfway to my lips when I realize the envelope it was holding down is gone.

“No, no, no, no, no.”

Maybe I unthinkingly put it back in my pocket? I shove my hand in to check, but it’s empty. As a rule, I pride myself on not cursing in the library, but I am very, very close to letting loose a stream of profanity that would make even Griselda blush. I drop to my knees and search under my desk.

When I hear my name being called, I pop up and promptly bang my head on the underside of the desk. I yelp, then back out, rubbing my head, and turn around to see Sage and Thyme.

“Check out the prototype!” Sage triumphantly holds up a small plastic mistletoe sprig with two berries on top. The ornament dangles from a red- and white-striped length of fabric ribbon.

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