Mall Santa Murder: A Cozy Christmas Mystery (Gemma Stone Cozy Mystery Book 1) (12 page)

“Gemma...” Holly warned.

“Oh, yeah, I remember. Wasn’t he the brother of a friend of one of your cousins in town for the holidays?”

“Shut up.” Holly steered the vehicle around to the back, where they’d been told they would find a loading dock.

“Well, I still think it looks like an ice castle,” Gemma mused, keeping her eyes on those beautiful icicles that rivaled any sculpture she’d ever seen.

And then Holly made a sound and the vehicle came to an abrupt stop.

“Hey, watch it. You almost made me spill my coffee," Gemma grumbled.

With one hand on the dashboard and clinging to her coffee with the other, she followed Holly’s startled gaze and gasped. This was impossible, her mind kept saying. I'm not seeing this. They don't really exist. Gemma blinked in disbelief. And, yet, there they were. Her worst nightmare come to life.

Zombies.

There were only three outside the loading dock at the back of Northlake Manor but they were the most hideous creatures she'd ever seen. The weak winter morning sun, just peeping through the clouds seemed to highlight them as they shambled along the cinderblock wall with their arms outstretched, their mouths working as if already chewing on her flesh. Their clothing, covered in ugly brown stains which she assumed to be dried blood, hung in tatters. One's head was cocked at an odd angle. One was missing an ear. One of them had a hand that looked mangled and torn and he appeared to have been scalped, his white skull showing.

Even as the thought entered her brain that they still had time to escape, she saw Holly reach for the gear shift and slam the vehicle into reverse. And then there was a low, hungry roar much too close for comfort. A hideous face and two hands smashed against her window, the nose and lips flattened against the glass. Both women screamed. Holly stomped on the brakes hard to avoid running into a big panel truck parked right behind them, throwing Gemma against her seat belt.

"We're trapped," she moaned.

And then the monster stepped back from the SUV, stuffed his hands in his pockets and smiled. Nick Leonard stood there, head tilted to one side, grinning that lazy, sexy grin that was normally capable of melting her heart. Gemma barely had time to register this before a movement caught her eye. The zombies were lurching toward him in that slow, jerking, robotic gait. She screamed again and tried to open the door. She had to get Nick inside. She could not lose him; not like this. They had to get away from there somehow.

Nick, seemingly unaware of the approaching zombies, watched her as she struggled with the lock, not knowing which way to push it to get the door open. Finally, she heard it click, wrenched it open and grabbed at Nick with both arms, intent on pulling him inside.

"Well, you're awfully happy to see me," he teased. Then he caught her hands in his and tugged gently.

The seatbelt hindered her movements. "Zombies," Gemma managed to gasp. "Don't you see them?" And then she froze and backed away. "Unless you...you're one..."

Nick burst into laughter. Holly was laughing as well. Stunned, Gemma looked from one to the other. Not Holly, too! She covered her face with both hands. God, this had to be a nightmare. She had to wake up.

“Look,” Holly said and tapped Gemma on the shoulder

Biting her lip to keep from screaming, Gemma peeked between her fingers and looked to where Holly was pointing. The zombies were no longer heading for Nick. In fact, they were walking away, laughing, talking and swaggering, moving and acting like real human beings now. They were obviously pleased at her reaction.

And so was Nick.

And so was Holly.

"This is not funny!" Trembling and near tears, Gemma punctuated each word with a hard punch at Nick's chest. He held her at arm’s length and none of them connected which made him laugh that much harder.

"Good job guys," Nick said, giving the laughing zombies a thumbs up.

"Why did you scare me like that?" Gemma almost screamed. "You know how much I hate zombies. And why are there zombies here anyway?"

"Northlake Manor overbooked again," Holly guessed as she climbed out of the SUV.

"You got it," Nick said.

"The EEMA convention and a..." Holly shrugged.

"Supposed to be a sci-fi convention, but it's gotten a little out of hand," Nick said, finally able to get close enough to Gemma to pull her into his arms.

She rested her head against his chest, loving the warmth of his arms around her and his familiar scent.

"Hence the zombies," Holly finished.

"That you scared me half to death with," Gemma said, her voice muffled by Nick’s thick, winter clothing.

