Page 60 of Christmas Mittens Murder

“I’ll be there in five minutes as long as I don’t hit traffic.” Mia hung up the call. She prayed to the Goddess to have clear and safe roads to the Lodge. And for the Magic Springs traffic police officers to be on the other side of town.

She didn’t get an answer. Not even a giggle from Gloria, so Mia figured the Goddess was working on her request.

Four minutes later, she pulled into the parking lot and left the car in front of the front door of the Lodge. Hank, from valet, approached her as she ran to the door. “Sorry, I’ll be right in and out.”

“Miss Malone, it’s regulation to have employees park in the back lot,” Hank called after her, but she just held up her hand with the keys as she hurried into the lobby. Kate and James were just going into the coatroom. He hadn’t been able to stall her for long. James saw Mia run by and nodded. He’d try to give her more time.

She dialed Mark’s number as she ran through the lobby and to the back area that held the kitchen and the employee breakroom and locker room. She got his voice mail. “Hey, Mark, I think I know who killed Geoffrey Brewer. I’m down at the Lodge, and I think I might have a clue to prove it if you want to get down here now.”

Mia hung up and pushed through the door to the locker room. Tasha had told her that she had locker 403. Mia walked toward it and felt the fuzz in her tote pull toward the band of lockers. The other mitten was there. She used an unlocking spell on the old locker. She could claim it hadn’t been locked when she got here. Staff members were always complaining that their lockers either didn’t lock or wouldn’t open. “Reserare,” she commanded, and then tried to open the locker. The door stuck, but she jiggled it open. The designer dress skirt’s fabric piled out of the locker, and Mia grabbed the hanger and brought the dress out. The dress didn’t have pockets. She shook it, no mitten fell.

Then she turned back to the locker. A tire iron was in the locker along with a plastic bag with a single red mitten. Her tote pulled toward the locker, the bit of fuzz stronger now, trying to match up with its mitten. Mia grabbed the plastic bag and then took a picture of the locker with the red-tinged tire iron. She texted it to Mark.

Her phone rang as she was putting the dress back into the locker.

“Where are you?” Mark asked.

“The employee locker room at the Lodge. Look, I can’t stay here and Kate Brewer is in the lobby getting ready to come here and get the dress. She’s probably going to pretend to ‘find’ the tire iron.” She saw the security chief walk past in the hallway. “Hold on a second, Mark. Hey, Carl?”

She explained that the police were on their way and he needed to keep everyone out of the locker room. Carl got on his cell and called in reinforcements. Mia went back to her phone call. “Okay, Mark, Carl’s going to keep everyone away until you get here. Call me if you need something. I’ve got to get back to cooking.”

“Mia, how did you find this?” Mark asked.

She hung up the phone, hoping he’d think that she didn’t hear the question. She needed to figure out a reason she had gone to Tasha’s locker and it couldn’t be that she wanted to borrow the dress.

She saw that a security guard was now standing by the coatroom, blocking Kate from leaving. James nodded at her, and she ran to the car. She’d have a lot of explaining to do, but she had to get this mitten to its match. She could feel Christina’s distress now, even at this distance.

The car was where Mia left it, but Hank had closed the door she’d left wide open. She waved at him and then took off to the house. She saw Hank coming out to talk to her, but again, that would have to be an apology for later. She didn’t have the time. She called home.

When she arrived, she parked the Land Rover near the door and ran into the school and up the stairs. Grans met her in the living room with the other mitten.

She opened the bag and let Grans dump the one bag into the other. Sparks flew.

Abigail came out of Christina’s room. “Did you match them?”

“Yes. How is she?” Mia sealed the bag with the two mittens cuddled up next to each other.

Abigail sighed as she sank against the wall. “No change.”

Chapter Ten

“Are you sure?” Mia dropped her tote and ran into Christina’s bathroom. Her face was pale and her breathing raspy. The mittens match hadn’t changed anything. Mia touched her face. “Hold on, Christina, we’re going to figure this out.”

She went back to the living room and picked up the bag with the killer mittens. They were quiet now. Cuddled up together. Two peas in a pod.

“Levi should be here in a couple of hours. Then we can try the Sleeping Beauty cure.” Abigail glanced at her phone. “They just landed in Boise.”

“Tell them to hurry.” Grans met Mia’s gaze. “I’m not sure how much longer she can hold on.”

Mia stared at the mittens. It should have worked. The lore around the mittens was that one person had to die when they were used. One person. Geoffrey had been killed by his wife. Well, not exactly by his wife, but she’d planned it. Mia was certain of that fact. Now to figure out who had helped her. Mia’s phone rang. “Hello?”

“What had you running out of here like your school was on fire?” Mark Baldwin asked.

“Sorry, Mark, Christina’s not feeling well. We may have to take her to the hospital. She’s got some kind of virus. What’s going on?” Mia pulled out her notebook and another bag came out with it. She really needed to clean out her purse. There was something she was forgetting. She could feel it. With everything going on with Christina, she’d thought it had been around that, but now she needed to remember what it was that was said. It was important and on the tip of her tongue. Before she could grab it, Mark asked her another question.

“Why do you think Kate Brewer killed her husband?” Mark sounded as if he’d just shut a door. “I hate to do this, but even Sarah thinks you know something that might be important.”

“I think she set Tasha Alberts up to look like she was having an affair with Geoffrey. Then once that was set, she had someone in town attack him. According to Tasha, she was just hanging out with Geoffrey to help out Kate. She’d been asked to keep an eye on him since Kate thought he was cheating when she was out of town. Tasha was going to tell him she wasn’t interested that night.” Mia flipped the notebook to what she’d written down after talking to Tasha.

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