Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Brianna Bates

  “Did she know Eliana was going to be here?”

  “I thought about telling her, but I didn’t want word getting out beforehand. I was afraid people wouldn’t give her a chance if they knew ahead of time she’d be here.”

  “So last night was the first time they saw each other since the fight?”

  “Yeah.”

  Missy nodded and decided to change tacks. She doubted Anastasia had killed Eliana, given how she’d just let the woman back into the group and her life. But she did run with a heel strike.

  “Did you see Eliana on the run last night?”

  “Yes. I’ve been thinking a lot about that because it was the last time I saw her. In the last couple of years, we’ve only spoken a handful of times but I still felt like she was my best friend. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

  “I do.”

  “We were on the trail. I worked my legs earlier in the day on Friday, so that night was just a moderate run for me. I had no idea Eliana was trying to run five miles.”

  “That’s pretty intense.”

  “That was Eliana.” Anastasia smiled. “I saw her right before she took that deer trail that led her to … anyway, we just looked at each other. Nothing was said, but we looked at each other. You know? And all we did was nod.”

  Missy smiled. But she was thinking that Anastasia had been in the neighborhood at around the time Eliana had died too.

  “Just a nod,” Anastasia said. “That was it. That one look said everything.”

  Missy chatted with Anastasia for a few more minutes, then she saw Carl peeling away from the cigar-smoking group and heading back to the cabins. She excused herself.

  “You headed back?” she said to Carl.

  “Yes.” He smiled. “Care to join me?”

  Carl stuck his arm out sideways, like they were an old-fashioned couple. She laughed and put her arm through his.

  “Missy DeMeanor,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you to brighten my day. Or night.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because you are undoubtedly trying to solve this crime and I’ve got a motive to kill Eliana.”

  She laughed. “Well now that we got that out of the way.”

  He laughed too. Carl was short and incredibly lean. He was very well put-together. Every time she saw him, he looked like he’d just gotten a haircut. Recently he’d been sporting two days’ worth of fashionable stubble.

  “So, Detective,” he said. “Ask away.”

  “I hope you didn’t kill her,” Missy said, looking up at him. “Because I’m certain you would make a difficult adversary.”

  “I would be the Moriarty to your Holmes.”

  “The Blofeld to my Bond.”

  “Impressive, Missy.” He touched his nose.

  “Tyler loves Bond movies, that’s the only reason I know that.”

  He tipped his head back and laughed. Then he affected an evil German accent. “Well, Missy, are you going to ask me any questions?”

  She wanted to tell him she’d seen footprints that night and knew they belonged to a heel-striker, and she wanted to lay out her entire theory as to why he was a suspect. But she held back, thinking it unwise to show her cards just yet.

  “She called you a terrible name,” Missy started.

  “I’ve been called worse. A lot worse. High school was a horrifying, terrifying, humbling, soul-crushing experience. By the way, did you know I was gay?”

  “No idea.”

  “Come on. It’s okay if you did. I’m proud of who I am.”

  She laughed. “I guess I never looked at you that way.”

  “Ouch! You never looked at me sexually? That hurts, Missy. That really hurts.”

  He had her in stitches. It was making it difficult to ask serious questions. “I’ve been in love with Tyler Brock forever. Sorry, Carl. For what it’s worth, I think you’re very handsome.”

  “Yes, yes. The women can’t keep their hands off me ironically.”

  “So you’ve been called worse.”

  “Yes.”

  “It might have rolled off your back, but your sister took it hard.”

  “My sister is fiercely loyal and takes crap from nobody. While I was laughing it off, Adrienne was plotting her revenge.”

  Missy gave him a look.

  He held up his free hand. “Metaphorically speaking of course.”

  She didn’t think it had sounded so metaphorical. “Of course. Did you interact with Eliana at all before the run last night?”

  “I told her I liked her hair.”

  Missy snorted. “I would not have guessed that.”

  “It’s all the rage now, for women to shave one side of their heads. It was very flattering on her.”

  “That was literally the first thing you said to her since …?”

  He thought about it. “When you put it like that, I guess it sounds a little weird.”

  “A little?”

  He cocked his head back once more and laughed again. “Okay, a lot. And she looked at me with big, serious eyes and told me we had to talk. She had something she wanted to say.”

  “Do you know what?”

  “I didn’t know until today when I talked to Anastasia. Apparently she was going to apologize to me.”

  “Would you have guessed that?”

  “God, no! I didn’t know she was capable of apologizing for anything!”

  “Did she speak to your sister last night?”

  “Adrienne was right next to me when this happened, shooting a death ray at Eliana with her eyes. Again, metaphorically speaking.”

  Missy said nothing.

  Carl went on. “Eliana turned to her and said the same thing. She said it was very important to her and that she would really appreciate a few minutes of our time.”

  “And neither of you had any idea what it was about?”

  “Nope.”

  They were getting close to the cabins. Missy had maybe another minute or two at most before Carl could end the conversation. Might as well attack it head on.

  “Did you see her on the run last night?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Carl said. “Adrienne and I switched paths and avoided the place where she fell altogether.”

