3. Mattie
Mattie
Dave’s friends had kindly let them set up the camper van in their driveway overnight. An even nicer gesture was when they gave Mattie and Dave full access to their bathrooms, which meant Mattie got to take a shower before they hit the road on the second day.
“This detour is going to add about forty-five minutes to our drive to Medicine Hat,” she informed Dave after doing the math on her phone.
They’d been advised of three different stretches of construction on the shorter route, so they were taking the long way around.
It looked fine on the map. But the map didn’t have the same signs as the highway did. “Slow down!”
She jolted against the seatbelt as Dave hit the brakes. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Did you see that sign?”
“Yes.”
“And it didn’t frighten you?”
“No.”
“Well, it frightened me!” Mattie didn’t know such places still existed in southern Alberta, but those eight words struck fear into her heart.
No gas or services for next 106 kilometres.
“What if we run out of gas? What if I have to go to the bathroom?” Her imagination raced to even worse perils.
“What if we run out of snacks?” Dave’s camper van had a small double mattress on a platform at the rear, a little collapsible table between two seats that turned into a second, narrow bed, a miniscule sink with an even tinier water reservoir, and a two-burner propane stovetop.
There were no bathroom facilities at all, let alone a fridge for groceries. If anything happened, they were doomed.
“Do you want me to turn around and go back to that last gas station so you can use their bathroom?” Dave offered.
“No, I’m fine. But what if we break down?”
“Mattie, it’s a hundred kilometres. That’s like an hour’s drive.
There will be other cars on the highway.
It’s not like we’ll be stranded in the middle of the desert.
Intrepid explorers are not going to find our dried-out husks weeks from now, shriveled up like a couple of mummies from dehydration. ”
“My cell phone doesn’t have service!”
“That’s an entirely different problem.”
“You’re not taking this seriously, Dave.
” No phone meant no GPS. Their planned path didn’t take them off the current highway; it was a straight shot for two hours due south.
But it was the principal of the thing, Mattie thought.
The principal, and the fact that the “no signal” symbol on her phone was laughing at her.
“We could just talk for an hour. For example, we will be driving by Dinosaur Provincial Park. Do you know when it was established?”
“The park was established in 1955, but it achieved international status when it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979,” Mattie replied promptly.
Dave swerved on the empty highway as he turned to look at her. “Oh, really?”
“Really. Do you know how many species of dinosaurs have been found there?”
“Over fifty,” he said.
Now it was her turn to be shocked. “That’s some impressive trivia knowledge.”
“Canadian scientific discoveries are one of my specialties.”
“Are you on a pub trivia team?” When Dave mumbled his reply, she asked, “What was that?”
“I was in my high school’s Reach for the Top club. I concentrated on science and engineering. Go ahead and laugh.”
“Did you make it to Nationals?”
“No. We made it to the provincial finals, though.”
Mattie grinned. “Then I will laugh at you. Ha! My Reach for the Top team made it to Nationals.” Apparently, it was safe to let her nerdy side show with Dave.
Her love of lists and planning paid off when it came to memorizing massive amounts of data.
“We got taken out in the first round, but we got there. I can’t believe you played too. ”
“Obviously, I’m not going to be able to impress you with the tremendous amounts of interesting facts and Canadiana that I know, since you probably know them to. Such a shame. It usually makes me quite the chick magnet,” he said with a smile. “Do you have a playlist you want to put on instead?”
She considered her options. “I downloaded the latest Still Unfound Mysteries episode. It’s a true crime podcast. Are you interested?” Mattie asked. “One of my coworkers does it. She’s the security chief at Christmastown. She’s a real true crime afficionado.”
“I’ll give it a try. Go ahead.”
Mattie plugged her phone into the dashboard and started the podcast. She settled into the passenger seat as the familiar opening played, replete with wind noises through scratching branches, a ticking clock, and a slamming metal door.
“Welcome to Still Unfound Mysteries, a podcast of unsolved crimes. I’m Virginia Rye, here with my co-host Valentine O’Malley.
We’re doing a couple of things differently this episode.
First, this case isn’t ripped from the headlines, it was painstakingly unearthed from my own childhood.
