Traveling Town Cozy Mystery Box Set

by Ami Diane

  “What about… George?” Ella shot Wink a smug look at having remembered the rancher’s name.

  “He’s alright. Keeps to himself except when his cattle break the fence and wander into my field.”

  “What about the two of them?”

  “Who?”

  “George and Mary? How did they get along?”

  The smile lines around Roberta’s eyes disappeared. “They fought like cats and dogs. I could hear them shouting from all of the way down the lane.”

  “What did they fight about?” Wink asked.

  “Oh, this and that.” Roberta stood and pulled her gloves off before wiping her brow. Her face was closed off as if holding back a dark secret.

  Ella watched her closely. “You didn’t hear anything specific?”

  “Naw, just yelling.” She lifted a crate of green beans.

  Ella grabbed a second and followed the owner to the shade at the front of the farmhouse. They set the crates on the porch, and Flo snatched up a green bean without asking.

  Insects buzzed nearby, and a bird lit atop a telephone pole. Ella squinted up, watching it, the gears turning in her head.

  “You’re on a party line out here, aren’t you?”

  “I am.” Roberta dabbed a handkerchief across her face.

  “You never picked up the line, heard either of them on the other end?”

  “What are you implying?” Roberta’s tone turned icy.

  “Nothing untoward. I live at the inn, and we’re on a party line, as well. It can be rather annoying to pick up the phone to make a call and find the line’s already being used. Where I’m from, we don’t have that.” She shrugged, easing her words with a genial expression.

  It had been bugging her, the rancher’s beef with Mary which seemed to stem from a deep-seated anger over more than cattle.

  People could put on their masks, hide their secrets, but it was much harder to do so in the safety of their homes. And what better witness, what better ear, than one who lived nearby?

  “I think we’d all agree that eavesdropping is poor form. That’s not what I’m asking. I guess I’m hoping that you’d accidentally overheard more than just their arguing, something that would indicate what they fought about.”

  Roberta held a green bean in her fingers and began shredding the hull. Her eyes drifted up the road towards the other two houses. “He didn’t like how she treated her son.”

  Ella nodded. “She wasn’t kind to him, that’s for sure.”

  “It was more than that, though.”

  Ella exchanged a glance with Wink and Flo.

  “What do you mean?” Wink said.

  “She could be downright cruel. I let him hide here, sometimes, when she was looking for him. George did what he could. Told her if she didn’t do right by the kid, he would—” She looked over at the others as if remembering they were there. “Doesn’t matter. She’s gone now, and I don’t speak ill of the dead.”

  She picked up one of the crates. “I best get these inside. Excuse me.”

  Wink held the screen door open for Roberta, thanking her for her time. When the trio returned to the car baking in the sunshine, they lingered outside, looking up the dusty lane.

  “If George was looking out for the kid,” Flo said, “I don’t think Brandon’ll be willing to help us trick George into confessing.”

  Ella had to agree. Feeble as the plan had been to ask Brandon to confront George man-to-man to get him to confess, they had to come up with a new strategy.

  What now?

  Maybe they could attempt to gather a confession without Brandon. The idea tumbled around, and she almost missed the shouts coming from the end of the road.

  The boom of a shotgun broke through her reverie.

  “What on earth?” Wink began jogging up the lane, towards the commotion. “It’s coming from George’s.”

  Ella sprinted past her. As she passed the Kirklands’ residence, Brandon flew out the front door. Their eyes met briefly before he turned up the lane.

  His younger, longer limbs gave him an edge, and he reached the dried grass that served as George’s yard first. The shouting and gunfire came from the barn off to the side.

  Ella reached the charred carcass that had been that flatbed truck as the doors to the barn burst out. A mid-sized Tyrannosaurus rex charged out, roaring. It stood shorter than the roofline for the barn, not as tall as the adult that had run down Main Street.

  Still, its feral roar and thundering steps shook the earth. Ella rammed into Brandon’s side just in time as the T. rex’s foot came crashing down where the young man had been standing. Unfortunately, they hadn’t landed far enough away, and a tip of one of the dino’s claws ripped through Brandon’s bicep.

