"Well . . . I didn't really have the impression the idea went over well upstairs. Maybe my timing wasn't so good," he admitted, "pitching it to Ms. Fenster-Thorpe when her brother had just had a heart attack, medics and cops were all over the place, and-"
"Twinkle!" Candycane called irritably from somewhere in the North Pole. "TWINKLE!"
"Oops. I'd better get to work. Later, Dreidel. Bye, officer." The elf trotted off in the direction of Candycane's summons.
I turned to ask Lopez if he was serious about interviewing me on an official basis, but he was gazing across the landscape of Solsticeland with a frown on his face.
"I think we are having an electrical fire, after all," he said in alarm. "Is that smoke?"
"Where?"
"Stay here." Moving swiftly, he went through the forest toward the west wall.
I followed him. (Other people comply when Lopez gives orders. Me, not so much.)
He approached the same trio of thick tree trunks where Rick and I had located the grimacing gnome earlier today. And I realized he was right: There was smoke. I could see it in the dim light of Solsticeland now that I knew where he was looking.
But based on the way it was rising in a thin coil from behind the three trunks, then lazily dispersing itself through the surrounding air, I didn't think it was the start of an electrical fire.
"Oh, for God's sake!" Lopez said a moment later, and I knew for sure what the source of that smoke was. "Are you kidding me?"
I came to his side. He was so exasperated with our quarry that he forgot to be annoyed that I had followed him rather than staying where I was.
Her face and torso mostly hidden by the bunched-up folds of her voluminous white ball gown, Princess Crystal sat huddled in the hollow next to the grinning gnome, puffing away on a cigarette.
"What are you doing?" Lopez demanded.
I said, "She's having a cigarette."
"I can see that," he said with forced patience. "I mean, why here?"
Cigarette dangling from her lips, Princess Crystal said in her throaty voice, "I can't get out to the fire escape when it's not my break."
"What?" Lopez snapped.
"The fire escape is the only place she's allowed to smoke," I explained, "and only when she's on break. If she tried to go out there now, she'd be noticed."
Crystal took a long drag, then said, while smoke poured from her nostrils and mouth, "God, it is inhuman to expect me to go so long without a cigarette!"
"But she can usually disappear for five minutes without Miles noticing, so she has some favorite spots around the store where she goes for a smoke." I added, "I didn't know this was one of them. Crystal, did you know this whole area is pretty much off-limits for the rest of the night?"
"Yeah, no visitors. So I figured I wouldn't be seen."
Looking as if he suspected she suffered from brain damage, Lopez pointed out, "There's been an accident here, and there are police, security guards, and maintenance workers roaming around this area."
"But no Miles!" she said triumphantly. "Perfect spot."
"You can't stay here," Lopez said firmly. "Come on, get out of there."
"Says who?" Princess Crystal challenged.
"NYPD."
"Shit!" She stubbed out her cigarette in the gnome's ear. "NYPD? Are you serious? I can't believe how strict Fenster's is about this!"
"Come on," Lopez said. "Let's go."
I stepped back, waiting for Crystal to emerge. There was some rustling of cloth, some grunting, and then more rustling, followed by some cursing.
She said, "I'm trapped! It's this damn dress. Can you help me out of here?"
She stuck her hands out of the hollow, flapping them at us. Lopez and I each grabbed one hand and heaved. There was a moment of suspense, then Crystal and her dress popped out of the tree trunk like a cork coming out of a bottle.
She started straightening her billowing gown. "Damn it! You tore it! How am I going to explain that?"
Lopez said, "I'm sure you have somewhere you should be right now."
"Aren't you supposed to be getting proposed to?" I asked.
"Oh, crap, is it nearly time for that?" She grabbed Lopez's wrist to check his watch. "You're right. Gotta go!"
She lifted her heavy white skirts and dashed off, trotting through the Enchanted Forest toward Solstice Castle. From this angle, she actually looked like a fairytale princess running to meet her prince.
Gazing after her, Lopez said, "I'm starting to feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole."
