Traveling Town Cozy Mystery Box Set

by Ami Diane

  They drove south through town with the windows rolled down. The oppressive humidity inside won out over the putrid odor outside. Keystone whipped past in a blur of brick and aged whitewash fencing.

  Businesses gave way to residential houses on their right and the park on their left, which all gave way to fields and the wind farm. Wink slowed and turned right onto a dusty lane that bisected acres of grazing farmland.

  Cows stared stupidly at the car as it kicked up dirt. In the distance, a sheep bleated at the intrusion.

  They passed an old farmhouse with a sad yard, a broken-down tractor, and a rich garden. A couple of acres beyond that sat another farmhouse, slightly improved by a coat of paint that wasn’t peeling in the sun.

  An occupant darted from the front door to a bicycle. Ella only had a moment to register the face before the car was past him. She twisted around, but dust obscured her view.

  “That looked like Brandon Kirkland.”

  “Probably was,” Wink said, casually. “He and his mother live—lived there. I imagine he’ll inherit the place now. Not sure why they chose that home. They’ve never struck me as the farming type.”

  Ella turned this information over. From the passenger seat, Flo traced back the previous owners of the house with Wink, all the way back to the founding of the town.

  On the left, they passed a broken-down wagon. Weeds grew up around the spokes and broken axle. The lane ended, and Ella glimpsed the first bit of activity since leaving the inn save for Brandon.

  A handful of men in overalls and trousers in varying degrees of cleanliness ambled the perimeter of an expansive, enclosed field. They toted rifles and shotguns, their faces fixating on Wink’s car with wary expressions.

  They appeared haggard, and she couldn’t blame them. They’d probably had little sleep since the town jumped to its current location.

  “They’re really taking this protecting the livestock business seriously,” she observed.

  It underscored how dire the situation was. Keystone Village hovered over a precipitous balance of need versus the carrying capacity for what the town’s resources could handle. A shortage of meat and milk did not bode well for their future.

  “I hope his ranch hasn’t lost too much.” Wink pulled the car up to a one-story homestead with a sagging roofline that had more moss than shingles.

  As they got out, even Flo appeared engaged. A sentry sat on the fence a few yards away, his face partially tucked in under a cowboy hat. He cradled a rifle in his hands that Flo probably knew the make and model of.

  He nodded a greeting at them.

  Ella waved. “Hey, is the owner of the ranch… I want to say Bartholomew… is he inside?”

  He scrunched his face. “Who?”

  “She means George,” Wink said.

  “Yeah, ol’ George’s inside.”

  They rustled towards the front door to the farmhouse. Ella clutched the slingshot and muttered, “George… I was way off.”

  The screen door sagged in the doorframe. She rapped her knuckles on the outside then swatted away a large mosquito that floated on a stiff breeze.

  Finally, footsteps creaked on the other side, and the screen sighed as it opened. The rancher’s eyes were slits above puffy bags, and his hair looked like it had withstood a recent hurricane.

  “Sorry,” Ella began, “did we wake you?”

  “Yes,” he growled. “What do ya want?” His pupils slid over to Wink. “I already know who I’m voting for, and it ain’t you.”

  Wink pressed her lips into a line and fluffed up her pink hairdo. “That’s good to know, I suppose. But that’s not why we’re—”

  “Hold on a minute.” Flo stepped forward, the crossbow Ella had borrowed the night before in her hands. “Why aren’t you voting for her?”

  “It’s okay, Flo.”

  “No, I wanna know why he’d not vote for the smartest choice.”

  “Sal’s got more experience,” the rancher said. “And he got me my fencing.” He jutted his chin in the direction of the field.

  Ella’s eyebrows rose. She peered at the pasture again, noticing that thin electrical wiring ran haphazardly along the inside of the whitewashed fencing.

  “That was fast. I mean, wow. How’d you get it installed so quickly? I once helped a neighbor install a fence, and it took the better part of a year. Of course, we only worked on it weekends, and he liked to spend more time drinking than…”

  Wink cleared her throat.

