Ashley Crane Cozy Mystery Collection

by Laurie Anne Marie

  Oh no. Her father must have locked it. For a split second she panicked, then she tiptoed to the heavy imitation Tiffany lamp her mom loved, and unplugged it. It may be fake, but it was heavy.

  She took a deep, silent breath and slowly walked to the bottom of the stairs. She could hear breathing and knew someone was around the other corner. She raised the lamp up high and got ready to swing.

  Just then, the blare of sirens and flashing lights came streaking into the front yard. She heard footsteps, heavy now, running out the back door. He’s getting away!

  Ashley ran to the front door and opened it just as officers came barreling out of their cars.

  “Quick, he just ran out the back!”

  Two officers took off around the house while two ran inside. Pandemonium ensued and lights went on all over the street.

  Her dad came running down the stairs in his robe on and his eyes blazing.

  “Ashley! Ashley! What’s happening?” Burt yelled.

  Her mother peered over the top of the stairs from the bedroom, too scared to move. More shouts from the outside; then she saw the cops drag a man to the car.

  It was Chris Durst! Chris #1 who had skipped town after Darren’s murder! He struggled with the officers, but they cuffed him and got him in the car.

  A policeman was across the street examining the guard car that had been watching over the family. He shouted to one of his buddies to come help him.

  Ashley could see them lift the slumped cop out of the car, and he finally stood up and rubbed his head. Another policeman walked into the house to take the report.

  Neighbors were gathering outside in their bedclothes, and even the cats were peering out between the banisters.

  “Would someone please tell me what’s going on?” Burt asked.

  “Ashley dear, are you all right?’ April gasped.

  “Dad, mom, I heard a noise outside my window and came downstairs and saw the cop in the car slumped over, then heard the back door open and knew someone was breaking in so I called 911,” Ashley said, breathlessly.

  “And you called us just in time ma’am,” the Officer said. “We’ve been looking for this guy since he skipped town after Darren Short’s murder. Why he’s back here trying to break into your house, I don’t know, but we’ll find out.”

  “Thank you Officer, and thank you for getting here so fast,” Burt said.

  “Well sir, that’s because your daughter didn’t waste any time calling us. He could’ve done some real damage had she not woken up and heard him.”

  “That’s because I actually was still awake Officer. I got home from work late and was waiting for a call from…” Ashley caught herself. Maybe she shouldn’t tell this cop that she was trying to communicate with Detective Thompson at this late hour.

  “From my boyfriend,” she continued.

  “Oh Ashley, from Sean? Now I like hearing that,” April said.

  Amazing. They had just had their house broken into, and her mom was thinking about an impending romance for her daughter.

  “Uh yeah,” Ashley stammered.

  Just a little white lie. No big deal.

  “Well, it’s a good thing you made that 911 call. Just let me get some more info and I’ll let you all get back to sleep,” the Officer said.

  “What about the policeman in the guard car? Is he all right?” Ashley asked. “I saw him slumped over in his car just before you came.”

  The Officer chuckled. “Oh, Tommy? Yeah, he’ll be ok. Seems the guy who tried to break into your house hit him over the head to knock him out. Tommy’s got a big lump back there, but he’s a hard-headed guy.”

  Ashley immediately felt guilty for thinking he had gone to sleep. He had been hurt, but it could’ve been much worse.

  “Well, we just want to say we’re glad he’s ok. He and all the other officers who’ve been watching over us have been great,” Ashley said.

  “Copy that,” Burt said.

  “And I’ve been feeding them too,” April said, with pride.

  “Well thank you ma’am, that’s nice of you. I’ll let them know how happy you’ve been with their service.”

  “Oh no!” April shouted.

  “What?” the Officer asked.

  “My lamp! It’s broken! That crook must’ve tried to steal it and then dropped it.”

  “Mom, I’m the one who dropped it. I had picked it up to hit the intruder over the head with it before he got upstairs to harm you.”

