The Mysteries of Bell & Whitehouse: Books 1-3 (The Mysteries of Bell & Whitehouse Box Sets)

by Nic Saint

  “Of course you can.” She didn’t want to get into an argument over some stupid society wedding.

  “You don’t believe me?” Alice asked. “Wanna bet I can get him to ask me out on a date?”

  “Alice, the man is engaged. His dating days are over.” Especially with girls from Happy Bays who work at the local funeral parlor and hold a side job at the gun store, she wanted to add, but bit her tongue before the words slipped out.

  Alice’s green eyes flashed. “Free donuts for life if I pull this off.”

  “You already have free donuts for life,” Felicity pointed out. Since donuts were Alice’s favorite, Felicity made sure the cupboard was always stocked with Bell’s crispiest and creamiest.

  “Don’t change the subject. Do you accept the challenge or not?”

  “What if you lose? What do I get?”

  “Anything you want.”

  Felicity mused. They’d been putting off spring cleaning for weeks, and judging by the dust settling in every nook and cranny, they could put it off no longer. “Okay. I’ll bite. If you lose, it’s spring cleaning time. Top to bottom. No excuses.”

  Alice’s face creased into a wide smile. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Fee.”

  Chapter 2

  Alistair Long stared gloomily out across the vast expanse of land bordering his one-acre domain. The land had been in the Long family for generations and was now so valuable, real estate developers were straining at the leash to take it off his hands for bags of gold. Not that Alistair would ever sell.

  Each time one of those money-grubbing sharks was on the phone he simply hung up on them, shaking his head at the folly that avarice inspired in some people. And this included his own flesh and blood. His son and daughter had been pushing him to sell for years.

  And it wasn’t just the land. Rob and Ruth wanted him to sell the Happy Bays Inn, too. Wanted him to sell and hand the money to them.

  Over his dead body.

  He spat on the ground, as if to emphasize this thought, then resumed his gazing into the middle distance, thinking hard thoughts about his scrounging offspring.

  His long, flowing white beard wiggled in the breeze. Since he’d cultivated the hirsute appendage in the seventies beards had gone out of style, but now they were back with a vengeance. Beards were hip. Beards were cool. Some kids called him Hipster Grandpa, and some even thought he looked like Gandalf the Grey, some dude from some movie. He didn’t think so. For one thing, this Gandalf guy wasn’t bald, and he didn’t wear a Knicks cap like Alistair did.

  At the end of the day he didn’t care what they called him. He had other fish to fry. And as his weary old eyes traveled along the contours of his plot of land, he envisioned the house he would build here. Finally. Mary would love it. It had been a dream of theirs for years. And now he’d finally put the wheels in motion.

  It was time. They couldn’t wait any longer.

  He turned when a car approached and parked along the edge of the forest. A man stepped out and sauntered up. He was tall, and looked like a city type to him. Alistair steeled his resolve. Another shark, he reckoned. Another who wanted a piece of him. Oh, he would give him a piece of his mind all right.

  “Hey, old-timer!” the man called out.

  “Hey, yourself,” he said, none too friendly.

  The stranger’s overcoat flapped in the breeze, and he could clearly detect the charcoal suit. His lips tightened, and the words ‘I ain’t selling’ were trembling on his lips as the man stepped up to him, deftly avoiding the puddles last night’s downpour had left on the soggy soil.

  He was surprised at the darkness of the man’s eyes. Almost black. And cold. A sudden apprehension ran through him, and he suddenly wished he’d brought his rifle. Some people need more than words to scare them off.

  “Nice piece of land you got here,” said the man, a smile on his narrow face.

  “That’s right.”

  “I hear you’re having trouble selling?”

  “I ain’t selling,” he grumbled.

  The man shook his head. “See, that’s where you’re wrong, bub.”

  Alistair narrowed his eyes. “And I think you’re trespassing…bub.”