  His cry was cut short as Ella clamped her hand over his mouth. After he got his composure, he nodded, and she pulled her hand away. Blood oozed from his wound.

  They stared up at the monster. Its nostrils worked up and down, its snout waving in the air, picking up on their scent.

  “Don’t move,” she breathed out. “It won’t know we’re here if we stay still.”

  His voice shook. “You sure?”

  “More or less.” The dinosaur’s head loomed closer. “Now less. Definitely less.”

  “T-the town jumped. Why’s it here?”

  “Must’ve gotten stranded.”

  The monster’s snout came down, and she began questioning her firm knowledge that it couldn’t see them. The reptile’s hot breath blew across them, and she choked back a whimper.

  After how many close calls with murderers and Flo’s weaponry, and this was how she died?

  Another shotgun blast rent the air, closer. George stood near the dinosaur’s tail, a weapon in its own right as it swayed and knocked over a small tree. The rancher waved his arms, shouting obscenities at the creature.

  The distraction worked because the T. rex lost interest in Ella and Brandon. It swung about, taking out a portion of the man’s farmhouse with its tail.

  “Run.” She pushed Brandon towards the safety of the burned truck.

  A horn blasted, and a blue Oldsmobile slid to a stop a few yards away. Wink hollered at them to get in.

  Ella and Brandon changed direction, but she hesitated, looking back at George.

  The man roared back at the dinosaur. “Get off my property!”

  He blasted off another round from the double-barreled shotgun in his hands.

  The ground shook as the tyrannosaurus took another lumbering step towards the rancher. George emptied the shells from his gun and calmly reloaded as the shadow from the dinosaur fell across him.

  Ella felt helpless. She was unarmed, thinking she no longer needed protection now that they were in the middle of the ocean, which in hindsight, had been foolish. Of course, there would be critters stranded here from the Jurassic epoch.

  She searched her scant surroundings for something—anything—for which to fend off the beast. Wink honked again, whether to get Ella to the car or to distract the dinosaur, she couldn’t be sure. The passenger-side door flew open, and Flo tumbled out.

  Her handbag of tricks was clutched against her chest as she rummaged inside. Ella prayed the crazy kook had returned the plasma cannon to her purse after she and Wink confiscated it. If she survived this encounter, she would be far more supportive of Flo’s affinity for weapons.

  The senior citizen lobbed a grenade at the dinosaur’s feet. It exploded, spraying dirt and weeds everywhere.

  After the dust cleared, the creature’s skin had a few more scars in it but appeared otherwise unscathed. And a whole lot more pissed off.

  “Don’t you have dynamite in there?”

  “I didn’t finish making it!”

  Flo was frustrated, and the edge to her voice held an emotion Ella had never heard in it before: fear.

  Ella’s senses heightened. The lingering smell of the grenade and the gun powder from the shotgun filled her nose. The hum of the electrical fence behind her became deafeni
ng.

  The fence. Electricity.

  She glanced over at it. It was meant for cattle. There was no way it’d stop the dinosaur as she’d witnessed with the allosaurus.

  Could she ramp up the juice and lure it towards the fence? She dismissed the idea, but it had spurred another thought.

  She ran over to the pickup. The tyrannosaurus was currently occupied dividing its attention between George and Flo. The rancher had loaded more shells and was leveling his barrel at the creature.

  Ella found what she was looking for in the cab of the truck underneath the driver’s seat. The object had been largely untouched by the fire.

  The dinosaur made its move. It lunged at George who got off a single shot before the T. rex opened its maw.

  It clamped down on the rancher. Flo threw another grenade, startling the dino. The T. rex tossed George aside like a rag doll, and he hit the side of the barn. He fell in a crumpled heap and didn’t stir. Ella feared he was dead until she heard a muffled groan.

  Sprinting towards the Oldsmobile, she screamed at Wink to pop the hood. The moment the lid gave, Ella was hovering over the engine, attaching the leads of the jumper cables in her hands to the battery.

