Vacations and Victims (Senoia Cozy Mystery Book 10)

by Susan Harper

  She couldn’t wait to hear from Jack about any new gigs he had booked them and to talk to Jefferson about how the luau had gone in her absence. She imagined a lot had happened while she was gone. She headed inside, and she spotted Jack digging around in hers and Jefferson’s fridge. He jumped up when he heard her, spinning around and offering a half-smile. “Oh, hey,” he said.

  Felicity immediately knew that something was off.

  “What?” she asked and crossed her arms, throwing her purse down on the table by the door. She closed the door behind her. “Did you do something?” she asked.

  “What! Me? No!” he exclaimed, but she could tell right away that something was up.

  Jefferson came walking into the room, not realizing Felicity was present. He was carrying a laptop, looking at the screen as he walked. “Okay, so I found the zebra print wallpaper online, so if we spackle that hole in the wall, we should be able to just put this one right over...” Jefferson jumped when Jack cleared his throat, spotting Felicity. “Felicity!” Jefferson exclaimed, putting his laptop on the kitchen counter and hurrying over to her, giving her a big welcome-home hug.

  She hugged him, but then she pushed him back and shot him a knowing glance. “Zebra print wallpaper?” she asked, thinking about her bedroom. She had done an accent wall with pink zebra print recently—the one wall and a couple of pink throw pillows was a nice touch and much subtler than her old bedroom at her parents’ house.

  Jefferson’s face turned red. Jack snorted, but he looked a bit uncomfortable as well. “I’m not telling her,” Jack said.

  Felicity put her hands on her hips. “What did you two goofballs do to my room while I was gone?” she asked, shoving past them.

  “Felicity, wait!” Jefferson called. “It wasn’t us…”

  Felicity entered her bedroom and gasped. It was a mess, and there was indeed a hole in her beautiful pink zebra print wall where something had been carelessly tossed that way. She could see that Jack and Jefferson had started picking up things, and she was a bit outraged to see her delicates had been placed in laundry hampers. “What happened!” she screamed. “Did you guys conduct some sort of panty raid or something!”

  “No!” she heard them shout behind her. One of the drawers from her dresser was sitting on her bed, broken.

  “Someone broke in,” Jefferson said, coming up behind her. “The whole house was trashed. We kind of waited to start fixing up your room because we weren’t sure how you’d feel about us going through your stuff, but then we thought maybe we should at least straighten it up a little because you would probably be tired from your drive home…” Jefferson was a bit flabbergasted. “Honestly, we were hoping we would be further along than this by the time you got here.”

  “Someone broke into our house!” Felicity exclaimed.

  “And the event shop,” Jack added, and she spun to face the two guys standing in the doorway.

  “Excuse me?” she asked.

  “Yeah…” Jefferson said under his breath. “They trashed the place, but we got it fixed up now…and, um…well…”

  “What?!” Felicity snapped.

  “Whoever broke in trashed the agency upstairs too,” Jack said. “They got the files for the senator’s case.”

  “Oh… Oh, you’ve got to be joking!” Felicity cried. “Why… Why am I just now hearing about this?”

  “You were on vacation—first one you’ve taken in a long time,” Jack said. “The police are already investigating, and Jefferson and I have been looking into things as well. But then yesterday, someone broke into here too. Since you were coming home today, we figured we’d just wait it out one more day to fill you in. So…um…how was Helen?”

  “Don’t you ‘how was Helen’ me, Jack!” Felicity warned and then pointed at the laundry hamper. “So…which one of you boys were kind enough to pick up all my underwear?” she asked, her face turning red with frustration. Both men pointed thumbs in one another’s direction, eager to play the blame game. Even in her current mood, she found this to be a bit humorous, and she laughed. “Okay, okay, I’m calm now. I’m calm,” she said, breathing deeply and looking around her room. “Man, this place is a mess!”

  “You should have seen the event shop,” Jefferson groaned. “But we got that straightened up.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Felicity said, shaking her head. “Listen, I appreciate you guys trying to keep me sane, but you should have told me about all this. Have you gotten any leads on who might have done this?”

  “Just one,” Jack said. “We got video of the getaway car leaving the event shop, but you can’t see the driver. And, no license plate.”

  “Sounds like someone went through a lot of trouble just to take some files,” Felicity said. “This isn’t good.”

  “No, it’s not,” Jack said.

  Felicity sighed. “Okay, I’m going to start cleaning up my room. I’d appreciate a little bit of space while I try to get over the fact that one of you two saw all of my underwear thrown about.”

  “So…I’ll start on dinner,” Jack said and dipped out quickly.

  Jefferson sighed, shaking his head in Jack’s direction before turning back to face Felicity. “I’m glad you’re home. I’ve missed you,” he said.

