Dawn glanced around the shop. Her face had changed back to stern. “There’s been a complication with your grandma’s estate.”
I sipped my coffee and tried to keep my face straight.
I didn’t want to hear it. That was the reason I had been avoiding Dawn Petts-Jones for weeks. Maybe if I just kept staring blankly and sipping on my coffee, none of this would be real. No complications. No problems. Just books and coffee and high heels.
“The wording of your grandmother’s will was…ambiguous,” Dawn said with a sigh, when I refused to say anything to her.
Finally, I took the bait. “In what way?”
Dawn’s mouth looked like it had been pickled. I hoped the coffee wasn’t too bitter. “Well, in her will, she said she left the bookshop to her granddaughter.”
I let out a short laugh. “Uh. Yeah. That would be me.” How that was ambiguous was anyone’s guess. My grandma only had one grandchild. I glanced around. Oh, I really had left my purse here.
“Got it!” I said. “I need to leave now, Dawn. Thanks for dropping by.”
Dawn stepped in front of me so that I couldn’t leave the shop.
“But did you know, Claire, that your grandmother had another granddaughter?”
Huh. Everything outside looked normal. The sky was still blue, there were still seagulls, I could hear a starter gun going off down on the beach. Life in Eden Bay felt normal. I even felt normal. But how? I supposed sometimes things that are a shock take a while to process. What Dawn had told me couldn’t possibly be real. It wasn’t true. For now, it was just one foot in front of another
“Five thousand dollars will barely cover the legal fees,” I said to Matt as I filled him in, briefly. I didn’t mention the family drama. Only that there was an ownership problem. “Not to mention the Brazilian roast.”
I was only venting to him. He couldn’t help me with my ‘cousin I’d never known existed’ problem. But Matt actually had a solution to the coffee problem. “Don’t tell anyone but I could sneak a little from the cafe. Not much but just like, a paper cup full every couple of days.” He was just finishing up his shift and nodded toward the coffee machine.
“No way! Matt that is so naughty…” I giggled a little. The idea of Matt sneaking out coffee beans in cups was highly amusing to me. And flattering that he would want to break the rules like that to help me out.
He was serious, though. “You barely use any compared to Captain Eightball’s. They won’t even know its missing.”
I sighed. Maybe there was another solution. I could hear the announcement over the speakers. Eden Bay was small enough that announcements could be heard by most of the town, as long as you weren’t too far out, say, at the cemetery up the hill or something like that. Inside the cafe, the sound was muffled, but I knew what it would be regarding—the race was about to start. It was time for final signups, or you missed out.
“I suppose two thousand five hundred dollars will go some way toward covering costs.” But I still wasn’t convinced that joining the treasure hunt was an entirely good idea. The whole race was insane. It ran for twenty-four hours, nonstop. And I mean nonstop. There were no scheduled breaks so if you wanted to eat or go to the bathroom, you did so at your own peril. And it also meant no sleep. I required ten hours of beauty sleep per night.
Matt shook his head. “I don’t want any of the money, Claire. If we win it, it’s yours.”
“No way,” I said firmly. “You’ve got an eight-year-old to raise, and that’s way more important than a bookstore.” I really admired him for taking care of his niece while his sister, her mom, was sick.
He made a noise like he was agreeing with me, reluctantly, but the little smile on his face when he turned away showed me that he had no intention of splitting the money and taking half. That was Matt Foulkes for you, though. Sometimes he was too much of a good guy for his own good.
“Okay then,” I said firmly, banging my hands on the counter as I finally decided. “If we are going to do this, then we are going to do it properly. That means from now on, Matt, no more mister nice guy. You have to be as ruthless as everyone else in this race. We are not going down the beach to make friends. We are going to win. No matter what the cost.”
Matt looked slightly frightened. But he agreed to the bargain.
We had to run to make it there before the final starter gun went off. I gulped when I saw who was at the front of the crowd. Alyson. And she was with Troy. “I’ll sign up,” I said quietly, hoping that we wouldn’t spot each other.
She turned around and glared at me over her shoulder.
All right. It was on.
3
Alyson
Eden Bay was known for its hospitality. In fact, that was the way we stayed afloat. Tourists flocked to Eden Bay not just in spring and summer but even the colder months because we were so cheery and welcoming as a whole. But the promise of five thousand dollars brought out the shark in people. Everyone was eyeing everyone else up and those who were not local were getting death glares. How dare you enter our race and try to take our money. There was a pair of Swedish backpackers who had been pushed to the back and must have been left reeling, wondering what had happened to the friendly town they’d known the day before.
To be fair, the locals were just as vicious with each other. But that was why I’d purposely dressed the way I had, even though Troy had asked if army gear was a little over the top. I had cutoff cargo shorts and a camouflage top. But psyching the other teams out was all part of the game.
Then there was the most important item.
“I’m all prepared,” I said, pointing to my backpack and jiggling it around a bit. It was heavy. “It’s all food that we can eat on the run.” Fruit, nuts, protein bars. It also had various other survival items—flashlight, medical kit, and a knife—just in case we got into any tricky situations.
