Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Brianna Bates

“So you’ll be home tonight?” Tyler asked.

  “Uh, no.”

  “No?” He sounded ticked off.

  “This literally just happened. Nobody knows what’s going on yet. I don’t even know if the police are done with me.”

  “Oh.”

  What was wrong? “And if the weekend moves forward, I want to be here.”

  “Okay.”

  “Tyler, is something the matter?”

  “No. Why?”

  “You don’t seem yourself.”

  “I’m just tired, I guess.”

  Tired of me? “Did I do something that upset you?”

  “No.”

  “It doesn’t sound like it.”

  “Jeez, Melissa, I’m just tired and I know you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means you will get sucked into this. I can see it happening already.”

  “I already told you—”

  He interrupted her. “And I know right now you mean it. But I also know you, better than anybody else.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  He sighed. “You’re reading into what I’m saying.”

  “So what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that this weekend just went from being about exercise to an investigation for you.”

  Missy’s anger was rising. “And what is so bad about that?”

  “Nothing.” He took another breath. “Missy, I didn’t mean anything. Let’s just drop it.”

  On the other end of the phone, she heard Cody barking. “Is somebody stopping by?”

  “Vinnie is picking me up. How about I give you a call a little later?”

  She wanted to ask where he was going, but everything they said to each other was coming off the wrong way. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Love you.”

  “Love you.”

  Missy put her phone away and went back through the conversation in her mind. Replaying each word, she knew something was wrong. Tyler was ticked off about something. He was rarely short with her. And he never complained about being tired. Actually, he never complained about anything. Bad luck or things that would aggravate the normal person just rolled right off his back.

  She wanted to call him back but didn’t. Right now Tyler was probably in Vinnie’s car, not an ideal time for them to have a heart-to-heart.

  Putting her phone away, Missy headed back for the cabin. It was almost ten o’clock. Pretty soon Anastasia would have to let everybody know whether the weekend was on or off. The police would be done talking to everybody soon if they weren’t already.

  As she approached the cabin, Missy heard voices coming from somewhere. She couldn’t make out what they were saying but knew it was a man and a woman, talking on the dark side of the men’s cabin. She couldn’t see them in the shadows. It was obviously intended to be a private conversation, so Missy walked briskly toward the cabin door.

  “ …she … cheating …”

  Missy stopped dead in her tracks.

  Had she heard correctly? Something about a woman cheating.

  She knew she should just mind her own business and go inside. But now that she’d heard those words, the wheels of her mind were spinning. She focused and strained to hear what was said next.

  “… wasn’t …”

  “Anastasia …”

  “Keep … voice …”

  Missy waited a few moments but the conversation grew even more hushed. Curiosity had gotten the better of her, and now she was just rudely eavesdropping. Missy quietly walked up the steps. Or tried to.

  The third step groaned like it was about to break.

  “Somebody …”

  Missy hurried the rest of the way back into the cabin.

  ***

  Another hour passed. Though it was getting late, nobody went to bed. Anastasia was still lying down and not speaking. Marie wasn’t in the cabin, but her bag was still on the cot so at least she hadn’t left yet.

  One of the other women Missy didn’t know well came in. Adrienne was tall and very lean, almost like a runway model. She nodded when she saw Missy and walked over.

  “Missy, the policeman would like to talk to you.” Adrienne smiled apologetically.

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s waiting outside.”

  “Thank you.”

  Missy was about to leave, but Adrienne stepped in front of her.

  “Hey, before you go.”

  Missy was immediately on alert. “What’s wrong?”

  “Oh, nothing’s wrong.” Adrienne kept smiling but her eyes were serious. “People are getting really nervous.”

  “Why?” Missy asked.

  Adrienne dropped the smile. “Come on, Missy, you know why.”

  Missy folded her arms. She and Adrienne had always been friendly in a high-and-goodbye sort of way, but right now the woman was being a little pushy.

  Missy said, “The lieutenant is waiting. What is it?”

  “It was just an accident, right?”

  “I don’t know.” Missy made to leave, but again Adrienne blocked her.

  “Did the cop ask you about me?”

  “Why would he?”

  Adrienne smirked. “Now I see it.”

  Missy jutted a hip. “See what?”

  “What everybody says.”

  “And what do they say?”

  Adrienne moved out of her way, but now Missy wasn’t budging.

  “What do they say?”

  Adrienne folded her arms. “All I kept hearing about was how you solved all these crimes. To be honest, I couldn’t see it. You always seemed like …”

  “Like what?”

  “Part of the background.”

  Missy could feel herself getting worked up. The muscles in her back tightened.

  Adrienne smiled. “I underestimated you.”

  It was a backhanded compliment, if it was a compliment at all. “Why would Lieutenant Simon ask me about you?”

  “Eliana and I got into a fight one time. This was two or three years ago.”

  Though this woman was in very good shape, Missy could not see her getting into a fight with anyone, never mind Eliana. Adrienne was like a twig compared to Eliana, who would have likely snapped her in half.

  “What was the fight about?”

  Adrienne gave her a skeptical look. “For an amateur detective, you’re an awful liar.”