Secondly, this case isn’t unsolved in the truest sense of the word since arrests were made.
But catching the criminals is only the beginning of the story.
Still Unfound Mysteries is thrilled to introduce you to the case of the grinch duo who stole Christmas from an Edmonton mall ten years ago. ”
A burst of laughter escaped from Dave’s mouth. “That’s hilarious! They’re talking about the Moose Lodge Mall.”
“What?”
“Remember when I said the mall closed down? That robbery is why. The Frost Creek Jewellers robbery.”
All of a sudden, Mattie’s chest tightened. “What do you mean?”
“When I started my part-time job at Santa’s Village, the Moose Lodge Mall was already hemorrhaging businesses because of a new outlet store nearby. The second year I worked there, thieves hit Frost Creek Jewellers a couple of weeks before Christmas. The mall’s reputation never recovered.”
“There was a Christmastime jewellery store heist at your mall? That must have been national news,” she croaked.
She was so dead. She thought she’d done her research.
Her boss had already vetoed one purchase of Christmas decorations because they were in the background of a movie that nobody normal would have noticed.
When Mattie investigated this set online, she’d run a variety of searches based on “Santa’s Village Moose Lodge Mall” and “Santa’s Village Moose Lodge Mall movie.
” Neither set had returned any negative hits.
The idea of searching for the mall name associated with a police investigation hadn’t even occurred to her.
What was Mei Chen going to say about a Santa’s Village that appeared in crime scene pictures?
“Not really. The robbery was only in the local news. The police caught the thieves a couple of days later,” Dave said.
“But it was too late for the mall. People stayed away for the rest of the holiday season. Several stores closed in January because they missed out on their usual Christmas sales. By the next summer, there wasn’t enough traffic to keep it open, so they shuttered the whole thing. ”
“Oh, no. This is a disaster. Why would Virginia have even chosen this as an unsolved crime case?”
“What was the full name of your coworker again?”
“Virginia Rye. Why?”
“Oh my—” The rest of his expression was cut off as he burst into laughter. “I think that your Virginia Rye is my Ginger the elf.”
Mattie’s chest tightened. “I can’t believe she did an entire episode about a decade-old local robbery.” She might be able to get away with her purchase if Virginia stuck to talking about Frost Creek Jewellers and not the mall that it was located in. If not, all bets were off.
Dave shifted to get comfortable behind the wheel. “This is going to be good.”
Mattie usually enjoyed listening to Still Unfound Mysteries.
The hosts were engaging without skimping on what details the audience needed to know.
This episode was even more factual than normal with Dave giving a running commentary about what he remembered.
They were both silent as they listened to the theft’s resolution.
“The Frost Creek Jewellers robbery has an interesting yet unsatisfactory ending. At first, the police didn’t know how thieves managed to disable the Moose Lodge Mall’s surveillance recordings and stay out of sight of the roving security guards.
Fortunately for the authorities, the thieves were spotted on several closed circuit security feeds shot from cameras inside individual stores.
After reviewing this footage, detectives from the Edmonton Police Service quickly identified their prime suspects.
Cousins George Essex and Archie Loire were the night security guards at the Moose Lodge Mall.
The pair simply walked out the door after their shift was over.
It wasn’t until the next morning when jewellery store owner Simon Greyson arrived to open his store that the robbery was discovered.
That footage, combined with police identifying fingerprints left inside the jewellery store, was enough to charge them.
Additionally, the fact that some of the stolen items, specifically half a dozen designer watches and several eighteen-karat men’s wedding rings, were recovered from the homes of Loire and Essex was enough to convict the grinchy duo. ”
Virginia’s podcast partner took over the narration.
Mattie didn’t know Valentine O’Malley, although she had heard Valentine’s name around town.
The woman’s voice sounded like it belonged to a radio announcer.
“What makes this a case for Still Unfound Mysteries is the fact that a majority of the stolen jewellery was never recovered. Police reports say that the stolen engagement rings, as well as several necklaces, contained diamonds and other gems valued at over a quarter of a million dollars. Despite thorough searches of the suspects’ homes and vehicles, and a search of Moose Lodge Mall itself, almost all of the loot remains unfound.
