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

by Kristen Painter

  “That’s great news.” Her smile bent into something a little less happy and a lot more apologetic. “I’m really sorry I couldn’t help you with this investigation more. I was stuck between a rock and a hard spot here. Your father and my nephew, respectively.”

  “Yeah, I know. Don’t feel bad for doing your job.” I wasn’t mad at her. Just because she’d helped me so much in the past didn’t mean I could expect her to put her neck on the line for me every single time.

  Her smile brightened. “Well, I do feel bad. A little. But I figured out a way to make it up to you. I think.” She dug into her enormous plaid handbag and retrieved a tablet. “Hank is out processing Lark this morning. I thought you might like to see it. He’s going to do one last brief interrogation with her, then she’ll be released.”

  I wasn’t 100 percent on why Birdie thought I’d want to see that, but I was sort of curious. And hey, why not? Maybe it would bring me some closure. Come to think of it, Birdie actually had made a pretty reasonable assumption. “Fire it up.”

  Birdie tapped a few things on the screen, then typed in a web address, and a few seconds later, a camera feed popped up.

  It showed the cell where Lark was being held.

  “There are cameras in there?” I didn’t remember seeing them when I’d been there, but I hadn’t been looking for them, either.

  “Oh, sure,” Birdie said, like it was a foregone conclusion. She pointed at the screen. “There’s Hank now. Lemme turn up the sound.”

  She pushed a button on the side, and some ambient noises filtered through.

  Lark got off the bench as Hank approached. “What now? It better be to let me out. I’m not just anyone, you know. I’m the Ice Queen. I have shows to do. If I don’t turn up for those, people will be looking for me.”

  Birdie sniffed. “She sure has a big feeling about herself. Ice Queen. Hmph.”

  “Agreed.” I guess that was Lark’s way of being royalty after all.

  Hank hooked his thumbs into his utility belt, seemingly unimpressed with Lark’s supposed celebrity. “We found your boyfriend.”

  She straightened. “And?”

  “He was holed up at the Pinehurst Inn. Tried to kill your friend Jayne.”

  “Are you serious?” She mumbled something under her breath.

  I put my hand on Birdie’s arm and leaned closer to the screen. “What did she say?”

  “Not sure.”

  “Can you go back? Turn up the sound?”

  “I can try, hang on.” Birdie fiddled with something. The video sped backward, then started playing again.

  “Are you serious?” Lark muttered, “Those idiots.”

  “Sweet fancy Christmas.” I squeezed Birdie’s arm. “Birdie.”

  She hit pause. “What is it, Princess?”

  “Lark knew.” I felt the rush of urgency. “Call Hank. He can’t release her.”

  “Lark knew what, honey?”

  I stared at her. “Lark said those idiots. Plural. Not singular. If she didn’t know about Lance’s twin, wouldn’t she have said that idiot?”

  “Butter my biscuit. You’re right.”

  “Unless Sheriff Merrow already told her Lance has a twin?”

  “You saw him come in. That’s the first he’s talked to her since leaving the Pinehurst Inn.”

  Suddenly, it all came together. “They didn’t find the jewelry at the motel, did they?”

  “Nope, they didn’t. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I know where it is.” I gave her a sly look. “You in?”

  “I’m as in as you can get.”

  I whipped the covers back. “Let’s ditch this joint.”

  “You sure you’re up to that?”

  I nodded. “My blood sugar might be a little low and my magic is going to be on the fritz for a bit, but I can manage. Are my clothes here?”

  “On the chair in that bag. I should have brought you some clean ones. I didn’t know you were going to break out.”

  “I can manage in dirty clothes. What we’re going to do isn’t going to take long.”

  While Birdie called Hank, I eased the IV out, then got dressed. My strength would come back soon enough, but for now I’d pass it off as part of being whacked on the head. Birdie played lookout, and once the coast was clear, we snuck out. Actually, we walked out. It was early and no one paid that much attention to us.

