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

by Susan Harper

  “Come on,” Monica said, attempting to usher some of the Wysteria Werewolves away before things got too heated. Urrgah was looking like he wanted to crush Oldar’s head as well now.

  On their way out, they passed by Udali, who was speaking with a few members of the press. “To tell you the truth,” she was saying. “I think we’re going up against a pretty impressive team. I’m looking forward to the match.”

  Bolt smiled and began prancing up to her. “Looking forward to playing against you too,” he interjected and reached out to touch her at her lower back, a seemingly innocent gesture since they had spent most of the gala hanging all over one another.

  Udali whipped around, snatching him by his wrist and twisting his arm back. “What do you think you’re doing?” she roared, the press clearly eating this up. “Don’t touch me like that, you pervert!” She shoved him back into Ida and Gale. Udali shot a rather pitiful look at the members of the press. “I swear, if werewolves can’t control their urges just because we’re a little close to a full moon, they ought to be banned from public events like this!” She whipped her hair, shot Bolt a rather devious grin, and hurried out of the room.

  “What!” Bolt yelped, but before he could say anything in front of the reporters, Deimus grabbed him and ushered him out, the rest of the team following close behind. “That witch played me!” Bolt snapped once they were all scurrying down the hall.

  “They all did,” Deimus muttered. “Got us acting out in front of the press. I can already tell you what the papers are going to be talking about tomorrow…”

  “Well, this is just great,” Coach Joanne-Jo said. “I am going to be having a word with that coach! His players are completely out of control. Every last one of them are trying to get in your heads before the game. Krulin spying on our match and shouting all those slurs, Oldar trying to get Brian and Deimus riled up, and Udali flirting with Bolt and then doing that…honestly! This whole thing has been a nightmare, and we’re going to be the ones who come out looking like the ones out of line.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bolt said, his shoulders slumped.

  “It’s not your fault, Bolt,” Ida said. “Forget about Udali. She’s a jerk. And when we’re finally playing against them, you better believe Clowdia, Trixie, Rosemary, and I are going to give her a run for her money if she dares to try to step on one of our podiums.”

  “I’ll bite her freakin’ knees for you,” Trixie said, and Bolt smirked down at the dwarf.

  The rest of the day dragged on, and the team spent most of the time in their floating ship to avoid the press who all wanted to ask about the confrontations that took place during the Q&A. The ship was no longer floating above the city but had instead dropped anchor and was seated in the middle of a pasture filled with various tents and pop-up homes for out-of-town travelers. People would be filling up the grassy hills with tents over the next few days in expectation of the upcoming match. Mystics came from all over the world to watch the Romp-A-Roo finals.

  Bolt spent most of the afternoon moping. Brian, who had been rooming with him on the ship, tried to convince him to go out on the town that evening, but Bolt declined and wound up hiding away from the guys in Ida and Gale’s room. Everyone retired early, hoping the following day would be better. Monica curled up with Abigail and Holly in their shared room aboard the ship, and she drifted off into a deep sleep.

  Though she had slept for several hours, Monica felt as though she had only just closed her eyes when she awoke to Rosemary shaking her. “Monica, Holly, Abigail, down to the galley, quick!” she exclaimed.

  Monica sat upright, grumbling. “Huh? What’s going on?”

  “Bolt just came running and waking us all up,” Rosemary said frantically. “He fell asleep in Ida and Gale’s room last night, and he woke up and went to go back to his and Brian’s bunks… The place is trashed, and Brian… He’s missing!”

  6

  The ship was soon covered in local authorities. Much to Monica’s relief, the authorities in the area seemed to be taking Brian’s apparent abduction as a personal offense. Despite Brian being mortal, he was technically an authority as well as he was the Bankstown-Wysteria Portal Keeper. Everyone was seated in the ship’s lounge in front of the large fireplace waiting on word from the authorities who were currently rummaging through Brian and Bolt’s sleeping quarters.

  “It looked bad in there,” Bolt said anxiously. “Like the whole place was trashed…”

  “Shut up, Bolt,” Ida whispered, nodding in Monica’s direction.

