Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Brianna Bates

  “Missy.” Anastasia was already back. “Sneakers have enabled us to run with a heel-strike, but our feet weren’t designed for that. You get it? We’re supposed to land on the balls of our feet. Look at Jeremy.”

  Staying bent at the waist with her hands on her hips, Missy looked down the row at Jeremy. He was the strongest guy at WiredFit, able to lift impossible weights. Apparently he was a great runner too. Some people were just good at everything!

  “See how the front of his foot is what hits the treadmill first? Not the heel?”

  Missy did see that. “You’re telling me to change the way I run?”

  “Jeremy ran with a heel-strike, just like you. But he wanted to get faster and also reduce his risk of injury. It took him six months, but now he runs like that. If he can do it—”

  Missy nodded. “Yes, I can do it too.”

  Anastasia laughed. “You’ve heard me say that a few times?”

  Missy smiled. “Once or twice.”

  Anastasia laughed again. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s very difficult to change how you run. I’m not suggesting you do it across the board right away. But the easiest place to start is when you’re sprinting. Try it the new way on the next set. You’ll find the movement is much easier.”

  Missy just wanted to stay on her feet for her remaining sprints, never mind tinker with her form which she had never thought about before.

  “Alright, third set, let’s go!”

  ***

  Missy could barely make it up the stairs when she got home. Tyler did his best not to laugh.

  “Tough workout, hon?”

  “Don’t even start. I hate your kind right now.”

  He laughed. “My kind?”

  “Yes, your kind. The people who look great without exercising and who can just wake up one day and run six miles with no trouble.”

  “Thinking about the Celtic Games?”

  She stopped halfway up the stairs. “Wait a minute. How do you know?”

  “Anastasia called. I told her she should talk to you first.”

  “Yeah? Well, that didn’t happen. They signed me up without asking.”

  He nodded. “I think you can do it.”

  “That makes one of us. It’s six miles!”

  “I’m going to do it with you.”

  “See what I’m saying about your kind? When was the last time you ran any distance? And in a month you’re just going to run six miles?”

  He smiled. “Seriously, hon, do you need help up the stairs?”

  “I’ll be fine, thank you very much.”

  “How about the shower?” He smirked. “Need any help in there?”

  “No.”

  Of course he chased her up the stairs and into the bedroom and into the bathroom, and Tyler worked his massage magic. By the time they got out of the shower, she felt like a new woman.

  Later, they sat on the couch together. Missy had her feet in Tyler’s lap so he could continue his work on her aching arches, and she was reading a book by her favorite mystery author while Tyler had the baseball game on. The Phillies were losing in what he kept saying was a rebuilding year.

  “Weren’t they rebuilding last year too?” Missy asked.

  Tyler tickled her foot, and she nearly fell off the couch.

  “Don’t mock the Phillies.”

  “Tickling is a cheap trick.”

  The intensity of his massage increased, and the aches in her feet began to disappear. “That feels great. I owe you a foot massage.”

  “Deal.” He smiled. “I’m going to miss you this weekend. I think this is the first time we’ll be apart since we’ve lived together.”

  Missy realized he was right. After she had joined Noreen at the tea room, Tyler had proposed and they’d decided it no longer made sense to pay two mortgages. Now the wedding was fast approaching.

  Missy smiled. “What are you going to do without me nagging you this weekend?”

  “I was thinking about fixing the bathroom in the basement and—”

  “Sweetheart, I mean, what are you going to do for fun?”

  He laughed. “I’m meeting the guys at the ball game.”

  “That’s more like it. And after, you can have them over for a kegger.”

  “Been many years since that happened.” He smiled. “And as the Chief of Police, I do have to maintain a certain image.”

  Despite the wondrous foot massage and Tyler’s ever calming presence, Missy couldn’t stop thinking about the Celtic Games.

  “Stop,” he said.

  “Stop what?”

  “I can literally sense you fretting.”

  She laughed. “Am not.”

