Sweets Shop Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Maisy Morgan

  Tripp felt like he was going to be sick, but he did his best not to show it.

  Chapter Seven

  Tripp squirmed slightly after piercing the worm with the hook. Preston had done it for him the first time, but after a while of no fish biting, he had to pull his line back in only to discover that the first worm had fallen off the hook. “There you go,” Preston said approvingly. “Now, cast off just like I showed you.”

  Tripp felt the boat wobble slightly as he jerked the fishing rod just as Preston had shown him. This sent the line flying out into the lake and landing with a quiet ‘plop’ in the water. “Sweet,” Tripp said, feeling impressed with himself.

  They hadn’t caught any fish yet, but the day had only just begun. Much to Tripp’s surprise, he was really enjoying himself. Preston had a lot of fun stories about growing up in Georgia. It sounded like a real southern romance the way he talked so nostalgically about his childhood. He was just in the middle of a story about chasing around a rattle snake as a kid and nearly giving his mother a heart attack when Tripp nearly lost the fishing rod due to a sudden jerk. “Whoa!” Tripp exclaimed.

  “You got one!” Preston said excitedly as he set his own rod aside. “Reel it in quick and steady.”

  Tripp was surprised at how hard this part was. The fish was putting up quite a fight trying to get loose, and Tripp nearly fell out of his seat in surprise when he spotted the fish’s tail flopping around in the water as the line came closer and closer to the boat. “It’s huge!” Tripp shouted with excitement. He began to sweat a good bit between trying to reel in the line, and the summer heat that was beating down on him didn’t help any.

  Preston carefully reached over the side of the boat with a handheld net and scooped up the fish as it came closer. “Whoa, you got yourself quite a fish there, Tripp!” When he looked at the fish more carefully, his exclamatory excitement grew louder. “Man alive – look at that bass! I’ve been fishing here since I was younger than you and haven’t ever caught one this size! That one’s a keeper for sure. Here, hold it up, and I’ll send a picture to your grandma.”

  Tripp beamed as he held up the fish by the line and Preston snapped a picture with his phone. They put the fish in the storage box. “Man, your first time out on the lake, and you’re already catching a bass. That’s not even right. I’m going to fry that sucker up for us tonight.”

  Now, Tripp felt a surge of confidence. He hooked himself up another worm and casted the line without any problem this time around. “Thanks, Preston, for taking me fishing today,” Tripp said, smiling.

  “Of course,” he said feeling a little tug and tingle inside.

  “Dad always wanted to take me. There’s not exactly a lot of fishing spots out in LA, but we were actually talking about taking a camping trip this summer before, well, what happened,” Tripp said somewhat sadly, though he was truthfully having far too much fun to let a little reminiscing about his father dampen his spirits today. “I really like hearing some of the stories about you growing up around here. LA is so different from here.”

  Preston laughed. “I imagine so. I never was much of a city boy myself. My old man worked in Atlanta when I was a kid, but he commuted. He didn’t like the city either. But, even so, I imagine LA is still incredibly different from Atlanta.”

  “Yeah,” Tripp admitted. “Not a lot of outdoor adventures.”

  “What sort of things did you like to do with your friends in LA?” he asked.

  “There’s this awesome go-cart track I liked to go to,” Tripp said. “The Six Flags amusement park is pretty cool too. Mostly though, we would go to the beach.”

  “Well, we don’t exactly have a beach right here in Brooks, but there’s a go-cart track out in Fayetteville, and Atlanta has a Six Flags.”

  Tripp’s face lit up. “Atlanta has a Six Flags?!”

  Preston smirked. “Well, yeah, you know we’re only an hour away from the city. I know Brooks seems like a totally disconnected town, but the surrounding areas have plenty of things for a kid your age to do. Let’s see, there’s a rock-climbing place in Tyrone, a giant indoor trampoline place just opened up in Peachtree City, and I think there’s an indoor skydiving place in Atlanta.”

  “Cool,” Tripp said, but then he frowned. “I don’t think Hannah could do any of that stuff though.”