  “Which I will take as a compliment.” Missy challenged her with a smile. “But I really don’t know about their history.”

  “You know that my brother is gay, at least?”

  Missy was stunned. Normally she was pretty good at telling that about a person. “Carl?”

  “Yes.”

  “I had no idea.” She only saw Carl occasionally at WiredFit because they worked out on different schedules.

  Adrienne didn’t believe her. “It’s okay if you thought he was gay. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

  Adrienne was getting her back up.

  “I didn’t say there was anything wrong with it.” Missy held up a palm. “I honestly did not know. We don’t exercise at the same time so I rarely see him and I think we’ve had all of two conversations since I joined.”

  Adrienne gave her a stern look. “Why have you only talked twice?”

  Missy tipped her head back and looked up, willing herself to be patient. It was getting harder and harder with this woman.

  “Like I said, we don’t cross paths much. I’m always friendly to him.” Missy was tired of being on the defensive for no reason. “And last I checked, Adrienne, conversation is a two-way street.”

  Adrienne relaxed a bit. “I’m sorry. He’s twenty-eight, but to me he’ll always be my baby brother. You have no idea what he’s been through. We grew up in a small town. He was tormented in high school when he came out to someone he thought was a friend. Word got around. Most people were okay about it, but the ones that weren’t? You wouldn’t believe how they treated him.”


  “That’s terrible.” Missy never understood why some people just hated others for no good reason. She couldn’t help but find Adrienne’s protective nature and loyalty to her brother endearing, even though the woman had rubbed her the wrong way. “So what happened between him and Eliana?”

  “Eliana opened her mouth.” Adrienne shook her head, as if she were getting angry about the incident all over again. “When that happens, stupid things come out of it.”

  “She said something disparaging about his sexuality?”

  Adrienne nodded. “He missed on a deadlift while going for a PR.”

  Missy groaned. She had learned how to deadlift because Anastasia often threw that movement into workouts, but she had never gotten used to it. Some of the men and women at WiredFit could do a scary amount of weight on that exercise. She was literally afraid of getting a hernia or throwing out her back by just watching them. Carl was in excellent shape from what Missy could tell, so if he was going for a PR, or personal record, it must have been a lot of weight.

  Adrienne laughed ruefully. “I mean, it’s a PR for God’s sake!” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I have to calm down. Sorry. But you’ve been here awhile now, so you know how it is. Everybody else is so supportive and encouraging. Carl missed the PR and you know, everybody is telling him he’d get it next time, don’t worry. Eliana apparently skipped school the day they taught manners. She told him to stop lifting like a you-know-what and get the bar off the floor.”

  Missy was floored. The more she heard about the woman, the more it became clear Eliana had no filter. She never thought about how she said anything, apparently.

  “I wasn’t there when it happened, but once I heard ... the next time she was at the gym I gave her a piece of my mind.”

  “Wow. Did she apologize?”

  Adrienne arched an eyebrow. “What do you think?”

  “I can’t believe … what did she say?”

  “She said that anger is the best motivator in the gym sometimes and that people can lift incredible amounts of weight when they’re ticked off.” Adrienne shook her head. “I still can’t believe she tried to spin it like she was helping him, as opposed to bashing his sexuality.”

  “I’m very sorry.” Missy wanted to say that she knew what it was like, because over the years she had gotten so many comments and nasty looks about her weight. But she didn’t know how Adrienne would take that.

  Adrienne shrugged. “It didn’t motivate Carl. He just walked out of there and was ready to quit. Anyway, Eliana and I started screaming at each other and next thing I knew everybody had to rush in to separate us.”

  Missy was impressed. “You’re brave. Eliana seemed a bit intimidating.”

  “She was just a mean-spirited bully. Nobody liked her much, except Anastasia and Jeremy and Byron.” Adrienne smirked. “But she was half-right about one thing.”

  “What?”

  “Anger is a good motivator, for some people. She got me fired up alright.”

  Adrienne had a good laugh about that.

  “Words can really hurt.” Missy still remembered many of the mean things she’d heard about her weight. They were like old wounds that had never fully healed. “How long ago was this?”

  Adrienne pointed at her. “I see what you did there.”

  “What?”

  Adrienne shook her head. “I already answered that question for the lieutenant.”

  “I was just asking because I know how it feels to be judged.”

  Adrienne licked her lips. It seemed a nervous gesture to Missy. “Anyway, that was a long time ago. Eliana and I haven’t spoken since. I didn’t even know she was going to be here. And besides, I was running with Carl so I’ve got my alibi.”

  Not a very strong alibi, though. Brother and sister might have ganged up on Eliana (they would have needed to, because she was an absolute beast as Anastasia would have said), pushed her over the edge, and then conveniently served as each other’s alibis. Missy thought back to the footprints leading away from the edge. It did look like two sets. One started near the churned ground. That set was deeper, implying a heavier person. While the other set had barely made an impression on the ground. Perhaps Carl had pushed and Adrienne had …

  She shook her head. Without even trying, she had slipped into amateur sleuth mode. This must have happened more than a year ago. For Carl and Adrienne to have become upset enough to kill her Eliana for that … no, that wasn’t likely … unless Eliana had said something else incendiary. Because nobody could have planned …

  Stop it, she ordered herself.

