Contents
Murder In New York
Disclaimer
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Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
One More Thing
Contact Nancy McG
A BLUEBELL KNOPPS COZY MYSTERY
Book 6:
Murder In New York
By
Nancy McGovern
Rights & Disclaimer
This is entirely a work of fiction. All people, places and events contained have been completely fabricated by the author. Any similarities to real people, places, or events are completely coincidental.
Murder In New York Copyright © 2017 Nancy McGovern
http://www.Facebook.com/AuthorNancyMcG
All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any manner or used in any way without advanced written permission by the author.
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Dedication
This book is for MJ. You amaze me every day. I am so inspired by you.
Chapter 1
New York
After a year of traveling from one small town to another, Bluebell was rather dazzled by New York City. She’d travelled all the way from Iowa at the behest of her childhood best friend Nolan.
Having solved the murder at the Turnip Festival and having said goodbye to her friend Jamie, Bluebell had decided she needed a break. Hopefully, in the biggest city in the world, death would have a harder time finding her than it normally did. As she waited for Nolan to pick her up at the Grand Central Station, she thought back to the last time she’d seen him, and was astonished to find that it had already been three years.
A few years ago, Bluebell had been a simple girl, with simple dreams. Then, on her 21st birthday, everything had changed when her fiancé died and her latent powers as a witch awoke. Soon, she found that she was especially cursed - death was to follow her wherever she went. While it had initially made her very unhappy, Bluebell had soon resolved that if she could not prevent the deaths that seemed to occur everywhere she went, she would at least use her powers for good and try to solve them. Afraid of the destruction that her curse could cause in the small town of Lledrith where she had grown up, Bluebell had decided to spend the rest of her life as a nomad, traveling from one place to another and never staying anywhere too long.
But hers hadn’t been the only life to change. In the three years since she had last seen him, Bluebell’s best friend Nolan had changed too.
“Bluebell! You’re finally here!” The man who approached her was nothing like the boy she remembered, and Bluebell found that her jaw had dropped open.
Nolan was wearing a powder blue pullover and distressed black jeans, yet the cut and quality of his deceptively simple clothes were signs of how expensive they were. His hair was cut in the latest style, a retro undercut that quite suited his face. His face, too, had changed. In Bluebell’s memory, he was a chubby little fellow with permanently narrowed eyes and dimples in his cheeks. As he laughed now, the dimples were even more pronounced, but the chubbiness had melted away after years of rigorous discipline and sleepless nights spent working.
“So much has changed!” Nolan said, pulling Bluebell into a rib crushing hug. “The only thing that’s still the same about you is your bright blue hair!”
“Do you really think so?” Bluebell asked. “I rather thought that I’ve remained in a static little bubble while the rest of the world has moved on.”
“Just because you decided to become a gypsy doesn’t mean that you’ve been in hibernation,” Nolan said. “I’m glad you came to see me. I’ve thought about you a lot, since you randomly left town. Your parents miss you so much, too.”
“I talk to them every week,” Bluebell said.
She missed them terribly, and would have liked nothing better than to meet them, but she was far too scared of the curse she had been afflicted with.
Nolan picked up the duffle bag that was at Bluebell’s feet, and gave an exaggerated groan, pretending to tilt over on one side. “What’s in this? Did you just steal the Statue of Liberty and stuff it in here?”
“It’s just clothes and a few souvenirs, silly.” Bluebell whacked him playfully on the arm. “Now come on, the smell of donuts has been driving me crazy ever since I stepped off my train.”
Nolan took her over to a stand, where fresh jam-filled donuts powdered with sugar stood lining the glass cases. Choosing a blueberry jam filling, Bluebell bit in, making little noises of gratitude, a tempted Nolan picked a donut labeled “Strawberry Cheesecake” and scarfed it down in three bites.
“Your appetite’s still the same.” Bluebell laughed. “Thank goodness some things never change!”
“Don’t tell Megan I had this.” Nolan winked. “She’s put me on a really strict diet, but I cheat every once in awhile.”
“Who’s this Megan, then?” Bluebell asked. Her eyes twinkled as she saw Nolan begin to blush. “Your message to me was so cryptic… Come over to NYC immediately! Everything depends on it!”
“Well I’m glad it reached you,” Nolan said. “What with your aversion to all forms of technology. I had to resort to paper and pen to reach you. Why don’t you ever check your emails like a normal person?”
Bluebell sighed. “Well, the thing is, my mobile phone broke half a year ago…” She didn’t say that it had broken while she was being strangled by a murderer she had been about to apprehend. That little story, she kept for another time.
“And you were too lazy to get a new one.” Nolan sighed. “Or too stubborn.”
“I just don’t have much use for a phone, with my lifestyle,” Bluebell said.
“Well, how do you expect me to contact you then?”
“Why did you need to?” Bluebell asked. There was a faint hint of worry in her voice. Nolan had been trying hard to act cool, but beneath his good cheer, there was a thread of tension that Bluebell had immediately detected.
