Dangerous Curves Boxed Set 1: 3 Cozy Christian Mysteries

by K L Montgomery

  I looked up, and standing right there in front of me was my boss.

  “Who were you talking to?” she demanded, a scowl deepening the lines on her face.

  “Oh, just a patron,” I fibbed. Also for a good cause! “She’s coming in this afternoon to pick up a book I have on hold for her.”

  “Aren’t all your patrons in school right now?” She flashed a wicked smirk, like she’d caught me in a treacherous lie. Which I suppose she did.

  “She was on a break,” I explained. “I thought I’d be leaving a voicemail, but she actually answered.” A nervous smile spread across my face. “I got lucky!”

  “Did you hear about Evangeline?” my boss changed the subject.

  My heart was beating in my ears. Susan didn’t normally come down to the YA or children’s area unless she wanted something specific. Maybe she was planning to sit in on Molly’s story time?

  “I did.” I glanced over to the large round rug where Molly always read to the children, wondering how much longer story time would go on. There were a few fidgety preschoolers, one of whom had given up on the story and was wandering around the toy area, picking up toys and then tossing them back on the ground.

  What if she’s down here to fire me? the thought blazed through my head. She couldn’t fire me before I could bring her down!

  Susan’s hands migrated to her hips. “Well, let’s hope they can recover those donations so no one loses their job. Except Evangeline, of course. She’s not coming back.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t suppose she would be—not until after I could prove Susan was behind all of this and framed Evangeline. Once again, I wished I had some spy gadgets. If I could have bugged her phone or office, or put a tracker on her car—

  Susan’s cell phone rang, and I didn’t know if it was saving me or just adding another steep drop-off to this roller coaster we were riding. She turned away from me and slid the phone to her ear. “Hello? Oh, hi, Chief!”

  She said that loud enough that I could hear, but then her voice dipped. It sounded like mostly “okays” and “mmhmmms,” and then she turned around to face me. “Of course we’re ready to take the Founders’ Bible back as soon as possible. I can have a new display case delivered immediately.”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “Well, we will have a new security system installed as soon as the donations are returned to us. Thanks, Chief.”

  An evil grin spread across her face as she slid her phone back into her pocket. “It’s all coming together.”

  With that, I couldn’t tell if she knew that I knew she was the mastermind, or if she was operating under the assumption I still thought Evangeline was the culprit. I noticed Molly finishing up the story and chatting with a few parents as they prepared to whisk their little tykes back out into the beautiful spring weather. I shot her a look that said, “Get over here ASAP,” or at least I hoped she would interpret it as such.

  “Chief James did say something interesting, though,” Susan said, drawing my eyes back to her.

  “Oh?” I hoped to stall long enough for Molly to make it over to join in our discussion. She was shifting her weight from foot to foot while she tried to escape a conversation with a mom who was practically getting dragged away by a very insistent and apparently very strong-willed three-year-old.

  “Yes, he said more checks were deposited into that Cayman Islands account yesterday.” She scratched her chin and leveled her gaze on me.

  Molly rushed to my side just as I responded, “But Evangeline couldn’t have done that from jail.”

  “Exactly.” Susan acknowledged Molly’s arrival with a slight nod. “That means she must have an accomplice.”

  I looked over just in time to see the curiosity flicker across my friend’s face. She still didn’t know what I’d discovered this morning when I spoke with Evangeline. She was way behind, and I’d have to figure out how to update her without Susan finding out. What if she had this whole place bugged? I wouldn’t put it past her if she was willing to frame her own employees and steal money from the library.

  “I believe you were onto something the other day when you mentioned Jada from Tech Services,” our boss said. “I want you and Molly here to pay her a visit this afternoon and find out if she’s involved. You did such a great job proving Evangeline stole the Bible… How much do you want to bet you’ll find the missing cash or the rest of the stolen checks at Jada’s place? Maybe even that stamp you were looking for, Sunshine?”

