by Susan Harper
Vacations and Victims
Senoia Cozy Mystery, Book 10
Susan Harper
Fairfield Publishing
Copyright © 2018 Fairfield Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.
This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Contents
Message to Readers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Thank You!
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1
Felicity Overton stepped into the immaculate ballroom, her floor length dress with the slight train dragging behind her and tickling her ankles as she made her way down the stairwell. “You look good,” her boyfriend, Jefferson, whispered in her ear.
“Stay focused, Jeffrey,” she warned.
“He’s right,” a voice crackled in her ear. It was Jack Hudson, one of her business partners who happened to be her ex from way back in high school. “Red is definitely your color.”
Felicity smirked slightly. As she and Jefferson descended toward the middle of the enormous stairwell, she glanced out over the crowd. She could see Jack standing in a corner dressed in a suit, just like Jefferson was. Jefferson reached up with his free hand, touching his left ear. “Hey, man, you better watch it. Brittany’s on this line too, remember?”
“Please, I think she’s smoking too,” Brittany’s voice chimed in, and Felicity could now see Brittany arrive next to Jack, drink in hand.
“Again, everyone, let’s stay focused,” Felicity said. “Everyone, check in. Jack, Brittany, what do you have for me?” Felicity and Jefferson had at last made their way down the stairs. She was a little embarrassed to have turned a few heads when she had entered the room.
“Rosenburg is here,” Jack said, referring to one of the suspects in the current case they were working. “I see him speaking to Senator Daily.”
“They’re standing near the stage upfront,” Brittany added, and Felicity glanced to her left. She spotted Senator Daily, their client. He was the one who had hired her event shop to help organize this fundraiser. But that had all been a ruse. He actually needed some detectives. There had been whispers that someone was trying to kill him, and the fundraiser would be the easiest place to do that. A few months ago, she and Jack had made their side-sleuthing official, starting a second business above hers and Jefferson’s event shop. They renamed the building Overton Family of Companies – incorporating both the event shop on the main floor and the detective agency upstairs. This was both the biggest event they had ever done plus the most high-profile case they had ever worked. A lot was riding on this.
“Trixie, check in,” Felicity said as Jefferson fetched her a drink.
“Everything event-wise is going great. Caterers are all set starting on the desserts, and the servers will be exiting the dining hall in fifteen,” Trixie’s sweet little voice chimed through. Trixie was their young college employee for the event shop, and she was killing it that night. Felicity had let her take the reins on a good bit of the event.
“Good job, Trixie. Keep it up, and I love your dress, by the way,” Felicity said, spying Trixie as she poked her head in from the employee entrance at the side of the ballroom. She had a little clipboard in her hand as she peeked out to check and see if everyone was finishing up with the samplings of lamb skewers the servers were passing around on trays.
“Thanks,” Trixie said with a smirk before dipping back through the employee exit.
“Veronica, what do you have for me?” Felicity asked, and she heard giggling in her ear. “Veronica, I swear, if you’re flirting instead of working, I’m not inviting you to any of these things again.”
“Why, Doctor Scotts, you are just too kind,” Veronica’s voice chimed in.
“Okay, never mind, you got this,” Felicity said, smiling. Dr. Scotts was suspect number two, and it seemed that Veronica, wherever she was in the ballroom, had managed to work her way into Dr. Scott’s social circle for the evening.
“Dawn, Monte?” Felicity asked as Jefferson returned with their punch. “Update?”
“Nothing yet,” Dawn said. “Security is being thorough like you asked, but this place is huge.”
“Yeah,” Monte said. “It’s be easy to sneak a weapon in here tonight. Too many entrances and exits and not enough security.”
“I told Daily he needed to increase security at this thing, but he didn’t want to look paranoid,” Felicity sighed. “Okay, Autumn, Nick? How is it going on your end?”
“We’re hanging out at the veteran’s table,” Autumn, Felicity’s best friend, replied.
“I’m kind of digging the whole spy thing. Do you guys do this sort of thing all the time?” Nick, Autumn’s boyfriend, asked.
“Not like this.” Jack’s voice echoed into the comms.
Felicity laughed. So far, everything was going fairly well. With such a big event, she had needed to pull out all the stops. Autumn, Nick, Veronica, Monte, and Dawn didn’t work with the rest of them at Overton Family of Companies, but they had needed the extra backup, and they had preferred working with people they trusted. Autumn was Felicity’s best friend since high school, and currently the head forensic pathologist at the Coweta County Morgue. She was dating Nick, a Navy veteran who last year had lost mobility in his legs after his now-ex-wife had plotted with her father and boyfriend to kill him. He and Autumn had started dating shortly after that incident. Veronica was a nurse at Newnan Hospital, and she headed up the NICU there. It was likely her degree in medicine that had helped her to mingle her way into speaking with Dr. Scotts that evening. As for Monte and Dawn, they were their recently married friends, both of whom had worked with Veronica at Newnan Hospital before their recent career changes. Monte was now DJ’ quite regularly while Dawn was going to be finished with her teaching degree that summer. Not exactly a group of super-sleuths, but this was hardly the group’s first rodeo. They had helped Felicity before, just not on this large of a scale.
