Back Room Bookstore Cozy Mystery Boxed Set: Books 1 - 12

by Susan Harper

  A female onocentaur, a half-donkey/half-human creature, sat herself down right in front of them. Holly grunted slightly, and the women spun her head around. “Oh dear! So sorry,” she said, scooting over. “I sometimes forget how tall I am. I’ll move over.”

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to be so vocal,” Holly said. “This is my first time watching Romp-A-Roo.”

  The female onocentaur smiled. Monica could see that she was wearing a green scarf in support of the opposing team. “It’s a wonderful game,” the onocentaur said. “I hope you don’t mind sitting near someone cheering for the other team.”

  “No seats left on the visitor’s side?” Mona asked politely.

  “Well, yes, but I really wanted to sit where I could see the goalie. He’s my boyfriend,” she said, her cheeks turning flushed.

  “Trapper?” Mona asked.

  “Why, yes!” she said, giggling. “My name is Misty.”

  Mona smiled and put out her hand to shake. “Mona. This is my sister Monica and her friend Holly. My familiar Lenore, and this is Abigail. My guy is playing too. Deimus.”

  “Oh! I’ve seen him play before! Trapper says he loves playing against this team because Deimus really keeps him on his hooves. Trapper likes a challenge,” Misty said, still smiling excitedly. “I just love Wysteria. Your sports arena is beautiful, and I love your team’s coach.”

  “Coach Joanne-Jo is pretty awesome,” Mona agreed.

  “What is the coach? A witch or something?” Holly asked.

  Monica shoved her. “That’s not a polite way to ask that,” she whispered.

  Holly’s face turned red. “Sorry! Still learning. How do I…um…”

  “Ask for her mystic lineage,” Mona said. “Don’t fret. Monica is just uppity.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Monica said.

  “Coach Joanne-Jo is a sprite,” Mona explained. “Not the type you would usually expect coaching a sports team, but she is one tough cookie! Really sends her team through the ringer during practices.” Mona pulled out a pair of binoculars that she handed to Holly. “If you look through these, you can see her over by Deimus.”

  Holly peered through the binoculars where she was able to see a tiny two-inch-high fairy-like creature fluttering around looking red in the face, likely shouting and giving her team some sort of pep-talk. “How funny,” Holly said with a slight giggle before handing Mona her binoculars back.

  “This is bound to be a very exciting game,” Misty said, clapping her hands. Trapper glanced up into the stands and waved in their direction, and she waved back in such a giddy way that Monica was pretty convinced this girl was head over hooves for him.

  “You’re adorable,” Monica couldn’t help but saying, and Misty’s cheeks turned red.

  “Well…” she said, covering her face for a moment in embarrassment. “Truth is I’ve liked Trapper for a very long time. I would usually only see him during unity festivals between onocentaurs and centaurs, but our herds have been spending a lot more time mingling lately. I’ve only just told him how much I liked him a few months ago, and he was so happy. I couldn’t believe that such a handsome centaur would be even remotely interested in me! I’m just a farm girl, you know? And an onocentaur farm girl at that, and he’s this big famous Romp-A-Roo player!”

  Monica smiled. “I can see why he likes you. You’re so cute and sweet.”

  “Aww, you are too kind!” Misty said, still blushing.

  There was a loud explosion, and Monica looked up in time to see a bunch of fireworks going off. The crowds went nuts as a witch flew up on a broom, using a spell of some sort to project her voice over the screaming crowd. Two other witches flew on either side of her. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be your head ref for the evening, Referee Xana! I’m so pleased that my hometown of Wysteria will be hosting this season’s opening game of Romp-A-Roo!”

  The crowd cheered loudly as Xana whipped out her wand and cast a spell, causing all the wooden tree-trunk like platforms to shrink down to the ground, allowing players to take their starting positions. Another wave of her wand, and the platforms shot up nearly one hundred feet in the air, players all on board and taking a serious fighting stance. Xana smiled, and the crowd cheered as she announced the names of each player. Deimus did a backwards flip on his platform when they called his name, and Mona shrieked excitedly.

