Two

“Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!”

Abraham screamed my name. Shook my arm. I couldn’t move. React. Talk. I felt so cold. My gaze wandered over to the dinette bench.

Whatever expression was on my face caused Abraham to rush over and reach for the seat. “I’ll get it out.”

He thought there was a dead animal in the storage compartment. I couldn’t let him see Samuel. I sprung to my feet and grabbed his arm. “Don’t open it!”

Too late. Abraham stumbled backward, a look of horror on his face. He stared at me with wide eyes. “That man. He’s dead.”

I nodded. What else could I do? The police. Call the police. With a shaking hand, I pulled out my cell. How would I explain it? How could I? I didn’t know what was going on. Why was Samuel in my RV? Dead.

I grabbed Abraham’s arm. “We have to leave.”

“That man. Did he hurt you?” Abraham glared at Samuel’s body.

“I didn’t know he was in there. He scared me when I saw him.” I tugged Abraham toward the door.

“How did he die?”

“I don’t know. We have to get out of here.” Cassie’s name flittered into my head. No. Not possible. The voice of suspicion was persistent. Why was she so insistent on selling you the RV today?

Abraham refused to budge. “Maybe he needs our help.”

“No, he doesn’t.” My voice took on a high-pitch, nearly hysterical quality. “Let’s go.”

“Merry? Abraham? What’s going on?” Grace, Abraham’s mother, stood on the threshold of the RV.

Relief flooded through me. I pulled her aside and whispered furiously what I discovered in the seat storage area as I kept an eye on Abraham. He was still standing in front of the dinette with his hands tucked into his back pockets. The tilt of his head suggested he was struggling with my “don’t touch” order.

“Abraham, where’s Ebenezer?” I threw out the only idea that might get him away from the bench.

“He’s outside near the trees. You screamed. If someone screams that means they’re in trouble. I came to help.”

Grace took her son’s hand and pulled him away from the dinette area, avoiding looking at Samuel’s body. “I am so proud of you for protecting Merry. I thought something was wrong, so I called the police. Can you wait near our trailer and point out Merry’s to them?”

Abraham nodded. “I’ll bring Ebenezer with me so he doesn’t have to stay out in the cold.”

“Thank you,” I said. “That’s a wonderful idea.”

“We should wait outside.” With a steadying grip on my elbow, Grace led me out.

I shivered. She unwrapped one end of her shawl from her shoulders and draped it over me, pulling me to her side. We stood there, side-by-side, staring at my dream that had now become my nightmare. The stars twinkled overhead. I gazed up, wishing with all my might this was a horrible dream. The cold penetrating through the shawl, and into my body, told me this was reality. A horrible reality I’d have to explain to the police. But how?

Why was Samuel—a dead Samuel—in my RV? The RV that his daughter had sold me. Was that why she was desperate to sell? My stomach clenched. I placed a hand on my stomach and drew in small puffs of air.

“What happened?” Grace tightened the shawl around us.

“The RV smelled horrendous. I was looking for what was rotting. I didn’t know it would be my ex-husband.” My body quaked. Bile rose in my throat. I sucked in breaths through my nose, hoping to settle the sick feeling.

This was supposed to be a fantastic weekend. The beginning of my dreams coming true. I could expand Merry and Bright Handcrafted Christmas and make it my only full-time job. No more seasonal jobs. Focus on Christmas crafting year-round. There was travel in my future. The RV allowed me to visit the places in the United States I had read and dreamt about.

Sirens filled the air. Red lights swirled near the entrance of the recreational vehicle parking. I shivered harder.

Grace slipped out from the shawl and wrapped the other end around me. “Do you want me to call Scot—”

“No!” I didn’t know much right now, but I knew I didn’t want my son here. Scotland hadn’t been on the police force long and I didn’t want him running down here to help me out of this legal kerfuffle. Being a police officer was his dream and I didn’t want this complicating his life. This was my problem.

“I can’t believe this is happening.” I moaned and planted my face into my hands.

“It’ll be okay.” Grace squeezed my shoulder. “You did nothing wrong.”

