I am the real Santa, and you're just a pathetic wannabe. I'm going to laugh so hard when UltraShopMart runs you off your farm and turns it into a parking lot.
The blood drained out of Tess's face until it looked like the few freckles on her nose and cheeks were floating on a sea of pure white.
"This is horrible. It's not signed, but it may as well have been. Nobody else would claim to be the real Santa but Darryl. And this looks like another reason for Rooster to want to hurt him."
She convulsively tightened her hand around the paper and raised her chin. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how awful, aggressive, or confrontational Darryl was being, Rooster would never, ever have killed him. We're just going to destroy this note, so Andy doesn't get the wrong idea."
I put my hand on hers, and then gently took the paper out of her hand. "Tess. You know we can't do that. It's evidence, and we can't destroy it."
She whirled around, put her hands on the edge of the sink, and stared out the window. "I don't care about evidence. I know Rooster and he never would've done this. It's not fair."
She huffed out a strangled sort of laugh. "And now I sound like Shelley. Saying 'it's not fair,' like I'm a child. I know you're right, but I hate it. I hate all of this."
Before I could say anything else, we heard a car pulling up outside. We went back to the front room just in time to see a woman walk up to the door and nudge it open with her hip, a pie in her hands.
She was maybe in her mid-forties, with chestnut-brown hair pulled back away from her darkly tanned face into a bun. She wore jeans and a red flannel shirt, and I was almost certain I was looking at a farmer.
"Mrs. Engelhaupt. How are you?" Tess walked over to the newcomer. "I'm sorry, but Rooster isn't here right now."
The woman smiled. "Oh, I know, honey. He had to go down and do his Santa thing. I just wanted to bring him this pie to say thank you for all his help last night."
Tess introduced us, and then she took the pie from Mrs. Engelhaupt and carried it into the kitchen.
"You said he helped you last night?"
She nodded at me. "Yes, he's a wonder. We had a tough foaling with our favorite mare, Blossom, and we were all up all night with her. Poor Rooster didn't get a lick of sleep."
Tess walked back into the room in time to hear that, and her face lit up.
"Did you say that Rooster was with you? All night?"
"Oh, yes. Until almost seven. It was a very long night. All three of our boys were there too, even though they napped a little on and off in the stall next to Blossom."
Tess rushed over and beamed at Mrs. Engelhaupt. "That's just amazing! And how is Blossom? What did she have?"
The farmer beamed. "A beautiful little filly. We are so pleased. You tell Rooster I said thanks again. I'll be on my way."
Tess and I looked at each other, almost afraid to say anything, until the woman was in her car and backing out of the driveway. Then Tess let out a whoop and jumped into my arms.
"That's it! That's proof! There is no way Rooster could be downtown killing Darryl when he was at the barn with the Engelhaupts and their horse all night."
I hugged her, because one of my favorite things in the world was having her in my arms. But then I took my phone out of my pocket and called Andy, putting him on speaker. "It's Jack. Did the coroner give you time of death?"
"Yep. She said somewhere between two and four this morning, roughly. She'll give me an exact time when she gets back to the morgue and pulls one of her assistants. The guy has a magical talent that can pinpoint the time of death to the minute, she says."
"This is Tess, Andy. We have excellent news." She told him about the farmers and the horse.
Andy's sigh of relief was audible. "Thank goodness. There is no way the Engelhaupts would lie about that. I know them from church. I'm going to release Rooster right now and start trying to find the actual killer."
"This is definitely not my area of expertise, but I said I would help you however I can, and I meant it," I told him.
When we ended the call, Tess and I felt a lot better about everything for about a minute. But then a random thought hit me. "Isn't it odd that Mrs. Engelhaupt never asked us what we were doing in Rooster's house?"
She shrugged. "It's going to sound weird, but I've found that the farmers seem to be a lot less nosy than the townspeople in Dead End."
Huh.
I took a deep breath and smelled apple-cinnamon goodness. "Now that we've rescued Rooster, don't you think we deserve a piece of that pie?"
