Killing Santa Read online

  “We are desperate to get a photo. I don’t care about what happened yesterday,” she whispered to me, while I looked around for someone who could actually help. Pippa had already ducked into the changing room to put on her elf ears, reappearing with a wide grin and an offer to help.

  But there was one other problem. A very, very big problem. Usually the caves at Christmas Village were populated with multiple Santas. Three going at once and several more waiting in the wings to switch over at break time and end of shifts. But on this day, Christmas Village was more like a ghost town.

  Ellon shook his head. “We’re having a hard time getting any of the regular Santas to come to work today,” he said. “We’ll have to call the agency.”

  Pippa raised her eyebrows at me. “You should see some of these agency Santas,” she said judgmentally. “They don’t exactly look like good old Saint Nick. Some of them are barely out of their twenties! And some of them are so skinny that all the stuffing in the world doesn’t make them look jolly.”

  “Yes, well, we have to take what we can get,” Ellon said haughtily, hanging up the phone. He’d just been informed that the agency was sending one of these new Santas over, and that he would be arriving in five minutes. He would be working with Pippa in Cave Number One. Cave Number Two was still off-limits, for obvious reasons. Fine by me. I never wanted to step foot inside there again.

  Ellon glanced over the schedule for the elves and grunted a little when he saw that there was no one to cover the shift.

  “I am happy to work,” Pippa said, perking up and pointing to her ears, happy that her job was almost certainly safe, if only because there was no one else there to work. She was going to keep her job for a little while longer at least, if only by default.

  Jarod was a tall, lanky young man, wearing a smirk and carrying a sack over his back as he strode into Christmas Village. With his blond hair and tanned skin, he looked more like a snowboarder than a Santa Claus.

  “You see what I mean?” Pippa scoffed as he walked in. She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

  I nodded. Not exactly your jolly old Santa Claus. He had spiky hair and no sign of a beard. Well, maybe a little stubble on his jaw. He wasn’t thin-thin, he had a little muscle about him, but he was in no way ‘large’ the way that Santa was supposed to be. At least he had some height about him, though.

  He walked up to Pippa and I, shooting us a grin. We needed him to get started immediately now that there were at least a dozen families waiting for pictures. “So, where do I get changed?”

  Pippa pointed him toward the changing room while we waited for him in Cave Number One. He reappeared a few minutes later, drowning in the oversized red suit.

  “And where is the beard and wig?” he asked, looking around the cave, which only had the throne for Santa, the decorations, and the computer that stored all the Santa photos.

  Pippa’s mouth fell open in disgust at Jarod’s lack of preparation. “You’re kidding me, right? You’re required to supply your own wig and beard! And your own makeup!”

  But Jarod had nothing.

  He shrugged apologetically. “Can I just go on like this?” he asked, talking like he was about to hop on stage. But there was no play and there would be no suspension of disbelief. The children were going to come face to face with him and they were going to have to believe that he was Santa Claus.

  It wasn’t just the lack of facial hair. With his youthful young face and short hair, there was no way he was going to pass as Santa without a heavy-duty makeover. Pippa muttered to herself as she left the cave and went to look in the back for “emergency supplies.”

  She brought back the bag of makeup kept for these kinds of situations. I peeked behind the curtain and saw that the small line was growing agitated and impatient. With no backup Santa, all the responsibility was going to fall on Jarod’s shoulders to enchant the children. And their parents. It was the parents who were the real hard ones to please.

  Pippa threw a beard at Jarod and told him to put it on. “Who did this belong to?” Jarod asked suspiciously as he held it up to the light.

  “Just, ah, one of the Santas who is no longer with us,” Pippa said quickly, before busying herself with the camera. I gulped as she handed it over, glancing at it to make sure there was no blood on it while leaning as far away from it as possible, like it was a dead animal.

  Jarod shrugged and put it on anyway while I fumbled around in the makeup bag, looking for something that would make him look older.

  There was a stick of white glue-like makeup that rolled up and was tacky to the touch. It kind of looked like glue and smelled like it when I sniffed it, and for a moment, I was confused about why it was part of the kit. “Oh. This must be for the eyebrows,” I said, taking a step forward so that I could apply it to Jarod’s face. He didn’t have particularly dark eyebrows in the first place, but they did look young. “Just ah, stay still for a moment while I apply this,” I said. “And maybe close your eyes,” I added when it started to get a little weird.

  With a few coats to the eyebrows, they were starting to look old and white. Especially when the makeup dried, giving it an older, crispier look.

  “Now for the rosy cheeks,” I said, digging my finger into the bright red blush and leaning forward to touch Jarod’s cheeks, which were surprisingly soft to the touch.

  It was a little awkward having to apply it to the apples of his cheeks, a more intimate action than I would usually perform after just meeting someone. I was glad he still had his eyes closed.

  When I was done, Jarod stood up and Pippa helped him stuff the loose stuffing into his belly like he was a turkey. Or a pillow. He spun around to show us from all angles, then shrugged. “What do you think?” He mostly seemed concerned with Pippa’s approval, seeing as she was the one with the most disapproval. I personally didn’t think it was the end of the world if he didn’t look exactly like Santa.