  “And let me also introduce our safety personnel for this evening, responsible for casting spells to keep all of our players safe in the event they are thrown from their platforms. Yak, Zip, and Lola—some of the most talented safety witches this side of the mountains!” Xana called, and the three witches zipped around on broomsticks at the base of the platforms, showing off a bit of pre-game magic. “Now I will cast the magic-suspension spell that will last the duration of the game!” Xana called, waving her wand and reciting an incantation.

  “Magic-suspension spell?” Holly asked.

  “It keeps everyone on an equal playing field,” Misty explained. “Takes away the ability to fly from creatures with wings, prevents witches and wizards from casting spells, and removes super-human strength. Anything of the sort.”

  “Gotcha,” Holly said.

  Monica smiled, nudging Holly. “When Aunt Wilma was a little girl, the game was played strictly between witches and wizards, so spells were cast left and right. But now that the games permit other mystics, things are a little different. Honestly, I think it’s way more exciting this way.”

  “Now, please bring forward our team captains!” Xana called, and Deimus and a warlock from the opposing team each stepped forward onto the yellow platforms. “Let the games begin!” Xana shrieked, throwing the large, leather ball into the air.

  Monica tried not to laugh when Holly shrieked loudly in surprise when Deimus’s first move was to kick the opposing player in the chest, sending him flying back on his podium as Deimus caught the ball and began jumping from the yellow podiums to get towards the opposing team’s goal. “It’s a bit of an aggressive game,” Monica told Holly. “But don’t worry. They know what they’re doing.”

  3

  Monica was on the edge of her seat. She had not seen a game of Romp-A-Roo this exciting in a very long time. The players this year were incredibly talented with the way they used the springs to launch themselves across the field. Before she knew it, the game was tied 5 to 5. “Do you think someone will attempt—” Holly started to say just as one of the women on their team caught the ball when Deimus threw it to her. Deimus gave her an approving nod, and the woman jumped onto the center blue platform.

  The woman kicked off, causing the platform to launch her and the ball through the air. “She overshot!” Mona squealed.

  “No, she didn’t!” Monica called back excitedly as the female dwarf zoomed through the air over the yellow platforms and past the green platforms she was not permitted to land on.

  “She’s going for it! She’s going for it!” Mona wailed.

  “All the guys have to be on the yellow platforms before she lands!” Monica yelped as they watched Deimus’s teammates scatter from wherever they were at to try to get to the center of the playing field in a hurry.

  Trapper was taken off guard by this. You didn’t usually see someone launch themselves to the goalie platform from anywhere but the much closer yellow platform but being a dwarf—a tiny woman dwarf at that—coupled with the angle she had launched herself, she was actually going to try to make the landing. “I can’t watch,” Holly said, covering her eyes. The goalie platform didn’t have much room for a landing with such a large goalie like Trapper, but the little dwarf had a true look of determination.

  “She stuck the landing!” Misty exclaimed in surprise, seeming to forget what team she was cheering for after such an exciting maneuver.

  Unfortunately for the dwarf, Trapper was an incredible goalie. He kicked the ball, while it was still in her hands, sending her and the ball flying clear off the platform. The safety witches cast a spell, temporarily turning the dwarf into rubber
and causing her to bounce on the ground three times before landing hard back to her usual form.

  “An incredible attempt by Trixie, the first female dwarf to ever make a professional Romp-A-Roo team!” Xana called, and the crowds cheered her on. “Unfortunately, she didn’t make the goal and is now evicted from the game! Let’s see how our home team fairs with one less player!”

  The ball was thrown up once again, and the game continued now with one less player. It was still very exciting. The game was evenly matched during the entirety of the game. 5-6. 6-8. 8-9. By the time they were nearing the finish, the game was tied 19-19, and it looked like the home team was going to attempt another big move as another one of their players had been taken out of the game after a knee injury. “They’ve got to perform an assault maneuver if they’re going to win this,” Monica said to Holly. “There is no way they can get many more points before the other team with two players down.”