Nick chuckled and rested his chin on the top of her head. "I'm sorry."

"You are not." Gemma glared at him.

"They even had me going there for a while," Holly said. "Until I saw the cell phone clipped to the belt of that tall one." She moved to the back of the vehicle.

Still somewhat shaky and more than a little embarrassed, Gemma pulled back and looked up at Nick. "What are you doing here anyway? Besides scaring the life out of me?"

"Yeah, I didn't think you had to cover this kind of thing for The Herald any longer since you got promoted?" Holly added.

"The guy that is supposed to be covering this has the flu," Nick said with a shrug. "And 'breaking' news is kind of scarce right now. So I thought I'd just come down and hang out with you guys for a while, cover the story..."

"And scare me half to death," Gemma cut in.

He laughed again. "It was pretty funny."

"Was not," Gemma snapped, trying to hide her smile in his chest again. "Okay, it probably was pretty funny."

"Come on, let's get this show on the road," Holly said as she unlocked the back of the SUV.

Gemma pulled out of Nick's arms and went to help Holly unload the car.

All of their HealthGems jewelry was packed in compact, sturdy, easy to handle boxes and they were able to quickly load them onto the low flat cart that Nick brought out for them. But what they were really anxious about was putting up their display booth for the first time. After the record sales at their kiosk at the mall during the previous Christmas season and their ever growing internet sales, they knew their stylish, healthy lifestyle-inspired jewelry was a hit with the public. But they were both curious to see how they would be accepted in the health and fitness industry. So when they'd been invited to be vendors at the Exercise Equipment Manufacture's Association convention at Northlake Manor just outside of town, they jumped at the chance.

The display booth was expensive but they wanted something that showcased their jewelry to its best potential and still looked professional. With time before the convention running short, they had only seen sketches, not the finished product. And now they were anxious to get it up and running. Working together, they placed the heavy folded booth on top of their neatly stacked boxes and followed Nick as he pushed it inside.

A cold wind blew across the parking lot and Gemma pulled her coat tighter around her. She glanced up at the sky only to see that the sun had disappeared behind a swirl of low, gray clouds. More snow coming, she thought to herself. She hoped the bad weather would hold off for most of the weekend, at least until the convention was over. Shivering, she listened to the click of her high-heeled boots on the concrete as she dashed to catch up with Holly and Nick.

The convention hall at Northlake Manor had been transformed since Gemma had seen it last. The scarred and chipped white cinderblock walls were covered with deep burgundy-colored velvet curtains hanging from ceiling to floor. It helped with the acoustics and added a little warmth to the cold concrete area. The floors were different as well, stained to look like wooden planks. The place was a noisy bee-hive of activity and Gemma picked up the energy immediately.

EEMA, a huge organization, was obviously intent on capitalizing on all the New Year's resolutions to get fit and lose weight. Workers from some pretty well known manufacturers were setting up treadmills, elliptical machines, steppers and a few other machines that Gemma didn't even recognize. They looked torturous. She assumed visitors to the convention would be allowed to try out the machines as well as look at them. The weight machines and free weights were along one side of the room with huge freestanding mirrors in front of the curtains to emulate a real gym environment.

"It seems a lot smaller than the last time I was here," Gemma whispered to Nick when he slid an arm around her shoulders.

"That's because they divided it in half with those curtains," he explained, pointing.

"The sci-fi convention is on the other side?"

"Yep."

As if to prove their point, there was some loud grunting and then a crash, low moans and then laughter.

"Where do we go?" Gemma asked, praying it wasn't zombies making all that noise.

"Let's go find out," Holly said and headed for the closest person holding a clip board.

"Hi," she said, flashing a dazzling smile and extending her hand. She was incredibly fit, perky young woman with a pony tail that bounced around with her energetic movements. "I'm Angie."

"Hi, Angie. We're vendors," Holly explained as the two women shook hands. "Can you tell me who's in charge so we can find out where to set up?" Holly asked.

"Oh, I'm in charge," Angie squealed. Gemma was sure that the girl was about to clap her hands and jump up and down.

"Good, we found the right person then," Holly said.

"Uh-huh," Angie answered, the smile growing even broader as her gaze strayed over Gemma's shoulder to where the body builders were warming up for their demonstrations.