  Adrienne held her hand up. “Anyway, I don’t want any trouble. It’s the last thing me or my husband need right now. He just lost his job and …” Her eyes got watery. “Damnit, I never cry. Why am I crying?”

  “It’s just the stress and being in an uncomfortable situation,” Missy said, not sure why she was trying to console this woman.

  “Yes.” Adrienne’s tears quickly dried up. “Yes, I’m sure you’re right. My husband and I have enough going on right now, we can’t get pulled into a murder investigation.”

  “I’ll leave that up to Lieutenant Simon to decide.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Adrienne made a nasty face.

  Missy stepped around the much taller (and much leaner!) woman and walked out of the cabin.

  Outside, Lieutenant Simon stood on the porch. He sipped from a Styrofoam cup of coffee. His rain gear was gone too.

  “Melissa, thank you for your time.”

  “What can I help you with?”

  Simon motioned. “Let’s talk in private.”

  Missy followed the cop toward his SUV. He opened the passenger door for her. Before she got in, she peered down the trail that led to where Eliana was. The whole area was lit up now with what must have been high-powered floodlights. An ambulance came around the corner of the cabin and began backing toward the mouth of the trail.

  Missy got into the SUV, and Simon closed her door. Then he walked around the front of the vehicle and got in on the other side.

  “How is everybody doing?” Simon asked.

  Missy stretched her legs out as far as they would go. In all this excitement, she’d forgotten how hard a run she and Marie had done earlier. Now her legs were getting stiff. Normally after a workout she made sure to stretch for at least fifteen minutes—whenever she didn’t, her recovery took much longer and the day after a strenuous session would be a very sore one.

  “Anastasia and Jeremy are devastated. Marie is kind of in shock, I think.” Missy paused. “As for everybody else, I’m sure they’re upset and on edge.”

  “Why on edge?”

  “Everyone keeps asking me what you think.”

  “What I think about what?”

  She looked out the still-wet windshield. “They all want to know if it was an accident or if you think somebody killed her.”

  “Who specifically asked you that?”

  Missy had to think about it. “Pretty much everybody I’ve talked to since we found her.”

  “I need names.”

  Missy began with Anastasia and Jeremy and then rattled off just about everybody else’s name. The only people she didn’t mention—Gwen, Cameron, Paul, and Kerry—were ones she hadn’t talked to yet.

  “So basically everybody.”

  Missy looked at him. “That’s what I said.”

  He grinned. “I must say, I admire your work.”

  “You know about my tea room?”

  He laughed. “No. All your side work.”

  “Oh.” She couldn’t tell if he was being genuine. “I would like to stay out of this one, as I keep telling everybody.”

  He nodded. “Now that you’ve had a chance to speak with everyone, has anyone said or done anything that would make you suspicious?”

  She looked over at him. “Lieutenant, I am not interested in solving the case here. I was going to leave that to you.”

  “I’m not asking you to solve the
case.” His lips grew thin. “I’m asking you a question because you are a person of interest.”

  “Because I found the body?”

  “So you say.”

  “So I say, and so Marie says.”

  “So Marie says, who happens to be your good friend.”

  Missy rolled her eyes. She had wanted to tell him about the conversation she’d partially overheard since it might have held significance. But now that he was challenging her, the petty part of her wanted to hold back.

  Missy sighed. It was an investigation. She couldn’t withhold information that might help him determine whether Eliana’s fall was accidental or not, even if he was being kind of a jerk.

  She told him about what she’d overheard, outside the cabins. “Right before I came out to speak with you, Adrienne pulled me aside and told me about the fight she had with Eliana. Now can I go? Or are you going to take me downtown?”

  He laughed. “No, I don’t think we’ll have to do anything that extreme. Are you planning on staying the weekend?”

  “I’m going to see what everybody else does.”

  “Thanks for your time.”

  Missy jumped out of the SUV and walked quickly back to the cabin. Stepping onto the porch, her stiff legs reminded her she needed to stretch. Missy hopped back and forth on her feet and swung her arms to get her body temperature up and her blood pumping. After a couple minutes of this, she started her routine.

  Stretching had never been easy for her. In gym class, she’d been the only girl to fail the hamstring test because she was unable to touch her toes. She came up about four inches short, just reaching the lowest part of her shins.

  In what was surely a sign of the times (the 1980s), her fourth-grade gym teacher had told her she needed to lose weight and she’d have no problems touching her toes. Of course, Mr. Galatti had made sure to mention this in front of her classmates as opposed to pulling her aside for what should have been an obviously delicate, and private, conversation. This had led to a weeks-long humiliation, with some of the nastier kids in class commenting whenever she walked by about being able to touch their toes because they weren’t fat.

  Years later, with the internet at her disposal, she’d done some research and discovered that body fat did not significantly reduce flexibility unless it had reached the morbid stages. And even then, Missy remembered back to that fourth-grade class when Angie had not only touched her toes but had easily grabbed her feet and asked someone to give her a nudge from behind so she could go lower. This despite the fact that Angie was much bigger than her. As it turned out, flexibility had more to do with genetics than body weight.