  “Are too.”

  “Just keep massaging while I pretend not to fret.”

  “Okay.”

  “I mean, there will be athletes there. Real athletes that train year-round, twice a day, who watch literally every calorie they eat, whose goal is to win the Games. I found out after the workout tonight that it’s a qualifier for a bigger Tri-State event in Philly later this year. Marie told me last year they had to disqualify some people because they failed a random drug test.”

  “Wow.” Tyler gave her a look. “People were juicing for the Celtic Games?”

  “Juicing? Is that what the kids call it these days?”

  He laughed. “No, that’s what we called it.”

  Tyler had played football in college and knew his way around the weight room. “Did you ever …?”

  “Nope. But a lot of other guys were doing it, and they weren’t getting caught. At the time, it felt real unfair.”

  “That’s awful.”

  He shrugged. “Looking back now, I don’t know how much of a difference it made. Nobody I played with ended up going pro anyway.”

  “But still.” Missy basked in the foot massage for a moment. “They weren’t playing fair. That would have driven me nuts.”

  “I know.” He winked at her. “You are big on the rules.”

  “Pot, meet kettle. As you mentioned a moment ago, you are the Chief of Police. You’re kind of into the rules too.”

  They both laughed.

  Missy nodded at him. “Do you really think I can run that race?”

  He looked over at her. “Missy, I’m of the opinion that you can do anything even though you never think you can.”

  He was always saying sweet things like that to her. “You’re a great guy, Tyler Brock.”

  “Remember that the next time I forget to take the trash out and you want to say something snarky.”

  “Excuse me—snarky?” Missy sat up. She’d been called a lot of things, most of them derogatory references to her weight. But never snarky. “I wouldn’t even know how to be snarky.”

  He laughed. “Sure, Miss.”

  “Now you’re in trouble.”

  Chapter Two

  Missy parked in front of Marie’s place. It was a nice three-story townhouse that couldn’t have been more than ten years old. Marie liked it, but she always complained about having to lug all her groceries up to the second floor.

  The front door opened. Marie gave her boyfriend a kiss goodbye. As she lugged her black gym bag toward Missy’s old truck, Rob waved at Missy.

  Marie took care of the radio while Missy drove them ninety minutes to Planksville where Panther Mountain was. They talked about the weekend away with the group, the upcoming Celtic Games, and their men, when they weren’t singing at the top of their lungs.

  Missy had been to Panther Mountain for camp nearly thirty years ago. She remembered the dank, wet cabins and being totally grossed out by the daddy long-leg spiders, which some boy—what was his name!—decided to torture her with. She woke up to find a couple in her bed, and later, discovered some in her sneakers.

  It was late afternoon when they pulled off the road and onto the dirt trails leading them back to the camp.

  Marie held her phone up. “I can’t even get a signal out here.”

  “It’s a bit rustic.”

/>   “If we get hurt out on the trail,” Marie said, “help might be a long time coming.”

  “Do you try to terrify me on purpose?”

  Marie smiled innocently.

  Missy drove until she saw other parked cars. Anastasia had arranged for two cabins, splitting the men and the women up obviously. Both cabins were connected to a common area where they could cook, eat and have meetings. Missy parked and they hopped out.

  “I think they filmed that horror movie out here,” Marie said, still smiling as innocently as possible. “The original one, I mean.”

  “I don’t want to hear this.” Missy put her hands over her ears.

  Marie shrugged. “What? It’s just a movie. You remember the one about the guy with the hockey mask?”

  Missy remembered it. All too well. In middle school, she’d slept over Noreen’s house. Noreen had told her she was putting on a movie about teenagers doing it at camp, completely failing to mention the part about the serial killer. She’d had nightmares for a week straight, but of course couldn’t tell her parents why because she wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated movies.

  “Actually, they filmed that one in New Jersey,” Missy said. In an attempt to calm her frayed nerves after the film, Noreen had shared that little bit of trivia. “More than three or four hours away from here.”

