Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Brianna Bates

  She couldn’t help but notice that he was not wearing his wedding ring. Immediately that girlish, naïve hope filled her. She couldn’t help it. For so long she’d thought of Tyler as the man of her dreams, this was just a natural reaction.

  Then she saw he still had the same pictures on his desk. His wife featured prominently in most of them.

  She realized she hadn’t even greeted him yet. “Hey, Tyler.”

  She was about to sit, but then he came around the desk and surprised her with a hug.

  “I’m sorry about Karen.”

  “Thank you.” She could feel the power in his arms and back as he hugged her. And she smelled his soap. They held onto each other a little longer than friends would have.

  “Have a seat,” he said. “As always, my office is a mess.”

  Much like Paul Johnson’s office in Templeton, his chairs were covered with files. But Tyler wouldn’t let her lift a single one. He came around the desk and cleared both chairs for her. She selected one and sat. He went back around his desk.

  She caught him staring at her. His gaze lingered a second longer than it should have. She wanted to ask about his wife. She wanted to ask him about everything. Why he’d left Philly to return here, why he and his wife had separated, why they were trying to work things out, if they were split up again, if it was for good this time…but there was no way to politely ask those things.

  She laughed to herself. Earlier today, she’d had no problem accusing a highly-respected member of the bar of murdering her paralegal. But now as she sat across from her high school sweetheart, she couldn’t bring herself to ask him the most important questions, the ones she’d wanted answers to ever since he came back to Grove City.

  “You look nice,” he said.

  Was he being polite? Since they’d dated, she’d put on significant weight. In high school she’d been chubby-cute, but these days she was voluptuous. Did he even like a woman that looked like her?

  “Thank you.” She folded one leg over the other. “Tyler, I wanted to apologize.”

  He frowned. “For what?”

  “We haven’t said more than five words to each other in the last three months, and then I got the bright idea to ask you to pull some strings in Templeton, and now here I am asking you for help on a murder investigation in a different town.”

  “Melissa, you can always call me. No matter what.”

  What did that mean? Why was his wedding ring gone? Why were the pictures still on his desk?

  “I don’t even know where to begin,” she said.

  He winked. “How about at the beginning.”

  She laughed, feeling her breath catch in her throat. He’d winked like that at her in high school, before he’d asked her out on their first date. That gesture alone had made her weak-kneed, and it was having the same effect right now.

  “So I don’t know if you heard, but Karen died from—’

  Tyler’s cell phone buzzed. He held up a finger for her to wait, and he checked the caller ID. She watched his face the entire time and it absolutely broke her heart when he frowned. If he gave her three chances to guess who was calling, she’d only need one. It had to be his wife.

  He turned back to her. “Missy, I’m sorry, but I have to take this.”

  “Is it Jill?”

  He nodded and answered. “Hey, Jill, can you hang on for a second?”

  Missy couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She’d come here for help. He knew she thought Karen had been killed, but instead of taking the call from Jill later, he’d dropped everything to take it. She felt deflated.

  Tyler put his hand over the phone and looked at her. “Can you just give me a few minutes?”

  Missy shrugged. “You know what, I should really get going.”

  “Missy, you don’t have to go.”

  “Tyler.” She looked him in the eye. “It’s your wife.”

  “Melissa, you don’t…” He looked like he had more to say, but now wasn’t the time with his estranged wife waiting on the other end of the line. “Just five minutes, okay?”

  Missy nodded. “I’ll wait out here.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” He winked at her again, but this time the gesture didn’t have any effect on her.

  Missy didn’t wait for him to get off the phone. Instead she stopped at the sergeant’s desk.

  The woman looked up at her. “Yes?”

  “Detective Brock had to take a call before we could talk,” Missy said. “Could you pass a message along to him?”

  “Sure.”

  “Can you tell him I need to find a man named Ron Moore? Either a place of business or his home address?”

  Missy didn’t know if Tyler would give her the information, but it didn’t hurt to ask. If worse came to worst, she could call a private eye she’d worked with briefly on the last case. He’d be able to get the information, but it would cost her. And unlike Abella Garcia, Missy didn’t have money to burn. If anything, she’d be in serious trouble next year if they raised her property taxes again.

  Cody was waiting for her in the truck. She petted the dog after she got in. For a moment, she considered calling Connie and confronting her, but where would that get her? She suspected but couldn’t prove that Karen revealed she was in the Diet Club…but so what? Connie didn’t seem like the type to care, considering how very comfortable she must have been with her body to make a living off an adult webcam service.

  Missy just didn’t know if talking to Connie would get her anywhere tonight. Before she faced the woman again, she needed more information about her and she figured the best way to get that information was through Ron. If Karen and Ron had still been talking, if they had even kept things going, then there was a good chance he had some dirt on Connie. Maybe he’d have that piece of information that would tie everything together.

  But then what?

