Page 6 of Christmas Mittens Murder

“Oh no!” Betty Dyer screamed at the top of her lungs, stunning the whole room into silence.

Helen whipped her head around toward Betty, who stood at the table staring at her specially made gift basket. “What’s wrong now, Betty?”

Betty plucked a lone mitten out of the basket. “One of the mittens I made is missing! It was right here just a few minutes ago.” She fixed her angry gaze on Rosana and her Happy Hookers. “Did one of you take it?”

Rosana laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Why would any of us want to steal one of your lousy, poorly made mittens?”

Betty waved at Chief Sergio, who stood watching the whole embarrassing scene with frustration. “If you want to arrest the guilty party and recover the ring and my mitten, you might want to consider a body search of Rosana Moretti’s evil coven of witches!”

Sergio’s shoulders sank.

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Four

Hayley had not really meant to eavesdrop on Sergio questioning the attendees at the Christmas bazaar in the church basement, but as she wandered down the hall upstairs near the reverend’s office she could clearly hear the chief talking with a woman, whom Hayley quickly recognized as Abby Weston. She was a nondescript pleasant woman who once dated a local seafood company owner, who had sadly passed last summer. After the sudden passing of her boyfriend, Abby was grateful to be a long-standing member of Helen Woodworth’s knitting circle because it gave her something to focus on, allowing her to keep her mind off her grief. Hayley had heard through the grapevine that it was Abby, as one of the founding members, who had thought up the name for the group, the Crochet Mafia.

Hayley had to strain to hear what Abby was saying, since Abby was usually so demure and soft-spoken, so she quietly tiptoed down the hall until she was literally loitering right outside the door, which luckily was open just a crack.

Hayley craned her neck around and peered through the door, spotting Abby sitting in a hardback chair, her pert nose twitchy as she anxiously fidgeted with her sweater.

“You seem nervous, Abby,” Sergio observed.

That was quite an understatement.

“I suppose I am,” Abby whispered. “I am not used to being so closely associated with a crime.”

That was not entirely true.

Abby’s boyfriend, the seafood king, had been the victim of foul play, although it turned out she had nothing to do with his untimely demise.

“What do you mean by closely associated?” Sergio gently asked.

Hayley could see Abby’s body stiffen. “What I meant to say was, I am not in the habit of being around a crime scene. The thought of that makes me very uncomfortable. When I was ten, I went to the five-and-dime with my older brother and he stole a package of licorice and I got so scared I hyperventilated to the point where the cashier had to call for an ambulance, which of course led to one of the paramedics spotting the licorice sticking out of my brother’s coat pocket. They didn’t dare charge him, because they were so afraid I would suffer a seizure on the spot, so they let him off with a warning.”

There was a long pause as Sergio took in all of this information. Then he said, “I am no doctor, Abby, but it looks like you might hyperventilate right now. Does that mean you saw something?”

“No!” Abby shot back much too quickly.

Hayley could practically hear Abby’s heart thumping in her chest from the hallway.

Sergio leaned closer toward her. “Are you sure?”

“Please, Chief Alvares. You are putting me in a very awkward position,” Abby cried.

“By asking you a few questions?”

“But I told you, I don’t know anything,” Abby said.

She was a terrible liar.

“Abby, in my experience, it’s always best to tell what you know as soon as possible. Because the truth will come out eventually. And if it turns out you lied or withheld information, then you could find yourself in trouble as well,” Sergio warned her.

Abby reared back, horrified. “Are you going to arrest me?”

“No,” Sergio said before pausing and ominously adding, “not if you come clean with any information you know.”

Abby sighed. “I just don’t want to get anyone into trouble.”

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