  “Still.” Marie looked around the darkening woods. “This place would be a great set-up for a horror movie.”

  “Do you even like horror movies?” Missy asked.

  “No. But I do enjoy watching you squirm.”

  “You are a great friend.”

  “Come on, Missy. How can a woman who has seen dead bodies in real life and solved horrible murders get all wound up by a horror movie?”

  “Pretty easy, actually.” Though, Marie did have a point. Missy had seen plenty of dead people recently. The sight of blood usually made her knees weak, but somehow she’d kept it together and solved or helped the police solve several crimes.

  They got their bags and headed for the cabin on the left where women were coming and going. Missy knew most of the women, but not all of them. The ones she didn’t know exercised at WiredFit during the day. The Soccer Moms as Noreen would have called them.

  Missy was always quick to remind her friend that the Soccer Moms had a full-time job—managing their children’s busy schedules—and was even quicker to point out that the Soccer Moms represented a significant percentage of the tea room’s patrons.

  Missy and Marie picked out two bunks next to each other. Missy’s skin was already crawling at the thought of all the bugs that were, no doubt, lurking inside the cabin.

  One of the women Missy didn’t know approached them. She was definitely not a Soccer Mom. She had shaved the sides of her head and had a long strip of hair down the middle of her head. Missy couldn’t help but look her over. Unbelievably, her physique was even more impressive than Anastasia’s. The woman was also just wearing skin-tight boxer briefs and a sports bra, like she was parading herself around.

  “Hey, Marie.” She turned to Missy. “Hi, I’m Eliana.” She employed a crush grip for her handshake. Her posture was perfect, like she had been in the military.

  “I’m Missy DeMeanor.”

  Eliana laughed, then realized Missy wasn’t joking. “Wait—is that really your name?”

  “Yes.” Missy had to force herself not to roll her eyes.

  “Oh, sorry.” Eliana didn’t seem very abashed by laughing. “It’s just a … well, it’s a weird name.”

  “Why don’t you tell us how you really feel?” Marie said testily.

  Eliana wasn’t put off. And she certainly wasn’t intimidated. She just gave Marie a look. “I didn’t mean anything. I was just saying it’s a weird name.”

  “Yeah, that means you’re saying something.”

  “Anyway,” Missy cut in, before things got out of hand. Marie had a hair trigger, and Missy didn’t want to get into a heated argument within five minutes of having arrived. “I’ve never seen you at WiredFit before.”

  Eliana nodded. “That’s because I haven’t been there in a while.”

  “Oh.”

  Eliana didn’t volunteer any more information. “I wanted to let you know we have a meeting outside in twenty minutes to game plan for our night run.”

  “Night run?” Missy asked. She’d expected the workouts to start tomorrow morning.

  Eliana gave her a look. “Just an easy three-miler tonight before it gets too dark. We brought head lamps for everybody.”

  In Missy’s world, there was no such thing as an easy three-miler.

  “Thanks.” Marie gave the woman her back. “We’ll be there.”

  Eliana scowled at Marie’s rude gesture and offered Missy the weakest of smiles. “Nice to meet you.”

  After Eliana went back to her bunk across the cabin, Missy turned to Marie and lowered her voice.

  “You don’t waste any time making enemies,” Missy half-laughed.

  “We’re already enemies,” Marie said. “What the heck was that about your name being weird?”

  People had been making fun of her name her entire life, so these days it mostly rolled off Missy’s back. “No big deal.”

  “If you say so.”

  “So what’s the story here?”

  Marie shook her head. “She used to work out at WiredFit. I can’t believe she’s here.”

  “Why’d she stop coming?”

  “She had a falling out with Anastasia.”

  “About what?”

  “Don’t know.” Marie unzipped her gym bag. “But I’ll tell you what, she just loves acting like a hard-you-know-what. Practically everybody wanted to throw a party when she left.”

