Read The Blonde Before Christmas: a Barb Jackson Mysteries holiday short story for Free Online Page A

asked Kelly.
    "Of course." She grinned. "What else would we be doing here?"
    I wanted to close my eyes and shake my head. If there was one thing that Kelly liked to do, it was poke the bear. It didn't even matter who the bear was. She just liked to stir the pot.
    "Listen," Smith said quietly, "I don't believe for a second that you're here shopping. You're up to something. This is my case. I know that you're an investigator, but there's no reason for you to be here. I've been a cop for fifteen years. I've got this covered."
    "Kelly asked for my help. I'll be out of here as soon as possible." I tried to convince him, but he was having none of it.
    "You're a PI, I get that, but if you have some plan in your pretty little head to try your hand at solving this case, you need to forget it. I don't have time to worry about your safety, Barb, and that's exactly what I'd do because that's just the kind of guy I am." He shoved a hand through his hair. "I'm no closer to finding out who killed the Santa than I was last night. I want to spend Christmas with my family, but I have to do my job." 
    "My finding that body is the reason you're missing Christmas with your family. If someone had found it an hour or so later, this would be someone else's problem. Forgive me"—I held up my hands—"but I feel guilty for you missing the holiday with your family. I want to help."
    Smith blinked and cocked his head to the side. "Barb, there's nothing for you to feel guilty about. This is my job. While you're a sweet woman for wanting to help with this case so that I can be with my family tomorrow, there's really nothing for you to do. I can handle this."
    I shook my head. "I didn't say that I was investigating, did I?"
    "You said you wanted to help." He propped his hands on his hips and frowned down at me. "That's the same thing."
    "Is it?" I asked.
    Before he could say anything further, I patted his arm. "We both know how to take care of ourselves. Besides, all I'm doing is shopping."
    He looked like he wanted to argue but didn't. Instead, he bit his lower lip then blew out a breath.
    "You're a licensed private investigator, aren't you?"
    "Yes." I nodded.
    "Do you at least have your weapon on you while you're 'just out shopping'?" He air quoted the phrase.
    "Always."
    He scrubbed his hand through his hair.
    "I have to get back to work. Behave yourself, Barb Jackson. I mean it."
    "Of course." I grinned.
    I watched him walk away and meet up with the other detective before I turned back to Kelly. "Do you have to poke the bear that way? You better be glad that he's not an ass, or he would've tossed us out of here for interfering with a police investigation."
    "He enjoyed it." She chuckled.
    "You're ridiculous, you know that?"
    She shrugged. "While you two were beating around the bush, I called human resources, and they're closed for the holidays. According to the recording, no one will be back in the office until Monday. So, we're at a dead end on that front."
    "All right." I scanned the area. "That's really not a big loss as long as we can find and talk to the mall supervisor. I'd really like to know if he knew about Marvin's record, and how exactly he got hired. It might not be pertinent to the case, but I'm curious. I saw him last night after we found the body. He's the one who told everyone to get out, so at least I know who we're looking for."
    "Are you talking about the guy who looked like the cop dad from that show with Steve Urkel?" Kelly asked and finished off her coffee.
    "That's the one."
    "Seriously." She laughed. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear they were the same guy." 
    "Let's find him and see what he knows about Marvin. He's probably hanging out around the tree and new Santa since that's where everything went down last night."
    We made our way through the slowly thinning crowd. The line of children waiting to meet the new Santa extended from the front of the tree, around the corner of the food court, and almost all the way to the