Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Stacey Alabaster

  Claire had finally returned my text. I’d told her about Kate hours earlier, and she had ignored it. Now her message simply said, “Okay. And do you know that for a fact?”

  “I need to talk to you. Immediately. Meet me at the pier,” I replied bluntly. Well, if she was going to wait two hours to reply to me, then I was going to be a little blunt. It was only fair.

  She didn’t reply though, and I was ready to throw my phone out the window. Meanwhile, Maria was staring at me, waiting for some sort of explanation.

  I sat down at one of the small desks. They were really made and meant for children, but I was able to squeeze into them without snapping them.

  I told her everything. Then braced myself for her opinion.

  Maria was thoughtful.

  “It sounds like you’re spending most of your energy thinking about how this decision will affect other people,” she said. She perched on the edge of another desk. She was quite a large lady, and I wondered if she would be too heavy for it, but the desk seemed to hold steady. “What do you actually want, Alyson?”

  Erm, she was right. Usually I was so clearheaded about what I wanted. The things I liked and didn’t like. Black and white. Right and wrong. Good and bad. But she was right: I had gotten this decision all mixed and muddled up because I was so worried about what other people would think, like I was breaking promises to them all and letting them down.

  “I already let you down, Maria,” I said, hanging my head again. Whatever happened to the defiant Alyson I used to be? “I’m sorry.”

  She sighed and laughed. “Well, I will get over it, dear. You need to decide what is best for you. You need to follow your heart, even if that doesn’t look like what you thought it would.”

  I stared into the ocean. This was peace. This was all I had ever known. Was it worth leaving peace behind just for a chance of something different? Something I might not even like?

  Claire approached. As slowly as possible of course. She always moved at a languid pace.

  “I don’t have long,” she said, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “I’ve got plans in an hour.”

  I was a little surprised to hear that, given that my brother was in jail. Had she replaced him with someone else already? Well, she certainly moved fast.

  “What’s his name?” I said, already resigned to the fact that Claire was seeing someone else. Well, maybe this was all for the best. It was clearly never going to work out between them. They were from two different worlds, after all. He was a surfer boy, she was a…hang on, wasn’t that an Avril Lavigne song?

  Claire sighed a little. “Her name is Kate. And we are just hanging out.”

  “What can you and Kate possibly have in common?” I asked, astounded. “I mean, apart from the obvious. But I would have thought that would just make things super awkward. I mean, what do you guys sit around and talk about? How good of a kisser Matt is?” Eww. I’d just grossed myself out.

  Claire rolled her eyes. “Obviously not. Come on, tell me what you dragged me all the way down here to tell me.”

  This actually was gonna be awkward now. “Did you know that Kate was back here in Eden Bay on the day that Arthur was killed?”

  Claire’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. “No, she wasn’t, Alyson. She only arrived at Captain’s a day later. I saw her bags at the restaurant on the day she arrived. She only came back to help out!”

  She was speaking so loudly and defensively that I couldn’t even but in to get a word in edgewise.

  “Hang on, hang on,” I said, finally interjecting. “I know you love Kate all of a sudden, but I thought you were a little more reasonable than this… Whatever happened to your love of ‘facts’ and ‘logic’?” I said, using finger quotes on both words.

  “That is exactly what I am doing,” she said coolly. “It’s you who is making up a wild story just because…” She stopped speaking and looked sad. Her voice went soft. “I know that you are terrified that Matt is in jail. But we need to keep our cool heads, and wild accusations aren’t going to help anyone.”

  And with that, she turned and walked away. And I felt truly alone in the world at that moment. There was temporary relief when my phone buzzed and it was an incoming call from Rachael.

  “Hello?” I asked frantically. “What is the update?”

  She hadn’t printed my story about Reinhold and the letter. She was calling to tell me to drop it, to back off, that it was too much of a dicey situation. So it had all been for nothing. And I was fired from The VRI. I’d gotten an email from Reinhold that morning.

  Instead, there was another article coming out, Rachael told me. And she wanted to warn me to brace myself. This one quoted both Claire and Kate. The two scorned lovers.

  And they had both told Rachael how guilty they thought Matt was.

  Now the whole town would read it and know that even the people who loved Matt had turned against him.

  I was starting to think there wasn’t a drop of hope left in the entire ocean.

  16

  Claire

  I picked up the iron in one hand, a fist of hair in the other, and straightened out a kink. I mean, it certainly wasn’t like I was going on a date, but I wanted to look my best. Hmm. I checked out my roots. They were getting a little too dark. Not icy blonde enough. A trip to the salon was definitely on the horizon. Maybe the next day.

  I always have this fear that I am going to die with bad hair.

  But I’d be safe that night. I was only going to the movies with Kate. Sure. Alyson had tried to tell me some crazy story, but she was sounding desperate. And a little crazy. Besides, I wasn’t about to let these crazy rumors get in the way of a good night now. It was a wine and cheese night underneath the stars while a classic movie played. That evening it was Good Morning Vietnam. Right on the beach as well on the projector screen. Perfect weather for it.

