The Sierra Files Box Set: Books 1-3: Plus a bonus Christmas novella!

by Christy Barritt

Mandee frowned again. “Argument is such a strong word. We simply had a disagreement. I like to do Zumba every morning at 6 a.m. That’s not a problem in my own apartment because I live on the first floor. Well, apparently, I was waking up Tag every morning because the walls of this place—and the ceilings—are super thin or something. He was very angry with me.”

  “Did you come to a compromise?”

  Mandee shook her head. “It’s a free country. If I don’t do Zumba in the morning, then I have no other time to do it. And if I don’t exercise, I get very cranky. And if I get cranky, I’m not fun to live with or be near. He was just going to have to get over it. Besides, I was only going to be here for a week. He could live with it.”

  I closed my eyes again. The poor girl wasn’t doing herself any favors. Every time she opened her mouth, the whole situation seemed to get worse and worse. I knew what that was like. I didn’t generally care when I ruffled feathers. But watching someone else dig her own grave made me want to intercede for her.

  “I suppose he didn’t react well to that?” The detective eyed Mandee like a one-hundred-dollar prize at a turkey shoot. He was seeing a trophy on his badge, another case he could solve and get accolades for. And poor Mandee was offering no resistance.

  “He didn’t. He went ballistic. Said something about his job going south, bills piling up, and life stinking. Then he said things were going to turn around. That he had a plan.”

  “A plan?”

  She shrugged. “No idea.”

  “Even after hearing that, you still didn’t change your mind or your routine? Your morning exercise remained the same?” the detective asked.

  “Well, I felt sorry for him. Of course. But life is hard. People who think the world is all about them really get on my nerves. They need to learn that other people have rights also.” She glanced at me. “Other animals too, for that matter.”

  She was on the verge of being arrested and still trying to impress me? I didn’t know if I should be annoyed or flattered.

  Detective DePalma sighed. “Did he make you mad enough that you turned Chalice lose, hoping the snake might teach Tag a lesson? Maybe you didn’t intend to kill him. Just scare him.”

  Mandee’s eyes widened again. “I would never.”

  I put my hand on her arm. I had to stop this. Now. “Before you say anything else, I suggest you get a lawyer, Mandee.”

  “But—”

  I raised my hand to stop her. “Really. This is one rabbit hole—or should I say snake hole—you don’t want to go down.”

  Chapter Three

  I finally got back to my apartment just after the sun fully set, but Chad wasn’t there. I frowned. I’d looked forward to running my day past him and hearing his insight into all the craziness that had ensued. That would have to wait until he returned home.

  I already had a headache forming, I had no idea what to fix for dinner, and Reef was wide awake, while all I wanted to do was sleep. This was life as a working mom, and I was still adjusting.

  I placed Reef in a little bouncy seat that he seemed to love and then stood in the middle of my living room, unable to move or think. Our two-bedroom apartment was home sweet home for me, but it was beginning to feel cramped. At any given time, I had at least three cats because I often took in strays until I could find them another home. Now that Reef was here and baby stuff had invaded any free space, my abode felt cramped. Chad and I were saving money so we could upgrade, but we still had a ways to go.

  At the moment, the place smelled like patchouli. Whenever I finally made myself move, I’d turn on my Sounds of Nature CD. I especially found the whales and “Song of the Seashore” tracks calming.

  Before I could do anything, a knock sounded at my door and someone pushed her way inside. Apparently, I hadn’t locked the door behind me.

  “Hey, Sierra. I thought I heard you come in.”

  It was my best friend, Gabby, who also happened to live upstairs. She was wearing her signature outfit: jeans, flip-flops, and a snarky T-shirt, which read “I don’t want to adult today.”

  She looked especially perky at the moment. Even her curly hair looked cheerful. Honestly, she’d looked happy in the past few months. Really happy. It might have something to do with her current relationship status: taken and serious.

  She immediately went to Reef and rubbed her finger against his tiny hand. “How’s my favorite little boy today?” she cooed.

