Reindeer Roundup (A Zoe Donovan Cozy Mystery Book 27) Read online

  It seemed elves were becoming something of a theme with me; first I ended up in the hospital after tripping over one, then the woman I would have been helping if I hadn’t been laid up had worked as an elf during the last days of her life. I chatted with the bartender for a few more minutes, but he didn’t seem to know anything specific, so I decided to leave before the smoke got to me.

  “You heard?” I asked Salinger after sliding into the passenger side of my car.

  “I heard.”

  I glanced at my watch. “We should have time to stop by the holiday store before Alex gets home. Let’s talk to Stella’s boss. Maybe she’ll have some insight into what was going on in her life.”

  As could be predicted given the fact that it was just a week until Christmas, the holiday store was packed. I had no reason to believe Mrs. Partridge, the store’s current owner, wouldn’t be comfortable speaking with Sheriff Salinger, so we both went in. Salinger must have forgotten he was still wearing the Santa hat because he didn’t take if off before getting out of the car, and I didn’t say anything because he looked so darn adorable.

  “How can I help you?” Mrs. Partridge asked after Salinger asked to speak to her in her office.

  “We’re investigating the death of Stella Green,” Salinger began. “I understand she worked here.”

  “That’s correct,” Mrs. Partridge answered. “She was referred to me by the son of my bookkeeper and was hired originally to help with the Halloween crowd but stayed on as an elf. She passed out candy canes and wrapped packages. Stella was doing an excellent job and I planned to hire her as a full-time employee after the first of the year. I was devastated to hear she’d been found dead in her apartment.”

  “I spoke to a friend of hers who told me she’d seemed scared and distracted the past few weeks,” I said.

  Mrs. Partridge frowned. “I’m afraid that’s true. She was able to maintain a cheerful façade while at work, but I could see the fatigue in her eyes. I asked if she was having any problems in her personal life, but she told me she was fine. One of the other elves, a young woman named Connie, did say Stella had joined an online dating site. Connie seemed to think part of the reason she looked so tired was because she was going out a lot at night, but I sensed it was something more.”

  “The bartender at Lucky’s told me that Stella frequented the bar quite often before she started working here. After that she seemed to become a lot more focused and appeared to be turning her life around, though he said she’d started coming in again in the past couple of weeks.”

  “That fits my impression of what was going on as well and would explain her fatigue. If you want to know more about her private life you might want to speak to Connie. She didn’t confide in me.”

  “Is Connie here?” Salinger asked.

  “Yes; I’ll send her in.”

  Connie was a petite woman in her early twenties who made an adorable elf. Her teeny, tiny figure made me feel like a whale, which for some reason wasn’t sitting well with me, but I plastered on a smile and listened intently while Salinger conducted the interview. It turned out Stella had joined a dating website and had been on quite a few dates with several different men over the past couple of months. She seemed to be having a good time and had met some really fun guys, but then she started receiving the emails and everything fell apart.

  “Did she share with you what was in the emails?” I asked.

  “No. She just said she felt like she was being stalked but didn’t have any way to prove it. I think she was going to try to get hold of a friend she hoped could trace where the emails were coming from.”

  I groaned when I realized the friend she planned to contact was me. I’d really let Stella down, and while I couldn’t undo what had been done, I intended to find out who’d killed her.

  Chapter 3

  We left the holiday store and headed toward Casa Zimmerman. When we arrived at the house, Alex was sitting in the kitchen chatting with Ellie while she fed Eli. As I knew she would be, she was thrilled to be allowed to help Salinger and me. She hooked Stella’s computer up to Zak’s system and began to keyboard, and I knew from experience all we could do was wait.

  “I’m in,” Alex said after a few minutes. “What do you want me to look at first?”

  “Her emails,” I said. “Her message to me was that she was receiving disturbing emails and hoped Zak could trace them.”