  “I’m okay,” Monica said. “I’d rather know than not know. Did you see anything at all? Anything that might tell us what happened?”

  “I mean, honestly, Monica, it looked like a fight of some sort happened,” Bolt said. “I didn’t get too good of a look around before I came running around waking all of you up and Coach called in the authorities. I should have stayed in there… I was embarrassed, honestly, and he would have wanted to talk to me about it, so I just lounged around with Ida and Gale and wound up passing out on the floor in their room.” His face turned red. “I’m sorry, Monica. It looked to me like someone must have dragged him out of there. If I had been there…”

  “You can’t blame yourself, Bolt,” Monica said. “That’s not your fault. You don’t know what would have happened if you had stayed in there.”

  “But why would someone want to attack Brian?” Clowdia asked. “And how did they get on the ship?”

  “Ship’s grounded,” Coach Joanne-Jo pointed out. “That wouldn’t be too difficult of a task. Even if it had been up in the air, a simple flight up on a broomstick would have done the trick to get on board. I didn’t exactly think we needed a bunch of heavy security. I suppose I was wrong.”

  At last, a warlock dressed in authority robes entered the lobby, and he was carrying a small file. “May I speak with Monica and Mona, please?” the man said as politely as he could.

  Monica and Mona both stood, and Abigail scooted over to sit closer to Holly as she did so. They followed the warlock out of the room and down the hall into the galley. “I’m Authority Saunders,” the man began. “Ms. Monica, you’re the victim’s girlfriend?”

  “Yes,” Monica said. “Did you find anything at all when your team searched the room? Do you think he’s hurt? Why would someone want to take him?”

  “With the match coming up, it’s possible someone was wanting to sabotage the game. Make sure you were down a player,” Authority Saunders suggested. “While I’m sure he is a perfectly capable man, if the assault was motivated by the game, the mortal would likely be easiest to kidnap. Can you imagine someone dragging that troll out of here? And if they went after the selkie, if the kidnapper had been a man, she would have been able to simply bat her eyes at him. That dwarf woman, the whole league knows she’s a fighter.”

  “You think this is just sabotage and someone went with what they felt was their best odds at pulling off a successful snatch?” Mona asked.

  “I’m saying it’s a possibility,” Saunders said. “I don’t want to alarm you, but we did find a small amount of blood in the room. One of my CSIs used a spell that confirmed the blood belonged to a mortal, so it’s safe to assume it was Brian’s.” Monica began to wring her wrists. Blood? So this meant he was injured. She knew she must have gone quite pale because Saunders was quick to add, “It wasn’t much. Probably just a small gash or bump on the head. We’ve already got some of our best authorities trying to track where he might have gone.”

  “I can’t believe someone would seriously stoop this low over a stupid game,” Mona said angrily.

  “Well,” Saunders began. “I’m honestly hoping that’s all it is. I found this in his belongings.” He pulled out a file he had had tucked under his arm and set it on the nearby table.

  Monica recognized the file immediately. “That’s our parents’ cold case file,” Monica said.

  “I contacted Wysteria’s Head Authority Mueller through the mirror network, and he informed me tha
t Brian had sent him a message requesting to see the file. Mueller had sent this to him using a transportive spell as Brian had insisted on its urgency.”

  “Brian decided to look into our parents’ case,” Mona said. “I wish he had told us.”

  “Mueller says Brian only contacted him once you had first arrived in town,” Saunders said.

  “I had only just told Brian about what I had learned about the case being covered up,” Monica said.

  “Interesting,” Saunders said. “My worry is that it might be related to this case. We’ve been having sects of Remembrance pop up on our side of the world lately too, Ms. Monica. It’s not just Wysteria.”

  “I know,” Monica said. “It’s a worldwide fiasco. Do you think him requesting this case file might have gotten him into some sort of trouble?”

