2 Yule Be the Death of Me (5 page)

“You like
cream and sugar?” Sally asked from the kitchen, which was divided from the
living room by a half wall.

“Neither.”
Vivienne called back.

“You reporters
are some tough cookies.” Sally stepped out of the kitchen with two mugs of
coffee. “Must be hard seeing all those horrible murders and such.”

Vivienne took
her mug and sipped the coffee. “You develop a thick skin after your first
encounter.” She wasn’t lying this time. Having dealt with murder when her
bakery first opened, she was starting to feel like a seasoned veteran.

Sally walked
her through the living room, past a bathroom, into a large spare bedroom where
three children were happily playing restaurant with a plastic kitchen set.
Sally pointed to a blond girl with pig tails who looked to be about four or
five years old. “That’s my granddaughter, Hannah.”

Hannah looked
up at them from the play stove where she was flipping plastic eggs with her
spatula. “You want some eggs
Grammie
?”

Sally shook
her head. “Not right now, sweetie.” She pointed to a little fair-haired boy
stood next to Hannah waiting to use the stove. “That’s Mason, her twin brother.
Aren’t they just precious?”

Mason stomped
his feet on the ground. “
Grammie
, Hannah is taking
too long with the oven.” He pouted.

“Am not.”
Hannah raised her spatula up at him.

“Am too.”
Mason stuck out his tongue.

“Stop fighting
or I’ll put it away.” Sally sternly put her hands on her hips.

Vivienne
guessed that the brown haired boy in the denim overalls had to be Connor. He
sat at the little table playing with a teapot and some cups. “So that’s
Connor?”

Sally nodded.
“That’s him.”

Connor looked
up at them for a moment and then when back to pretending to pour liquid into
the cups.

“How old is
he?” Vivienne asked.

“He’s four.”

She smiled and
knelt down to the table where Connor was sitting. “Hello Connor. My name is
Vera and I’m a friend of your babysitter, Mrs. Rollins.”

Connor looked
up at her and then over to Sally.

“She’s a good
friend of mine, Connor. She wants to talk with you.”

Connor studied
her with his deep green eyes. He set the teapot down and handed her a little
cup. “
Wanna
drink?”

“You two share
a drink while I go freshen up my clothes.” Sally smiled and hurried away.

Vivienne sat
down on the floor and folded her legs. “That sounds wonderful. Is it tea?”

“Hot cocoa an’
marshmallows.” He replied.

“That’s my
favorite.” She smiled and accepted the little cup. “Do you like whipped cream
in it too?”

He nodded and
took a sip out of his cup. “Mommy doesn’t buy it
cause
it costs too much money.”

“It can be,
yes.” She agreed.

“Do you work
for Santa Claus?” He asked her.

“Why do you
ask?”

He sniffed the
air. “You smell like cookies.”

Vivienne shook
her head. “I don’t work for Santa, but I spend a lot of time at a bakery where
cookies are made. Do you like cookies Connor?”

He nodded
back. “I like chocolate chip with lots of chips.”

“How many
chips do you like in your cookies?”

He held up his
hands and spread his fingers. “This many.”

She whistled.
“That’s a lot of chips.”

“Can you make
me some?”

“I’m sure
Hannah and Mason will let us use the oven.”

“I’m not done
yet.” Mason protested from the oven.

“Yes you are.”
Hannah interrupted. “You
hafta
’ share.”

Mason started
to cry. Hannah walked away from the oven and sat down at the table next to
Connor. “He’s such a baby.”

“Am not.”
Mason shouted back between tears.

Vivienne felt
completely out of her element. She looked at Connor. “We better wait on those
cookies until Mason is finished.”

At that, Mason
suddenly dried his tears and went back to shoving pans in the little plastic
oven. “I can make cookies.”

Connor sighed
and went back to pouring more imaginary cocoa from the little teapot. “I wanted
real cookies.”

Vivienne felt
her heart break a little. “Next time I come to visit I’ll bring some real ones.
I promise.”