  Burt looked at his daughter with his mouth open in admiration, then turned to his wife.

  “April, in what fool’s name made you think anyone would want to steal that thing? It’s a fake anyway.”

  “Well, a crook wouldn’t know that. It looks just like a real one. Look Officer, can you tell any difference between this and a real Tiffany lamp?” April asked.

  “Uh, I don’t know much about lamps ma’am. And I don’t think he was here to steal things anyway. Just a hunch,” the Officer replied.

  “Maybe not, but anyone breaking in a house for whatever reason obviously has no ethics, and I’m sure theft wouldn’t be far from their minds. I’ll have to take it tomorrow to have it fixed.”

  As April walked to the kitchen, Burt yelled to her.

  “It will probably cost more to fix it than it cost to buy that darn thing.”

  Burt leaned in and whispered to the policeman. “Been looking at that ugly thing for years now. Best thing to come out of tonight is that it’s broken.”

  “Uh yeah, well that’s one way to look at it. Can I just finish up my report sir? Then I’ll be out of your hair,” the Officer said.

  Ashley finished telling him the details of the evening, and he left with his partner. She noticed the other cop cars were all gone except one car across the street with a new guy in there. Burt went out to talk to him and also tried to get the last of the neighbors off their lawn and back to bed.

  So Chris Durst was off to jail. Soon she would have some answers on why he left town and why he came back and broke into their home. She couldn’t wait to talk to Detective Thompson tomorrow.

  Oh wait. It was already tomorrow. The clock said 3 a.m.

  “Ashley dear, time to get back to bed. This is enough excitement for a year much less a night,” April said.

  “No fooling,” Burt said, as he walked in and locked the door.

  All of a sudden Ashley was overwhelmed with everything that happened and what could have been. She hugged her parents tight.

  “I’m so glad we’re all ok,” Ashley said.

  “That’s because of you young lady. You were a hero tonight.” Burt swallowed hard.

  “Oh dad, I’m not a hero. I just did what I had to do.” She was trying to fight back her tears.

  April gave her another hug. “Your dad’s right honey. You saved us. Now it’s time to get to bed and try to get some sleep.”

  As they walked upstairs, they saw Charlie still keeping watch at the landing.

  Poor cat. He had already endured one break-in at her apartment, and now this. He swished his tail as if to say ‘what is it with you humans and your drama?’ as he walked back to the bedroom.

  Ashley swooped down and picked him up. Suzie Q was already back on the comforter.

  “Night mom. Night dad. Love you.”

  “Love you too honey. Sleep tight.”

  Ashley laid still for a few minutes and realized how thankful she was for being watched over.

  “The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.”

  “Shakespeare’s Sonnet 5,” Ashley said, to Charlie. He gave her a look that clearly said ‘enough talking, time for sleep,’ and then they all did just that.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ashley’s phone rang bright and early at 6 a.m. She fumbled for it as she shook her head. Ugh. Only three hours sleep. Thank goodness she was off work today.

  “Hello?” she groaned.

  “Ashley, Nate Thompson here. I got you
r voicemail and then heard about what happened at your home last night the minute I came in this morning. It’s crucial that we talk about all of this immediately. Can you come to my office?”

  “Sure, I can come to your office. But can we change ‘immediately’ to a few more hours from now? I’ve barely gotten three hours sleep, and I don’t know how I could form coherent sentences. Well, I actually did just form one, but more than one would be tough, you know what I mean? Plus I need breakfast and coffee.”

  “Ok, then how about nine? I really can’t wait much longer; it’s very important,” Thompson insisted.

  “Aye aye sir, see you at nine,” she mumbled.

  Nate Thompson laughed. “I’ll have more coffee here, just in case. Want you to spit full sentences out.”

  “Great. Thanks. See you.”

  She hung up her phone. Wow. He laughed. Miracles never cease. In minutes, she was back asleep.

  When her alarm went off, she stumbled out of bed and took a long shower, finishing off with cold water to jolt awake.