  Preston smiled at him. “You’re still allowed to go do those sorts of things Tripp. However, I think you’d be surprised at what kind of things Hannah can do.”

  “Believe me, I already am,” Tripp said with a laugh. “She’s really tough. She doesn’t let that chair dictate what she can and can’t do. She’s really awesome and…”

  Preston looked at him with these knowing eyes, and Tripp’s first instinct was to immediately break eye contact and look away. Idiot, Tripp scorned himself, knowing that he had gotten far too excited talking about Hannah. There was a long, uncomfortable silence that followed. Preston wasn’t going to embarrass him, Tripp knew, but he might as well have told the guy how he felt outright by the way he had gotten so giddy talking about her. He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to say it, but he quietly admitted to Preston what his grandmother had been trying to get out of him for the better part of a month, “I kind of like her.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Preston asked casually.

  As they were seated back to back facing completely away from one another, focused on their own lines, the conversation did not feel as uncomfortable for the young teenager. “I don’t blame you. She’s smart, pretty, and she’s got more spunk than any young girl I know.”

  “Yeah,” Tripp said. “I just don’t know though to be quite honest,” he admitted as he bit his tongue.

  He felt the boat sway slightly, and he knew Preston had turned in his seat a bit so that he could look at him. Tripp remained in his seated position, looking out towards the lake, and pretending he didn’t know Preston was looking dead at him now. “It’s the chair, isn’t it?” Preston asked.

  His shoulders slumped, and he let out a long-winded sigh. “Okay, yeah,” he said, a little flustered. “I just feel like such a jerk too because of it.”

  “Why?” Preston asked.

  “Because I really like her, okay?” Tripp said, turning around and actually looking at the man now. “I mean… I really like her,” Tripp said, now gripping the fishing rod like he felt like chunking it out into the lake. “But at the same time, I don’t think I want to, you know, date her. And it’s not because I don’t want to date or because of some personality thing or whatever. It’s because she’s in a wheelchair, and I don’t know if I want to date someone in a wheelchair, and that’s really crappy of me, isn’t it?”

  Preston smiled ever so slightly at Tripp. “I get it, kid,” he said. “You’re young. Dating a girl with some pretty hefty baggage probably seems scary to you. Heck, it would seem scary to me. If it’s too much for you to handle, you got to be honest with yourself. So, ask yourself this question—do you think Hannah’s worth it?”

  Tripp felt his ears go warm, and his hands felt rather clammy suddenly. “I don’t think I know her well enough to say so.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Preston said, now smirking at him. “You seem like you know her pretty well actually.”

  “Okay, maybe,” he said. “I just feel bad that I keep thinking this way, you know? I shouldn’t care about something like that. Should I?” Tripp whole-heartedly asked.

  “I think it’s normal to feel a little hesitancy,” Preston assured him. “That doesn’t make you a bad person Tripp. You’re fourteen, and you’re worried.”

  “I mean, say I did actually start dating her. What if I want to break up with her later? She might think that I would be breaking up with her over her chair. Right?”

  “Then you break up with her,” Preston said. “You’re fourteen. You’re not obligated to stay with one girl forever if she’s not the one. You need to also know and should remember that she’s not as fragile as she looks. If you start dating her and thi
ngs don’t work out, I suspect it’s not going to be the end of the world to her.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” he grumbled and turned around looking away from Preston.

  Preston turned back as well to look out at the line. “You want my advice?” Preston asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Ask yourself if it wasn’t for the chair, would you have already asked the girl out.”

  Tripp thought about this for a moment, and then he sighed. “Yes, I guess I probably would have for sure. Now you should understand why that is exactly the reason I feel like a complete jerk.”

  “You’re unsure, and that’s fine,” Preston said. “It probably will be a different dating experience than something you might be used to, but I don’t know if you’ve ever dated before or not.”

  “I’ve dated!” Tripp insisted.

  “Okay, fine,” Preston said, laughing at him a bit. “What would you take a girl to do out in LA?”