Troy looked horrified at the idea of eating on the run. Right. So it seemed that when he thoroughly read the rulebook, he didn’t quite take in the severity of the situation. The fact that there were no official breaks. “No stops,” I said.
“What about the bathroom?”
I glanced up at him. “You hold it in.”
He gulped.
I had gotten thirteen hours sleep the night before so I could go the entire twenty-four hours without sleeping. And if I really needed them, there were caffeine pills in my bag. But usually the hunt kept me so hyped all night that I ran on adrenaline all the way through, then collapsed at the end. I had only ever missed one race and that was the precious year when I’d been overseas in Bali. That had just made me even more hyped up for this one.
I had a chance to say a word to Matt while Claire filled out the signup sheet, right before we took off. “Where is J?”
“At Mum and Dad’s for the night,” he said, then laughed a little. “Not that she didn’t put up a major fight at being left out of the hunt.”
Yep, I could just imagine the scene. J would have thrown a major fit and tried to convince Matt that she was old enough to take part. Probably would have stowed away in a backpack if she could and started her own team just to show us all how grown up she was. But an all-nighter for an eight-year old was not a good idea. “You played it right. Even if she’s in a rotten mood for the next week.”
Claire finished signing up and I dashed away before we had a chance to meet eye to eye. I didn’t even want to risk the awkward moment where we weren’t sure whether we were supposed to say hello, or just snub each other and pretend the other one didn’t exist. I pushed back to the front and shot her a glare over my shoulder.
“You don’t need to look so nervous, Troy,” I said as the first gun went off and people began to scatter. Each team had been given a piece of paper with the first clue on it and people began to run in random directions just hoping they’d chosen the right way while they tried to read the clue.
Mayor Strang had explained that there were twelve clues, each leading toward the final clue where th
e winner would find the five thousand dollars.
I unfolded the first clue. “We just have to follow all the clues, find certain items, and then there’s a pot of treasure at the end. It’s always been like that in Eden Bay. Makes it more fun. More intense.” And this time, there really was treasure. Usually it was just a voucher or a year’s worth of free meat from the butchers. Plus, you got to have your photo on the front page of the paper.
But I could see the worry hit him. Oh boy. Poor Troy. He’d thought this was going to be a fun little stroll around town for the afternoon, collecting items and taking in some fresh air and sun. Yeah, yeah, sounds real peaceful and relaxing, bud. Nice dream. In reality, it was more like an all-night brawl. And I could tell the regret was kicking in. “It’s too late to pull out now,” I said. “We’ve completed the signup sheet.” I made it sound like he’d be breaking a law by pulling out, when of course, there was literally no penalty for stopping any time you wanted to. There should have been, though.
Troy gulped and tried to throw me a reassuring smile. “Of course. I’m in this for the long haul. Ready to win it.” He rubbed his hands together.
Sure.
I stopped and looked at him. This would be the last time I stopped all hunt, but I had to make one thing clear. “You’d better be, Troy. This competition is intense. You’re going to see and experience things tonight that are going to change you forever. Things you’re not prepared for. Now, are you really in? All in?”
He read over the clue I’d passed him and nodded. “I am all in, Alyson. You can count on it.”
No more stopping.
I ran.
The first clue was simple, like it always was. It lulled contestants into a false sense of security. Made them think it would be easy. Even Troy was proud of himself for figuring out the clue. The clue was, “Your lungs might thank you for only smoking this.” I just humored him and pretended I hadn’t figured it out too, even though I had. I needed to build his confidence.
It was leading us to the skate rink. The half-pipe.
The item to collect here was, cheesily enough, an actual pipe, so we had to find where they had been hidden. The next clue would be inside.
I glanced behind me as I jogged into the park. Even though it was an easy clue, we were the first ones there thanks to the fact the we had sprinted, and I had just happened to guess the correct direction. The skatepark was slightly inland of the beach, going west. I tried not to let Troy see that I needed to catch my breath when I reached the half-pipe. In spite of his medical problems, he had completed the sprint, in sunlight, without even breaking a sweat.
“So, this is where the pipes and the clues are supposed to be, right?” Troy looked around in confusion when we walked all over the pipe and didn’t find anything.
Yeah. Apparently.
He re-read the clue. “There’s no one else here. Did I read the clue wrong?”
He looked so disappointed that I didn’t have the heart to say, “Maybe.” Because he was right—there was absolutely no one else here. Maybe the clue had nothing to do with skating at all. Maybe it was far more literal and we were supposed to head to the cigar shop. That was probably where Claire had gone. She’s a more literal thinker than I am. I’ve got more of the lateral brain.
“Look!” I said, pointing toward the hill where two people in matching shirts were racing up so fast that one of them had to pause for a minute to take a hit of his asthma inhaler. “There’s another team!”
Suddenly, I was frantic. We were in the right place. We just had to find the pipes.