  Missy leaned her head back against the truck. The longer she sat there, the more she was beginning to doubt her own theory. Infecting somebody with tape worms was such an unreliable way to commit murder…of all the things she’d read online Missy hadn’t come across one story of anybody dying. The medical articles warned against the use of tape worms, but those things were always written from a worst-case scenario vantage point. One article had explained that the tape worm could enter the blood stream and find its way into the brain…another article had hinted at the possibility of seizures…basically a lot of bad things could happen. But wasn’t that true of any disease? She’d made the mistake before of researching one of her random ailments once and had walked away from the computer five minutes later thinking cancer had riddled her body.

  Yes, the more she thought about it, infecting someone with tape worms was a really strange way to kill somebody. If the murderer had wanted to make it look like a diet gone bad, there were plenty of other more reliable methods they could have used. An overdose on a cocktail of over- and under-the-counter drugs would have done the trick easily. Guaranteed. No fuss. And Karen’s death would have been ruled a suicide or accidental. Paul Johnson of the Templeton Police Department would have taken one look at her and lumped her into that unflattering category of obese woman, as if that explained everything. PJ would have closed the books on the case just as quickly.

  Missy realized she was still sitting outside the police station. There was a good chance Tyler would poke his head out the door, and she just couldn’t deal with him tonight. Three months ago she’d sworn she was over him, but of course all it had taken was a few minutes in his presence tonight for that resolve to crumble.

  She really just needed to move on.

  Missy started the engine and pulled onto the road, unsure where she was going. She tried Noreen but her friend didn’t answer. Missy didn’t feel like going home, either, because she knew she’d just end up trying to read or trying to watch a movie or trying to go to sleep but there was no way her mind would let her. Karen was dead and now she had no idea whether it was murder, and even if it was, how could she ever p
rove it? The investigation seemed so pointless now.

  Missy drove around town for another hour before heading home.

  Chapter Fifteen

  T he next morning Missy opened the store. It was Brett’s day off. She had exactly zero customers from when she opened till when Noreen arrived at noon, heavy bags under her eyes.

  “Hey, sexy,” Noreen said on her way to the back.

  “Oh, please.” Missy was in no mood today. She’d slept horribly and was ready to call it quits on the investigation.

  Noreen dropped her purse in the back and emerged, squinting. “Water. Tylenol.”

  “Check and check.” Missy smiled. They had long ago made sure to keep both on hand at the bookstore at all times. Back in their twenties they had needed it much more frequently, because they went out three or four times a week. It had been so much fun back then, but these days it held no appeal for Missy. She preferred to curl up on the couch with a book and a glass of wine, or sit out back with Cody and look up at the stars.

  Noreen came around and leaned heavily against the desk. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. She nodded her thanks as Missy handed her two Tylenol and a bottled water. She downed the pills and chugged the whole bottle.

  Noreen smiled. “Ahhh, feeling better already.”

  “You and your placebo effect.” Missy shook her head. Noreen always acted like the medicine took immediate effect. They both knew it was just her mind playing tricks, telling her she was better.

  “Placebo, shmacebo. All that matters is I feel better.”

  “Out late?” Missy asked.

  Noreen yawned loudly and stretched. “Is it that obvious?”

  Missy held up her thumb and forefinger so they were a centimeter apart. “Little bit.”

  “We had a good time.”

  “We?”

  Noreen nodded. “Sorry for not calling you back, but I was, uh, in the middle of something.”

  “Something or someone?” Missy asked.

  Noreen smiled. “A lady never kisses and tells.”

  “So we’re good then.”

  Noreen swatted at her and missed wildly. “We’re going out again. Tonight. You should come.”

  “Where are you going?” Missy was suddenly interested. Noreen usually stuck to her rule about never seeing a new guy again right away. Her theory was that you had to make a guy work for it.

  “Hank’s.”

  Missy rolled her eyes. It was Wing Night, meaning it would be packed.

  “Thanks, but no Hank’s,” she said.

  Noreen pointed at her. “Funny.”

  “I’m a big girl, I’m supposed to be funny.”

  “Oh, don’t start,” Noreen said. “It’s too early for the self-deprecating humor.”

  “Today, that’s all I got.”

  “What happened yesterday?”

  Missy smirked. “First tell me his name and what he’s like.”

  Noreen closed her eyes and tipped her head back. It was obvious she was replaying last night in her mind.

  “His name’s Carter, and he’s awesome.”

  “Wow.” Usually Noreen was pretty careful in her praise. In fact, Missy often needled her friend for not truly committing to somebody and putting herself out there. Noreen had been burned badly in her twenties by a guy and ever since then she’d played things cool—too cool—with men.

  “Yes.” Noreen rubbed the back of her neck, a lusty smile on her lips. “You’re going to like him.”

  Missy threw her head back and laughed. “Does he have a brother?”

  “I’ll ask.”

  “Don’t you dare—”

  She was already on her phone though. Missy begged her to hang up and tried to grab the cell phone, but Noreen pulled away.

  “Hey, Carter, it’s me, the hottest woman you’ve ever dated. Listen, I’ve got this hot friend. She’s big and beautiful and voluptuous. It takes a real man to handle her.”

  “I’m going to kill you.”

  “If you’ve got any brothers or good friends looking for a great gal, you should bring them along.”