  People had a tendency to ignore me when Reef was around, but I was okay with that. I would ignore me if Reef was around, so I understood.

  “Can you hold him a minute?” I asked.

  “You betcha.” She eased him from the bouncy seat and cradled him against her. Her entire body seemed to go soft and gooey as soon as she touched him. “He’s so precious. Have I told you that yet?”

  “Every time you see him.”

  “Well, he’s one loved little boy.” Gabby swayed back and forth like a natural.

  I’d never seen my best friend like this before. I wasn’t sure how I expected her to act once the baby came, but she’d always been the independent and tough type. I’d never seen her play with kids or even really talk to them before. Reef had flipped some kind of internal switch, and she was going to win the godmother of the year award.

  “How was your day?” Gabby dragged her gaze away from Reef, seeming to sense something was wrong.

  I sighed and plopped down in a rocking chair I’d tucked away in the corner. “It was long. I think we’ve switched lives. My day seemed much more appropriate for a Day-in-the-Life-of-Gabby St. Claire than a day in my life.”

  “Oh . . . please, do tell. What happened?” She sat down on the couch, still snuggling Reef in her arms.

  I could see his hands reaching for her red hair and the start of a smile on his lips. He cooed and seemed just as in love with her as she seemed with him.

  I waited until Gabby glanced at me. I needed evidence that Reef’s spell on her wasn’t all-consuming before I wasted my breath. As the saying went, this wasn’t my first rodeo. And rodeos were horrible events, just in case you wondered about my stance on them.

  “You have my full attention. I promise.” Gabby looked both curious and slightly apologetic when she realized I was waiting for her.

  I gave her the rundown on today’s events. Her eyes widened with each new fact. They didn’t widen so much with shock or horror. They widened with hunger.

  Gabby loved stuff like this. Not the death part, but the figuring out things part. She’d started as a crime-scene cleaner, but worked for a forensic technology company now. It was the next best thing for her to being an actual forensic detective. She had a knack for investigations and was somewhat of a local legend after she’d solved a few cases that had stumped law enforcement.

  “A room full of snakes?” Gabby shook her head, her curls bouncing around her face with the action. “Did you feel hiss-terical?”

  I would have thrown something at her if I had the energy. “You’re so funny.”

  She smiled mischievously. “Yeah, I think so.”

  She looked off into the distance and, in her most melodramatic expression, began singing a song I’d never heard

  I only stared at her. She was known for bursting spontaneously into song, so this wasn’t unusual.

  She stopped after a few minutes and shrugged. “‘Union of the Snake’?”

  I shook my head.

  “Duran Duran?”

  “I’ve heard of them.”

  “It’s a strange song with an even stranger music video. I know you have tons of free time—” She cleared her throat and smiled mischievously. “You’ll have to check it out sometime.”

  I looked more closely at Reef, noticing his hands were no longer reaching for her hair. “Did you get him to sleep?”

  She glanced at Reef and shrugged. “It appears so. That was fast.”

  How had she done that? And while singing that awful song, at that. “He screamed the entire way home. I begged him jus
t to go to sleep. Now look at you. You’ve got the touch.”

  She smiled and looked down at him again. Her smile disappeared as she looked back up at me. “As much as I would love to talk about all of my finest attributes for the rest of the evening, let’s talk about the snake instead. So, do the police think it was manslaughter? Was your friend charged?”

  “I told Mandee to get a lawyer and that she shouldn’t say anything else until she did. Then Reef had a blowout, and I really had no choice at that point but to leave. You would know better than I would, but I doubt the cops have enough evidence to arrest her. But she kept digging herself into a hole and incriminating herself with every word she spoke.”

  “She could be charged with involuntary manslaughter, if nothing else. The fight she had with her neighbor doesn’t do much for her case, either. Still, I doubt arguing about Zumba is a strong enough motive for murder.”

  “Well, I’ll call her in the morning and see what’s going on. Right now, I’ve got to tend to my own flock. Starting with dinner. I have no idea what to make.”