Troy had an idea, but I thought it was ridiculous. He thought we should leave the skate pipe and check the nearby tunnel. But why would there be a bunch of loose pipes inside the tunnel that linked the skatepark to the beach? No one even went inside that tunnel. There was water collecting on the bottom because it was dank and wet in there all the time. There wasn’t a single part of Eden Bay that I would ever describe as “scary” per se, but that tunnel was the closest thing. No one went inside it. I wasn’t afraid to, though. I just didn’t particularly want to.
But underneath the park and into the tunnel was where he went. I hung back for a moment just waiting, sure he was wrong. Luckily, that man’s asthma had delayed them by a few minutes.
“Troy?” I called out when he didn’t return after a few seconds. I could hear more footsteps. I craned my neck to see which team was approaching us. Oh no! It was Claire and Matt coming up the hill. If they’d detoured to the tobacco shop, then they had set the course right now. “TROY!” I bellowed again.
He was backing out slowly from the tunnel. But not slow enough that he didn’t bang right into me. “Ow!”
“I don’t think you want to go in there, Alyson,” he whispered softly as he turned around, a haunted look on his face.
“Like heck I don’t,” I said, pushing him aside, completely oblivious to the fact that he was white-faced and shaking. I guess I thought that treasure hunts just weren’t his thing. But he hadn’t even found the next clue. “Let me at it.”
And yep. I sure did find a pile of pipes with teeny bits of paper sticking out of them. But I also found something far more grim.
Let’s just say, I didn’t remember a dead body being on the list of treasure hunt items.
4
Claire
Matt was trying to hold me back to protect me from whatever was inside that tunnel. The cops were already on their way and there was that same familiar sinking feeling in my stomach. Not again. But there was also that old feeling in my chest, where my heart beat a little faster and adrenaline pushed me forward. Let me see. I can help.
Because I suddenly had the feeling that it was more than just a treasure hunt we were solving that day. “You don’t need to protect me, Matt…” I started to say, and suddenly, I had a flashback to ten years earlier in that very same spot. The same day I had stopped skating, at least seriously, at least with the intention of ever making it professionally. It had been Matt who had been there for some reason, who had held me back and said the pipe was too high for me to land the trick I was trying. I hadn’t listened. Why would I listen to my best friend’s older brother? I had thought at the time, indignant. Of course I didn’t listen.
I’d ended up with a shattered wrist and a stay in the hospital.
Still. I did the same thing, ten years later, and pushed past him. Better to see for myself, do my own thing and get hurt, rather than stand back and watch from the sidelines.
I recognized the guy. Brett Falcon. My stomach dropped. Another flashback to ten years earlier when Brett and I and the rest of the gang had been down at the skatepark every day after school. And before. And very occasionally when we were supposed to be at school. Who would do this to Brett?
Seeing that Alyson was already on the scene—maybe even the one who’d found the body—was like nails on a chalkboard to me. Matt really was going to have to hold me back at this rate. Otherwise, I was going to push past her. Knock her down if I had to. Climb over her. Okay, so I’d never actually do anything like that. She would though, if the situation was reversed.
I could hear Alyson say something to Troy. She was far away, but it was something like, “Well, if we don’t tell anyone about this right away then the hunt can continue…” Surely not. The cops would already be on their way. They couldn’t stop this from getting out.
Troy rightfully told her that was insane. At least someone was thinking sensibly. But that wasn’t going to stop her. She reached down and picked up one of the pipes containing the next clue, then started to run.
“What are you doing?” I called out. They were the first words I had spoken to her in weeks.
She spun around and waved the pipe at me, sticking her tongue out at me like she was four years old. “Good luck, Princess! See ya later!” But Troy reached out for Alyson’s arm and stopped her.
I had no idea what any of us were supposed to do, so I looked at Matt for an answer. He shrugged. “No one has
officially called the hunt off yet.”
“There is a dead body!” I pointed at Brett laying inside the tunnel. “Am I crazy? Can no one else see this?”
According to Alyson, the cops were coming and there was nothing any of us could do.
“Fine,” I said, crossing my arms and feeling awfully smug. “You get on with your little game then.” I glanced over at Matt. “Meanwhile, we will get on with the much more important task of discovering who actually killed Brett Falcon.”
Alyson’s face fell, and her mouth dropped open. I knew that would get to her.
But then she collected herself. There was a simmer in her eyes. Uh oh. What was she planning? “Well, I don’t see why I can’t do both!” And then she just ran off.
I turned to Matt and threw my arms up in frustration. Typical. She’d just left us there to deal with the mess. “Why is your sister like that? I blame you.”
He just laughed a little. “She’s the most competitive person I’ve ever met.”
Somehow, I managed to take offense to that. “What about me?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “So now you’re getting competitive over who can be the most competitive?”
“That’s right. I want to know right here and now. Which of us do you think is more competitive?” Uh oh. There were other teams approaching. He’d better answer quick. I reached down and grabbed one of the pipes just in case. I wasn’t out of the race yet.
He looked apologetic. “I’m sorry, Claire, but Alyson does outrank you a bit. She is crazy, scarily competitive.”
Yeah. Well, I would show him. I pulled the next clue out and read it. But I was interrupted by the sound of sirens.
The police were there. But the treasure hunt was still on. And now it was really winner takes all.
5
Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 47