Nolan sighed. “I suppose I ought to tell you before I tell anybody else. My life is about to change totally, Bluebell. I needed someone I could trust… really trust.”
“And isn’t Megan someone you trust?” Bluebell asked.
“She is,” Nolan said. “But still… I needed an outside opinion, and you were the perfect candidate.”
“What’s happened?” Bluebell asked, concerned. “Tell me everything.”
“It’s a long story,” Nolan said. “I’ll tell you about it on the ride over to my apartment.”
“Shall we book a taxi?” Bluebell asked.
Nolan simply laughed, and pulled out his phone, the latest fancy model with a six inch screen and a sparkling champagne colored case. He pushed a few buttons, and then gave her a wink. Seconds later, a dark limousine had pulled up, and its door popped open. Inside, an unsmiling driver nodded at Nolan without a smile.
“Bluebell, meet Xander. He’s my bodyguard and assistant.” Nola
n smiled. In an aside, he said to her, “He’s ex-military, and with his qualifications, I’m lucky to have him agree to this job. I think he only did it because I promised him some stock options in my company!”
“Bodyguard!” Bluebell gasped. “Why do you need a bodyguard? And how do you have a limousine?” The last time they’d met, Nolan had been driving a rusty red BMW, and living in Lledrith. How had three years made such a difference to his life?
“Like I said, it’s a long story.” Nolan sighed. “But I guess I ought to tell you all of it.”
*****
Chapter 2
Nolan’s Rise
Since he was 10, Nolan had been fascinated with computers. His mother had died when he was only 7, but the one good memory he had was of him sitting on her lap while she taught him how to type simple programs onto a browser, and create a pyramid or a square.
After she died, and his father slowly descended into a drunken despair, Nolan had depended on Bluebell and her family to be his emotional support. Five nights a week, he’d end up eating dinner with them, and at school, where he was otherwise bullied for being chubby and shy, Bluebell was his best friend and confidant. Together, the two of them had spent many a day watching TV, exploring the woods behind her house, and reading in the large, well stocked library her father kept.
Still, Nolan always had to go home when darkness fell, and unable to sleep, he’d spent his nights learning how to code. A naturally introverted boy, Nolan had found solace in the neat and tidy world of programming, where he could control everything on his screen with the tapping of a few buttons. Just like the heroes of the science fiction novels he read in Bluebell’s house, his ambition in life was to become a scientist.
Instead, in the last three years, he’d found himself suddenly thrust into the cut-throat world of business. Three years ago, he’d created an algorithm that had cut down the time taken to load video games in half. He’d done it as a side project, and not thought much about its potential, publishing it freely on a popular website.
Soon after, three different multimillion dollar companies had contacted him, all desperate to be sold his invention. In months, he’d gone from a near-broke university student to a millionaire. He’d also moved out of his hometown and to the big bad world of NYC. Since then, he’d begun a start-up that promised to revolutionize the world.
He turned to Bluebell now, and said, “The project I’m working on now is so huge, that if it succeeds, I stand to make a billion dollars.”
Bluebell stared at him, eyes wide. “You mean a million dollars, right?”
“Billion,” He emphasized.
“Wow.” Bluebell gasped. “I always knew you were smart, Nolan. I remember when you were teaching our high school computer teacher about programming! My Dad always told me you’d end up a professor at Stanford or something. But this… this is huge! It seems impossible that all this happened in just three years.”
“You know the really funny thing?” Nolan smiled. “It’s that I don’t care about it, at all. If you asked me what was the most important thing that happened to me in the last three years, I’d say it was Megan. Meeting her changed me forever.”
“Ah, the mysterious Megan,” Bluebell said. “Who is she! Everytime you mention that name, there’s a fire in your eyes, and you still haven’t spilled a word about her.”
Nolan turned a shade of red, and a smile crawled across his face. “Megan is my business partner,” he said. “She’s also my fiancée and the love of my life.”
“Tell me more,” Bluebell said, grinning from ear to ear. “How did you two meet?”
“We met a year ago, when I was speaking at a conference about the success of my last venture,” Nolan said. “I was also talking about my current venture.”
“She was in the audience?” Bluebell asked.
“No. Megan was one of the other speakers on the panel.” Nolan smiled. “Megan’s a Donnerstag.”
Bluebell gulped. “The owners of the Donner-Marts? Those Donnerstags?”
“Yes, those Donnerstags.” Nolan smiled.
The little Bluebell knew about the Donnerstags was through the covers of glitzy magazines, or the back of a tabloid. She remembered a particularly iconic photo of one of Wendy Donnerstag, taken twenty years ago - Wendy in a shimmery silver gown, exiting the back of a club, with bodyguards surrounding her, chasing away the paparazzi. One of the sleeves of her gown was halfway down her shoulder, but her head was high, and there was a knowing smile on her face as she winked right at the cameras.