  The man grinned, a horrible sight. “Sometimes you just have to let go, old man. Move on, if you catch my drift.” Alistair’s eyes widened as the other reached into his overcoat and came out with a gun. “And I’m here to help you do just that.”

  Alistair held up his hands. “Hey, what do you think—”

  But then the man simply shot him straight through the heart.

  The last thought that went through Alistair’s head as he fell to the sodden earth was, ‘What’s going to become of Mary?’

  Then he slipped into a darkness deeper than any he’d ever known.

  Chapter 3

  Reece ran a finger along his impressive jawline and brushed a strand of dark hair from his brow as his chocolate eyes focused on the ring again. It was huge. Shiny, sparkly, and humongous. But then Dorothy wouldn’t have had it any other way. She liked ostentatious. Bold. Whatever she wore had to be noticeable. Had to stand out. The ring symbolized not so much the love between two people but the need to attract attention, to play for an audience of millions.

  He? Something more delicate and subtle would have pleased him more, but then he wasn’t in charge of the proceedings. Ever since he’d gotten involved with Dorothy Valour, Reece Hudson’s life hadn’t been his own. He would have thought that being an A-list celebrity had taught him a thing or two about being in the limelight. He was wrong.

  He was now part of Doreece, as the press had dubbed the couple, and whatever they did, and wherever they went, shutters clicked and cameras rolled. And in the precious few moments they weren’t surrounded by paparazzi, Dorothy’s constant stream of selfies made sure that her fans knew where she was and what she was doing every second of every day.

  He watched his fiancée as she admired the rock on her finger, holding it aloft so the other diners could see. The thought had occurred to him that she was more in love with the glistening diamond than with the man who’d put it on her finger. Silly, of course. Why would she? She was in love with him, wasn’t she? Of course she was. She’d told him so herself. Well, actually she’d said ‘I simply adore you, Reece Hudson,’ but that amounted to the same thing.

  When he looked up, he caught a flicker of annoyance in her icy blue eyes and realized she’d said something. “What was that, honey?”

  She tossed her sleek auburn tresses. She wanted his full attention. All the time. “I don’t think we should go. Not now. Not when there are so many things to take care of.”

  “We need to go sometime. Dad invited us over like a million times already.”

  “I know. But now is not a good time.”

  They were having lunch at Plaza Di Scarrio, the place to be these days. And when he looked around he had to admit Dorothy was right. The small restaurant was trendy, filled to capacity with the city’s beautiful people—or, as some newspapers disparagingly called them, the idle rich.

  The chandeliers suspended from the ceiling glittered almost as brightly as the diners gathered beneath them, decked out in the latest fashion, and sporting faces worked on by the best plastic surgeons in New York. All in an effort to secure themselves a spot in the limelight.

  So what the hell was he doing here?

  He placed his hand on his betrothed’s. “Honey. I promised Dad.”

  His father was anxious to see the both of them and he no longer wanted to postpone the visit. It simply wouldn’t do for his old man to meet Dorothy in the church on the wedding day.

  She pursed her lips into a pout. “Can’t you go alone? You know how much I hate having to change my schedule. And I’ve arranged to meet the girls to discuss my bachelorette party.”

  The bridesmaids were as anxious as the bride-to-be herself, and Reece had to smile at Dorothy’s enthusiasm. She was looking forward to all the pomp and circumstance surrounding this weddin
g a lot more than he was.

  “All right, why don’t I go up there now and you join me when you can,” he suggested. “That way you don’t have to break your promise to the girls.”

  Her pout broke into a smile of such radiance he blinked. She was gorgeous. Flawless skin. Perfectly straight teeth. Not for the first time he realized he was probably the luckiest guy on the planet, a fact which both People Magazine and Us Weekly had often pointed out.

  So why did he feel so damn blasé about the whole thing?

  She reached out and placed a hand on his cheek. “You are such a dear, Reece. You always come up with the best solutions. I promise I’ll come down to Long Island the minute I can. In the meantime give your father my best and tell him I can’t wait to finally meet.”