  Kate brought the picnic blanket and set it up while I went and got our wine and food from the little pop-up stall. We were at the back of the group because we’d arrived a little later and all the prime spots were gone. Still, it was pretty great.

  “Oh my goodness,” I said, nodding over toward the people on the blanket beside us. “They are brave, having milkshakes.” They were in take-out cups and had the label of the pop-up stall on them, even though I hadn’t realized they were on the menu.

  “You had one the other day!” Kate exclaimed with a laugh. “So I guess that must make you equally as brave.”

  “Yeah, but that’s only because you made it for me and I knew for a fact you couldn’t be the killer.”

  Kate sat up straight and shrugged. “You should have a milkshake if you want,” she said. “There is no danger now.”

  I gulped on my wine and almost choked on it. Well, that was pretty damning. That meant that Kate really thought Matt was guilty. That the right person was in jail.

  Kate gave me a strange look. “Come on,” she said, wanting me to admit something. “It’s not like the two of you were going anywhere, anyway.”

  Well, maybe we were, maybe we weren’t. But that was mine and Matt’s business, not something that Kate got to decide for us. When I went quiet and didn’t answer, Kate must have realized she’d said something to put me off, because she offered to get up and go and get the milkshakes for us.

  I just nodded without really thinking about it. Milkshakes were always my comfort food—were milkshakes a food or a drink—and I needed some comforting. She remembered my order. Extra ice cream. Extra chocolate.

  She’d left her phone open on the blanket while she was gone. I knew I shouldn’t have looked at it. Not my usual style. I don’t like anyone touching or going through my things, so I give that same respect to other people. But I had Alyson’s voice in my head. And Alyson never had a problem touching other people’s things.

  I only wished that she were there with me that evening.

  I made sure Kate still had her back turned. She’d reached the front of the line and she was ordering.
I reached out and slid the phone across the blanket, the screen still unlocked by the time I picked it up. And I quickly opened and checked all her open apps and browsing history.

  My stomach sunk as I just saw shot after shot of Matt’s face. And mention after mention of his name no matter what window or app I had open.

  So, she still followed Matt even though she had claimed she didn’t. She’d told me that she had removed him from all her social media. That she was completely and utterly one hundred percent over him.

  Yeah, right.

  Her entire browsing history was her obsessively checking Matt’s profiles. In fact, it seemed that she spent her time on her phone doing little else. I gulped and checked again that she was still waiting for the milkshakes. I could see the girl behind the counter, mixing in the ice cream with the syrup, the sound drowning out the crowd noises. But Good Morning Vietnam was about to start, and the ushers were advising everyone to take their seats—or blankets—and to shush.

  I was frantically looking through Kate’s apps, trying to find proof that what Alyson had said was right, that Kate was back days earlier than she had claimed to be.

  There it was.

  There was a selfie of her with the Eden Bay beach in the background, taken on the day that Arthur died. Oh my gosh, my hands were shaking as I scrolled through. My heart raced. The girl handed Kate the milkshakes and I thought she was on her way back, but then she stopped. It seemed like she was asking for a tray to carry them, which the attendant had to go and hunt for. I still had a few more seconds to find what I needed.

  She had screenshot the pic of Matt kissing my cheek at Captain Eightball’s. The post about his new promotion.

  There were skull emoji’s all over it.

  It was the post that had sent her off. Sent her over the edge.

  Kate turned and came right toward me, the milkshakes sloshing back and forth.

  And that was when I realized I was in big danger.

  17

  Alyson

  I knew the ocean would give me the answers I needed. It always did. And now I was content with my decision. I went back to my apartment and lit some incense. Put on some chilled-out music.

  Everyone’s path in this life was different and it was okay to follow my heart, no matter what that looked like

  My path was always here. My heart was here, in Eden Bay. Not to mention my family. It was strange. I never would have thought that the advice from Maria was right, and it took someone else saying it to me to realize how right it was. Usually when people talk about ‘following your heart,’ they take it to mean that you need to wander far and wide to ‘find yourself.’ But a heart can want all kinds of things. Sometimes you didn’t have to go anywhere to follow your heart.

  And there was no way I would leave my family right when they needed me the most. My heart would always be first and foremost with them. And after that, Eden Bay. It had my heart, hard.

  There was a knock at the door, and J flew into my arms. “Hey, Auntie Alyson!” Her old room—well ‘room’ was actually a segment of the apartment that was barricaded off for her— was still all done up and decorated and not changed a bit since she had moved in with Matt full-time. “So you don’t mind being back here full-time, kiddo?”

  She shook her head and jumped up and down on her bed, which I usually didn’t let her do. But hey, it was a special occasion and she was happy. Let her be happy for a while. She still didn’t know where Matt really was. It was just lucky that it had been a school holiday for the local school kids that week, and as a nine-year-old, she had no interest in reading the local newspaper.

  My mum gave me a brief hug. “And you’ll be okay with having her back here full-time?”

  I took J’s bag off her. “Of course. Family comes first. J comes first.”

