Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Brianna Bates

  “Great neighborhood bar,” Vinnie said. “Reminds me of Philly.”

  He took the next turn and Missy was going to let his comment go, but figured what the heck. He’d brought his time in Philadelphia up.

  “Did you grow up there?” she asked.

  He nodded, very proud. “Joined the force right out of high school and went to college at night. The department was good, they paid for my education.”

  “That’s nice.” Missy couldn’t help but think of her student loans. She was still paying them off even though graduation had almost been twenty years ago. Her English degree hadn’t done her much practical good, and truth be told she could have worked at the bookstore without it. She had loved college, but anymore she experienced an acute case of buyer’s remorse whenever she thought of all the debt she’d accumulated.

  “I met Tyler there, obviously,” he said.

  “Did you work for him?”

  “He was a detective, I was just a patrolman,” Vinnie said. “But we were around each other enough so he could tell how good I was.”

  “Modest too,” she teased.

  He laughed. “Not really. I like what I do, and I’m good at it.”

  “So what made you come out here?”

  Vinnie thought about his answer. “It’s a long story, but the easiest way to sum it up is politics. I was qualified to be a detective in Philly but I got held up twice. Tyler promised to show me the ropes out here and I’d be a lead detective in a much shorter time.”

  Missy wanted to ask if he knew why Tyler had preceded him out here, but that would have been prying.

  “Politics is what did Tyler in too,” Vinnie said, as if reading her mind.

  “What happened?”

  Vinnie made another turn. They were five minutes from Hank’s. “That’s his story to tell, not mine.”

  Missy recovered quickly. “I was asking about you.”

  Vinnie gave her a sly grin. “Right. I’ll go ahead and pretend that’s not a lie. The short story is there was too much bureaucracy, too many things getting in the way of us doing our jobs. I was young but already sick of it. I just wanted to do my job, do what was right. The idea of working on a small squad appealed to me. We can pivot much more quickly than an entire department that requires level after level of buy-in and approval.”

  “Sounds like it was difficult to get anything done.”

  “It was and it wasn’t.” Vinnie’s voice grew dark. “Some guys found ways to get around the rules. But I didn’t want to go down that path. I didn’t want to cut corners even if I was doing it for the right reasons.”

  She smiled. That sounded a lot like Tyler. No wonder he’d brought Vinnie out here. They were of a like mind.

  “I didn’t think we had enough crime to justify two detectives,” Missy said. “Are you telling me Grove City is getting worse?”

  He shook his head no. “This can’t go any further, okay?”

  She’d only been teasing him, so his serious manner caught her off-guard. “Okay.”

  “The chief is close to retirement. Tyler is going to backfill his role in all likelihood. He can’t be chief and lead detective on everything. So he convinced me to make a lateral move out here and he convinced the chief to let him bring me, and so I’m not really a detective officially but I get to play the part, like I’m doing right now.”

  “I see.” Missy couldn’t believe he’d confided department business in her. Tyler would never have done that. It made her realize that as much as the two men were alike, they were also very different.

  ***

  Hank’s was loud and Missy was regretting her choice of locales. It was football season, so the bar was packed with rabid Eagles and Steelers fans. Grove City skewed about sixty-forty when it came to Philadelphia as opposed to Pittsburg sports.

  Vinnie got them a booth as far from the madding crowd as possible, then muscled his way to the bar to get them drinks.

  Missy left Vinnie the side of the booth where he could watch TV. Growing up her father had watched football every Sunday, but she’d never grown to like the sport. It was too violent for her tastes. Not that solving murders wasn’t violent…

  Vinnie returned with two beers. Missy was more a wine-girl, but Hank’s was one place you didn’t get wine. He sat opposite and surprised her by not even casually glancing at the nearest TV. Instead, he fastened his eyes to her.

  “Salut,” he said.

  They tipped glasses and Missy drank. He’d gotten her a light beer, thank God.

  “So,” Vinnie said. “Walk me through your morning.”

  “Is this where you officially ask me questions now?”

  He nodded. “See what I did here? I got you out to a bar, got you a drink, got you nice and relaxed.”

  She laughed but couldn’t be sure if he was kidding or not. “Very clever.”

  He smiled. “Like I said, I’m good at my job. Now start talking or I’ll have to take out my handcuffs.”

  A very naughty image flashed through her mind. Missy normally didn’t think things like that, but there was something about this man…this young man.

  She felt herself blushing. “I always come out for Scrapbooking Saturday…”

  And Missy filled him in on the details of her morning, leading up to her arrival at the elementary school. He listened without asking questions, then when she was done he circled back to the beginning and got her to provide more details. When she was finished her story, he got up to get them two more drinks. When he returned, he started asking her questions about Olivia. She told him about babysitting for the younger woman in high school, reconnecting after Olivia had graduated, and then spending time together at Scrapbooking Saturday every month.

  “Who killed her?” Vinnie asked.

  Missy shook her head. “She was the sweetest girl in the world. I have no idea.”

  “Did she have a lot of friends?”

  Missy nodded. “You should see her Facebook page. She’s got thousands, I think.”

