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Dan’s face took on a mutinous expression. “He has to be. All of those guys are frauds, Odelia. There’s only one real Santa and that’s me.” He thumped his chest defiantly. “And once the council sees what a chump they hired, they’ll come crawling back to me—begging me to take the job.”

I shook my head.“I don’t know, Dan.”

“Well, I do,” he snapped. “Bring me this new Santa’s head, Odelia. I’ll crucify the imposter!”

They weren’t exactly the words a real Santa would employ, nor did they reflect the holiday spirit, but whenever Dan was in one of his moods, I knew better than to try and argue with him, so I simply accepted the assignment and breezed out of the office again. I had a Santa to find and not much time to do it. It was going to be Christmas in two days, and if Dan still wanted to be Santa, I’d have to move fast. Faster than Santa’s sleigh.

Chapter 3

My first port of call was Town Hall. If anyone could tell me who the new Santa was, it was the Council Manager or the Mayor or any of the councilpersons in charge of any of the departments. When I arrived there, the secretary at the front desk was my first hurdle. When I asked to speak to either the Mayor or the Council Manager, she said I needed to make an appointment first, as both men were exceedingly busy. Since I’d seen the Mayor shoveling snow from his driveway that morning, I knew he couldn’t possibly bethat busy.

“Besides,” said the woman, who was sporting a purple perm and patting it proudly, “it’s almost Christmas, Odelia. I think you better come back in the New Year. I’m sure the Mayor will be more than happy to see you then.”

“But I want to talk to him about Santa, so it has to be now.”

“Santa?” Her face lit up. “Oh, I just love our new Santa, don’t you?”

“You’ve seen the new Santa?”

“Well, only his picture, of course. He’s just wonderful, isn’t he? I think he’s going to prove a big improvement over that old curmudgeon—what’s his name?” She snapped her fingers.

I leveled a critical look at her.“Dan Goory? My boss?”

Her lips formed a perfect O as she realized who she was talking to.“Well, Dan isn’t theworst Santa we’ve ever had, of course,” she said quickly. “I just think he’s not exactly the face of the new. More the face of the old, wouldn’t you agree?”

“No, I wouldn’t,” I said. “I think Dan is the perfect Santa. Theultimate Santa. The one and only.”

“Well, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion, dear,” she said, her lips curling down in a look of disapproval. She was patting that purple perm again, making sure not a hair was out of place.

“So where can I find this new Santa?”

The secretary’s lips pressed together, and she made a sign of locking them with a key. And when she opened them again, it was to say, “We’ve been instructed not to talk to the press, dear. And you are the press, aren’t you?”

“You mean you’ve been instructed not to talk to Dan.”

“Him, too,” she admitted.

Just then, the Mayor emerged from an office further down the hall. The moment he caught sight of me, he made a beeline for the men’s room, moving at a surprisingly rapid pace. I intercepted him just before he managed to make his escape. “Mayor Moss,” I said. “Odelia Poole. You remember me. Is it true that you’ve decided to replace Dan Goory with a new Santa?”

“Yes,” he said, his eyes shifting uncomfortably between me and the secretary, who lifted her shoulders in a helpless shrug. “Yes, that’s quite true. Look, Miss Poole, I’m not going to beat around the bush. We at the town council were all very disappointed when we read Dan’s editorial onthe unveiling of the new tree. Instead of fully endorsing the bold step the council took into a bright future, he seems to be stuck in a past where only a real tree can be considered a, well, a tree.”

“You have to admit the new tree is ugly, Mayor Moss.”

Gus Moss’s brows knitted into a disapproving frown, his round face reddening slightly. “It appears that Dan’s backward vision on Christmas trees has rubbed off on his staff. I would advise you to remove yourself from the toxic influence of Dan Goory, Miss Poole. Embrace the new and do away with the old once and for all.”

“I happen to like a regular Christmas tree,” I said with a shrug. “There’s nothing Christmassy about that cold steel contraption.”

“It’s modern,” he snapped. “And modern is good.”

“Nuclear war is modern. You don’t like nuclear war, do you?”

He eyed me as one might eye an annoying bug, indicating he actually liked nuclear war, as long as it didn’t happen in his town. “Look, the die has been cast and there’s nothing more I can do about it. Dan will just have to learn to live with the consequences of his erroneous decisions.”

“So who is the new Santa?”

He held up his hand.“No comment.”

“The people of Hampton Cove have a right to know.”

“The people of Hampton Cove will simply have to wait until the Christmas Eve Celebration. The new Santa will be revealed then.”

“Is it true he’s a department store Santa?”

“No comment.”

“What department store did he work at?”

He gritted his teeth.“No. Comment.”