The Santa Code

In a season of giving, secrets can hide in plain sight.-Michelle Liew

This is the first of a four-part Yuletide Whodunnit - the protagonist, Maybelle sets about trying to help the town of Algaard recover the spirit of Christmas. She has the help of her somewhat cheeky niece, Juniper Juno.

**********************************************************************

Algaard was an idyllic Yuletide town - tucked away amongst mountains draped with snow, the picture-perfect town came alive with Christmas Tree dress-ups, sleighing competitions, and the dulcet sounds of its residents crooning carols in harmonious chorus.

One tradition that served as the town’s mainstay every Christmas was its Christmas Gift Exchange. It was an event shrouded in Yuletide mystery - everyone scrambled to become anonymous Santas, buying or creating intriguing gifts that would tease the minds of eager recipients. Each resident received a code telling them who they were to purchase gifts for that year. Aimed at fostering unity in the town, the event got everyone into a yearly frenzy.

Yes, to take the Santa Code away would be to destroy Algaard.

One of the town’s residents, Maybelle Snow, embraced the gift exchange activity with pure gusto. The bold, forward-thinking librarian adored a well-crafted mystery, especially when it involved, humble, anonymous gift-givers who wanted nothing more than to share love and Yuletide blessings.

Everything was as usual in the town as Christmas drew near. The residents, enthused by the celebratory mood, scrambled to receive their Santa Codes from the town’s mayor. The position rotated yearly, and mayorship that year fell to its clockmaker, Mr.Ezra Tick.

Caught up in the preparation melee, Maybelle raced to Mr. Tick’s workshop to retrieve her code. She was frantic-she was struggling to complete her Christmas list.

“Everyone wants a Santa,” she groused with a secret smile.

So the busy librarian pounded her fists on Mr. Tick’s door, intending to grab her code and hit the town square before the stores shut their doors for the day.

But there was no answer.

Now this was not like the Mr. Tick that everyone knew. He was always on the ball, on the dot, and as precise as the sound of his name. He was exact and dependable - everyone knew that they could count on him. He certainly wouldn’t leave a knock unanswered.

Frowning, Maybelle pushed the door open. Everything seemed in place-clocks lining wooden shelves their hands synchronised to the exact minute. A tall grandfather’s clock, constructed of pure rosewood, stood like a stiff sentinel in a corner of the living room.

She had visited Mr TIck many times before, but the surroundings that day were making her hair stand on end.

She crept through the carpeted corridors, cautioned by the unexplainable stillness. The haunting chime of the clocks was the only discernible sound. The silence of the home was cloying - as if it were bursting with secrets.

She found herself in the workshop where she saw-

A distinguished, bearded gentleman, dressed in an expensive two-piece suit, his monocle shattered and lying on the desk. Beside that was the face of the clock he was working on, also shattered.

It was Mr. Tick.

For a long minute, Maybelle stood in stunned silence. Who would do this to a harmless old man who wanted only to do good for the town? Everyone in Aasgard saw the meaning of exchanging gifts, didn’t they?

Now this?

A well-etched engraving on the hand of the clock Mr. Tick was working on caught her eye. The creak of the door gave her a start. Whirling around, she saw Juniper Juno, her niece. Grounded for her ceaseless antics, Juno’s mother had sent her to spend some time with Aunt Maybelle for much-needed introspection.

Blonde, effervescent, typically humour-bound, Juno balked as she looked at Mr. Tick lying helplessly on the desk.

“Aunt Maybelle, he’s not the only one. Someone’s been knocking people around Algaard.”

Maybelle turned to the clock’s hand. On it were the intricate, almost prophetic, carved words:

“Time reveals all.”

Maybelle and Juno looked at each other. Maybelle had to get to the bottom of this, for Mr Tick and the town. Juno, as usual, was up for an adventure.

“Looks like we’ll have to find out what knocked the tick-tock out of Mr Tick, Aunt Maybelle.” Juno broke the silence with her irreverent humour.

Maybelle gazed again at the hand, the shattered glass, and the cryptic words.

Then a thought came to her - Mr. Tick was the town’s mayor, in charge of the Santa Code. Algaard would fall apart if it did - there would be no gift giving, no love. Perhaps someone wanted it that way.

But time would reveal all - with their help.