Miss Frost Cracks A Caper: A Nocturne Falls Mystery (Jayne Frost Book 4)

by Kristen Painter

  Her eyes widened in shock, then her anger returned. She scanned the crowd. “Who else had jewelry taken?”

  A scattering of hands went up.

  Elenora looked my way again, the glow in her eyes a little unnerving. “The snow and ice that fell on us is winter elf magic, is it not?”

  I nodded. She couldn’t possibly think any of us had been involved, could she? After all, the three of us had been ripped off too. “It is.”

  Elenora’s jaw tensed for a second, then she stabbed a finger toward the balcony and barked a command at the nearest security officer. “Arrest the DJ.”

  I sucked in a breath and followed Elenora’s finger to Lark, along with everyone else in the ballroom. Lark was in her booth looking about as terrified as a person could without crying. Lance was backing away from her.

  She shook her head so vigorously her whole body shook. “I didn’t do anything. Something went wrong with my magic, that’s all. I didn’t mean to make so much snow. I just—I couldn’t stop it.”

  Two security guys grabbed her and pulled her out of the booth. Lance got even farther away from her. She disappeared from view for a moment, then appeared again as they hauled her down the stairs. By then, she was crying. “Lance, help me.”

  He just stared at her, blank-faced with shock.

  “I didn’t do it, I swear.” The air around her turned to ice vapor, melted away, then froze over again. She was radiating cold because she was petrified.

  I didn’t blame her.

  Sheriff Merrow now stood at Elenora’s side. His mask was off. He was saying something, and she was nodding. Lark was handed over to him. I expected him to put her in cuffs, but I guess he didn’t carry them when he wore a tux.

  “How could she?” my mother whispered.

  “We don’t know that she did it, Mom.” Why I was defending Lark I wasn’t sure. Except that I really wanted Lark to be innocent since I had basically told Elenora to go ahead and hire her for this gig. Snowballs. This was awful.

  Sheriff Merrow raised his hand and addressed the crowd. “Listen, folks. I understand tempers are high, but we aren’t going to falsely accuse or arrest anyone. We will be talking to everyone, but until we have some hard evidence, that’s all we’re going to be doing.”

  So much for Lark ending up in cuffs. A few groans and protests went up from the crowd.

  My mom looked at me. “Honey, if the royal jewels aren’t returned to us immediately, what happened here tonight is only a fraction of what your father will do to this town. It will freeze over like a new ice age has hit.”

  “You have to keep him from doing that.”

  “I can try, but you know your father.”

  I did. He could occasionally have a temper. I bit my lip. “I just can’t believe Lark would be dumb enough to steal from the woman who hired her.”

  “How else could it have happened?” Sinclair asked.

  “No idea.” I glanced at him. He looked paler than usual. “Are you okay? Have you warmed up?”

  “I’m fine.” He grabbed my hand. “Hey, they took your bracelet too. The diamond one and the one I gave you.”

  “Aw, man.” I looked at my bare wrist.

  “They must have broken it when they yanked it off.” He gestured toward the hem of my dress. Three rainbow obsidian beads were nestled in the snowflake embellishments near the bottom of my gown.

  I carefully freed them and tucked them into my evening bag. Then I studied the little purse as a new thought occurred to me. “Why didn’t they take our purses? Whoever they are.”

  Aunt Martha tucked her evening bag securely under her arm. “I don’t think it was a they. I think it was a she.”

  Which was probably what everyone else thought too. That Lark was the thief. “Maybe Lark did it—she was certainly responsible for the shimmer that froze us all. But there’s no way she had the time and energy to do that and run through the crowd taking the jewels. We were only frozen for a few seconds.”

  My mother frowned. “Jayne’s right. Maintaining that level of shimmer would make doing anything else almost impossible. Someone else must have done the stealing. Another supernatural, based on the speed necessary to strip off that much jewelry in such a short period of time.”

  I nodded. “We need to explain that to the sheriff. But again, why not take everything? Like our purses. And the men’s watches. There have to be some pricey timepieces in this crowd.”