“Aren’t you going to check in on me?” Fix, their second hire at Overton Family of Companies and Trixie’s boyfriend, grumbled. “I can’t believe I’m stuck up in this room while the rest of you are down there partying.”
Felicity chuckled a bit. “Sorry, Fix, but you have very keen eyes. If anyone was going to be watching the security cameras, it had to be you. Seen anything unusual?”
“Nothing yet. I see you. Jack’s right. That dress looks good,” Fix said.
“Easy there, kiddo,” Jefferson said. “Your girl is on these comms too.”
“Please, my girl is hot, and she knows it,” Fix said.
“Fix, shut up, and get off the comms unless you have something useful to say. All this chatter in my ear is distracting,” Trixie said.
Felicity and Jefferson went and mingled. Soon, speakers began getting up at the podium, so people f
ound their seats. She and Jefferson managed to get themselves a seat upfront. About halfway through the second spokesman of the evening, Fix interrupted the silence in Felicity’s ear. “Um…guys… Spock is here.”
Spock was actually a man named Adam Kemp, but Jack had dubbed him Spock because of his unusually pointed ears. He had been at the top of their suspect list all week as he and Daily had had a huge falling out—not to mention that Daily was now married to the man’s ex-wife, and Kemp had run against Daily in the Senate race previously and lost miserably. “Okay, and?” Felicity muttered under her breath so as not to alert the rest of the table.
“Well, he bypassed security and is wandering around backstage… Daily is speaking next, isn’t he?” Fix asked. “Shoot, guys! He’s got a gun! I repeat, Spock is armed! Spock is armed!”
Felicity jumped up as Senator Daily made his way to the stage. “All hands on deck,” she said into her comms. She darted through the back entrance to the theater, Jefferson right beside her. As they entered one of the wings, they realized Adam Kemp was nowhere to be seen. She glanced across the stage, where they saw him standing in the wings, stage left opposite to them.
“Crud,” Jefferson said. He sprinted onto the stage, causing a bit of an uproar by the security team sitting down front. Jefferson jumped Daily, knocking the man clear off the stage as Jack appeared stage left, tumbling out from behind the wings in his tussle with Adam right as the man fired off a shot. The bullet flew upward backstage rather than toward Senator Daily. Jefferson held up his hands as Daily’s security drew on him for tackling the senator.
The room was loud with shouts and screams, and local news reporters had their cameras on Jack as he wrestled with Adam. Adam managed to get away, but the gun slid out of his reach and toward Felicity. The man didn’t notice her as he ran, reaching for the sliding gun to try to get to it before Jack. Felicity stepped on stage and flung her foot straight into the man’s face, slicing the skin over his cheekbone with her heel.
Jack jumped onto the confused man and strapped his wrists behind his back with zip ties. By now, everyone in the room saw the gun very clearly on stage and realized that Senator Daily, while he had been shoved off stage, had just been saved by a small-town detective agency. “Good job, team,” Felicity said into her comms, shaking her head as she looking down at the grumbling former politician.
The weeks following the incident in Atlanta were the shop’s busiest days ever. The city of Senoia was filled with people wanting to meet the shop owners who had managed to take down what could have been the highest profile murder in Georgia in years. The good news was that people were hiring them like crazy, both the event shop and the detective agency.
“This is awesome,” Jack said under his breath as he stood behind the counter with Jefferson. He had come down for a quick lunch break. Fix was upstairs answering phones that had been ringing off the hook all morning.
The front room was crowded with people looking at sample books for the event shop, and they had appointments all afternoon with potential new clients for the detective agency. “This is the busiest the shop has ever been,” Felicity said.
“We made four walk-in bookings this morning already,” Trixie said, spinning around. “Three of which are your murder mystery party special.”
“That’s awesome!” Felicity exclaimed and offered Trixie a high-five.
“The new AC working good up there, Jack?” Jefferson asked, and Jack smiled.
“Thank goodness,” Jack said. “It’s burning up outside for late April, even for Georgia.”
Jack had been stuck in the attic of the event shop just about every day. They had finally gotten the heating and air situation taken care of. The front door of the shop opened, and a loud voice echoed. “Is this the famous Overton Family of Companies I’ve heard so much about?” the voice boomed, and Felicity glanced up.
Her eyes widened. “Iris!” She let out a high-pitched yelp and darted for the door.
Iris beamed and met Felicity halfway, and the two hugged tightly. Iris was none other than Felicity’s little sister—one she had not seen in nearly a year since she had not been coming home during her breaks. “Oh my gosh, I missed you!” Iris cried.