  “I took a girl named Stacey surfing once,” he said. “I probably couldn’t even take Hannah swimming.”

  “Are you sure?” he questioned.

  “What do you mean am I sure? Surely, she can’t swim,” Tripp said.

  “Tripp, you know what I’m going to recommend to you?” Preston asked with a laugh. “How about you ask Hannah what she likes to do for fun?”

  This had not ever occurred to Tripp, and he felt really stupid. “Now that you’ve suggested that, yeah, that makes perfect sense.”

  “Yeah, I thought so,” Preston said. “Then, if you ever decide you want to take her on a date, you’ll get an idea of what you can take her to do. And, honestly, Tripp, dinner and a movie is always a pretty easy fallback for a first date.”

  Tripp laughed. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said. “I think I should.”

  He could hear Preston chuckling under his breath. “Yeah, you know, I think you should too. I don’t think I’ve ever known a girl quite like Hannah. Something tells me you won’t regret it.”

  Tripp was about to thank Preston for his advice and understanding when, suddenly, the boat jerked rather violently. Tripp dropped his rod, and it fell into the water. “The fishing rod!” he shouted. Then, he glanced over his shoulder to see that the sudden impact had caused Preston to fall over backwards into the base of the boat. Tripp grabbed the net and managed to use it to grab his rod. “Saved it!” he said as Preston struggled to sit upright again. “What was that?” Tripp asked.

  “I think a log or something,” Preston said, grumbling. He put down his own fishing rod after reeling in the line. Tripp followed his lead reeling his line back in. Preston was looking over the side of the boat when he suddenly let out a loud swear that Tripp knew his grandmother would scorn Preston about if she ever found out he said it in front of him.

  “What? Is there hole in the boat or something?” Tripp asked as he looked over the same side of the boat. Preston tried to stop him from looking, but Tripp already saw what they had bumped into. It was a body.

  “Oh my gosh!” Tripp wailed as Preston made him sit down and turn around. Preston didn’t have to tell him who it was. Tripp had recognized the body immediately by the running attire. It was Roger Stout. The man they had bumped into earlier. The man’s mouth had been gaping open, and Tripp closed his eyes tight to try to get the image out of his head. It had been such a pleasant morning with a bit of bonding between Tripp and Preston, but now it had come to a rather abrupt halt.

  Chapter Eight

  Mary had to tell herself several times to slow down as she headed to Lake Horton. The phone call she had received from Preston about what had happened at the lake had made her want to vomit, and now she felt as though she was finally noticing for the first time the number of speed limit signs there were in the small town. “Thirty-five, seriously?” she questioned as she hurried down a series of backroads.

  She finally drove by a sign that read ‘Lake Horton’ and found herself a parking spot near the playground. There were cop cars everywhere, and while she knew Tripp was physically okay she was greatly concerned about how he was doing emotionally after getting an up close and personal look at a dead body floating around in the lake.

  “Excuse me,” she said as she tried to get the attention of an officer who simply held his hand out to prevent her from going anywhere near the lake. Yellow tape was currently being put up to block off the crime scene, and it seemed as though she had arrived just as quickly as the first responders.

  “She’s with us,” Preston said as he came hurrying up towards her, and the officer in uniform stepped aside. Tripp was with him, and Mary was glad to see that he didn’t seem to be in any sort of mental shock or emotional distress. “Wow! You got here fast,” Preston said as she reached out and put a hand on both of Tripp’s shoulders.

  “Are you all right?” she asked immediately.

  “Grandma, I’m fine,” he said. “I’m not the one who drowned in the lake.”

  His snarky attitude was enough to reassure Mary that at the moment, he was okay. She shook her head and put her hands down, pointing one hand towards her car that was parked a considerable distance away. “Go get in the car and wait for me there. I need to talk to Officer Preston.”

  “Fine,” he said. “Oh, and by the way, I caught a fish.”

  “Huh? Oh, yes, good for you.” Mary replied even though she wasn’t sure if she could physically make herself eat a fish that came out of the same lake that a body was currently being dragged out of.