  “Right,” Ella said, “Do you mind if we come in for a moment? I’m worried about malaria enough as it is. We don’t want to talk about the election.”

  She swatted another mosquito away that dive-bombed her face.

  He huffed and stepped aside. “Make it quick. Gotta go relieve when of my guys soon.”

  Ella nearly choked when they stepped into his living room. If it had been a sauna outside, it was a furnace inside, due in large part to a roaring fire in his hearth.

  “Crackers and cheese, are you nuts?” Unless the man was an aspiring wrestler trying to make his weight class, she didn’t understand his reasoning for the sweat lodge-style living room.

  “Keeps the mosquitos away. I’m also hoping the smell of smoke’ll keep the dinos away.”

  She gasped for air. “Is it working?”

  “Haven’t had an attack in over twenty-four hours, so I suppose it is.”

  The room swam around her. Reaching out, she gripped an end table to steady herself while the other hand discarded the sonic slingshot and fanned her face.

  “Mother of pearl. I think I see the ghosts of my ancestors.”

  Wink shot her a concerning look before saying, “We came by to ask you some questions if that’s alright.”

  “‘Bout what?”

  “We’re asking around, talking to anyone who saw Mary the day of the debate.”

  “Why?”

  “Just tying up loose ends.”

  “What loose ends? Wasn’t she killed by one of them dinos?”

  Ella had positioned herself near an open window after noticing Flo sucking air through the gap. The fresh air untangled her jumbled thoughts.

  “Chapman’s got his hands full and just wants to retrace Mary’s steps that day,” she said. “No biggie. By that, I mean, no big deal.”

  Beside her, Flo grunted as she struggled to open the window wider. She lent a hand while speaking.

  “I bumped into Mary coming out of the library that day and saw you, as well. We just wanted to ask about it.”

  “What do you wanna know?” His voice ground like rocks and sandpaper, clearly getting annoyed.

  “Well, for starters, how long were you at the library?”

  He scratched the stubble peppering his throat. “‘Bout an hour, I reckon.”

  “Was Mary in there that whole time?”

  “I guess. Didn’t pay her much attention.”

  “Do you go to the library often?”

  “What’s that matter?” He stalked to the fire and prodded it with a poker, causing the flames to flare.

  Ella muttered, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  She shoved Flo aside and practically sat in the open window. It didn’t matter if a thousand mosquitos made a buffet out of her. If she didn’t find relief, she was going to turn into jerky.

  “George, we’re just asking questions.”

  “I don’t see why I gotta answer ‘em.”

  Flo’s upper lip glistened as she finally piped up. “If you don’t have nothing to hide, you’ll answer them.”

  He shot her a dark look but spat, “Fine. I go in often. Nearly every Sunday after church.”

  “Really?” Ella couldn’t hide her surprise. “Good for you.” She coughed, sucking in another bout of sweet, sweet air. “You seemed pretty sore at Mary for not selling the electrical fencing to you.”

  “’Course I was. We lost three black Angus cows and two Texel sheep to them dinosaurs, and she wouldn’t do a thing about it.” His dark, le
athered skin glinted in the firelight as he searched their faces. “Why you askin’ me these things? You sound like she was murdered or something.”

  “Just tying up loose ends,” Ella repeated, although not very convincingly. The man had been furious at Mary and had access to her purse prior to the attack. It was highly probable that they were in the presence of her killer.

  “Look, I don’t know how you think I could get a dinosaur to attack that miserable cow, but if I’d wanted her dead, I would’ve taken a shotgun to her face.”

  Ella blanched at his blunt admission and glanced at the other two. Wink appeared equally as mortified, while Flo stared dreamily at him.

  “You still courting Gladys?” the crazy woman asked.

  Ella elbowed her hard, jarring Flo from her hypnotic gaze. Her thoughts returned to him going to the library so often. Why had she never seen him there?

  “What sort of books were you looking up in the library?”

  He bristled. “That’s none of your business.”

  Searching the scant belongings cluttering his living room, she grabbed an electrical bill from atop of an end table. “Here, read this.”

  “Why?”

