Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Stacey Alabaster

  For a moment, he actually stopped and had a look at the ‘plays and poetry’ section near the front door. Huh. Would not have picked him as a play reader. Well, hey, you should never judge a book by its cover. Except that I did all the time—that was how I decided which books to stock in the store. He ran his finger over the spine of an old Henry Lawson collection and for a moment, I thought he might purchase it.

  Thud.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  I jumped and looked over my shoulder. “One of the cats,” I said, then wondered if it was illegal to keep cats in a shop. No, of course not. Sergeant Wells just always made me feel guilty.

  “Didn’t sound like a cat,” he growled and started to make his way up the stairs, his hand lingering over his gun. He put his hand out like he was telling me to stay back, keep my distance, don’t follow him. Well, it was my shop. And I was going to climb the stairs if I wanted to.

  I gulped. Not a cat, no way.

  It was a dead body.

  And it belonged to a member of my very own book club—Nicole Marie Simmons.

  2

  Alyson

  Ah, the fresh smell of eucalyptus. “Will we get to see any koalas around here?” one of the tourists with an American accent asked. I grinned and followed the tourist guide, even though she was getting it all wrong, as she told the tourists that we very well might. I knew there were no koalas in this part of the forest. Well, I could butt in later and tell her that, but for the time being, I was content just to take in the view of the forest. I was enjoying myself and it was better to be content than to be right, for the moment. Lucky too, because I was paying an arm and a leg for the experience.

  We came to a clearing and everyone gathered around while our guide cleared her throat and I was ready to jump in and correct whatever it was she was about to say. After all, I was a local. We were only 45 minutes out of Eden Bay, so I knew the area well. Better than the guide and certainly better than the tourists who’d mostly come from interstate and overseas. I was quietly smug about how much I knew and could impart to these eager ears.

  But when she started to tell us about the particular type of moss growing on the tree stump, I took a step back and stayed quiet. Moss was not exactly my forte. Was it anyone’s forte? I glanced around. Some of the group actually seemed to be interested. Boy. Let’s get back to talking incorrectly about koalas, I thought. And for the first time on the hike, I actually realized I was bored.

  I never usually strayed this far from the beach; the sand was my second home. Well, my first home, you could ever say, as my apartment was right on the beach. And unless I was sleeping or eating, it was a good bet you would find me surfing.

  Finally, the moss chatter was done with and we were moving on, down a trail that was getting more winding and thinner as we walked along.

  We each had a hiking ‘buddy’ who we were supposed to stay next to at all times, to ensure that no one got lost. Mine was a slightly older woman named Savannah who had all new clothes and hiking equipment and had very little experience with nature. She looked nervous every time we came across the tiniest spider or bug. And she had travelled from interstate for the experience. When she asked me where I was from, I told her that I was local, only forty-five minutes away, and she seemed surprised that I was taking part in the retreat when I already lived on the beach. “Sounds like your life is one long retreat already,” she commented as we struggled along towards the back end of the group. Hmm. You would think so. Only not really, lately.

  “I’m trying to break a habit,” I explained as I looked at the map and tried to figure out where we were when the rest of the group got too far ahead of us to see. Maybe splitting off into pairs hadn’t been such a good idea. Where was the rest of the group?

  “Ah,” she said and shot me a knowing look. Then I caught her cringing a little.

  Right. Bad habit could mean a lot of things. “Nothing like that,” I hurried to reassure her. “It’s just that you may have heard of me. Well, I will keep my name a secret from you, nothing personal, just for my own privacy. But if you did know my name, you would have heard of me, and you would know why I had to come out here for escape.”

  “Isn’t your name Alyson Foulkes?” she asked me, looking confused. Right. I was wearing a name tag. She laughed a little. “I am sorry to say this, but I have never heard of you.”

  Well, that was a punch to the ego.