  I thought about trying to find Sinclair first, but as much as I wanted to see him, I knew Lark had to be dealt with.

  Birdie drove, and fifteen minutes later (and minus one chocolate chip granola bar, which Birdie kept a supply of in her handbag), we were climbing the stairs to Lark and Lance’s rental apartment.

  Birdie followed me. “Are you sure you’re okay? One granola bar isn’t going to give you much energy.”

  I was hungry, a little weak, temporarily out of magic, and wearing yesterday’s clothes that may or may not have had a few bloodstains on them, but nothing was going to stop me now. “We can eat after this is handled.”

  “Doughnuts?”

  I didn’t need to see her face to know she was smiling. “Sinclair’s still in the hospital. I’m not sure there’s going to be any doughnuts today.”

  “Oh. Right.” She sighed. “You want to go back and see him after this?”

  “Yes. But I might shower first. And check on Spider. Besides, visiting hours don’t actually start for another hour or two yet. There’s time.”

  We got to the apartment door. I pushed a little magic into my fingers to see how things were going. My fingertips frosted over. Lightly. It would have to do. I turned to face Birdie. She’d seen me do the Santa Slide before. “Okay, this is going to take a little extra time. I may even pass out when I get through, but don’t freak. I’ll come around. This magic is just draining, and I’m already not at peak level.”

  She frowned. “I could just break the door down.”

  “Um, isn’t this technically a crime scene? Doesn’t everything need to be intact? I mean, for official purposes?”

  “It does,” a gravelly voice from the stairwell answered. Sheriff Merrow was coming toward us.

  Birdie clapped. “Hank, honey, you came.”

  I gave her a look. “You called him?”

  She raised her brows. “I did.”

  He joined us on the landing, his gaze settling on me. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the hospital?”

  “Sure, but this is more important. And I’m fine. Are you going to tell my father about this?”

  “Depends on what we find in here.” He snorted and produced a key. “I’ll open the door.”

  “Thank you.” I was all about not passing out.

  He got us in, then shut the door behind us. “All right, where’s this jewelry? We’ve searched every inch of this place.”

  There was no doubt they had, but something told me they’d overlooked one spot. And that’s exactly what Lark had been counting on. “I’m about to show you.”

  I walked into the kitchen and went through the drawers until I found a big knife. Without my magic at full strength, this would have to do.

  Birdie’s brows shot up. “You really need that?”

  I yanked open the freezer. It was still clogged with ice. “I do if I’m going to get through this.”

  Two rather ineffective whacks with the blade and Sheriff Merrow came over. “Let me.”

  He took his nightstick off his belt and cracked the ice with one hard blow. A huge frosty chunk fell onto the kitchen floor, revealing a fabric-wrapped bundle. “How about that?”

  He took the bundle out and unwrapped it.

  The Heart of Dawn was front and center. He shook his head as he looked at me. “I don’t know how you figured this out, but I’m glad you did.”

  “Way to go, Princess,” Birdie exclaimed.

  Sheriff Merrow squeezed the radio at his shoulder. “Deputy Blythe, be informed that I am returning to the station with evidence. Further interrogation of the suspect to follow.
”

  “Roger that,” she answered. “You want Cruz and me to meet you there?”

  “Roger.” He clicked off and looked at me. “Are Lark’s prints going to be on this?”

  “Unless she wore gloves. I think you’ll find Roddy’s too. I’m not sure about Lance’s. I don’t think he ever touched it. But I do know neither he nor his brother had any idea the jewelry was here.”

  He wrapped the bundle back up. “Tell me how you got to this point.”

  I hopped up onto the counter to sit. “Lark and Lance had what? Forty-five minutes between leaving the ball and you guys taking them into custody?”

  “Give or take.”

  “I don’t think she was ever drugged or tired or anything like that. I think the twins tried to drug her to make her shimmer go haywire, but she figured it out a year ago when they made their first attempt and played along so they’d believe she was an easy mark.”

  The sheriff nodded. “That was the first time she said her shimmer went wrong.”