"So could you tell us where our tables are?" Holly prompted after a few moments and then motioned toward the clip board.

"Oh, why yes, I can," Angie said, consulting her clip board while chewing on the end of her pencil.

They waited.

"Who did you say you were with?" Angie asked.

"We didn't say," Gemma said. "But we're with HealthGems."

Angie's eyes grew round. "Oh, the jewelry people," she gasped. "I saw your kiosk at the mall."

Both Gemma and Holly nodded. They'd heard that a lot since Christmas.

Angie consulted her clip board again and finally pointed. "Right over there. Two folding tables, right?" She pointed to where Nick was standing with their cart. "Where that cute guy is standing. He's from the newspaper and he's going to do lots of stories on the convention. I think a photographer is coming, too."

Gemma bit back her smile. She might have just found a way to get back at Nick for his little zombie trick.

"Thank you," Holly said. "Do we have an outlet?"

"Yes, and there are extra power strips in the main office if you need to purchase one," Angie told them.

"I think we're good on that," Gemma assured her.

"And if you need anything just let me know," Angie said, obviously pleased with herself for a job well done.

"We will. Thanks."

"Looks like we got a good spot," Holly said as they headed toward Nick. "I mean, we paid for it but you just never know."

"Especially here at Northlake. Everything is always so sketchy," Gemma added. "But, yeah, we lucked out. We can be seen from both doors in and out of the hall," Gemma added.

"Guys, I have to leave you now. My photographer just arrived," Nick said, kissing Gemma's forehead. "Will you be okay?"

"I think we've got this," Holly reassured him and they watched Nick dash off toward another man they recognized from The Daily Herald.

Then the two friends exchanged grins and bumped fists. "Let's do this," Holy said.

The display booth was as easily assembled as they had been assured it would be. The directions were easy to follow, and it turned out to be even more beautiful than the drawings and pictures they'd seen and approved. The background color was eye-catching but not gaudy. The photographs of their jewelry back lit on LED screens and blown up to triple their size were breathtaking. When it was all set up, Gemma helped Holly arrange the color coordinated table cloths that would hide the ugly gray folding tables. Before they started setting out jewelry displays, she walked about ten feet away to get an idea of the overall effect.

"What do you think?" Holly asked.

"Breathtaking," Gemma said.

Holly crossed her arms over her chest and gave Gemma a skeptical look.

"No, really. Come and see."

Holly joined Gemma and almost immediately began to smile. "Breathtaking."

"I told you," Gemma said. Now she was having a difficult time to keep from jumping up and down.

"Stunning."

That deep, rumbling voice at her ear sent a shiver down Gemma's spine but it was the big warm hands on her shoulders that turned her head. She turned to smile up into Ross Ferguson’s lean, handsome face.  "What are you doing here?"

"Just came to check on you guys and make sure you made it out here. When I didn't see your car in the parking lot, I had to come in and check it out for myself,” he explained.

Gemma blushed. "I was afraid to take any chances so I rode with Holly. We're staying here all weekend so it just made sense."

"Wouldn't go into drive again, would it?" he asked, those big hands still on Gemma’s shoulders, his dark eyes telling her he knew the real truth.

It was well known that the fourteen year old Subaru that belonged to Gemma’s mother always started and ran great. Unfortunately, it had a mind of its own when it came to changing gears and actually going anywhere.

"I keep trying to talk her into trading it in but...," Holly finished her sentence with a shrug.

"You know I can't do that," Gemma said, a little too loud, a little too quickly. After her parents were killed in a car accident the year before Gemma had been reluctant to part with the cantankerous vehicle no matter how inconvenient it made her life.

"”I know,” Holly said, giving her a gentle hug. “I know.”

"I thought I had it fixed,” Ross said.

“I did, too,” Gemma said. Detective Ferguson had many talents besides being able to turn her insides into jelly with those dark, sexy eyes. He liked to tinker with cars in his garage when he wasn’t solving crime. They had spent a couple of very interesting evenings together while he, um, looked under her hood. She blushed a little at the thought and looked down at her hands. Those sessions had gotten fairly hot and heavy at times, but she had managed to tear herself away before things went too far.