been carefully guarded. Not carefully enough, I suppose.”
“How’s that? I mean, I run the bakery. I’d love to monitor things a little bit more carefully myself.”
“Well, for starters, all of the accounting needs to be done on site at the Christmas Angels’ office. It all goes onto the hard drive and into some computer cloud. That way there’s less of a chance of someone cooking the books.” Her lips invert as if keeping a vital tidbit to herself.
“Good to know. I guess that makes sense. It’s all done on site, less of a chance for someone to fool around.”
She shrugs. “People get away with things. Gloria being one of them.”
“You really didn’t care for her, did you?” I wince as I say it, and her eyes close a good long while.
“Let’s just say Gloria wasn’t the angel she wanted others to think she was.”
“Oh? So she was keeping things from people?”
Her chocolate brown eyes widen. “Big things.”
“That’s quite a feat. It’s hard to hide things in such a small town like Honey Hollow. Unless, of course, she moved here from out of state.” Like, say Colorado. But I’m hoping Elodie will fill in the blanks for me.
“She did. She came from Plum Creek, Colorado.”
Plum Creek, Colorado. I make a mental note of it.
I nod. “And I bet that’s where she dragged the baggage with her from.”
Her chest bucks. “More like the body,” she mutters.
Kringle stands straight up on his hind legs. “Body?”
“Body?” I echo, but Elodie doesn’t know that.
She gives a quick nod. “I guess it doesn’t matter now that she’s dead herself, but Gloria Abner sailed right into town with a little deadly secret of her own.”
“What’s that?”
Elodie’s thin pink lips contort. “It’s nothing that bears repeating. Not during this time of year. Not with the reputation of the Christmas Angels at stake. I’m sorry, Lottie. I’ve said so much already.” She cranes her neck past me. “Please excuse me. I just have to have a half dozen or so of those candles. And by the looks of it, they’re about to sell out. Not only could Wiley help me carry them to my room, he might just help me try out a few.” Her shoulders dance suggestively before she darts off toward Carlotta’s table.
Kringle floats on over. “Say, could body be a euphemism for something?”
“Yes, for a body,” I whisper just as Suze strides up, glaring at me as if I were the one who was caught red-handed with the murder weapon.
“You’re noseying around, aren’t you?” she snips.
“Why yes, the baby is doing well, thank you for asking,” I snip back. I couldn’t help it. Suze is just asking for a piece of my hormonal pie, and boy, am I ready to give it to her. A part of me wants to blame her for everything that’s gone wrong in my life, and even though it makes very little sense, I decide to go with it.
Her lips cinch. “That baby is none of my business because not a drop of it belongs to my son. Now what were you shaking Elodie down over?”
“You can relax. It had nothing to do with the fact your weapon was found at the scene of the crime.”
She gasps and jumps back a notch. “Noah told you?”
“Noah tells me everything. We’re close, and nothing or no one will ever break that bond.”
Suze sniffs at the thought. “Men don’t take too kindly to their wives cavorting with other men. You keep up the shenanigans you’ve got going with Noah, and you’ll have a void to fill in your bed. Why ruin everything you and Essex worked so hard to build? Leave Noah alone. Let him find someone to make him happy. Give the entire Fox family an early Christmas gift and cut Noah loose.”
“I bet you’d love that—mostly because it’s free.”
Kringle snickers. “Her eyes are bulging. You keep this up and we might have another body on our hands.”
“I’m not that lucky,” I mutter.
Suze rolls her eyes. “You could be. God knows you hold all the power in this relationship.”
“Never mind that. Suze, what’s going on with the Christmas Angels? You don’t think someone is stealing from the organization, do you?”
Her body stiffens, and her lips pinch together so hard they turn white as paper.
“Suze? You know something. You may as well spill it.”
She glances over her shoulders. “All I know is that Elodie Frost is a shopaholic.” She nods her way. “Look at her over there loading up on anything and everything. It’s