  Missy frowned. Why hadn’t Adrienne said that last night? Then she realized: at the time, Adrienne hadn’t known where Eliana had died.

  “You and your sister went a different way?” Missy asked.

  “Yes.” They had reached the lot fronting the cabins. “Now, if there’s nothing else, Detective, you’ll have to excuse me.”

  He took a bow and was about to leave.

  “You and your sister providing alibis for each other is a little convenient, don’t you think?”

  “Oh, I’d agree.” He smiled. “Good thing Leeann ran with us.”

  “Leeann?”

  He nodded. “Oh, and Paul too.”

  If that was true, Carl had just exonerated several people on her suspect list. In her mind, she crossed them all off. She didn’t have her suspect yet, but she was making progress.

  “Carl, I seem to have wasted your time.”

  “On the contrary, my dear.” He bowed again. “I’ve never been questioned by a private detective before. I can cross that off the bucket list now. It was quite fun.”

  He said good night and then headed for the men’s cabin. Missy saw Adrienne step off the porch and approach him. Her eyes were aimed at Missy.

  Missy turned away. That left Joy and Stephanie as the only other two heel-strikers she’d noticed out of the whole group.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Missy plopped down on her cot. Marie looked up from the paperback she was reading.

  “How is the investigation going?” Marie asked, with a mischievous grin.

  “Great. Everybody knows.”

  “Everybody was waiting for it.”

  “Let’s just say I’ve hit a few dead ends.”

  Marie put her paperback down. “Who’s left?”


  Missy shook her head. “Marie, you know I cannot comment about an open investigation.”

  “You are so full of—”

  “Hey.”

  They both broke down into laughter. It felt good. Missy stretched out on her cot. Her feet thanked her. Her body was getting really sore now. She hoped that a good night’s rest would prepare her for whatever was in store tomorrow.

  “So come on. Who do you think it is?” Marie asked.

  Missy fibbed, “I really don’t know.”

  “You are such a bad liar.”

  “Thank you.”

  They started giggling again.

  “This weekend has been great, all things considered,” Marie said. “I’m glad you came.”

  “Me too. All things considered.”

  “Anastasia has been trying to drill it in my head for a few years, and it’s only starting to sink in: we really can do more than we think.”

  Missy nodded, finally believing it. “I’m looking forward to the Celtic Games now.”

  Marie smiled. “It’s going to be fun. No expectations. Our goal is just to finish. Time doesn’t matter.”

  “Exactly.”

  They fell quiet for a moment. Then Marie said:

  “So who do you think did it?”

  “No idea,” Missy fibbed again. “I just cleared two of my suspects.”

  “Who?”

  Missy swore Marie to secrecy. “Joy and Stephanie.”

  “I could have told you that! Joy didn’t make it in time for the run last night. And Stephanie was one of the few who liked Eliana.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything then?”

  ***

  Missy hadn’t technically eliminated Anastasia, but she thought the idea absurd. The two old friends had literally just reconciled. A minute before the race, Anastasia had her arm around the woman and was reintroducing her to the group.

  So it couldn’t have been Anastasia.

  She was down to two people. The problem was, she didn’t know how to prove it was one or the other. And also: she liked Gabby. She didn’t want Gabby to turn out to be a killer.

  But truth be told, Gabby had a very clear motive. And opportunity. Maybe Eliana had said something dumb out on the trail, pushing Gabby over the proverbial edge, who in turn pushed Eliana over the literal edge. With her krav maga training, Gabby was one of the few women capable of doing that to another woman as strong as Eliana.

  It almost had to be Gabby.

  But she couldn’t rule out Adam. Eliana had wronged him too, but the injury didn’t seem that bad. So he’d missed out on one app. According to him, back then he put out two a month. Sure, that was a lot of work but no one app guaranteed income.

  And it was a long time ago.

  Whereas Gabby’s tiff with Eliana hadn’t ended with Eliana’s ouster from the gym. It had bled over and leaked into the next few months. Gabby had literally taken up krav maga of all things as a result and had spoken with an attorney.

  And Gabby ran proudly with a heel-strike.

  Come to think of it, the footprints leading away from the spot where Eliana fell were pretty close together, from what she remembered. And hadn’t Gabby worked on shortening her stride to run more efficiently?

  God, it almost had to be Gabby.

  Missy got up off the cot. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep with this rolling around in her mind. It was almost eleven o’clock now, and a few people had turned in.

  Gabby was still outside on the porch. Three other women were out there as well, including Adrienne.

  “Hey, Gab,” Missy said. “Got a minute?”

  “Uh oh,” Gabby said. “I’m being taken in for questioning.”

  Missy blushed, and the other women laughed loudly.

  Gabby pointed to the lot. “Is that the station?”

  Missy played it off but inside she was embarrassed. It was true that Missy was playing detective, when the police were capable of handling this. She really had no business going around questioning people.