  I settled my bulky frame on a nearby chair while Alex typed. Zak was very gifted at what he did, but I could tell that with her intelligence and Zak’s tutelage, one day she was going to achieve things we could only begin to imagine.

  “She had passcodes on her email accounts,” Alex informed me. “I should be able to get in, but it will take some time.”

  “Do you see anything about a dating site?” I asked.

  “She has a link to Sexy Singles. It looks as though she’s already signed up.”

  “Can you find her dating history?” Salinger asked.

  Alex spent a couple of minutes navigating the site before she answered. “It seems she went on seven dates in the past eight weeks. The last one was two weeks ago with a man named Richard G.”

  “Is there a photo?” I asked.

  Alex sent a photo of him, as well as his bio, to the large screen hanging on the wall. He was gorgeous, not at all like the type of man you’d think would need to use online dating sites.

  “Can you print off a list of all the men she dated?” Salinger asked.

  “Yeah, no problem.” Alex hit Print. A single sheet of paper glided out of the printer and she handed it to Salinger.

  “Tom S, Andy V, Ron P, Steve D, Eric M, Derek R, and Richard G. Do we have last names or contact information for any of these men?”

  Alex took a couple more minutes to look around before answering. “Their profiles only show their first name and last initial. While the profile has a photo and a general description of their likes and dislikes, there isn’t any personal information such as an email address, last name, phone number, or work location. If Stella met with these men I have to assume personal information was shared at some point. I can keep looking. I’ll also keep working on the emails.”

  Salinger looked at his watch. “I have a meeting to get to. I’m going to have one of my deputies swing by to pick me up. Call me if you get into the email accounts.”

  “Will do,” I promised before walking Salinger to the door.

  “Do you really think you can get into the emails?” I asked Alex after Salinger left.

  “Yeah, I think I can. If I get stuck I’ll called Pi.”

  I had to smile as I watched Alex work. Her face demonstrated complete concentration, quite an admirable trait in a girl so young. “Can I bring you anything?”

  “No, I’m fine. I’m hungry, though, and Ellie’s making spaghetti, so call me when dinner’s ready. I may be done by then, but if not, I’ll take a break. I don’t want to miss out on Ellie’s meat sauce.”

  I supposed with Zak being gone it was a treat for the kids to have Ellie here. Zak did most of the cooking when he was home because I was slightly handicapped in the kitchen. In fact, given my condition, I was fairly certain if Ellie hadn’t moved in with her family we’d be having pizza delivery or canned soup for dinner tonight.

  Scooter was doing his homework and didn’t seem to need any help, so I took Charlie and the other dogs currently in residence out for a short walk. Zak didn’t want me walking on the icy beach trail—he was afraid I’d slip and fall—so he’d built a covered walkway with heat coils in the cement around the perimeter of the property. The dogs were able to run and play and I was able to keep an eye on them without the threat of ice. It was an extravagant addition, but Zak could afford it and he knew it would be important for me to get outdoors with the dogs despite my advanced pregnancy.

  I felt a tinge of guilt as we passed the empty reindeer pen. I should call Jeremy to see how he was doing with them. I’d never forgive myself if one of the animals was h
urt due to my carelessness.

  “Hey, Jeremy, it’s Zoe,” I said when he answered my cell.

  “Hey, Zoe. I was just going to call you. We’ve managed to capture Donner and Blitzen.” The reindeer all wore harnesses with their names stamped on them in large, bright red letters so you could tell who was who. “I’m on my way to your place to return them to their pen.”

  “That’s wonderful. And the others?”

  “Dasher has been spotted on several occasions but, as his name would indicate, he’s quick off the starting line and has managed to scamper away whenever anyone has tried to get near him. Dancer was last seen running down Main Street trailing a string of Christmas lights, and Prancer seems to be making his way along the river, which hasn’t frozen over yet. Vixen, Comet, and Cupid haven’t been spotted. It's those three who’ve disappeared who have me the most worried.”

