Beauty Secrets Cozy Mystery Boxed Set 1

by Stephanie Damore

  “Oh, there’s Maryanne now.” Suzanne rushed over to her. I hung back. I had no idea who Maryanne was, but my guess was she was family, maybe Mayor Pott’s daughter or niece.

  The two women had an animated conversation, Suzanne’s loud voice making it easy to eavesdrop. “No! Poisoned? The same as Paulette? I knew it!” she exclaimed.

  Suzanne rounded on me and I braced for her to let me have it. After all, I was friends with Mrs. J. and had given Mr. Potts the cupcake. I held out hope that there was some sort of crazy coincidence going on.

  Suzanne totally deflated and practically fell into my arms.

  Oomph. I did not expect that.

  “First Paulette, and now Humphrey. I just can’t take it,” she said, sobbing. I tensed up and awkwardly patted her back. I looked up to Maryanne, who also had tears in her eyes. Just shoot me now. Why couldn’t they just hug one another and let me scoot out of here? Whenever anyone cried in front of me, my goal was to get them to stop as soon as possible. I was all for having a good cry, but in the comfort of your own home, wearing pajamas, and preferably with chocolate in hand. This whole crying-in-public bit was just too much for me. I spotted a box of tissues on the end table and let go of Suzanne so I could hand them both a few.

  “Sorry,” Suzanne said.

  “No, it’s okay.” A total lie.

  Suzanne blew her nose softly into the tissues, and Maryanne dabbed her eyes.

  “So, is he okay?” I asked Maryanne.

  “He will be. He’s weak, but recovering.”

  “That’s a relief.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure he would be, seeing the way he went down. I shuddered. “They’re sure he was poisoned though?”

  “Grayanotoxins,” Suzanne said, rejoining the conversation.

  “Graya-whata?” I asked.

  “Grayanotoxins. They’re found in plants and in the cake Paulette ate. They found it in my uncle’s blood too,” Maryanne said.

  Sweet sugar. I didn’t think Maryanne knew I was the one that gave her uncle the cupcake, and I wasn’t about to tell her. Mrs. J. had a lot of explaining to do, like how poison kept getting into her baked goods, that was if I could find her. I knew I wouldn’t be the only one looking for her.

  “Tell your uncle I’m thinking about him, and we’ll figure out what’s going on.” I gave Maryanne’s arm a little squeeze and left my goodbye at that, not even telling her my name. I had a feeling Suzanne would fill her in when I walked out. Hopefully, Maryanne wouldn’t hate me. Between poisoning the mayor and my beauty disaster, I was betting a lot of people were cursing my name that day.

  I left the hospital and drove to First Baptist. Mrs. J. had better be there. The church hall was packed with rows of folding tables with just about every spot taken. The women sat ready to roll with their cards and colored dabbers in front of them. A flat-screen television was set up behind the stage. It showed a blank bingo card while the words “Welcome to Bingo!” scrolled across the bottom. I didn’t know bingo was so serious.

  Unfortunately, it turned out that Mrs. J. was not there, and by helping out, she meant me running prizes from the back-kitchen freezer out to the winners, which happened at an alarming rate. Those ladies didn’t mess around. Had I realized this, I would’ve dressed more appropriately. A tank top and jean shorts was not cutting it. I needed a winter coat and some Uggs. Maybe earmuffs and mittens too. Winter gear was in serious short supply here. Of course, everyone was talking about Paulette and Mayor Potts, and speculating who had it out for the couple. I was able to pick up bits and pieces as I worked the room. Was it a political foe? The mayor was up for reelection and Whip McGovern was said to be a worthy opponent. Young, ambitious, a definite threat. Paulette’s ex-husband, Randy Berger, was also thrown out. Word was her divorce had been a nasty one and her ex hated Humphrey. I, for one, was happy to hear another angle besides “Mrs. J. the homicidal baker,” although there were plenty who thought she was to blame. She really should’ve come tonight.