He looked at
her with his expressive eyes and nodded. “Okay.”

The doorbell
rang twice and Vivienne could feel Sally’s footfalls on the floor as she
hurried to the door. “Who is it?”

“Sheriff’s
office.” A familiar voice sounded back through the door.

Vivienne
pulled herself up and stepped out to the living room just as Sally opened the
front door and let Joshua and Sheriff
Rigsbee
inside.
She had changed into a holiday sweater of glittering red poinsettias pulled
over a pair of black stirrup pants. Vivienne was quite certain the festive
outfit would take top honors at an ‘Ugly Christmas Sweater’ party. The curlers
and scarf were gone, replaced with curled salt and pepper hair that had a bit
of a static frizz problem.

“Oh, I thought
you had the news crew with you.” Sally’s voice dropped with disappointment.

“We were told
you were babysitting Connor Burdick.” Joshua stepped past her. “Vivienne?”

Sally shook
her head. “No, this is Vera French from the newspaper. She’s writing a story
about what happened to Eddie Robertson.”

“Is that true,
Ms. French?” Sheriff
Rigsbee
eyed her warily.

Vivienne gave
a little smile. “I was just checking out the facts to see if there was a story
here.”

Joshua bit
down on his lower lip which was a sure sign that he was quite annoyed.

“I don’t think
the media needs to be involved at this stage of the investigation.” Sheriff
Rigsbee
gave her a stern look. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

Vivienne
nodded meekly. “You’re right, Sheriff. I apologize for the intrusion.”

“Deputy
Arkins
, will you please escort Ms. French back to her car?”

Joshua nodded
to him. “Yes sir.” He gestured for Vivienne to follow him outside.

Vivienne
smiled at Sally. “Thank you for your time this morning, Mrs. Rollins.”

Sally nodded.
“If you have any more questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.”

“Please come
with me.” Joshua spoke to Vivienne and opened the front door.

Vivienne
followed him outside. As soon as they were out of earshot, he exhaled and shook
his head. “Vivienne, what the hell are you doing?”

“I was just
checking on Connor to make sure he was okay.” Vivienne answered.

“Why are you
hanging around a crime scene telling everyone you’re a reporter?” Joshua
pressed further. “Shouldn’t you be at the bakery?”

“It’s kind of
a funny story actually.” Vivienne tried to lighten the mood.

“I don’t have time
because I have to work.” Joshua snapped back. “You masquerading as someone else
isn’t making that any easier.”

“I’m sorry,
Joshua. I didn’t mean to get in the way.”

“Sheriff
Rigsbee
is going to rake me over the coals about you being
here.”

“I wasn’t poking
around the crime scene or anything. I really was just here to make sure Connor
was okay.”

“We’ve called
in a social worker to take care of that.” Joshua continued.

“Is Eddie
going to be okay?” Vivienne asked.

Joshua
shrugged. “He looked pretty bad when they took him away. Wasn’t responsive and
he lost a lot of blood.”

Vivienne
thought about Connor and lowered her head. “The poor little kid has no idea. He
wasn’t upset or anything.”

“Kids are
tougher than you think.” Joshua reminded her. “Now please, just get in your car
and go.”

“Okay.”
Vivienne moved to kiss him but Joshua pulled away and walked back toward
Sally’s trailer.

She climbed
into her car and leaned back against the head rest. “So much for good will
toward men.”

Tuesday, December 3rd

Clara
Bunton
, the proprietor of Clara’s Diner, held the nozzle of
the whipped cream dispenser just above a mug of her famous ‘Dark
Of The
Moon’ hot chocolate. “Heavy on the whip?”  She
asked in her usual matronly tone
  to
Vivienne.

“Absolutely.”
Vivienne nodded back.

Clara sprayed
a hefty mound of the whipped cream onto the surface of the hot chocolate. “You
haven’t had one of those days in quite some time.  Want to talk about it?”