  “We can’t rule out the possibility,” Saunders said. “But I assure you that we will do everything in our power to find him and whoever took him.” Monica reached for the file, but Saunders stopped her. “I’m afraid that’s evidence, Ms. Monica, and you are not an authority. If you will head back to the lounge, we are almost done with the crime scene, and you will be kept informed of the case.”

  Monica frowned, but then she recalled that Mueller had given her his copy of the file.

  The two of them returned to the lounge where the team and their friends were still gathered. Mona went and sat next to Deimus, who was fidgeting terribly in his seat. “I don’t like this,” he said. “This has Norbury Nymphs written all over it. We ought to be searching their hotel rooms! They’re trying to sabotage us just like at the press conference.”

  “Honestly, Deimus!” Coach Joanne-Jo exclaimed. “Brian is missing, kidnapped, and you’re worried about what this will do for the game!”

  “I’m worried about Brian,” Deimus assured her. “Believe me. He’s my friend, but don’t you think it’s odd that he would get snatched up in Norbury? Who here has any sort of vendetta against Brian except for the Nymphs or one of their crazed fans?”

  “Brian requested a cold case file when we got here in town,” Monica said, looking up at everyone on the team. “He decided to start looking into mine and Mona’s parents’ murder.”

  “Murder?” Gale repeated. “I thought your parents died in a potion mishap?”

  “That’s what we were told,” Monica said. “But come to find out, the incident was covered up by local authorities because it was Remembrance-related. This was nearly two decades before Remembrance experienced a resurgence, and they were worried about the group gaining any sort of copycats or attraction back then. Now that it’s happened anyways, some of the authorities who worked the case decided to come clean with me.”

  “Dang, Monica,” Bolt said. “I’m sorry you’re dealing with this right now. I was there when Brian sent the request in to Mueller. They talked through mirror network. I was impressed the mortal knew how to do that.”

  “I showed him how to,” Monica said. “In case he ever needed to reach me while he was in the mortal world and I was in the mystic. I wish he had told me he had decided to look into that case.”

  “I’m sure he just didn’t want to get our hopes up,” Mona said. “The case is nearly twenty years old.”

  Monica nodded, and she felt Abigail grab her hand with a concerned look. “Well, we’re not helping anything just sitting here,” Monica said.

  “Go crush Nymphs!” Urrgah said.

  “Crushing is not always the answer, Urrgah,” Clowdia said. “But I’m not about to just sit here either. I want to go see where those nasty little Romp-A-Roo players were last night when Brian went missing!”

  “Same!” Bolt said.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” Coach Joanne-Jo exclaimed. “No, we are headed down to the field and leaving this to the authorities. You are not about to go get yourselves in trouble starting a fight with the opposing team. We’ve gotten enough negative attention already! Do you all hear me? We’re going down to the field, so go get in your gear now! The authorities will handle this.”

  “But, Coach, what about Brian?” Trixie asked.

  “We will discuss this later,” Coach Joanne-Jo said, nodding in Monica’s direction. Monica blushed, realizing that the coach knew she was getting a bit worked up. “Now, hurry up! I want you all down on the field in fifteen minutes, or so help me, I’ll drag every last one of you down there by your ears!”

  The team got up slowly, but as they weren’t sure whether the coach was serious or not, they scurried away, leaving Monica, Mona, Abigail, and Isaac alone with the coach in the lounge. She fluttered over, landing on Monica’s left knee and looking up at her with concern. “He’s going to be all right,” Joanne-Jo said. “That man of yours is a tough cookie. And I suspect this is merely some sort of prank by our opposing team. I am going to have a word with their coach once I make sure I have my team running drills. I can’t have them running off and causing a scene. Not with so much on the line, and you and I both know there is a lot more than just a game on the line. The world is looking at us right now, Monica.”

  “I know,” Monica said. “You’re doing the right thing keeping them away. Brian would want the team to stay out of trouble. They don’t need any more negative press. I can’t imagine what’s in the papers this morning after that Q&A went so haywire.”

  Coach cringed. “I already saw the paper this morning,” she said. “One of the authorities loaned me his when they got here… It…isn’t pretty. Don’t tell the team, though. They don’t need to see it.”

