Murder and Manuscripts

by Stacey Alabaster

  I have never been so grateful for a rainstorm.

  Within an hour, the campsite was flooded and there was no chance of anyone getting any sleep, so an emergency bus back to town was arranged.

  Everyone was disappointed, so our tour guide offered to arrange a bus back to the campsite in the morning, but we were also given an out—the chance to leave the hiking retreat if we wanted. I was going to take it. As soon as we were back in Rushcutter’s Bay, I departed the bus and headed for the cab rank to get a taxi back to Eden Bay.

  “Hang on!” Savannah called out. “We’re supposed to be buddies!”

  “Sorry,” I said, hurrying away. “It was nice to meet you!”

  Ah, back to civilization. Sure, my retreat was cut short. And I hadn’t quite been away long enough to break any bad habits. But I had never been so grateful to be in my own bed.

  Anyway, I could be back in Eden Bay and still hide out, right? I had closed my business for the weekend and made sure all my clients knew I was away, so I could use that time to completely detox from society. No phones, no computers, and most important—no controversy. No more getting involved in any murder mysteries or scheming.

  But timing can be a real brat. I’d just reached over to my phone to switch it off when I got a call from Claire. And I hadn’t even meant to answer it. It was just that the ‘decline’ call button and the ‘accept’ one looked too similar.

  She was frantic on the other end of the line. Words were streaming out of her mouth. A rope. A dead body. Uh oh. No way. Not today.

  “I’m sorry,” I said calmly, while I listened to the news. Just taking it in, not letting it affect me, just listening to Claire’s diatribe while imaging gentle waves. Well, I didn’t actually have to imagine them. There were gentle waves right next to me. “I can’t get involved in this.” And then I quickly ended the call and ignored the seven follow-up calls.

  Right. Time to turn my phone off and meditate.

  But perhaps I should have put headphones in. Because instead of peace, all I got was the sound of heavy duty equipment. Ugh. Someone was doing home renovations or something.

  Oh, great. Was that drilling? Just ignore it, Alyson. Let the thoughts flow by. You are the sky and the thoughts are simply clouds drifting over you

  But when two minutes had passed, I simply couldn’t take it anymore. I’m not a monk. I stepped over to my window to see which neighbor it was who was being so rude, and I gasped when I saw what was happening. It wasn’t just drilling. And it wasn’t just someone doing home renos.

  I was fuming. You are the sky, and this is simply the cloud.

  Troy Emerald had officially restarted construction on his mall.

  Maybe I should have just closed my eyes, ignored it, and blocked it out.

  But I was done meditating for the day.

  3

  Claire

  Incredible. Unbelievable. This was all Alyson’s fault and she was refusing to even take my calls.

  Apparently, she was on some self-invoked cleanse from all drama and technology. Very, very rich considering that all the drama she got herself involved in was self-created.

  At least it was a Sunday. Fabled Books was always closed on Sundays, so it at least gave me 24 hours to figure out what to do. Who on earth would want to hurt Nicole Marie? She was one of the most popular members of the book club, vivacious, always brought the most expensive cheeses of the group, and she always genuinely read the book of the week. Her opinions were always nuanced and layered—you could tell that she hadn’t just looked on line for some generic opinion. She’d been about a decade older than me, late thirties, and even though I’d never known that much about her personal life, as I understood it, she lived alone and was single.

  I hated that Alyson wasn’t picking up my calls. But more than that, I hated that I wanted her to. That I needed her to. Was she really going to make me deal with this case all on my own? Ugh. I didn’t even know how to get her to come out of her cave or where she was, precisely. I’d heard the rumor she was on a hiking retreat, but there was also word that that been rained out.

  There was someone close to Alyson that I could usually go to for help in these matters. But I was avoiding her brother Matt. Looked like I was really on the outs as far as the Foulkes siblings were concerned. Maybe I would never speak to either of them ever again. Hmm. I mused over this possibility for a second. It would certainly be a more peaceful life.

  But there might be one person who could help me. A sort of friend. Even though he was, in Alyson’s words, her ‘absolute worst enemy in the world.’ Troy Emerald and I had a sort of understanding between us that the rest of Eden Bay didn’t really get. We were both more sophisticated. City dwellers who were just temporarily stuck here. We understood how the world worked. And that Eden Bay needed progress, not regression. Just try explaining that to Alyson, though.

  I decided to try my luck and wandered towards the beach, where the mall was being constructed, a block back. Close enough so that it had sea views—and close enough to obscure those views for others—but not right on the sand.

  I was secretly—very secretly—pleased to see that .it was actually starting to look like a real mall. Thank goodness, too. The shopping options were limited in Eden Bay, and there were no high-brand stores at all. And as much as I enjoyed online shopping, I liked being able to try on my shoes before I purchased them. Saved me the constant postage of having to return a pair because they were too tight, because I always refused to admit that I was actually a size 8 and not a size 7 heel.

  Troy shot me a smile as I approached him. It was weird. On paper, at least, Troy Emerald was my ’type.’ A bit older, wore a suit, a city type, sophisticated, intelligent. And of course, a touch arrogant. But I had no real attraction to him. I knew she would never ever admit to it, not even on her death bed, but I was pretty sure that Alyson had a little thing for him. He definitely had one for her. I was not going to get in the middle of it, either way.

