Page 100 of Christmas Mittens Murder

Mouth full, I nodded.

By eight-thirty we’d eaten our fill. Cam complimented the chefs on the tree- and star-shaped cookies we also sampled. Fuller took the boys upstairs for bed. Allie and Cam cleared the table while I collapsed on the couch in the family room. They joined me after a minute, Allie holding the wine bottle. Cam sat in the easy chair.

“Okay, girls, dish.” Allie topped up our glasses and poured herself one before plopping down next to me.

I stared at the deep red in my glass. “After the menorah lighting, it looked so pretty in the dark I wanted to take a picture from a distance. I headed over to the big rock formation.”

“I know the one you mean,” Allie said.

“Thea must have been spying on me and followed me out there. I never saw her, but after I snapped the picture, she attacked me from the back side of the boulder. She got me on the ground, and Al, she had a heavy ball in a stretchy mitten.”

“Like she killed Val with,” Cam said.

Allie reached for my hand. “But you got clear of her, you brave thing.”

“I had to, didn’t I?” I patted my flat abs. “It’s all in the core. Plus, she couldn’t keep hold of my foot and also swing the bocce ball at my head.” I shuddered.

“Cece gave her a good strong kick in the knee and got the heck out of there, always a smart self-defense tactic,” Cam said. “The cops did the rest.”

The doorbell rang. Allie gave me a questioning look as she stood.

“That’s probably the detective,” I said. “I told him I’d be here.”

She came back with Jim Quan. He declined a drink and perched on the edge of a straight chair.

“You’re all right, Ms. Barton?” he began.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Well, as you know, we apprehended Thea Robinet.”

Cam and I had watched as a handcuffed Thea was wheeled to the ambulance on a stretcher, swearing all the way.

“You did quite the number on her knee,” he continued.

“I had to stop her. I couldn’t let her escape. I had pepper spray in my coat pocket, but I didn’t use it.”

Both Allie and Cam looked surprised.

I lifted a shoulder. “After a series of muggings in Pasadena a few years ago, a friend and I took a self-defense class. We learned how to use the spray, and I usually have a container in my coat and in my purse. But it’s nasty stuff. Do you think I should have sprayed her?” I asked Quan.

“I think you disabled her and got away, exactly what we recommend. She’s currently under arrest for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.”

“Do you have enough evidence to arrest Thea for Val Harper’s murder?” Cam asked him.

“We believe so. In the victim’s phone records we discovered text messages between her and Ms. Robinet. Thea had arranged a meeting between the two on the night of Val’s death, a meeting to take place after the wine bar closed. Thea claimed she wanted to buy mittens for her large-handed brother and also discuss Garden Club business.”

“And she lured Val onto the bocce court,” I murmured.

“Yes.” He nodded. “The ball she used for the murder matches the set in the historical complex.”

“Which was missing two balls of the eight last evening, I noticed,” I said.

“Exactly. We also have a witness who thinks she saw Thea leaving the historical complex that night at eleven o’clock.”

“But why?” Allie asked. “What motive did she have for killing Val?”

“Long-simmering resentments of several kinds,” Quan said.