Home Sweet Homicide: A Cozy Mystery (A Gemma Stone Murder Mystery Book 5)

by Willow Monroe

  He must have been reading her mind, Gemma thought as she backed out of the driveway and onto the street. Foot on the brake, she slid the lever into Drive. She heard the familiar sound of changing gears and the car moved forward smoothly.

  “So far so good,” Ross said, sitting up but keeping his head down low. “Make sure we’re not being followed,” he instructed.

  Gemma circled her block twice and then drove through the neighborhood. When they were satisfied that no one was following their movements, they headed for Elm Street and the scene of Katie Mack’s murder.

  “Circle this block a couple of times,” Ross told her. “And then park about two blocks over. The last thing we need is for anyone to see your car here.”

  “No one knows my car here,” Gemma said.

  “They will if it won’t go into Drive when I get back,” he said, sliding out of the car, closing the door silently behind him.

  “I’m going, too,” Gemma announced getting out of the car.

  He paused as if to argue and then motioned for her to follow.

  Gemma’s heart pounded as she followed his dark figure across several back yards and then down a narrow concrete space between two houses. A dog began barking as they dashed through there and then quickly across the street. The back of the house where Katie had been killed loomed huge against the night sky, not a light on.

  “Looks like no one is there,” Ross whispered.

  “Crime scene tape is gone, too,” Gemma said, as they circled around to the front.

  Ross hesitated at the corner of the garage, looking up and down the dark, quiet street. “We might be able to open the garage door manually, just enough to slip inside.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Gemma whispered as she followed Ross to the front of the garage.

  He bent over, caught the edge and lifted.

  The door opened maybe six inches. If we were letting the cat out, this would be great, Gemma thought.

  Ross tried again. He may have gained another inch.

  “Not happening,” Ross muttered.

  Car lights appeared on the far corner and the two of them returned to their hiding place in the darkness beside the house.

  “Now what?” Gemma asked, her voice just above a whisper.

  “Did I see a balcony on the back of the house?” Ross asked.

  “Yes, right off the master bedroom. Holly thought it would be a lovely place for morning coffee,” Gemma told him.

  “Well, it’s also a lovely place for me to get inside,” Ross said, trotting back the way they had come.

  He stepped onto the railing of the deck just below the balcony and reached upward with both hands. They barely touched the bottom. Gemma shook her head, thinking they were going to have to try something else. But before she could say a word, Ross jumped, and was able to catch the edge of the balcony with gloved hands. The next thing she knew, he was climbing over the railing and landed with a soft thump on the balcony above her head.

  “There is no way...” Gemma protested. She was much shorter than Ross and her upper body strength wasn’t that great and...

  “If you hear an alarm, run. Get away from here as fast as you can,” he whispered through the railing.

  “But...”

  “Don’t worry about me. If there’s no alarm, meet me around front and I’ll let you in,” he said.

  Relieved that she didn’t have to climb up on that balcony, Gemma held her breath and waited. She couldn’t see Ross but she could hear him doing something with that sliding glass door that led into the bedroom. In just a matter of moments, she heard it slide open and then he said. “All clear.”

  More terrified than she had ever been in her life, Gemma dashed to the front of the house and flattened herself against the wall just beside the front door. She heard the lock turn and then it was open just wide enough for her to slip inside.

  Ross handed her a flashlight. “Keep these pointed toward the floor and get me to that garage.”

  Gemma led the way through the darkness, past the stainless steel appliances that looked like animals crouching and ready to pounce on her as she passed them. The door into the garage was locked and she fumbled with it only briefly before pushing it open. It suddenly dawned on her that the hand truck might be gone. If they had gone through all of this...

  “There she is,” Ross said, his flashlight picking up the hand truck where it sat in the corner.

  “That’s it,” Gemma said as Ross knelt beside the hand truck and unpacked his fingerprinting kit.

  “Keep the flashlight on this for me,” he told her.