“Wait, is Megan Donnerstag the daughter of Wendy Donnerstag? Hollywood star, and page 3 girl?”
“It isn’t like you’re imagining,” Nolan said. “Megan’s nothing like her mother. In fact I think she’s taken great pains to make sure she distances herself from her mother’s rather bawdy image.”
“Wendy has a new movie coming up, doesn’t she?” Bluebell said. “I read about it somewhere.”
“For someone who claims to read nothing but the classics, you sure have an intimate knowledge of tabloids.” Nolan grinned.
Bluebell colored. “Well… the thing is… in between Shakespeare and Dante, I read tabloids sometimes… just to rest my mind, you know?”
“Oh, I’m sure.” Nolan laughed. “Anyway, it’s not Wendy we’re talking about, it’s Megan.”
“You said she was your business partner?” Bluebell said. “Actually, no, tell me how she became your fiancée.”
“It’s all tied together,” Nolan said. “Look, Megan’s dad was a famous neurosurgeon - the third of Wendy’s five husbands. Growing up, Megan hated the attention her mother got. She’s a naturally shy person. I think that’s why she worked extra hard to prove herself to the one person whose opinion mattered the most to her, her grandfather.”
“Ah, Kurt Donnerstag,” Bluebell said. “He’s the one who founded the chain of stores, isn’t he?”
“Oh, yes.” Nolan nodded. “He came here after the World War. Nearly penniless, but he had that flair, you know? The Midas touch. He knew how to make friends in all the right places, and when it came to business, he knew how to create millions out of pennies.”
“There was a scandal or two though, wasn’t there?”
“The stores?” Nolan nodded. “Let’s just say that he knew how to squeeze out every penny of profit, even if that meant a few hundred disgruntled employees. There was never anything strictly illegal about what he did, he was always careful that way, but…”
“But there’s legal, and then there’s moral,” Bluebell said. “Right?”
“Exactly.” Nolan nodded. “Kurt would always be called the former but never the latter.”
“An interesting family,” Bluebell said. “Megan must be quite the person too.”
“On the contrary, Megan is still so sweet and grounded,” Nolan said. “She still employs her best friend from grade school, though everyone knows Joyce doesn’t have more than half a brain cell in her head. She also gives 15% of her paycheck to charity each month!”
“Sounds like a wonderful person,” Bluebell said.
“The thing is, Megan’s always looked to prove herself,” Nolan said. “Like I said, with Wendy being the way she is, Megan was determined to be respected and admired for her brains, not beauty. I think she’s the most beautiful woman in the world, but Megan makes sure nobody would know it. She only ever dresses in the baggiest sweaters, and jeans. She got into Harvard, and then dropped out halfway through to work on her own start-up. Unfortunately, she’s failed three times now. For one reason or another, mostly just bad luck, they all went bankrupt within a year.”
Bluebell didn’t say much, but from the expression on her face, Nolan knew what she was thinking.
“I know what you think and what everyone else does too,” Nolan said. “You think that she’s just another rich kid, who’s playing around in the world of start-ups because she’s got her grandfather’s wealth to fall back on. That’s not my Megan. Megan worked her heart out o
n each of those start-ups. She worked back-breaking hours to make sure they succeeded. But then… one of them crashed when a rival business stole their tech secrets. The other one crashed after a key scientist suddenly inherited a million dollars and left the company. The third one was worst of all. They were set for a multi million dollar IPO when the backers suddenly had the IRS raid their office, and the investors all decided to pull out.”
“Wow,” Bluebell said. “That’s a real run of bad luck.”
“It’s the worst,” Nolan said. “But that’s how it is in business. It’s just as much luck as skill, you know. Sooner or later, the ones who stick it out have a shining success, and no one notices the string of failures behind them.”
“Well, how did she become your business partner?”
“Ah, my newest venture,” Nolan said. “Like I said, I was invited to a conference and met Megan. We got talking, and I was stunned by some of her ideas. I’m launching a new device that would revolutionize how we do our shopping. No more queues, you see? Just enter the shop, grab what you like, and a full body scanner on the way out will automatically charge your credit card based on your fingerprint! Can you imagine how huge this will be? We moved from brick and mortar stores to online stores, and now, with my invention, we’ll create brand new stores that will combine the intelligence of the internet with the combination of brick and mortar stores! We’ll probably put all our competitors out of business in 5 years.”
“Sounds way too futuristic for me,” Bluebell said.
“Well, we’re living in the future already.” Nolan smiled. “That’s what’s so exciting about working in tech, you see? I feel like I’m creating things today that will be the way of life in the future.”
“So Megan quickly became your business partner?” Bluebell asked.
“Exactly,” Nolan said. “We were in perfect sync both professionally and personally. Of course, we’ve had to keep our relationship a secret, since the business is still in a delicate stage. But basically, we fell in love almost instantly. We just clicked.”
Murder In New York: A Paranormal Witch Cozy Mystery (A Bluebell Knopps Witch Cozy Mystery Book 6) Page 1
