The Christmas Caper: a Secret Staircase Mystery Short Story by Gigi Pandian

Author:Gigi Pandian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

VII

The weather shifted. Clouds rolled in and the temperature dipped. Tempest thought she was dressed warmly, but the chill that swept through her told her otherwise.

“Have you eaten today?” Ash asked Cam as he accepted the box wrapped in thick kraft paper and tied with twine.

“No time.”

Ash clicked his tongue and looked around at the various food stalls nearby, no doubt debating where to buy breakfast for Cam.

Why would the thief take nothing? If it was bored teenagers, there would have been more than one of them. Were they looking for something they didn’t find?

Tempest pulled her wool scarf more tightly around her neck. Cold wind found a crevice and sent a chill down to her ruby-red sneakers.

Ash clicked his tongue once more. “I told you that you weren’t dressed warmly enough.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Tempest protested.

“You’re trying not to shiver. You’ve forgotten how quickly Scottish weather can change.”

“I’d only forgotten how much I’d be standing still at the market.” She hopped up and down, bringing feeling back to her tingling toes. “I’d be fine if I was moving. I’m going to hop back to the flat and add layers. I’ll be less than half an hour. I saw you two eyeing the bumper cars. You can ride them with abandon while I’m gone. I’ll take your bags of presents back to the flat.”

She didn’t have to tell them twice. Tempest glanced over her shoulder before stepping out of the aisle, heading back onto Princes Street. She spotted Ash buying enough food for half a dozen people, and Morag was already in line for the bumper cars.

Tempest picked up the pace to stay warm, and reached the apartment building in ten minutes. She sighed contentedly as she stepped into the building. Simply being out of the wind made it feel at least ten degrees warmer. The solid steps of the central staircase didn’t make a sound as she climbed, so she could hear other sounds in the building keenly. She didn’t see anyone on the stairs or on any of the landings she passed, but as she approached the fourth floor, a rattling sounded.

She paused with her foot hovering over a step and listened. The rattling sounded again, followed by a faint scraping. The sounds came from above.

It was nothing. Cities are full of lots of sounds.

Scrape.

But not sounds that sounded like a door handle rattling and a lock being picked inexpertly.

She continued upward silently. The steps didn’t give her away, but as she stepped onto the fourth-floor landing, the floorboards creaked underneath her feet.

The sound above stopped.

Tempest abandoned the pretense of a stealthy approach. She dropped the bags of Christmas Market gifts and ran forward, up the last flight of stairs. Before she reached the halfway mark, a heavy door above squeaked. They’d gone up to the roof.

She ran faster and didn’t stop to think as she burst through the rooftop door. The top floor’s slanted ceilings matched the sharp pitch of the rooftop, so only a small portion of the roof was flat.

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