  She shook her head. The stuffing did give him a belly, but the rest of him still looked thin.

  “Oh well. We’ll just have to work with what we’ve got. It’s not like we have any other choice.” Pippa told him to sit down on the throne and took a few test shots. “Pull the beard up a little higher. I can still see the elastic straps. Tuck them under the hat.”

  With the beard on, he still didn’t look ancient, but it was an improvement. And we didn’t have any other options. It was Jarod or nothing.

  The next two hours passed in a blur as I was put to work, asking the customers standing in line which photo package they wanted and then ushering them into the caves. With only one cave active that day, I didn’t have to worry too much about giving away the secret.

  Pippa poked her head out into the hallway and looked happy and content for the first time in days. She even managed a smile for me, though I was sure I was still in her bad books. “Just going to close the caves down so that we can all take thirty minutes for lunch,” she told me.

  “Where is Ashley?” I asked now that we finally had a chance to speak again. “Is she coming in today for the afternoon shift?” We left Christmas Village and headed toward the food court, with Jarod in tow.

  Pippa shrugged. “I doubt she will be coming in again after what she witnessed.” Pippa said she hadn’t even heard from her since the incident.

  I needed to talk to her. She had been the first one to see the dead Santa. Maybe there was some detail she could tell us that would shed light onto what had happened.

  Jarod decided to use his break to have a cigarette. Pippa and I both made a face of horror as he pulled out a pack and told us he was going outside for five minutes. “Well, you can’t come back in here stinking of cigarette smoke!” Pippa exclaimed, shaking her head. “You’ll have to get completely out of your costume—beard and all—before you go out.”

  At least it gave us a chance to speak alone. And to eat. My stomach was grumbling. I ordered a double bacon and beef burger and a large fry, aware of the fact that we only had twenty minutes left on
the clock before it would start all over again.

  “Pippa, is there a way of finding out which family was visiting with the Santa when he was killed?” I asked as I took a bite of my burger. I was so hungry that it tasted like heaven, even though that wasn’t normally the way I would describe a food court burger that only cost two dollars.

  Pippa chewed on her onion rings and thought about it.

  “The photos of the family would still be on the computer,” Pippa said, placing her empty bag onto the tray, the onion rings all gone. “I doubt they even printed them out.”

  I nodded and wiped my hands on the napkin. “Come on, Pippa. We have to take a look at those photos.”

  Ellon stood in front of us. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Well, we were attempting to get into Cave Number Two. It was dark in there, but unfortunately, not dark enough for us to get through the curtain without Ellon stopping us when he came back from his break.

  “I, uh, I forgot my elf ears in there yesterday,” Pippa said, trying to squeeze past him. She had confidence, that was for sure, but that didn’t save her.

  “You weren’t in room two yesterday,” Ellon said suspiciously, peering down at her. “Ashley was in there.”

  Pippa gulped.

  Ellon raised his eyebrows. “I think you’d better head back into Cave Number One now, Pippa, if you want to keep your job. Our customers are waiting.”

  Great. How were we ever going to get a look at the photos?

  “Thanks for all the help, ladies,” Jarod said at the end of his shift, saluting us as he walked out. “I hope to catch you again tomorrow.”

  Pippa gave him a thin smile and nodded without too much conviction.

  “Hopefully, we’ll have one of the real Santas back by then,” Pippa muttered as we walked through the arch of Christmas Village, passing Ellon on the way, who hadn’t let his eyes off Pippa for the remainder of the afternoon. “So we won’t be desperate enough to scrape the bottom of the barrel again.”

  I thought that was a little unfair. “Come on, Jarod was all right.” He’d been positive, and willing to learn, and really great with the children. It wasn’t his fault he was only twenty-eight.

  Ellon overheard us talking and raised an eyebrow, leaning forward on his little platform, always ready to gossip, it seemed.

  “He doesn’t really look the part, does he?” Ellon shook his head, looking as unimpressed as Pippa. “He was so grateful when I called him up this morning. This is the first gig he’s gotten all season, apparently. The guy was getting desperate.”

  Chapter 3

  I got the phone call early the following morning, just as I was rolling out of bed and glancing through the window, wondering when the snow was going to start. I could still sense that it was on its way, and I was growing restless. I love the first snowfall of the year, and all the magic that it brings. I felt like we really needed it that year. It was cold enough, all right, and a frost had covered the windows at the edges, causing the entire garden to freeze, but actual snowflakes had yet to fall.

  “Hello?” I asked, wondering why Pippa was calling so early. Don’t tell me another Santa died.

  Pippa’s voice sounded so scratchy that she was struggling to talk. She had to clear her throat. And her nose definitely sounded stuffy. “Rachael, I hate to have to ask you this, but…”

  Uh-oh. I had a bad feeling about this. “Ask me what? Come over to water your tomato plants?” I asked hopefully, but doubted that was the extent of the favor she was about to ask. Especially considering her tomato plants would be frozen.

  “I need you to fill in for me at Christmas Village today, as an elf, and help out with the photos,” she said. “I know you don’t have much experience, but this is an emergency!”