  The wattage of his smile dimmed somewhat, for he knew she wasn’t entirely honest. She’d told him a couple of times she was looking forward to meeting his father, but reading between the lines it was obvious that she wasn’t. She hailed from Happy Bays herself, and somehow had made it out of that rustic little hamlet with no intention of ever going back.

  No matter, he thought. She would join him when she could. And when she finally did meet his father, she would see what a nice and charming man he was. He might not be Hollywood royalty, but he was rich where it counted: in the heart.

  “All right, honey,” he said. “I’ll tell him.”

  Her phone softly dinged, and she glanced down. “Tell him what, darling?”

  He merely smiled. If he could ever get between her and her iPhone, he would know that he truly was her great love. As it was, her phone usually won by a large margin. It was the first thing she laid eyes on in the morning and the last at night. He sometimes wondered what would happen on their wedding night. She’d probably take a selfie of the two of them in bed, and share it with her millions of rabid fans across the globe.

  Dorothy Valour was one of the world’s most famous socialites, and if asked what she did for a living she always had her answer ready: spreading a little sweetness and light. In other words, updating her Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook feeds with so many snaps of herself the media had dubbed her the queen of selfies. She’d even recently dethroned Kim and Beyoncé.

  He took a sip from his champagne and sat back. This could take a while, he knew. He watched the ritual with an indulgent eye. First she took a few shots of the room, focusing on any celebrities she recognized—and she knew them all—then she took one of herself, pulling her face in the same pout that worked so well on him, and finally a few snaps of the dish they were about to devour. Posing for the snaps only took seconds and then she beamed up at him, placed her napkin on her lap and said, “Bon appétit, darling.”

  He nodded and dug in. He was starving. For a few moments, silence reigned at the table, as they both enjoyed their meal, then her phone emitted its soft chime, and she glanced at the message. It seemed to amuse her, for she smiled. She picked up the trinket and started furiously texting, her long nails clicking.

  He simply ate on. Coming between Dorothy and her phone was impossible. As she’d explained on their first date, that phone was her life, her job, and her not insubstantial livelihood.

  So he enjoyed his grilled halibut and thought about his father.

  Dad had been thrilled when he’d announced he would finally meet his future daughter-in-law and now he would have to disappoint him again.

  He hoped he wouldn’t mind too much. After all, Dad was used to being disappointed. Reece himself had had to forsake more than one family function, often canceling at the last minute. Now, though, he was determined to make time. Dad had had a health scare not so long ago, and Reece had realized with sudden clarity that his old man wouldn’t be around forever.

  He wanted his father to see him exchange vows with Dorothy and be there when they christened their first child. In fact he wanted his father to be present at all those occasions, as he was starting to find family more and more important now that he was getting hitched.

  He’d worked his ass off trying to break into the movie business, and now that he’d finally made it—his last blockbuster Crunch Time 3 had grossed 300 million at the global box office—it was time to start paying attention to the people who really mattered—his family.

  He gave Dorothy three days. If she still hadn’t shown up in Happy Bays by then, he would drive Dad out to New York and set up a meeting at the condo.

  When he looked up he found his fiancée staring at him. She smiled sweetly. “Penny for your thoughts?”

  He displayed the crooked grin that had made Reece Hudson a household name. “Just thinking about Dad.”

  She leaned in. “I promise I’ll make it, darling. I know how important this is to you.”

  He nodded. It hadn’t escaped his attention that her tone was the same she used when about to break a promise to one of her friends.

  He was starting to know his future bride very well indeed.

  Chapter 4

  “Since you didn’t hear me the first time, or the second, or the third, let me repeat that for you one last time—THE LAND IS NOT FOR SALE!”

  Mary slammed the phone down on the irritating rep and shook her head. These people. Really! She placed both hands on the reception desk and fumed in silence for a few beats, before heaving a loud, frustrated groan.

  Suzy, fluffing up a pillow in the lobby, made a sympathetic sound. “Another one, huh? Persistent buggers, aren’t they?”

