The Westport Mysteries Boxed Set

by Beth Prentice

  “Oh, you’re the lady who bought that house. I heard you’ve got Riley Thomas working for you. Is that right?” she asked, her eyes twinkling, leaning forward, and preparing herself for any gossip that might come her way.

  I hate the way gossip spreads around small communities. “Yes, do you know him?”

  She started nodding her head, reminding me of a bobble-head doll. “My sister used to date him for a while in high school. Phew, he’s a hot one, is Riley.” I think that was a roll of jealousy that ran through my stomach but before I had a chance to examine it, she continued. “As far as I know he’s not dating anyone at the moment. Lucky you.” Turning her attention back to her computer, she asked, “Is it a ginger male?”

  It took me a second to catch up with the conversation but when I nodded, she continued. “That cat is already registered with us,” she said. “He used to belong to Avis Miller. His name is Mister.”

  “Mister? Really?” That was only slightly better than cat. Obviously Avis’s imagination was no better than mine.

  Once all the necessary paperwork was completed Danny dropped me home, and getting out of the car, we waited while Harper made a quick pit stop at Hazel and Adrian’s fence, promptly lifting his leg. I think he’s going to fit in well with our family.

  I watched Danny reverse out of my drive, and then walked up to the front door noticing it was open. That was strange because Riley’s truck wasn’t in the drive. Maybe it was around the back. Pushing the door all the way open, I called out to Riley.

  Silence. A prickly feeling ran up my spine and the hair on my arms stood up. Telling myself not to be stupid, it was broad daylight, I ventured in. I left the front door open in case I needed to make a fast getaway and looked around. Everything seemed to be the way I left it. The TV was still in the lounge, the coffee-maker was still on the kitchen bench and the leftovers of Mum’s homemade chocolate cake were still in the fridge. Obviously I hadn’t been robbed. Maybe Riley hadn’t pulled the door closed properly behind him when he left. Still feeling a bit freaked out, I turned towards the front door. And screamed.

  A hand reached out and grabbed my arm as another hand was placed over my mouth to stop me from screaming. At the same time I was being pulled backwards against a large, hard body.

  Fight or Flight? Fight or Flight? Fight obviously…someone was between me and the front door.

  As disgusting as it was, I opened my mouth and bit down hard. The hand instantly dropped and I heard a sharp intake of breath. His grip on me loosened enough so that I spun around, leg pulled back and kicked the poor man’s groin—smack bang on target—as hard as I could. It was as he dropped to the floor onto his knees, hand held tightly against his manhood, that I realized…it was Riley.

  Now, I know my first thought should be Oh My God, what have I done but actually, it was more like Oh My God, my foot touched his man business. I was about to yell at him for scaring me, when he put his finger to his lips in the shush position and pointed upstairs. Someone was up there.

  I quietly opened the freezer door, pulled out the frozen peas and handed them to Riley. I know someone was robbing my house, but I needed to make sure a certain Godlike man’s Godlike parts were going to be okay. Riley’s face had turned a slight greenish color, so I sat on the floor next to him and waited for his breathing to return to normal.

  “I’m so sorry. I thought you were a burglar attacking me,” I whispered. He didn’t respond. That’s probably a good thing as I think the response may not have been printable. We sat there quietly for what felt like hours but was only a couple of minutes. Feeling a bit better, Riley stood and limped over to the cupboard drawers. I felt a moment of panic when he pulled out a large knife. Was he that upset with me? Thankfully he turned towards the hallway and motioned for me to stay.

  Was he kidding? What if whoever it was in the house had crept downstairs while my attention had been somewhere around Riley’s nether regions? What if they were waiting to murder me once Riley was out of the room? No, far better to stay close to him. He gave me a feeling of safety. Even though, after I had kicked him in the groin, he was probably more of a danger to me than any maniac lurking upstairs.