  Vinnie sipped his beer. “You saw those pictures on the floor. What did you make of them?”

  “Well, the obvious answer is she brought them to the crop.”

  “Crop?”

  “That’s what we call a scrapbooking event.”

  “Learn something new every day.”

  She laughed. “You’d be amazed. There is a whole subculture of scrapbooking. Next Saturday is the—”

  “Convention in Lancaster County. If I heard that once today, I heard it twenty-eight times.”

  “Make that twenty-nine.”

  He smirked. “Twenty-nine.”

  They sat in silence for a moment, but Missy could tell that Vinnie had something to say.

  “Out with it.”

  “It’s bothering me,” Vinnie said. “Why didn’t she have those pictures with her other things?”

  Missy hadn’t thought about that. “Maybe those were in her purse and she just hadn’t unloaded everything yet.”

  “Maybe.” Vinnie looked away, lost in thought. The answer obviously didn’t sit well with him.

  “Oh.” Missy couldn’t believe she’d just thought of this. “She got a call or a text right before…did the Little Old Ladies tell you?”

  “Little Old Ladies?” He slapped the table with his palm and laughed. “Yes, they told me.”

  She waited for him to expand his answer. “So…?”

  “We’re looking into that.”

  She frowned playfully. “I thought you wanted my help.”

  “I do.” He sipped his beer.

  “Then shouldn’t you share what you know?”

  He flicked another playful smile at her. “Can’t share everything, sorry.”

  “Okay, if you’re going to be difficult.” She wrapped her hands around her pint glass. “Can you at least tell me who texted or called her?”

  “Sharon.”

  Missy frowned. Sharon was Olivia’s friend and had been at the crop also. If she wanted to talk to Olivia,
why hadn’t she just gotten up from her table and talked to her? It seemed really lazy.

  “Sharon was there.”

  Vinnie nodded. “I know. Strange, right?”

  “Very strange.”

  He shrugged. “She texted Olivia to tell her she was there.”

  “Oh.” Missy had been hoping for some big revelation, but the truth was pretty mundane. “You mean she texted so Olivia knew she’d arrived?”

  “Exactly. The text just said, Here.”

  Missy sat back and sipped her beer. It was incredible how comfortable she felt around this man, whom she hardly knew. It was the exact opposite of how she felt around Tyler, whom she’d loved at one point and known forever.

  They made small-talk the rest of the second beer. Missy really enjoyed herself. Then Vinnie got a call from the department and she was really disappointed because he had to take her home.

  Chapter Nine

  B ack home, Missy put her scrapbooking supplies in the detached garage near the tools. She had a table set-up so she could work on her pages, but she didn’t have the energy or motivation at this point.

  She got to thinking about Olivia and the tears started flowing again. She knew it wouldn’t help cheer her up, but she logged onto Facebook anyway. Olivia had been one of her friends on the site, so she could see all of the other woman’s posts and pictures. The message board was filled with comments, all of them expressing sincere grief. Across the board, everybody posting mentioned how sweet a girl she was and remarked how senseless this killing seemed. Missy couldn’t have agreed more.

  Missy scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page, and it was like talking to a ghost. Just last night, Olivia had posted the pictures she planned to use for scrapbooking this morning, expressing her glee that she’d found them and her utter excitement that she could include them in her book. The pictures were all attached to the comment. Missy looked them over. They were the same ones that had been spilled on the floor in the hallway. It was really sad and depressing to look at them. Olivia had been so excited.

  Reading the comments about the pictures and looking at them more closely now, Missy realized they were old. They must have been taken when Olivia and her friends had been in high school. The background in all the pictures was wooded and many of the kids in them were having difficulty focusing on the camera. A few of the boys had discarded their shirts and in more than a few, alcoholic beverages made appearances.

  “Corey Lake,” Missy said.

  It was where, even back in Missy’s day, the high school kids frequently went to party and consume alcohol until the cops showed up and chased them out of there. Missy had never been a big drinker in high school but had been there a few times with Tyler Brock, Future Mr. Lead Detective, of all people.

  She wondered if anybody still went there. One of Olivia’s friends, Ren, had had a terrible accident and died there one night during a party. After that, the police couldn’t look the other way anymore and had been forced to crack down on the underage drinking that always seemed to be going on there.

  Wow, Missy hadn’t thought about Ren for a long time. The girl had only been sixteen when she’d died and it had been twelve or thirteen years ago, but Missy could still remember it like it was yesterday. She’d been drinking, had stepped away from the group for a minute to pee, fell in the darkness, and hit her head on a rock. She’d lost consciousness and had drowned in the lake. At first everybody suspected foul play, but all the kids there had alibis that checked out. It was just one of those random, senseless deaths.

  Much like Olivia’s.

  In the pictures, Olivia and her friends were clearly having a good time. Missy scrolled through the pictures Olivia had posted on Facebook. Then Missy compared them to what she had taken with her phone earlier today. There were more pictures online than had spilled out of Olivia’s purse, but that didn’t bother Missy. If Olivia was anything like Missy, she would have been very selective about what pictures she pulled out of old albums before using them for scrapbooking purposes where they would be on conspicuous display for anybody to see.

