Traveling Town Cozy Mystery Box Set

by Ami Diane

  “Must be up late working Charles’s case.”

  They watched quietly for a few moments. Incidentally, his office was right across the street from their target, with a window-perfect view of the office they would be breaking into.

  Not good.

  After tugging Flo’s sleeve, they resumed their trek and turned down the narrow alley that ran between the store and the Community Services Office.

  Wink was already at the back, standing under the correct window alongside a ladder.

  “There you two are. I was beginning to think you got lost.”

  “You know how it is with old Moses, here.” Ella jerked her head in Flo’s direction. “I thought we made good time, considering.” Cold air hit her lungs as she took a deep breath. “Did you see Chapman in his office?”

  “I did.” Disappointment laced Wink’s voice. “Nothing we can do about it, though.”

  “You still want to break in?”

  “Why not? If we’re quiet and hide our lights, he’ll be none the wiser.”

  “And if he happens to look across the street and see flashlights moving around inside…?”

  “We’ll close the door to the filing room.”

  Flo made a snorting noise like a horse. “Honestly, live a little, Poodle Head.”

  Before Ella could retort, a dark form moved on Wink’s shoulder, causing Ella to jump. “What the—is that Chester?”

  Wink nodded, petting the rodent’s head with a delicate finger. Chester’s tail flicked above his all-black outfit, matching his owner in attire, including a black hat perched between his tall, pointy ears.

  Shaking her head, Ella chose not to comment further and, instead, tested a rung on the ladder. It was one of those heavy-duty, extendable ones, and Wink had it already leaning against the brick. The height of the window was a bit too tall for them to mount without aid, and the last time Ella had required their assistance to boost her up to a window, it hadn’t gone so well.

  “How did you get this here without Chapman seeing?”

  “I stuck it on top of my car and parked a few blocks over on J Street.”

  Ella looked behind them at the fence that separated the property from the back of a house that sat on J Street, the road that ran parallel to Main.

  “Right,” she said, pulling her attention back to the ladder. “Here we go.”

  “Uh-uh,” Flo said. “Me first this time. You have all the fun.”

  “Fine. Just don’t take all night.” Ella released her grip from the metal, standing aside.

  True to form, Flo took a rung at a time at the speed of a turtle. Ella glanced at her watch and let out several loud sighs.

  When Flo reached the window, she clung to the side of the ladder with one hand and pushed up on the window frame with the other. After several attempts, she let out a grunt that was swallowed by the chilly air.

  “Won’t budge.”

  “What? That’s not possible. I unlocked it.” Ella yanked on the woman’s slacks until she climbed down, and they switched places.

  Below, Wink craned her hot pink head up, watching Ella struggle with the pane. “El, did you happen to try opening it from the inside to see if it wasn’t sealed shut?”

  “I couldn’t. Betty—”

  “Susan.”

  “—was watching.”

  Strength poured through Ella’s fingers as she simultaneously pressed on the glass and pushed up. She strained until she was certain of popping the blood vessels in her neck, but the window was as stubbornly steadfast as the wall to which the window was attached.

  She hissed out air, relaxing her shoulders. “How about that? It’s stuck shut.”

  Wink made a noise below her. “Must’ve been painted shut at some point.”

  “Well, that would’ve been nice to know before using my ninja skills this afternoon to unlock it.”

  “The ninja skills where you were dangling from a cabinet and got caught?” Wink asked. “Those skills?”

  “You’re starting to sound like Flo,” Ella mumbled, hopping off the ladder when she reached the bottom.

  The soggy turf squelched underfoot, making her wince. She did not want to think about the layers of mud covering her good, white sneakers.

  Beside her, Flo rubbed her palms together. “Looks like we’ll have to go with my plan.” A Cheshire grin caught the wan light from Wink’s flashlight.

  Reaching out, Ella stilled Flo’s hands. “What’d I tell you about being creepy? Especially in the middle of the night and in this weather.” She released Flo’s knobby hands and searched out Wink’s face in the dark. “Is there no other way to get inside?”

