Babies It's Warm Inside

It's almost Christmas and Sheriff Ben Bradley and his bride, Mae, are expecting twins. All is quiet in Rosedale until elderly Mrs. Cooper falls off her porch. She is taken to Rosedale General and passes away. The Sheriff suspects foul play, but Cororner disagrees, saying the cause of death was the dislodged oxygen tube the woman used. Ben refuses to give up and sends Investigator Dory Clarkson to talk to Mrs. Cooper's neighbors. She learns the woman refused to vacate her small home that property developers who were building large mansions in the nighborhood wanted razed. It's a motive for the crime, but both the property developer and the builder have cast-iron alibis. Plus, nobody can figure out how exactly Mrs. Cooper was killed. Their only clue is a line of bruises across her ankles. Then a Nativity Display is stolen from the church. The carved figures are valuable, but there is no ransom demand. The whole village is focused on finding the figures, but Ben is still worried there is a killer in Rosedale. Pregnant Mae thinks the murder and the Nativity theft are connected. All the threads of this story come together at the Christmas Even church service.