Chloe Cook Cozy Mystery Bundle

by Kayla Michelle

  Chloe approached Paige, who was a complete wreck. She knew her friend needed comfort, but Chloe needed something as well. There was a shortage of answers to some very important questions. That had to change, and fast. It was time for Chloe to drop the veil of mystery and come clean. But first, Chloe gave her friend a hug.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said.

  Paige was trembling. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “You and me both,” Chloe replied.

  “Yeah, but you have an alibi. I’m out here flapping in the wind.”

  “I know it’s hard to believe, but you’re going to get through this.”

  “You’re right, that is hard to believe. I mean, this is the worst moment of my life. That detective really thinks I did this,” Paige said.

  “I know he does.”

  Paige’s voice cracked as she replied. “What am I going to do?”

  “The best defense is the truth,” Chloe insisted.

  “I told the detective the truth. He didn’t believe me.”

  Chloe stared deep into her eyes. “Paige, I know you’re holding back. You were doing it last night, and I can see in your eyes that you’re doing it right now. I want to help you, but I can’t do that until you tell me the whole truth. Do you understand?”

  Paige nodded.

  “Good. Now, what were you doing coming here in the middle of the night?” Chloe asked.

  “Look, I know it wasn’t the best choice.”

  “Given the circumstances, I can’t imagine a worse choice.”

  “I made a mistake. I let my emotions get the best of me. When I saw Ryan and what he was doing, I couldn’t help myself,” Paige said.

  “Paige, for the last time, you have to tell me what you were doing here.”

  Paige exhaled. “It’s complicated.”

  “Simplify it.”

  “Alright, here goes. Ryan used to date my old college roommate, Becca Patterson. Becca was mad about Ryan. She thought they were going to get married. Then one day, Becca caught Ryan cheating on her…with her sister.”

  Chloe grimaced. “Oh no.”

  “It gets worse.”

  “How could it get worse than that?”

  “Becca had been fighting depression all her life. She finally seemed to be getting better after Ryan came into her life. When she caught him cheating on her, she went into a tailspin. She wasn’t able to pull out of her downward spiral and ended up committing suicide,” Paige explained.

  “That’s so awful.”

  Paige began tearing up. “Becca is gone because of Ryan. I’ve never gotten over that, nor will I ever be able to forgive him for his actions.”

  “I can’t say I disagree with you.”

  “The amazing thing is, Ryan never tried to make up for his actions. In all these years, he showed no remorse for what he did.” Paige had to take a moment to catch her breath before continuing.

  “Last night dug up old wounds. I could see history repeating itself, and I wanted to stop that from happening.”

  Paige’s story about her old roommate was tragic. There was no doubt about that. Unfortunately, the more she talked, the more a motive emerged. Chloe hoped the truth would make Paige look less guilty, not more.

  Chloe was reluctant to ask her next question. “What did you do to stop it?”

  “It’s like I said. I came over here to confront Ryan.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I gave him a piece of my mind. I was determined to get a different answer this time, an admission of guilt, or at least some closure. I’ve been carrying this pain around for so long; I just wanted him to know what it felt like, and to maybe even learn from his mistakes.”

  “Did he?”

  Paige scoffed. “Not even close. Some people never change. He refused to take any responsibility for pushing Becca over the edge. He acted like he played no part in crippling depression. I couldn’t convince him otherwise.”

  “And then?”

  “Then I went home, feeling completely defeated.”

  “Wait. That’s it?” Chloe asked.

  “That’s not enough?”

  “I’m just saying, you were in his garage, you were steaming mad, and you had plenty of reasons to want him dead.”

  Paige looked horrified. “You don’t actually think I did this, do you?”

  “It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just that with everything you’ve told me, things are not looking good for you with this case.”

  “Chloe, you know me. You’re one of my oldest friends. You know I could never do something like this. You have to believe me.”

  Chloe opened her mouth to answer, but Paige kept talking.

