Helen frowned, setting down her teacup. “He controlled them? The toy drive funds?”
“Very tightly,” Ruth confirmed, scrolling through something on her screen. “He insisted everything went through him. Every donation, every purchase, every receipt.”
“That seems unnecessary,” Helen said.
Nans nodded, tapping the marker against her palm. “It also seems like someone who likes power.”
“And controlling money,” Ida added, reaching for a cookie.
Ruth tapped her iPad, pulling up what looked like a Facebook post. “And he raised booth fees for the Holiday Market this year. Vivian Bell was furious. She posted about it three times.”
Nans turned to the board and wrote Vivian Bell under the heading “Suspects,” her handwriting crisp and certain.
Helen set down her teacup thoughtfully. “Stanley also got into a shouting match with Pastor Wilkins’s wife last week. I overheard it at the senior center craft room. They were supposed to be making Christmas decorations, but they were arguing loud enough to hear over the glue guns.”
Ida’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Elaine Wilkins. The one who coordinates the angel tree gifts.”
“That’s her,” Helen confirmed. “Stanley said he wouldn’t approve extra money for coats ‘unless he saw receipts.’ Elaine told him he’d never seen a receipt for kindness.”
Ida sighed, pressing a hand to her chest. “That’s a good line.”
Nans smiled slightly and wrote Elaine Wilkins beneath Vivian’s name.
Ruth looked up again, scrolling through her iPad. “Also, Noah Hensley. He owns the Christmas tree lot out by the county road. Stanley insisted the town buy a new LED lighting system this year… from a supplier Noah was trying to compete with. Noah lost the contract.”
Nans added Noah Hensley to the list, the marker squeaking slightly against the board.
Helen counted on her fingers. “That’s already three suspects.”
“It’s never the first three,” Ida said, biting into a cookie.
Nans turned from the board, marker still in hand. “Then who is our fourth?”
Ruth’s eyes narrowed at her iPad, her finger scrolling down. “Eddie Parks. The maintenance supervisor. Stanley accused him of misplacing supplies and implied he was sloppy with town property. Eddie was very upset about it—my neighbor saw him arguing with Stanley in the parking lot last week.”
Nans wrote Eddie Parks beneath the other names, then stepped back to look at the board.
“Do we have any actual evidence?” Helen asked, her voice practical and grounded.
Nans tapped the marker against the board. “We have a collapsed shelf that was supposed to be anchored. That suggests either gross negligence or tampering.”
“Or Stanley anchored it himself and did a bad job,” Ruth pointed out.
Ida nodded sagely. “That would be tragic, but also very on brand for Stanley.”
Nans capped the marker and set it down on the table. “We need to know two things: who was in town hall this morning, and who had reason to be in that storage room before today.”
Helen picked up her teacup. “So we do what we always do.”
“Ask questions until someone slips,” Ida said cheerfully.
Ruth glanced at her watch, then at the others. “As long as we get home by seven.”
Nans picked up her own teacup, a small smile playing at her lips. “Of course, Ruth.”
Ruth looked at her suspiciously. “You’re patronizing me.”
“Would I do that?” Nans asked innocently.