  It was a long moment before her boss responded. “No, unfortunately. Flo’s right.”

  Like a sprinter off the blocks, Flo took that as a green light and bent over the bag Ella had hefted over from the inn.

  Ella leaned toward Wink, and in a loud whisper, said, “Have you ever seen her move so fast?”

  Flo’s voice floated up from where she hunched over the ground, working with the climbing equipment she’d procured. “Heard that.”

  “Good. You were supposed to.” Ella cleared her throat, eyeing the harness in Flo’s hand warily. “On a more serious note, have you ever done this before?”

  “Climbed?” Wink answered for her. “Plenty of times.”

  “It’s pronounced clumb,” Flo corrected.

  Ella shook her head. “Nope, it’s not. It literally is not. My God, we need to have a discussion about the education system in this town.”

  “Another time, dear.” Wink patted Ella’s arm before grabbing a harness from Flo. Meanwhile, Chester clung to her shoulder, chittering indignantly at being jostled about as Wink stepped into the harness.

  Grumbling about her friends’ questionable sanity, Ella pulled a harness up to her hips before tightening it. By the time she turned toward the building, Wink and Flo had extended the ladder above the second story. It just kissed the gutter, adding to Ella’s numerous safety concerns.

  “That doesn’t look very secure.”

  But Wink was already ascending, her lean limbs sprawling up the rungs like a spider monkey. When she reached the top, Chester leaped off her and disappeared over the side.

  The metal bit into Ella’s palms as she climbed. She focused her gaze on each rung of the ladder, not for fear of heights, but because each glance up was a vista of Flo’s backside.

  When she reached the top, Flo flipped over with a squeal followed by a loud thunk as she landed on the roof. Ella followed her over, kicking her legs over the side and being careful not to step on the supine figure sprawled out on the roof.

  The top of the building was flat, sprinkled with light gravel and interspersed with vents. In the center lay the skylight.

  While Wink helped Flo to her feet, Ella flicked on her flashlight, partially covering the light with a hand to disperse the beam, and glanced over the edge that faced Main Street.

  Across the way, the sheriff’s light was still on. His boots were now propped up on his desk, and a stack of papers was clutched in his hands, indicating he would be a while yet. Outside, his horse—named Horse—was tied to a hitching post, a blanket draped over him.

  Sliding back, she inspected the seal around the skylight. A moment later, the sound of scuffling and curses floated softly through the night as Wink and Flo joined her.

  “Thanks for your help back there,” Flo said, uncomfortably close to Ella’s face.

  “Anytime.” She stared absently, only half listening.

  “The crank’s over there.” Wink pointed to the far end of the window inlaid in the floor. “The skylight serves a dual purpose to allow access to the roof, as well as to let light in.”

  “Too bad they didn’t build stairs, instead.”

  Wink shrugged and shot her a what-are-you-going-to-do glance.

  Ella turned to Flo. “What now, Spiderman?”

  It was too dark to see the woman’s expression, but Ella made out the
woman’s form as she tied off the rope to a sturdy-looking vent pipe that stuck out of the roof about a foot.

  Then, Flo fidgeted with the fastenings on her harness, feeding the rope through a part Ella couldn’t make out. A few feet over, Wink appeared to be doing the same with another length of rope pulled from the bag.

  The extent of Ella’s climbing knowledge was limited to the playground near her childhood home and one unfortunate incident involving a treehouse and a broken ladder, neither of which included climbing gear.

  Ella watched Wink move skilled hands over something—either a pulley or carabiner or probably neither.

  Feeling useless, Ella worked the crank for the window. It rose slowly like the maw of a monster opening to swallow them. Next, Flo’s feet dangled through the window, and her arm pulled the rope into a tight line from the pipe to her harness. Without preamble, she slipped over the edge. The rope snapped tautly, and the pipe groaned but held.