  “To prove you can read.”

  He glared, and a growl that reminded her of a T. rex vibrated his throat. The paper tore as he snatched it from her hand. He began spouting off the contents of the bill, his eyes roving back and forth like a typewriter.

  Nodding, Ella said to the other two, “He checks out. He can read.”

  Wink sputtered. “Of course, he can read. That was never in question.”

  “Really?”

  At Ella’s elbow, Flo shook her head and called her several unsavory names, ending in numbnuts—a term Ella had taught her. Although, at the moment, she wished she hadn’t.

  The rancher’s face was as red as the glowing logs in the fireplace. Spittle formed at the corners of his mouth. He seemed about to explode, but before she got what promised to be a good tongue lashing, they were interrupted by shouting outside.

  The rancher scooped up his shotgun and tore out of the house.

  Wink shook her head at Ella, muttering, “Can he read?” before running out into the daylight.

  Ella shrugged at her sole audience, but Flo was too preoccupied loading her crossbow to notice. “Well, you never know. I don’t want to just assume everyone reads… or owns mirrors.”

  Flo jogged out onto the porch.

  With a sigh, Ella scooped up the slingshot and ran towards the commotion. The sweltering jungle outside felt like an oasis after being inside the smoky house.

  Ahead, the pasture was a frenetic chaos of stampeding cattle, weapons firing, and an allosaurus taller than the house. Ella stared in rapt horror, feeling helpless.

  A few yards away, Wink crouched behind her car, craning up at the reptile. Flo joined her, and Ella followed suit.

  The short arrow Flo shot from the crossbow whizzed through the air and landed at least a basketball court-length away from its quarry. She pulled another from her purse and began loading it.

  Meanwhile, a slew of men blasted their rifles at the reptile. It roared and angled away from the field of cows. For a moment, it seemed they’d succeeded in fending off the reptile until a shadow blotted out the sun above Ella.

  The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. The earth rumbled beneath her, and in the car’s reflection, something large moved against the backdrop behind her.

  She remained frozen, her eyes glued to the field full of panicked cows. “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I think we might have company.”

  She didn’t have to say more because the second allosaurus said it all. It loped across the driveway, shaking the car and creating craters wherever its feet stomped down.

  The rancher and all of his armed sentries were still chasing the first dinosaur down the dirt lane, unaware that a second, larger one moved in for the kill.

  The reptile barreled through the fence like it was toothpicks. Wood splintered and flew everywhere. There was a hiss when one of its legs met the barrier of electrical wires. It roared but didn’t slow.

  Flo let loose another arrow, but it fell harmlessly several yards shy.

  “Stupid thing.” She dove through the open passenger-side window. Her feet dangled in the air, revealing pasty legs as she bent inside to dig through her purse.

  “You know it’s unlocked, right?” Ella said.

  “Shut up and shoot!”

  Ella fumbled with the slingshot. After carefully aiming, she released the pull on the empty sling.

  A nearby tree exploded.

  “How do you aim this sucker?” Her voice came out shrill as the dinosaur stopped and turned towards the stump that had moments ago been a tree.

  Her chest tightened.

  “Wink, maybe you should start up the car for a quick getaway.”

  Wink stood transfixed. “Good idea.”

  The woman’s eyes remained trained on the creature while she sidled around to the driver’s side.

  Flo popped out of the passenger window, her face red from all of the blood flowing down. As it turned out, though, half of the coloration was due to anger.

  “Nothing! Where’s my grenade? Where’s my plasma cannon?” She glared at Ella.

  “You think I have them?!”

  “If you hadn’t taken my Plasma Cannon Two Thousand, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  As if on cue, one of the cattle made a heart-wrenching cry. Ella spun in time to see the gruesome sight and quickly looked away. They were too late.

  “Hurry, before it kills more.” Flo wrenched the sonic slingshot from Ella’s grip.

  “Flo, do you know how to aim that—”

  The rancher’s nearby flatbed pickup exploded in flames.

  “That would be a no.”

