Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Stacey Alabaster

“Alyson can be a hard nut to crack,” I said. “She is stubborn. More set in her ways than anyone else I’ve ever known. But she is worth the hard work.”

  Troy shrugged. “Nah. She’s got that other guy now.”

  I wondered how much he knew about Kieran. I had to be careful where I tread with this one. “Oh?” I asked all innocently, trying to get the gossip from him without revealing that I already knew it.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I get a clear view of her apartment when I’m out surfing.”

  “Sounds kinda stalkerish, Troy,” I said, winding him up, sure, but only half-kidding. Because it kinda did.

  “Yeah, well, I can’t help it if Alyson’s apartment is right on the beach.” True. And I knew she had refused to teach Troy how to surf, so he was stuck doing it on his own.

  “So anyway. There’s been this guy hanging around. Some big guy,” Troy said, staring down at the picnic table.

  “No, Kieran is really small,” I said, shaking my head. “He’s skinny.”

  “Huh?”

  “Umm…” I wondered how to backtrack on that one, but it seemed that Troy already knew about Kieran anyway.

  “No, I am not talking about that stowaway she has up there,” he said with a heavy sigh. “That other big guy who is always there.”

  Big guy?

  I turned around. And there was Simon.

  Even though he was not supposed to be on set that day.

  So. Here is the thing about non-disclosure contracts. Even though they are legal documents and even though you can sue someone for not sticking to one, you can’t actually ‘stop’ someone from leaking info. So there is always a degree of trust that goes into them. Because anyone at any time could betray your trust, even when they are fully aware of the consequences.

  Matt wasn’t even looking me in the eye when I entered Captain Eightball’s. I thought he just hadn’t noticed me. But when I called him by name and he still didn’t look up, I started to worry something was up.

  “Have I done something wrong?” I asked him. I’d had to order my caramel milkshake from another waiter. AND I’d had to pay for it. How rude.

  He just kept wiping the counter as though he hadn’t even heard me. Like I was a ghost.

  “Oh come on, Matt, this is ridiculous.” My milkshake arrived, but I didn’t quite have the stomach to sip from it.

  He finally stopped and looked up at me, his brown eyes full of hurt and betrayal

  “Troy Emerald was in here earlier.”

  “Oh yeah. What did he order?”

  “That is not funny, Claire.”

  “Well, I am still trying to figure out what the big deal is? Troy Emerald was in here, wow. Did you call the local paper to tell them the news?”

  He just stared at me a long time. Still wasn’t finding me funny then. “He told me that you’re leaving Eden Bay.”

  Oh no.

  I was fuming. We’d gotten Troy to sign a piece of paper stating that he wouldn’t reveal any secrets form the set, but I’d never thought I needed to get him to sign a form pledging that he wouldn’t reveal my personal secrets. What business was it of his to go telling anyone that? Let alone Matt? And there I had been, trying to get him together with Alyson in spite of better judgement, and he did this to me? I decided there and then that I would warn Alyson away from him from now on. He was nothing but a no-good snake.

  “Nothing has been decided for sure…”

  Matt tossed the dishrag down onto the counter. “Right. So it’s true, then.”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  “Does Alyson know?” Matt asked.

  Of course Alyson didn’t know. Geez. She would throw a fit. “She has a new best friend now anyway,” I said a little sulkily.

  There was actually a little dance of amusement on Matt’s face. “Is that why you are running away then? You’re being replaced?”

  I didn’t mind the teasing so much if it meant that Matt was talking to me again. “You’ve got to understand, Matt. It’s just a really good offer—double my old salary.”

  “So it’s all about the money, then?” That was all he said. Just gave me one final look of disappointment and then went to the back office. I sat there, wondering whether he was ever coming back, whether he had finished his shift or whether he had just disappeared into the abyss.

  There was a large figure standing at the window. Great. I had been wanting to talk to Simon all day after the incident with him dropping Alyson. But he took one look at me and started to bolt. “What is he doing?” I asked, pushing my glass away.