  Molly flashed me a questioning look, but I decided to play along. Hopefully by this afternoon I’d have my evidence against Susan with the help of teen hacker extraordinaire, Liz Cooper. And if I was wrong, at least I’d know who the account in the Cayman Islands belonged to, and we could go from there. Maybe it was Jada and Evangeline working together, but I bet a burnt batch of biscuits it was Susan.

  “I have a meeting at three, and then we’ll head over there,” I told our boss. “But I thought Jada was on vacation?”

  “Oh, she returned last night, actually. She was due in today, but she called in sick. Though now I’m starting to wonder if she went anywhere at all.” Susan rolled her eyes.

  There was certainly a lot of illness going around. Did she have the same thing Evangeline had? “I guess we’ll find out!” I vowed.

  “Excellent. Thank you both for all your hard work. I will be rewarding your loyalty when it comes to review time!” she promised with a satisfied smile, then she turned and headed up the stairs to her cushy lair…er…office.

  “What the flim-flam is going on?” Molly’s eyes doubled in size as soon as we were alone. “Did you see Evangeline?”

  “Come on,” I took her hand, “we’ve gotta go outside. I’m afraid this place is…” I glanced around the floor, hoping she’d pick up on my stellar context clues. “Grab your lunch.”

  Her brows furrowed as she slowly nodded, went over to her desk to retrieve her lunch bag, and followed me out into the courtyard. It was almost time for lunch anyway, so no one would think it was strange that we were going outside.

  I filled her in on what happened when I saw Evangeline this morning, and I thought her eyes might just pop right out of her head, they’d grown so large. “So now what?”

  I took a deep breath and launched into my plan: “Liz Cooper, Anna Cooper’s older sister, is coming by after school to help me track down the name on the account where the funds were deposited. Do you think you could go over to Jada’s on your own, just to appease Susan? Maybe you can warn her about what’s going on—if she’s even there. I’m guessing Susan is going to plant the checks and deposit only stamp over there, if she hasn’t already. She’s probably waiting for both Jada and Evangeline to be in jail, poised to take the rap, and then she’ll get the heck out of Dodge.”

  “How in the world will you find the account?” Molly squinted at me in disbelief. “That sounds like finding a needle in a haystack.”

  “Liz is a hacker, Molls. She won a hacking competition a couple of years ago, and that means she’s only gotten more skilled since then. We’re going to figure out which bank it is, and then we’re going to search deposits from the last few days. I think I’ll know the bank when I see it—and the deposits, at least Mrs. Monroe’s. I have a photographic memory, and I saw part of the account name in the file I knocked off Chief James’s desk.”

  “I still don’t know how you’re going to pull this off!” she gasped, seemingly amused by my naivete. “How will you know you’ve got the right bank?”

  “I’ll recognize the logo when I see it. It was blue and had a white palm tree.”

  “You sound pretty confident.” I couldn’t tell if her statement was a compliment or a criticism.

  “I am. You’ll see.” I couldn’t explain why I was so sure my plan would work, but I was. Maybe it was some sort of divine help, or maybe I was just meant to solve this mystery. Either way, I was going to get to the bottom of this, and the library would be saved. I was going to prove Chief James wrong t
oo—I could be an amazing librarian AND an amazing detective!

  “Alright. I guess I’m along for the ride,” Molly said, still not sounding totally convinced. “But why do we have to go see Jada? Do you think she’s sick with what Evangeline had?”

  “If Susan is behind all this, that means she planted the Bible at Evangeline’s house. She’s likely planted some other evidence, probably the checks and the deposit only stamp, to implicate Jada. If you can find it when you’re there, we’ll be a step ahead of the police, and maybe we can help keep Jada from getting arrested PLUS use the evidence against Susan.” I was talking so fast, I could tell my friend was having a hard time keeping up.

  “I still think you’re nuts, and this could all come crashing down on us, but I’ll try to keep an open mind. Are you sure you can’t just go with me?” Molly pleaded.

