‘What’s that book you have there?’ Peter asked, as they were having breakfast in Mathilda’s kitchen.

  Surprised, Lacey remembered her notebook. It was lying on a corner of the table – she must’ve brought it down with her as she followed Mathilda’s rushing out with Bethy to help Elf.

  ‘It’s a notebook I took from the workshop. Please don’t tell anyone. I think it’s supposed to be for workshop notes, but I’ve been using it to keep track of our mystery clues.’

  ‘Using it to find a workshop elf sounds like a good use of a workshop notebook to me,’ he responded, sawing through some breakfast sausage. ‘What clues have you collected so far? Maybe we can run through what we have and see where we’re at.’

  Lacey nodded, paging to her most recent list of clues. ‘Since we’ve cleared Albyrne, there are a few we can eliminate. Tell me if you agree. They are: the missing golden rings and the paint on the pedestal from Albyrne’s hands. Then also whether Icy and them might have seen Jinxy, and their midnight visit to Albyrne’s cottage.’ She stared sadly at the page. ‘Those were most of our clues.’

  ‘And I don’t know what to make of the fragment of Jinxy’s coat,’ Peter added. ‘The paint on it seems meaningless now that we know Albyrne is innocent.’

  Lacey tapped the pen against her lips. ‘I’ve been wondering about that. It seems to me like there are three possibilities.’ She held up her fingers.

  ‘One, Jinxy passed by and lost a piece of her coat that happened to have a paint smudge from Albyrne on it.

  ‘Two, someone placed the fragment there, either as a clue or a misdirect, and the splotch of paint is a meaningless coincidence.

  ‘Or, three, someone wanted to use it to frame Albyrne with.

  ‘Right now, we have no evidence for or against any of these three theories.’

  ‘You should note them down regardless,’ Peter said. ‘Just in case something becomes relevant later.’

  She nodded, starting a new page.

  ‘Then, we have the elves surrounding her,’ Peter continued. ‘Any of them might be involved or know something, even if they don’t realise its importance. Let’s go through her friends, one by one. What do we know about Cynthie?’

  ‘Cynthie…’ Lacey started slowly as she considered. ‘Cynthie and Jinxy are toy-making rivals. It could be a possible motive for Cynthie to do something to come out on top this Christmas. Also, she doesn’t like me.’

  ‘That’s true,’ he added. ‘But, is it because you’re investigating Jinxy’s disappearance, or because she sees you as a romantic rival for me? That we don’t know.’

  Peter stated it so matter-of-factly, while Lacey felt her cheeks flush slightly at the mention of romantic rivalry. Did he also feel something in saying it out loud?

  Hoping he hadn’t noticed her blush, she continued. ‘There’s something else too. That day in Jinxy’s house, Cynthie was the one who bumped off Jinxy’s paperwork on her desk when she picked up the timer. That was when I found the note about the candy-cane fields. Is it possible that she could’ve slipped it in there as a red herring?’

  Peter sighed, obviously not liking the idea of elves he’d known his entire life having a hand in Jinxy’s disappearance. Nonetheless he nodded for her to note it down. The front door clicked open as she was writing. They could hear Mathilda walking in while chatting to someone. There was a soft pluff as she dropped her healing bag on the floor, before entering the kitchen with Bethy in tow. Lacey flipped the notebook closed, laying it down with her pen on top.

  ‘See, I told you so,’ Mathilda said to Bethy. ‘Here he is.’

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  ‘Oh good,’ she said. ‘Hiya Peter, hiya Lacey, how are you today?’

  ‘We’re good,’ Peter said, chewing on sausage. ‘How’s Elf doing?’

  ‘He’s fine,’ Mathilda said with a wry grin, something unspoken passing between her, Bethy, and Peter.

  Peter shook his head. ‘The nutmeg clusters again? When will he learn that you can only have so many of them at a time?’

  ‘Well, he was curling around on the floor when I got to him,’ Mathilda responded. ‘Hopefully that’ll help him remember temperance in future.’

  Lacey made a mental note to find some of these nutmeg clusters. If it was good enough to overdose on, she definitely wanted a bite.

  ‘I do wish he wouldn’t worry me so,’ Bethy said, a little annoyed frown on her face. ‘But, anyway, there’s something else I wanted to tell you, Peter.’

  ‘Oh? What is it?’

  ‘It’s about Albyrne. I wasn’t sure whether you’re still suspicious of him having something to do with Jinxy. So, I just wanted you to know that he really isn’t involved with wherever she went.’