  “I hope they’re all okay. I feel terrible for not making sure the gate was secured. Not only is Zak going to kill me, I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to one of them.”

  “You’re being too hard on yourself. Mistakes happen. I don’t want you to worry about this. I’m going to track them down and bring them home. All of them.”

  “How can I not worry? Several of them have been seen on the street. What if one of them is hit by a car?”

  “Then we’ll deal. Tiffany, Tank, and Gunnar are going to come in early tomorrow and we’re going to find those we weren’t able to track down today. I promised Zak I’d take care of everything while he was gone so you wouldn’t need to worry and I’m going to.”

  “It sounds like Zak was running around town asking pretty much everyone to keep an eye on me. Salinger said Zak made him promise to keep me out of danger and now I find out he made you promise to make sure I didn’t worry about things.”

  “He loves you. He wants your final month of pregnancy to go smoothly. So do I. So don’t worry.”

  I sighed. “Easier said than done.”

  “I’ll be at your house in five minutes. We’ll get the two I have tucked in. Maybe the others will wander home on their own.”

  “Doubtful, but I guess we can hope. I’ll take the dogs in and then wait for you out by the pen. Just pull around.”

  By the time Jeremy arrived and we’d transferred the two reindeer he’d caught to the pen it was dark. Jeremy fed the deer and I returned to the house. I took off my boots and jacket and headed in through the kitchen. Ellie’s spaghetti sauce really did smell good. I’d gotten damp during my walk, so I went upstairs to change. On my way back down I poked my head in to check on Alex.

  “I have something,” Alex said.

  “That was fast.”

  “It wasn’t too hard to figure out her passcodes. She used her birthday, which I pulled from her Facebook page, for her personal email and 1, 2, 3, 4 for her dating site email.”

  “So she just had the two emails?”

  “That’s all I found. One looked as if she only used it to communicate with the men she found on the dating site, and she used the other for everything else. The emails sent to her regular account don’t look suspect to me, but several of the emails on the dating site seemed pretty creepy.”

  “Creepy how?”

  “I’m going to print them out, but basically they’re all short and say things like ‘I know where you live’ and ‘you can ignore me, but you can’t hide.’”

  I felt a chill run up my spine. That did sound bad. “Can you tell who sent the emails?”

  “The emails were sent by DMG. All caps. They could be initials, a business, or even a dummy account. The email looks as if they were routed through the server at the dating website, the same as the others, but none of the men Stella dated had the initials DMG. The only one with a first name beginning with a D is Derek, but his last name begins with an R.”

  “Okay, I’ll call Salinger to let him know. You did a good job. I’m proud of you.”

  Alex grinned. “Thanks. I want to look for a few more minutes before I quit for the day.”

  “Okay, I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

  I headed into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. There had been five emails from DMG. The first was sent two weeks ago. It was fairly harmless, letting Stella know he’d seen her profile photo and was interested in setting up a date. Stella had replied that she was uninterested in dating anyone else at that point. The next email from DMG was five days later, saying he knew Stella had dated a lot of men in the past month and he was just as much of a good-time guy as the men she had already gone out with. He strongly encouraged her to reconsider and go out with him. Stella didn’t reply to that email at all. A few days later, DMG sent her another email scolding her for ignoring him. He said something about her “giving it away to everyone else,” and he intended to “get in on the action.” She ignored this email too. Then, at twelve noon on the last day anyone saw her alive, DMG sent the email about knowing where she lived and warning her not to ignore him if she didn’t want to get hurt. Again, Stella didn’t reply. The final email from DMG came through at 4:40 on the same day, telling Stella he would be by her place to pick her up at seven o’clock and she’d better be ready to give him what she’d given the others.

  My heart pounded as I read the emails. Poor Stella. She must have been terrified. I wondered why she hadn’t gone to the police. I’d never forgive myself for not helping her when she reached out to me, but there was one thing for certain: I would find the man who’d killed her.

