Read Online The Blonde Before Christmas: a Barb Jackson Mysteries holiday short story by Anna Snow - Free Book Online

looked like they had shed even a single tear over the guy. There were no shaky voices, no sniffles, not even any bad acting to pretend they cared when we talked to them. It was like none of them really gave a damn about Marvin."
    I thought about what she said for a second. "Maybe he'd cheated on them so much, treated them so poorly, that they didn't care anymore. It would serve him right if all three women stopped giving a darn about him." I shrugged and took a sip of my coffee, my eyes never leaving the screen. "That alone might be enough for one, or all of them, to take Marvin out."
    "I just don't see it." She dropped her feet and waved a hand in the air. "They didn't even seem all that angry about him cheating. It was like they had just washed their hands of him."
    Kelly was right. The women, with the exception of Addie, who had only seemed disappointed and not really upset, hadn't shown any signs of despair over losing Marvin.
    "Okay, so say that none of the women killed him. Who else have we talked to that would have wanted him dead?" I asked.
    "The only other person we've talked to is Reginald, the mall supervisor," Kelly answered.
    "Reginald said he didn't know him, that Marvin had only been hired on to work the holiday season, so he hadn't interacted with him. What reason would he have to kill Marvin?" I asked.
    "None, that we know of," Kelly answered.
    "Right. So we're back at zero." I shook my head. "I hope Smith is having better luck with this than we are."
    I settled back into my chair, tried to enjoy my coffee, and glued my eyes to the screen as Kelly did the same. We watched the screen for another hour. Mall workers came and went without us really being able to see some of their faces due to the angle of the camera. Around the 10:30 pm mark, the mall fell silent, and the lights dimmed. I felt my pulse tick up as the time of Marvin's death inched closer and closer. 
    I was seriously starting to wonder if studying the tapes was going to be worth the time and effort since we couldn't see most of the people's faces or the crime scene itself. Then something caught my eye.
    "Wait. Go back." I sprang forward in my seat.
    "What? How far?" Kelly sat forward and hit the rewind button on the player.
    "There! Stop there." I patted her arm with enthusiasm. "Watch."
    I leaned forward and pressed my forearms into the desktop.
    We watched the screen with baited breath then I saw it again.
    "Who is that?" Kelly asked. "Do you think that's our guy?" I could hear excitement creeping into her voice.
    We watched an arm then a leg move into view.
    The rest of the scene played out right in front of the camera.
    Dressed in full Santa garb, Marvin ran into full view of the camera. He turned and raised his arms to shield his face, but it was too late. Countless small pieces of something blasted him in the face, and he fell. His head slammed into the hard cement floor. We couldn't see who was shooting him or what he was being shot with because the person was out of the camera's range.
    Marvin lay motionless, a pool of blood forming around him as the camera started to pan back to the food court.
    "What in the hell just happened? What blasted him in the face?" Kelly asked and fast-forwarded the tape. When the camera was pointed back at Marvin's body, he was being hoisted over the shoulder of a large man.
    "Who is that?"
    I studied the man. He was tall, muscular, and wore a pair of black slacks and a dark-colored shirt with a collar.
    "Oh my God," I whispered. "I know who that is."
    Kelly looked at me and shook her head, then looked back at the screen. "I don't recognize him. How do you? We haven't even seen his face. Just his body."
    I grabbed my cell phone from out of my jeans pocket and dialed Smith's number. It rang then went to voicemail.
    "Damn it, detective. Why did you give me this number if you weren't going to answer the stinking phone when I called? I know who killed Marvin," I shouted when the voicemail beeped for me to leave a