  I took a break from freezer duty to warm up outside. The heat felt glorious. I looked at my phone and saw a text from my mom, wondering when I’d be back for Captain Jack. Actually, it was more like, “Come get your dog.” I had a missed call from her as well. I text back that I was still at bingo and I’d be there soon. The woman couldn’t be mad, seeing that I was at church. I tried Mrs. J.’s number next, but she didn’t answer. I said a quick prayer to my nan to watch over her best friend, and I headed back inside.

  Military Mary nabbed me before I could make it back to the kitchen. “Have a seat,” she ordered.

  It took a second to realize she was talking to me. She had a least a twenty bingo cards displayed before her several dabbers. She put two cards in front of me and handed me a dabber. I stared at her for a minute. It wasn’t like I didn’t know how to play; I just hadn’t planned on it.

  She ran those cards like a boss. “Where is your friend?” she asked, her eyes never stopped scanning her cards. It was a bit unnerving.

  “Not sure. She’s probably just at home, tired. It’s been a couple of exciting days.” Did that sound lame? It was the best I could do, seeing that I had no idea where she was, and I was wondering the exact same thing.

  “Well, tell her to keep a lookout. Something hinky’s going on here.” Dab, dab, dab.

  “You think so?”

  “I know so. Always trust your gut.” Again with the dabbing.

  “So, you don’t think it’s Mrs. J.?”

  “Nope, never did.” Mary started dabbing my cards as well. “But someone’s working really hard to make it seem that way. Best to stay vigilant.”

  “Got it.”

  “You too.” Dab, dab, dab.

  “I will.” I hadn’t any reason to worry about my safety, but maybe I should start. Killers seemed to be drawn to me. “You know anything about this Whip character, or Paulette’s ex-husband?” I asked.

  “I know they both have something to gain, and that’s a good place for the police to start.” I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that made sense. “A good detective always looks to see who benefits,” Mary said, reading my mind. “People don’t go around killing people unless they have something to gain.”

  Did Mrs. J. have something to gain? A championship title, I thought to myself. How bad did she want it? I then looked at my bingo partner. How bad had Mary wanted it? I didn’t know either answer.

  “You have a bingo, dear,” Mary said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  That I did.

  “BINGO!” Mary hollered on my behalf and pointed down at me. I said goodbye to her and stood up to collect my prize.

  I took my spumoni ice cream and drove back across town to my parents’ place. Maybe I could use the sweet treat to butter up my mom. The chocolate, pistachio, and cherry ice cream really wasn’t my thing; it had fruit and nuts in it. I was still holding out for the mint chocolate chip that I had at home. But my mom would love it.

  My dad was walking Captain Jack when I pulled into their driveway. Hopefully, the pup had been on his best behavior. I took the chicken route and exchanged Captain Jack for the ice cream and headed back home, totally avoiding my mother.

  “Scaredy-cat,” my dad had hollered after me as I backed down the driveway. I waved and smiled. He was so right.

  Twilight was approaching. I wanted to drive by Mrs. J.’s house to see if she was home, but I also wanted to get back home before it was totally dark out. I took Mary’s advice to heart. This wasn’t my first rodeo. My security routine had turned lax the last couple of months, but it was time to start being paranoid again.

  I drove straight home and got Captain Jack and myself secured for the night. He seemed content as could be once he commandeered my couch pillows. It would take more than a comfy pillow to calm me. I loaded up a bowl with three scoops of my beloved mint chocolate chip ice cream and started tooling around online. I found out that Paulette’s ex-husband, Randy Berger, owned a small appliance repair store on the south side of town. I saved t
he store’s address into my phone with a promise to check it out tomorrow. I obviously knew he was divorced, but that was the only record I could find in the county clerk database. No other marriages, or any children for that matter, came up when I ran additional searches.

  Next, I Googled “Whip McGovern”. He was handsome, with dark hair and broad shoulders. He looked more like an athlete than a politician, also younger than I had expected. I ran a quick background check on him, returning nothing significant, no college degrees, business licenses or marriages. Only thing I really found were about a dozen different recent headshots. The man really seemed to love the camera, and probably himself. There wasn’t much to note on his campaign website either, just the usual economic promises of yesteryear. I would have to dig deeper if I wanted to find out what he was really like. I made a note to find out who his friends were, or better yet, his enemies.