  Creeping up the stairs, right behind Riley—yes, I am trying to focus on the job at hand and not his backside, okay?—I listened intently for noises. I heard a car door close and an engine turn over, a dog barked in the far distance and the neighbor’s phone was ringing. But no noises that told us someone was in the house. Quietly checking all the rooms, it didn’t take a genius to realize someone had been here. All the boxes in my bedroom were upended and the contents thrown around the room. Whoever it was; was looking for something. It was the same in the bathroom. Even the laundry basket had been searched. The attic was pretty much untouched. There was nowhere up there to hide anything. Thankfully, no damage was done.

  “What do you think they were looking for?” I asked, when we were certain we were now alone.

  “I don’t know. When I arrived, I saw you entering the house. Then I saw the curtains in the upstairs bedroom move. Someone was definitely there. I came in behind you hoping to get you out safely. Next time I think I’ll leave you to defend yourself,” he said, looking at my right foot.

  “But how did they get out?” I continued, ignoring the dirty look he was giving me. “You have to go through the kitchen to get out the back door and we could see the front door from where we were.”

  “He must have jumped out of the window in the bathroom. It was open when we went in.”

  “Should we call the Police?” I asked. When I first moved in here I was scared of the boogey man, now I was scared of something much more real. “Do you think he’ll come back?” I couldn’t tell what Riley was thinking. His expression was guarded.

  “I’ll call the Police. You look to see if anything’s missing,” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket.

  * * * *

  As far as I could tell the only thing missing was a particularly expensive pair of pink Victoria’s Secrets panties, but then they could just be lost in the wash. The Police thought it was a robbery interrupted and that there was no danger of the perpetrator coming back.

  They obviously wanted something smaller than the television and hadn’t found it. Riley made a trip to the hardware store and replaced every door and window lock in the house before he headed home. I attempted to clean up the mess in my bedroom but felt a bit empty about it all. I wasn’t in the house at the time of the break in, but what if I had been? What would I have done?

  Getting out the largest can of hairspray I owned, I put it next to the bed. Mace would be better, but a woman has to be resourceful, right? Making sure the bedroom door was locked and that Cat—aka Mister—was on the inside with me, I pushed a chair under the door handle and climbed into bed. My mind was on full alert, listening to every creak and bump the house made. And let me tell you, with a house this old, there were a lot. I heard a car pull up outside a few times but when I peeked out of the window I couldn’t see anything. By the time my bedroom clock read 1 am, I was fed up with tossing, turning and being freaked out of my mind, so I sat up and decided to read a book. I didn’t think sleep would arrive anytime soon. I didn’t have to turn the light on as I’d never turned it off. Sleeping in the dark tonight was definitely not on my To Do list.

  I got up and grabbed my bag and rummaged through it looking for my mobile phone. eReader really is a fantastic invention, isn’t it? I found Avis’s ring first though, so I pulled it out of my bag, lifted the lid and removed it from its black velvet bed. Placing it on my finger, I looked at the diamonds sparkling in the light. Even after years of being hidden, it still sparkled. It felt strange having a ring on my finger and I allowed myself to think about someone giving me such a gift. I knew for certain it wouldn’t be Scott.

  What about Riley? Would I like him to give me a ring? Sure he’s amazing to look at, but would I want to spend the rest of my life with him?

  When sleep finally came I spent
the next few hours tossing and turning as strange dreams filled my mind, but thankfully no dreams of strange men standing over my bed.

  * * * *

  The following morning I woke with an imprint of the ring on my cheek. Looking at my alarm clock I saw it was already 8.15 am. The day had begun without me. I’m surprised Riley clattering about upstairs didn’t wake me, but all was quiet. Taking the ring off and putting it safely back in my bag, I rubbed my cheek as I headed to the bathroom for my usual morning routine. This done, I wandered down to look for coffee.

  I wasn’t sure what was happening with the house today. The carpet was laid in the attic yesterday and I must say it looked amazing. I’d chosen an off-white shade of paint for the walls to contrast with the new latte-carpet. With a new blind on the window, it was all ready for the new office furniture.

