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

by Susan Harper

  Monica gripped her broom tightly. She’d had this broom for a very long time, and her sister had jinxed it just for her to transform into both a bicycle and motorcycle now. Giving that up would be awfully difficult. Plus, it would take her a while to save up for another broom. Brooms were not exactly a cheap commodity. “Oh… You want my broom?”

  “I understand if that’s a tough trade,” the elf said. “Thing is, my father made that piece there. I know he would have wanted me to sell it to someone who really wanted it, but I am admittedly having a hard time with it. But…maybe for a broom…” The elf smiled politely at her. “I know witches have a strong connection with their brooms. So, I understand if that’s a bit much. As far as pricing goes, do you think it’s a pretty fair trade?”

  “Oh, probably,” Monica said. “My broom is pretty old and beat up…though it does have a shapeshifting spell on it, so you can change it into a bike or motorcycle.”

  “Nifty!” the young elf said and glanced over at Holly, who was looking at snow globes. “Tell you what… If you give me the broom, you can have the shadowbox and I’ll throw in something for her, too. I sell authentic snow bombs. Bet she would have a kick out of a bag of those?”

  “Actually, she would probably really like that…” Monica said. “Tell you what… You can have the broom if you give me the shadowbox, a small bag of snow bombs, and one small snow globe for my friend. Deal?”

  “Deal!” he exclaimed, and the trade was made.

  Abigail was not pleased when Monic and Holly left the shop. “Where is your broom?” Abigail asked.

  “I traded it,” Monica said, putting Holly’s snow globe, the snow bombs, and the large shadowbox that the young elf had kindly giftwrapped for her into the bottomless purse.

  “You traded your broom!” Abigail exclaimed. “Please tell me you’re joking! Please tell me you didn’t just trade in your broom for a gift for your little boyfriend!”

  Monica sighed. “I did…but I really wanted to get Brian something special, and there was no way I was going to be able to afford that shadowbox. It was so beautiful, Abigail. He’s going to love it.”

  “Yes, yes, that’s all fine and good…but…” Abigail sighed heavily. “Monica, how on earth are we supposed to get back home?”

  6

  “I mean, can you believe the luck?” Brian asked as he and Mona stood outside the shop as the fire department finished putting out what was left of the blaze.

  “I wouldn’t call it luck considering that the woman has third-degree burns,” Mona said with a huff, glancing over her shoulder at the ambulance that was about to carry Chloe, the shop owner’s girlfriend, away.

  “I’m talking about the roof caving in just enough for all that snow to fall in,” Brian said. “It was incredible. You should have seen it. I mean, I’m glad you didn’t because that would have meant you had been stupid enough to run into the building like me…but still. The paramedic is confident that Chloe is going to be okay, and it’s greatly in part to the roof dropping in all that snow and ice on our heads. It put out half the fire before the department even got here.”

  “Yes, I was outside. I saw what happened,” Mona said bitterly. If she hadn’t cast that spell, her sister’s boyfriend would be toast. She was starting to think this man was a complete idiot. Though, truth be told, he had saved Chloe from being burnt to a crisp.

  Justin, the man who owned the shop across the street, had come over after closing his shop and was now standing next to them, staring up at the shop. “Was anyone inside other than Chloe?” Justin asked.

  “Doesn’t look that way,” Brian said. “Chloe was barely conscious when I found her and told me that Lou and Penny had already headed home to get going on some baking—Christmas preparations.”

  “Dang,” Justin said. “Glad no one else was in there. Chloe is going to be all right, you said?”

  “That’s what I’ve been told,” Brian said. “Though, she was burned pretty bad. It looks like she’s got third-degree burns. She’s not in too much pain because of the seriousness of the burn.”

  “What do you mean?” Justin asked. “Wouldn’t a worse burn mean more pain?”

  “You would think that,” Brian said. “But, no. It fried her nerve endings on her legs. Her legs are way worse, but she can’t even feel them. It’s her left hand that’s hurting her. That burn isn’t bad at all, though. She’ll be using her hand again before her legs. Its’ going to be a rough recovery, but I think she’s going to come out of it okay.”