  It looked like tomorrow morning would be busy. With a game plan, I hoped to sleep better that night. Even if it was alone. I wondered what Finn was doing. It freaked me out thinking of him bobbing around out there in the middle of the ocean. It didn’t seem to bother him one bit. I supposed that was the important part; he loved his job. Still, I’d feel better when he was back on dry land or doing day trips. These crazy weeklong trips of his were going to drive me batty.

  9

  My phone woke me from a delicious dream that I did not want to end. I sighed, still thinking about Finn, and reached over to my nightstand to grab my phone. It was a county number. My heart rate picked up. Last time I received a call from a county line, it was Aria in jail.

  “Sug’, you there?” Mrs. J. asked.

  “Don’t tell me—”

  “That Detective’s gone and arrested me!”

  I was not surprised. “What happened?”

  “Well, I may have been buying a bus ticket to get out of Dodge. You know, until this mess all blew over.”

  “That’s not suspicious or anything. You know murder’s not something that just blows over.”

  “Hush now. That Miss Priss said she just wanted to ask me a few questions, but I knew better. I told her to get lost.”

  “That all?” Sarcasm dripped from my words.

  “I might have also threatened her with a little voodoo magic. Just a bit. It’s in my blood, you know.”

  “Awesome.” I wasn’t sure what charges Mrs. J. was being held on. It sounded like Detective Roxy had a few to work with.

  “You gotta help me, honey girl. This whole place is run by a bunch of fools.”

  “Keep that to yourself. I’m already working on it. You just behave and let your lawyer do the talking.” I was hoping to turn something up with Randy or Whip and set Detective Roxy down the right path. It sounded like most of her efforts right now were focused on getting something to stick on Mrs. J. I already tried to tell her that was a waste of time, but I understood following the evidence. I intended to follow the motivation. Like Mary said, who had the most to gain?

  Mrs. J. grumbled about not needing a lawyer, but I put the kibosh on that. “You like orange? Then just keep talking. If not, then be on your best behavior.”

  I couldn’t solve this murder soon enough.

  I hung up with Mrs. J. and took Captain Jack out to do his thing. He didn’t pee, poo, or chew on anything throughout the night, so I considered that a success. He did however sleep plastered to my side. Surprisingly, I was okay with this. The pup and I had more in common than I originally gave him credit for, like a love of shopping and sleep. Finn might’ve been an early riser, but Captain Jack seemed to like to stay in bed for morning cuddles. This whole “man’s best friend” thing was new to me, as my mom didn’t allow any pets in the house. Well, the rule used to be: if it could be under water for five minutes and still be alive, I could have it. She probably had a goldfish in mind. However, one day I found and brought home a baby alligator instead (what? I’m a southern girl) and that put an end to that.

  I had a little bit of time until Randy’s appliance shop opened, so I took a nice hot shower and doubled up with my mint deep-conditioning treatment and orange zest body scrub. I hadn’t told Mrs. DeVine what happened yesterday and the more I thought about it, the more I decided it would be best to have some answers first. If I could solve this little mystery, I could move forward with my business. Just another thing to think about. Speaking of business, I remembered that I was supposed to have a Beauty Secrets product shipment delivered on Saturday. I may be focused on my own beauty line, but Beauty Secrets was still my bread and butter. I had a home party booked for the following night and unless those products showed up first thing this morning, I’d have to put in a rush order and pay for overnight shipping. When I got out of the shower, I brought up my email and clicked through my inbox until I found what I was looking for—my shipping confirmation. A quick track of the package confirmed it had been delivered on Saturday, just as planned, only I had no idea where it was. I guess it was possible that someone could’ve stolen it. We did have a ton of extra visitors in town with Seaside Days this past weekend. Although, most people didn’t walk behind the stores. It was mostly employee and tenants that parked back here, but I couldn’t rule that out.

  I ran downstairs to see if it had accidentally been dropped off to the antiques shop. It wouldn’t have been first time if it had ended up there.