  I tried to find the right words to convince my best friend this was the best plan. “I want to make sure I get the info I need from Liz, and I don’t want to rush her. If I get the answer I expect, I’m going straight to see Chief James—hopefully I can get there before Susan has a chance to skip town. Then I’m supposed to stop by the Little League diamond to see my nephews play baseball at four, so there’s a bit of a time crunch.”

  “Okay,” she conceded, but trepidation still clouded her pale blue eyes. “I wish I felt as sure about this as you do… I just feel like something could go wrong.”

  “Are you scared of Susan?” I asked her point-blank.

  She shrugged. “She’s been acting weird, and look at what she’s already done. It’s crazy, isn’t it? Aren’t you a little leery?”

  I scoffed. “You can’t scare me. I voluntarily work with teens.”

  A smile cracked her lips. “Good point.”

  At 3:15, Anna and her sister strolled through the door. I would have known it was Anna’s sister even if the two weren’t together. She was a little taller and heavier than Anna, but they had the same hairline, same tawny-colored complexion, same flare to their nostrils, and the same beautiful smile.

  “Elizabeth?” I asked as the two approached my desk.

  “You can call me Liz,” she said with a grin that matched her sister’s. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Baker.”

  “Likewise.” I shook her hand, then cut to the chase. “Okay, so here’s what I need.” I gestured to the bank of computers on the edge of the YA section. Sometimes my patrons came in and worked on school papers at these stations, but otherwise they didn’t get much use other than quick internet searches and games.

  Liz sat down, and I logged her in using the generic library guest username and password. I told her I was looking for a bank in the Cayman Islands that had a blue logo with a white palm tree, and she cracked her knuckles and went right to Google.

  “I’m pretty sure you could have done that search yourself, Ms. Baker,” Anna pointed out as she stood looking over her sister’s shoulder.

  “After we find the right bank, that’s when I really need your skills,” I explained. “Consider this a warm-up drill.”

  “Gotcha.” Liz’s fingers began to fly over the keys.

  I looked over and saw Molly gathering up her purse and lunch bag. She was on her way to Jada’s to warn her about what was going on—if she was even there, of course. I would go straight to the police if Liz’s hacking came through, and Molly would meet me there if she found anything of interest at Jada’s.

  “Is this it?” came Liz’s voice from the computer, and when I looked over at the screen, the logo I saw on the paperwork in the file jumped out at me.

  I gasped. “That’s it!”

  “Great. Now what do you need to know?”

  I had hoped to find the log I’d created when we counted the gala donations—it tracked each of the checks and their donors—but we’d turned it over to police as evidence. But this afternoon I’d harnessed the power of my photographic memory to jot down the amounts of a few checks I remembered as well as who had written them. The foremost one in my mind, of course, was the check for $20,000 from Willa Bryce Monroe. And we already knew that one had been deposited.

  After I handed over the list of deposits on a pink Post-It note, Liz studied it carefully. “Just find the deposits?”

  “I know for sure the check for twenty grand was deposited earlier this week. I need to know the name on the account it was deposited into,” I explained.

  I had no sooner fired the words off my tongue than I heard a gasp fly out of Molly’s mouth. When I looked up, Susan was coming down the stairs with a murderous glare in her beady dark eyes. Oh no.

  Pretending nothing was awry—and doing a darn good job of it, I might add—I walked over to Molly and asked her if she was ready. She nodded slowly, but I saw the look of fear etched deep in her features.

  “Are you going now?” I whispered.

  She pumped her head up and down just as Susan made her way into the space between the YA area and the children’s area. “Shouldn’t you two be leaving together?” our boss demanded.

  My heart set off at a fast trot as I looked toward Liz, whose screen was facing away from Susan, thank the Lord. “Oh, I’m just helping Anna and Liz here. I was going to let Molly go ahead without me so I can finish up here and run a couple of other errands.”

  Anna seemed to sense what was going on and came to my rescue. “After Liz is done with her project, I need help finding sources for my English paper. It’s on Romeo and Juliet,” she improvised.