  “Dang, lucky you were here, Brian,” Justin said. “That girl could have been a goner. Too bad about the shop, though.” Justin smirked slightly. “Guess my competition is out, huh?”

  Both Brian and Mona instinctually looked at him with a concerned gaze. “Excuse me, Justin?” Brian asked.

  “Oh, I guess it’s too soon to be making jokes, huh? That’s my bad,” Justin said. “Just trying to make light of the situation. Does Lou know his shop is burnt to a crisp yet or what?”

  “I don’t believe so, but one of the firefighters said he was going to call Lou,” Brian said.

  “Got it,” Justin said. “Well, this is just a terrible way to start out your Christmas holiday, am I right? Well, I’m out. Got to get to the family. Christmas is just a few days away. Got a lot on my plate,” Justin said and began walking down the sidewalk.

  “That was mildly suspicious,” Mona said coolly, her eyes narrowed as she watched Justin trot off.

  “I’d say.” Brian waved one of the firefighters down now that the flames were under control and almost completely out.

  One of the men who was just getting off the phone approached Brian, wiping sweat from his brow. “That woman is lucky you showed up when you did,” the man said. “Officer Brian, right? Name’s Ronnie.”

  “Thanks, Ronnie,” Brian said. “You guys did quick work.”

  “That ceiling cave-in did half the work for us,” Ronnie said. “The fire could have quickly spread to some of the other shops if not for that, and I have no doubt you and Chloe both would have burned up in there if not for it. You gotcha an angel looking out for you, Brian.”

  Mona smirked at this, wondering what the man would think if he found out it had been a witch who had saved them.

  Brian nodded. “Looks that way,” he said. “You guys find anything that might tell us what happened? Bad light fixtures? Cigarette buds?”

  “Yeah, gasoline,” he said. “There’s evidence of it all over the place. This was arson.”

  “Seriously?” Brian asked, and Mona’s mind immediately went to Justin, who had only moments ago joked about being rid of his competition.

  “Looks that way,” Ronnie said. “We’ll get you more information once we get the rest of the fire out, so don’t take me on my word just yet.”

  Brian shook the man’s hand and thanked him for the heads up. Brian and Mona remained at the scene until the firefighters cleared out and a crime scene unit came in, confirming Ronnie’s suspicions. Mona noticed Brian turn quickly from the happy-go-lucky annoyance she had gotten to know over the past few hours to something quite different—something rather serious. She watched with a keen interest as he spoke with each of the firefighters, exchanged his account of the incident with them, interviewed some of the nearby shop owners who had stuck around despite the late hour, and he spoke with the crime scene unit and walked with them through the burnt shop. The man took his job very seriously, it seemed, and that was something Mona could actually appreciate.

  By the time it was over and done with, there were hardly any shops left on Main Street still open. “I’m sorry our Christmas shopping excursion seems to have gotten delayed,” Mona said.

  “Yeah, well, I might have an idea,” Brian said. “I called a buddy of mine who owns the bike shop on the corner. He’s going to meet me later.”

  “So, you did decide to get Monica some accessories for her bike?” Mona asked, somewhat glad that despite the wild evening this had become, he hadn’t
stopped thinking about her sister.

  “Yeah, but what I’m looking at is pretty pricey,” Brian said. “Kind of outside my budget. But I’m going to pawn something while my buddy is getting everything put together for me.”

  “Oh, okay,” Mona said. “Is there a pawnshop open this late?”

  “Yeah, there’s one around the corner from my apartment,” Brian said. “Guy who runs it stays open late, and he’s pretty fair about giving you your money’s worth.”

  “Are you going to do all of that tonight?” Mona asked curiously.

  “That’s the plan. I’ll drive you back to the bookshop before I go do all of that, though,” Brian said.

  “No, no,” Mona said. I’ve stuck with you this long. I’m quite curious to see how it turns out.”