  “This is really starting to come together,” I said, nodding with approval. I could already see myself wandering around with my arms piled with shopping bags in a couple of months’ time. The only thing that troubled me about the development was the bookshop. But I had a plan to compete with it. Well, at least, I’d had a plan to compete. Now that there was a murder thrown into the mix, I wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out. The espresso machine I had ordered was due to arrive the following day and I had nowhere to store it.

  Troy removed his hard hat, which I could only assume was purely ornamental as I doubted he ever went anywhere near any heavy-duty machinery. I mean, a glance at his hands showed it looked like he had a manicure, for crying out loud.

  “Better than I actually thought it would,” he replied, looking up proudly. “We are well ahead of schedule now, actually.” I assumed that he was talking about the revised schedule, considering that work had already been delayed once several months earlier when there had been a murder on the construction site. But he was right—it seemed like a lot had been done in a short amount of time. Too much, actually. Almost as though it disobeyed the laws of physics.

  Hmm.

  “Have you seen Alyson recently?” I asked him, glancing around just in case she was actually there. I mean, if she was actually in Eden Bay, there was no way she was just going to hang back quietly and let this construction take place without her putting up a massive protest.

  “I actually thought the noise might bring her down here,” he said, looking a little bit mischievous. Huh. Was that his game plan? Did Troy Emerald even have a game plan?

  “Well, looks like it hasn’t worked.” I sighed heavily and tried to say something else, but I had to shout a bit to be heard over the top of the jackhammer. “So I guess I will just have to go and look elsewhere! It would be helpful if she actually kept her phone on!”

  Troy nodded and waved to me as he put the hard hat back on, and I thought that would be the end of my trip to the construction site for that day
.

  But just as I was about to leave, I saw a cloud of long, honey-colored hair and cut-off shorts and a tie-dyed crop top storming towards the lot. I shook my head. So much for being on a meditation retreat, or whatever she had claimed to be on.

  Alyson Foulkes was the kind of person to miss something directly in front of her and so while she should have seen me there, standing right in front of her, she stomped right past me and didn’t even notice. She only had eyes for Troy Emerald. I was pretty sure she literally hadn’t seen me, even when I waved to her.

  I was about to call out ‘hey,’ but I just hung back and waited to see what she was actually about to do. What she did was rip off the hard hat that had only just gone back onto Troy Emerald’s head and throw it to the ground before stomping on it, trying to break it—unsuccessfully—and yelling that this entire project must be illegal and needed to be shut down at once. I stepped in and cleared my throat. She looked startled, as though she’d just seen the ghost. Yep. The ghost of Claire Elizabeth Richardson.

  “Claire. Have you been here all this time?”

  I was clearly the last person she wanted to see. Funny that she called me her best friend then.

  “I thought I might find you here,” I said, crossing my arms. “It was the only way I could think of to track you down seeing as your phone is off or you’ve been blocking my calls.”

  “I have been avoiding all drama,” she said, sticking her nose in the air. “I have been on a cleanse. No dramas, no mysteries, no scenes…”

  Geez. Talk about a complete lack of self-reflection. “Um, apart from the one you just caused here at the construction site,” I pointed out flatly, looking at the hard hat laying on the ground. She still had her nose in the air, refusing to relent.

  “She makes a good point,” Troy said with a hint of amusement on his face as he walked over and dusted off the hat. He always seemed amused—charmed, somewhat—by Alyson’s shenanigans. They would actually make weirdly cute couple if she would ever admit that she liked him.

  But I was not going to let her get away with it that easily. Her tantrum had not charmed me. “It’s pretty rich of you to ignore my calls, Alyson, when it is your fault that there was a dead body in my shop in the first place!”

  She spun around to face me slowly, her mouth hanging open in complete disbelief. “And how exactly did you come to that wild conclusion?” she asked incredulously. I caught sight of Troy’s face and I could see that he was also waiting intently for the explanation, which now seemed a little, teeny bit shaky. But I remained fully confident as I spoke. Because clearly, she did not remember all the facts.

  “I left you in charge of locking up on Friday night when I left early for my dental appointment. And you didn’t even lock the door, did you, Alyson?”

  She opened her mouth like she was about to defend herself and then shrugged, as though it was no big deal in the end. Of course it wasn’t. Nothing was ever a big deal to Alyson Foulkes. Even when a murder happened, we were all just supposed to chill out and relax.

  “No one locks their doors around here,” she said. “I don’t even lock the door to my apartment when I go out.”

  No. And she also left her surfboards laying on the beach and just hoped and prayed that no one stole them. Maybe she had been lucky with that so far, but the luck wouldn’t hold out forever.

  “Alyson, I trusted you.” And it was actually a big deal that I had trusted her. “No one else has a key to the bookshop, and you are the only person I have ever left the keys to.” But now I was regretting it. I should have just asked Maria to lock up that night, and none of this would have ever happened.

  “This is rich, Claire. Talk about a stretch of logic. You can’t blame me for what happened! I didn’t kill the woman!”