Vivienne
unwrapped the spoon from her paper napkin and stirred the quickly melting
whipped cream into her drink. “Let’s just say that I sort of stuck my nose
where it doesn’t belong and Joshua is going to take the heat for it.”

Clara smoothed
out the creases along her soft pink uniform top and smiled. “Men always want
women to think that.  It makes them feel better because it saves them the
trouble of having to admit they’ve probably missed something obvious.”

Vivienne
smiled and took a sip from her mug. “It’s not like I go out looking for
trouble.  It just sort of has a way of finding me.”

Clara aimed
the whipped cream at the hot chocolate and sprayed another puffy cloud. “Funny,
I always thought that more about your mother.”

“Whoa.”
Vivienne joked. “It’s hard enough keeping a trim figure when you work with
sweets all
  day
.”

“Vivienne
Finch, as I live and breathe, you do not have an extra ounce anywhere on that
body.” Clara scolded her with her hands on her hips.

“I’m just
saying I’d like to stay that way, at least until the wedding.”  Vivienne
interrupted. 

Clara’s pencil-thin
eyebrows shot upwards. “A wedding? Did he propose?”

Vivienne
shushed her with a wave of her hands. “No. It’s much too soon for that
anyways.”

Clara did the
math in her head. “You met in September, so I can see your point.”

“We’re still
living in separate homes.” Vivienne reasoned. “We haven’t even tried to move in
together yet.”

“I envy you
young people.” Clara spoke as she wrapped flatware in paper napkins and tossed
them into a plastic bin. “We never had that option in our day.”

“Was it easy for
you and Jake to move in with each other?” Vivienne asked.

Clara
shrugged. “We actually had to move in with his parents for about a year before
we saved up enough to buy a house.”

“That must
have been awkward.” Vivienne took another sip of her cocoa.

“Not really.
His parents owned a duplex and we rented the other side of their house. It
wasn’t a bad place, but having your mother-in-law so close wasn’t ideal.” Clara
smiled.

“I’ll bet.”
Vivienne smiled. “I’ve never met anyone in Joshua’s family.”

“Where do they
live?”

Vivienne
cupped her hands around the warm mug. “Indian Lake.”

“I’ve never
heard of it.  Is it in the state?”

“Yes, up in
the Adirondack region.” Vivienne mused as her thoughts drifted back to Natalie
and Connor. “It’s so easy to take family for granted.”

Clara finished
wrapping up the flatware for the dinner rush and tucked the big plastic bin
under the counter. “How do you mean?”

“Well, I guess
when you have nice relatives you sort of forget what it could be like to live
with the opposite.” Vivienne sighed.

“There are
always some nasty ones in everyone’s family.” Clara wondered. “My Aunt Sarah
had quite the tart tongue whenever she came to visit.  Always running her
white gloves over my furniture and clucking her tongue.”

“If that’s the
worst that his family dishes out I can live with that.” Vivienne tried not to
spill what had happened but she just couldn’t keep it in any longer. She tapped
her fingers on the counter nervously.  “If I tell you something, you need
to promise it goes no further until I say so.”

Clara leaned
close to Vivienne. “There’s no one here except you, me, and Harold in the
kitchen.” She cast a wary eye back toward the kitchen order window. “He’s too
busy studying the scratch sheets from Off Track
Betting
to hear anything. I think we’re safe.”

Vivienne took
a breath. “Well, the reason Joshua was upset with me was because of a family
situation here in town. Do you know a woman named Natalie Burdick?”

Clara paused
for a moment in thought. “Can’t say that I do. Is she new in town?”

 “She and
her family moved here about six months ago. They live out at the trailer court
where Tall Pine Grove was supposed to build.”

“I don’t know
anyone who lives out there.” Clara sniffed. “Nor would I really want to.”

“It’s not that
bad, actually.” Vivienne continued. “Not everyone can afford a home here in
town.”

“Which is why
things are so nice.” Clara reasoned. “It only takes a few weeds to ruin a
perfect lawn.”