  “I’ve missed you too,” she said.

  “Listen, the other day on the phone… You told me you loved me…and I kind of got the impression that you didn’t mean to say it,” he said, and Felicity tensed up a bit.

  “Maybe this is something we should talk about when Jack’s not here?” she suggested, and Jefferson nodded and left her room, giving her the space she had requested.

  She started cleaning up, and it took her close to an hour before she could even see the floor. Just when Jack was calling through the house that he had made them all dinner, Felicity made a shocking discovery. She exited her room, feeling tired from all the cleaning.

  “Jack made up spaghetti,” Jefferson said. “We should invite him over more often.”

  “I am quite the cook when I want to be,” Jack said, and he glanced in Felicity’s direction. “Felicity, you all right?”

  “Yeah, but…I know what was taken from my room,” she said.

  “What?” Jefferson asked.

  “My notebook,” she said.

  “What, like a diary?” Jack asked.

  “No,” Felicity said. “Like my composition notebook. The one I’ve used to keep notes on all my cases. Since the beginning.”

  “Including the senator’s case?” Jack asked.

  “Including the senator’s case,” Felicity said.

  “Oh, well, that’s not good,” Jefferson said

  “No, it really isn’t.” Felicity sat at the dinner table, trying to imagine what someone could possibly want with her composition notebook.

  “Hey, no worries,” Jefferson said as Jack served him up a giant plate of spaghetti. “Team Overton is on the case. And we always catch our perp, right?”

  “Right,” Jack agreed, and Felicity smiled.

  Yes, they always caught their perp. But there was something about this one that had Felicity feeling quite unsettled. That, however, was a problem for another day. For now, she was just going to enjoy some spaghetti with two of her favorite people. It had been a rather tiring vacation. Frankly, she was glad to be home.

  Thanks for reading Vacations and Victims. I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, it would be awesome if you left a review for me on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

  If you like the Senoia Cozy Mystery books, be sure to check out my Flight Risk Cozy Mystery series. The first story is called Murder at Macbeth. In this story, two new friends are stuck in London and decide to see a show. They get more excitement than they bargained for when Macbeth really gets killed on stage. Can these unlikely, globetrotting sleuths catch a killer? I have included a preview at the end, and when you’re done with the sample you can get the book on Amazon.

  Get Murder at Macbeth
here: amazon.com/gp/product/B0799DPG7C/

  I have also included a preview from my friend and USA Today Bestselling Author, Shannon VanBergen. The book is called Up in Smoke - it’s the first book in the Glock Grannies Cozy Mystery series. I really hope you like the sample. If you do, the book is available on Amazon.

  Get Up in Smoke here: amazon.com/dp/B06XHKYRRX

  If you would like to know about future cozy mysteries by me and the other authors at Fairfield Publishing, make sure to sign up for our Cozy Mystery Newsletter. We will send you our FREE Cozy Mystery Starter Library just for signing up. All the details are on the next page.

  FAIRFIELD COZY MYSTERY NEWSLETTER

  Make sure you sign up for the Fairfield Cozy Mystery Newsletter so you can keep up with our latest releases. When you sign up, we will send you our FREE Cozy Mystery Starter Library!

  FairfieldPublishing.com/cozy-newsletter/

  After you sign up to get your Free Starter Library, turn the page and check out the free previews :)

  Preview: Murder at Macbeth

  Kendell stood on the curb outside of the airport, watching the line of unique London-style taxis known as black cabs as they drove by. She grinned at the funny-looking black cars, and she could hardly believe that this was her first time stepping outside of the airport at one of her work destinations. As she was daydreaming about what all she wanted to do during her brief stay in London, the sound of a little dog yapping brought her out of her daze.

  She spun around in time to hear an old woman’s voice shouting, “Dot! Dot! You get back here, you naughty little doggie!”

  Kendell saw a little white ball of fur darting in her direction, and she sprang into action, leaping forward and bending over just in time to snag a tiny little teacup Pomeranian before it could dart out into the street and get hit by one of the black cabs. “Gotcha!” Kendell exclaimed as she scooped up the little dog. She tossed her red hair over her shoulder triumphantly as she scanned the crowd for the old woman in the floral dress, spotting her as she scooted between a couple smacking lips—boldly making a statement against PDA during her frantic sprint.

  “Kendell!” Pauline exclaimed, taking the little dog from her. “Thank you so much! Dot, you naughty, naughty puppy! Shame on you!”

  “Of course,” Kendell said. “She got away from you, huh?”

  “She’s a little troublemaker,” Pauline assured her. “Are you taking a cab into the city?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “So, you’re staying in London!” Pauline exclaimed.

  “Your little talk about living life to its fullest got to me,” Kendell admitted. “I’m taking a little bit of vacation time. Just a couple of days in the great historic city of London.”