Hart North Insurance still has an open claim on the value of the missing gems and jewellery, but since the mall shut down the next year and was demolished two years after that, if Loire and Essex did stash their Christmas haul at the scene of the crime, it may never be recovered.
Since they refused to talk, we may never know their hiding place. ”
Mattie collapsed into the passenger seat. “That’s not so bad. They only mentioned the mall’s name three times,” she breathed in relief.
With the highway stretching out endlessly straight ahead, Dave took his eyes off the road long enough to give her a hard stare. “Why are you counting how many times they mentioned the mall?
Mattie gulped. She truly believed down to her soul that the Moose Lodge Mall Santa’s Village would be a perfect fit at Christmastown. It wasn’t their fault they had a criminal past.
“Reputation means absolutely everything to Christmastown. Before I found these decorations, I found another Santa’s Village that had appeared as a background in a horror movie.
My boss freaked at the thought of them coming anywhere near the park.
If she finds out the village I blew my entire budget on has a criminal past, she’s going to fire me for not doing my due diligence.
These decorations cost more than my annual salary! ”
“Do you think your boss will go to such extremes? True crime podcasts have a huge following, especially among women. The moms who visit Christmastown might get a kick out of it.”
It was sweet that Dave was trying to be supportive, but it wasn’t working.
“Not at a family theme park! I can’t see any parents saying, ‘Come on, kiddies, let’s get a picture to match the police photos.
Smile and pretend to be the bad guys who stole Christmas.
’” She sighed. “At least it wasn’t murder. ”
“That would be a very different kind of theme park,” Dave agreed. “What are you going to do?”
“I have no idea,” Mattie groaned. “Maybe I can convince Virginia to take down the podcast and never mention it again.”
“I suppose that’s one option.” Suddenly he pointed at a sign ahead of them. “Look! A gas station in two kilometres and Medicine Hat in another hundred and two. Civilization! That wasn’t so bad.”
“At least the company wasn’t,” Mattie agreed.
Once they were back on a more populous highway, their conversation became a little stilted as Dave had to concentrate more on ensuring people weren’t surprised by the trailer he was towing.
About half an hour from Medicine Hat, the traffic in front of them vanished and they had the road to themselves.
When a baby blue Japanese mini truck that was parked on the shoulder came into view, it caught her eye.
And if she had somehow overlooked it, the white-haired man beside it waving his arms demanded her attention. “I think we should stop.”
She felt the van jerk as Dave took his foot off the gas. Then she heard the whoop of a siren behind them. Mattie adjusted her side mirror and saw a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser behind them. “It looks like the RCMP are going to assist,” Dave said. “But it was a nice thought.”
Mattie and Dave had stopped at a grocery store the previous night to stock up on picnic supplies.
They pulled over for lunch and a stretch break at the base of the Saamis Tepee.
Mattie took a few extra minutes to walk around the massive steel frame to read the ten storyboards which detailed the history of the region’s native people and the settlers that came later.
Then she took some rest-stop pictures to show that Santa’s Village was still on the move and making progress on its cross-Canada trip.
Before they got back on the TransCanada, Mattie picked her way along the edge of the trailer, examining the various pieces to ensure nothing had shifted in transit.
“The plastic wrap that Mr. Hunniwell used to protect everything isn’t holding up well.
I keep having to retape it.” She brushed one of the lampposts and grimaced.
“These things are absolutely covered in squished bugs.”
“It’s a good thing that the mosquitos are hitting the plastic wrap. Otherwise, you’d be picking bug guts out of the icicle and frost ridges for months,” Dave noted.
“That would not be a merry Christmas at all. As it is, I’ll still have to clean all of these to get the barn dust off. Do we have time to rewrap a couple of the worst pieces?”
Dave took her hand as she jumped to the ground. “We’re ahead of schedule. We can spare a few minutes.”
The trailer made a stir with the other tourists who had taken a break at the twenty-story tepee. Two families asked for pictures with the snowman family and the tepee in the background. Mattie was happy to oblige. Ten minutes later, they were all packed up again.
“Are you ready for the second half of today’s leg?” Dave asked.
“You bet. Let’s get this magic-slash-Christmas show back on the road.”