A Haunted Holiday in Hillbilly Hollow Read online

  The Christmas Garden was pretty spectacular, even if I was a little biased. All of the trees were strung with lights, and the side of the sports centre had been decorated with a large snow scene complete with Santa and all of his reindeer, courtesy of a local artist.

  All of the refreshment and game stalls were decked out with more lights and the air was full of the scents of apple cider, eggnog and hot cocoa. Mixed with the smell of frying meat and onions, it was enough to make anyone hungry. I realized my stomach was rumbling.

  It wouldn’t be long until Billy came for lunch, so I decided not to ruin it by grabbing a hotdog. Instead, I opted for a cup of hot cocoa to keep my hands warm as I sold tickets for the synthetic ice skating rink.

  The air was soon full of children laughing and screaming as they chased each other around the rink. I couldn’t help but smile. It was scenes like this one that made me glad I’d come back to Hillbilly Hollow.

  “Excuse me, miss. Would you be able to recommend a nice spot for lunch?” Billy’s voice came from behind me.

  I turned and he grinned at me. He clutched a paper bag from which drifted a smell so delicious that it was all I could do not to take it from him and start eating right there.

  “I think I can manage that.” I smiled. “Just give me a minute to let Maggie know I’m taking a break.”

  I walked away from him, feeling his eyes on my back. I found Maggie, another volunteer, on the other side of the rink, where she was helping kids choose their skates.

  “Maggie, I’m going to take a quick break for lunch. Are you okay on your own for a bit?” I asked.

  Maggie smiled and nodded her head of thick red hair.

  “Sure. Take as long as you like. It’s quiet yet. It won’t get really busy until the schools let out. Right now we’ve only got the littler kids.”

  I thanked her and hurried back to Billy. I beckoned him to follow me and led him to the truck in the parking lot. I clambered in and took my gloves off, instantly feeling the cold biting into my fingers. I switched the heater on. Billy climbed in beside me. Our breath made white plumes in the air, but the heater soon took care of that.

  “Not exactly picturesque, is it?” Billy asked with a grin, handing me a huge hotdog and a carton of fries.

  I bit into the hotdog and moaned. “Oh wow, that’s so good,” I said. “And this may not be picturesque, but it’s warm. And the company is good.”

  “That it is,” he replied.

  I took a moment to work on my hotdog.

  “You know Betty Blackwell has managed to get herself put in charge of the fair?” I said when my hotdog was almost gone and I felt a bit fuller.

  “I didn’t, but I can well imagine it,” Billy replied. “How many people has she upset so far?”

  “Just one that I know of, but it’s early days yet.” I laughed.

  “You know, this is just like old times. Sitting in your grandpa’s truck, eating carnival food and watching the world go by,” Billy said. “I’ve said it a lot these past few months, but it’s great to have you back, Emma. I’m almost glad that taxi hit you back in the city and sent you home to Hillbilly Hollow to recuperate. If that hadn’t happened, I guess you’d still be living a busy life in New York, forgetting all about us hicks back home.”

  I laughed, but felt awkward, the way I always did when Billy talked too much about how good it was to have me back. Anyway, where did this come from? How did we go from giggling at bossy Betty to being back here, at the place we skirted where Billy let me know Suzy was right and he wanted more, and I wriggled my way out of it, careful not to hurt his feelings more than I had to.

  I couldn’t think of any way to change the subject, so I just nodded and bit into my remaining hotdog and looked out the window while I finished eating.

  3

  After finishing lunch with Billy, I walked across the park again towards the skating rink.

  “I’m back, Maggie,” I said as I arrived at the edge of the fake ice.

  Maggie’s green eyes darted left and right like she expected to be attacked by some unseen enemy at any moment.

  “You need to sneak away through those trees and then come back again across the main square,” she said.

  “Huh? Why?” I asked.

  Maggie smiled sheepishly. “Betty came over here just after you left for lunch, demanding to know where you were. I figured Betty probably doesn’t believe in taking breaks. So I panicked and told her you’d gone to do a last minute walk through of the lights before things got too busy.”

  That made sense. Maggie was indeed expecting an attack at any moment. A Betty Blackwell style tongue lashing.

  “Got it,” I said. “Thanks for covering for me.”

  “Any time. We’re the ones who did all of the hard work, so I reckon we deserve a lunch break,” she said with a laugh.

  I sneaked around into the trees, feeling like some sort of spy. It was kind of exciting, ducking down whenever I heard voices. Once I was in the thick of the trees, I straightened up and walked tall. It wouldn’t matter if I was seen here. This was where I was meant to be. It wasn’t as much fun now that it wasn’t a covert mission, so I hurried back to the edge of the trees and got ready to step out into the square.

  But then a flash of movement caught my eye near the sports center. I paused, trying to work out what was going on. A woman in a green coat, the hood pulled up to cover her hair, stood with her back to me in front of the Christmas mural. At first glance, she looked like she was just looking at scene, enjoying the colors, and maybe smiling at Rudolph’s red nose. But the strange way her elbow moved up and down and the way she glanced furtively from side to side told me she was up to something weird.

