Santa smiled as he peeked over the rail. Diana and Jay had seen Heather fall and they’d called out to Paul and Cindy. The panic on their faces was beautiful to see, and he watched for several moments as they gestured and pointed. But then something happened that made him raise his eyebrows and smile with delight. Paul and Jay were walking the girls back to the pub. And he’d heard them say that they were going down to the basement to take care of Heather. That meant they’d be leaving Diana and Cindy at the pub, alone!
He rubbed his mittened hands together, anticipating what would happen. Jay and Paul would be very busy, wrapping what was left of Heather in blankets, and then carrying her body up the steps to the meat cooler. They were trying to be considerate, going to do the unpleasant task while the girls stayed in the safety of the pub. They didn’t realize it, but they had done him a huge favor. They’d given Santa the time he needed to deliver his next set of presents.
The first thing to do was to get out of costume. He dashed into the hardware store and found a pair of jeans and a blue denim shirt. It only took a moment to change out of his costume, and he folded it carefully, putting it behind the counter near the front of the store. He’d already decided that the next set of accidents would take place up here.
The large crescent wrenches were near the back of the store, and he chose the biggest one he could find. Then he headed out to the walkway again. Each section of the rail was held in place with six heavy bolts and he removed them carefully, holding the rail in place. Santa’s next victims would fall to their deaths and everyone would assume that the railing had been improperly installed.
He was puffing slightly as he took the stairs down to the security office, and sat down at the desk to wrap the packages. There wasn’t much time and he had to hurry. He used pink foil for the girl who had stolen apples from Gramps’s orchard, breaking some grafts he’d made on the branches. Gramps had been very angry when he’d seen what she’d done. If she’d asked, he would have given her the apples.
The second package was wrapped in silver foil. It was for the girl who had convinced Grandma to bake all those pies for the charity bake sale. They had been beautiful pies, each one a work of art, but the girl had priced them ridiculously low. Two dollars for one of Grandma’s pies was a terrible insult.
As he stuck the bows on top of the packages, he almost had second thoughts. These were small offenses, but they still had to be punished. Perhaps not by death, but Santa didn’t really have a choice. The game was drawing to a close and there could be no survivors.
He wrote the names carefully and stuck the tags on the packages. He was almost ready. But first he had to make certain that there would be no interference. He had the master key, and he would lock the guys in the basement. Then Santa would be free to lure the two naughty girls close to the rail, and push them to their deaths.
Diana and Cindy had moved out to a bench near the door to the pub. There was no way they could stay locked up inside, imagining the worst. They were close enough to run for cover if they spotted the killer, but they felt much better now that they could see the whole mall.
Both girls were nervous, and their eyes scanned the length of the mall, checking for any movement. And then Diana gave a little gasp. “Did you see what I just saw?”
“You mean way down there by those offices?”
Diana nodded. “I swear I saw someone. But when I blinked, he was gone.”
“I saw him, too.” Cindy stood up. “Let’s go check it out. Maybe it’s Hal.”
Diana frowned and shook her head. “We promised the guys we’d wait for them here.”
“I know, but we also promised we’d warn Hal if we saw him.”
“That’s true.” Diana began to waver.
“Come on, Diana . . . we’ll be safe if we stick together. We’ve both got canisters of mace.”
Diana gave a little laugh. “That’s not very comforting. I don’t know how to use mace. And by the time I read the instructions, it’ll be too late.”
“I know how. It’s just like perfume. If the killer tries to grab you, all you have to do is point it and spray.”
“Okay.” Diana took a deep breath and stood up. “You go first and I’ll bring up the rear. If I hear something, I’ll tap you on the shoulder.”
Nothing was moving as they made their way to the other end of the mall. They kept to the center of the walkway, so they’d have plenty of time to whirl around and spray their mace if someone rushed out of one of the stores.
“I think he came out of here.” Cindy motioned to a wood-paneled door. “Get ready, Diana . . . I’m going to open it.”
Cindy turned the knob and the door slowly opened. It was an office of some kind, with metal filing cabinets and a desk. The room was deserted, but the lights were still on. And there were two packages sitting on top of the desk, one pink and one silver.
“Uh, oh!” Cindy moved forward to read the tags. And when she turned back to Diana there was fear in her eyes. “They’re for us!”
Diana’s lips tightened into a thin line as she stepped into the office and locked the door behind her. “We’d better open them.”
“Let’s just get out of here!” Cindy’s voice was shaking. “He could come back any minute!”
“The door’s locked and we’ve both got mace. Hurry up, Cindy. We’ve got to know for sure.”
Cindy was the first to get her package open, and she lifted out the note with shaking fingers. “Here . . . you read it. I don’t want to!”
“He knows if you’ve been bad or good.” Diana read the words that were written on the paper, and then she unfolded her note. “So be good for goodness sake.”
