Ghostly claus, p.1
Ghostly Claus, page 1
GHOSTLY
CLAUS
GHOSTLY CLAUS
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 by E.M. Leya
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or author. Requests for permission to copy part of this work for use in an educational environment may be directed to the author.
This book is a work of fiction. References to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons or locales, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover Art by: Annabella Stone
Editor: Crowder Editing
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM E.M. LEYA
CHAPTER ONE
Detective Angus Young took a sip of the coffee the waitress had set in front of him and sighed. "I needed this." He glanced at the menu, trying to decide between a burger or a BLT. Maybe a burger with bacon. That would be kind of the same if he had lettuce and tomato on the burger, right?
"You and me both. I skipped breakfast today. The power went out in my neighborhood and my phone didn't charge. It was dead when I woke up this morning with ten minutes to get into the office. I need to invest in one of those battery-operated alarm clocks." Franks tore the wrapper off his straw and slid it into his soda before drinking down half of it. "I'm getting the pastrami burger and fries." He pushed the menu aside.
"What caused the power outage?" Angus decided on the burger and set his menu on top of Franks' before refocusing on his partner. He'd worked with Franks ever since becoming a detective. While Franks was a bit older, the two of them formed an easy friendship over the years.
"Someone stealing copper from the sub-station. Idiots will risk their lives for that shit. It's crazy." Franks leaned back in the seat. "I usually don't let my phone's battery get so low, but we were out at that spot near the lake yesterday for so long, that I never had a chance to charge it. Then when I finally got home, I forgot all about it until I went to bed."
"What'll it be?" The waitress approached the table.
At the same moment she got to the table, gunshots rang out from outside the diner. People around them ducked into their seats or climbed under the tables, but both Franks and Angus jumped up, grabbing for their guns. Without a word, they ran toward the front of the diner, only pausing when they got to the door.
"See anything?" Franks asked.
"Nothing." Angus had a clear look up and down the street. People were running toward them, coming from around the corner. "Go." Angus didn't have to say more. The moment he gave the command, Franks pushed the door open, and they slowly ran toward where the shot had come from while everyone around them ran away. They dodged groups of teens and Christmas shoppers, weaving their way through the people until they could see a group gathered around a body in the middle of the road.
"Calling it in." Franks had his phone out and was already dialing.
Angus looked around, seeing no sign of a shooter or threat. He scanned the area, looking for any sign of an active shooter, but only saw panic in the people around him. After the first round of gunfire, it seemed the shooter had taken off. "Anyone see the shooter?" Angus ran toward what looked to be a single victim on the ground.
A lot of people commented, but none of them seemed to have seen anyone fire the shots.
As he got near, Angus's chest tightened. Lying in the middle of the crosswalk with two women doing CPR on him was Santa Claus, or a man dressed as him. As he fell to his knees beside the victim, he noticed several young kids staring. Who the hell would shoot Santa, let alone do it where kids would see? "I have an ambulance on the way. You okay?" he asked the woman doing CPR.
"Yeah, we'll trade off. We're both nurses. But I'm not getting a pulse." She gave him a hard look he understood too well. The man was dead, and it wasn't likely any amount of CPR was going to bring him back.
"I've got the bleeding stopped, but…" The other woman shook her head as she pressed what looked like a sweater to the man's neck.
Damn, there was something just wrong about staring at a man dressed as Santa Claus with his neck ripped out by a bullet. He glanced up again and yelled, "Back up and give us room. And get those kids out of here." He glared at the man standing with two young sons who were crying as they stared at Santa on the ground. What kind of parent would let their kids stand there and see something like this? He would have gotten the kids out of there as soon as possible. "Franks?"
"No sign of the shooter. Witnesses are saying shots came from the hotel. I've sent officers over there to lock the place down. As soon as others arrive, we'll get witness statements. They're closing off the street from both ends."
Angus was grateful his partner was on top of everything. It wasn't often they were first on the scene of a shooting. They usually weren't called in until after all this had happened. This took him back to his years in uniform when he'd arrive to chaos in the streets and had to get control of things before detectives arrived. "Have them check all the stores in the area for cameras. I know the traffic light at the end of the block has one, but not sure about others." He eyed the area. Santa had been crossing the street via the crosswalk directly in the center of the block. He didn't see any cameras, but that didn't mean they weren't there.
"He'd just left my bookstore. He was there for our annual Christmas party." An older man stood off to the side. He stared down at Santa, frowning at the body on the ground. "He was handing out candy canes ten minutes ago."
Franks turned to the man. "Do you have his name and information?"
The older man nodded. "Gene Franklin. He's worked with us for years doing this event. I have his number and other info back at the store."
