Grievance in Gingerbread Alley (Christmas Village Cozy Mystery Book 2)
Page 6
“Yep. I have a great system set up. Grow lights on timers. Automated watering system. Temperatures above seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. Classic Christmas tunes.”
“But why?” Comfort clutched the peahen closer.
Mary gestured for them to move farther back into the darkness of the shrubs. Away from the street, where someone might notice what was going on and save them. Not that that was likely. No one came down to this end at night anyway.
Gus edged back slowly, as did everyone else.
“Belinda told me she ran into Vicky coming out of Steven Nicholson’s office. I was sure she was bringing some kind of lawsuit against the town, and I couldn’t let that happen, now could I?” Mary gestured with the gun, and they all inched back again.
“How did you do it?” Gus figured she might as well get a full confession. She had a plan brewing to get them out of this, and Mary might clam up afterward.
Mary chuckled. “I simply put the hemlock in her breakfast. I knew she picked up the egg sandwich from Good Tidings every morning, so I simply slipped some hemlock in when I dropped off Belinda. Everyone was so busy in the kitchen at that time no one even noticed. Easy peasy. Can you believe it doesn’t take very much to kill someone? I was able to put in the right amount, and Vicky apparently never tasted it.”
“Clever.” Gus was busy calculating whether or not she could disarm Mary before she got a shot off. Disarming her would be risky. The gun pointed right at Joy, who looked terrified. Gus couldn’t take the chance that Mary would hit her.
“Yeah. Wasn’t it?” Mary seemed pleased with herself. “Then when you came into my office to say you thought it was Wanda and Kevin, I figured they would make the perfect fall guys. Of course I knew Wanda didn’t have any hemlock on hand, so I stashed a potted plant near her garage. Hopefully, Detective Winters will find it and put two and two together.”
Comfort and Joy gasped. “You’re setting them up?”
“Yeah, everyone knows they were having an affair, and anyone who had spent even ten minutes with Vicky would easily see why the husband would want to get rid of her.” Mary frowned at Gus and jabbed the gun in her direction. “But then when I saw you on the street, and you said they were denying it and Wanda doesn’t even grow fresh herbs, I knew you wouldn’t give up. So I dropped the hint about the pear tree and ran home to get my gun. I knew you would run right over to nose around.”
“Boy, she sure did.” Joy gave Gus an angry glare, as if this were all her fault.
“Okay, enough small talk. Get back further.” Mary gestured and stepped forward, tugging the sled behind her.
They edged backward. Now they were totally hidden behind the drooping branches of the pear tree and the shrubs behind it.
“What’s your plan now?” Gus asked. “You can’t just shoot us. You have no way to dispose of the bodies.”
“No? I think I do.” Mary nodded in the direction of the pond on the other side of the bushes. “Those swans a-swimming won’t mind if I slide you right in.”
So that was why she’d brought the sled. Gus glanced over her shoulder. Through a break in the shrubs, she could barely make out the swans gliding on the section of the lake that the water circulators kept from freezing. That end was dark, but on the other end of the lake, skaters whirled under bright lights. The skaters were too far away. No one would see Mary with the sled over by the swans, and the bright lights made it harder for them to see out to the darker side of the pond.
A lone snowman stood beyond the shrub. Gus imagined that she saw a malicious sparkle in his coal eyes, as if he couldn’t wait for Mary to turn them into human ice cubes.
“So, you’re going to shoot us all and then use the sled to bring our bodies over and dump us in the water? I’d rethink that. You’re outnumbered here.” Gus got ready to pounce on Mary as soon as she cocked the hammer. Ideally, Gus could take her down before she got a shot off. If Mary could fire a shot, Gus hoped her aim wasn’t that good.
“Yes. You first.” Mary aimed at Gus. Darn! Gus was hoping she would aim at someone else so she could jump on her, but with the gun pointing right at her, that wasn’t the smartest move. Now what?
Gus heard a click as Mary cocked the hammer. “Bye-bye.”
Gus’s mind whirled. Mary was pointing at the middle of her chest, so if Gus lunged sideways fast enough maybe she could dodge the bullet or even get it in the arm. She hoped she would be mobile enough to take Mary down afterward before she could turn the gun on the others.
But before Mary had a chance to fire, Ivy let out a yell and whipped the saxophone case at Mary.
Clang!
Bam!
The case hit Mary in the chest. The gun went off, shooting a pear down from the tree.
Gus jumped on Mary and pinned her to the ground just as Detectives Winters and Noel came rushing from the other side of the tree.