  “Well, a lot of people have heard of me,” I said defensively. Then realized I was starting to sound like my friend Claire. She loves being looked at and admired everywhere she went, whereas I am low-key. Or I was at one point in the not so distant past. But now I was starting to get a name for myself, and people WERE starting to stare, and I didn’t like it.

  Except it was kind of irritating me that this woman didn’t know who I was. And I had to spend all night in a tent with her? Oh yeah, should have mentioned that the buddy system extended all day and into the night. There was no escaping your buddy.

  After another hour, we found the rest of the group in a clearing and were advised to set up camp for the night. Our tour guide said we could turn in for bed seeing as it was getting dark. But it was only 7:30? I gulped. No tv. No internet. No phone reception. Just me and the woman who was terrified every time a mosquito came near her.

  I have never been so grateful for a rainstorm.

  Within an hour, the campsite was flooded and there was no chance of anyone getting any sleep, so an emergency bus back to town was arranged.

  Everyone was disappointed, so our tour guide offered to arrange a bus back to the campsite in the morning, but we were also given an out—the chance to leave the hiking retreat if we wanted. I was going to take it. As soon as we were back in Rushcutter’s Bay, I departed the bus and headed for the cab rank to get a taxi back to Eden Bay.

  “Hang on!” Savannah called out. “We’re supposed to be buddies!”

  “Sorry,” I said, hurrying away. “It was nice to meet you!”

  Ah, back to civilization. Sure, my retreat was cut short. And I hadn’t quite been away long enough to break any bad habits. But I had never been so grateful to be in my own bed.

  Anyway, I could be back in Eden Bay and still hide out, right? I had closed my business for the weekend and made sure all my clients knew I was away, so I could use that time to completely detox from society. No phones, no computers, and most important—no controversy. No more getting involved in any murder mysteries or scheming.

  But timing can be a real brat. I’d just reached over to my phone to switch it off when I got a call from Claire. And I hadn’t even meant to answer it. It was just that the ‘decline’ call button and the ‘accept’ one looked too similar.

  She was frantic on the other end of the line. Words were streaming out of her mouth. A rope. A dead body. Uh oh. No way. Not today.

  “I’m sorry,” I said calmly, while I listened to the news. Just taking it in, not letting it affect me, just listening to Claire’s diatribe while imaging gentle waves. Well, I didn’t actually have to imagine them. There were gentle waves right next to me. “I can’t get involved in this.” And then I quickly ended the call and ignored the seven follow-up calls.

  Right. Time to turn my phone off and meditate.

  But perhaps I should have put headphones in. Because instead of peace, all I got was the sound of heavy duty equipment. Ugh. Someone was doing home renovations or something.

  Oh, great. Was that drilling? Just ignore it, Alyson. Let the thoughts flow by. You are the sky and the thoughts are simply clouds drifting over you

  But when two minutes had passed, I simply couldn’t take it anymore. I’m not a monk. I stepped over to my window to see which neighbor it was who was being so rude, and I gasped when I saw what was happening. It wasn’t just drilling. And it wasn’t just someone doing home renos.

  I was fuming. You are the sky, and this is simply the cloud.

  Troy Emerald had officially restarted construction on his
mall.

  Maybe I should have just closed my eyes, ignored it, and blocked it out.

  But I was done meditating for the day.

  3

  Claire

  Incredible. Unbelievable. This was all Alyson’s fault and she was refusing to even take my calls.

  Apparently, she was on some self-invoked cleanse from all drama and technology. Very, very rich considering that all the drama she got herself involved in was self-created.

  At least it was a Sunday. Fabled Books was always closed on Sundays, so it at least gave me 24 hours to figure out what to do. Who on earth would want to hurt Nicole Marie? She was one of the most popular members of the book club, vivacious, always brought the most expensive cheeses of the group, and she always genuinely read the book of the week. Her opinions were always nuanced and layered—you could tell that she hadn’t just looked on line for some generic opinion. She’d been about a decade older than me, late thirties, and even though I’d never known that much about her personal life, as I understood it, she lived alone and was single.