  “I know everything I just told you makes me look guilty, but I’m innocent. Did I hate Ryan? Of course, but I would never kill someone, no matter how much I thought they deserved to die. Unlike Ryan, I have a conscience. And if I did something like commit murder, I’d have to live with it for the rest of my life. You have to believe me.”

  Chloe peered deep into her eyes. Paige may have been an actress, but she wasn’t acting now. Chloe could see the truth, and she was happily surprised by it. Despite appearances that suggested otherwise, she knew her friend was innocent.

  “I believe you,” Chloe said.

  “Good.”

  Paige didn’t stay relieved for long. Chloe knew the hurdles in front of Paige in this case.

  “The problem is, the detective doesn’t know you’re not a killer, and you’ve painted yourself into a serious corner,” Chloe insisted.

  Paige sighed. “I know. What am I going to do?”

  “Don’t worry. I’m going to prove that you’re innocent.”

  “How?”

  “By finding the real killer,” Chloe revealed.

  Paige jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”

  Chloe nodded. “And I’m going to need your help.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Are you sure about this?” Paige asked.

  Paige was still in disbelief as they returned to her parents’ house. Chloe sat her down in front of her laptop, eager for her to get to work. There was a lot to do, and not much time to work with.

  “What’s the alternative? We can’t rely on the police here. They think you did it. The way I see it, this is the only way,” Chloe explained.

  “I can’t believe you’re really doing this for me.”

  “If you can’t turn to an old friend for help, who can you turn to?”

  Paige smiled. “You’re right. Now, what do you need from me exactly?”

  “I want you to find out everything you can on the suspects. Their addresses, frequent hangouts, social media updates. Spare no expense.”

  “Ok.”

  “If someone posted something stupid on the internet, I want you to find it.”

  “Will do,” Paige said.

  “That reminds me. At the party last night, Ryan Foster threatened to ruin Sasha Irwin’s career by releasing some pictures he had of her. Do you have any idea what might be in those photos?”

  “Not a clue.”

  “It would be great if you can find out.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Paige said.

  “Oh, and do some extra searching on Eric Voss. I don’t know the first thing about him,” Chloe insisted.

  “That makes two of us.”

  “You have your work cut out for you.”

  “Like you should talk,” Paige joked.

  “I know, right?”

  “Good luck.”

  “This isn’t about luck. It’s about finding that one clue that will blow this case wide open,” Chloe declared.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Before Chloe could get to the bottom of things, she had to try and sort out the mess in her head. Her mind was a complete jumble, with her thoughts going every which way. She took a long, deep breath, closed her eyes, and then did her best to get things straight. The easiest way to start was to run down the sus
pects in this case.

  First on the list was Ryan’s brother, Adam Foster. Sibling rivalry wasn’t uncommon, but these brothers took it to a whole new level. There was certainly no love lost between them. For good reason. Ryan Foster nearly broke up Adam’s marriage by having an affair with his wife. If that wasn’t enough, by the looks of it last night, Adam’s wife was still harboring feelings for Ryan. While all this was happening, it was also revealed that Adam’s wife Lily was pregnant. What if the child was Ryan’s instead of Adam’s? There were plenty of reasons to want Ryan dead. The question was did Adam do the deed?

  Next on the list was Lily Foster. She was Adam’s pregnant wife and Ryan’s mistress. The question was, whose baby was she having? What if it was Ryan’s love child, but he refused to acknowledge it or lend any support? After all, Ryan appeared to have moved on romantically. At the party last night, he was with a new woman. If that wasn’t tough enough for Lily to stomach, Ryan’s new squeeze was Lily’s former best friend. Was Lily’s heartbreak enough to kill over?