  Misty clapped her hands. “This is just too exciting! Go Trapper! You got this!”

  Monica smiled at Trapper’s personal cheerleader. The onocentaur was so peppy that she was almost tempted to cheer for the visiting team along with her. Monica recognized Deimus’s signal to his teammates that they were going to try an assault maneuver while the game was tied up. And, much to Mona’s shrieking excitement, Deimus was going to be their jumper.

  One of the girls from the opposing team landed on a blue platform near the home team’s goal to try to score, but the two remaining girls all jumped onto the center platform at once with her, and one of them kicked off on the spring, sending all three of them flying towards the yellow platforms. The crowd screamed nervously, unsure whether or not the spring would allow them to reach a platform. Monica yelped in surprise as their two players landed perfectly but the Greengrith girl’s foot just barely caught the edge of the platform and she was about to fall—and with all three of the safety witches on the opposite end of the field!

  “What an incredible display of sportsmanship!” Xana called out as the Wysteria girls grabbed the Greengrith girl just in time to keep her from falling without a safety witch nearby.

  Of course, one of the girls immediately punched her in the face while the other pulled the ball from her hands and tossed it to Deimus, but that was just Romp-A-Roo. “I guess a broken nose is better than falling from that height,” Misty said with a slight chuckle.

  “He’s going to do it!” Mona called as Deimus jumped onto the center yellow platform, catapulting himself through the air towards Trapper.

  Everyone was screaming and cheering and stomping their feet. Deimus landed right on Trapper’s back, and the centaur bucked like a wild bull. Deimus threw the ball, and the entire crowd roared excitedly as the ball went through the goal and Xana’s voice called out, “Wysteria wins! Wysteria wins the game!”

  But the excitement did not last long. Suddenly, the platform Trapper and Deimus were on creaked and began to fall. Mona shrieked. One of the safety witches managed to shoot a blast towards Deimus, capturing him in a floating bubble. The other shot her wand just underneath Trapper, causing him to land on a trampoline that appeared out of thin air. He bounced from the trampoline, landing in the grass just as the platform came tumbling down. Misty cried out, and Monica looked away, though it was clear by the cries of the audience what had happened. The platform had crushed him.

  The safety witches flew their brooms over to him, quickly casting a spell to cause the platform covering Trapper to turn to dust, but there was nothing more they could do at this point. Trapper was dead. Misty wailed, and she was making her way down the stands before Monica and the others even had time to stand. They followed her. “Please, everyone! Stay in your seats!” Xana was calling in her loud, spell-casted voice. “Remain in your seats!”

  Just as Deimus was placed on the ground from his safety bubble, the teams seemed to collide. Accusations were thrown back and forth, and a fight broke out. “Oh no,” Monica said as Deimus seemed to be right in the middle of it, the opposing team pointing fingers towards him, accusing him of tampering with the podium.

  Monica and the others missed a good bit of the fight. All they knew was that by the time they got down to the field, Deimus had a bloody nose and was being escorted away by local authorities. Mona was understandably flabbergasted by this, so they followed the authorities to the local jail to find out exactly what had led to Deimus’s arrest.

  By the time they arrived at the jail, Deimus was already being kept in a magic-proof cell. A large warlock was waiting for them, already having been informed that Deimus’s girlfriend and her posse had followed them to the station. “Why did you arrest him?! He didn’t do anything! It’s the other team that started that fight! They attacked him,” Mona exclaimed.

  The warlock held his hand out. “We brought him in because the platform was tampered with, and Deimus was the only one anywhere near the platform when it fell—not to mention he has a long-standing rivalry with the deceased.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything,” Mona hissed.

  “It’s enough for us to question him. He’s not being arrested, not yet,” the warlock assured them. “Now, back off! Go sit in the lobby.”