  Once Tripp was out of sight, Preston shot her a nervous look. “I am so sorry he had to see that Mary.”

  “What happened?” she demanded. “On the phone you said you knew who it was?”

  “Yeah, the guy’s name was Roger,” Preston said. “Tripp and I had been talking to the guy just a few hours before our boat bumped into him. When we first pulled up to the lake, we saw him chasing after Josephine Smit. Remember her?”

  “If you’re talking about the hairstylist I met at the bank then yes. It’s hard to forget a meeting like she and I had,” Mary said.

  “Well, when we pulled up, I nearly hit Josephine because she came running out in front of my truck. Then Roger shows up, he had apparently been trying to talk her out of dumping him and driving off and leaving him at the park. The next thing we know is that there is another man named Nathan that shows up with a bloody nose. However, he wouldn’t press charges against Roger who had apparently been the one to hit him over some sort of dispute they’d had,” Preston explained. “They all settled down and went their separate ways, so Tripp and I went out on the lake to fish. Then, a few hours later, we bump into Roger’s body in the water.”

  “You think he fell in and drowned?” Mary asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t get too good of a look at the body before the paramedics and crime scene showed up. I saw blood though. I don’t think this was merely a drowning incident.”

  “You think someone killed him?” Mary asked.

  “I think so,” he said. “Though, our suspect list isn’t particularly large. There were two people I saw right here a few hours before he was killed, both of whom could have a motive. He and Josephine had only just broken up, and he and Nathan had just gotten into a fight. I think that is at least enough for me to have a conversation with them both.”

  “I’d say you’re making a good call there,” Mary said and glanced back toward her car where Tripp was looking rather bored in the passenger’s seat. “I hate that he saw that. You have no idea. He’s acting like it’s not bothering him, but I have a hard time believing that.”

  “I think it spooked him for a second,” Preston said. “He did seem to bounce back rather quickly though.”

  “Yes, I know, but after what happened with his father, I don’t want him to become numb to this sort of thing. Do you know what I mean?” Mary asked, and Preston nodded.

  “This just makes me sick,” she said. “It’s not right. This is a peaceful little town, and someone is stirring up trouble
. Now it is trouble for me, and my grandson.”

  “You really seem agitated by this one,” he said.

  “Of course, I’m agitated! What if this turns out to be a random killing? Someone could have been jogging by and just decided to rob him or something? It could have easily been you or Tripp,” she said. “I know with both Josephine and, with that man Nathan being here it probably wasn’t just random, but what if it was? What if this had been Tripp we were fishing out of the lake?”

  “I was with him,” Preston assured her.

  “I want to help you find out who did this,” she said firmly. “I want to find who did this as quickly as possible and get them off the streets.”

  “Mary –”

  “No, I mean it, Preston,” she said, her blood still boiling. “Look at me! I am shaking! This town, it’s supposed to be safer than our home back in LA but before we can even settle in so much happens. I mean, first there is a bank robbery where Tripp and I are held hostage and now a murder? No, I want to do my part. I’ve helped you before, and I want to do it again.”

  “Okay,” he said. “You were pretty helpful on the last case I worked. More than helpful actually. Before you roll up your sleeves and dive into this thing though, I think you need to handle the kiddo first.”

  Mary breathed, realizing she was indeed diving in too quickly. “You’re right. Let me go figure out what to do about him and my shop first, and then I’ll call you.”

  “I’ll be here. Oh, and once again, I’m so sorry he had to see all of that Mary,” he said with deep sincerity.

  “It’s not your fault, Preston,” she said as she marched back to the car. She sat down in the driver’s seat and gripped the steering wheel taking a deep breath before turning to Tripp to speak. “I’m going to help Preston out with this case,” she said at last, and he gave her a smirk. “What?” she demanded.

  “Nothing,” he said.

  “First, though, I need to go get everything put up at the shop,” she said backing up the car. “Maybe Cindy will let you hang out at the antique shop for a bit this afternoon.”