  “Yep,” I continued. “That’s when she figured out what they were up to and who they really were. And how she was going to use their greed for her own purposes.”

  Birdie made a throaty, disgusted noise. “She’s the greedy one.”

  “No argument there,” I said. Even in college she’d wanted what wasn’t hers. “So she set the twins up, letting them think she would be an easy pawn. I don’t know how she knew they were thieves. I’m guessing these two have a long history of heists.”

  “We did uncover a string of robberies that took place in Europe. Each one in the same city she was performing in.”

  Birdie rolled her eyes. “There you go.”

  “Except,” the sheriff said, “there was no other evidence it was the twins. The best any security camera footage could make out was a blur. Even slowed down it was a blur.”

  Birdie nodded. “Just like in the footage I pulled from the security cameras at that bed and breakfast that got robbed. We thought it was a moth shifter.”

  The sheriff’s brows lifted. “You thought it was a moth shifter.” He looked at me again. “Go on.”

  “Lark must have known they were quicksilver fae. She’s traveled a lot and met all kinds of people. Her experiences have probably taught her all sorts of things.”

  The sheriff crossed his arms. “So she sets them up, knowing she’s got this gig at Elenora’s and what a score that’s going to be.”

  “Right. And from the DJ booth, she could see everything that was going on. She saw Roddy take the jewelry. Saw him stumble as he went by me and Sinclair. Probably didn’t understand what had happened, but knew something had gone a little off script.”

  The sheriff squinted like he could see the scene play out. “But he still left with the jewelry.”

  “Yes. And Lark saw all that too,” I continued. “As soon as Lark and Lance left Elenora’s, they came back here. She faked an argument. Something to get worked up about, enough that she could use her anger as an excuse to freeze him. Then she went to the Pinehurst Inn, froze Roddy, took the jewelry, and came back here where she squirreled it all away in the freezer, hidden behind the ice. I’m guessing the bulk of the frost was already there. Or that she’d been building it up since they first arrived so that Lance would think it had been like that. What she didn’t plan on was Lance planting those loose diamonds to make it seem like the stolen jewels were in the DJ booth. Then the rest played out like we all saw.”

  “Sounds plausible,” Sheriff Merrow said. “Especially with what we’ve uncovered on our end.”

  I sighed. I wish he’d share his info. “The only thing I can’t figure is how she knew where Roddy was staying.”

  “I can answer that.” He narrowed his eyes. “We found a second phone in the lining of her purse. It’s a clone of Lance’s phone. She was getting all his messages. She could have even been listening in on his calls.”

  “For real?” I asked. “You can do that?”

  Birdie shrugged. “It’s easy. You just copy the sim card.”

  Sheriff Merrow gave his aunt the side eye. “It’s scary how much you know sometimes.”

  She grinned. “Isn’t it, though?”

  I pushed my hair out of my face. “I fully believe Lark’s been planning this since she got the DJ job. And she’s been setting the twins up about that long too. Unbelievable. But actually totally believable, given her talent for deception. She’s just that devious. She even did a test run of her magic going haywire to make it seem like there was a precedent.”

  “This is plenty for me to go on.” The sheriff shifted like he was ready to go. “I’ll get it all out of her.”

  “If you need a little help, threaten her with salt water.”

  His brows lifted in question.

  “Winter elves don’t like to talk about it much, but salt water strips away our magic like, well, magic. It’s why I didn’t have the strength to chip through that ice. I had an IV at the hospital.”

  Birdie sucked in a breath. “Saline.”

  “Yep. But let’s keep that a secret between us, okay?”

  The sheriff smiled. “After finding this jewelry, you can have all the secrets you want.”

  My phone rang. Took me a couple seconds to shake off the sleep enough to realize that’s what the sound was. I felt around on my nightstand until my hand connected with it. I managed to tap the right spot on the screen to answer. “Hello,” I mumbled.

  “Sorry to wake you, Miss Frost. Just wanted to give you an update, but that can wait.” Sheriff Merrow’s voice was low and comforting. “Call me back when you’re up to it.”