  She hung up.

  “You. Are. A. Dead. Woman.”

  Noreen held out her phone. “I didn’t actually call him.”

  Missy wanted to strangle her, but then they were both laughing. It felt so good. Yesterday had been a depressing day. Missy had fallen flat on her face in front of Abella Garcia, and she had to face the fact that Karen might not have been murdered.

  When they were reasonably calmed down, Noreen asked her about yesterday. Missy filled her in, sparing none of the painful details and concluding with her niggling doubt about her theory.

  “With everything I know now, I think it’s more likely she just took the pills herself and got sick,” Missy said.

  “But you can’t accept that.”

  She shook her head. “It just makes her death so cheap.”

  Noreen nodded.

  Missy continued. “This all started because I thought I knew her better than anybody else. We’ve been friends for thirty years. I was intent on showing everybody I knew better, it didn’t matter there was no evidence to back my theory up, it didn’t matter that killing somebody by giving them tape worms is one of the least reliable ways to commit murder. None of that mattered.”

  Noreen turned around and sat on the desk. “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

  Missy nodded. “Do we ever really know anybody?”

  “I think I know you pretty well.”

  Missy smiled. “Likewise.”

  “But we’re probably the exceptions.”

  “As always.”

  Missy wondered what was behind the faraway look in Noreen’s eye.

  “How, though?” Missy said. “How could we know somebody inside and out, but also not know them at all?”

  Noreen didn’t have an answer for that. Missy usually hated getting all philosophical, because normally the conversation turned gloomy. But this morning she didn’t change the subject or make a joke. She really wanted to know.

  “Karen was struggling with her sexuality, and I had no idea. She kept that part of her from me.”

  Noreen nodded. “She was also really struggling with her weight from what you told me, and it sounded like she was beginning to hate her job.”

  “And her ex-fiance was back in her life to some degree, while she was trying to…she just had a lot of things happening all at the same time.”

  “Maybe too many things,” Noreen said. “It’s not a stretch for a person in such a bad place to make uncharacteristic decisions.”

  Missy agreed. People weren’t themselves when they had one personal crisis to deal with, let alone several. It was totally plausible that in her delicate state, Karen would have made the bad decision to try the tape worm diet.

  “But?” Noreen said.

  “But what?” Missy asked innocently.

  “I know that look.” Noreen pointed at her. “I saw it when you were investigating Albert Switzer’s death and I saw it when I was in the court room being charged with manslaughter.”

  “No look.” Missy held up a hand. “Seriously, no look here.”

  “Okay.” Noreen didn’t believe her.

  And she shouldn’t have. Because no matter how much Missy tried to talk herself out of this, no matter how much it made sense, she just couldn’t stop thinking about her conversation with Karen that night, when her friend had reacted so strongly to the mention of the tape worm diet.

  In the silence, Missy’s cell buzzed, startling both of them. It was from a number she didn’t recognize.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, is this Melissa DeMeanor.” It a gruff, male voice.

  “Who’s this?”

  “Missy, I thought that was you.” The voice grew warmer. “This is Paul Johnson from the Templeton Police Department.”

  She frowned. Why on earth was the detective calling her now?

  “Detective, how are you?”

  “I’m good. Listen, Miss
y, I wish I didn’t have to make this call but you kind of forced my hand.”

  “What are you talking about?” She felt the other shoe about to drop.

  “Yesterday evening I got a call from Abella Garcia.”

  Her stomach dropped.

  “She said you stopped by her office to see her.”

  “Yes.” There was no point in playing coy. “I wanted to talk to her.”

  “Yeah, about that. You see, Karen’s case has been closed. She died of an infection. I have no evidence—nor do you—that Abella Garcia was in any way involved in her death.”

  “I didn’t know that for sure until I talked to her.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s filed a restraining order against you and asked me to reach out to you personally. You’re not to harass her anymore.”

  “Harass her?” Missy had to bite her tongue. If anything, that woman had enjoyed their verbal sparring match. As an attorney she lived for moments like that. The restraining order was just her way of saying screw you to Missy.

  “Yes, harass her. I won’t abide that kind of treatment of one of our better citizens in Templeton. Ms. Garcia is a highly-respected—”

  “Okay, I’ll leave the bitch alone.”

  Missy ended the call. When she looked up, Noreen’s jaw hung open.

  “Who was that?”

  Missy shrugged. “That detective in Templeton. I didn’t feel like listening to him.”

  Noreen put a hand on Missy’s forehead. “What has come over you? What happened to the Missy I know and love?”

  “She’s tired. After yesterday’s embarrassment, I didn’t feel like having my nose rubbed—”

  The door to the book shop opened. Ron Moore stuck his shaved head inside.

  “Missy?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  M issy stepped outside into the humidity of late June, while Noreen minded the bookstore. Ron was waiting for her by the bench in front of the shop.

  “Hi, Ron.”

  He looked more himself today, at least outfit-wise. His eyes were hidden behind thick, dark shades, he wore a t-shirt so Missy could see all the tattoos running up and down his arms, and he had on a pair of work jeans.