  “Who?”

  I turned around and saw Matt by the door. He had changed out of his Captain Eightball’s Uniform and had a beach towel slung over his shoulder like he was going surfing.

  “Simon… He was staring at me and now he’s running toward the beach. I’m going after him!”

  “I’m coming with you, Claire!”

  But it was too late. By the time we got to the beach, Simon had disappeared.

  16

  Alyson

  “I’m here to see Kieran Douglas, please,” I said, feeling self-conscious as I entered the police station. I had to speak to the cop through a grate at reception. I supposed that was for their protection. People could come in here with knives or anything.

  He nodded and left the desk, coming around to undo the deadbolt on the door to my left and let me through. I had to pass underneath a metal detector. All clear.

  “Why are you in here, Kieran?” I asked him through the bars.

  He was looking very sorry for himself that morning as he stared at his hands. His usually shiny hair had lost some of its luster and was lying limp against his forehead. “I told you, I can’t remember what happened on that boat,” he said, gritting his teeth. “There is no reason I should be locked up.”

  But the cops had to suspect that Kieran was guilty if they weren’t letting him go. “I want to help you, but you have to tell me the truth.”

  I glanced around. There was a camera in the corner of the cell, but I didn’t know if it had a microphone to pick up sound. There were no cops around us right at that moment. “This is the best time,” I whispered to him. “Hurry.”

  Kieran stood up and came over to the bars. “I can’t tell you, Alyson… All I can say is that something bad happened on that boat. But it wasn’t me who killed Warren.”

  “So you never lost your memory, then, is that what you are saying?”

  “Please don’t be angry at me, Alyson…”

  “Of course I am angry! I have been kissing a murderer!” I clutched at the bars. Then I calmed down in case we started to draw attention.

  It seemed to take years for Kieran to finally tell me the truth. “It was all Jarryd’s idea. We flew to Australia because Jarryd wanted to make it as a celebrity. He had this idea of filming a YouTube series of him fishing. Sort of like a rockumentary. He likes to be on camera. It was meant to be funny, a comedy, as well as informative. Kayla wrote some of the material, and I was there to just basically steer the boat. Warren was the other co-host.”

  I frowned. “What happened to that plan then?”

  Kieran sighed. “No one was watching the show. We were running out of money, and so we thought that we could make money with another idea.” He looked very sheepish. “We decided that we could film footage of us getting lost at sea. Sort of like a horror movie. But no one could know we weren’t really lost.”

  My mouth dropped open. “So this was all fake? All of this? The shipwreck? Warren’s death?”

  Kieran shook his head. “No.” There was fear in his eyes. “There really was a terrible accident out there on the seas. We didn’t fake one little part of that, Alyson.”

  I was starting to wonder. If Warren had been Jarryd’s co-host, and Jarryd was hungry for fame, then maybe Jarryd had motive to kill Warren.

  I glanced around the cell before I left. “They can’t hold you here forever, Kieran. Not if they don’t have any proof.”

 
; The only thing I could do then was surf. It was the only way to clear the cobwebs out of my mind. The only way to make sense of the world.

  But just when I was starting to find some inner peace, I saw it—a dark object in the water.

  My heart started to race. Still on the board, trying to keep my balance so that I didn’t fall off into the empty depths below, I tried to look around for a lifeguard. But I was on ‘the dark side of the beach’ where people weren’t supposed to swim. Outside the flags. So there was no lifeguard support there.

  I gulped and looked around at the next set of waves, tried to judge it. Could I catch the next wave back to shore safely without losing my footing? Or would I fall off and be devoured by the shark?

  “Good luck, Alyson,” I said, and closed my eyes.

  I woke up, startled, wondering where I was. There was someone standing over me. A man with slightly greying hair, wearing a suit.

  “And I thought you were supposed to be the expert surfer.”