  “Flo, can you get it closer?”

  “Closer? Are you nuts?”

  Ella held up the other end of the jumper cables, gripping a clamp in each hand, one black, one red.

  Flo grinned. “I knew you had a fun side to you.”

  “You and I have got to work on your definition of fun.”

  “Cooked dragon, coming up.”

  Flo waved and jumped about like an aerobics instructor on speed. If Ella’s hands weren’t full, she would’ve recorded the spectacle on her cell phone.

  The T. rex snarled and broke into a run. It came straight for them.

  Ella had just enough time to breathe out, “Oh, boy,” before the dinosaur was lowering its head, opening its jaws, right at Flo.

  A stench of decay rode on its hot breath. Its teeth were still bloody from George. All of this, Ella noticed in one fleeting moment.

  She dove for the reptile’s nearest foot, bringing the two leads from the jumper cables around. With all the strength her monthly pushups gave her, she stabbed the ends of the cables into the dinosaur.

  It roared.

  Sparks flew.

  Something sizzled and popped and smelled faintly of barbecue.

  The creature’s small forelimbs waved wildly as the dinosaur toppled over.

  “Look out!”

  She hadn’t needed to say it as nobody was directly beneath it. A small quake rumbled through the ground as it fell to the earth.

  The house and barn shook. Wink’s car rattled before the battery completely died. Then, all fell silent.

  Chapter 30

  ELLA SAT IN the back of Will’s pickup bed. She grimaced as a particularly deep pothole jarred her backside.

  Once it had appeared that the tyrannosaurus was down for the count, she’d sprinted over to Roberta’s, discovered the woman used a bicycle to get around instead of a vehicle, and promptly phoned Will.

  He was now driving them through town towards the hospital at a speed that made Flo, who sat across from Ella, grin wide. A moment later, the older woman hacked.

  “You ate a bug, didn’t you?” Ella bent over Brandon and tightened the tourniquet on his arm before checking on George. The rancher was in far worse shape, fluttering in and out of consciousness.

  While riding down the dirt road, Flo had helped her wrap a jacket around the man’s midsection, over the many puncture wounds from the dinosaur’s teeth. It seemed to slow the bleeding, but not enough.

  A dark crimson pool collected at their feet. Wink sat in the cab of the pickup with Will.

  Soon, they screeched to a halt before the front of the tiny, rundown hospital. The next several chaotic minutes were filled with a lone nurse, the reception clerk doubling as a nurse, and Pauline’s many questions. And more blood than Game of Thrones.

  “Is there anyone you can call to help?” Ella gaped up and down the dark, empty hallway. If possible, the backwoods of a hospital seemed smaller than before.

  “Dr. Taylor went to vote.” Pauline helped Will and the nurse load George onto a stretcher. “Sandy, call the church and tell him to get here stat.”

  After both men had been rushed off, Ella led the others outside. Adrenaline still pumped through her veins, and she paced back and forth beside the pickup.

  “What now?” Wink looked at the bloody mess in the back.

  “We should tell Chapman.”

  “I think Sandy will call him, let him know there was another attack,” Wink replied. “Although, there’s not much for him to do now that the dino’s dead.”

  Ella shook her head. “Not about that. About Roberta saying George and Mary fought, about how Mary treated Brandon. Maybe he can get a confession out of him before—” She looked at the small hospital and didn’t finish the sentence.

  “I’ll drive you to the sheriff’s office.” Will climbed in behind the wheel and waited.

  Ella crawled in beside him, careful not to get her bloody clothes on anything, and held open the door expectantly.

  “We’ll walk.” Wink tipped her head at Flo. “This one could use the exercise.”

  “Hey, I ain’t walking back to town.”

  “Do you want to ride in the bed again?”

  “What’s wrong with the cab?”

  “There’s no room for all of us, and I’m not walking back alone with dinosaurs possibly still on the loose.”

  Flo grumbled, hiked her purse higher up her shoulder, and said, “Fine.”