Winters looked at Gus and shook her head. “I see you’re still resorting to overly dramatic measures to capture the killer.”
Chapter 12
Later that evening, Gus sat at the bar in the North Pole Lounge. The soothing ambiance with its dark colors, soft acoustics, and twinkling white lights was a welcome contrast to the stressful scene with Mary behind the pear tree.
“…And then Sheriff Chance tackled her, and we swooped in and made the arrest.” Detective Winters twirled the stem of the cherry in her Shirley Temple and smiled at Gus. “I always knew you had the makings of a good cop.”
Gus frowned. “You did? You always said I’d end up reading meters.”
“That was just to push you to do better.” Winters sipped her drink. “It worked too.”
“She’s a hero.” Yule’s eyes shone with worship as he looked at Gus over the sugar-coated rim of his frothy pink drink.
Gus took a deep breath. The last thing she wanted was for Yule to start fixating on her. He was already sitting too close. She scooted her chair away from him. “Ivy is really the hero. She beaned Mary with her saxophone.”
“It’s a good thing it didn’t get dented.” Ivy, who had been holding the instrument in her lap, looked it over for the fiftieth time.
“That thing makes a good weapon. I’ll have to remember that when I get back to Mystic Notch,” Gus joked then turned to Winters. “Seriously, though, you should consider adding Ivy to the police force.”
Winters smiled. “Actually, I am. When she graduates from the police academy, we’ll have a place for her.”
Ivy blushed. “Thanks. To both of you.”
Both Gus and Winters waved the thanks away.
“You earned it,” Winters said. “Mary gave us a full confession. She’s been very naughty and will be going away for a long time. Thanks for your help on the case.”
“You’re welcome.” Gus smiled at Winters. Her old teacher wasn’t so bad after all. Winters had even confessed that she’d made things fair by ensuring Gus knew that Vicky had been poisoned with hemlock. She knew Gus wouldn’t be able to come by that information and figured she couldn’t resist investigating. Gus suspected it might have been some sort of test, but Winters had said one could never have enough help trying to catch a killer.
“I know it’s difficult to catch a killer when you don’t have the benefit of police support behind you. Maybe you should go easier on your sister now that you know how hard it is,” Winters said.
Gus jerked her gaze from her drink, meeting Winters’s blue eyes. “How did you know about Willa?”
Noel rolled his eyes. “She knows everything. It’s almost like she sees you when you’re sleeping.”
“I’d like to see you while you’re sleeping,” Yule whispered to Gus.
Gus moved farther away from him.
Ivy shot Yule a stop-acting-like-a-creeper look and said to Gus, “It’s true. She knows if you’ve been bad or good.”
“Okay, this is getting weird.” Gus finished off her Cosmo and stood. “Come on, let’s go play some jazz.”
A feeling of satisfaction
washed over Gus as she sat behind the black baby grand. Finally, she was getting to do what she’d come here for: play the piano.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that she’d been able to prove to her old teacher that she really was a success at law enforcement…though that last part about Winters knowing about Willa and that bit about seeing her while she was sleeping was a bit disturbing. Even so, she made a mental note that she better be good for goodness’s sake.
*******************
I hope you enjoyed this Christmas Novella! It features Gus from the Mystic Notch Series. You can check out the full length books in that series here:
Mystic Notch
Find out about my latest books and how to get discounts on them by signing up at:
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About the Author
USA Today best-selling Author, Leighann Dobbs, has had a passion for reading since she was old enough to hold a book, but she didn’t put pen to paper until much later in life. After a twenty-year career as a software engineer, with a few side trips into selling antiques and making jewelry, she realized you can’t make a living reading books, so she tried her hand at writing them and discovered she had a passion for that, too! She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Bruce, their trusty Chihuahua mix, Mojo, and beautiful rescue cat, Kitty.
Find out about her latest books and how to get discounts on them by signing up at:
https://leighanndobbscozymysteries.gr8.com
If you want to receive a text message alert on your cell phone for new releases , text COZYMYSTERY to 88202 (sorry, this only works for US cell phones!)
Join the VIP readers group on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ldobbsreaders
This is a work of fiction.
None of it is real. All names, places, and events are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real names, places, or events are purely coincidental, and should not be construed as being real.
Grievance in Gingerbread Alley
Copyright © 2019
Leighann Dobbs Publishing
http://www.leighanndobbs.com
All Rights Reserved.
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sp; No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner, except as allowable under “fair use,” without the express written permission of the author.
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