  Troy.

  “What happened?” I asked desperately. I rolled over and realized that my head was thumping. I checked all my limbs—all my arms and legs were still attached and accounted for. But what had happened to the shark?

  No shark. But there was a strange piece of wood nearby, washed up onto the sand. I closed my eyes and groaned. “Not again.”

  At least Simon hadn’t been around to witness it this time.

  Troy tried to help me to my feet. At first, I pushed him away, but then I realized I actually needed the help.

  “Must be another piece from the boat,” Troy said, turning it over and frowning. “I suppose we should call the police.”

  I didn’t even want to look at it. I just wanted to get off the beach and into my pajamas and into bed. But then I noticed something unusual about it.

  I frowned and crouched down on the sand. Troy crouched down beside me as well, got too close, our knees were touching. I moved away and shot him a look.

  “Kieran’s boat was black. Troy, this wood is dark blue.”

  17

  Claire

  Babysitting was not my specialty. Especially when the kid was making up the rules and I had no idea what was going on.

  I glanced around Alyson’s apartment. “When is your auntie getting back?”

  J had made up a game that seemed to make no logical sense to me. It was sort of a game of hide and seek where we had to take fruit from the basket and hide it somewhere in the apartment to find again. “But we already know where we put the fruit,” I said to her. “Because we just hid it.”

  She just laughed and threw her head back. “Yeah, that’s the whole point!”

  It was?

  After twenty minutes of running around, I was exhausted, but Alyson was even more red-faced and flustered than I was when she exploded through the door

  “I can’t find him anywhere. Claire, he has skipped town.”

  I gulped, then looked over at J to see that she was mid banana-hunting but had stopped to listen in on our conversation. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Why don’t you play the fruit game with Buster?” I asked, pointing at the dog. I pulled Alyson over to a corner so I could talk to her without J overhearing us.

  “The police let Kieran go yesterday, and no one has seen him since…” She sounded panicked.

  “So he never came back here? Are you sure?” I asked. He could have easily turned up while Alyson was working or at her tutoring session.

  She shook her head. “He hasn’t been here,” she said firmly. “And neither Kayla nor Jarryd have seen him since he left the police station. No one has.”

  I had to admit, it didn’t look good. It wasn’t exactly the actions of an innocent man, was it? Leaving town as soon as he was set free.

  Alyson collapsed into a chair and put her head in her hands. “I can’t believe that I kissed a murderer!”

  Um, what? First, I’d heard of that.

  J, behind me, echoed my sentiment. “What?”

  Alyson looked up and tried to backtrack. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it. Just keep playing the fruit game, J.”

  “I think it would be better if I took J to Matt’s,” I said, grabbing my coat and heading toward the door. I still wanted to explain things to Matt, and this would give me a chance to do it privately without Alyson overhearing.

  “He’s already on his way over,” Alyson said dismissively.

  He was? I froze when I heard the knock on the door.

  “Oh,” he said when I opened the door. “You’re still here.” He said it in a loaded tone though, to make sure I knew he didn’t just mean Alyson’s apartment. He was talking about me still being here in Eden Bay.

  I just looked into his eyes, pleading. Don’t tell Alyson.

  “Come on, J,” Matt said, picking up J’s overnight bag.

  “Aww, but I want to hear more about Auntie Alyson kissing a killer!” she said, pouting as Matt tried to guide her out the door. He froze.

  “What was that?”

  Alyson stood up and sighed. “I kissed a killer, all right!” She threw her hands up and explained the whole thing while Matt just stared at her calmly, without surprise. I got the feeling that nothing she was saying really shocked him. But he knew Alyson better than anyone.

  “I think you and J better go,” I said, trying to hustle Matt and J out the door before this got even worse.

  Alyson wanted to go and hunt for Kieran. “At least I have you to help me,” Alyson said to me while Matt was still in the doorway.