  I stopped and stared over the beach while I set J’s bag down. I could see right down to where they were having the ‘movies under the stars’ night at the beach. I could make out Claire’s little blonde head there on a rainbow-colored blanket. And Kate was heading toward her with two milkshakes in her hands.

  I always trust my instincts.

  And this time, they were telling me something was up.

  “Mum. I need your help for just a little bit longer.”

  Claire was smart in some ways but very naive in others, and there was no way that she would have figured this out on her own. So it was up to me to save the day as per usual.

  I raced over the sand like I was performing in a triathlon. I had to get there before Kate handed Claire the milkshake—and Kate had awfully long legs. It was neck and neck all the way. She was weaving her way through the crowd, balancing the milkshakes on a tray. I had a clear run up from the back, but I had to leap over one family’s picnic basket in a last-ditch effort to reach Claire’s rainbow-colored blanket before she consumed the deadly liquid…

  “Don’t drink that!” I screamed as I jumped in front of Kate to protect Claire.

  I heard Claire start to say, “I’d already figured that out!” But by that stage, my hand was already in the air and I was already fired up to take a hit. There was no stopping me then.

  I smacked the milkshake out of Kate’s hand and it went flying…people squealed as it went up and then came back down. And most of it landed in a loud ‘splash’ on the top of Claire’s head. She gasped and looked down at the mess.

  “Shut your mouth! You don’t want to swallow any of that!” I screamed as Claire stood up, milkshake dripping off her hair and designer clothes, her hairstyle completely ruined. Somehow, I just knew that would be her biggest grievance about the whole thing.

  But as long as she didn’t swallow any of the poison, we would all be all right.

  There were screams as Kate tried to run, but I leapt over four other blankets and tackled her to the ground while Claire rang the police—and tried to clean the milk out of her hair.

  Talk about your milkshake mayhem.

  “I knew,” she said a little later, the milk still dripping off strange areas while Kate was being taken away. “She was still obsessed with Matt this entire time. She framed him so that he would lose his job.” She sighed. “I knew it must have been her because the milkshake was strawberry, which couldn’t have masked the taste very well. So it wasn’t pre-mediated. It was done out of anger and spite when she saw that picture.”

  “And she was going to take you down as well,” I stated as we watched the police car pull away. And no one would have suspected anything because my brother was in jail.

  “Should we…” I asked, unsure of how Claire would feel about the whole thing now. I hoped she still wanted to see my brother.

  “Of course,” she said quietly. “Let’s go and get Matt home.”

  I let them have a few moments to themselves as Matt walked out of the cell. I had no idea what words they exchanged. I saw them hug, a little awkwardly, and wondered if things could ever go back to normal now.

  Matt grinned as he greeted me at the door. “So,” he said, with a happy, relieved smile as he put his arm around my shoulders and we walked out of the station together. Both free as the birds, to do whatever we liked. But just because you are free, it doesn’t mean you need to go too far. Sometimes being free means that you are free to stay right where you are. “Right before all this happened, you told me you had something important that I needed to hear. Something serious…”

  I cleared my throat. “I did have something to say. I was going to tell you how much I love both you and J and how the two of you are my whole world. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Matt squeezed me tight. “I’m glad to hear it, sis. I am glad to hear it.”

  Epilogue

  Claire

  The opening strains of the first song rang out and soon there would be two dozen nine-year-olds on stage, strutting their stuff and singing loudly off-key.

  Alyson was backstage somewhere, getting up to an adventure on her own. I think she was trying to convince the principle to let her d
esign the backdrops for the next one. She was staying put in Eden Bay. Making the most of every opportunity she had now—just closer to home.

  Matt reached over and squeezed my hand. “Are you excited?” he asked with a laugh. Of course, he was super proud of J, but he must have thought that I considered a school musical to be a little kitsch, or below me, hence the laughter.

  I squeezed his hand back and assured him that was not the case. “I really am,” I said, then flicked through the program guide. All the kids grinning.

  What would it be like to have one of my own?

  The curtain opened, and it was time for Jesus Christ Superstar to start.

  J was searching the audience for us as she started to sing.

  She sang better than I had ever expected. Matt leaned over and whispered to me, “The two of you should sing together sometime. J would love that.”

  I nodded a little and sat back in my seat.

  J had always treated me like an aunt, I supposed. Was I ready to be her mum, essentially?

  She already had Alyson. She already had Matt.

  Matt was bopping along to the music. I knew that he was happy, because he was starting a brand-new job the following day. It was a brand-new era for him. No more Captain Eightball’s. He didn’t want to go back to work at a place that had thrown him under the bus like that.

  He was all set to manage The VRI. Now that really was a step up in the world. And I was proud as punch of my guy.

  During the course of the show, there were times when the kids on stage were drowned out by the kids in the audience. Plenty of the kids performing had even younger siblings in the audience and not all of them cared for the charms of Jesus Christ Superstar.

  Babies, babies, babies. They were everywhere I looked… And everywhere I looked, they seemed to be screaming to get out of there.