  “Wow. Ok, ok, I’m ready,” Ashley said to herself, as she hurriedly got dressed. She went downstairs, and her mom was cheerfully fixing a big breakfast for herself.

  “Mom, why are you up making breakfast? You’ve barely had any sleep.”

  “Dear, I’m a morning person, it’s no problem. Here, have mine. More food coming up.” April set a plate of eggs and pancakes in front of Ashley.

  “How do you do that? How does your body move around so fast with no sleep?”

  April smiled at her sleepy daughter.

  “It’s my internal clock dear. Can’t sleep in. Even if I didn’t sleep the night before.”

  “I wish I could do that,” Ashley groaned.

  “The question is, why are you up? I thought you didn’t have work today. Although your father and I have to talk to you about that.”

  “Detective Thompson called. I have to go to his office and talk to him about last night. He said it was important.”

  “Good. And after you talk to him, please come right back home. We all need to have a talk.”

  “Uh…ok… I see that I’m in demand today,” Ashley said.

  “Yes dear, now eat up and run along. I’ve got my decoupage group coming over to discuss the case. Maybe I’ll have some more to tell you about that as well when you get back,” April replied.

  Ashley finished her breakfast and ran out the door. She had a strong feeling her parents wanted to talk to her about last night in depth, but there was no time to think of it now. As she got into her car, she noticed two voicemails. One from Sean and one from Lara. She’d have to get back to them later. She felt a twinge of guilt that she had not spent much time with her best bud Lara lately, although she knew her friend would understand. But no more excuses, she’d make time for her this coming weekend.

  As for Sean, Ashley had done a lot of thinking about him lately. Especially early this morning on her way to bed after the big scare last night. How protective he was. How much he cared for her. All of a sudden, she missed him a lot.

  ***

  As Ashley pulled up to Thompson’s office, she tried to recall all the info she needed to tell him so she wouldn’t make a fool of herself again. What happened at the restaurant that she hadn’t relayed to him yet as well as last night happenings. As well as all her theories.

  “Time to really impress the detective,” she thought.

  Nate Thompson had a funny look on his face when she came in. He seemed very troubled and didn’t stare or even wink at her for a change. He silently got her a cup of coffee and shut his office door. When he sat down, she realized how serious this talk was going to be.

  “Miss Crane…uh, Ashley, you can’t go to work anymore.”

  “Whaaa…” she started to say.

  “I’m afraid you’re in serious danger, and we have information on some of your fellow employees that is very disturbing.”

  “Like what?” she asked.

  “First, tell me what happened yesterday so I can incorporate that into what we found out. Your voicemail said you had some important information.”

  Ashley proceeded to tell him about Sara’s phone call giving two weeks’ notice and that “Ashley was trouble, and something should be done about her.” Then she revealed how nervous the busboy Jose was and how he had said that Chris Jackson was a bad man who was making drugs in a place outside of town.

  “Jose was starting to tell me who Chris Jackson was working with when Nash walked into the kitchen, and he darted away. But just before that, he had also said he was in trouble, and that he needed help.”

  “Did Nash suspect that Jose had told you all that?” Detective Thompson asked.

  “I don’t know. He glared at Jose, but I just acted dumb and cheerful about the good business we had done that day. However, when we left at night after closing, Nash was looking at me strangely and said that he wanted to keep me on the night shift since he had gotten so many compliments on my dinner menu. He gave me the creeps. I was going to tell him tomorrow that I couldn’t work too many nights,” Ashley explained.

  “Well you need to call him and tell him you won’t be in tomorrow. Or at all. Seems your boss Nash might be running a very sophisticated drug operation, and some of the employees are in on it. When you gave me Chris Jackson’s name, or Chris #2 as you call him, we ran a check on him and had him followed. He went to a warehouse out of town that makes kitchen supplies. When he walked out, we had him checked out and found some bags of drugs on him and in his car. It was enough to arrest him, but he’s not talking about who he works for or with,” Thompson said.