  Then there was Ryan’s girlfriend, Olivia Ellerby. She had already endured the heartbreak of her boyfriend having an affair with her former best friend. On top of that, Olivia found out last night that Lily was pregnant. It must have occurred to Olivia that the child may belong to her cheating boyfriend. To add further fuel to the fire, Olivia could see that Lily still had feelings for Ryan. The only thing worse than being cheated on once was having it happen again. Was she determined to make sure that wouldn’t happen?

  Sasha Irwin was also on the list of suspects. Her story was a little cloudier. All Chloe knew was that Ryan had threatened her at the party last night. He said that he wouldn’t hesitate to release pictures he had of her and ruin her reputation if he had to. For a children’s show host like Sasha, reputation was everything. Chloe didn’t know the specifics of what the pictures were of, or how much Ryan was blackmailing Sasha for, but having her livelihood threatened was not to be taken lightly. The question was did Sasha take it deadly serious?

  Finally, there was Eric Voss. To Chloe, the man was nothing but one, big mystery. With all the outstanding questions Chloe was juggling, that was saying a lot. What Chloe had to go on was that Ryan Foster’s face went completely white at the party last night when his girlfriend told him Eric was coming for him. On the street, Chloe got to witness Eric and his greasy hair slamming Ryan against a car door and threatening him. Without even knowing what their beef was about, Chloe knew Eric had no problem getting violent. Had Eric gotten murderous?

  So much was up in the air. Given that, Chloe knew it was time to get down to business.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chloe’s first stop was the scene of the crime. She wanted to see if maybe the police had overlooked anything. Maybe she’d be able to find a clue that the cops hadn’t picked up on. It was a longshot, but she was willing to try anything to get a break in this case.

  She also decided not to go this one alone. Chloe brought her corgi with her. Rufus had a knack for poking around. She always caught him sticking his nose anywhere it could fit, whether it belonged there or not. Rufus may have been a corgi instead of a bloodhound, but he didn’t let that stop him from leaving no inch of Ryan Foster’s front yard un-sniffed.

  The police had already cleared the scene by the time Chloe had arrived, but they had locked both the front door to Ryan’s house and the door to the garage before they left. That gave Chloe and Rufus limited options to work with. After all, Chloe wasn’t about to try to pick the lock or break into the place in hopes of finding a clue. Of course, there was nothing wrong with checking the driveway or Ryan’s trash can.

  After a few minutes of searching, neither Chloe nor Rufus were able to turn up anything out of the ordinary. It looked like the police had bagged up all there was to find. The problem was that evidence all pointed to Paige being guilty. Chloe’s head couldn’t help but picture the worst case scenario.

  As far as the police were concerned, this had the makings of a slam dunk case. They had the murder weapon and had dusted the whole joint for prints. Chloe secretly wished that the forensics lab would get a positive ID from all that dusting. She knew someone else’s fingerprints would come up. Then, when the real killers’ prints were identified, Paige would be exonerated.

  The likelihood of that happening was slim to none. A killer that took the time to frame Paige by using a golf club, just like the murder weapon in her play, would no doubt have been smart enough to wipe the prints off of the club. With no prints, getting a conviction would be difficult, but not impossible. Sure the police wouldn’t have a confession from Paige, but they would have the phone call placing her at the scene shortly before the murder.

  A case like this had a number of loose ends, which ultimately would leave Paige’s fate in the hands of a jury. The problem was, juries were notoriously unpredictable. They made mistakes, and Chloe couldn’t let that happen with Paige.

  At the same time, without any hard evidence of her own to point the finger at someone else, Chloe knew that in order to prove Paige’s innocence, she’d have to get the real killer to confess to the crime. That meant it was time to start confronting suspects.

  Or, maybe not.

  Just as Chloe was about to lead Rufus down the driveway back to her car, he got a scent of something.

  “What is it, boy?” she asked.

  Rufus then darted to the side of the garage. He stopped in a very deliberate spot.

  Chloe looked down and saw something glistening in the grass. On closer inspection, she saw that it was a pearl earring. Not a pair, mind you, but one stray earring.