  Squatting beside him, Gemma held her light steady and watched him work. First he sprinkled the cocoa powder on the red plastic handles and then he used the brush gently, expertly, almost like an artist.

  “Bingo,” he said around the flashlight he was holding between his teeth.

  “Prints?” Gemma whispered.

  “Tape,” he instructed.

  Gemma tore off a long strip of tape and handed it to him. She placed a card on the concrete floor and trained the light on it. At that moment, Peggy Langstrom’s huge real estate sign fell forward, hitting the floor with a deafening clang. She jumped like she was shot. Ross simply froze.

  “Holy cow,” Gemma breathed.

  Ross shook his head and went back to work.

  “Beautiful,” Ross said, once he’d pressed the tape onto the card. “These handles are made of rubber, not plastic, so we’re in luck.”

  “Are there more?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Ross said and went to work repeating the process.

  Gemma watched silently while he carefully printed both handles. He found more prints on the metal part of the truck, nothing on the traps but one perfect thumb print on the buckle.

  “That should do it,” he told Gemma and they stood there in the dark looking down at the white cards on the floor. “If we’re in luck, the killer’s fingerprints will be in here somewhere.”

  Before Gemma could respond, a car pulled into the drive. A car door slammed and a male voice called out, “I’ll only be a minute. I just forgot something.”

  “Well, hurry up.” This was a female voice. “This place gives me the creeps now.”

  Gemma’s breath caught in her throat and her heart hammered in her chest. Ross simply gathered up the cards and then guided her to the far wall where they stood in the dark. He put both arms around her and Gemma trembled against him. She listened to an engine rumbling quietly. The front door slammed and Gemma dared to breathe. When that car left she was getting out of there as fast as she could.

  Then the mail voice again. “Do you want me to get those boxes out of the garage?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Oh, God,” Gemma whispered and buried her face in Ross’s chest. She could hear his heart thumping steadily. She wished they could just somehow become invisible.

  “Hold tight,” he whispered back.

  “Nah, we don’t have enough room,” a female voice responded. “We’ll get them tomorrow.”

  “Okay, just trying to help.”

  The car door slammed and the engine faded away.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Ross said.

  Gemma had never heard more welcome words in her life.

  Slipping out of the house, they hurried back the way they had come. Ross tumbled into the back seat and Gemma got behind the wheel, praying the Subaru would continue to cooperate. Her prayer was answered as it slid smoothly into drive and she was able to head for home.

  “You okay?” Ross asked, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

  His touch, his voice was welcome coming out of the darkness of the back seat. “Yes. Now I am,” she said. “I just want to go home.”

  “Lord, Child, did you see a ghost?” Aunt Maisy asked when Gemma rushed into the house. She was sitting at the table, sipping from a mug of tea.

  “Oh, my God. I’ve never been so scared in my life,” Gemma said, pacing back and forth in the kitchen, trying to ca
lm her trembling hands.

  Aunt Maisy caught her hands. “They’re like ice. You need tea. Sit.”

  Ross and Gemma took seats opposite from each other at the table while Maisy placed cups in front of them and poured hot water from the kettle.

  “Exciting enough for you?” Ross asked.

  “Shut up,” Gemma said, dunking her tea bag in the hot water. “I was just sure we were going to get caught in that garage.”

  Ross chuckled. “If they’d been paying any attention, they would have noticed that the garage door was still open about six inches.”

  “What!”

  Ross shrugged and chuckled again. “I forgot to close it.”

  Gemma covered her face with both hands.

  Aunt Maisy returned to the table and watched while Gemma took her first sip. “Tell me,” she said.

  Ross told Gemma’s aunt what had happened, leaving out nothing.

  “But you got prints?”

  “We did,” Ross said, proudly. “And if Gemma’s right, our killer as well.”

  “Now to get them analyzed,” Gemma said, her voice still shaking just a little.

  They were all quiet for a moment.

  “Do you think Nick would act as a go-between for us?” Ross asked.

  “I’m pretty sure he would. I’ll call him in the morning,” Gemma offered.