  “Not for much longer,” Matt said. I glared at him, but thankfully, Alyson was so preoccupied that she didn’t really hear him.

  “Thanks for nothing,” I said to Matt, waving him away.

  Close call. But I was going to have to tell her eventually.

  “Do you really think we’re going to find him here?” The beach was finally full of people again. The shark scare had faded to the backs of people’s minds and some of the new tourists didn’t even know about it in the first place. There had been a whole fresh cycle in the week and a half since it had happened.

  She shielded her eyes and glanced out over the ocean. There was plenty to see that afternoon. It was hard to make out anything specific, though. It was a sea of multicolored surfboards and swimsuits and Lycra.

  “He might be trying to sail away,” Alyson said.

  “All the way back to New Zealand?” I asked skeptically.

  She sighed in frustration. “Well, it was worth a try.”

  I walked a little and kicked a shell. Oh, yikes, there was a crab inside it. It scurried away back into the sand while a child nearby laughed and giggled at my shock. “Look, if he really is guilty and has skipped town, then he is miles away by now.”

  Alyson shoved her hands into the pockets of her shorts. “I guess I just don’t want to admit it.” She pouted a little. “Oh well. I don’t care about him anyway.”

  I didn’t quite buy that.

  She also kicked a shell in the sand. I braced myself and grimaced, but this one was empty. “I guess this case is solved, then. It’s just that the killer is probably on the other side of the world by now. No longer our problem.” She looked up at the cloudless sky. “He didn’t even have the decency to leave a note.”

  Shooting in Eden Bay had officially wrapped, but there were green screen shots to shoot that weekend in Sydney at the studio. I’d already planned to tell Alyson that I was just going up for the weekend to visit some old friends. That would give me a chance to finish up the shoot, and buy me a bit of time before I signed the contract for the next movie.

  “I need to get going,” I said. “I have some important business at the bookshop.” Really, I was going to meet Danielle in her hotel room to go over the shooting schedule, but I couldn’t tell Alyson that. She looked a little disappointed. I just shrugged. “It’s like you said, right? Case closed.”

  18

  Alyson

  I jumped when I felt the hand on my
shoulder.

  “Simon,” I said. I glanced around. He seemed to come out of nowhere. I mean, I guess he did work at the beach. But he was wearing causal clothes, not his lifeguard uniform.

  “Where is that friend of yours?” he asked.

  I didn’t know what to say to that. I knew, logically, what Kieran had done. He’d been set free, stupidly, by the cops, and taken the chance to run. That was what my head told me. And my gut. But I had this stupid, embarrassing part of myself that wanted to believe he was innocent. And that part of me was worried. That was why I was still scouring the beach. But I didn’t want to give any of that away to Simon. “Umm, I’m not sure,” I said, trying to keep my tone light. “He is probably just surfing or something. I gave him a lesson the other day and he took to it like a duck to water.”

  Simon frowned in confusion. “He? Nah, I’m talking about Claire.”

  Oh. I thought he had barely even remembered Claire the other day. Now he seemed super interested in her. Weird. “Um, she had to go to work at the bookshop,” I said, not really able to hide the bitterness in my voice. I mean, I knew she had a job and everything. Well, two jobs actually, at least that week. But did she always have to go on about how busy-busy-busy she was all the time?

  Simon nodded. “I’ve been thinking about picking up a new book to read, actually.”

  Okay. I tried to stifle a laugh. It just ended up with me in a slight coughing fit. “Oh, have you?” I tried to ask with a straight face. I mean, no offense to Simon, but I was pretty sure he hadn’t read a book since school. To be honest, I wasn’t sure he had even read a book at school. I was pretty sure he’d been the kind of kid who just read the blurb on the back and tried to write an essay and then ended up with a D-.

  But I tried to stay polite. “Sounds good,” I said. “Why don’t I walk you up the hill then? Show you the way…”

  “I know the way,” he said, without any confidence whatsoever.