“Christmas blues. That’s the way it rolls sometimes.”
“Yeah.”
Carmen came through the door, dusty and irritated. “Santa retired early from the party. The old man is heavy. Slade, Clem, and I wrestled him back to the front of the general store, and I handcuffed him to a light pole.”
Tom wanted to grin, but he didn’t have the energy and wasn’t in the mood. “Perfect.”
“Gets better. Slade doesn’t want to press charges.”
Bret lifted his feet to the chair next to him. “Predictable. It’s Christmas. He doesn’t want the bad publicity. Probably caught an earful about his public arguments with Clem.”
Norah popped her head into the room. “Y’all have some visitors out front.”
Tom was tempted to ask if they’d murdered someone. He didn’t want to get out of his chair for anything except his wife or a serious crime. “Who?”
“Mia Devlin and Jake Cara, and the other person says he’s Daniel Leonard.”
Bret looked at Tom. Tom looked at Bret. He shook his head and sighed. “Dammit.” He turned to Carmen. Her innocent facial expression didn’t match the “I told you so” in her eyes.
“Tell the Chief, Norah. Let’s take them in the interrogation room.”
Carmen dusted off her pants. “Separately or together?”
Tom contemplated stalling to let them sweat. Nah. He wanted to go home sometime tonight. “We know what they’re going to say. Might as well do a group confess.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Carmen let her walk transmit her attitude.
Bret smirked, then took a swig of his drink. He wasn’t any more eager than Tom was.
Lord save the children. “Let’s hear what they have to say. They don’t know there is no crime involved with Slade not pressing charges.”
Bret leaned his elbows on the table. “Mia lied to a police officer.”
“True. We might use that as leverage if we have to. But this isn’t going to be a usual confession.”
Bret’s tired grin said it all. “How could it be with Santa involved?”
The two walked to the interrogation room. The door stood open and Tom could hear Mia’s rough coughing. He went in first, assessed the girl, and knew they wouldn’t be hearing from her tonight.
He stopped Bret. “Go get the oxygen pack from the day room and have Norah call for the ambulance.”
“No,” Mia rasped. “I have to tell you.” Her coughing wouldn’t let her continue.
Jake hovered by Mia’s chair. “It was us. The three of us.”
Daniel stayed silent and collapsed in a chair at the end of the table.
“I started…” Mia doubled over.
Tom went to her and checked her pulse. “You. Quit talking.”
She swallowed hard. “They’ll claim it’s them. But it was me.” Tom guessed at her mumbled words.
Bret hurried back in the room, unwinding the face mask as he moved. “Fire Department is on the way.”
“My mom’s gonna kill me,” Mia whispered.
Jake went to his knees at her side. “Don’t worry about that now.”