  “Morning, Kathleen,” I said to the shop’s owner when I walked in. She was in the front window arranging a glass display. “Don’t put that out, I want it.” She had the most beautiful Murano glass vases that I had to have. The pink swirled glass would look perfect on my mantel.

  “It’s yours. What about these?” She held up a crystal champagne flute with rose gold stems. Aria would love them and I did still need to get her a wedding gift.

  “Sold. Now stop showing me stuff,” I said with a smile. Kathleen knew just what I liked, and I could spend way too much time and money browsing her inventory. I always found too many things that I loved and had to have. If I was looking for a rug, I’d come out with a tea set, a vintage sign, and a rug. Just like today. I don’t know why I thought it would be any different.

  “Hey, my Beauty Secrets order didn’t by chance get dropped off here on accident, did it?”

  Kathleen thought for a second. “Nope, haven’t seen anything. I can call Mary and see if she saw it. She closed yesterday.”

  “No, this would’ve been delivered on Saturday.”

  “Then I don’t think we have it. Sorry.”

  “Shoot, that sucks. Well, at least you did help me find the perfect wedding present for Aria. She’s seriously going to love these flutes.” I seriously loved them.

  “Well, you’re welcome then. I’ll let you know if your shipment shows up too.”

  “Thanks, yeah, keep an eye out. My shipping confirmation shows that it was delivered on Saturday, so if you don’t have it, I’m guessing it was stolen.”

  “Are you getting into trouble again?” Kathleen semi-joked. My spring had been quite eventful.

  “Gosh, I hope not.” In reality, it was more like, aren’t I always?

  “Let us know if you need anything. Feel free to have your shipments sent here and I’ll sign for them.”

  “Thanks for the offer. That’s a good idea. I’ll do that.” This is what the town of Port Haven was all about—neighbors helping neighbors. Not neighbors killing neighbors and burying them on the beach. I said goodbye to Kathleen and set off to find out who hadn’t gotten that memo.

  10

  Captain Jack and I left my apartment just after ten o’clock. I wasn’t brave enough to ask my parents to watch him again and, without a crate, there was no way he was having free reign of my place. My start had been delayed as it took a little bit longer than I’d expected to put that rush order in, but I had to do that first - either that, or cancel the party, which I really didn’t want to do. If Serenity Now tanked before taking off, I’d need every Beauty Secrets client I could get. Thankfully, my shipments cam
e with insurance, so if the package never showed, I’d at least be able to file a claim. Until then, I ordered enough trial-sized lipsticks, nail polishes, and promo packs to get me through tomorrow. I tried to always have the latest deal on hand. I learned early on that if clients could see it—or better yet, try it—then they would buy it. I’d like to think that my missing products were the result of some shipping snafu, but I knew better. I swore if Justine was behind this, she would pay. Instead of waiting around to see what other stunts she would pull, I also ordered a wireless Wi-Fi camera and a few door sensors online that I could monitor with my cell phone. Extra security was smart all around.

  RB Appliance Repair was in a strip mall wedged between a second-hand retail shop and a Chinese restaurant. If the interview was a bust, at least I could grab some Lo Mein for lunch. Captain Jack sniffed his nose out the window and I knew he approved of the plan.

  Randy Berger was a bear of a man. Grizzly beard, two hundred and sixty pounds, at least six foot five. He looked as solid as they came. But I was thinking that all wasn’t as it seemed. Maybe it was his red-rimmed eyes or the Cary Grant movie playing on his little television in the background, but there was more to Mr. Berger than what first impressions led you to believe. He hummed to himself while he worked on the inside of a window air conditioner. Captain Jack wiggled in my arms. I wasn’t sure if Randy allowed dogs, but I couldn’t very well leave the little guy in my car. Even with the windows cracked, it was way too hot. I might be new to this whole pet-owner thing, but I wasn’t an idiot.

  “I’ll be with you in just a minute,” he said, taking a handkerchief out of the back pocket of his overalls and blowing his nose. It sounded like an elephant with a cold—loud and wet. Captain Jack tried to bury his muzzle in my armpit. I felt the same way, but resisted the urge to plug my ears. Randy tucked the handkerchief back into his pocket.