  They did as they were told, and Monica could tell that Mona felt incredibly sick by how pale her face had gotten. Monica reached out and touched Mona’s hand. “I’m sure a lot of this was just them wanting to get Deimus out of there since everyone reacted so violently to what happened. With that magic-suspension spell on all the players, he could have gotten really hurt if that fight had continued.”

  “I suppose,” Mona said, nervously tapping her feet. “How would they have known that the platform had been tampered with, anyway? The safety witches turned it to dust to get to Trapper after it fell?”

  “I don’t know,” Mona said. “Did you all see poor Misty, though? I’ve never seen anyone look so devastated.”

  “It was pretty rough,” Holly said. “That poor woman! I mean, it’s not like we know her particularly well, but you can tell she was so in love with him. I can’t imagine being in her position and having to watch that.”

  “Me either,” Monica said with a sigh.

  Mona was bouncing her leg nervously. “What if they do wind up charging him with something?” she asked. “Deimus didn’t do anything. You guys know that, right?”

  Personally, Monica didn’t actually know Deimus that well. Mona had only just started dating the man, but she could tell her sister was quite convinced. Her twin really cared about Deimus, and that was enough for Monica for now. “Of course, Mona. And don’t worry. We are going to figure this out, okay?”

  Mona nodded. “Okay, okay. You’re right. I’m jumping to conclusions too early, aren’t I?”

  “How about we go to the field and see if we can find out what happened?” Holly suggested. “I’m sure there are some officers there still investigating everything. I bet they could tell us more than anyone here could.”

  “I can’t leave here with Deimus still being questioned…but I sure would like to see if they’ve found anything…” Mona said desperately.

  “We’ll go, then,” Monica said, then looked at Abigail and Lenore. “You two stay here with Mona, okay? Holly and I will go and see if we can find out anything.” She leaned over to her familiar particularly. “You be nice to my sister, okay, Abs?”

  “Of course,” Abigail said reassuringly, and Monica and Holly hurried out to head back to the field.

  4

  Monica and Holly zipped back to the field, Holly gripping onto Monica from the back of her broom. As they approached the field, they could see that the place was still fairly crowded, the local authorities lining people up to make sure they spoke to as many witnesses as possible to try to get a good understanding of what had happened to poor Trapper. Trapper had already been removed from the scene, and Monica could see a gathering of centaurs and a handful of onocentaurs on the outskirts of the field. “Look, there’s Misty,” Holly said. “Poor girl. Do you think we sh
ould see if she is holding up okay?”

  Monica agreed, and they flew towards the crowd of centaurs, landing a short distance away so as not to startle them too much with the abrupt landing. The women dismounted the broom, and from the ground, they spotted Nud standing in the middle of the group of horse-like creatures. “Yes, the authorities have agreed to keep communications open with me, and I will personally keep the herds informed of the investigation,” Nud was saying, trying to calm them all down.

  Personally, Monica had never seen so many centaurs at a Romp-A-Roo game before. Clearly, Trapper’s presence had ignited some excitement amongst the clans. She most certainly had never seen onocentaurs being so social with non-herd members. Monica had only learned of onocentaurs recently herself, and she had grown up in the world of the mystics. They were usually quite closed off, so to see nearly half a dozen of them at a Romp-A-Roo game was quite a sight.

  “Do you really think that Deimus fellow did something to the goalie podium?” one of the young males asked. “Has a warlock killed Trapper?”

  Nud held up both hands. “Calm yourselves,” he warned. “From what I have been told, Deimus has mostly been removed from the field for his own safety after the opposing team assaulted him. Yes, Deimus is being investigated, but mostly because of his close proximity to Trapper during the time of death. I suspect we will learn that this was merely a terrible accident, but the authorities assure me they are looking at a range of possibilities. I do not want my people jumping to conclusions and pointing fingers before we have all the facts, am I clear?” He spoke those last three words with such sternness that all of them uttered a quick, embarrassed, ‘yes, Councilman Nud’ under their breaths like a group of well-trained school children.