  “No, I’m good.” I rolled over and pushed myself upright. I was a little stiff, and I had no clue what time it was. Or day, for that matter. But my head felt pretty good. That was something. “What’s the news?”

  “Lark confessed to everything. It went down pretty much the way you suspected. Too hard to deny when faced with the evidence of her crime.”

  I nodded. Like he could see me. “Were her fingerprints on the jewelry?”

  “Yes. And Roddy’s.”

  Spider was sprawled on the second pillow looking about as cute as I could stand. “What’s going to happen to them?”

  “Lark pleaded for mercy, but I’m not in a position to offer that. She’ll be transported back to the North Pole for trial and sentencing.”

  “Elenora approved that?”

  “She got her diamond back, and her guests’ jewelry has all been recovered, including all of your family’s pieces, so she’s essentially signed off on the whole thing. Plus, she agrees that what remains is winter elf business.”

  “True.”

  I had a feeling about what my father would do to Lark. Permanently strip her of her magic (more salt water but in a much more intensive way) and ban her from the North Pole. The latter wouldn’t bother Lark. She hadn’t been back to the NP in years. But stripping away her magic would cost her. Hard to be the Ice Queen when you couldn’t make ice.

  I wasn’t going to feel sorry for her. I almost died because of her. “What about Roddy and Lance?”

  “Through their fingerprints, we were able to match them to that string of heists in Europe, and the petty thefts here. As soon as Roddy is released from medical care, he and his brother will be picked up by Interpol.”

  “Wow.”

  “Uh huh. Quite a catch for the Nocturne Falls Sheriff’s Department.” He laughed softly. “Sorry about telling you to stay out of it.”

  “You were just doing what my father asked.”

  “You knew about that?”

  “I did.”

  “Birdie?”

  I scratched Spider’s head. “No comment.”

  He laughed again. “Sounds about right. You take care of yourself, Miss Frost. Call if you need anything.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff.” I hung up and lay back down, my phone on my chest. A second later I picked it back up to check the day and time. I’d been out for nearly ten hour
s.

  I felt better, so I must have needed it.

  But I was starving. And I hadn’t talked to Sinclair yet. I squinted up at the ceiling. I think my plan had been to come home after finding the jewelry, lie down on the couch for a little bit, then go see him. So much for a little bit. Also, how had I ended up in bed? I must have sleepwalked.

  I called him. I needed to hear his voice, but I’d settle for voice mail. Happily, he answered.

  “Hello, sleepy head.”

  I grinned. “How did you know I was sleeping?”

  “Birdie came to see me, told me she’d stopped by to see you first and you were passed out.”

  I wonder if that’s who put me in bed? She did have a key. “Are you home now? Or still in the hospital?”

  “Home.”

  “How are you doing?”

  “Sore, but I’ll live. My arm will be in a sling for a while, which is going to make work tough, but I’ll manage. More importantly, how are you doing?”

  “I’m fine. Especially because you saved my life.” My throat clogged with emotion. “Sinclair, I don’t know how to say thank you enough. I owe you.” Although, I was starting to get an idea of how to pay him back.

  He laughed. “I don’t think I saved your life.”

  “You did. And that’s the end of that discussion. When can I see you? Because I really need to see you.”

  He sighed longingly. “I really need to see you too. You want to come over and have pizza?”

  “That is exactly what I want to do. But I need to shower and check in on the shop.”

  “How about seven? That’ll give you two hours. Enough time?”

  “Perfect. See you then.”

  I got out of bed, sitting on the edge for just a second to let myself adjust to being upright.

  Spider jumped down and sat by my feet. He gazed up at me, eyes wide. “Mama sick?”

  “Not anymore, baby. I feel much better now.”

  “Spider loves Mama.”

  “I love you too.”

  He stood up, tail high in the air. “Spider loves Chicken Party.”

  I smiled. “I bet you could go for some right now, too, huh? Let’s go get you some dinner.”