Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Brianna Bates

  “Hi, Missy. How are you?”

  “I’m good…I’m sorry to bother you but I had to ask a question.”

  Mrs. Oakley detected the serious tone in Missy’s voice. “What is it?”

  “The pictures you showed me the other night from Corey Lake. Do you still have them handy?”

  “Yes.”

  “Could you look for one for me?”

  “Hang on just a second.” Mrs. Oakley put the phone down and Missy waited, her anticipation rising. She knew she was onto something.

  Mrs. Oakley came back. “Okay, I have them right here.”

  “There’s one in particular I’m trying to find. It’s a group shot and in the background in the one corner, you can just make out a car’s tail lights. Do you see that one?”

  “I know what you’re talking about…”

  Missy’s heart sank. “You have it?”

  Mrs. Oakley didn’t answer.

  “Mrs. Oakley?”

  “That’s funny…I know exactly what you’re talking about.”

  “It’s on Facebook,” Missy said.

  “Hmm. It was a good one,” Mrs. Oakley said. “Olivia must have taken it with her to scrapbooking, so I’d guess the police would have it.”

  The picture was gone. It hadn’t been at the crime scene and Mrs. Oakley no longer had it either. And what looked like Kevin’s car in the corner of the photo…

  The pieces fell into place, but she couldn’t believe it. Kevin had killed Ren, had seen the picture on Olivia’s page, and then had…

  “Missy, is everything okay?” Mrs. Oakley asked.

  “Yes.” She tried making small-talk but eventually told the woman she had to go because her mind was racing.

  Noreen came in a few minutes early, which was a first in many years. They exchanged polite, but not warm, hellos. Missy waited for Noreen to come out from the back.

  “I have to take an early lunch today,” Missy said. It was only eleven-thirty, and usually Missy waited until one to better split up her day.

  Noreen gave her a look. “Missy, if this is about—”

  Missy cut her off. “It has nothing to do with us.”

  Noreen held out a palm. “Okay, Miss.”

  Missy wanted to give Noreen a piece of her mind, but she had more important things to do. “I’ll be back later.”

  ***

  Missy called Vinnie from the road.

  “Miss, I’m right in the middle of this.”

  Missy didn’t think what she had to tell him could wait. “Vinnie, I have reason to believe that Kevin killed Ren all those years ago at Corey Lake, then flipped out when he saw Olivia’s pictures on Facebook. He—”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Missy. We went through Olivia’s phone. She hadn’t traded any calls, emails, or texts with Kevin at all recently. So how would he know she even had the picture on her, and how would he know to show up at the school?”

  “I don’t know, but I just think we need to explore this.”

  Vinnie lowered his voice. “The kid has lawyered up, Miss. I think I’m on the right track.”

  “That doesn’t mean he…” Missy wanted to counter but knew her argument would be weak.

  “Miss, let me take care of business here. If the kid isn’t our killer, then I’ll look at Kevin. I promise.”

  “Okay.”

  “Don’t—I repeat—don’t take matters into your own hands. Just in case you’re right.”

  Missy said nothing.

  “Promise me.”

  Missy sighed. “I promise.”

  They hung up and Missy sat in her car at a traffic light. The driver behind horned her as a not-so-friendly reminder the light had turned green. She waved her apology and drove through the intersection.

  She was driving on autopilot, getting ready to take the next turn so she could backtrack to the bookstore. Her decision to jump in the car and drive to the station seemed silly now. Even if Vinnie had jumped at her lead, he likely wouldn’t have invited her along to Kevin’s house.

  She was about to turn around to go back to work but just couldn’t. She felt like the longer they waited to confront Kevin, the more likely he’d get away, either by running or refining his story. Maybe it was already too late.

  Missy had gone to a suspect’s house twice, the first time intentionally and the second time unwittingly. Her life had been in danger on both occasions and she didn’t want to repeat that experience. But it was the middle of the day and Missy knew that Kevin lived in a busy cul-de-sac.

  She knew Vinnie had told her to stay away from Kevin and he was probably right. But she couldn’t do nothing.

  Missy made a left instead of a right. She wasn’t going to accuse Kevin of murder to his face, but at the very least she could ask him some questions.

  ***

  Missy didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but number four-three-seven on the cul-de-sac next to the one the Oakley’s lived on was really nice. It stood out from the rest of the townhouses with new siding, new windows, and with a noticeably greener lawn.

  She remembered Kevin saying he was self-employed and worked from home but had no idea what he did.

  Missy knocked on the door. On the way over she’d decided to reuse her story about working on scrapbooking pages for Olivia.

  She waited twenty seconds but there was no answer. She knocked again and tried the bell.

  Still no answer.

  Missy was pretty sure Kevin was home. There was a nice car parked in the designated parking space for his townhouse.

  Missy tried again. Still nothing.

  She took out her phone and called Sharon. No answer. She shot her a text asking for Kevin’s number and waited a minute, but got no response.

  Sighing, she dialed Meghan. “Hi, it’s Missy.”

  “Oh.” The woman couldn’t have been any less interested in talking to her. “I’m at work, so I really can’t talk.”

