Page 32 of Sleigh My Heart

He didn’t look like he believed her, and she couldn’t blame him. Why was this one little girl throwing her off kilter? Could be the words she said in parting—Molly was her mother. And she was dead.

Nick was widowed? Could that be right? Michelle should ask him. Or… she could do a little snooping.

First, she needed to check into Evan Towers. It could be he was telling the truth and didn’t know Staniski, but it wouldn’t hurt to check him out.

On the way back to the station, she passed a building site for the new grocery store. The name on the sign on the corner said HighTower Development. The crew was in full swing, even if the temp had dropped to below freezing. A crane was setting beams and several trucks filled the lot. One in particular caught her eye. A white panel truck just like the one used to take the sleigh to the repair shop. The only difference was this one said HighTower on it.

She needed to check the video again.

***

Back at the station, Michelle dropped her stuff at her desk and picked up her phone and called Jonny’s foreman from HighTower. It went to voicemail. A low voice informed her that he was out of the office until the new year.

Crap. She doubted he’d check his messages if he was on vacation through the holidays. She pushed back from her desk and jumped up. She glanced over the cubicle wall.

Jim was at his desk. Detective CJ Whittier sat on the corner. The two were discussing something. Probably a case.

"Perfect." She locked her computer and went to pick his brain.

“I thought the gals canceled book club until after the holidays?” Jim rolled his neck as he spoke.

“No, Lorna said I was on kid duty tonight. Alex has a scout meeting at six.”

“Hey guys, I hate to break up your chat, but do you have a minute to go over some new developments in the Staniski case?” she asked.

“What do you got?” Jim leaned back in his chair.

Michelle ran through her meeting with Evan Towers. “I didn’t find any van registrations for Garmen or Staniski.”

“Towers owns vans. But his have the HighTower logo on the doors. Did you pull up the registrations on white cube vans in the cities?” Jim tapped at his computer.

“Yeah. There are a ton of them.”

“And the rental companies?” CJ rhythmically tapped his fingers on his leg.

“Nothing.”

Jim locked gazes with her. “I think I know where you are going with this.”

CJ stopped tapping. “If I didn’t want a vehicle traced, I’d buy a used one, strip the logo off, then oops, conveniently forget to register it.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I’ll make a call and see if Towers’ assistant can get me a list of vans they sold in the last six months.”

“Make it a year,” Jim suggested.

“On it.” Michelle pivoted, then stopped. “Oh, and guys. You know they don’t really read the books. I heard something about a Santa stripper show tonight.”

At their groans, she bit back a chuckle and headed back to her cubicle to check the video.

Chapter 8

Nick was on his rounds of the mall when Silver Jr. came out of the storage area. “Hey, Junior.”

“Jolley.” Junior gave a nod to Nick and kept moving.

Nick picked up his pace. “Got a minute?”

Junior huffed. “I have to get this door fixed. What’s up?”