"It would be great if you could get us what you have." Franks glanced up as an ambulance pulled up and a paramedic and EMT jumped out.
Angus stood, moving out of the way. He glanced at Franks and shook his head. "Doesn't look good."
Franks frowned. "Who the hell kills Santa?"
"Let alone in an area filled with children." Angus noticed some parents still standing around with their children. Officers were pushing them back, running crime scene tape around the area to help with crowd control. Still, Angus was furious at the parents who would stand there and let their kids watch this, especially the younger ones who were visibly upset about Santa being shot.
Angus noticed the paramedic shake his head and stand, glancing around as if looking for someone. "You need something?" Angus asked. "I'm Detective Young."
The paramedic nodded solemnly. "He's gone. We can't do anything for him. He was probably gone the moment that bullet tore through his neck. You're going to need the medical examiner. We had dispatch call them."
"Thanks." Angus sighed as he exchanged a glance with Franks. Their afternoon just got a lot busier. He looked around, glad to see officers had secured the area. He was always amazed at how fast the officers got control of a situation. "Witnesses?"
"Yeah, a few. Getting statements now. Most are saying they just heard the shot come from the direction of the hotel and then saw Santa fall. Many are saying two shots, but I swear I heard three." Franks shrugged.
"I heard three. Sounded like a high-power rifle." Angus glanced up at the hotel. It was one of the older hotels in the area. A simple five-story building with a history dating back to the early nineteen hundreds. He'd only been in the place a few times through the years, usually for lunch or dinner in their restaurant. He'd never been up to the rooms. "Would have been an easy shot from one of those windows." He tried to see if any were open or if he could see any with the screen cut or torn out, but he was too far away.
"I need to call and cancel my date tonight." Franks sighed.
"You have a date?" Angus was shocked. "With who?"
"Don't act so shocked. I do go out from time to time. It's just Gloria from dispatch. We get together every few weeks for dinner. It's nothing serious. Just friends hanging out. We like to try new restaurants in the area when they open. We were going to hit that new Korean place on Main tonight, but it'll have to wait."
"We'll be done here by then."
"Will we?" Franks raised a brow.
Okay, so they wouldn't be done with things completely, but they weren't expected to work through the night. Santa was dead. Once they got the scene investigated and cleaned up, the rest could wait until morning. "Go have a night off before we get caught up in all this. The media is going to be
Franks sighed. "You got plans?"
"Nope. I'll drop by Lance's if I have time, but we don't have plans. If anything comes up, I'm available. And Phil will be around if I need help." Angus didn't expect they could do much until forensics did their job and figured out exactly where the bullet came from. All they could do right now was investigate Santa and figure out why someone wanted him dead. If he had a family, they'd need the night to grieve. They couldn't start pushing for interviews until tomorrow at the earliest. He glanced around. "Please tell me we aren't going to have to do notification."
Franks cringed. "Probably. I'll take that over dealing with the media." He pointed down the road where a media van was pulling up.
"Great. Just what we need." Angus shook his head. "As if traumatizing the kids around here wasn't enough, now the news will make sure every child in the area knows Santa was shot to death." He prayed the media had a heart and would report about the shooting without saying what the man who died did for a living or how he was dressed when he was killed. "Let's make sure we try and keep them from getting any shots of the body. The last thing we need is a dead Santa on the six o'clock news."
Franks nodded. "I'll see if we can move some of the cruisers to block the area better and maybe move the tape back another half a block." He walked off.
Angus walked over to where one of the women who had been doing CPR was. She sat on the edge of an outdoor flowerbox in front of one of the stores. Someone had given her a bottle of water to drink. He noticed her hand shaking as she lifted it to her mouth. "You okay?"
"I will be. Just not what you expect to see when out Christmas shopping." She gave him a weak smile. "I've seen worse. I'm an E.R. nurse. It's just an adrenaline dump." She glanced at the woman beside her who was using a roll of paper towels to wipe the blood from her hands. "We'd like to go clean up, but figured you'd want to speak to us first."
"I won't take long. I'm Detective Young." He didn't offer his hand. Instead, he pulled out a small notebook from his pocket. "Did you see him get shot?"
"Yeah, he was just a few steps in front of us on the crosswalk. We'd been joking with him while we waited to cross. He said he was headed to the mall for his shift there and told us to bring our kids by later." She took another drink of water before continuing. "We were about halfway across the street when he went down. Then I heard the shot. That's weird, right? That I'd see him get hit before I heard the sound of the gunfire?"
"Not really. Sound can travel differently sometimes. How many shots did you hear?"
She glanced at her friend and raised her brow. "Maybe two."
