Slay Bells and Satchels (Haley Randolph Mystery Series) Read Free Page A

went back.
    I glanced up and down the hallway, saw that no one was around, and slipped into the stockroom.
    The giant toy bag lay just where I left it. It creeped me out looking at it.
    Scattered across the floor and piled up nearby were the Christmas decorations that had been knocked off the shelving unit. Some of the glass ornaments were broken. Yards of green garland and dozens of spools of red ribbon were jumbled in with a mound of wooden nutcrackers, the ones that look like soldiers with gaping mouths.
    Those things creep me out, too.
    I figured that McKenna—I guess she was the victim since the other elves had said she was missing from the training room—had struggled with her attacker and knocked everything onto the floor.
    Her assailant must have emptied the contents of the giant toy bag and stuffed her inside, after the deed was done. Small household and kitchen appliances, electric razors and toothbrushes, holiday placemat and napkins sets—apparently, Holt’s had planned to give away “toys” to all ages—were mixed with teddy bears, coloring books and crayons, and wooden puzzles, and dumped on top of the Christmas decorations.
    Obviously, McKenna’s death wasn’t an accident or suicide—you don’t need mad skills to know she hadn’t offed herself, then crawled into the giant toy bag to die—and that meant she’d been murdered.
    I got a really creepy feeling.
    I looked around. The loading bay doors were still closed. The back door I’d thought the janitor had opened was still open. No sign of the janitor.
    I spotted a puddle of blood seeping from under a pile of large, wooden candy canes.
    Yuck. I wanted out of there.
    I headed for the door.
    It burst open in front of me.
    Homicide detectives Madison and Shuman walked in.
    Oh, crap.
    “Leaving the scene of the crime, I see, Miss Randolph,” Detective Madison said, looking smug. “Seems I’m getting an early Christmas present this year.”
    Detective Madison hated me. But that’s okay. I hated him, too.
    He was way overdue for retirement, and looked it. His comb-over had thinned even more and his jowls hung lower than the last time I saw him. He had a round belly that definitely shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly—not that he ever laughed, around me, anyway. Madison had made it his mission to find me guilty of
something
.
    Detective Shuman didn’t hate me. I didn’t hate him, either.
    He was thirtyish, with brown hair, and kind of handsome—not that I ever noticed, of course, since I have an official boyfriend. Shuman had an official girlfriend that he absolutely adored. So, officially, there was nothing going on between Shuman and me. Officially.
    “I’ll leave you two to your work,” I said, and skirted around the detectives.
    Madison blocked my path.
    “Oh, no, let’s get to the good stuff, like opening the biggest present first on Christmas morning,” he said, rubbing his palms together. “You were in charge of the actresses who were portraying elves here today, weren’t you?”
    I guess he’d already talked to Jeanette.
    “Well, yes,” I said. “But that only happened this morning, just a short while ago, really.”
    “So it was a crime of opportunity,” Madison said. “Is that what you’re telling me, Miss Randolph?”
    “No,” I insisted.
    “So what sort of crime was it?” he asked, leaning closer.
    I glanced at Shuman. He looked worried.
    Not good.
    “I had nothing to do with McKenna’s murder,” I said.
    Madison snapped to attention, as if I’d just confessed to something.
    “So you knew the victim,” he declared.
    “No, I just heard the other girls talking about her,” I told him.
    He went on as if I hadn’t spoken.
    “And you knew she’d been
murdered
,” he declared.
    Well, I guess he had me on that.
    “You supposedly
found
the body,” Madison went on. “You
found
her when you were
alone
in the stockroom. Isn’t that right, Miss Randolph?”
    Okay, he had me on that, too.
    But he was