“Do you have any idea what might have been going on with her more recently? I only talked to her a couple of times after high school, since I was gone from Pumpkin Hollow for so long.”
“I don’t really know. But I saw her about a month ago. She had just begun dating Steven Brown. I don’t know if you heard, but he’s kind of a rough character. I’ve heard different things about him, and he just didn’t seem like the kind of guy she would date.”
I nodded. “That’s what I heard. I have to wonder about him.”
“You don’t think he did it, do you?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t have any idea who would have done it and I don’t know Steven well at all.”
“I just hope Ethan can find the killer soon,” she said. “I hate that there’s a killer on the loose.”
I nodded, and we moved forward in line again. “If you hear anything, you’ll let me know, won’t you?” I asked.
“Of course. I’ll keep my ears open.”
When the customer at the head of the line left, and it was my turn, I looked over my shoulder. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Carrie. Give those girls of yours a squeeze for me.”
“Sure will,” she said.
I ordered my cocoa with a large marshmallow in it and headed back outside. There was a slight breeze blowing now, and I pulled my red wool coat closer around myself. I love the snow and the Christmasy feel of the entire month of December. Come late January I wouldn’t be loving the snow nearly as much.
I headed over to the carousel and I saw where Carrie’s husband, Tom, was standing at the front of the line with the twins. I waved at him with my free hand and began walking around the carousel. There was a metal fence that kept people from getting too close to it while it ran. What had happened to Suzanne? Had she bought the last ticket of the night? In one way, she had.
I ran my free hand along the top of the iron barricade as I walked around, looking at all the people riding the carousel. Sam Connor had done a great job of restoring it. The carousel came to a stop as I made the full circle around it and I watched as the riders got off on one side and the new riders got on on the other. Carrie’s little girls squealed with excitement as they each picked out a horse next to one another. Tom picked them up and placed them each onto a horse and then secured the leather strap around them to keep them safe.
I saw Sam Connor standing to the side of the electrical board that controlled the carousel and I walked over to him.
“Hi Sam,” I said brightly. “I just wanted to tell you what a great job you did in restoring the carousel. It’s beautiful.”
He turned, looked at me, and smiled. “Thanks, Mia,” he said. “It was a lot of fun restoring it. It was a whole lot of work, but it was fun.”
“I just can’t get over what a beautiful paint job you did on it. You have every right to be proud of it.”
He grinned at me. “That’s nice to hear,” he said. “Have you taken a ride on it yet?”
I nodded. “Sure did. Ethan and me and my sister and her boyfriend took a ride on opening night. It’s a shame what happened to Suzanne Wilson that night, though. If it weren’t for that, it would have been a perfect opening night.”
He became serious now. “You can say that again. I still can’t understand how something like that could have happened.”
“Did you know Suzanne well?”
He hesitated and glanced at the carousel as it filled with riders. “I guess I kind of knew her.” He turned his attention to the carousel and as everybody settled onto a horse or a bench, he made an announcement that he was going to start the carousel up. He waited a few seconds and then started it up.
“I just can’t imagine what could have happened and why she ended up dead on the carousel,” I said, not taking my eyes from the riders.
He nodded without looking at me. “I can’t either. It’s terrible how she died.”
“Do you always leave the lights on overnight?” I asked, turning to him now.
He glanced at me. “Yes, for the rest of the Christmas season I will leave the lights on at night. The city asked me to do it. They said the carousel was so pretty, they wanted everything left lit up.”
“I can see why they would want to do that. There’s nothing like Christmas lights against the backdrop of all the festive decorations and the snow.” I glanced at him. “Do you have any idea what might have happened to Suzanne? Who might have killed her?”
His jaw twitched and then he looked at me. “I have no idea. Like I said, it was terrible how she died. Has Ethan found out anything yet?”
I shook my head. “No, he’s still investigating. Poor Suzanne hardly has any family left, and the ones that are left need closure.”
He nodded and turned back to the carousel. “Well, I don’t want to spread rumors, but she and Lawrence Deal got into an argument that night.”
“Santa Claus?” I asked, surprised.
He nodded. “Santa Claus. Things got pretty heated, and she stormed off.”
“What were they arguing about?”
He turned to look at me. “I didn’t hear the whole thing, but I did hear her say that she wasn’t going to stand for it, whatever it was. She said she was tired of him and all the games he played, and then she stormed off. At the time I thought it was kind