  I waited and watched. She took a step back to admire her handiwork and I saw what had been going on. A large square of the mural had been spray painted black. The woman in the green coat tossed a spray paint can to the ground and began to hurriedly walk away.

  I was frozen for a moment, so shocked that someone would vandalize the mural that I almost let her get away. Then I came to my senses.

  “Hey,” I shouted as I stepped out from among the trees. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  4

  The woman didn’t glance back. She didn’t have to look at me to know that I had to be talking to her. She started to run and I ran after her. I wasn’t exactly in shape, but all of the work on the farm had gotten rid of the few stubborn extra pounds city life had given me and I wasn’t a total slouch. I was no Olympic gold medallist, but I knew I could hold my own, and I was confident I could catch her.

  I was starting to gain on the woman, my eyes glued to her green coat so I wouldn’t lose sight of her in the thin crowd, when a shout went up behind me.

  “Emma, catch him!”

  Catch him? Who was shouting and couldn’t they see it was a woman I was chasing?

  I risked a glance back over my shoulder and what I saw stopped me in my tracks. I knew I would have to give up my pursuit of the green-coated woman, because suddenly a new problem had presented itself. Five of the six reindeer from the petting zoo were darting around the main square. The sixth and final one was heading straight for me—the him that I was evidently expected to catch.

  My mouth dropped open at sight of the chaos the animals were creating. People were running from them, shrieking. It was unnecessary – reindeer were lovely, gentle creatures –but the panic was starting to infect them too and they ran this way and that. It would have been comical if it wasn’t for the fact that the reindeer could end up getting hurt if the crowd continued to frighten them. Park volunteers, like the middle-aged man nearby who had shouted at me, were attempting to round up the deer.

  The animal heading my way was coming straight for me. His head was down and he was fixed on his course.

  “Easy boy,” I called to him.

  If he heard me, my words had no effect on the beast whatsoever. He just kept coming. If I didn’t move, I knew I would be mowed down. The deer just wanted to get away from the chaos behind him and he had spotted a clear path to freedom. Except for me blocking the way.

  I moved to the side slightly and raised my arms in front of me, ready to make a grab for the creature. I tensed, waiting for the right moment.

  “It’s okay,” I told the deer in what I hoped was a soothing tone. “Everything’s going to be just fine. No one is going to hurt you.”

  The reindeer was almost to me when I leapt forward, arms outstretched. I flew through the air and came to land face down in the mud. The reindeer rushed straight past me and I could have sworn he was laughing as he ran away.

  Humiliated by my failed attempt to be a reindeer whisperer, I got to my feet. I glanced down at my front and knew that no amount of brushing at the mud on my coat would get rid of it. I attempted to wipe the worst away, but it was no use. All I was doing was smearing the mud around.

  Shouts of alarm and small childrens’ whoops of joy filled the air as one of the reindeer crashed into a nearby apple cider stand. The board structure collapsed and a huge vat of apple cider spilled onto the ground. The air was instantly filled with the scent of its sweetness.

  At least Mollie Garrow, the volunteer who had been manning the stall, was able to catch hold of the reindeer who had careened into the stand. I watched as she rubbed his neck and whispered to him. Within seconds, he was his usual calm self again.

  Okay, I thought to myself, I get it now. Grab them and then try to calm them down, rather than the other way around.

  With one reindeer captured, that still left five on the loose and I headed closer to try and help catch them. Colin, Marty, and Marty’s son David had one of the deer cornered near the tennis court, but it seemed like they were all afraid to grab it. I decided to start there. I had
learned from Mollie and was confident I could calm the creature now that he was cornered.

  I headed for the small group and, as I hurried that way, I wondered how the reindeer had gotten out in the first place. They’d never managed to escape before. Maybe they’d had lessons from one of Grandpa’s cows or Grandma’s chickens, I thought with a smile.

  Then it occurred to me that there was a more plausible explanation. The woman in the green coat could have opened the gate to their pen, before proceeding to deface the mural. She must have known the escape of the deer would cause chaos and maybe she figured she could do her sneaky deed and then slip away unseen as we all chased after the reindeer.

  It had almost worked, too. If I hadn’t sneaked through the wooded area to avoid Betty Blackwell, no one would have seen what had been done to the mural until the culprit was long gone. By the time the damage was noticed, none of us would have had the tiniest inkling who was behind the act.

  But I pushed thoughts of the green-coated woman aside. I would figure out a way to deal with her later. For now, there was a more pressing job in front of me.

  A couple more of the reindeer had been brought under control by the time I reached Colin, Marty, and David. They were still ranged around their trapped reindeer, which was snorting with annoyance, sending plumes of white into the air. The beast’s eyes rolled in their sockets as he desperately looked for a means of escape.

  “You’re not afraid of him are you?” I asked the fellows with a soft laugh.

  “Looks like you should be,” Marty said, grinning pointedly down at the mud caked over my coat.

  I felt myself blush slightly at the evidence of my clumsiness. “Seems these critters are a little trickier than I gave them credit for,” I admitted. “They’re harmless, though. Watch.”