"I thought I heard three." The other woman shrugged. "But by then I saw the blood and was rushing to help him. Now that I think about it, that was stupid. I should have run for cover, but I guess my training just kicked in and when I saw blood, I had to help." The second woman's voice shook. "We could have been killed too."
Angus didn't want to think about how many innocent victims were on the street at the time who could have been shot. "Was the victim alert when you got to him?"
"No, and I never found a pulse. His neck…" She shook her head. "The bullet nearly tore his head off. I know that sounds dramatic, but it's true. I could feel the wound as I applied pressure. It was like his head was looser on his spine than it should have been." She shivered. "I've never experienced something like that in all my years of nursing. It just felt wrong."
Angus felt bad keeping the women while they both really did need to wash. "I know you want to go clean up. If we can just get you to fill out witness statements. Make sure we have contact info for you, and then you two are free to go. Just know we may be in contact later with more questions."
"Of course." The first woman nodded as she watched the medical examiner's van pull up. "It breaks my heart so many kids saw that. There were a bunch of kids outside the bookstore when it happened."
Angus sighed. "Murder is bad enough, but murdering Santa in front of kids a few weeks before Christmas tops it all." He tried to see who was in the M.E.'s van but couldn't. He doubted it would be his boyfriend, Lance. He didn't like going on calls if he didn't have to. He'd usually get the others to go. He refocused on the women. "I'll send someone over in a moment to get your statements. Thank you for trying to help today."
"I just wish we could have done more." The second woman frowned.
"You did all you could. I'm told he was probably gone before he hit the ground. Thank you again, ladies." He gave them a nod, then headed back toward where the body was. He smiled as he saw Sam kneeling beside the body. Sam was the head medical examiner and his boyfriend's boss. He liked the man, though he only knew him through the cases they worked on and from what Lance said about him. "Hey, Sam."
"What the hell is going on in this town? Who the hell kills Santa?" Sam glanced up at him.
Angus stepped closer and stared at the body, noticing how much darker the blood was that stained Santa's suit. "That's exactly what I hope to find out." He glanced around, glad to see most of the onlookers had moved on. "Can you tell me anything yet?"
"Other than the obvious? No. Not till we get in there and get a good look. He'll be on the schedule for tomorrow morning unless something bigger comes in. Looks like something ripped through the back of his neck, but you know that much. We'll have more for you later. Whatever hit him caused a lot of damage. This is more than a single bullet hole."
"What do you mean?" Angus moved a bit closer.
"I can't say really. I just know this wound is bigger than what I normally see with a single gunshot wound, even from something high caliber. I'll know more once I can get him out of this outfit and get a better look." Sam continued working on the body. "Anyone else injured?"
"Not that we've found. Seems he was the only target." Angus saw Franks walking toward them.
"We'll get you what we can as soon as we can. Give us a call tomorrow morning and we can let you know what time we're doing the autopsy. Lance will probably be doing this one. I have a meeting with the mayor at nine." Sam sighed.
"More budget talks?" Angus knew the M.E.'s office had been trying to get funding to hire another examiner.
"Yeah. And probably more of the same run around that there just isn't enough money. Then in a few weeks, we'll see the whole mayor's office driving new cars." Sam sounded jaded.
"Hey, it's the same for us. We can't even afford a new coffee pot on our budget. Phil bought one out of his own pocket the other night when ours finally gave out."
"Now that's harsh working conditions if you ask me. Coffee should be a given on any city budget. We can't do our jobs without it."
"Right?" Angus smirked. He glanced up at Franks as he came to stand beside him. "Find anything?"
"They found casings on the roof of the hotel. They're looking at the video from inside the hotel now." Franks held up a finger as his phone rang and he stepped away to answer it.
Angus turned back to Sam. "Got a wallet for me?"
"If I do, it's buried under the Santa suit. You'll have to give me a minute." Sam continued to do his basic examination of the body. It wouldn't take long. The cause of death was obvious, but he understood that there were rules that had to be followed and he couldn't rush Sam when he had a job to do. They already had the man's name and information from the bookstore owner, but verifying it with his I.D. and trying to find out who his wife was before going to his home would be nice.
Franks turned back to them as he shoved his phone back into his pocket. "That was the captain. He wants us to finish up here, then notify the family. He's sending Amy to the hotel to handle things there. We'll meet up at the station later and figure out what we have so far."
"Figured we'd end up with that." Angus exchanged a look of dread with Franks. Telling a family their loved one wasn't coming home was never easy. He turned back to Sam, who was staring at the body with a frown. "What's wrong, Sam?"
"I can't be sure until we get him on the table, but I think he was shot twice." He turned the body slightly. "I think we have two neck wounds side-by-side."
"Impossible." Franks glanced up at the roof of the hotel. "Two shooters maybe?"