  Troy backed away like he didn’t want any part of this discussion, and then the drill started up and drowned Alyson out anyway.

  And I was done. If she was out, then so was I.

  4

  Alyson

  “You’re looking a bit sorry for yourself,” Troy said as he finally seemed to come to terms with the fact that the hat was never going to fit a human head again. He walked over to a trash can, sighed, and placed it in.

  “Yeah, well, hasn’t exactly been the best of days,” I said, kicking at the dirt. Funny. I’d stormed down to the construction site because I was furious at Troy Emerald, but now he seemed like the lesser of two evils. Why did Claire have to go and give me such a hard time? I did her a favor, shutting up the shop for her while she went and got her cavity filled. All her own fault for eating too much sugar as well. If she was going to place the blame anywhere, she should place it on herself.

  We had wandered away from the construction site after Princess had left, apparently because she was going to tidy up at the shop. I couldn’t believe she was even brave enough to go back into the shop after what had happened, but good for her, I supposed. Somehow, we had found ourselves approaching the surf, the blue waves quite gentle that afternoon, with white froth where the waves crashed gently on the shores.

  Troy was doing his best to be understanding about what had happened, even though his initial reaction had been complete shock. But he’d seen how hurt I had been by what Claire had said and he was trying to make me feel better, and when he spoke, he almost sounded like a real human being with a soul.

  He nodded towards the same waves that I was admiring. “Why don’t you go for a surf? That always seems to cheer you up.”

  “There are some things that even surfing can’t fix, Troy.” I never thought I’d say that, but this time, it was true. Surfing couldn’t bring a person back to life, it couldn’t turn back time, and it couldn’t repair a friendship. I glanced over my shoulder where there was a crane lifting scaffolding. Surfing certainly couldn’t stop a mall from being built.

  “So, I have some news for you,” he said, sounding a bit heavy, as he stared out into the ocean.

  “Oh goodness, I don’t think I can handle any more for today,” I said. What bad news was Troy about to lay on me now? “Really, Troy, I’m pretty sure I don’t even want to know.”

  Maybe us drifting towards the sea hadn’t been such a coincidence after all. He’d brought me down here to disarm me. We were just about at the little spot of sand where I ran my surfboard design business.

  He was grimacing a little, but he did finally open up and tell me the truth. “There is supposed to be a surfboard shop opening up on the second level of the mall. It will also sell clothing and accessories. I know that you only sell boards…”

  I stopped breathing for a moment and realized I had rolled both my hands into fists. “Well, this is just great, Troy…”

  “Alyson, wait, let me explain. I wasn’t aware of it until yesterday. My assistant is in charge of all the leases and the shop contracts. She’s already organized the lease. But I had a look at the contract last night and I believe I can still void it, if you want me to…”

  Right. I got it.

  I shook my head and then scoffed. “Oh, so now you can look like you are doing me some kind of huge favor,” I said, rolling my eyes as I considered just grabbing a surfboard and running away into the water. He’d never be able to chase me—he was a terrible surfer.

  But he didn’t get it. He was still staring at me like he couldn’t quite believe I was ignoring his offer of generosity.

  “I am just telling you, Alyson. I could be out a bit of money by doing so. For all I know, this owner could sue me for breach of contract. So I am asking you now—is that something you want me to do?”

  In theory, of course it was.

  But I was stubborn. I didn’t like taking favors from anyone. I didn’t need them. Especially not from Troy Emerald. Besides, why should I be afraid of a little competition? My designs were handcrafted and done to special order, and there was no way that a chain store inside a mall could compete with what I had to offer.

  “No,” I said, picking up a surfboard for real this time. I wa
s going to go deep into the waves where he couldn’t follow me. “Don’t void the contract, Troy, and don’t do my any big favors. And also, maybe don’t give me any more bad news while I’m on a drama cleanse.”

  5

  Claire

  Monday morning. Back at work and open for business. What could be more normal? That was what I told myself. It was easy enough to be inside the bookshop. All I had to do was not look up at the second level and not think about the rope and not think about the dead body of Nicole Marie. Easy. Simple.

  I glanced up and saw the bookshelf out of the corner of my eye. The one that Nicole Marie’s body had been propped up against. Shudder. Maybe this was not so easy. And we were certainly low on customers that day.

  There had to be a way to find out what happened to Nicole Marie. She was a member of our book club, and the book club always stuck together.

  There was only one thing to do in a time of great emergency, and that was to call an emergency book club meeting. I put the word out in the online group that I was moving the meeting up by two nights and assured everyone that it was fine if they hadn’t read that week’s book yet. “We will be talking about something far more intriguing than Emma,” I typed, knowing that would get everyone more than interested. I even promised to supply all the food and drinks this time and told everyone not to worry about bringing a plate. “See you all tonight at 6:30!”

  But 6:30 came. And went. There were zero people. None. Crickets.

  I checked the time again. It was only five minutes past 6:30. People might still arrive, just a little late. There hadn’t been any replies to the email either, but I hadn’t taken that to mean much. I waited another fifteen minutes, but the pie I had bought from the bakery was going cold.