  I ran through the possibilities. Tofu stir-fry? Chad hated stir-fry. Lentil tacos? I was nearly certain I was out of my stockpile of that particular legume. A nice, big salad? Chad was usually famished by the time he finished working, so I had a feeling a salad wouldn’t cut it.

  Cooking for both of us had proven to be a challenge.

  “I have some vegetable soup upstairs. Would you like some? Riley’s working late, so it’s just me.”

  My spirits lifted for a moment. “Did you use chicken broth?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. Not because I didn’t want to but because I didn’t have any. I’m pretty sure it’s a totally vegan soup. Beans, corn, peppers, onions, tomatoes, and herbs.”

  I felt so grateful that I almost cried. I knew it was an overreaction, but all my emotions felt bigger than necessary lately. “I’d love some. It would be one less thing for me to think about tonight.”

  Gabby nodded and smiled. “I’ll bring it down in a minute for you. I just need a little more Reef time.”

  I really couldn’t ask for a better best friend. I had a tendency to be a little bristly, yet Gabby still loved me, despite me.

  After our conversation, life suddenly didn’t feel quite as overwhelming.

  That’s what friends were for.

  That night, I got a phone call from Mandee at 3:30 a.m. Yes, 3:30. After. Midnight.

  Apparently, the police didn’t believe in letting people sleep and then arresting them. No, when they decided to arrest someone, they arrested someone right then.

  And that person was Mandee.

  What person was I? I was the kind who wore the title: No Rest for the Weary.

  “There were pry marks found on the vent, Sierra,” Mandee rushed, her voice close to hysterical. “The police think I intentionally did this.”

  Concern clutched my muscles at her announcement. “They could arrest you on that? Isn’t it circumstantial?”

  “Well . . .” Agitation crept into her voice. “They also found a crowbar with my fingerprints on it.”

  I sat up straight in bed, trying not to wake Chad but unable to actually move to a different room. My body wasn’t cooperating. “What? Where?”

  She sniffled. “In the dumpster behind the apartment building.”

  I shook my head, unable to fathom how all of this had played out, still trying to get the cobwebs out of my head. “How did that happen?”

  “It’s a long story. But it’s not because I pried the vent off.”

  I let out a sigh, trying to collect my thoughts and not fall back asleep in the process. Everything I’d just learned made it appear that Mandee had motive, means, and opportunity. I didn’t have to be a detective to figure that out.

  “I don’t know what to say, Mandee.” At least, I didn’t know what to say that would make her feel better. I was leaning toward trying to prep her for a prison stay.

  “Sierra, I can only talk on the phone for a few more minutes. Can you come to the police station? Please.”

  In an instant, I collected my thoughts both quickly and efficiently. Somehow I had moved from her boss to her confidante, and now I was supposed to be her savior. The problem was that I’d only agreed to be her boss.

  “They probably won’t let me see you,” I finally said, the dark room and my comfy bed mocking me. Mandee probably wished that was her biggest worry, which made me feel a rush of guilt.

  “I can’t afford a lawyer. My parents are at some spa in Iceland. I need your help. I’m not going to get a fair shot here, Sierra.”

  I ran a hand over my face, trying to formulate what to say. Before I could, Mandee continued.

  “There’s one other thing,” Mandee continued.

  I braced myself for whatever that was. Could this really get worse? “What’s that?”

  “You know that conversation I said I had with Tag earlier in the week? The argument, I should say. Well, I ended it by saying something like, ‘I hope one of those snakes thinks of you as dinner and squeezes the living daylights out of you.’”

  Before I could stop myself, a moan escaped.

  “I know,” she cried. “It sounds bad, doesn’t it? Please, can you try to come down here?”

  “I’m not a lawyer.”

  “But you’re the smartest person I know.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’ll let me talk to you.”

  “Could you at least try?

  I threw my legs over the side of the bed, knowing I’d crossed over to her side. There was no way I was getting out of helping her right now. The girl had no one else.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I finally said. “But I can’t promise anything.”