  I hated that Alyson wasn’t picking up my calls. But more than that, I hated that I wanted her to. That I needed her to. Was she really going to make me deal with this case all on my own? Ugh. I didn’t even know how to get her to come out of her cave or where she was, precisely. I’d heard the rumor she was on a hiking retreat, but there was also word that that been rained out.

  There was someone close to Alyson that I could usually go to for help in these matters. But I was avoiding her brother Matt. Looked like I was really on the outs as far as the Foulkes siblings were concerned. Maybe I would never speak to either of them ever again. Hmm. I mused over this possibility for a second. It would certainly be a more peaceful life.

  But there might be one person who could help me. A sort of friend. Even though he was, in Alyson’s words, her ‘absolute worst enemy in the world.’ Troy Emerald and I had a sort of understanding between us that the rest of Eden Bay didn’t really get. We were both more sophisticated. City dwellers who were just temporarily stuck here. We understood how the world worked. And that Eden Bay needed progress, not regression. Just try explaining that to Alyson, though.

  I decided to try my luck and wandered towards the beach, where the mall was being constructed, a block back. Close enough so that it had sea views—and close enough to obscure those views for others—but not right on the sand.

  I was secretly—very secretly—pleased to see that .it was actually starting to look like a real mall. Thank goodness, too. The shopping options were limited in Eden Bay, and there were no high-brand stores at all. And as much as I enjoyed online shopping, I liked being able to try on my shoes before I purchased them. Saved me the constant postage of having to return a pair because they were too tight, because I always refused to admit that I was actually a size 8 and not a size 7 heel.

  Troy shot me a smile as I approached him. It was weird. On paper, at least, Troy Emerald was my ’type.’ A bit older, wore a suit, a city type, sophisticated, intelligent. And of course, a touch arrogant. But I had no real attraction to him. I knew she would never ever admit to it, not even on her death bed, but I was pretty sure that Alyson had a little thing for him. He definitely had one for her. I was not going to get in the middle of it, either way.

  “This is really starting to come together,” I said, nodding with approval. I could already see myself wandering around with my arms piled with shopping bags in a couple of months’ time. The only thing that troubled me about the development was the bookshop. But I had a plan to compete with it. Well, at least, I’d had a plan to compete. Now that there was a murder thrown into the mix, I wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out. The espresso machine I had ordered was due to arrive the following day and I had nowhere to store it.

  Troy removed his hard hat, which I could only assume was purely ornamental as I doubted he ever went anywhere near any heavy-duty machinery. I mean, a glance at his hands showed it looked like he had a manicure, for crying out loud.

  “Better than I actually thought it would,” he replied, looking up proudly. “We are well ahead of schedule now, actually.” I assumed that he was talking about the revised schedule, considering that work had already been delayed once several months earlier when there had been a murder on the construction site. But he was right—it seemed like a lot had been done in a short amount of time. Too much, actually. Almost as though it disobeyed the laws of physics.

  Hmm.

  “Have you seen Alyson recently?” I asked him, glancing around just in case she was actually there. I mean, if she was actually in Eden Bay, there was no way she was just going to hang back quietly and let this construction take place without her putting up a massive protest.

  “I actually thought the noise might bring her down here,” he said, looking a little bit mischievous. Huh. Was that his game plan? Did Troy Emerald even have a game plan?

  “Well, looks like it hasn’t worked.” I sighed heavily and tried to say something else, but I had to shout a bit to be heard over the top of the jackhammer. “So I guess I will just have to go and look elsewhere! It would be helpful if she actually kept her phone on!”

  Troy nodded and waved to me as he put the hard hat back on, and I thought that would be the end of my trip to the construction site for that day.

  But just as I was about to leave, I saw a cloud of long, honey-colored hair and cut-off shorts and a tie-dyed crop top storming towards the lot. I shook my head. So much for being on a meditation retreat, or whatever she had claimed to be on.