Vivienne knew
this was how many of the locals in Cayuga Cove felt. When someone moved into
town, they were considered an outsider for months. They were judged on how well
they maintained their new home, how they conducted themselves at public
functions, and how deftly they steered clear of the gossip train. Once a
reasonable quality of character had been established, they were welcomed into
the fold with open arms. “Well, a certain weed named Eddie Robertson was shot
out there today.”

Clara blinked
in response. “Eddie Robertson?”

“You know
him?”

Clara reached
into one of her large apron pockets and pulled out a red sheet of paper. “The
subject of this Bad Santa note?”

Vivienne
nodded. “They were all over town.”

“I found this
one taped to the diner door this morning.” Clara’s eyes narrowed. “This is why
we need to keep people like that out.”

“Well, Eddie
looked to be in pretty bad shape when the paramedics took him away.  I was
talking with one of the neighbors who lived nearby and then Joshua and Sheriff
Rigsby
found me.”

“So what?”
Clara sniffed.  “Is it against the law to talk to people anymore?”

Vivienne
lowered her head a bit. “And, I sort of told the neighbor I was a newspaper
reporter named Vera French who was chasing the story about what really
happened.”

Clara let out
a little laugh. “Why on earth would you do something like that?”

“Because the
other night at the gingerbread house contest I had a run in with Natalie and
Eddie.  He was so mean to her.  I just felt like I needed to find out
what was going on.”

Clara clucked
her tongue. “As a Christian woman I must say that I’m shocked and appalled at
this sort of behavior.”

Vivienne
nodded. “I know.”

Clara leaned
closer. “Now that God’s heard that, please continue with all the juicy
details.”

Vivienne did
her best to explain the rest of the situation to Clara who was more than happy
to be the first to know the real story of what happened at Tall Pine Grove.

It was well
after lunch when she returned to the Sweet Dreams Bakery. Stephanie, as she had
never doubted, had everything working like clockwork.

“Thanks for holding
down the fort.” Vivienne said to Stephanie as she tied on her apron and pulled
out some chilled butter cookie dough from the refrigerator.

“You just
missed Eunice Kilpatrick.” Stephanie washed some red sprinkles off her hands.
“She kept nosing around looking for you, but pretended she was shopping for
gifts.”

“She’s not the
most subtle creature.” Vivienne laughed.

“I kept
pestering her until she bought a candy cane
whoopie
pie and left.” Stephanie yanked a paper towel off the spinner and dried her hands.
“She knows something is up.”

 “Well
she’s not going to hear anything from me.” Vivienne began to work the cold
cookie dough with her hands. It always felt good to knead and press the stress
away. “It seems pretty quiet today. If you’d like to go home early and study
that’s fine with me.”

Stephanie
nodded. “I could use a little extra study time after the past few days.”

“Oh, and
before you leave be sure to take your paycheck. I left it under the register
drawer.” Vivienne reached for her marble rolling pin and began to flatten the
dough on the worktable.

Stephanie
grabbed her coat, purse, and hat from the back room and marched over to the
register. “If you get busy, give me a call.”

“I’ll be
fine.” Vivienne appreciated how much Stephanie cared about the store. She had
heard from other business owners how unenthusiastic and apathetic their young
adult employees could be, but she had lucked out. Here was a young woman who
took her job as seriously as her schooling. Vivienne sometimes felt guilty when
she thought of the day that Stephanie would finish college and leave for her
own career. Would she ever find someone like her again or would she become one
of those owners who had to watch every move their young employees made?

Stephanie
opened the envelope to sign her paycheck when two crisp hundred dollar bills
fluttered to the floor. “What’s this?”

Vivienne
played dumb as she ran her rolling pin across the cookie dough. “What’s what?”

Stephanie
knelt down and grasped the hundred dollar bills in her hand. “Some of your
store cash wound up in the envelope with my check.”

Vivienne shook
her head. “I didn’t do it. Must have been one of those Christmas elves you hear
about.”

