Pungent Justice: A Christmas Crime Story

The Worst Day of a Rotten Year The holiday season looks gloomy to Jennifer after a job loss forces her family to move. Away from friends and high school, into struggle and uncertainty. Then a heartless theft sends everyone's mood even darker. Only the comfort of her best friend Lynda makes sense. Unless they can work out a way to set things right. And deliver their own form of justice. Originally appeared in WMG Publishing's Holiday Spectacular: Mysterious Christmas. Also available in the collection Uncommon Holidays: A Different Side of the Season An excerpt from Pungent Justice: One Bright Light on a Dark Day At the thought of walking into Lynda's reassuringly normal living room, with her relatively happy parents who'd been born and raised nearby, and the solidly middle-class peace and quiet, and the pretty little Christmas tree that went up the day after Thanksgiving and came down on New Year's Day like clockwork, Jennifer balked. That had been her family up until a year ago, and she'd thought it was boring. Dull routine that she couldn't wait to get away from. A world where everything was predictable and no one had their Christmas gifts and everything else stolen from right in their damn driveway. "Can you… Do you think you could go for a walk? I need to talk to you." Lynda scowled for a second, but Jennifer's face probably gave the whole game away. At the sight of the one friend she really cared about in this place—more than cared about if she ever had the courage to admit it—Jennifer's hard shield of anger about the robbery slipped.