  The coffee sitting in the pot was still hot, so obviously Riley had been here this morning. After pouring a cup, I decided to have one more look at the attic before all the furniture arrived, so I walked up the two flights of stairs to my new office. What greeted me was a room that was complete, furniture and all.

  My desk was over near the window, the new bookcase against the new walls with my new printer ready to go and gorgeous flowers on my desk.

  Riley was a true miracle. He’d done all this while I was asleep this morning. I sat in my new chair—top of the range leather—and smiled. This was fantastic. Everything smelled new and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Doing a full 360 in the chair, I spun around to find Riley leaning against the doorframe of the little storeroom, smiling at me.

  “Do you like it?” he asked. I stopped spinning to look at him and my heart did a little flip.

  “You are truly awesome, Riley. I can’t thank you enough.” I smiled, yet I knew my happiness was about to end. My agreed two weeks was up. The house hadn’t felt lonely since Riley’d been in it.

  “What happens now?” I asked quietly. Riley still hadn’t broken eye contact with me, which was causing my heart rate to go into the cardiac arrest zone.

  “That’s up to you. Do you want me to stay?” he asked quietly. This felt like such a loaded question.

  “Of course I do.” I actually never want him to leave.

  “Then how about Monday morning I start work on the bathroom?” he asked giving me the megawatt smile.

  * * * *

  I spent the rest of the day sorting the files Scott had couriered over and organizing my new office for Monday. A few times I thought I heard a car pull up outside, but every time I checked there was no one there. My imagination was going wild again. By the time I had everything filed and stored, it was starting to get dark and, as it was Friday night, I had a night out to get ready for.

  Tonight, we were all meeting at Danny and Andrew’s, so I decided to take the letters and let the others read them. See what they could make of them. I also wanted to talk to someone about Riley.

  “The house feels so alive when he’s in it,” I was explaining to Andrew and Danny, later that night. “But what about Scott?” I whined.

  “What about him?” asked Danny “He’s a cow’s ass. Dump him, I say.”

  “I agree,” said Molly. “Even though I’ve never set eyes on Riley. You did promise I could come and perv on your handyman, if I remember rightly.”

  Yeah, there was a reason she’d never seen Riley. If he got one look at Molly, he’d be hooked.

  “Besides, Riley is far nicer to look at,” continued Danny. We were sitting in his salon with treatments in our hair, facemasks on our faces and glasses of wine in our hands. Andrew gave me a refill.

  “Oh no, thanks Andrew,” I said attempting to cover my glass. “I have to drive home tonight.”

  “No you don’t. Why don’t you stay here? You and Molly can crash on the couch and go home in the morning,” suggested Danny. “Harper has already made himself at home.” We all looked at Harper who was laying on the couch, on his back, legs in the air, snoring.

  “Okay, fill me up!” Not hard to talk me into that, I hear you say? Well, you’re right. The thought of another restless night, alone and lonely did not appeal to me right now. A night of company was exactly what I needed. “The thing is,” I continued, getting the conversation back to where I wanted it, “Riley is out of my league. He could have any woman he wanted and there is no way I could compete with any of them. I know I’m lucky to have Scott, so I think I should just be grateful. It’s just with all this stuff about the ring and the letters, I seem to be spending a lot of time with Riley and he’s so wonderful. Do you know he holds open the car door for me?” I was now leaning forward, very intent on what I was saying, the wine already having an effect. “I mean what man does that these days? And you should see my office. While I was sleeping in this morning, he carted all the furniture up two flights of stairs and set the whole room up for me. It was actually very romantic.” I sat back and smiled.

  “Can I read the letters?” asked Andrew, ignoring my monologue about Riley.

  “Yeah, let me have a look at that ring again,” said Molly. While Molly and Danny admired the ring, Andrew sat reading the letters. When he’d finished he looked thoughtful.

  “Why do you think they were kept apart?” asked Molly.

  “You know, not all families are as understanding as yours is. You’re very lucky to have them,” Andrew smiled. “I’ve met quite a few parents in my time who couldn’t accept their sons for the choices they made.”