"Yeah, I think that feeling is to be expected around here."
"Does Fenster's keep these people locked away somewhere and just take them out every November, letting them roam the fourth floor for a few weeks before they go back into cold storage for another year?"
"Please don't suggest that to the family," I said. "It sounds like something they'd consider trying."
"Why are you working here?" he asked.
"I had some auditions, but I didn't get hired for anything after The Vampyre."
"What about Stella's?"
I looked at him in surprise. Since Bella Stella was a notorious mob hangout where several murders had occurred in recent years-one of which I had witnessed from about two feet away-Lopez had been candid about hating the fact that I worked there. Back when he and I had been dating oh-so-briefly in the spring, it had wound up adding a little strain to our budding romance that his bureau had my place of employment-and, by extension, me-under surveillance.
"Suddenly you're in favor of me working at Bella Stella?" I asked dubiously.
"Actually . . ." He shrugged and admitted, "I just need to know why you're here."
I frowned for a moment, puzzled; and then realization dawned. "We've just had a scene change, haven't we? This is my police interview."
"Yeah," he said apologetically. "It is. I need to know-"
"Heads up! Coming through!"
Startled, we both fell back a step as a guy in coveralls came through the door in the west wall, behind which was a maintenance and storage area, pushed aside the dark netting that masked that wall, and entered the Enchanted Forest with a toilet plunger in his hand. "Don't panic! I'm here!" he announced. "Where's the trouble?"
"Maybe we should go somewhere else?" I suggested to Lopez.
"Good idea."
9
I knew we couldn't expect to talk uninterrupted in the break room, so I suggested going into Miles' office; the manager was likely to be making the rounds on the floor the rest of the night, given the disruption we'd had. His office was a plain, stark, small room with two uncomfortable chairs, which Lopez and I used, that were placed opposite the desk where Miles sat when he was here.
"Am I in trouble?" I asked suspiciously.
"No, you're not," Lopez said. "But I need some clarification."
"Of what?"
"You were a material witness when a Gambello capo got whacked. Now you're working for a company that's experiencing a series of hijackings in which the Gambellos are the prime suspects. So I need to know-"
"What?" I said in surprise. "The Gambellos? Really?"
"You didn't know? It's been all over the news," he told me.
"I haven't seen the news," I said irritably. "I'm always here! I haven't seen any Gambellos lately, either. By the time I finished The Vampyre and needed to go back to work at Stella's, she was already overstaffed for the season. She hardly has any shifts available for me until after the holidays, when the kids go back to college. So I haven't been to the restaurant since I worked a lunch shift there early last week."
"That's why you took this job?" Lopez asked. "Because you couldn't get enough hours at Stella's this month?"
"Yes. Satsy-Saturated Fats, from the Pony Expressive-told me there were jobs available here because performers keep quitting. In fact, some of them don't even bother to quit, they just stop showing up," I added, blaming Moody Santa, in part, for the rough morning I'd had. "So I was able to get a job here right away. Solsticeland is covering my bills until Stella can give me full-time work in January."
I noticed Lopez's relief at how logical my account was, and I recognized the significance of his interest in my reasons for working here. Feeling incensed, I added, "I resent the implication that I'm involved in the hijackings!"
"I'm not implying that you're involved," he assured me. "But as soon as your name popped on the list of Fenster employees-"
"My named popped?" I repeated, not liking the sound of that. "Am I in some sort of OCCB database or something?"
"Of course, Esther," he said, as if this should be obvious to me. "You witnessed a mob hit seven months ago. We don't keep your name pinned to a bulletin board or anything, but we didn't throw away those reports after we closed the case."
"Oh." I admitted, "I guess that makes sense."
"But it didn't pop that way," he added. "I meant that I saw your name. We're just starting to look at company employees, so we haven't run any matches yet. There's a separate, shorter list of seasonal employees, which I looked at as soon as we finally got it today." Lopez paused before continuing, "Your name jumped out at me. And I figured this investigation would go better for both of us if I took the lead on clearing up exactly what you're doing here."