Page 59 of Christmas Mittens Murder

Carl frowned and ran the digital feed again. “It must have been a power glitch. That happens sometimes and the cameras turn off. See, there’s a difference of a minute in the time clock. Sorry, I didn’t see your mittens.”

She watched as the three of them disappeared off the screen again. She hadn’t seen anyone come in, but if the killer had come inside then, they’d wiped away the evidence. And probably by magic, since Carl stated the power glitches happened a lot. “Thanks, I’ll go check the ballroom and the kitchen.”

“Check the coatroom too. Sometimes Mandy isn’t as careful with coats and mittens as she should be.” Carl tapped his watch. “Don’t let time get away from you.”

Since Carl was watching, she went inside the coatroom first. A black fur was the lone item in the room. She almost left without checking it, but then she remembered what Mark had told her about the black fur on Geoffrey’s coat. She approached it carefully, keeping her gloves on as she checked to see if the fur had pockets. And it did. This had to have been part of Tasha’s outfit. She carefully checked the pockets, and they were empty. Except for a lone red bit of yarn fuzz. She set the fuzz on a counter and used her senses to feel for any power. It was faint, but it was there. And it was crying for its place on the mittens. She grabbed a bag and put the fuzz inside.

Looking at her watch, she saw she had just enough time to get home and sign on to the meeting, if she didn’t get caught at the Lodge by Frank.

She opened the door and glanced out. Frank was coming out of the elevators to head toward the kitchen area. Which would bring him right between the coatroom and the front doors. She groaned, then watched as Carl headed over to intercept Frank. He led him away toward the back office, giving her time to escape. She saw Carl turn his head and wink at her as she hurried through the lobby to the doors.

Outside, she rushed to her van. While she was waiting for it to warm up, she called Tasha.

A groggy Tasha answered the phone. “What time is it?”

“Oh, just about nine. Anyway, this is Mia Malone. We talked yesterday? I wondered if you realize your black stole is still at the Lodge. Do you want me to hold it until you pick it up?” Mia held her breath.

“Oh, Kate’s grabbing that and the dress from my locker. I couldn’t fit both of them in my locker, so I had to leave the stole at coat check. She should be there soon to pick it up. I hear she came into town late Friday night. She called me Saturday morning, well, afternoon, and asked where the dress was.” She mumbled something to someone else in the room. “Anyway, she said she’d grab it or send Edward. Look, I’ve got to go.”

And with that, she hung up.

So Kate knew Edward. Unless there were two Edwards in the coven, Mia was beginning to think her meeting at Mother Adams’s party wasn’t just a coincidence. She sat in the parking lot staring at the Lodge door. If she went to the staff locker room, Frank would see her and make her attend the staff meeting in person. And then he’d have something else for her to do. Abigail needed help with the cooking. Mia put the van in gear and headed home. She’d come back this evening and check Tasha’s locker. She hoped that Kate wouldn’t come to clean it out before Mia could get there. And if she did, Mia would go over to her house and demand the other mitten.

She didn’t know what game Kate Brewer was playing, but she knew she was deeply involved in her husband’s murder. Now she just needed to figure out how to prove it and save Christina at the same time.

* * *

As soon as she got off the conference call, Mia ran to the kitchen to wash her hands and put on an apron. Abigail handed Mia a recipe and she started getting ready to bake. Bowl, spoon, dry ingredients were all on her table. Mia went back to the fridge a third time to get an ingredient for this recipe. Last trip, she hadn’t grabbed butter.

Abigail walked over and glanced at the mise en place Mia had set up for her first cookie recipe. She arranged the ingredients by order of use in the baking. “You’re distracted. What’s going on?”

“I have this feeling that something bad is going to happen.” Mia set the butter on the table and told Abigail about talking to Tasha and finding the mitten lint in the coat closet. “I would have told you sooner, but I wanted to at least get one batch of cookies in before we chatted. I have a feeling that the dress is the key. But I can’t go back there now. We’ve got hours of cooking to do for the delivery tomorrow.”

“Why don’t you run now, and I’ll make these cookies. I’ve called in reinforcements. The guys are coming home. I had a feeling too. I told Thomas to get Levi and Trent on a plane today, no matter what, and he called a few minutes ago to let me know they were boarding. If we can’t find the mitten, we’ll use the Sleeping Beauty cure.” Abigail glanced at her watch. “If we need help cooking, we’ll bring Trent and Thomas in this evening. They can at least pack up the deliveries for us.”

“I’ll get these done and then go.” Mia grabbed a bowl and dumped in the butter so she could use the stand mixer to cream it with the sugar. “I’m regretting telling Mark we’d do these snowballs.”

The kitchen door opened, and Grans hurried into the room. “We’ve got a problem. Christina’s crashing. The goop isn’t holding her anymore. We need to get Levi home, now.”

“Already ahead of you. Luckily, it’s a direct flight to Boise. They’ll be on the ground by noon, so here by two?” Abigail took a towel and wiped some green goop out of Grans’s silver hair.

“I wish we had that mitten. That would stop all this.” Grans swatted Abigail’s hand away and took the towel.

“I’m leaving now.” Mia knew now why she was having the bad feeling. She should have taken the time at the Lodge to check the locker room. She turned off the mixer and grabbed her tote. “I’ll go check Tasha’s locker, and if the mitten isn’t there, I’m going back to Kate’s house and making her tell me where it is.”

“Okay, but call me if you’re heading over to the Brewers’. I don’t want you to go there alone,” Abigail called after her.

Mia heard Grans ask Abigail what was going on. At least she’d be up to speed when Mia got back, hopefully with the missing mitten. As she walked through the parking lot, she realized she’d left the keys to the van in the kitchen. She’d pulled it close to the back door so it would be easier to load tomorrow. She dug out Christina’s Land Rover keys from her tote. She hadn’t put them back in Christina’s everyday purse on Saturday night. She remote started the car, then unlocked it. She had to wait for the car to warm up, and while she did, she called James.

He picked up on the second ring. “Hey, can you believe the nerve of Frank today? He made it seem like we’d chosen the caterer for the party.”

“I wanted to strangle him through the computer screen. I need your help with something. Tasha Alberts left a dress in her locker. Kate Brewer is supposed to be picking it up, or maybe someone for her. If she gets there before I do, can you stall her?” Mia turned on the windshield wipers to help deice the window. The back window was already clear.

“Oddly enough, she’s already here. I was just called downstairs to take her to the locker. I’m just waiting for my supply audit program to finish running. How long will it be for you to get here?”

“Ten minutes. Maybe take her some coffee and tell her you have to find the extra locker key? She shouldn’t have Tasha’s, but she might. If she does, you’ll have to figure another way to distract her.” Mia decided she could see through the windows. “It’s really important that she doesn’t get into that locker before I do. If you have to, take her to the coatroom to get the stole first.”

“You’re going to explain this later, right?” James asked. He groaned. “I just got another message from the front desk. She’s in a hurry.”

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