  “Well, then, I’d say that wraps up this day pretty nicely,” Ross said, swallowing the last of his tea. “We got some dirt on Katie Mack and maybe more suspects and we have fingerprints that might belong to our killer.”

  Aunt Maisy put her hand over her mouth to stifle a yawn. “Just watching you two wears me out,” she said with a laugh. “I’m going to bed.”

  With that she stood up, called to the cat and left them alone in the kitchen.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to bunk on your sofa for another day or so,” Ross said. “Just knowing that they’re watching my house gives me the creeps.”

  “That’s fine,” Gemma said.

  “I’d just go visit family or something but Gilmore would misconstrue that into me running away and being guilty,” Ross reasoned.

  “I can understand that,” Gemma said, finally making up her mind. “You don’t have to sleep on the sofa, you know.”

  Ross appeared to be speechless for a moment.

  “I have two more bedrooms upstairs. You can use one of them until this is over,” Gemma said, making sure he understood her offer completely.

  “Thanks,” Ross said, taking a deep breath. “That would be great.”

  It took Gemma a long time to calm down and go to sleep and when she did it was fitful, restless. Was it the excitement from the night before? Or the excitement of having Ross sleeping right across the hall?

  She awoke early, stiff and sore and still tired, but the smell of coffee brewing wafted up the stairs, luring her out of bed. Aunt Maisy was in the kitchen, dressed in a long, burgundy colored dress, a little black shawl over her shoulders.

  “Do you ever sleep?” Gemma asked, sliding into a chair at the table, accepting the coffee gratefully.

  “I sleep enough,” Maisy told her. “Did Ross go home?”

  “No, I put him in one of the bedrooms upstairs. No sense in him sleeping on the sofa,” Gemma told her.

  Maisy nodded and sat down at the table. The black cat leaped easily into her lap and she stroked his sleek head.

  “I need to call Nick as soon as possible,” Gemma reminded Maisy. “Hopefully, he’ll be able to get those prints in the right hands for us.”

  “He seems like a nice young man and a good friend. I’m sure he’ll be happy to help.”

  Ross stumbled into the kitchen, looking as if he hadn’t slept any better than Gemma. He sipped the coffee Maisy put in front of him without saying a word.

  They were eating breakfast in silence when Gemma’s phone chimed. “It’s Nick,” she said. “Hey, I was just about to call you,” she told him, after accepting the call.

  Nick laughed. “Oh, yeah?”

  “We have a favor to ask of you,” Gemma said.

  “We? Oh, yeah, is Ross still there?”

  “Yes, he is,” Gemma said. “But let’s not talk about that on the phone.”

  “Good idea. I’ll see you soon.”

  Within fifteen minutes, Nick was at the door. Ross had just come back into the kitchen, dressed and ready for whatever the day held. Gemma was still in sweats and a t-shirt.

  “You didn’t have to get all gussied up for me,” Nick teased when he joined them at the table.

  Gemma simply shot him a tired look.

  “Okay, what do you need?” Nick asked. He seemed in an abnormally cheerful mood, almost giddy with excitement.

  “We lifted some prints off of that hand truck in the garage where Katie was killed,” Ross explained as he pushed the white cards across the table toward Nick.

  Gemma sat there staring at the various prints. It occurred to her that they looked awfully big, definitely belonging to a man.

  “You want me to try to get these analyzed,” Nick guessed.

  Both Ross and Gemma nodded.

  “So you think the killer used the hand truck?” he asked.

  “Gemma seems to think that the murder started upstairs. Katie ran downstairs and was killed there. The killer used the hand truck to get her body back up into that bedroom,” Ross told him.

  “Based on those wheel marks on the carpeted stairs, it makes sense,” Nick agreed.

  “Maybe he even used it to lift her into place to hang her from that rod,” Gemma added and then reached across the table to squeeze her aunt’s hands. “Sorry, Aunt Maisy. Sitting around my table discussing a how a murder was committed isn’t normal, I promise you.”

