“Any cameras in the area?” Ben asked.
Quietly, Dakota scoffed. As if anyone if Collier’s Creek would put up with cameras. While there was plenty of petty crime, most shop owners saw no reason to spend their hard-earned money on security cameras. The way people talked, it was usually pretty easy to figure out which high school kid had gone on a crime spree.
“Nope. I don’t think anyone considered that the toys might be stolen. Something like this has never happened before. I’ve advised the mayor to offer community funding for cameras, but that’s a little bit like shutting the barn door after the horses escaped.”
“No witnesses?” Dakota asked. He also wondered if Penny Gillespie knew what had happened yet. She’d been so excited about “being a part of the solution.” She was going to be furious, and he didn’t want to be the one to tell her.
It was hard for him to believe thatno onehad seen or heard the donation kiosk being broken into. Especially since justabout everyone in Collier’s Creek knew everyone else’s business. Maybe the nosey folks had been asleep?
“Not yet, that we know of.” Morgan eyed Dakota. “I’m assigning tracking down any witnesses to you, Green.” Dakota stilled, feeling all eyes on him. “We need you to do your best on this. Having this happen the first year is not a good look. Who knows? Maybe Geraldine was out walking Barky at three a.m. If she was, I want you to find out.”
“We don’t know what time the theft happened, do we?” Ben said.
“Nope. No one noticed the booth had been broken into until Kandy Kane needed some kind of photo with the toys. That was just before eight this morning. Could have happened anytime before then, or even Saturday night after the shops and restaurants closed.”
Great, no pressure, just save Christmas and all that.
“I’m on it,” Dakota responded.
“And, of course, you’ll also be on traffic duty as needed,” Morgan added.
Dakota nodded, absently patting his pocket to make sure he had his notebook. At least the weather folks weren’t predicting more snow for today.
“I’ll stop in at CCs first. The baker must start early, so maybe they saw something? But the bookstore and most other places still aren’t open yet.”
“Do what you can. The mayor is furious, and I have to say I am with him on this one.”
Dakota recalled the Santa who’d flipped him off and the Santa-less costume in the park. Any connection seemed far-fetched—about the only thing the two instances had in common were maybe happening around the same time. Still, he pulled out his notebook and jotted the incidences down before he forgot about them.
“Ben, any sign of our missing person?” Sheriff Morgan asked.
Ben, the sheriff’s real-life partner as well as a deputy, shook his head. “Nope, and Ms. Suarez is anxious. We’ve fielded several more calls from her. I hate having to tell her there’s nothing we can really do.”
Shit. Dakota opened and then shut his mouth. It had slipped his mind that Niall had offered up his coworker to help with research. He made another note to check in with his half brother, albeit reluctantly. He didn’t want to come across as a pest. Niall was doing the station a favor, not the other way around.
However, as fate, or luck, would have it, Dakota’s cell phone rang just as he got behind the wheel of the cruiser. A 360 area code was calling him again.
“Dakota here.”
“It’s Niall. I said Ryder would dig up information, and he did find a few things. No smoking gun though. Not sure how much help it will be finding your missing person, but you never know. I’ll send all of this to your email so you can do what you want with the information.”
“Thanks, we appreciate it.”
“I’m sure your sheriff won’t appreciate it when—or if—he finds out that we poked our noses in. But hey, like I said, forgiveness after the fact is a thing. Anything else interesting in Collier’s Creek?”
“Are you bored or trying to make conversation?” Niall snorted, which had Dakota grinning. They understood each other. “But to answer your question, we now have The Case of the Purloined Teddy Bears.”He went on to explain about the missing toys and the melted Santa Claus that Tad had discovered.
“Well, I can’t say it’s not interesting over there in Wyoming. Sounds like something kids would do to me.”
“It does, doesn’t it? But whoever did it was reasonably careful. They didn’t destroy the kiosk or anything like that.”
“Huh. Guess I’ll have to leave this one to you. Talk to you later.”
“Sure thing.”
“Outrageous!”Geraldine exclaimed hotly. Barky was secured on his leash, but the little dog was doing what he did best, which was dashing back and forth and barking loud enough that Dakota and Geraldine had to speak over him.
“So, you didn’t see anything?”