  Sinclair pulled his tux sleeve back. “You’re right. My watch hasn’t been touched, and it’s worth a good bit. Nothing like your tiaras or necklaces or bracelets, though. Which means they only went for the big-ticket stuff. Elenora’s diamond. All of your royal jewels.”

  He glanced around. “Judging from who else seems to be missing things, it’s the same across the board. And they knew what was what. None of the women wearing costume jewelry seem to have lost a single piece.”

  He was right. There was still plenty of sparkle to be seen in the ballroom, but it was all fake. Rhinestones and crystal and glass. With a sigh, I put my hand on his arm. “I hate to ask, but how much was that bracelet you gave me worth?”

  He took my hand. “Willa Iscove made it for me for less than a hundred dollars. All I can think was that the thieves thought it was valuable because you were wearing it. More likely it just got broken while they were grabbing your diamond bracelet.”

  The ballroom doors opened, and a handful of deputies entered, then the doors were shut again. One of the deputies who’d been at the ball was already talking to Lance. He looked pretty broken up, but then I imagined seeing your girlfriend hauled out of the DJ booth could do that to a person.

  Sheriff Merrow held his hands up to quiet the crowd. “I and my deputies will be coming through the crowd to take statements. To make things easier, everyone who had something stolen, please move to the right side of the ballroom. Everyone else, we’ll need your name and contact information, then you’ll be free to go.”

  “That’s us.” I smiled at Sinclair, even though I wasn’t really feeling it. “I guess you’re going to have to eat breakfast without us.”

  He snorted. “I’m not leaving you.”

  My smile got a little more genuine. “You’re not?”

  He winked at me. “In for a penny, in for a pound.” He smiled at my mom and aunt. “Ladies, I’m at your service. Why don’t we find a spot for you to sit and wait, and then I’ll see about getting you some drinks? Water, coffee, tea, whatever you want.”

  Aunt Martha smiled. My mother didn’t, but she was probably trying to work out how she was going to explain all this to my dad.

  “A cup of tea would be divine.” Aunt Martha took Sinclair’s arm. “Aren’t you sweet to offer?”

  He was. Very. My mom and I followed him and Aunt Martha to the right side of the ballroom and took some of the chairs Elenora’s staff was setting up.

  Sinclair stayed standing. “Anyone else want a cup of tea?”

  My mother held up her hand. “Nothing for me, thank you.”

  Nerves had turned my mouth into the Sahara. “I wouldn’t mind some water.”

  “Be right back.” He went off in search of those beverages, leaving us to wallow a bit in our craptastic situation.

  I snuck a peek at my mom. “I’m really sorry about all this.”

  She put her arm around me and laughed softly. It was a nice sound to hear in the midst of all this. “Honey, you have no reason to apologize.”

  “I kind of do. You guys wouldn’t have been here if not for me. And I could have told Elenora not to hire Lark.”

  “But we don’t know that Lark had anything to do with this. And that wouldn’t have been kind,” my mom said. “You weren’t raised to be vindictive.”

  My aunt snorted. “Her father might argue that.”

  My mom pursed her lips. “Jack’s version of justice might be a bit more stringent than most, but he’s not as rash as you make him out to be.”

  I didn’t want to start an argument,
but the truth was, my father had a documented temper. I didn’t hold it against him. Being king meant dealing with incredible amounts of stressful nonsense at times. Although it was my understanding that he was a lot calmer since marrying my mom.

  Instead of saying any of that, though, I sat back and stared up at the ceiling and the rhinestone snowflakes dangling from it. They threw soft sparks of rainbow light, making me think about the bracelet Sinclair gave me, and just like that, I was mad again. I’d had that bracelet less than half an hour and already I missed it more than my tiara. It certainly had more personal meaning. I sighed out a long, frustrated breath.

  “It’ll be all right, Jay.”

  I glanced at my mom. “You really believe that?”

  “I do.” Her gaze was focused on Elenora and the swirl of activity around her. “That woman isn’t about to let anyone get the best of her. I just met her today and I know that much about her.”

  I watched Elenora with her family surrounding her. They seemed serious and focused and like they were already operating with a plan. That was the Ellingham way. They were a family unit. Just like the Frosts and the Kringles. “You’re right. This will get solved.”