  “But love isn’t a choice,” I said.

  “No, you’re right, it’s not. But what you do with it—is. You believe in the fairytale of love, you’re caught up in the romance of it. But what happens when the honeymoon period is over and you have to live with your choices. Not everyone can do that.”

  “That’s pretty deep, Andrew,” said Molly.

  “Yes, well I’ve been around a bit longer than you,” he said, smiling.

  “Look at this photo. This one is Avis, right?” asked Danny, pointing to Avis in the photo. I nodded. “She was wearing this ring then.” Danny was right. Avis had the ring on her wedding finger.

  “Maybe you should get the ring valued and see if it’s worth anything,” suggested Molly.

  That’s actually a good idea. “Hey Molly, do you want to come and see Wicked with me tomorrow? Scott gave me two tickets to see it and I thought of you,” I said.

  “What happened to Scott taking you?”

  “Not his thing apparently.”

  We spent the rest of the evening discussing Scott and Riley and what I should do. If only the choice was mine.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sunday night dinner with the family came around quickly and this was Harper’s first time with us all together. It would be interesting to see how he fared. Grandma Mabel was on fine form tonight, telling us all about her outing with the seniors club at church. Apparently all the seniors’ clubs at the different churches took it in turns to host a group day. This month’s turn was at the Global Ministry.

  “I had a blast!” chuckled Grandma. “Those girls there didn’t stand a chance against me in the knobbly knee contest.” She lifted her skirt so we could all take a look at her knees. “Now this here’s a good set of knees, done me proud, they did.” Grandmas’ knees resembled those of a chicken’s. Only I think a chicken’s had more fat on them. “That Ben Willett couldn’t keep his eyes off them.” I’m not surprised, he was probably wondering the same thing we were—how did they hold her up? “I think I might ask him to sit with me at next week’s gathering.” She smiled.

  “Mum, how old are you? You shouldn’t be looking at men!” My mother looked horrified.

  “Why not? I’m old, not dead.” She was back to swishing her false teeth around again. It was a habit she had when she was thinking. What she was thinking about, I didn’t want to know.

  “What’s it like at the church?” asked Molly. “That building is absolutely massive.”

  “I remember when it was a tiny thing. Not t
oo many people attended. We were all a bit more traditional I suppose back then, but I guess if you like singing then it’s the place to be,” said Grandma. “I went to school with the son, you know. We all thought he was a bit weird. He had an older sister but you never saw too much of her. Kept pretty much to herself. The father was very strict. I remember Charles being afraid to do the wrong thing or he got a belting. So much for being a man of God.”

  “I heard it’s the same family who still runs it. I read somewhere David Thornton is the pastor there now,” said Danny.

  “Yes, he’s Charles’ son. I think he followed in his Granddad’s footsteps,” explained Mum.

  “Molly, what’s wrong with Harper?” asked Andrew. Harper had been sitting on Grandma Mabel’s knee and she’d been rubbing his belly but at the moment he seemed to be squirming in pain. Molly immediately rushed over to him to see what was wrong.

  “He was gettin’ a bit excited with me rubbing his belly if you know what I mean. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a response like that,” said Grandma.

  Molly lifted Harper’s front legs up and we all got a look at what Grandma meant. Harper had got himself in a bit of a predicament. His man business had popped out with all the attention from Grandma and got stuck. It appeared to be hurting him because he’d started to yelp.

  Molly panicked. “Oh my God...what do I do?” she yelled.

  “Calm down, for a start,” said Danny, even though I could tell he was feeling on edge as well. It was probably a man thing.

  “Try to push it back in,” suggested Mum.

  “How do I do that?” asked Molly.

  “If you have to ask that, my girl, you need to get out more,” said Grandma. Molly looked at Grandma.

  “I’ve actually never had the opportunity of putting one back in, Grandma,” she said, glaring at Mabel.

  “Try rubbing it,” said Mum helpfully.

  “Won’t that make it pop out more,” I asked.