Page 4 of Christmas Mittens Murder

Hayley made a beeline back to Mona and Liddy.

Liddy sighed. “Oh, good. You’re back. Now it’s your turn to hold down the fort while I get something to drink. I was told there were only sodas and iced tea here, but I just spotted Tawny Beauchemin sail by with a glass of white wine.”

“Hold on a sec, Liddy, give me five more minutes,” Hayley said.

“You already had your break, and I cannot stand another minute of listening to Bah Humbug Mona drone on and on about how much she hates Christmas.”

“Cut me a break! I got all seven kids coming home this year, and I’m already stressed out about feeding them Christmas dinner. Most of them are full grown now, but they still eat like a pack of hungry wolves!”

“Seven? I thought you had eight kids,” Liddy remarked.

“Wait, don’t you have nine?” Hayley added.

“What? You expect me to remember?” Mona barked. “I was bedridden for most of them, so I have managed to block all the pregnancies out of my mind!”

“Listen, I just need to go check on Helen Woodworth. She ran out of here looking pretty upset.”

“Come on, she can’t take a little joke?” Mona scoffed.

“It has nothing to do with you. I saw her arguing with Esther Willey.”

“All those women in that knitting circle are always bickering and complaining about something! They’re so petty, and they’re constantly judging other people, like hens on a fence. I’m sure it’s nothing too serious,” Liddy said.

Hayley debated with herself.

Maybe Liddy was right.

She should probably just let the two of them work it out on their own.

But Helen left the church crying.

Whatever conflict was boiling over was definitely not some silly inconsequential disagreement. It appeared far more grievous.

Hayley touched Liddy’s arm. “Please, just five minutes.”

Liddy threw her hands up in the air. “Fine. But I expect you to bring me back a Sauvignon Blanc and make sure it’s chilled.”

Hayley turned to go when a man started shouting from across the room. All eyes turned to Ed Willoughby, the owner of the local jewelry store, Willoughby’s Rock Shop, who was standing at a card table with an empty display case situated in the middle and a clipboard of silent auction bid sheets and a ballpoint pen next to it.

“It’s gone!” Ed Willoughby cried.

Reverend Ted came running from the kitchen, alerted to the commotion. “What’s gone, Ed?”

Ed Willoughby took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to collect himself before announcing with great distress, “The ring I donated for the silent auction. Someone just stole it! It was right there in the case. I turned away for just a few seconds, and when I turned back, it was suddenly missing! Someone stole it! That ring is worth two thousand dollars!”

There were surprised gasps from the crowd.

Hayley grabbed her phone from the back pocket of her slacks. “I’ll call the police!”

Chapter Three

Randy’s husband and Hayley’s brother-in-law, Bar Harbor police chief Sergio Alvares, who had arrived just moments earlier, was busy questioning a discombobulated Ed Willoughby. Poor Ed was still in a state of shock from the brazen theft of his expensive diamond ring. Meanwhile, Hayley watched an agitated Reverend Ted, nervously chewing on his left thumb fingernail, race around the room taking inventory of all the donations to make sure nothing else was missing.

It was total pandemonium in the church basement as people wanted to leave the bazaar to go finish their Christmas shopping or decorate their tree or visit relatives, only to be corralled by Lieutenant Donnie and Officer Earl as if they were flustered chickens clucking around in a coop. No one was allowed to leave until Chief Sergio had the opportunity to question each and every one of them and search their bags and purses. It appeared to Hayley to be a fruitless task since in the ten minutes it took for the police to arrive after she called them there were about two dozen people who had slipped out. And it was entirely possible that one of those people had left with the stolen ring.

Liddy and Mona stood by their baskets, protectively guarding them so no sticky-fingered thief could attempt to make off with them, although Hayley highly doubted there was any cause for concern. Pilfering a small ring in the palm of your hand was much easier than trying to snatch an oversized cellophane-wrapped gift basket.

Hayley approached them. “I heard Reverend Ted is considering postponing the raffle until tomorrow since Sergio still needs to question everybody and that could take hours.”

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