  Ella tensed, waiting for the sound of bones breaking and words cursing, but neither ever came. She peered over the edge.

  “You alive?”

  “‘Course I’m alive. It’s only about eight feet. Drop me a light, will ya?”

  Ella obliged. This time, she did hear a thunk and stream of profanities.

  “You did that on purpose.”

  Yes, she had.

  Wink sidled up to the edge, swung her feet over, and lowered herself in an inch at a time, the rope feeding through her hands while Chester sat perched atop her hat-covered fuchsia head.

  Once Wink had disappeared, Ella stuck her head into the faintly lit abyss. “You expect me to just figure this out on my own?”

  Both lines went slack, then there was a hissing sound as they pulled the ropes down through the skylight.

  Wink’s and Flo’s bobbing flashlights faded as they moved downstairs, abandoning Ella. They hadn’t heard her.

  Flicking her light on again, Ella looked from the duffle bag to her harness, trying to make heads or tails of the equipment.

  Eight feet. Flo had said that the drop was only eight feet.

  A decision made, she dropped the bag—rope and all—through the window. After tucking her flashlight into her bra, she turned and lowered her feet through the opening, laying on her stomach and gripping the edges.

  Softly, she hummed the theme song for Mission Impossible, hoping to psyche herself up. The hard window frame dragged across her stomach as she slid over the edge. After a moment of panic whereby she flailed her legs as she dangled in the air, she dropped the few feet to the floor.

  She landed, wheeled her hands in the air to maintain balance, then dabbed at the sweat that dappled her forehead. “Pf, who needs climbing gear?”

  She quickly threw the bag over her shoulder and located the stairs. When she reached the ground floor, she glanced out the front window, noting that Chapman still sat in his office.

  Once she reached the filing room, she closed the door most of the way to hide their lights.

  “Thanks for the assist up there, ladies.”

  “No problem,” Flo said.

  Several drawers were already pulled out, and both women were rifling through their contents. Their flashlights danced in the dark like fireflies on a summer’s night.

  Chester perched himself on top of the cabinet beneath the offending, stubborn window, tail flicking with interest.

  “Find anything yet?”

  “You mean in the two minutes we’ve been searching?” Flo asked.

  “No is an option. You could’ve just said, ‘no’.”

  “Focus, you two.” Wink was on her second drawer, her fingers running over the tabs in search of the requisition forms.

  Splaying the light in front of her, Ella pulled out a drawer opposite them and raked her gaze across the tabs, bending them back for easier reading.

  They worked in silence for several minutes. Ella was on her second filing cabinet, having found nothing more than expense reports and the minutes for the town hall meetings, the latter of which took up an entire cabinet.

  She was just about to slam the drawer shut when a label, written in fine, neat handwriting, jumped out at her. Curious, Ella tugged the folder out of the tightly packed drawer and let it fall open on top of the files.

  “What are property records doing in this office?” she asked as she rifled through the stack of papers.

  “This building doubles as the County Clerk’s office,” Wink explained.

  Ella sifted through county assessor files and copies of property deeds. She knew she should be focusing on locating the requisition forms, but she also was curious to see if she could locate any paperwork regarding the inn.

  A familiar name caught her eye and gave her pause.

  Charles Wilson.

  Her mouth turned down, and she adjusted the angle of her light. The address listed on the property record was someplace on Main Street.

  “Did Charles live above one of the shops?”

  Wink’s voice floated over the whisper of papers like rustling leaves. “No. He lived on Lake Drive.”

  “Where’s this place, then?” Ella walked over and held the paper under her boss’s nose.

  Wink paused, squinting to read the address. “Looks like that’s Jenny’s Salon.”

  Ella pulled out the next paper which also had Charles’s name on it. “And this one?”

  “The General Store.”

  Flo stopped amid her jostling of files and joined them, peering over Ella’s shoulder.

  The room quieted as Ella flipped to a third record. “And this?”