  The emails unnerved me, leaving me feeling exposed and vulnerable. I wished Zak was home and wanted to call him to see how things were going, but I figured it must be the middle of the night in France. I knew he was trying to arrange to get his mother home, but I hadn’t talked to him all day and felt the need to connect even if just for a few minutes. I didn’t want to wake him, so I chose to text him to let him know I was thinking of him. I figured he’d see the text when he woke up and know I loved and missed him.

  When my phone rang less than a minute later I nearly dropped it. “Zak?”

  “I saw your text.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. You usually keep your text messages on silent.”

  “I was awake. I’m glad you texted. I miss you.”

  “I miss you too. How’s you mom doing?”

  “Better. She has some healing to do, but she’s out of danger. I’m trying to work out a way to get her home that won’t cause her any more discomfort than she’s already experiencing, but any way you slice it, a flight across the ocean would be hard on her. I spoke to Clara Fletcher and she offered to have Mom stay at her villa in Italy. I think I’m going to take her up on it.” Clara was one of my mother’s wealthy friends, and she’d helped us out on more than one occasion.

  “Does your mom want to go to Clara’s?” I asked.

  “She’d prefer to come home with me, but I think she realizes it would be a tough flight. Mom met Clara at our wedding and seemed to remember her, so she’s agreed to the plan. Clara’s already at the villa for the holidays, so I’m going to arrange a flight for Mom on Thursday. I’ll hire a nurse to care for her for the first week or two. I’ll be home as soon as I get her settled in. Hopefully by the weekend.”

  The weekend seemed so far away, but I guessed I should be grateful that Zak’s mom was going to be okay.

  “That sounds like a good plan. Tell your mom I’m thinking about her and hope she gets better soon.”

  “I will. How are the kids?” Zak asked.

  “Good. They miss you, but Levi and Ellie are staying here at the house until you get back, so they’re being well fed and entertained.”

  “Is everything okay?” Zak asked with concern in his voice.

  It may have been a tactical error to mention that Levi and Ellie were staying at the house.

  “Everything’s fine.” I decided not to mention any of the things that were actually wrong, like Stella’s death and the missing reindeer. “Ellie thought I look
ed tired, and you know what a mother hen she is.”

  Zak laughed. “I do, and I’m glad they’re there. I hate being away from home so late in the pregnancy.”

  “I’m fine. Catherine’s fine. We’ll be waiting when you get home.”

  I could hear Zak yawn on the other end of the line. “You should get some sleep,” I suggested. “Call me tomorrow if you have a chance.”

  “I will. I love you.”

  “I love you too.” I couldn’t quite prevent the tear that escaped from the corner of my eye as I hung up. God, I missed him.

  Pulling myself together, I headed downstairs. Alex was in the kitchen helping Ellie get the food on the table. Ellie’s meat sauce looked delicious. I sat down and tried to rub away the pain that had been building in my lower back.

  “The last month is hard,” Ellie said with sympathy.

  “Yeah. I’m ready for Catherine to be here. I feel like an invalid most of the time. I can’t even see my feet anymore.”

  “It won’t be long now.” Ellie bent down and gave me a hug. “Have you heard from Zak?”

  “I just spoke to him. His mom is going to stay with Clara at her villa in Italy. Zak is going too, to get her settled, and then hopefully he’ll be home this weekend.”

  “That sounds like a perfect solution. I was worried the flight home would be too much for her. And Clara’s so sweet and funny. I’m sure Mrs. Zimmerman will enjoy her stay there.”

  “I hope so. I feel like everything is so out of kilter all of a sudden. I’ll be glad when things get back to normal. Although I suppose with a baby on the way, I’ll need to redefine what I mean by normal. Was it hard for you to get your bearings when Eli was born?”

  “It was. I had this new person in my life who was very sweet but very demanding. We were in the middle of the remodel on the boathouse, Levi and I had just gotten married, and everything felt fragile. Things are better now. Things will get better for you too once you find a rhythm that works.”