  Instead of pointing out that they’d crammed in the cab before, with her on the floor, Ella shut the door. She mouthed a silent “Thank you” to Wink before Will spun out of the parking lot.

  Back at the sheriff’s office, Ella hopped out before the inventor turned off the engine. Several feet away at the hitching post, Horse stirred at the vehicle’s proximity.

  The door to the building hit the wall as she kicked it in, sending Chapman jumping to his feet.

  He caught sight of her bloody attire. “Ms. Barton, what’s wrong?” His hand dropped to his holster.

  “Relax. It’s not mine.”

  Will entered at that moment, slipping his fedora off in deference. She dropped into a chair.

  “I’ll make this quick so you can get to the hospital.”

  Taking a deep breath, she gave him the CliffsNotes version of her conversation with Roberta and the harrowing run-in with the T. rex, complete with roaring sound effects. The moment she finished, Chapman exited in quick strides, presumably to question George. Through the window, she watched him mount Horse and ride off.

  Ella leaned back, relaxing, finally feeling she could breathe properly. Will rose from the wooden chair beside her, placing his hat back on.

  “I better round up some help. We need hunters to scour the town to be sure there aren’t more of them critters left behind.” He held the door open for her, but she waved him off.

  “Go on. I’ll walk.” At his hesitation, she added, “It’s a short distance to the inn. I’ll be fine.”

  His brows furrowed, his expression saying he wanted to argue, but he left it at that. A few moments later, his pickup roared to life. The chrome caught the late afternoon sun as he pulled out and puttered down the road.

  Exhaustion set in, and she knew if she didn’t move soon, she’d grow roots where she sat. What she needed was a nice long bath.

  After standing slowly, she shut the door behind her and shuffled her feet down the sidewalk. With any luck, Chapman would get a confession from the rancher, and he’d be throwing him behind bars—after he was discharged from the hospital, of course.

  She almost felt bad for the man. Here he heroically took on a Tyrannosaurus rex, only to be arrested and charged with murder.

  As she passed the library, she glanced through the window. Gabby moved about inside, the closed sign sti
ll facing out. She rapped on the glass, startling the librarian.

  Gabby’s glasses glinted in the daylight when she opened the door. “Ella, what brings you by—good heavens! You’re bleeding.”

  Ella cringed, having forgotten what she must look like. “Sorry. I was, uh, skinning a deer?” Gabby stared at her. “No? Yeah, I wouldn’t believe me either. May I?” She indicated the doorway.

  Gabby widened the gap, letting Ella slip past her. “Certainly, but are you sure you don’t want to get cleaned up?”

  “I do. I really, really do. But there’s something that’s been bugging me for days, a mystery I haven’t been able to solve on account of the town being shut down.”

  She walked the walls of books, glancing back over her shoulder. “When a question goes unanswered, it feels like an itch I can’t scratch. It’s silly, really.”

  “I know the feeling. For me, it’s when there’s a book out of place.”

  She kept alongside Ella, following her down an aisle. Having delved through the trove of historical archives for the town before, Ella knew just where she was going.

  “You came at the right time. I was just about to open once I finished cleaning. It’ll be nice being back at work. My house was starting to get cramped.” Her words held extra weight, and Ella was sure that weight was in the form of a curmudgeonly old lady.

  “That reminds me,” Gabby continued, “when I was leaving this morning, little Sally across the way—you know her?”

  “We’ve met.”

  “Well, she had the strangest story. She said you stole her bicycle yesterday after your visit. I told her that couldn’t be true. Why would you when you came in Wink’s car?”

  Had that only happened twenty-four hours ago?

  “That little girl’s got quite an imagination,” Ella replied.

  Tucked into a dusty corner in the back was the section of past editions of Keystone Corner. She scanned the binder spines until she found a weathered brown one unlike the others and pulled it from the shelf. The cracked leather notebook held census records of sorts, dating back to when the town first began jumping. Unlike the records of most towns, the names were organized by years the residents arrived in town.