My breath tightened in my lungs. Would the police think I did something wrong?

A car door slammed near us. The wail of the siren stopped, but the red light continued to swirl around. A uniformed officer walked toward Grace’s trailer. Abraham stepped out, holding Ebenezer like a football, and pointed toward us. The officer pivoted and headed in our direction.

“Do you think I’ll be blamed because he’s my ex-husband?”

“It’s strange that he was in your trailer…”

“I just bought it.” Something in me screamed not to tell her about buying the RV from Cassie.

“That’s even odder.”

My lips quivered.

Grace’s eyes widened. “I’m not blaming you. I know you’d never kill someone. And if you did, you sure wouldn’t bring him with you to a Christmas craft show. This…” she spread out her arms, “is your happy place.”

That it was. And Samuel ruined it. Think sympathetic thoughts. It wasn’t like the man murdered himself.

An ambulance pulled to a stop a few feet from us. A paramedic hopped out and walked over to us as another pulled a gurney from the back of the ambulance.

“A young man said the victim was over here.”

I nodded and pointed at my RV. Victim. Samuel was a victim. His body was in the RV that was once his and now mine. I shuddered. Body. Samuel was no longer here.

“The dead man is in that RV.” Grace wrapped an arm around my shoulders and tucked me into her side. Her comfort wrapped around me. My trembling slowed.

“Is anyone else inside?”

I shook my head.

“No,” Grace said, becoming my voice.

The paramedics went up the steps of the RV. “Wait out here.”

I had no intention of stepping one foot in there with Samuel stuffed in the bench.

A female officer walked over to us. She looked like she had just reached the age to legally buy alcohol. Scotland’s age. “It was reported that a man died in a recreational vehicle. Do either of you know the victim?”

I tried to speak but no sound came out. Instead, I nodded.

“Samuel Waters, her ex-husband, was in her RV.” Grace gave me a one-armed hugged. “She’s shaken up. She didn’t expect to see him.”

“He startled her, there was an altercation, and she—” The officer created a scenario.

“No!” I found my voice. “He was just in there.”

“Does that mean he forced himself into your RV?” The officer asked.

“Not exactly.” I’d have to try harder to explain the situation coherently. I drew in a deep breath and slowly released it, hoping it settled my heart rate and the anxiety racing through my body. Speak slow. Focus on one word at a time. “He was in the dinette bench. It can be used for storage.”

The officer settled a look on me that was halfway between pity and suspicion.

I cringed. That sounded bad, like I decided to take my dead ex-husband on a road trip.

“She didn’t know he was in there.” Grace rubbed my arm in a soothing manner.

“How long ago were you divorced?” The officer asked.

“Two weeks ago. The divorce proceedings lasted longer than our marriage,” I said.

“It was a contentious divorce?”

“Yes, he fought everything. I only wanted what I brought into the marriage. I wanted nothing from him.”

“Was your husband trying to get alimony from you?”

I shook my head. “He just didn’t want the divorce hearing to end. He liked forcing me to see him. The judge granting the divorce scheduled us to come in at different times to sign so I didn’t have to see Samuel again. He just—” A sob strangled the rest of the words.

Grace squeezed me to her side. “I’d like to take my friend to my RV. She’s had a rough evening. She’d been looking forward to this weekend for months. There is a Christmas craft fair, and Christmas is her thing.”

The officer tapped a pen on her notebook.

“I’d like to get this over with.” The sooner I answered the questions, the sooner it was over, and the better chance Scotland wouldn’t get wrapped up in this in any way. I didn’t want word floating around the station that his mother was coming in for questioning regarding her ex-husband’s death.

“Did your ex-husband know this event was important to you?” Something sparked in the officer’s eyes that I couldn’t decipher.

“I mentioned it when we were married,” I said. “He kept texting and messaging me that he needed to talk. It was extremely important. I told him I meant it when I said I never wanted to see him again. I blocked him from my Facebook page, so I doubt he remembered it was this weekend.”

“Did you keep those messages?” The officer asked.

“A few.”

“Can I see them?”

