Jason King, a rising star in Hollywood, wants to spend the holiday season with his sister. Afraid of being bored, he decides to play Santa at the North Pines Galleria, but quickly realizes that decision will lead to a Christmas he will never forget.
When police find Jason passed out in his blood-covered Santa suit, the mall manager stabbed to death in the next room, they quickly consider him the prime suspect.
Certain he is being framed, Jason must find the real killer to clear his name. In the process, he uncovers love triangles, jealousy, and wild sex parties. He also finds passion and a man who just might be the love of his life. But will he be able to expose the murderer before he becomes the next victim?
Jason felt like his head was going to explode. It was pounding so hard and every muscle in his body ached. He opened his eyes, but shut them again because the light was so bright. He wasn’t sure where he was, so he tried partially opening his eyes. What was he doing on the floor in the locker room at the mall? How did he get here? What was happening?
As he tried to remember how he got here, he heard muffled voices in the next room. Suddenly the door to the locker room opened and a man asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Jason opened his eyes enough to see that the man who was talking to him was a police officer. “I’m Jason King, I work here. What’s going on?” he asked groggily.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened here?” the officer ordered.
Jason managed to open his eyes further and look around the room. A handsome man with blonde hair and a fit body was standing in front of him. When he looked down he saw that he was wearing his Santa costume, minus the boots, belt, hat, beard, and wig. Next to him was a large knife covered in what appeared to be blood. He saw more blood splattered on the floor around him. The terror of the situation cut through his pain and sobered him up instantly. “I don’t know what happened. Who are you?” he asked, fearfully.
“I’m Detective Ryan Evans, with North Pines Police Department. Mall security called us because they found Devon Ricks stabbed to death in his office. So let me ask you again, what happened here?”
Jason shook his head and asked, “What? Are you saying Devon is dead?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I want to know what you were doing here and why there’s a knife next to you. A knife, I might add, that looks like it could be the murder weapon,” Detective Evans said.
Jason stared into space, trying to figure out what was happening. Was this a dream? “I honestly don’t know what happened. I don’t even know how I got here or why I’m wearing this costume.”
“What do you mean you don’t know how you got here? What’s the last thing you remember?”
Jason closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, trying to alleviate the pain. “I remember we had the Christmas party here and then I went to Glitter Pines with Trey, the security guard. We ordered drinks and were talking. I remember I ordered a mango margarita and it tasted funny. After that I don’t remember anything.”
“The drink must not have tasted too funny because it looks like you had a few more after that. It looks to me like you had so much to drink you blacked out,” Detective Evans said.
“This isn’t an ordinary hangover, this is so much worse. I think somebody put something in my drink. I swear I only had one drink, and I didn’t even finish that one,” Jason protested.
Detective Evans looked at Jason, trying to determine if he was telling the truth. He could see that Jason was in a lot of pain, so he said, “Let’s go down to the police station and we’ll give you a blood test and a urine test to see if something was slipped into your drink. I’ll also get you some coffee and medication to help with your headache. Then when you are a little more alert I can continue questioning you. Do you have a change of clothes? We’ll need to process what you’re wearing to see if there’s any traces of blood on it.”
“I don’t know if I have any other clothes. I don’t remember getting into this outfit. I know that I was wearing jeans and a sweater at the bar last night. Maybe those clothes are here somewhere,” Jason said as he slowly, painfully tried to stand up.
Detective Evans helped him up and then looked around for a change of clothes. When they found Jason’s clothes, Detective Evans had him change into them, putting his Santa costume and fat suit into large evidence bags to be taken to the lab.
A couple hours later, Jason found himself sitting in an interrogation room at the police station.
