Chaos At Christmas – Episode 37
Chaos At Christmas by Ewan Smith
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- 1. Chaos At Christmas – Episode 37
Just then, they heard a kerfuffle outside. Erik looked round the door. “I have two young guests here who are keen to speak to you. Should I let them in?”
They had no time to answer. Holly and Bree had already rushed into the room. “We’ve thought of something!” Holly said eagerly.
The man with the beard!
Bree added.
Ferelith raised a hand to Erik to indicate that it was alright. She pulled out two chairs. “What are you talking about, girls? What man with a beard?” They answered in a tumble of words.
“He was quite young, maybe in his early 20s.”
“He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers.”
“We thought he was a member of staff; that’s what the servers behind the bar wear.”
“What sort of beard?” Ferelith asked.
“Short and ginger,” Holly said confidently. “And he had a silver stud in his left earlobe.”
Ferelith looked at Geraint with a frown. The description didn’t fit any member of staff that she knew. “Where did you see this man?”
Holly’s eyes widened with excitement. “That’s the thing. He was coming out of the cloakroom when we went to plug our phones into the charger. And then Bree saw him later.”
Bree nodded eagerly. “It was after the party. I thought he was just helping tidy up. He was carrying one of those red bags that Santa’s elves had brought the presents in.”
“Was the bag empty?” Ferelith asked.
Bree shook her head. “There was something in it but I couldn’t see what. It was weighing the bag down.”
“Could it have been the phone charger and the phones?”
Bree nodded her head. “It was that sort of size.” Ferelith sat back in her seat. At last, they seemed to be getting somewhere.
“The hotel’s CCTV should be able to identify him,” Holly said eagerly.
Geraint snorted. “That’s the first thing we thought about. Except that the data from the reception area cameras from last night has been wiped.” His fingers flicked over the keyboard. “This is all that we have.” He turned the screen and Holly and Bree got to their feet and stood behind Ferelith to look. The screen was a mass of jiggling black and white dots with the occasional fuzzy line drifting across it. “No young men with ginger beards to be seen there.”
Holly and Bree said their goodbyes. It was Christmas Day and they had plans. “Enjoy yourselves, girls,” Ferelith called after them and they blew kisses back.
“I want to have a further look at the CCTV system,” Geraint said. “There may be some useful information stored on it somewhere.”
Ferelith nodded. “While you’re doing that, maybe I’ll have a chat to people who were around reception and the cloakroom area last night at the times we’re interested in.”
“That’s pretty much everyone in the hotel,” Geraint said with a rueful smile. “Good luck.”
Ferelith started on the task eagerly enough but she found the next couple of hours very frustrating. Although she had no official status when it came to the investigation, most people were happy to talk to her. But what they had to say didn’t turn out to be particularly helpful. Everyone had all seen other people carrying packages about.
They had all seen guests wandering in and out of the cloakroom. They had all seen children rushing around in excitement. But no one had seen anyone acting in a way which had struck them as unusual. And no one could remember seeing a bearded member of staff carrying a red sack or behaving in a suspicious way.
At the end of it all, Ferelith felt rather deflated. All that talking and there was nothing to show for it. She began to feel some sympathy and fellow-feeling for the police. Cracking major crimes always seemed so easy on television. But perhaps it wasn’t such a simple matter.
She decided that it had been far too long since she had last seen Geraint and just the thought of that put a spring in her step. She picked up a couple of coffees and took them through to the security room. “Breaktime,” she said brightly. “And I grabbed some sweets from the bowl at the bar. How are things going?”
He turned to her, his eyes flickering in excitement. “Not bad, actually. I’ve found something rather interesting.”
But Ferelith had become distracted. When she had picked up the sweets, she had dropped them into her bag. As she rustled around to gather them up, she caught sight of something unexpected in her bag. Confused, she lifted it out. “What on earth…”
A GroupChat phone?
Geraint said in puzzlement. “Where did that come from?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Ferelith retorted. Her eyes widened. “But it’s switched on. And it’s on an open line.” She turned to Geraint in shock. “I’m being bugged!”
After the excitement of the Christmas Eve party, the plan at the Manor was to have a rather calmer Christmas Day, though still with a strong sense of festive celebration. The centrepiece, of course, was the traditional Christmas Day lunch which would finish in time for everyone to listen to the Queen’s speech. At the end of it, guests would be invited to stand and toast Her Majesty with something bubbly and then sing a rousing rendition of “God Save The Queen.”
It would all start with a buffet breakfast available from 6am for those families with younger children who had woken early in great excitement. And would finish with a Christmas dinner dance in the evening with a few informal party games and then fireworks before everyone headed off to bed, tired but happy. It was always a wonderful day.
In normal times, the morning of Christmas Day tended to be a relaxed affair. People would exchange festive greetings, of course, but then they would go for walks around the grounds if the weather was suitable or sit about chatting quietly. A few doughty souls would usually join in with the indomitable Miss Buckley-Tone as she played carols on the piano accompanied by members of her church choir.
However, these weren’t normal times. There was an atmosphere of high excitement in the reception area with children rushing about and making a racket. To the amazement of the hotel’s staff, Lyle’s generosity had extended to providing surprise Christmas gifts for each of them.
Ferelith had been given a beautiful set of silver bangles which she adored and Geraint’s present was a belt in Italian leather with a bronze buckle in the shape of an oak tree. Only Erik seemed rather uncertain about his present. He had been given a reindeer tie in mulberry silk which began flashing and playing an electronic version of ‘Jingle Bells’ whenever anyone nearby was detected saying the word ‘Christmas’. He was gamely wearing it but Ferelith thought that she detected a certain look of strain in his eyes.
“So you’re getting somewhere with the investigation, Miss Ferelith?” he said.
“We seem to be, Erik, though we’re not quite sure where. It’s clear that something very strange happened here last night.”
He sighed slightly. “Strange things have been happening at the Manor ever since the arrival of Mr Cranford and his party.”
Ferelith grinned. “But it is exciting, isn’t it?”
Erik looked around. A cheer had just gone up by the bar at the popping of a cork; a group of guests had ordered Buck’s Fizzes all round to wash down their breakfasts.