  “Excellent,” Brian said. “Tell you what…” He checked his phone for the time. “Why don’t you and I follow up with dessert to go with that dinner we had earlier? Do that before everything closes down. We have plenty of time to get to the pawnshop, and I don’t want to rush back to the bike shop yet because it’ll be a while before everything is ready for me. If you’re up for making this a rather late-night adventure.”

  Mona nodded. “I suppose dessert would not be such a terrible idea.”

  Mona was not really sure what to expect as far as desserts went in the mortal realm, but it turned out sweets were not so different for mortals and mystics. They found a nice fudge shop and got themselves some freshly-baked fudge, which they chomped down on during their walk back to Brian’s car. Mona had elected to try the cookies and cream flavor while Brian went for a peanut butter. “This is good,” Brian said. “Should hold me over until later if we’re going to be out late running errands. I’m surprised you still want to stick around with me after all that craziness with the fire.”

  “Frankly, Officer Brian, you now have me quite intrigued. I’m curious about this man my sister is now seeing,” she said. “You have proven to be…unpredictable, and I cannot decide whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.”

  “Oh?” Brian asked. “Well, I hope you decide it is a good thing. I get the impression that you two are very close, your sister and you, I mean. She would…appreciate your opinion about me, am I right?”

  “Quite,” Mona said, popping the rest of her fudge into her mouth. “So far, I must say, you have excellent taste in desserts. But that’s about all I have to report back.”

  “So, what is it you want to know about me, exactly?” Brian asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Mona said. “I don’t know much about you at all, Officer Brian. Only that you are a cop from a small town who enjoys a little too much caffeine first thing in the morning. I know you are not much of a reader, which as a bookshop owner cannot possibly be attractive to Monica, but she likes you anyway, so there is clearly something there she sees.”

  “Are you always this blunt?” Brian asked as they climbed into his car.

  “Yes, does it bother you?” Mona asked.

  “It doesn’t bother me,” Brian said. “It just surprises me. Monica is more of the type to beat around the bush, but you’re pretty straightforward about everything.”

  “That’s just the way I am,” Mona said. “I’m not trying to offend you. I hope you realize that. Some people really do find me to be quite abrasive.”

  “I can see why, but it’s honestly fine, really,” Brian said. “Not like I’ve given you much of a reason to like me after our first encounter.”

  Mona laughed. The poor man still thought his behavior was his fault and not the result of a potion mishap. “No, not really,” Mona said, hardly feeling as though she could hold that behavior against him. “But I did learn something about you this evening.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That you are the type of man to run into a burning building with no protection if you thought there was even a chance that someone might be trapped inside,” Mona said. “And this tells me two things.”

  “What two things does it tell you?” Brian asked curiously.

  “Well, first, that you are quite brave. You like to be a hero, yes? You feel like you have to be for whatever reason. Secondly, it tells me you are also quite stupid,” Mona said. “I apologize if that was too blunt again…”

  Brian laughed. “No, it’s fine. It was pretty stupid. I could have easily waited for backup. Not like the fire station isn’t just a five-minute drive from Main Street. I could have really gotten myself hurt and made things worse for Chloe.”

  “But you saved her life. Because of your quick actions, you are now investigating arson and not murder,” Mona said. “You are a brave man, Officer Brian. Clearly, that is one of the things my sister likes so much about you.”

  Brian smiled. “Thank you, Mona.”

  Mona nodded, but she said nothing else. She gazed out the window as they drove through the colorful streets of Bankstown, the shimmering Christmas lights reflecting off the window and blinding her a bit. While she had not been so sure about this town at first, Mona was starting to see a bit of its charm. Before too long, she and Brian were pulling up outside of his apartment, and they were on the next step of their journey for that evening.

  7

  Monica sighed as she stood outside of the shop where she had just traded in her broom, her shoulders slumped. “I really hope Brian likes this gift,” she said.

