Page 17 of Christmas Mittens Murder

The gray-haired woman, although in a festive red and white sweater, lacked even a hint of Christmas cheer and simply grunted a reply, not taking her eyes off the Louise Penny mystery novel she clutched in her hand.

Hayley shrugged and swiveled back in Helen’s direction. “I hope you can forgive me for crashing your knitting circle meeting yesterday. It was so rude of me to just show up unannounced.”

Helen did not seem at all perturbed about it. “No worries, dear. I’m just sorry you didn’t get any useful information and it was a complete waste of your time.”

She was wrong about that.

Hayley did walk away with a doozy of a rumor.

One she desperately needed to confirm.

Which was why she came flying into the Christmas Vacation Shop after spotting Helen inside shopping for decorations. She had just happened to be passing by after picking up a gingerbread latte at the coffeehouse next door. It was a fortuitous coincidence.

“Looks like we’re both behind the ball with decorating our Christmas trees,” Hayley commented as she began browsing the ornaments next to Helen.

Helen gave her a curious look. “I thought you said that you and Bruce put up your tree the other night. At least that’s what you told us at the meeting yesterday.”

Did she?

Hayley could not remember.

She had been so focused on digging up information on who might have had a reason to kill Esther Willey.

But it was entirely possible she had mentioned that inconvenient fact, so she had to think fast.

“You’re right. We did. But as luck would have it, Bruce went to plug in the Christmas tree lights and accidentally bumped into my favorite ornament, an adorable glittered glass hummingbird, and he knocked it right off the tree and it fell to the floor and smashed to pieces. Now it looks bare in that spot, so I’m here for a replacement.”

Hayley eyed Helen, who did not flinch or shoot her a skeptical look. She actually seemed to buy Hayley’s off-the-cuff excuse for being in the shop.

Or she just did not really care all that much.

Hayley picked up an ornament from the shelf. “This Santa on Skis ornament is cute.”

“I was going to buy that,” Helen barked.

Hayley quickly handed it to her. “Here. It’s all yours.”

Helen walked over and set it down on the counter in front of Debbie the cashier. “Put this with my other purchases, would you, please, Debbie?”

Debbie grunted again, her face still buried in her paperback.

Helen returned to continue shopping for more decorations.

“Bruce and I always drink spiked eggnog when we decorate the tree. It’s so yummy. Do you and Woody have any traditions you do every year?”

Helen gave her a withering look. “The only tradition Woody and I have is to stay out of each other’s way, and that one’s not reserved for just the holidays. We try keeping it up year-round.”

Hayley was taken aback by her forthright honesty.

She had not expected that.

“I’m so sorry, Helen, I had no idea that you and Woody—”

Helen cut her off. “Of course you did, Hayley. You don’t have to pussyfoot around me, trying to find a natural way to get me to open up about my crumbling marriage. I saw you walk by the window, then come back and peer inside to make sure it was me, and then waltz in here pretending you were just shopping to replace a broken ornament. Although I give you credit for the whole glittered glass hummingbird. It was so specific I almost believed you. Almost!”

Wow, Helen was good.

And she had rightfully called Hayley out.