  Besides, the extras she saw online were just pictures of the same groupings and pairings just from different angles. Missy looked a few of them over and it confirmed what she thought: Olivia had pulled the better ones out.

  Missy read through the comments about the pictures. She assumed most of them were from the people depicted—

  We were so young!

  I used to be skinny, what the hell happened?

  I swear that was the only time I drank in high school ;-)

  Where did you find these?

  This last comment came from Sharon, Olivia’s best friend. Missy really needed to talk to her. The woman knew Olivia better than anybody so she could probably point them in the right direction.

  Missy’s beautiful Irish setter, Cody, must have sensed her dark mood. The dog came over to the computer and nosed Missy’s thigh.

  “Hey, girl.”

  Missy rubbed the dog’s side. Checking the time, she was surprised to find she’d spent two hours online! The internet was such a time-suck. Rather than sit and harp on sad things, Missy decided to get up and move around.

  “Let’s go for a walk, girl.”

  Cody thumped her tail excitedly against the computer desk.

  ***

  Mom picked her up early the next day, insisting that Missy use her car while she got her vehicular situation straightened out. Her pride almost made her politely decline the offer, but Missy had no other options and couldn’t really afford the rental. She’d spent an hour on the phone with the insurance company last night and hadn’t really gotten anywhere.

  Missy dropped Mom at home then headed back out.

  Missy opened at Books and Crannies that morning. She didn’t always bring Cody with her, but today she did because she was going to be alone for a few hours till everybody else got there. Noreen was due in at one, and their boss, Brett, was coming in the early afternoon to take the late shift.

  Missy had only a handful of customers. As noon approached, she grew excited. Noreen would be coming in and they’d have a few hours together. She didn’t expect to get too many customers so perhaps they could talk. It was clear to her now that they were drifting apart. Whether that was Tonya’s doing or their own or some combination, she didn’t know. But anymore they seemed to be headed in different directions.

  Noon came and went, though, without any sign of Noreen. Missy started to get worried when she hadn’t heard from her friend by twelve-thirty. Noreen was habitually late, but even thirty minutes was pushing it, especially when it came to work.

  Missy gave her a call, but it went straight through to voicemail. Rather than leave a message, Missy fired off a quick text: Are you okay?

  A half hour later, she hadn’t heard from Noreen. She double-checked the calendar in the back to make sure she hadn’t gotten the schedule wrong, and sure enough, Noreen was supposed to be in at noon.

  Missy didn’t want to call Brett and risk getting Noreen in trouble for being so late. But she was really worried. Phone in hand, she scrolled through her contacts to call up Brett’s number. But before she hit SEND, she thought better of it. There hadn’t been that many customers in the morning and Missy didn’t expect to get a flood between now and when Brett showed up. There was no need to call Brett at this point. Noreen might come strolling in at any minute.

  But she didn’t. And of course, that flood of customers Missy would have sworn were never coming showed up thirty minutes later. Because they dealt in used books, Missy had to manually ring up each purchase, which meant keying in prices and mentally discounting when the customer offered her trade-ins. Before she knew it, a line stretched from the register to the door. Missy couldn’t remember when this many people had been in the store at once. The last time had probably been right after Noreen had been arrested. What seemed like hundreds of people had shown up the next day to see the woman who’d been wrongfully accused.

 
; Missy whittled the line down as quickly as she could. A couple customers commented about the long wait. Not good.

  When Brett arrived, she breathed a sigh of relief. He saw the line and hustled to the free register next to her.

  “Customers!” he said. “I knew they existed.”

  Missy laughed, glad he was here to help. They split the line in half and had steady traffic for the next hour, so Missy didn’t really get a chance to talk to Brett. But she kept waiting for him to ask about Noreen.

  An hour later they caught a break. Missy got off her feet and sat behind the register.

  Brett smiled at her. “How was this morning? I hope not too bad.”

  “It was okay till about one,” Missy said, not addressing the elephant in the room: Noreen’s absence.

  “Blame Noreen,” Brett said.

  “You heard from her?” Missy asked.

  He looked at her funny. “Yeah, she called out. She wasn’t feeling well. I asked her to let you know.”

  Well, she didn’t, Missy wanted to say.

  “That’s too bad she’s not feeling well.” Missy replayed her conversation with Noreen yesterday. She and Tonya had planned to go out with their boyfriends to some trendy bar a couple towns over. It was possible she’d gotten sick, but Missy thought it just as likely that Noreen had had too much drink and decided to take a personal day.

  “What?” Brett asked.

  She must have been making some kind of expression. Missy quickly gathered herself. “What?”

  “You just looked like you had something to say.”

  She shook her head. “Not about Noreen, I was just thinking about Olivia.”

  “Oh yeah…” Brett arched his eyebrows sympathetically. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t even get a chance to talk to you about that because we were so busy.”

  “Busy is good,” Missy said. “Especially right now.”

  Brett nodded sympathetically and looked at the door. “Why don’t you get out of here?”

  Missy still had another hour and considering Noreen wasn’t coming in, if she left now she might be leaving Brett in the lurch.