  “Hmm. I wonder what she’s doing here, then?”

  “God. I hope this doesn’t mean she’s back back. She’s the worst.”

  Missy and Marie unpacked their things and then met everybody else outside. The group was circling Anastasia.

  “Here we are, everybody!” Anastasia announced. “Are you ready?”

  She got the group pumped up. Normally these pep talks didn’t work on Missy. They felt a little contrived and awkward to her. But this time Anastasia’s urging got her excited.

  “We’re going to have a great weekend! I’ve got a great program lined up. We’ll get to do a lot of different exercises. Some of them might be new to you—and that’s good! It’s important to try new things, test our limits, and force our bodies to work in different patterns.”

  More cheering.

  “Tonight, we’re just going to run an easy three-miler to get started.”

  There it was again: an easy three-miler.

  “Don’t feel like you have to go the whole way, don’t feel like you have to go fast. This is just to get us loosened up and after we’ll do a long stretching session. Then a nice carb-loading dinner to get us ready for tomorrow and Sunday!”

  More cheering. Missy liked the sound of carbs, even though they were one of her Achilles’ heels when it came to weight.

  “There are a few different paths you can take. At the first fork, you can go right, straight, or left. Right has the most hills, straight is the flattest, and left is kind of in-between the two. There’s a lot of crossover between the paths too, so you’ll end up seeing everybody. The trails are all about three miles, unless you loop and combine. But whichever way you go, make sure you have a partner. There’s hardly any reception out here, so you don’t want to be alone if you get into trouble.”

  “Wanna go right?” Marie asked.

  Missy gave her a look. “I was thinking straight.”

  “Left it is, then.”

  Missy smiled. “Fine. But we’re going slowly. Anastasia has a lot planned for tomorrow and Sunday, so I need to pace myself.”

  “Of course,” Marie said, with an evil grin.

  The group was really excited now. Anastasia raised her hands for quiet.

  “One more thing I want to say. By now you’ve all noticed t
hat we are incredibly fortunate to have one of our old teammates back. Let’s give it up for Eliana!”

  The applause was half-hearted, most of it coming from the men. Two guys in particular cheered the loudest: Jeremy and another guy Missy didn’t know that well, Byron.

  Anastasia gestured for Eliana to step forward. “You can learn a lot from her. Nobody is more intense than this woman. She’s strong, flexible, and can run like a gazelle. I’m very happy to say she’s rejoining the gym and will be with us at next month’s Celtic Games!”

  Jeremy and Byron pumped their fists and cheered, but the applause from everybody else was smattering and just polite now.

  “Now are you ready to get this weekend started?” Anastasia called out.

  She got them revved up again, and Missy could feel the adrenaline going. She’d never done anything like this before, spending a weekend away to focus on exercising, so it was a mixture of excitement and nerves. Marie nudged her shoulder, and she nudged her back, feeling very cave womanish. Then they clapped hands.

  Anastasia and Eliana handed out the head lamps.

  “Are we going spelunking?” Marie asked, turning hers on and immediately blinding Missy.

  “OH!”

  “Sorry!”

  All Missy could see for a minute was one big bright, white spot. She blinked her eyes rapidly, tried keeping them closed for a moment, and finally the flash in her eyes faded.

  “Sorry, Miss!” Marie said. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Just the middle one—as always displaying your impressive maturity.”

  Eliana stopped and nodded at Marie. “You shouldn’t shine that in somebody’s eyes.” Then she walked on, maneuvering her way toward Anastasia.

  “Thank you for the tip!” Marie called out, loud enough for everybody to hear.

  Missy couldn’t help but laugh. Now that her vision was restored.

  “Let’s do it!” Anastasia said.

  They moved at a trot and headed straight for the woods. Missy and Marie were in the back of the pack, so they couldn’t see where they were headed. The sky had turned grey. There were lots of clouds. The breezed picked up, and the leaves were turning upside-down. A sure sign of rain.