Cozy Christmas Capers by Gemma Halliday

Author:Gemma Halliday
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romantic suspense, holiday, romantic comedy, short stories, christmas, cozy mystery, santa, xmas, shorts, cozy

* * *

Edie took off, slamming the door behind her, leaving Helen more bemused than scared. She'd survived much more serious threats before. She wasn't afraid of winter, and she wasn't afraid of a small-town politician trying to hold onto her little fiefdom. Still, Helen wouldn't have been surprised to find the door locked when she got there, as an additional warning, and was relieved when the knob turned easily beneath her gloved hand.

Helen dropped off her parka at the coat room and headed toward the dining room, passing the activity room on the way. Geoff Loring had apparently been assigned the role of look-out, and he intercepted her. "Betty and Josie want to know where your friend, Tate, is."

Helen looked past Geoff to where Betty and Josie were working on their respective holiday projects. Martha Waddell was circulating among the residents, occasionally breaking up a couple engaging in a little too much public display of affection beneath the mistletoe balls, but she didn't seem to have noticed Helen yet.

Helen gestured for Geoff to join her out in the hall, out of Martha's sight. "I don't have time to chat with them right now. You can tell them Tate will be here when he's done with his errands. He's retired, so he doesn't keep to an exact schedule."

"So when are you going to announce the winners? I've got a deadline, you know."

"It shouldn't be much longer. Mr. Wharton needed a blanket, and Edie needed a cigarette." Helen couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some inside information on her two opponents. Geoff might know something she could use to get them to change their votes. "Speaking of the town's only selectwoman, what can you tell me about her background?"

"Edie's been here forever. Born and raised in Wharton."

"What's her day job, when she's not attending town meetings?"

"She doesn't have one," Geoff said. "She comes from old money. Not as old as Mr. Wharton's, of course. Edie never married, never had a job, and the stipend for being a selectmen is a pittance, so the only other possibility is that she inherited her money. And a lot of it. She lives in an expensive condo, and she's always taking lengthy vacations, coming back with an off-season tan like the one she's got now."

"If she's gone for weeks at a time, doesn't that irritate her constituents?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Geoff said. "But Edie's just so nice, it's hard to get angry with her. Besides, she's good at responding to her supporters' complaints even when she's away. She can generally get some sort of resolution to their problems, which is all anyone cares about. She was gone pretty much all of November, but I was still able to interview her a couple of times by email. She stays in touch with the local residents by email and Facebook, and it's not like the selectmen really have that much business to take care of. The town administrator handles most things, and the elected officials rubberstamp his decisions.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.