Nodding, I pulled up my text messages and handed my cell to the officer. She scanned through them and handed it back to me.

“Samuel tried to rent a booth a few days ago,” Grace said.

“What?” My eyes widened. “You didn’t tell me.”

Samuel wasn’t a crafter. He hadn’t been interested in my business except for how much I made and telling me to “dump that partner of yours.”

“I didn’t want you being anxious about coming,” Grace said. “He was told there wasn’t a space left.”

The officer scribbled furiously in her notepad. “How did you find out?”

“I’m on the committee that organizes the event,” Grace said. “Another member mentioned it because he was demanding. She wanted us to know in case he showed up to sell.”

“Has that happened before?” the officer asked.

“You can’t even imagine,” Grace said. “Last year, someone tried to claim they were another vendor to take their spot. Fortunately, we caught them before we had a huge problem on our hands. The committee member had written down Samuel’s name and was going to alert the registrars in case he tried it.”

A paramedic stepped out. “The guy is dead. We need a coroner.”

The officer nodded and pressed a button on the radio attached to her vest as she entered the RV.

Poor Cassie. Tears stung my eyes. She was now an orphan. Her mother had abandoned her sixteen years ago.

Cassie had to be told. Would the police do that? Would I have to? Should I call Scotland? He had training in how to deal with a notification. I cringed. Notification. Raleigh was getting her master’s degree in adolescent psychology. Maybe she was the better person to break this horrible news to Cassie?

Cassie might already know. The evil thoughts trickled in. One after the other. She sold you the trailer. For cheap. It’s her dad shoved in your dinette. Dead. What better revenge than to end both of your lives? Samuel’s literally. Yours figuratively.

Shame clenched my stomach and heated my cheeks. I was not the type of person who believed the worst in people. I was a defender. I was the go-to person whenever someone needed help. I couldn’t listen to the Scrooge in my head. There was no way Cassie would kill her father because she thought his interest in Bonnie caused the divorce. But would she if he forced her out of their house?

No. Samuel was almost six feet and weighed one hundred and eighty pounds. Cassie was a little bit of a thing. She barely weighed ninety pounds and was an inch shorter than me, and I was just over five feet tall. No way could she have dragged him into the trailer and shoved him into the bench.

Alone, a voice in my head corrected. Cassie had a lot of friends. Male friends. Large, muscular male friends. One, or two of them, could’ve easily carried Samuel into the RV and dropped him into the seat storage.

Stop it. First, you’re accusing your stepdaughter and now you’ve come up with a conspiracy plan involving her high school friends. I rubbed my temples.

“Is there any way your ex-husband found out about your RV purchase?” The officer asked, drawing me out of my head.

My face was on fire. I dipped my head. “I bought it from his daughter.”

“I think that explains it.” The officer closed her notebook and settled a sympathetic gaze on me. “From what I’ve gathered, sounds like we might have a stalking situation on our hands. It appears your ex-husband died from suffocation. I didn’t see any indication of foul play. It’s likely he placed himself into the bench.”

“Samuel hid in my RV?” My mind conjured up an image of Samuel, in the middle of the night, sneaking out of his hiding place and “surprising” me. My body shook. I wrapped my arms around myself. I was so, so stupid.

“That’s what it looks like,” the officer said. “At least you don’t have to worry about that man bothering you. I’ll write up your statement and you can come in tomorrow evening to read and sign it.”

“What a horrible man!” Grace positioned herself so I could physically lean on her.

I knew Samuel hadn’t been happy with the divorce, but I hadn’t thought he’d try and hurt me. A week ago, he sent a text message asking if we could go out for old time’s sake. I reminded him our old times were not pleasant and there was no reason I wanted to relive them. He kept calling, insisting I had to speak to him. I blocked his number after that. It took us months to finalize the divorce, and the splitting of assets was simple: I kept what was mine, he kept what was his. No alimony. Simple.

My mind floated going back to Cassie. Did she know her father was hiding in the RV when she drove it over to my house? She had to. Selling me the RV been a ruse for her father to see me again. He had told me he would win me back, or he’d die trying.

It looked like he accomplished one of those goals.