  The diner owner and Flo exchanged a look.

  “What?” Ella prodded Flo with her elbow. “What is it?”

  “That’s Sal’s place.”

  Chapter 16

  ELLA DIGESTED THE news in stride. The victim owned the property of one of the other candidate’s business, along with a few other local businesses. Did this have something to do with his death?

  She ruminated on this as she sifted through more property records, determining that Charles had owned nearly half of Main Street. Ella knew this was important information, but she was too tired to figure out how it all fitted together.

  With a squeak, the cabinet drawer slammed shut, and she returned her attention to searching for the forms.

  They worked in relative silence, shoving aside papers and folders, all the while, Ella’s shoulders began to seize from hunching so much, the tension of sneaking around, and hanging from the skylight.

  Across the room, Flo let out a loud noise crossed between a squeal and a grunt. She held up a faded folder in triumph, nearly spilling the papery guts onto the floor. “Found it!”

  Ella let out a breath of relief, set aside the papers she held, and stretched out her back. “That’s great, but maybe keep your voice down so Chapman doesn’t hear. You know, the sheriff sitting right across the street from the building we just broke into.”

  She tiptoed over to the door and peeked out.

  “Crap, the light’s off.”

  “Isn’t that good?” Flo said. “Means he’s gone.”

  “Is Horse still there?” Wink asked, taking the requisition forms from Flo and rifling through them.

  Ella hadn’t noticed the stallion which made her all the more nervous. Maybe it meant that he’d finally gone home, but she preferred the law dog where she could see him.

  She was just about to take another look when a crease formed between Wink’s brows.

  “What is it?” Ella sidled up to her boss and peered at the crinkled papers, most of them nothing more than carbon copies.

  “Something’s not right.” Wink dug into the right pocket of her black slacks and pulled out a folded pack of pink slips.

  After flattening them, she picked a copy from the stack, found the corresponding original form, and laid them side-by-side. “Stew gave me the copies of his requests.”

  Several items had been altered on the original. Ella ran her finger down the sheet, co
unting at least five bulk items that had had their quantities fudged, the numbers crudely drawn over in pencil, or items themselves had been scratched out and replaced with something entirely different, like strawberries for cucumbers.

  Ella pinched the bridge of her nose, working through the whole convoluted process. “Let me get this straight. Stew fills out his request, keeps one of the copies for himself and gives Patience the form, who then goes through the list and makes changes according to the available produce and crop yield projections from the greenhouses. She then sends the last copy to Mrs. Faraday, filing away the original, here.”

  “That’s the gist of it,” Wink said.

  “So, I fail to see a problem. Looks like Patience adjusted Stew’s supply according to what she thought best.”

  Wink turned to Flo. “Where’s the greenhouse reports you came across earlier?”

  Flo’s tower of hair bobbled as she moved to a different cabinet. After not-so-gracefully shoving folders aside, she came out with a medium-sized binder with the year 1961 printed on the front. It threw Ella for a moment before she realized 1961 was the year she currently resided in, although Keystone had been cut off from the outside world for ten years, thereby making it a time capsule of the early 1950s.

  She shook away the impending headache that hit anytime she tried to keep straight the time travel aspect of the town.

  The binder fell open, and Wink ran a thin finger down the table of contents. Quickly, she located the page she was looking for.

  “Look, see. There was a surplus in strawberries this year. So, why did Patience change his request? And here.” The pages crinkled as she flipped further towards the back of the binder. “Why cut his potato quantity in half?”

  “Potato famine?” Ella guessed, though she knew she was wrong, not only because it was the first thing that popped into her head but because the numbers were right there in front of her. The fields and greenhouses had harvested before the bitter cold of their previous location, and the numbers told the story of a good crop.

  “Hmm, so not a potato famine.” She tapped her chin. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

  Wink and Flo spoke at the same time. “What?”

  “I have no idea. I thought one of you would say it first, and then I’d agree.”