They stared at each other with horror on their faces. They didn’t have to say what they were thinking. They were next. And the person they’d seen was the killer!
They were moving back down the walkway when Diana heard a noise behind them. She whirled, her finger on the trigger of the mace canister, and gave a relieved sigh as she recognized Hal.
“Hal!” Cindy spotted him at the same time, and she rushed up to hug him. “Thank God it’s you! We thought it was the killer!”
Hal looked very puzzled. “What killer? And where is everybody? I just checked the pub, but Jay and Paul weren’t there.”
“We’ve got something awful to tell you.” Diana’s voice was shaking. “The elevator fell, and Heather’s dead. Jay and Paul are down in the basement, taking care of . . . you know.”
Hal looked dazed, and he shook his head. “That’s horrible! But you said . . . a killer? Here?”
“There’s somebody else out here at the mall.” Cindy took over the explanation. “All those deaths . . . Sue, Dave, Larry. They weren’t accidents. And we don’t think the elevator fell by accident, either. Somebody’s trying to kill us!”
“Are you sure?”
Diana nodded. “We’re positive. We caught a glimpse of him a couple of minutes ago. He was coming out of that door down the hall. Cindy and I checked it out and we found presents on the desk. Our names were on the tags and there were notes inside.”
“Lyrics to ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town?’ ”
“Exactly!” Cindy nodded. “He’s going after us next, and that’s why we were so glad to see you!”
Hal squared his shoulders. “Don’t worry, girls. I’ll take care of you until the guys get back. I’ll get a knife, or an axe or something like that. The hardware store’s right up there.”
“We’ll go with you.”‘ Diana grabbed his arm. “We’re safer if we stick together.”
They walked through the mall, glancing around warily, until they reached the escalator. Cindy was in the lead, and she was about to step on when she heard a loud shout.
“Cindy! We’re back!”
Cindy stepped back quickly, away from the escalator, almost bowling Diana and Hal over. “Boy, am I glad to see you! What took you so long?”
“The basement door locked behind us. We had to use the freight elevator to get back up here.”
They all stood in a tight little group, glad to be back together again. And then Jay turned to Hal.
“I’m glad the girls found you, Hal. We thought maybe . . .” Jay stopped and swallowed hard. “Did the girls tell you what happened?”
Hal nodded. “We were just going up to the hardware store. I figured I’d need an axe or something, in case he tried to attack us.”
“I think we’ll be okay if we all stay together.” Paul put his arm around Cindy’s shoulders and gave her a hug. Then he frowned as he realized that she was trembling. “What happened, Cindy?”
“We saw him! He was down there at the end of the mall.”
“Did you recognize him?”
“No.” Cindy shook her head. “We just caught a glimpse of him. He was coming out of one of those offices, so we . . . uh . . . we went down there to check it out.”
Jay’s arm was shaking as he pulled Diana close to his side. “You promised me you’d stay at the pub.”
“I know, but we had our mace, and we were getting nervous just sitting there. And at first, we thought it was Hal. You told us to warn him if we saw him.”
Hal looked very concerned. “Hey . . . let’s not argue. The girls are okay, and that’s what matters, isn’t it?”
“You’re right.” Jay nodded, and turned to Diana again. “Sorry. I was just worried about you, that’s all. You didn’t see him again, did you?”
“No. But we found the office he was using, and there were two presents sitting on top of the desk. They were for us.”
“You opened them?”
Jay was hugging her so tightly, Diana could barely breathe, but she was so glad he was here, she didn’t care. “We had to know if we were right.”
“There were lyrics inside.” Hal nodded gravely. “The next two lines from ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town,’ one in each package.”
“I think we’d better get out of here.” Jay’s voice was hard. “Any suggestions?”
There was an uncomfortable silence while they thought it over. Then Cindy spoke up. “We can’t walk. We’ll freeze to death before we reach the nearest farmhouse. It’s over five miles away.”
“We might be able to make it to the truck I left on the highway.” Paul frowned slightly. “But there’s no guarantee it’ll start.”
Diana nodded. “I guess we’re stuck here. We’ll just have to hole up in the . . .”
“What is it, Diana?” Jay looked puzzled as she started to smile.
“The snowmobiles! They’re all gassed up and ready to go!”
“Are you sure?” Hal frowned slightly.
“I’m positive. While Cindy and I were waiting for our job interviews, one of the maintenance men came in. The secretary asked if he’d gassed up the snowmobiles and he said he had.”
“Diana’s right.” Cindy nodded. “The secretary told us they were going to tape a commercial for the mall at the drawing. Two Santas were supposed to escort the winners to their snowmobiles and drive them right out the front door of the mall.”
“That’s why they asked us if we could drive a snowmobile!” Jay started to grin. “Come on. Let’s go check them out. If you girls are right, we can be out of here in no time flat!”