“The park was established in 1955, but it achieved international status when it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979,” Mattie replied promptly.
Dave swerved on the empty highway as he turned to look at her. “Oh, really?”
“Really. Do you know how many species of dinosaurs have been found there?”
“Over fifty,” he said.
Now it was her turn to be shocked. “That’s some impressive trivia knowledge.”
“Canadian scientific discoveries are one of my specialties.”
“Are you on a pub trivia team?” When Dave mumbled his reply, she asked, “What was that?”
“I was in my high school’s Reach for the Top club. I concentrated on science and engineering. Go ahead and laugh.”
“Did you make it to Nationals?”
“No. We made it to the provincial finals, though.”
Mattie grinned. “Then I will laugh at you. Ha! My Reach for the Top team made it to Nationals.” Apparently, it was safe to let her nerdy side show with Dave. Her love of lists and planning paid off when it came to memorizing massive amounts of data. “We got taken out in the first round, but we got there. I can’t believe you played too.”
“Obviously, I’m not going to be able to impress you with the tremendous amounts of interesting facts and Canadiana that I know, since you probably know them to. Such a shame. It usually makes me quite the chick magnet,” he said with a smile. “Do you have a playlist you want to put on instead?”
She considered her options. “I downloaded the latest Still Unfound Mysteries episode. It’s a true crime podcast. Are you interested?” Mattie asked. “One of my coworkers does it. She’s the security chief at Christmastown. She’s a real true crime afficionado.”
“I’ll give it a try. Go ahead.”
Mattie plugged her phone into the dashboard and started the podcast. She settled into the passenger seat as the familiar opening played, replete with wind noises through scratching branches, a ticking clock, and a slamming metal door.
“Welcome to Still Unfound Mysteries, a podcast of unsolved crimes. I’m Virginia Rye, here with my co-host Valentine O’Malley. We’re doing a couple of things differently this episode. First, this case isn’t ripped from the headlines, it was painstakingly unearthed from my own childhood. Secondly, this case isn’t unsolved in the truest sense of the word since arrests were made. But catching the criminals is only the beginning of the story. Still Unfound Mysteries is thrilled to introduce you to the case of the grinch duo who stole Christmas from an Edmonton mall ten years ago.”
A burst of laughter escaped from Dave’s mouth. “That’s hilarious! They’re talking about the Moose Lodge Mall.”
“What?”
“Remember when I said the mall closed down? That robbery is why. The Frost Creek Jewellers robbery.”
All of a sudden, Mattie’s chest tightened. “What do you mean?”
“When I started my part-time job at Santa’s Village, the Moose Lodge Mall was already hemorrhaging businesses because of a new outlet store nearby. The second year I worked there, thieves hit Frost Creek Jewellers a couple of weeks before Christmas. The mall’s reputation never recovered.”
“There was a Christmastime jewellery store heist at your mall? That must have been national news,” she croaked.
She was so dead. She thought she’d done her research. Her boss had already vetoed one purchase of Christmas decorations because they were in the background of a movie that nobody normal would have noticed. When Mattie investigated this set online, she’d run a variety of searches based on “Santa’s Village Moose Lodge Mall” and “Santa’s Village Moose Lodge Mall movie.” Neither set had returned any negative hits. The idea of searching for the mall name associated with a police investigation hadn’t even occurred to her. What was Mei Chen going to say about a Santa’s Village that appeared in crime scene pictures?
“Not really. The robbery was only in the local news. The police caught the thieves a couple of days later,” Dave said. “But it was too late for the mall. People stayed away for the rest of the holiday season. Several stores closed in January because they missed out on their usual Christmas sales. By the next summer, there wasn’t enough traffic to keep it open, so they shuttered the whole thing.”
“Oh, no. This is a disaster. Why would Virginia have even chosen this as an unsolved crime case?”
“What was the full name of your coworker again?”
“Virginia Rye. Why?”
“Oh my—” The rest of his expression was cut off as he burst into laughter. “I think that your Virginia Rye is my Ginger the elf.”
Mattie’s chest tightened. “I can’t believe she did an entire episode about a decade-old local robbery.” She might be able to get away with her purchase if Virginia stuck to talking about Frost Creek Jewellers and not the mall that it was located in. If not, all bets were off.
Dave shifted to get comfortable behind the wheel. “This is going to be good.”