Stephanie’s
bottom lip began to quiver. “You really shouldn’t have.”

“You deserve
all that and more.” Vivienne smiled brightly. “I couldn’t have come this far
without your help.”

Stephanie
rushed over and embraced her. “You don’t know how much I needed this.” She
fought back tears of joy.

“You have
family coming from Georgia. Go out and buy them some nice things.” Vivienne set
the rolling pin down. “Or use it to treat yourself to something nice.”

Stephanie
nodded. “You’re like the best boss ever.”

Vivienne felt
her cheeks blush. “Now go enjoy the rest of the day.”

The brass bell
over the front door rang as Todd York stepped into the shop. He rubbed his
hands together and blew on them, as his gloves had the tips missing for texting
on his phone.

“Hello Todd.”
Stephanie waved cheerfully as she walked past the counter. “How are you doing?”

“I’m just
fine, Stephanie.” Todd smiled back and studied the bakery case where a batch of
white frosted cupcakes were lined up for sale. “Why do I feel like I gain
weight just breathing the air in here?”

Stephanie
shrugged her shoulders. “I pack little baggies of cut veggies to munch on when
I’m working here.”

“I wish I had
your will power.” Todd joked and waved to Vivienne.

“I was just on
the way out, but I can help you before I leave.” Stephanie gestured to the
bakery case.

Todd shook his
head. “I’m just here to see Vivienne, not buy anything.”

“Good to see
you again.” Stephanie gave a final wave to Vivienne and exited the front door
as a gust of cold wind swirled the glass ornaments that were hung with fishing
line over the display windows.

Vivienne
stepped out to the counter. “What’s up Todd?”

He reached
into his coat pocket and pulled out the check from the gingerbread contest.
“This is yours.”  

“I thought we
were setting it aside for Natalie and Connor?”

Todd shook his
head. “I tried calling the number that we have for her but I just get a message
that the phone isn’t in service.”

Vivienne shook
her head. “I’m not surprised they’re having trouble paying the bills. Most of
those trailers are heated with propane.”

“My apartment
above the gallery has oil heat, but there’s no way I can afford to use that. So
I bought some of those little electric space heaters and use those instead.”
Todd revealed.

“My place has
natural gas so the bill isn’t too terrible.” Vivienne reasoned. “But my windows
are quite old and drafty. I’m sure more heat escapes than I’d care to know
about.”

Todd glanced
longingly at the cupcakes. He admired the perfect swirls of white frosting, the
red and green sprinkles, even the retro little plastic figures of snowmen,
angels, and Santa’s stuck on top of each one. “I really shouldn’t have one.”

Vivienne slid
the door of the case open and pulled out a cupcake. “We deserve to indulge this
month.” She set it on top of the case as she closed it up. “It’s small anyway.”

“I’ll probably
burn the calories up walking back to the gallery, right?” Todd asked as he took
the cupcake in his grasp.

“Of course!”
She reasoned. “Christmas calories are magical, don’t you know?”

Todd smiled
and took a small bite. He moaned with pleasure as the sweet vanilla buttercream
melted on his tongue.

Vivienne
thought for a moment about her words. She hadn’t really done much with her
magic in a few weeks. She had done some intensive studying with Nana Mary
leading up to Halloween, but then she sort of let it fall to the back burner as
the holidays appeared on the calendar. “I found a sealed box of those little
retro plastic cake picks at Carriage House Antiques not too long ago
. ”

Todd pulled
the snowman out from the cupcake and licked the frosting from the base.
“They’re so cute.”

“I remember
having those at school when I was a kid.” She smiled. “I used to have a whole
jewelry box full of them in my bedroom because I thought the silver and gold
paint on them was real.”

Todd finished
the cupcake and tossed the liner into a small trash bin that was near his feet.
“I used to think my grandparents were millionaires because all of their
doorknobs looked like big diamonds.” He laughed. “I told everyone at school
much to my parent’s dismay.”