  “You got it still?” Isaac asked, and she waved at the top of the mantle before fluttering off to go chase her team down to the fields.

  Isaac grabbed the article and sat back down with Monica, Mona, and Abigail, opening it up. Monica gritted her teeth in anger at the unsavory article.

  …and while his method was somewhat questionable, Oldar, team captain of the Norbury Nymphs, does raise some excellent points. Should mortals be permitted to play in a mystic league at all? Didn’t our people separate from the mortal world for a reason? What even is the point of having separate worlds if we continue to introduce these beings to our existence? What dangers does this impose? Most would agree that the Sorcerer’s Council Magical Sports Inclusion Act was a progressive step in the right direction, but should mortals be included in these new Romp-A-Roo gaming stipulations? Some might argue that after the heinous display of Wysteria Werewolf member, Bolt (one of the three werewolves on the team) at the Romp-A-Roo pregame press release, that this traditionally wizard and witch only sport might have become ‘too’ inclusive. As the Q&A was dismissing, the werewolf allegedly sexually harassed Norbury Nymph player, Udali. Udali, when questioned about the incident, gracefully responded, “He seems like a decent enough werewolf, and while there is never an excuse for such lewd behavior, you must understand it is in their nature. Their animalistic desires come out the closer you get to the full moon, of course, and I imagine being in a room full of so many females might have been overwhelming for him. It’s sad, really, to have to live with such an unsavory affliction as werewolf syndrome. We shouldn’t judge too quickly, I do think though, that he and others like him need to learn to control themselves better. I feel with the right kind of help, Bolt and his fellow werewolves can continue to be productive members of society, though perhaps something as public and pressure-inducing as playing in a professional sports league is simply too much for him at this time…”

  Monica couldn’t read anymore. She stood up, feeling as though steam was coming from her ears. “Oh, she is so about to get a beatdown from me,” Monica growled, balling up the newspaper and tossing it into the fireplace.

  7

  Monica followed the Wysteria Werewolves, what was left of them, to the fields. It would be the team’s last time to be able to use the fields before the big game that weekend, and they were down a player. The mood of the team had been greatly affected by Brian’s disappearance—they were all friends first, teammates second. When they arrived,
Monica could see the Norbury Nymphs running about on the field, and it took a total of three seconds before things went awry.

  “The field is reserved!” Deimus barked.

  Oldar, who was at the top of one of the yellow podiums high above their heads, whistled. A broom came shooting out from the stands which he used to fly down to them, landing briskly in front of Deimus. He had on a scowl. “We’re aware,” he said. “But your reservation doesn’t start until eight o’clock, and would you look at that, it’s seven-forty-eight!” He pointed toward an enormous clock tower in the distance. “So back up.”

  Coach Joanne-Jo fluttered right in front of Oldar’s nose. “Where is your coach?” she demanded.

  “Sleeping in,” Oldar said. “So I rallied the troops this morning for a bit of extra practice. Got to keep the team sharp, you know? In case you’ve forgotten, there’s a big match coming up.”

  “Get. Off. The. Field,” Joanne-Jo hissed in his direction.

  “You get the field at eight,” Oldar said to her. “That’s what time the field opens. This is our home field, or have you forgotten?”

  “You think I’m going to let your team lurch around for half an hour in the locker rooms after that stunt you all pulled with Krulin?” Coach Joanne-Jo asked. “Get off the field, now!”

  Oldar, a bit taken back by her abrasiveness, raised both hands in defense. “Fine,” he said. “But you lot are being some bloody terrible guests.”

  “Screw you,” Bolt said, and Oldar shot him a dirty look.

  “Look,” Oldar said, lowering his voice. “I didn’t know Udali was going to try to pull that stunt with you. Don’t get an attitude with me.”

  “You’re all a bunch of manipulative creeps,” Trixie said. “And you best believe the authorities are going to be all over you guys today.”

  “The authorities?” Oldar asked. “What did you do, cry to the authorities about us hurting your feelings?”