"If This Is Your Idea of Detective Work, You Need a New Job"

NOW THAT SPRING is here, let's wind back the clock a few months to a tough case of murder dumped on a not-so-jolly old elf . . .

"Claus of Death."
By Michael M. Jones (born 1974).
First appearance: Slipstreams (2006).

Reprinted in The Dragon Done It (2008); reprints page (HERE).

Short short story (7 pages).
Online at Baen Books (HERE).
(Parental caution: Strong language.)

     "Within a heartbeat, I knew exactly how she'd been nice, and how she'd been naughty. I knew if she'd been bad or good, and what she'd have gotten
in her stocking . . ."

A lump of coal isn't always enough; at such a time only a lump of lead will do . . .

Resources:
- Our author's homepage is (HERE) and his ISFDb listing is (HERE).

The bottom line:

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