  She let out a half-moan, half-sigh. “I knew you’d look out for me, Sierra. You’re like the big sister I never had.”

  The big sister she never had? Something stirred inside me. She’d gotten to me. Maybe that had been the entire point. But now I knew it would be hard to say no.

  I hung up and stood, pulling on some jeans and my favorite navy-blue shirt. I wouldn’t look like much when I got down to the police station, but at least I’d be there.

  “Can’t she get out on bail?” Chad said, still looking sleepy.

  I shook my head. “No bail. Not yet, at least. What’s on your schedule today?”

  “I’ve got to finish that house with the water damage and then get ready for the job in West Virginia.”

  “The one for your friend? The old theme park?”

  He nodded. “That’s the one. Mythical Falls. I leave this weekend. You didn’t forget, did you?”

  Had I forgotten? I couldn’t remember anything lately. “No, of course I didn’t forget.”

  He was leaving this weekend. Wow. How would I ever get everything done without him here? I couldn’t think about it now.

  “Why are you asking about my schedule today?” Chad ran a hand through his hair, but it looked no different than usual. He always had the bedhead look.

  “Mandee asked me to come down to the police station. She’s scared, and she doesn’t have any family here. I have the impression she doesn’t have any friends here either.”

  “Sounds like a hard place to be.” He drew in a long, deep breath before nodding. “I can keep Reef until ten, but then I really have to get to work. Maybe Clarice could come by and babysit?”

  I slipped on some loafers. “Maybe. I’m hoping I won’t be gone that long. I want to help Mandee, but I don’t know what I can do. She needs to talk to a lawyer. Even Gabby. But this isn’t my specialty.”

  Just as I grabbed my purse, I heard a cry from the other room. Reef.

  Chad moaned.

  “I’m sorry,” I told him.

  My heart longed to go get my son and have some time with him. But I didn’t want to take him to the police station with me. Some places just weren’t meant for babies.

  “Yeah, me too.” He threw the covers off. “I guess I’ll get an early st
art to my day.”

  Chapter Four

  By the time I got to the police station, I was grumpier than I’d been after initially being woken up. My crankiness had increased with every rotation of my tires. I was irritated at Mandee, at Chalice, and even at the police. Certainly the cops couldn’t hold Mandee on this circumstantial evidence, and that’s exactly what I told them.

  “Circumstantial or not, she’s being charged,” Detective DePalma told me with an annoyed sigh. He stared at me from across the busy hallway where officers and those they arrested were shuffled from Point A to Point B.

  I crossed my arms, wishing I knew as much about the justice system as I did about animal rights. “Fingerprints on a crowbar are hardly evidence at all.”

  I wasn’t sure that was totally true, but Mandee was not the type to have killer instincts. She was the type who loved puppy dogs and unicorns and cotton candy.

  The detective’s nostrils twitched. “Those fingerprints prove that she handled the tool. She must have used it to pry the vent cover away from the floor, which then allowed the snake to get out and go through the ductwork into her neighbor’s apartment. Flecks of metal from the vent cover were found on the crowbar and vice versa. She’s looking at involuntary manslaughter. No one really thinks she wanted to kill her downstairs neighbor—probably just scare him.”

  I threw my hands in the air. “You’re talking in probabilities! You can’t build a case on that.”

  He leveled his gaze at me, appearing especially tired, as the bags under his eyes looked puffy and wrinkled. Earlier, his sunglasses had masked both of those things well. “We can and we will.”

  “What about the snake’s owner? Patrick?”

  “We’re trying to reach him, but he’s apparently out of the country.” He scowled again. “Now, would you like a few minutes with Ms. Melkins or not?”

  I scowled, trying to rack my brain for anything else that I should be asking or pleading for. I came up blank, which was highly unusual for me.

  “Yes, I would like a few minutes with Mandee.” I couldn’t believe I was actually getting to see her. I figured she’d be in a cell right now and able to talk only to a lawyer.