  “And you think it must be Nash?” Ashley asked.

  “We think so, but we need more evidence. We don’t want to ask Nash too many questions now. He must be spooked enough with Chris Jackson being in jail and everything else that’s been happening. But we’re digging a lot of things up on him and having him staked out.”

  “So that would explain why he seemed so nonchalant that Chris #2 was taken into custody at the restaurant. And he got on his phone right away when it happened, then hung up when I walked up to him to question him about what was going on.”

  “Yeah, Nash must have been using Chris for his operation. That would explain why he hired him too, to give him a cover with a respectable job.”

  “And Chris #1? Durst? You think he skipped town because he was into drugs too?”

  “We don’t know. Since we just arrested him last night, we have a lot more questioning to do. That’s why your info on Jose is so important. Did he specify which Chris was the ‘bad man’ to you?”

  “Well, I would think it’s obvious it’s both,” Ashley said quizzically.

  Detective Thompson sighed. “I know that. I was wondering which one in particular he might have meant.”

  “I don’t know. And since I’m not going back to work, how can I find out?”

  “Keep your eyes and ears open anyway. Jose might call you since he said he needed help.”

  “Ok. But how does that explain Chris #1 coming back into town to break into my house? Question is, did Nash put him up to it?” Ashley’s mind was in overdrive.

  “He could have. You’ve been snooping around; you’ve talked to everyone and asked them questions. And they probably got back to Nash and told him. You said yourself that Sara told him on the phone that you were trouble, and he better do something about you,” Thompson explained.

  “And because everyone thought Chris #1 was gone, he would be the perfect person to send over to my house to scare me.”

  “Or worse,” Thompson said.

  “And to think I used to cook with that guy. And create menus together. He was a big fan of my bouillabaisse. Even asked me for the recipe when everyone raved about it. ”

  “Boull ya...what? What’s that got to do with all this?”

  “It’s just that you never really know someone do you?” Ashley wondered.

  “Well, I think I know some people pret
ty well,” Thompson replied.

  “Of course, me too, but I mean people like that, people you just work with.”

  “You can’t know everyone really well,” he said.

  “True. Like I made assumptions about you. That you were just a flirty, sexist hunk who thought I was a ditz. And now here we are working together, and I find you quite nice.”

  She grinned at him.

  “Thanks for the revised assessment,” Detective Thompson groused. “Are we ready to continue?”

  “Sure. They talk about multi-tasking, but most people can’t do it. I can flip between different thoughts in my mind with no problem. They’re all up here somewhere; I just have to sort them out from time to time,” Ashley said, pointing to her head.

  “That’s like most women,” he muttered.

  “Now, now Detective, let’s stay on subject. Two big questions for you. Where does this leave the dishwasher Jimmy, and what has this all got to do with Darren Short’s murder?”

  “We’ve been questioning Jimmy nonstop. He insists he wasn’t dealing drugs. And he’s adamant he didn’t murder Darren. Problem is we found the murder weapon in his car.”

  “What? You didn’t tell me that before.”

  “We just started working together, remember? And that information goes nowhere but this room.”

  “I can’t believe it. The gun was in his car? I’m sure Jimmy didn’t do it.” Ashley frowned.

  “Why do you think we’d hold him this long? It’s the best evidence we’ve got at this point.”

  Ashley stared at the ceiling.

  “Hmmm. Drugs or not, something doesn’t add up.” Ashley got up and paced the room.

  “Maybe someone planted that gun in his car,” she said.

  “Maybe,” Thompson said.

  “Who else? Do you think it was Chris Durst who murdered Darren?”

  “Well, he skipped town after the murder, didn’t he? Then came back to harm you and your family last night. And he hit one of our cops over the head hard enough to knock him out. Seems it’s more than drugs with that guy. He apparently has homicidal tendencies,” Detective Thompson explained.