  I just hoped they hadn’t already decided Lark was guilty. Something about this whole situation didn’t sit easy with me. I thought about talking to Elenora about my gut feelings, but then the sheriff approached us.

  He nodded at me. “Princess Jayne.”

  I introduced my mom and aunt to him, then he pulled up a chair to speak to them. “I’m sorry that your first experience in our town had to end this way. I hope you won’t hold it against us. We’re going to do everything we can to recover your jewelry.”

  Sinclair came back. He handed my aunt her tea, then sat beside me and gave me a bottle of water. “Everything okay?”

  “So far.” I cracked the bottle and took a long drink. It wasn’t Dr Pepper, but it did the trick.

  The sheriff pulled out his notebook. “Lady Kringle, why don’t you start? Tell me what pieces were taken and describe them for me.”

  It took forty-five minutes to get through all three of us. I made sure to tell Sheriff Merrow about each piece, including my obsidian bracelet. When he was satisfied and ready to release us, I had a question of my own for him before he left us.

  I stood up. “One thing, Sheriff.”

  He stopped and turned around. “What’s that?”

  “I don’t see Lark. Has she been taken into custody after all?”

  He glanced at my mom and aunt, then back at me. “Not yet. Not enough evidence against her yet.”

  “If it comes to that, and you do take her in, you know you can’t hold her in a regular cell. If her magic is really that powerful, she could freeze those metal bars and snap them like twigs.”

  He nodded. “We’ll be holding her in a private area. Especially for supernaturals.”

  I knew what that meant. The Basement. The tunnel system that lay beneath the streets of Nocturne Falls. It was more than a tunnel system, though. There were storage rooms, multiple street-level access points, and a place with cells designed to hold all kinds of supernaturals.

  “Sheriff.” One of the deputies hustled up. Cruz, his badge said. He held up a small plastic bag with a single loose diamond in it. “Found this on the floor in the booth.”

  Merrow’s eyes narrowed. “Go pick her up. Take Blythe.”

  “Done.” The deputy strode off.

  “What about Lance?” I asked. “You don’t think he’s involved?”

  The sheriff didn’t hesitate. “Everyone’s a suspect until they’re not, but fae don’t have the speed our perpetrator displayed this evening. Doesn’t mean we won’t talk to him some more.”

  “Does that mean you’re only taking Lark in for now?”

  “Yes,” the sheriff answered. “I told her and Lance not to leave the apartment they were renting. We should have her in custody in the next few minutes.”

  “Can I see her? I think she’ll talk to me. We’ve known each other a long time.”

  His expression didn’t change, and he didn’t immediately answer.

  “I’d consider it a personal favor and promise to do my best to keep my father from freezing the whole town solid when he hears what’s happened.”

  Sheriff Merrow’s mouth bent downward slightly. “Five minutes tomorrow morning. Meet me at the station at nine.”

  “Thank you.”

  He nodded once. “Now go home. Before I change my mind.”

  My mom and aunt left right from Elenora’s since the sleigh was there, and I promised to send the rest of their things back to the North Pole through the Santa’s Bag as soon as I got home. Wasn’t like there were any jewels to worry about anymore.

  Sinclair and I said goodbye to them, then got into the limo. Elenora had given us each one of the decorated pumpkins to take home after I’d commented on how pretty they were. (My attempt to make her feel better, I suppose, and her attempt to do the same for me.) I put mine on the seat next to me. Sinclair put his on the floor. As soon as the door was shut, he leaned forward. “I need to tell you something, but it has to stay between us.”

  “Okay. What is it?”

  “I touched one of them.”

  I squinted at him. “The pumpkins?”

  “No, one of the thieves. Or the thief.”

  “You—how do you know—can you maybe back up?” I wasn’t sure where to start. That was a pretty big statement. “And why didn’t you say something sooner?”

  He stared at his hands for a second. “I didn’t want to have this conversation in front of everyone, because it means explaining one of my scarier gifts. And this isn’t one of those things I share with anyone, but these are extenuating circumstances.”