  “I’m sorry. I was just calling for Kevin’s number. Do you have it?”

  “Why do you want it?”

  “For the same reason I talked to you last night.” It wasn’t a lie.

  “Kevin’s an asshole, but he didn’t kill anybody.”

  “I was talking about the scrapbooking pages for Olivia.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Meghan, I wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important.”

  Meghan sighed. “I’ll text you.”

  She hung up before Missy could thank her. A few seconds later, the text came through.

  Missy dialed.

  She listened as the phone rang. Kevin wasn’t picking up, probably because he didn’t recognize the number. Missy walked back to the front door to peer inside to see if maybe he’d gotten up to answer his phone. Looking through the side light, her eyes landed on a cell phone. The screen was lit up and the phone slid across an end table by the door as it rang.

  Kevin’s car was here. His cell phone was here.

  Missy was beginning to get that bad feeling. She opened the screen door and then the mail slot in the front door.

  “Hello? Is anybody there?”

  There was no answer. She was about to call Vinnie because she was getting a very bad feeling, but saw something out of the corner of her eye. She kneeled back down and put her face against the door to get a better view through the mail slot.

  She saw a leg and a foot in the room past the foyer. The foot was pointed up into the air, like somebody was lying down on the floor.

  “Kevin? Are you okay?”

  No response.

  Missy put her phone away and tried the knob. The door wasn’t locked. Heart in her throat, she stepped inside.

  Chapter Sixteen

  M issy called Noreen at work to let her know she wouldn’t be coming back today. When Noreen asked why, Missy just told her the truth:

  “Because I just found Kevin dead. Somebody shot him in his kitchen.”

  “Oh. My. God.”

  Missy hadn’t liked the man, but
still the tears came. Without even realizing it, she’d hung up on Noreen and had fallen to her knees on the lawn.

  Vinnie came over and helped her up. His hands felt nice on her. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged.

  “I told you not to come here,” he said. “Tyler warned me.”

  She laughed through the tears. “Did he?”

  He let her go. “He said you were stubborn, and headstrong, and often impetuous.”

  “Impetuous? I don’t think anybody has ever said that about me.”

  “Tyler did.”

  She wondered where Tyler Brock was but asking felt weird.

  Vinnie read her mind. “He’s on his way.”

  “What?” She hadn’t been ready for this. Seeing Tyler again after a few months would be hard enough. But it would be even more difficult with Vinnie here.

  But why?

  Vinnie nodded, as if he was still reading her mind. “You’ve missed him.”

  “No.” Her answer came out way too fast.

  Vinnie’s smile was suddenly touched by sadness. “Okay, Miss.”

  As if on cue, Tyler pulled up in his SUV and stepped out of it. He wore an old pair of jeans and a polo shirt that fit perfectly. He was taller and a little broader than Vinnie, and a little more filled out. He came right over and hugged her. She buried her face in his chest, the whole time feeling Vinnie’s eyes on her.

  “Are you okay, Melissa?”

  “Yes.” Better now, she almost said. Missy loved how Tyler always called her Melissa. Nobody else did. It was like he’d claimed that word for her.

  He rubbed her back for a second. “We can talk about this here, or we can go back to the station.”

  “Station.”

  She wanted to get as far away from the body as possible. It was a superstitious reaction. She also wanted to get away from the curious neighbors poking their heads out of doors or looking through windows.

  Tyler nodded at Vinnie. “You take care of this.”

  Missy glanced back. The younger detective nodded at his boss and headed back into the house.

  ***

  Missy walked Tyler through the entire case. He listened quietly, nodded occasionally, and didn’t touch the cup of coffee on his desk. He wasn’t wearing a ring.

  While she brought him up to speed, she stole glances around the room. He used to have pictures of him and his wife in the office, but now she didn’t see any. As she finished the story with the discovery of Kevin’s body this morning, she felt jittery. From the case and from being around him.

  “Who do you think killed Kevin?” he asked.

  “I thought Kevin killed Ren. But that can’t be right.” Missy shook her head. “Maybe Kevin figured out who killed Ren, and that person killed him.”

  Tyler nodded. “But how would that tie in to Olivia?”

  “The picture.” Missy was struggling to put it all together. “It was missing from Olivia’s crime scene so it has to mean something.”

  He smiled at her. “Despite the circumstances, it’s good to see you.”

  “You too.” Her mind drifted from the case to him. Normally she wouldn’t ask him about his personal life because he was a married man, but right now she didn’t even know if he was married anymore.

  And besides, Mom’s advice seemed more relevant than ever. She couldn’t wait around to be happy. She had to go after what she wanted.

  But what did she want?

  “What is it?” Tyler finally reached for his coffee and took a sip.

  “Are you still married?” Missy blurted out.

  A flicker of emotion passed through his face, but Missy would have been hard-pressed to label it.

  He smiled sadly. “Technically, yes. But soon I won’t be.”

  “You’re getting divorced?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged. “It’s been a long time coming.”

  “So you were on vacation then…?”

