Page 1 of Christmas Mittens Murder

Chapter One

Hayley was just reaching for the door handle to make her escape from her still buzzing restaurant, Hayley’s Kitchen, when her manager, Betty, suddenly swooped in to intercept her.

“Hold on. Reverend Ted would like to have a word with you before you go.”

“I was so close to getting out of here! Can you tell him you just missed me?”

Betty’s eyes flicked across the restaurant to a table near the fireplace. “I could, but then he’d know I was lying because he is literally staring at us this very moment.”

“What is it this time? Is his steak not pink enough again?”

“No, he’s finished with his steak and moved on to dessert and coffee,” Betty said. “The Yule log cake, his favorite.”

“Okay,” Hayley sighed, steeling herself as she forced a smile and nodded while she weaved her way around the tables of patrons to head to where Reverend Ted was dining alone. There were bits of chocolate on both corners of his mouth as he devoured Hayley’s special holiday Yule log cake.

“Good evening, Reverend. Did Kelton get the temperature of your rib eye right?” Hayley asked brightly.

Reverend Ted snorted. “Eventually.”

“I’m sorry about that. Dessert’s on me tonight.”

“Thank you,” Reverend Ted said, beaming. Hayley felt as if she had just saved herself from a snippy Yelp review.

She knew giving him a discount would solve the problem of his earlier complaint. Although beloved by his congregation at the church and known throughout Bar Harbor as kind and warmhearted, if Reverend Ted did have one flaw, it was that he was rather cheap, a proud and often irritating tightwad. So a free dessert was very much appreciated.

“This cake really is quite delicious, Hayley. I just wanted you to know that.”

“Ahhh, yes, the Yule log cake here is quite popular this time of year. Well, enjoy, I’m just heading out.”

She did a quick turn to leave when he reached out and grabbed her by the wrist. “Wait, there is something else I need to discuss with you.”

Hayley braced herself.

“As you know, the church’s Christmas bazaar is coming up in a week, and I was hoping you might make a contribution.”

Oh, good.

All she had to do was write a simple check.

Easy peasy.

“Of course, Ted. No problem. I can drop off a check to you at the church tomorrow, or if you have Venmo, I can just transfer the amount right into the church’s account and we can save a tree.”

“That’s very kind of you, but I was hoping to enlist your exceptional baking skills instead of relying on a donation of cold hard cash this year. We are raffling off gift baskets at the bazaar, and I believe that if you prepared a Hayley’s Kitchen dessert basket, maybe include one of your locally famous Yule logs, those delicious Christmas Crinkle Cookies that practically taste like a rich fudgy brownie and perhaps even a gift certificate for a dinner for two from Hayley’s Kitchen, then we’d make a killing.”

“You have certainly thought a lot about this,” Hayley remarked, full of dread.

“Honestly, who wouldn’t want to put a raffle ticket in the jar to win a prize like that. I would bet it would be the most popular gift basket of the whole bazaar.”

Hayley took a deep breath. “Reverend, I would really love to help out, but as you can see, I have been so busy here at the restaurant it’s hard to find a free moment, especially this time of year. But again, I would be more than happy to make a financial donation . . .”

“I understand, Hayley. I can see you have a very successful business to run. And I am sure the needy families who benefit from the money we raise from the bazaar will understand as well.”

And there it was.

The carefully timed guilt trip.

Still, Hayley was slightly annoyed that Reverend Ted was not interested in a direct cash donation, which would essentially achieve the same goal. Lift the spirits of local families during the holidays with money to buy food and toys.

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