  “I’m sure it’s not, dear but it is fascinating to watch the way you all work together,” Aunt Maisy said, looking at each of them in turn. “You should open your own detective agency.”

  “The Three NitWits Detective Agency,” Gemma said and all of them laughed.

  “Is that it?” Nick asked, scooping up the cards and stuffing them into an envelope.

  “One more thing,” Ross said, holding up a finger. “We’ve discovered there was at least one shady real estate deal involving Katie.”

  “I’d be surprised if there was just one,” Nick told him.

  Ross gave him the particulars and then asked. “Do you think you could do a little investigative reporting? Maybe sniff out a very, very unhappy home owner. That may very well be another suspect.”

  “Will do,” Nick said and held up the envelope. “I’ll be sure they know to keep this on the down low.”

  “I appreciate that,” Ross said.

  “Well, if that’s it, I’m going to head out,” Nick said, rising.

  “You seem awfully chipper this morning,” Gemma said, eyeing him carefully. “And you didn’t touch your coffee.”

  Nick shrugged and gave her his familiar lopsided grin. “I’m just a happy guy.”

  Two hours later, Holly picked Gemma up and they headed downtown for the shop. “I hope it’s okay that I went ahead and bought some paint. A pretty cream color to brighten up that brick wall,” Holly told her. “Mitch and I were out last night and...”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” Gemma said, struggling to concentrate on Holly’s words.

  Her thoughts continued to drift back to those fingerprints lying on her kitchen table and what they’d gone through the night before to get them. And she was sure it was better that Holly knew nothing about it. She also realized Holly had no idea Ross was hiding out at her place. Better keep that to herself as well, at least for the time being.

  “Are you okay?” Holly asked.

  “Yes, I’m just tired,” Gemma told her, forcing a smile.

  When they arrived at the shop, they discovered Natalie pacing back and forth on the sidewalk.

  “At least we know our new employee is prompt,” Holly said.

  “And reliable,” Gemma added.


  Dressed in worn jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers, Natalie’s pink hair almost glittered in the morning sunshine as it cascaded around her slender shoulders. She smiled and headed for the car when Holly parked.

  “I’ve got paint and supplies in the back,” Holly told her.

  “Cool. I like to paint,” Natalie said, opening the back and reaching in for buckets of paint.

  “Good, because I think that apartment upstairs is going to need a fresh coat as well before you move in,” Holly told her. “Don’t worry, we’ll help.”

  Gemma was quiet as she helped them carry brushes, rollers and drop cloths into the shop. While they went to work painting the brick wall that ran the full length of the shop, Gemma went back into the office/storage room to make note of what needed to be done in there. The shelves were clean and in good shape and Gemma was sure it was plenty big enough for them. She made a note to purchase a desk and maybe a dedicated computer just for the shop.

  Her cell phone chimed. It was Nick.

  “Hey,” Gemma said after swiping the screen.

  “Hey. I have bad news and good news,” he told her.

  “Bad news first,” Gemma said, placing her legal pad and pen on a nearby shelf.

  “I called in some favors and the State Police lab in Richmond is going to analyze the prints for us.”

  “Great,” Gemma said. “But...”

  “They’re pretty backed up and can’t do it right away. It’ll be at least two weeks. Sorry, it was the best I could do on that one,” he explained.

  “That’s a long time,” Gemma said with a sinking feeling. “Gilmore might try to go ahead and arrest Ross on circumstantial evidence.”

  “The good news is I found someone willing to talk about a shady real estate deal he had with Mack,” Nick told her.

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “Yes, he’s really, really angry and he’s not alone. He agreed to talk to me later today,” Nick said.

  “Okay, cool. Let me know,” Gemma said and ended the call.

  Back out in the main shop, half of the wall was painted. The place already looked brighter and more contemporary. Gemma smiled. Once the display cases were put in place and the lighting was done, this was going to be beautiful.

  “That looks great, guys,” Gemma told them.