  He shook his head no. “I wish. I could use a few days off. Jill’s dad passed. It was sudden. I went out there to help.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  Tyler smiled sadly. “We actually got along great. Sometimes, I got along with her parents better than I did her.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said again.

  “Don’t be. It’s life. For awhile I had a good marriage. Then I didn’t. We tried to do the right thing and work it out, but in the end we realized it was better to part ways.”

  Missy sighed. The oddest feeling came over her.

  Sadness.

  It upset her that Tyler’s marriage was ending, even though that meant he would be available. It was sad to think he had to go through the pain of a divorce. Missy was old-fashioned and believed, totally naively, that people were supposed to stay together. Not because it was the right thing, but because it was what everybody deserved. People should get their happy ending.

  “It’s okay,” he said, as if sensing her mood. “It’s for the best.”

  Missy wanted to reach across the desk and take his hand. But that felt wrong. It would have been like trying to pick up the widower at his wife’s funeral.

  “You were married for a long time,” she said.

  He put his coffee down. “I think we got married too young, before we knew what we really wanted.”

  His words struck her dumb. Was he saying that, somewhere along the way, he figured out that he wanted Missy?

  Tyler continued. “She didn’t really want to be married to a cop. She wanted somebody that could…”

  Missy felt like such a news-bug, but she couldn’t help it. “That could what?”

  “There’s not much money in being a cop, especially in Grove City. She also wanted to lead a more normal life. She wanted a husband that came home at the same time every night. She didn’t mind the life when we were young but as the years passed, I think she got lonely.”

  Missy couldn’t stand this woman. How could she let someone like Tyler go over money and for being a cop? She’d known going in she was marrying a policeman—a good one who was trying to make a real difference.

  “People change,” Tyler said, as if reading her mind.

  Missy smiled at him. “One time you told me they didn’t change, that people were basically the same.”

  Tyler tilted his head. “That’s true too.”

  She laughed. “How can they both be true?”

  He thought about it. “What I should have said is that, over time, people find out who they really are, and what they really want. They’re not changing, in fact they’re getting closer and closer to who they’ve been all along.”

  Missy thought about it. She thought about Noreen and how different they were these days. When they were younger, Missy had enjoyed going out for a drink once or twice a week, not for the drinking but for the company. Noreen, on the other hand, had loved going out and had never slowed down. That was who she was, and Missy was not that. Over the years, Missy had just become more herself. Noreen hadn’t changed and maybe she hadn’t either. Not really.

  So how could they have been so close for so long?

  Tyler’s phone rang. “I’m sorry, Melissa. I have to take this.”

  “Wait.”

  His hand stopped over the phone.

  Missy swallowed down a very dry throat. Mom’s advice kept echoing in her mind. It was up to her to make her own happiness.

  “I’ve never stopped thinking about you, Tyler.”

  Slowly, very slowly, his hand moved away from the phone. She waited to see if he’d say anything, but he didn’t.

  “Then you came back, without your wife…and when we talked it seemed like there was still something between us. There is something between us.”

  Tyler folded his hands and sat very still.

  She couldn’t take his silence. “Say something, Tyler. Tell me what you’re feeling right now.”

  He took a deep breath. “I’m very confused, Melissa.”

  “W
hat?”

  He looked down and smoothed his hands on his desk before he spoke. “I’ve never stopped thinking about you either.”

  It took her a moment to realize she was crying. But she was also smiling.

  Tyler went on. “But I’m in the middle of a divorce and…”

  “And what?”

  “And I still have feelings for Jill even though it’s over. I have to work through that.”

  “Why didn’t you just come back?” Missy asked. All these years, they could have been together and he would have never had to deal with the pain of a divorce. All these years she’d spent dating other men. Many of them had been nice but none of them had ever set her on fire. All these years…

  When he spoke again, his voice had an edge to it. “Why do you think I came back?”

  “Because something happened in Philadelphia. Vinnie told me.”

  “He told you what?”

  “No specifics, just that something happened and you decided to come back.”

  He nodded. “That was only part of it.”

  “What was the rest?”

  “Fine, Melissa, I’ll spell it out for you. I came back because you were here. Because no matter how much I loved Jill I still thought about you and always wondered.”

  “Then why—”

  Somebody pounded on Tyler’s door. A woman’s voice came through. “Tyler, Vinnie needs to talk to you right away. It’s urgent.”

  Missy didn’t get up. “Tyler, we need to talk about this.”

  He stood. “Melissa, I have two murders to solve right now. We’ll have to take this up later.”

  “Tyler…”

  He came around the desk. She waited to see if he’d lean in and kiss her but instead he just opened the door.

  “Sorry, Melissa.” He smiled ruefully. “But this is the life of a cop.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  I t’s a good car,” the salesman said.

  Missy smiled politely. She’d been expecting someone who was a lot pushier to go with the stereotype of the car salesman. But this man, Bob, was actually nice and not aggressive at all.

  She looked over the red sedan again. It was sleek and she could just afford it. More importantly, she was in a position where she needed a car and a good deal was staring her right in the face.