  “And getting more so every day. Can’t they get it into their thick skulls that no means no?”

  “That piece of land must be worth a lot if they keep bugging you like that,” Suzy said. From any other person Mary would have considered the remark inappropriate, but Suzy had been with her for so long she knew there was no guile behind the words.

  “Heaps. This one offered twenty million.”

  Suzy’s eyebrows shot up into her brown fringe. “Phew! That’s a whole lot of dough.”

  Mary, a diminutive woman in her late fifties, smiled at Suzy’s response. If only others were so easy about money. Her own son and daughter had been pushing them to sell the inn and the plot of land Alistair owned for so long now that she’d started to suspect everyone of hidden motives.

  “You know what?” asked Suzy, planting her hands on her hips. “Why don’t I buy the land and the inn. That way you and Alistair can retire and spend your twilight years on Aruba or someplace.”

  Mary eyed her maître d’hôtel affectionately. She would have sold the inn to her in a heartbeat, knowing she would take good care of it. “Going price for the inn is twelve million, hon. You got that much?”

  “Sure thing! Let me get my checkbook.”

  “It’s a deal.”

  “Sweet. I’ll tell my lawyer to get in touch with your lawyer so they can work out the details. How’s that sound?”

  “Sounds great.”

  The two women shared a chuckle, and Mary slipped on her reading glasses and opened the reservations program on the computer. Even though Alistair still preferred the old-fashioned written registry, Mary had convinced him to finally invest in some software. She checked the bookings.

  Mh, everyone had checked in, except the Thomsons, but then they’d called before lunch, letting them know they were running a little late.

  She blinked when a familiar figure stepped in through the double glass doors. Half expecting Alistair she was surprised to see Virgil Scattering instead. The lanky police officer usually dropped by only when there was trouble with one of the guests. Speeding, or parking in a no-parking zone.

  But judging from the pained expression on the policeman’s face it appeared he had more serious news to impart this time.

  When he approached the desk his gamboling Adam’s apple bobbed up and down even more feverishly than usual, and suddenly a fear settled in the pit of Mary’s stomach. “What’s wrong, Virgil?” she asked when he didn’t speak but merely stood and stared, eyes wide and glassy.

  “It’
s…Alistair,” he finally said.

  She clutched a hand to her heart. “Alistair? Has there been an accident? Is he hurt?”

  The anguished look Virgil gave her was enough to chill the blood in her veins, and she suddenly felt weak and dizzy. Clutching the desk, she stared at the policeman, wide-eyed.

  Virgil gulped one more time. “He’s—Alistair’s been—he’s been…”

  “What?!”

  He gave her a pleading look. “Alistair’s been murdered, Mary. He—he’s dead.”

  Chapter 5

  Virgil didn’t like to be the bearer of bad tidings, and fortunately for him it rarely happened that he was. Quite the opposite. Members of the Happy Bays Police Department usually brought good news to the citizens of that small community.

  A stolen bicycle found, a puppy returned, or an infant wandering the beach reunited with a distraught family. And even when there was trouble it usually didn’t amount to much. Such was the cloistral peace of Happy Bays that his task was often limited to ordering a couple of boisterous kids to clean up the graffiti they’d sprayed on the school wall. Or handing out speeding tickets or towing wrongly parked cars.

  But this? This was something else entirely. He couldn’t even remember the last time a murder had taken place in his small town, let alone know how to handle it. The Happy Bays police force was a small one—one chief of police and twenty officers, only two amongst them doubling as detectives. Or at least having taken the training. Once upon a long ago. And he was one of them.

  As he stared at Mary, it was clear to him this piece of bad news had affected her strongly. He stole out a hand and patted her shoulder, then realized this was hardly adequate, so he rounded the desk, stepped behind it and awkwardly placed his arms around her. Instantly she turned into him and started sobbing against the nice clean shirt his mother had ironed just that morning.

  “Did he suffer?” she asked between sobs.