  I stepped between the three men and slowly approached the reindeer.

  “Hey, little guy. How did you get out, huh?” I asked quietly as I approached the animal. I had seen my grandpa creep up to nervous calves often enough to know how it was done.

  The deer watched me closely. His big brown eyes reminded me of Snowball’s eyes and that made me more confident that I was right to call him harmless. I reached out a hand and gently stroked his velvety nose. He pulled away a little.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered. “It’s okay. Everything’s just fine now.”

  He relaxed at my soft touch and the sound of my voice, and within seconds, he was nuzzling his face against my hand, licking my palm with his wet tongue.

  “He’s looking for a treat,” David said, laughing.

  “Let’s get you back into your pen,” I said to the reindeer. “I don’t know where your handler is, but I’ll bet he’s worried about where you’ve got off to.”

  I turned to the men.

  “Do you think you three can get him back now you’ve seen he isn’t a ferocious beast? Frank Clarkson can take over once you lead the deer to the pen. I’ll go and help clean up the mess from the apple cider stand.”

  Colin nodded sheepishly. “Sure. Thanks Emma,” he said.

  I nodded to him and started to make my way towards the broken cider stand. Most of the crowd had dispersed now and only a few onlookers remained. The staff were scattered, still trying to catch the last of the reindeer on the loose.

  I was halfway between Colin and the others and the apple cider stand when a long, shrill scream pierced the air.

  The sound made me freeze in my tracks, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. It hadn’t been a scream of joy, or even the scream of someone ending up face down in the mud like I had.

  It was the scream of someone utterly terrified.

  5

  The noise was coming from the direction of the reindeer pen. I didn’t think, I just acted. I took off in the direction of the pen as fast as my legs would carry me. Much faster than I had been when I was chasing the woman in the green coat. That scream had a sense of urgency about it that made sprinting the only option.

  I reached the reindeer pen to find Betty Blackwell standing alone in the centre of the enclosure, her face pasty white and her bottom lip quivering. She was pointing down at something I couldn’t see because the fence blocked my view.

  Not until I rounded the corner of the fence and entered through the open gate did I see what was lying on the ground at Betty’s feet. It was something much worse than I could have imagined.

  It was the motionless body of Frank Clarkson.

  I was no expert, but I got the immediate impression the reindeer handler was dead.

  For a moment I froze where I was, stunned at the sight of the still body lying prone across the dirt. But then, I felt a strange sense of calm wash over me. I had dealt with death before, although generally on the investigative end.

  I crossed the pen and touched Betty’s arm. Someone had to take charge here. Right now, Betty obviously wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do it.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  My touch broke Betty from her stunned trance and she shook her head.

  “I-I don’t know. I found him...like this.” She nodded toward Frank. “It looks like he banged his head.”

  It looked more like someone else had banged his head for him, I thought. The dead man lay sprawled on the straw-strewn ground, a red-stained gash on the back of his skull standing out starkly against his thin gray hair. His limbs were bent at an awkward angle, positioned exactly as they must have been when he’d fallen, as if he had been killed instantly.

  My mind jumped all over the place, as I tried to make sense of it. I’d spent so much time in recent months solving mysteries that I seemed to click into amateur detective mode automatically now, when confronted with violence.

  Who could have been responsible for this? Betty? No, surely not. Surely she wouldn’t have drawn attention to herself this way if she’d killed Frank. Or maybe she would. Maybe being the one to find him would give her the perfect cover and ensure she wasn’t even a suspect.

  I shook aside the questions, realizing I needed to focus on the most important things first.

  “Someone call an ambulance—and Sheriff Tucker,” I shouted to the few people who had heard Betty’s scream and wandered over to the pen. “And find somewhere else secure to put the reindeer. They can’t be here. This is a crime scene now.”

  I was surprised at how strong and confident my voice sounded, and I was even more surprised when onlookers jumped into action and began to follow my orders.

  “I’ll make the call. You find somewhere else for the reindeer, and we’ll get them herded over there,” I heard Marty telling someone.

  I turned back to Betty. “Betty, are you alright? Would you like a glass of brandy? I can ask someone to go and get you one.”

  “Certainly not, it’s the middle of the afternoon,” Betty snapped. “Now we’d better get this area sectioned off before guests make their way over and see this... unpleasantness. It presents a terrible impression of the Christmas Garden.”

  I raised my eyebrows. It seemed Betty was back to her usual charming self.

  6

  The captured reindeer had all been taken to another pen and secured inside by Marty and the others. There were very few people left at the Christmas Garden. The escaped reindeer had cleared out the majority of them and of the stragglers that remained, it seemed most of them just wanted a peek at poor Frank.

  Betty had taken charge of the pen containing Frank’s body. She stood in front of it, far enough away that no one approaching her would see more than the fence. Any time someone approached her, she turned them away with her cutting tongue and off they went with their tails between their legs.

  It was good to see her so quickly recovered from the shock of finding the victim, but it niggled at the edge of my mind. I couldn’t help but wonder why she wasn’t more shaken up. I felt pretty shaken myself and I wasn’t even the one who found him.