  I love that girl! My heart swelled with pride as my gaze bounced between my boss and my best friend.

  “I’ll be fine without Sunshine,” Molly insisted.

  Susan’s jaw clenched. “I’m just thinking your mission would be more successful if you both went, you know? You make such a good team. Just look at what you uncovered the other night? It was the break in the case the police needed.”

  I looked over to Liz, who was furiously typing away, her focus completely absorbed in what she was doing. Anna stood behind her, looking protective, as if she understood we needed to keep the project a secret from the library director.

  “How about this? I’ll finish up here with Liz and Anna, and I’ll meet Molly over there when I’m done,” I suggested. Why was she so insistent we go together? She was acting so weird!

  Molly knew I needed time to get over to the police station before dropping by my nephews’ baseball game. “I was just on my way now.” She gestured to her purse slung over her shoulder. “It’s fine for Sunshine to catch up later. Maybe I’ll stop off for coffee or something first. I could use a pick-me-up.”

  She sounded surprisingly nonchalant for what was going on—I was so impressed with her acting skills! My eyes snapped to my boss, hoping she would buy it. That was the true test.

  “Okay,” Susan relented. “Just call me if you need backup or anything.”

  Molly smiled. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

  As Susan was walking back up the stairs, Liz’s eyes popped up over the screen. “Found it.”

  Fifteen

  I stared at the screen for several seconds, trying to make sense of the dazzling lines of white text against a black background. “What am I even looking at?”

  “These are the transactions the bank has processed since Monday,” Liz answered, scrolling down the lines of text. “I did a search for twenty thousand, and these are the ones that came up.” She highlighted the top ten lines.

  “Can you see the account names?”

  Liz moved the cursor over to the list of names, and I scanned through them:

  William Beech…nope

  Stanley LaPierre…no

  Gloria Fenwick…probably not

  Leslie McCain…nuh uh

  Sandra Whitehead…nope

  Travis Elliott-Pence…sigh

  Eleanor Gibson…I don’t think so

  Harold Xu…not a chance

  Victor Lopez…’fraid not

  Gus Schoona…negative, Ghostrider

  “No luck?” Anna asked, and
when I lifted my eyes to meet hers, I lost my place in the lines of text.

  “I probably shouldn’t have expected it to be her name. I mean, she isn’t stupid. She doesn’t want it connected to her. She probably made up an alias…”

  I scanned the female names again to see if any of them sounded like something Susan Gooch, a sixty-something-year-old library director from a small town on the East Coast would make up. Somebody who liked crossword puzzles and mysteries. Somebody who owned cats and tons of books and knew how to knit—though librarians were contractually obligated to do those things, as far as I knew. Someone who made the best darn Buffalo chicken dip I’d ever eaten.

  And then…

  Then, like the Lord sent an angel to paint a picture inside my head, I got a very clear mental image of the book that was sticking out of Susan’s bookcase when I was in there earlier this week: Anagrams, Crosswords, and Word Games.

  “It’s an anagram!” I shouted, so loud that one of Tom’s patrons across the aisle shot me a nasty look.

  I scanned the list again, my eyes falling on the very last one: Gus Schoona.

  It was an anagram of Susan Gooch.

  “Can you get inside that account?” I pointed to Gus on the screen.

  “Let me see.” Liz’s fingers moved like lightning on the keys, and before I knew it, another list of transactions appeared, the ones in Gus Schoona’s account.

  $20,000

  $500

  $300

  $1500

  $250

  “That’s it!” I squealed. “We did it! Those are donation amounts; I just know it. And when they actually look at the checks, I bet you anything they were made out to Bryce Beach Public Library and are stamped ‘For Deposit Only’ with our logo on the back. There’s no way you can hack in to see images, is there?”

  “Sure, I can try. They’re probably stored on a different server.” Liz shrugged and turned back to the computer like this was the easiest job in the world.

  “Wait, print out that transaction list for me, okay? I’m going to go take this to the police, and then if you’re able to see the actual checks, print those out and call me, okay?”