Felicity was practically giddy. “I wasn’t expecting you for another two weeks!”
“I thought I’d pop by and surprise you before heading to Mom and Dad’s,” she said. Iris looked as pretty as ever, her hair pulled back and decorated with two pens stuffed into her bun—her signature look. “They don’t know I’m home early either.”
“Did you take a cab all the way here from the airport!” Felicity yelped.
“Nah,” she said. “Had one of my friends pick me up so I can surprise everybody.”
Felicity smiled. “You just made my day.” She couldn’t wait to spend the summer with Iris, the other Overton girl.
2
“You can’t seriously be nervous about dinner with my parents, can you?” Felicity asked as she stepped out of her bedroom to see Jefferson nervously fixing his hair in the hallway mirror. They had been living together for some time now; Felicity had started renting a room from him not too long before they officially started dating. Now, they had officially been together for ten months. Though, truthfully, it didn’t feel like it. Time had really flown by.
“Well, I mean, I don’t want to come off as the goofy boyfriend,” he said, turning around and allowing his cheeks to turn a slight pink upon seeing her. She was just dressed in a nice shirt, tight jeans, and boots, but it was enough to cause her goofy boyfriend to become embarrassed. “You look nice.”
“You look overdressed,” Felicity responded, laughing to herself. “Go change. A tie for barbeque at my parents’ house is trying too hard. Besides, they know you. We’ve been friends since high school, Jefferson, and they like you. There’s no need to try to impress them.”
“You realize this is really the first time I will have spent any time with them since we’ve started dating, right? And, frankly, your sister is a bit much too. I don’t want to give her any reason not to like me, and I don’t know her very well,” Jefferson said.
“My sister is going to think you’re a prick if you show up in a button-up shirt, a tie, and black slacks,” Felicity said, then pointed toward his bedroom. “March!”
“Fine,” he said, and he dipped out for a few minutes. He returned wearing a nice shirt with a V-neck and his nicest pair of blue jeans.
“That’s a lot better,” she said, laughing. “I would hate for you to have gotten barbeque sauce all over that nice shirt of yours.”
“Well, I’m going to do my best not to get any on this shirt too,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You really think I’m some slob, don’t you?”
“No, but my dad’s barbeque chicken is really messy,” Felicity said. “I have a second shirt tucked away in the truck.”
He laughed, and the two of them headed out, taking Jefferson’s truck to the Overton household. When they walked in, the whole house smelled like barbeque sauce. Mr. Overton smiled and gave Felicity a big hug, offering Jefferson a friendly handshake as well. Iris was sitting at the kitchen table, chatting with her mother about school and work.
Jefferson sat nervously by Felicity, doing his best to remain engaging. He offered to help Mr. Overton with dinner, but the man warned him not to mess with his barbeque—it was his special, secret recipe. Eventually, dinner was served, and they were all laughing and enjoying one another’s company. “Honestly, you almost got shot!” Felicity exclaimed as Jefferson was telling the Overton’s how they had just taken down an attempted assassin.
“By who?” Jefferson asked tauntingly. “By Spock or by Senator Daily’s security team?”
Iris laughed, and Felicity rolled her eyes. Iris elbowed Jefferson in the side. “Who knew your dopey friend from high school was going to turn into such a daredevil, Felicity?”
“Ha-ha, very funny,” Jefferson said, shaking his head.
“I bet when you started worki
ng for Felicity as a party planner, you never expected to wind up owning half of the business and doing private investigative work on the side, did you?” Mr. Overton asked.
“No, not at all,” Jefferson said. “But, honestly, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve been doing party planning with her since I was just starting out in high school. I’m just glad she gave me the opportunity.”
“You realize that if it wasn’t for me, you two wouldn’t have wound up together,” Iris said suddenly.
Felicity raised a brow. “Oh? And how have you come to that conclusion?”
“Well, think about it. Who used to help you carry everything to your events before you hired Jefferson?” Iris questioned.
“Well, I suppose that would be you,” Felicity said.
“And I broke my leg in soccer that year, so you had to find someone else to help you carry everything to your party events,” Iris said. “So, if I hadn’t have broken my leg, you wouldn’t have hired Jefferson. If you hadn’t hired Jefferson, you two wouldn’t have become such good friends and gone into business together. And if you hadn’t have done that, you two wouldn’t be dating. Therefore, you two owe me a thank you.”
“Well, thank you, Iris, for breaking your leg,” Jefferson said, trying not to snort.
“Hold on, by that logic, Iris, Katie Maycomber is who we should thank. She’s the one who broke your leg,” Felicity said.
“Forget about Katie,” Iris said, waving her hand. “I told you to hire someone.”
“Yeah, because Katie broke your leg,” Felicity said, and Iris kicked her from under the table.