  ‘How do you know?’ Lacey asked, leaning forward with her chin in her hand.

  ‘I know, because last Starday he was in the workshop all afternoon. I was watching him, because he was making such a mess with the green paint.’ She gave a soft laugh. ‘And then he left at the same time as I did, after Melo came in. I handed him his coat, because I didn’t want him touching our coats with the wet paint still on his hands.’

  ‘Oh, that’s good to know,’ Peter said. ‘Thanks for telling me.’

  ‘Anytime,’ she said. ‘Anyway, I’d better get back to the workshop. Thank you for your help, Mathilda!’

  ‘Sure,’ Mathilda said, walking her out. She returned to plop down in her chair and pulled the bread towards her.

  ‘What have the two of you been up to? Climbed onto any roofs lately?’

  ‘Rethinking our investigation,’ Peter said, with an eye-roll at her little tease. ‘With Albyrne and his elves ruled out, Lacey and I have to re-examine everything we thought we knew.’

  ‘Ah yes,’ Mathilda said. ‘I’m sorry that hadn’t panned out. We saw Albyrne heading to the workshop on the way back. He looks really down. That conversation with Santa couldn’t have been easy. That’s probably what reminded Bethy of last Starday.’

  Peter nodded sympathetically.

  ‘Do you think Elf’s stomach-ache is real?’ Lacey asked her. ‘At one point I wondered whether he was making it up to explain his not being in the workshop sometimes.’

  ‘Oh, it’s real alright,’ Mathilda said. ‘But, if we’re being suspicious, he could also have purposefully overeaten and no-one would know.’

  ‘True,’ Lacey said, jotting a note. ‘Now, Danji.’

  ‘What about Danji?’ Peter asked. ‘I honestly can’t think of a single suspicious thing about her.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ Lacey conceded. ‘But she does have a bit too much glühwein sometimes. Could she maybe have done something under the influence?’

  Both Peter and Mathilda looked at her nonplussed.

  ‘I don’t know about the glühwein,’ Peter said slowly. ‘But, she’s the one who gets around the candy-cane fields the most. If Jinxy’s note was real, it might’ve been Danji who sent it.’

  ‘And,’ Lacey jumped in, ‘she was the one who told us it was an outsider’s handwriting. Could she have been lying?’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Peter said. ‘But I do agree with her – it didn’t look like anyone from the village’s handwriting. Besides, what motive does she have?’

  Lacey sighed, staring at her notebook. ‘You’ve got me there. But let me add her to our list, just in case.’

  Mathilda silently slathered butter on a second slice of bread, listening with interest even though she wasn’t participating.

  ‘This brings us to Bethy, then,’ Lacey continued. ‘Is there anything about her that might be a problem?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’ Peter responded. ‘The only thing I can think of, is that scene we saw between her and Melo. It really looked like they were breaking up, but that couldn’t have been right because Melo’s with Jinxy.’

  Lacey frowned. ‘That’s true. And yet Danji called Bethy Melo’s number two the other night in the Reindeer Common room. And on my second day in the workshop, Bethy said something like Jinxy’s “darling Melo”, only not in a nice way. I wonder if there might be some jealousy there.’

  Peter looked at Mathilda. ‘What do you think? You saw her the other morning after Lacey and I saw her leaving Melo’s.’

  Mathilda shook her head. ‘Nuh uh. You know I can’t talk about what people tell me as a healer.’ But Lacey could tell she wanted to say something more. There was a meaningful silence, as Mathilda paused for just a beat too long.

  Collecting her thoughts? Or leaving something out? Lacey studied her expression, noting the slight shift in her eyes when Mathilda slowly continued, ‘We were talking out in the snow, and that’s as much as I can say.’

  ‘In the snow?’ Lacey asked, surprised. ‘Wasn’t that cold? I would’ve thought you’d do it inside her house.’

  There was another tiny pause. Then she replied, ‘Oh no. She wanted to be outside. Said it would help clear her head.’

  The way Mathilda inflected outside and clear her head set Lacey’s instincts tingling.

  She circled Bethy’s name and added, ‘what’s inside?’

  And for the first time, Lacey felt a little beat of fear. Playing detective was fine, but she could sense an abyss forming beneath her feet. What had Bethy seen, or done, that she wasn’t talking about?

  ??????

  Thanks for reading!

  Today Lacey and Peter paused to review their clues – and ended up with a few new ones.

  you make of Mathilda’s hesitation at the end?

  Simply healer caution… or something she’s not saying?

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