  Chloe grabbed a tissue from her purse and picked the earring up with the tissue to not get her own prints on the item. It was a nice earring, but nothing too flashy. The kind of earring that could be bought at any mall jewelry or department store for under a hundred dollars.

  What was more fascinating to her was the fact that it was just sitting there in the grass beside the garage. How could the police have missed a clue like this? There were a dozen cops on the scene here earlier. It’s not like this earring was in an out of the way place. It was hiding in plain sight. Obviously she was happy that Rufus found it, but there did appear to be something odd about the discovery.

  While Chloe was caught up thinking about the earring, Rufus wasn’t done making discoveries yet.

  “What is it now?” she asked.

  The little guy began sniffing around again before finally getting the scent of something new. He wound around the side of the house towards the backyard. Chloe followed him, eager to find out what had caught her pup’s attention.

  As they made their way around the side of the house, Rufus picked up the pace. She followed suit, knowing he must be on to something big. When they rounded the corner to the backyard, Rufus started barking.

  Much to Chloe’s surprise, she saw Ryan Foster’s girlfriend, Olivia Ellerby, exiting the back door to the house. Just as Olivia was closing the door, she spotted Chloe and Rufus.

  “What are you doing here?” Chloe asked.

  Olivia’s face went white. She didn’t respond, but rather took off running, darting into the backyard of Ryan’s neighbor.

  “Why are you running? I just want to talk to you,” Chloe continued.

  Olivia didn’t listen. Instead, she booked it to the street behind Ryan’s house.

  Chloe and Rufus gave chase. They went through the backyard of the neighbor, then their front yard.

  By that point, Olivia was just reaching her car, which was parked on the sidewalk in front of the neighbor’s house.

  Olivia pulled out her keys to open her car door, but Rufus and Chloe caught up with her before she had the chance to get in. Rufus barked furiously as Chloe stared Olivia down.

  “You look like you’re in a hurry to get out of here,” Chloe said.

  Olivia sneered. “Very perceptive.”

  “What were you even doing here?”

  Olivia was defiant. “Leave m
e alone. I don’t have to talk to you.”

  “Fine. I’ll just call the police then and tell them you broke into Ryan’s house.”

  Olivia couldn’t wait to get out of the conversation. She put her key in the driver’s side door to her car.

  Suddenly, Rufus uncharacteristically snarled. He looked ready to pounce at Olivia. Rufus wasn’t big enough to cause any major damage, but no one wanted to get bitten by a dog, no matter how large or small the wound was.

  Chloe was still trying to get over her shock. She’d never seen her dog behave this way.

  Olivia had her own plans. She reached into her purse and pulled out a can of pepper spray.

  “You get that dog to back off. I’ll spray both him and you if I have to,” Olivia threatened.

  Chloe shortened her corgi’s leash.

  “Rufus, down boy. I’ll take care of this,” she insisted.

  Rufus obeyed and backed down.

  Chloe then turned her attention back to Olivia.

  “Alright, you got what you wanted. Now put the pepper spray down,” Chloe said.

  “What do you think I am, crazy?” Olivia replied.

  Apparently, she didn’t realize the irony of that statement. Chloe was happy to point it out to her. “You tell me. You’re the one with the pepper spray.”

  “This is for my protection.”

  “You don’t need it. I’m not here to hurt you.”

  That answer set off a number of questions in Olivia’s head. “Why are you here anyway? What are you doing skulking around Ryan’s house?”

  “It’s funny that you would ask that. I was just looking around. I didn’t break into the place like you did.”

  “You don’t know how wrong you are. I didn’t break in. I have a set of keys to this house.”

  “That still doesn’t explain what you were doing here.”

  “That’s none of your business. This conversation is over.”

  Olivia then turned and opened her car door. In doing so, she took her eyes off Chloe. That gave Chloe just long enough to pull her own can of pepper spray out of her purse.