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when they move.”
    “Would you take any of this stuff with you?”
    “Probably not,” I conceded. “I’m not Bernard, though. Maybe something came up at the last minute. Maybe he had a family emergency.”
    “Maybe he’s dead in a ditch somewhere and Christmas is officially ruined,” Bay interjected.
    “Stop being such a defeatist, young lady,” I ordered. “I didn’t raise you to give up before we even get to the hard part.”
    “It’s going to get harder than this?” Bay was incredulous. “Clove landed on dirty underwear and there are bugs flying around and getting in our hair. It can’t possibly get worse than this.”
    “Guess again.”
    I froze when I heard the voice, swiveling quickly to find Terry standing in the doorframe that separated the kitchen and living room. When did he get here?
    “We’re being framed, officer,” Thistle announced. I had to admire her chutzpah.
    “We were walking by and the door was open and we had to check and make sure Mr. Hill was okay,” Bay offered. She had the best memory and thrived under pressure. She would be the one to remember the lie.
    Clove mournfully held out her hands. “Take us to jail. We broke the law. Now we’re never going to get that puppy.” I don’t even know what to say about her.
    Terry’s gaze bounced between the three worried faces and then settled on me. “Do you want to tell me what you’re doing here?”
    “I’m saving Christmas. What does it look like I’m doing here?”
    What? There’s no reason to lie. The man isn’t stupid – no matter how his face looks sometimes.
     

Five
    “You’re saving Christmas?”
    I couldn’t tell whether Terry wanted to laugh or strangle me, but this was no time to change my story. “That’s what I said.”
    “I see.” Terry licked his lips and glanced at my three partners in crime. “How did you guys get in here?”
    I opened my mouth to answer for them, but Terry waved a finger in my face to silence me.
    “I’m talking to the girls,” he said, giving me a dark look. “The girls are the ones I want to hear from.”
    Well, this is going to bite the big one.
    Terry focused on Bay first. “How did you get in here?”
    Bay glanced at me, indecision flitting over her features. Lying to Terry isn’t something she wanted to do, but neither did she relish betraying me. “I … we were walking and we saw the door was open,” she said, opting to continue with the lie. “We wanted to make sure Mr. Hill was okay. We weren’t doing anything wrong.”
    “Aunt Tillie is completely innocent,” Thistle chimed in. “We were doing our … civil duty. That’s all.”
    “Civic duty,” Bay corrected, causing Thistle to scowl. Bay’s vocabulary was large for a child her age and Thistle always scrambled to keep up. It drove her nuts that Bay appeared smarter than her when speaking with adults.
    “I see,” Terry said. He turned his attention to Clove and leaned over so he could look her in the eye. “Do you want to tell me how you got in here?”
    Clove was the weakest link. We all knew it. We were going down. My great-nieces were going to be arrested before they hit puberty. That had to be some sort of record.
    “I have no idea how we got inside,” Clove said. “I forget things. I’m little. I can’t help it.”
    I stilled, surprised by Clove’s manipulation. She used that “I’m little” bit whenever she wants to get out of trouble. Because she was so petite, people fell for it. If you put a halo on her head she could double as an angel every day of the week – well, until the angel started whining, and then the gig would be up.
    “Are you telling me you forgot how you got into this house?” Terry pressed. “I find that hard to believe.”
    Clove jutted out her lower lip into the cutest pout known to man. She knows what that lip is capable of, and Terry was about to be putty in her tiny hands. “I’m sorry I don’t remember. I … please don’t hate me. I couldn’t take it