  “I thought there were dozens of Santa’s Little Helpers!” I exclaimed. Why was I needed? Was Ashley still in hiding?

  “They’re just as scared as the Santas,” Pippa croaked. “And there’s no agency for the helpers, unfortunately. If there’s no one there to help out, none of the children are going to get their photos taken with Santa.”

  I thought about it and groaned as I slipped my freezing feet into my slippers. I didn’t want to disappoint dozens of children. I was already considered to be the town Grinch as it was. I didn’t want to sully my reputation any more.

  “Fine,” I said. “But this makes us even now, Pippa, all right?”

  Just how difficult can it be? I thought as I took a deep breath and entered the automatic doors of the mall. The strains of Jingle Bells played as I crept toward Christmas Village. The music didn’t seem jolly though, it seemed ominous. Like it signaled that I was about to get in over my head. Christmas Village was located on the second floor of the mall, up the elevators and to the side of the toy section. The perfect location as far as marketing was concerned—any children or parents shopping for toys would see the village and might decide on the spur of the moment to get Santa photos, even if they hadn’t been planning on it before.

  The toy section was brightly lit with the usual florescent lights of a shopping mall, but the closer you got to Christmas Village the darker it got. Part of that was the heavy fir trees surrounding the area, but it was also purposefully darkened because the dark also helped to conceal the fact that there were multiple Santas inside. Well, there usually were.

  Ellon groaned when I told him I was going to be filling in for Pippa and he rolled his eyes when I told him that Pippa was sick. Apparently, he’d already heard that excuse a dozen times that day. “It seems everyone has gotten mysteriously sick today!”

  Pippa wasn’t faking it, though. She loved her job. If she wasn’t at work, then something must have been seriously wrong. I trusted her.

  He sighed and looked me up and down. “You’re a little tall to be an elf.”

  I’m only 5’4”, which is only about an inch taller than Pippa. Still pretty short for a human. Maybe a little tall for an elf, though.

  “It’s either me or no one,” I said, glancing around. There was no other staff that I could see. Except for one lanky blonde guy tiptoeing through the back door with a sack over his shoulder.

  Jarod looked pumped to see me when I slipped in through the curtain of Cave Number One, which was starting to feel like my home away from home. “Rach!” he cried out, embracing me in a hug. I leaned awkwardly into it as it made one of my ears pop off. I still hadn’t gotten the hang of attaching them. “Looks like we’ll be working together all day!”

  I nodded and laughed a little, wondering why I suddenly felt so jittery, but I didn’t mind the idea of working together all day at all.

  Turned out he wasn’t the only one I would be working with all day.

  “Hello there,” another little elf said, poking his head through the curtain. It was a man in his late twenties, about the same age as Jarod, with tanned skin, dark hair, and a cheeky grin. Very elf-like. Put me to shame, really. He was also wearing the correct costume of green leggings, whereas I had just put on my jeans and a red t-shirt with a picture of a snowman on the front.

  He came up an introduced himself as Andrew.

  “I’m the photographer,” he explained, pointing to the camera around his neck.

  I was confused. “I thought I was going to be taking the pictures today.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me and laughed as one of my ears came off again, falling to the ground. “Have you ever used the system before?” he asked, nodding toward the computer.

  I shook my head.

  Andrew laughed. “Ah, my instincts were right! I thought you looked a little fresh.” He winked at me and went to turn the computer on, setting it up so that it would sync with his camera.

  “So, what is my role all day then?” I asked. I couldn’t help but feel a little put out. Pippa had asked me to fill in for her and now I was pretty much redundant. Andrew could do my job for me.

  Andrew was struggling not to laugh. Like he knew something I didn’t know. “Don’t
worry. Believe me, you’ll have your hands full trying to control the kids in here.”

  Now it was my turn to laugh. The kids were all there to see Santa and have their photos taken—they would be overcome with joy at meeting one of their idols. That was all they had been talking about the previous day when I’d been out attending to the line. How excited they were to meet Santa Claus. “How much longer until I get to see Santa, Mommy?”

  How much trouble could they possibly be?

  “I-I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head as I handed the woman a candy cane. The red-faced toddler in her arms was still burying her head in her mother’s shoulder, refusing to look at the monster sitting in the Santa throne. The mother growled at me and then shoved the package of Santa photos into the top of the stroller, hurrying out of there like she was escaping a torture chamber. Yep. That was the way most of the parents left the room after spending fifteen minutes in the cave watching their poor children be tortured. I just hadn’t realized it the day before when I’d been safe behind the battle lines.

  My ears were ringing from the constant barrage of screams I’d been subjected to for the past three hours. Wait, had it been three hours? I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. Every photo session seemed to blend into one. Each started with a smile. Then they saw Santa. Then the screams began. My head was starting to feel very light. I wasn’t sure what was causing my head to feel so light. Had I caught Pippa’s bug perhaps? Was it the bright lights of the flash? I checked the time. Shoot. It had been longer than three hours. And I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten anything.

  “I’m not feeling so well,” I said, taking a step outside the cave as a slightly concerned Jarod followed me.

  “It’s okay,” Jarod said, laughing. “I think it’s just shellshock. A lot of the elves get it on their first day.”