Page 58 of Christmas Mittens Murder

Mia could tell the moment Mark Baldwin saw her through his open door. She had just walked into the small Magic Springs police station. His face always gave away his thoughts. At least to her. The lobby was decorated with a small tree and a pile of presents underneath. If Mia guessed right, she’d say that Sarah had probably filled the boxes with presents for all the officers. She waited while Mark stood and called out to the officer sitting at the desk by the door. “Let her come on back. I might as well get this over with.”

Mia smiled at the officer and then pushed through the small half door that divided the two-chair waiting area from the rest of the bullpen. The door had a smiling elf hung on it. Hardened criminals would find themselves being booked in an over-the-top Christmas experience. But again, it was Magic Springs. Hardened criminals didn’t usually hang out in town.

Mia set the box of cookies she’d packed that morning on Mark’s desk as she came into the office and sat down. “Good morning, how’s Sarah?”

“She’s huge and grumpy about it. If the doctor hadn’t told me we weren’t, I’d suspect we were having twins.” He peeked into the box and pulled out a cookie. “I’ll run these home at lunch. If she finds out I’ve eaten them without her, I’ll be in trouble. She’s having sweet cravings this week.”

“I could have Abigail add a dozen to her delivery run tomorrow if you want.” Mia pulled out a notebook so she’d remember to mention it.

“That would be great. She sent me to Majors yesterday, but they were out of the cookies she wanted. Some sort of snowballs? Her mom made them, and now Sarah can’t find the recipe. Her sister is in Europe on a trip with her husband and she doesn’t remember the recipe.”

“They go by a lot of names, but I probably can whip her up a batch. It might not be exactly her mom’s recipe, but maybe it will curb the cravings until her sister can get it to her.” Mia wrote down Mexican Wedding Cookies, the name she knew for snowball cookies.

“That would be great. Now I’m sure you didn’t come over just to drop off cookies. You know I can’t talk about the murder at the Lodge, right?” He opened the box again and took out a second cookie.

“I know, but I’m worried about it. Does his murder have anything to do with Christina’s school? You know that Geoffrey taught there.” Mia laid on the concern in her voice.

“From what I can tell, no. The school checked out. No angry students. No rival professors. He was well liked by all. From what I can tell, it’s either random, or . . .” He stopped, and his face went red.

“Or?” Mia prodded.

“Or it was something or someone from his relationships with women outside his marital vows. I’ve heard some strange things about his marriage. But his wife, she was on a plane when he was killed. I know she didn’t do it.” He picked up a cookie and then set it down. “People just get themselves into a pickle sometimes.”

“Yes, they do.” Mia realized Mark didn’t know anything more than what she did. She stood and buttoned her coat. Then she stopped, holding her gloves in front of her. “Oh, random question. When your guys cleared the scene, no one found a red mitten with a silver snowflake on it, did they? I was wearing them after the party and I came home with only one. My mom made them for me, so I’d hate to break up the set.”

He pulled out a folder and opened it. Scanning a page, he shook his head. “No mitten. There were strands of fake fur on his coat, but his date said she was wearing a black fur stole over her party dress.” He paused and tapped the paper. “Funny thing about his date. I guess they got in a fight at the party and he left without her. She used to work at the Lodge with you.”

“He had a date? But he was married.” Mia slipped on her gloves.

“He was married. And he had a date going into the party. But not one coming out. If she hadn’t still been at the party dancing with some chef from the Lodge when Brewer was found dead, I would have suspected her. Unless of course the coroner rules this an accident. The parking lot was slick. Maybe he just fell and hit his head. But if not, I think I’ve still got several people to interview who Mr. Brewer was seeing while his wife was in California working. Long-distance romances just set themselves up for this nonsense.” His cell phone started ringing. “Sorry, it’s Sarah. I need to get this.”

Mia said her goodbyes. Sarah Baldwin probably had a spell on her husband to warn her when a discussion with any single female went too long. The coven would deny it, since they thought once you gave up your power, it was all gone. But Mia knew this wasn’t true. At least not for everyone. She sent a Hi, Sarah, message through the Goddess and laughed when she felt the surprise on the other end. Then the connection ended.

Mia thought about the mitten. Someone had to have taken both mittens from Geoffrey’s body and then dropped one on the way back to the Lodge. She decided to go back to the Lodge and see whether she could watch the security tapes again. If she was right, someone must have followed Geoffrey out into the parking lot, waited for the mittens to do their work, and then either come back into the Lodge before Mia’s group left or got in a car and drove away with one mitten.

She started up the van and called Abigail while she waited for the inside of the car to warm up again. “Hey, I’ve got to run to the Lodge real quick and then I’ll be back to help. Can we add a batch of cookies to the prep list?”

“Sure, what kind?”

She told Abigail about Sarah’s craving, and Abigail promised to get the cookies started. “Oh, did you see anyone coming into the Lodge while we were going out Friday night? ”

Abigail paused for a moment.

Finally she spoke. “I can’t remember. It’s funny. It’s as if there’s a blank spot between when we got our coats and when Christina picked up the mitten. That’s odd, isn’t it?”

Mia said goodbye and thought about what she remembered. Abigail was right, there was a blank spot. Someone had adjusted their memories of that night. She drove to the Lodge and went straight to the security desk.

Carl was there, and he greeted her with a smile. “You came in for the staff meeting? I would have thought you’d try to stay away on your days off. Your boss is a bit of a slave driver. At least at home you can tell him you’ll do it later.”

Mia groaned as she looked at her watch. Carl was right. The staff meeting was in less than an hour. “Hoping to get back home before he sees me. Can you do me a favor? Cue up Friday night’s tape just before they found Professor Brewer? I lost a mitten and I was hoping I didn’t have it when I went outside.”

He pulled out the lost and found and took out a blue pair. “This is all that’s been turned in. Are these yours?”

“No, sorry, it’s red with a silver snowflake. I have one at the house but not the mate.” She rolled her eyes. “I guess I had one too many on Friday night. Thank goodness Abigail drove.”

“A lot of people had one too many that night. We put up several of the kitchen staff in rooms. Management approved a boys’ room and a girls’ room, so I know several people slept on the floor.” He went to his computer, then waved her around the desk. “Here’s fifteen minutes before you reported the incident.”

“Okay, there we are getting our coats.” She leaned closer to watch them walk toward the door. Then they vanished. “Roll that back. What happened there?”

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