  Nevertheless, the fireball gave the dinosaur pause, long enough for Flo to level another shot. The dino recoiled and dropped its unfortunate meal. It released a wounded roar.

  “Nice shot, Flo!”

  The crazy woman loosed another hit that must’ve landed by the way the dinosaur began to retreat.

  The rancher and his posse were double-timing it back up the lane. The wounded allosaurus released another spine-tingling roar before charging across the field.

  It blasted through another section of fence and fled across the uninhabited expanse of fields south of town. It became a speck before disappearing into the distant jungle.

  Ella wiped her hands and turned to the rancher who was gasping for air, his shotgun gripped tightly in his hands.

  “Looks like our work here is done.” She smiled broadly, waiting for their accolades.

  “Is that my truck?”

  “Hmm?” The heat from the burning vehicle scorched her back. She didn’t bother turning around. “Should keep the mosquitos away for a while.”

  One of the tires exploded, causing everyone to jump.

  “Yep. Another job well done for the Keystone Gators.”

  Chapter 25

  WINK STARED IN her rearview mirror then swerved to stay on the main road. “Do you still see them?”

  Ella twisted around in the back seat. “No. I don’t think they wanted to leave the livestock unattended.”

  “I don’t see why he needed to shoot at us,” Flo said, sniffing from the front.

  “Might’ve been on account of you blowing up his truck,” Wink said.

  Ella nodded. “That. It’s definitely that. Also, why am I in the back seat again?”

  When they reached the edge of town, her eyes swept to the neighborhood on the left, watching for Horatio’s place. A thought hit her.

  “Stop,” she said suddenly.

  The car screeched to a halt, sending everyone flying forward. Ella massaged her forehead where it had met Wink’s seat. “Okay, I didn’t mean to stop right this instant, Jeff Gordon.”

  The smell of burnt rubber filled her nostrils as she directed Wink down a side street. They stopped in front
of a pink house with flowerbeds full of Gerbera daisies.

  “Why’re we at the Robinsons?” Flo asked.

  “Because I want to confirm with Gabby that Dirty-jeans Guy actually visited the library often.”

  Flo used her door to hoist herself out of the vehicle. “Fine, but after this, we go home. I’m hungry.”

  Ella glanced at her watch, noting that it had only been an hour since they’d eaten lunch. “Me too. I think Rose was baking cinnamon rolls.”

  With her hands on her hips, she surveyed the yard and surrounding houses in case any dinosaurs were lurking about. Her gaze snagged across the street on a vintage candy apple red bicycle abandoned in a driveway then to the window in the house behind it. A familiar cherub face with pigtails had her nose pressed to the glass, watching them.

  “Is-is that Sally?”

  Wink nodded. “Yeah, her family has lived there for two generations. Flo, you got your sonic slingshot?”

  The crazy boarder waved the weapon, and Ella realized she was unarmed for the first time since their arrival to the Jurassic period. It made her feel vulnerable and exposed.

  The other two crept up the narrow walkway to Gabby’s house while Ella lingered, staring at the house across the street and the hellion in the window.

  Sally stuck out her tongue. Ella brought her thumb to her nose and wiggled her fingers.

  “Come on, Poodle Head. Unless you plan on socking the little girl again.”

  Ella grumbled and caught up to them. “We sure she’s fully human? Just asking.”

  Ignoring the question, Wink pointed at a large pile of excrement. “Looks like Gabby’s had visitors here, too.”

  Ella wrinkled her nose. “Ah, nature.”

  Several daisies had been ripped from the soil, and the apple tree at the side of the house was stripped of nearly all its fruit. Judging by more large piles of poop near the trunk, the fruit harvest hadn’t been Gabby or her aunt.

  “I’m not sure I’ll miss this place,” Ella said after knocking on the door.

  After some enthusiastic greetings, Gabby ushered them inside. They sat in a small living room, refusing tea until it was offered a fourth time.

  While the librarian went to fetch their refreshments, Gabby’s aunt wandered past, her hair in curlers. She glowered at her guests and harrumphed like the ray of sunshine she was when Wink greeted her. She slipped out of sight down a dark hallway.