  Now I leaned forward. “Go on.”

  He was quiet a second more before he raised his head to answer me. “My touch can re-animate the dead, but with focus, it can also cause death. Not in the way a reaper can. Mostly in a very localized way. Enough to leave a mark. A mark that could be fatal if left to spread.”

  Death touch. Noted. “And you touched whoever took the jewelry?”

  He nodded. “When the ice took over, I was frozen with my hands out at my sides. Whoever grabbed your jewelry brushed by me. Right against my hand. I’d been trying to free myself by pushing power through my fingers. I thought maybe I could kill the ice off in some way. But I know they made contact with me. And I know what my gift does. Somewhere on the thief’s body is a spot of death. It’ll show itself like a bruise, but it’ll be black and wrinkled and it won’t heal. The only way to get rid of it is to cut it out. And it will have to be cut out, or whoever bears the mark could die.”

  I sat back. “Whoa. That’s intense.”

  He stared at his hands again. “I understand if this changes things.”

  “It certainly does change things. It means we can find out if Lark is the actual thief or not. Doesn’t mean she’s not guilty of being involved, but it’s a start.”

  He glanced at me. “I meant I’d understand if it changed things between us.”

  I tipped my head. “In what way?”

  He let out a soft breath and looked away for a second before making eye contact again. “Jayne, my touch can cause death. That doesn’t bother you at all? You who were just in my arms earlier?”

  “You said it takes concentration. Have you ever done it accidentally?”

  “No, but it’s still a part of who I—”

  “You realize what happened tonight was winter elf magic. That I’m capable of the same thing Lark did tonight. More, really, because I’m a direct descendant of Jack Frost. And my father’s powers are a magnitude higher than anything you saw tonight.”

  “But what happened tonight takes a lot of work, right? Real concentration.”

  “Depends. You know what doesn’t take a lot of work? Making a deadly blade that will melt away into nothing.” I held my hand out and produced a dagger made of sparkling, crystalline ice. �
��I can make them in any shape. Any size.” I changed the dagger into a cutlass, brandishing the short sword with a twirl of my wrist. “The perfect murder weapon. If that doesn’t freak you out, then I think we’re good.”

  “But ice isn’t strong enough to kill someone with. It doesn’t have the tensile strength.”

  “Magically produced ice isn’t like an icicle off the roof.” I picked up my pumpkin by the stem and held it away from me. I sliced it cleanly in half with the cutlass. Then I opened my hand and let go of the blade, using a little extra magic so that it melted before it hit the carpet, leaving no trace. “See what I mean?”

  His eyes were a little rounder as he nodded. “Point made.” Then he smiled. “And no, I’m not freaked out by that. Completely impressed, though.”

  “As you should be.” I laughed as I looked at my pumpkin. Then I sighed. The bright orange insides looked like a crime scene against the bedazzled white exterior. And there were pumpkin guts on the limo carpet. “Snowballs. I was going to put that in the shop window.”

  “You can have mine.”

  That made me smile. “Are you sure?”

  “Elenora only gave it to me because you said you liked them.” He side-eyed his pumpkin. It was covered in alternating stripes of clear and white iridescent crystals. “Does that look remotely like something a shop called Zombie Donuts would display?”

  I laughed. “Not really. But mine might work.”

  He chuckled. “True.”

  I leaned back and stared out the window. “Back to this mark for a second. I don’t think Lark’s just going to voluntarily take off all her clothes. How am I going to find out if she has a death mark on her?”

  Sinclair thought about that. “My hands were a little higher than my waist. How tall is Lark?”

  “A little shorter than me.”

  “If she was going straight past me, the mark should be on her arm just above her elbow. Or it might be on her rib cage if she was turned. All she’d have to do is lift her shirt up. Either way, it won’t be hard to spot.”

  “Are you sure her brushing by you would be enough? Do your gifts work through clothes?”

  “Yes and yes. With as hard as I was focusing my power in an attempt to get rid of the ice, there’s no way the thief got by me unscathed. And really, you should be able to tell even without seeing the mark. I understand they’re very painful.”