  “I can’t believe you,” Abigail scolded. “Trading your broom in to a measly little North Pole elf. Your broom is worth way more than that stupid little box, a handful of snow bombs, and a snow globe!”

  “Yeah, Monica,” Holly said. “Do you really feel like you got yourself a fair trade?”

  “It was a really nice box, and I could tell it was quite sentimental to the elf,” Monica said. “And it has actual gold on it, and the wood is of really good quality. I think financially speaking, it was a fair trade… I’m just feeling funny without my broom. It was…pretty sentimental…”

  “Oh, no!” Holly said. “Why was it sentimental?”

  “My parents gave it to me,” Monica said. “It’s one of the reasons I haven’t traded it in for a new one yet. It was getting pretty old and rickety.”

  “Weren’t you raised by your aunt?” Holly asked.

  “I was,” Monica said. “They died from a potion mishap that blew up the house when Mona and I were just kids.”

  “I’m so sorry, Monica,” Holly said. “That must have been hard. I mean, I knew your parents had died, but I didn’t realize you were old enough to have known them.”

  “About ten or so,” Monica said. “The broom was their last gift they ever gave me.”

  “Well, that’s just awful that you traded it, Monica,” Holly said. “I agree with Abigail. I think this was a rash decision. We should go back in there and see if we can get it back.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Monica countered. “I want to give Brian the shadowbox. I think he is really going to like it, and I hadn’t gotten you anything yet for Christmas either, so I wanted to get you the snow globe.”

  Holly sighed. “Well, thank you,” she said. “It’s a beautiful snow globe.”

  “I’m glad you like it,” Monica said.

  “Yeah, having a snow globe that’s actually from the North Pole is pretty cool,” Holly said. “Hard to pass that up. I just… I can’t believe you traded something that reminded you of your parents.”

  “I have plenty of things that remind me of my parents,” Monica said. “I’ll be okay. I just hope he likes it.”

  “Are you kidding?” Holly said with a laugh. “He’s going to love it. He is really proud of that medal of his. He needs a good place for it.”

  “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to find a nice shadowbox for it?” Monica asked. “I’ve been looking for one since Thanksgiving, and I just haven’t liked anything that I’ve found. They were all so cheap-looking, but this one is something worthy to display the medal, I think.”

  “Okay, but back to th
e real problem at hand,” Abigail said bitterly. “How are we supposed to get home now? You just traded our only means of flying from the North Pole back to Bankstown.”

  “You have an excellent point,” Monica said. “But there are means of travel here on the mystic side. I certainly don’t think we’d be able to find something if we went through the portal and tried to find our way home on the mortal side. I say we travel from here until we get to the nearest portal, preferably somewhere that will take us through somewhere with some sort of means of travel.”

  “Also a bad idea,” Abigail said. “We have to go somewhere that will take us to somewhere in North America, because otherwise, you’re not going to be able to get back into the United States without some sort of passport.”

  “Ooh, good point, I definitely didn’t bring a passport. Don’t need one when you’re traveling by broom. Okay, so we need to travel to a portal town that will guide us to somewhere in the United States so that we can get back to Bankstown,” Monica said. “I’m sure if we go talk to some of the elves, some of them can tell us the best way out of here.”

  “Hey, maybe we can ask Santa for a dogsled?” Holly suggested. “I mean, it’s almost Christmas, right? He is in the business of giving out gifts.”

  “I don’t think Santa is what you think he is,” Monica said.

  “What do you mean?” Holly asked.

  “Santa gives out toys to mortals,” Monica said. “Not to mystics. And only to sponsored mortals.”

  Holly stared blankly at Monica for a moment. “You’re going to have to explain that one.”

  Monica sighed. “Okay, let me see… He runs a sort of charity organization. That’s what Santa’s Workshop really is. Mystics sponsor mortal children, usually impoverished children, and they help provide Santa with all the items or funds necessary to give the children toys on Christmas Eve.”

  “So… Santa doesn’t go to every single house on Christmas Eve?” Holly asked.