  Alyson Foulkes was the kind of person to miss something directly in front of her and so while she should have seen me there, standing right in front of her, she stomped right past me and didn’t even notice. She only had eyes for Troy Emerald. I was pretty sure she literally hadn’t seen me, even when I waved to her.

  I was about to call out ‘hey,’ but I just hung back and waited to see what she was actually about to do. What she did was rip off the hard hat that had only just gone back onto Troy Emerald’s head and throw it to the ground before stomping on it, trying to break it—unsuccessfully—and yelling that this entire project must be illegal and needed to be shut down at once. I stepped in and cleared my throat. She looked startled, as though she’d just seen the ghost. Yep. The ghost of Claire Elizabeth Richardson.

  “Claire. Have you been here all this time?”

  I was clearly the last person she wanted to see. Funny that she called me her best friend then.

  “I thought I might find you here,” I said, crossing my arms. “It was the only way I could think of to track you down seeing as your phone is off or you’ve been blocking my calls.”

  “I have been avoiding all drama,” she said, sticking her nose in the air. “I have been on a cleanse. No dramas, no mysteries, no scenes…”

  Geez. Talk about a complete lack of self-reflection. “Um, apart from the one you just caused here at the construction site,” I pointed out flatly, looking at the hard hat laying on the ground. She still had her nose in the air, refusing to relent.

  “She makes a good point,” Troy said with a hint of amusement on his face as he walked over and dusted off the hat. He always seemed amused—charmed, somewhat—by Alyson’s shenanigans. They would actually make weirdly cute couple if she would ever admit that she liked him.

  But I was not going to let her get away with it that easily. Her tantrum had not charmed me. “It’s pretty rich of you to ignore my calls, Alyson, when it is your fault that there was a dead body in my shop in the first place!”

  She spun around to face me slowly, her mouth hanging open in complete disbelief. “And how exactly did you come to that wild conclusion?” she asked incredulously. I caught sight of Troy’s face and I could see that he was also waiting intently for the explanation, which now seemed a little, teeny bit shaky. But I remained fully confident as I spoke. Because clearly, she did not remember all the facts.

  “I left you in charge of locking up on Fri
day night when I left early for my dental appointment. And you didn’t even lock the door, did you, Alyson?”

  She opened her mouth like she was about to defend herself and then shrugged, as though it was no big deal in the end. Of course it wasn’t. Nothing was ever a big deal to Alyson Foulkes. Even when a murder happened, we were all just supposed to chill out and relax.

  “No one locks their doors around here,” she said. “I don’t even lock the door to my apartment when I go out.”

  No. And she also left her surfboards laying on the beach and just hoped and prayed that no one stole them. Maybe she had been lucky with that so far, but the luck wouldn’t hold out forever.

  “Alyson, I trusted you.” And it was actually a big deal that I had trusted her. “No one else has a key to the bookshop, and you are the only person I have ever left the keys to.” But now I was regretting it. I should have just asked Maria to lock up that night, and none of this would have ever happened.

  “This is rich, Claire. Talk about a stretch of logic. You can’t blame me for what happened! I didn’t kill the woman!”

  Troy backed away like he didn’t want any part of this discussion, and then the drill started up and drowned Alyson out anyway.

  And I was done. If she was out, then so was I.

  4

  Alyson

  “You’re looking a bit sorry for yourself,” Troy said as he finally seemed to come to terms with the fact that the hat was never going to fit a human head again. He walked over to a trash can, sighed, and placed it in.

  “Yeah, well, hasn’t exactly been the best of days,” I said, kicking at the dirt. Funny. I’d stormed down to the construction site because I was furious at Troy Emerald, but now he seemed like the lesser of two evils. Why did Claire have to go and give me such a hard time? I did her a favor, shutting up the shop for her while she went and got her cavity filled. All her own fault for eating too much sugar as well. If she was going to place the blame anywhere, she should place it on herself.