  But at the same time, she wanted to help solve the case. She was pretty certain that Eliana had been pushed. And even though Missy hadn’t liked Eliana very much, the woman hadn’t deserved to die like this. After speaking with everybody, Missy now had a much more complete picture of Eliana. She was socially awkward but that wasn’t all she was. She had helped Anastasia out financially and she regularly contributed a lot of money for cancer research.

  In other words, she was a person. Just like everybody else. Eliana had her faults but she also had her strengths. Nobody was all bad and nobody was all good, and in Eliana’s case her faults were mostly limited to a glaring lack of interpersonal skills. Was that so bad?

  No, not just that, Missy thought. She also stole that app from Adam.

  Gabby and Missy walked to the lot.

  “Okay, Missy. Let’s get this over with.”

  Missy almost apologized, but reminded herself that Gabby was her prime suspect. She could be polite, or she could try to solve a murder. She couldn’t be both things. And that was okay.

  “The killer runs with a heel-strike,” Missy said, matter of fact. “The timing works out with you and Eliana crossing paths near the spot where she fell. She physically assaulted you, and then she slandered you on her blog.”

  “Libel,” Gabby said. “Slander is when you speak. Libel is when you write.”

  “You hired an attorney to file a restraining order. You took up krav maga, which means you’re actually capable of grappling with a woman as strong as her.”

  Gabby was smiling. “Anything else?”

  “Tell me you didn’t do this,” Missy said. “Look me in the eye and tell me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I need to hear you say it.”

  Gabby looked away. “You know I’m a Christian, right?”

  “A lot of Christians have done a lot of bad things.”

  Gabby held up a palm. “No, hear me out. I believe in forgiveness. I really do. I believe in turning the other cheek, even though I take krav maga. I want to believe in all those things, and I really try to live up to those standards. That’s why I never filed a restraining order or a lawsuit against Eliana. I could have easily. The district attorney actually contacted me because he was considering pressing charges for the assault. But I didn’t.”

  Missy said nothing.

  “So when I saw Eliana here yesterday, the human part of me immediately activated. I felt all those old feelings of anger and resentment and feeling spited and spiteful. I was angry with Anastasia for bringing her back. I was ready to leave.”

  Missy still said nothing.

  “But you know what happened?”

  Missy didn’t answer.

  Gabby nodded. “I’ll tell you. Eliana approached me before the three-miler. She was in tears. She broke down. She apologized for everything that happened. She told me I’d done the right thing and that she was completely in the wrong. She asked me to forgive her.”

  Missy felt like such an idiot.

  “And I did,” Gabby said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

  “Because I’m not a gossiper.” Gabby folded her arms. “That was a conversation between Eliana and me and nobody else. I didn’t think it was right to tell everybody about it, because I would have just been laying bare for everybody what had happened before. I didn’t want to humiliate Eliana after her heartfelt apology. I’d forgiven her. I wasn’t going to turn around and kill her twenty minutes later.”

  Missy looked down because she couldn’t hold Gabby’s stare. She believed every word. Knowing what she had to say, Missy forced herself to look back up.

  “Gabby, I’m sorry.” Missy was getting choked up and felt foolish. “I should have known. You’re my friend. I should have known.”

  Gabby looked at her a moment. “It’s okay, Missy. I know you’re just trying to do the right thing. I admire that about you. I would never stick my neck out like you are.”

&
nbsp; Missy laughed through her tears. “Right now I just want to crawl in a hole and die. I hope you can forgive me and that we can still be friends.”

  “Of course.” Gabby opened her arms, and the two women hugged for a full minute. “You know, Missy, she might have just fallen. She was running really fast, it was dark, and she had a lot on her mind. Think about it. Think about how awkward she must have felt rejoining the group, knowing many people hated her and wondering if they were going to accept her apology.”

  On their way back to the cabin, Missy composed herself and thought about what Gabby had said. The woman might have been right. Eliana knew these trails well, but she would have had a tremendous amount on her mind as she ran as hard and as fast as she could. It took a lot of courage to come back and be prepared to apologize for past behavior.

  Missy smiled at the thought.

  Eliana had had a lot of courage.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next morning, Missy called Tyler before breakfast.

  “Hey, Melissa. Have you cracked the case yet?” he asked sincerely.

  “I’m starting to think she just fell,” Missy said, sort of believing it. The thing that kept coming back to her were the footprints. They really made it look like someone had fled the crime scene.

  “Missy.”

  “Tyler.”

  He laughed. “I want to tell you something now. I love how you’re always trying to do the right thing. I absolutely love that about you. It might be your best quality. Non-physical quality, I mean.”

  She giggled.

  He went on. “You always want to do the right thing, you always want to help, and you can’t let a bad deed go unpunished. Most people are all talk. Most people just talk about how bad something is but they never do anything about it. You are not most people. You actually get up and try to do something. You really are one-in-a-million.”

  She was getting choked up.

  “Here comes the but,” he said. “But, Melissa, you don’t have to take on every problem. You know? You don’t have to carry every burden and right every wrong that comes your way or is remotely within your reach. It’s not your job to solve this crime. It’s Lieutenant Simon’s job.”

  “I can’t just quit.”