  “Why don’t we share a cab?” Pauline suggested.

  Kendell thought about this for a moment. She normally had a rule against sharing cabs with strangers, but that was more of a rule against strange men she didn’t want to inform where she was going. Pauline was just an old lady—innocent enough. “That sounds great,” Kendell said, and the two of them waved down one of the black cabs.

  A black car pulled up, and Kendell helped Pauline throw her small suitcase into the back. “I haven’t booked a hotel yet,” Kendell grumbled, but she figured she could get some sightseeing in before worrying too much about the details. Pauline was fiddling with her phone; the woman seemed half-blind as she attempted to read whatever was on her screen. “Could I help you with that?” Kendell asked.

  “Yes, actually,” Pauline said. “My glasses are in my suitcase, and I’m trying to buy some tickets for a show tonight.”

  “Oh?”

  “The Globe Theater,” Pauline said in a dramatic voice.

  “Hey! I was going to do the same thing!” Kendell exclaimed as she took Pauline’s phone.

  “Help me book two tickets. My treat after you stopped my dog from running into traffic,” Pauline said.

  “Oh, I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that,” Kendell argued.

  “I insist. Besides, it doesn’t look like there are many tickets left if you were planning on going tonight,” she said. “Go ahead and book us two before it fills up.”

  Kendell smiled. “You know what, I could use the company. I’d rather not sit by myself at a theater anyway.” She helped Pauline book two tickets for the evening’s show. The two women laughed as they talked about London and what they wanted to do and see while in town. Pauline was adamant about wanting to see the royal palace. In fact, the woman had a whole list of stuff she wanted to do. Kendell had not put much thought into her trip just yet, but Pauline was giving her some exciting ideas.

  I should hang out with people her age more often, Kendell thought with a grin. They’re way more fun than people my age!

  “You know, Kendell, you seem like a sweet girl. The hotel I’m staying at is right in the middle of downtown London. I had to book a two-room hotel because it was all they had left. I’d like to offer you my spare room,” she said. “You don’t have to split the cost or anything. It’s just going to be sitting there.”

  Kendell’s heart leapt up into her chest. A free room in downtown London? “That’s really generous, Pauline—”

  “Don’t try to argue with me. I insist,” Pauline said. “Like I said, it’s just going to go to waste if you don’t.”

  Kendell nodded; she could hardly believe how quickly she had befriended this strange woman. “You know what, I’d love to.”

  “Great! Oh, this will be so fun. Two ladies out on the town. I just cannot wait!” Pauline cried and then pulled Dot out of her bag. She gave the dog a kiss and scratched her behind the ears. “Ooh, does my little Dot want to go see Shakespeare? You want to go see Macbeth? I know you do!”

  Kendell smirked. She could not quite figure it out, but there was just something about this sweet old woman that she liked. She was funny and had this I really don’t care what you think attitude Kendell admired. They arrived at the hotel, and Kendell held Dot for Pauline while the woman got them checked in. Not having time to go check out the room, Pauline handed her suitcase over to the concierge before they headed back out. They located another black cab and headed straight to the Globe Theater to try to catch the show in time.

  Kendell could hardly contain her excitement. Sure, this was not exactly shaping up to the sort of vacation she would normally imagine during her downtime, but it was vacation. Truth be told, when she thought of taking time off, she usually imagined hanging out with her girlfriends and sipping mimosas on a beach somewhere rather than sharing a cab with a strange old lady. But Pauline was turning out to be excellent company. Kendell quickly learned that Pauline was from rural Georgia, she was the youngest of eight children, and she had of course been the troublemaker during her younger years—but she said that with a hint of pride. “I remember one of my older brothers telling Mama that she needed to quit having babies after me,” Pauline said with a smirk. “He said I was just too much for the whole lot of them to handle.” Pauline pet Dot’s head as she recounted a few stories of her childhood to Kendell, including one incident that got her into such trouble, her mother made her cut her own switches out of a tree in the backyard. Before the driver got them to the theater, Kendell felt like she could vividly imagine the quaint little one-horse town that Pauline had grown up in. It was something straight out of an old-timey movie where everybody knows your name and always asked how yer mama and ‘em were doing. Not at all like the hustle and bustle of modern New York City where Kendell had spent most of her childhood.

  At last, they arrived at the Globe Theater, and they had made great time. Still having plenty of time before the show would start, the two women took a moment to explore the nearby Shakespeare exhibit. “So, are you a fan of Shakespeare?” Kendell asked Pauline as they admired some of the items on display.

  “Oh, not in particular,” Pauline admitted. “I did study Macbeth in high school, though, and I liked that play in particular. Though I do love good literatu
re, I am more a lover of history than literature, so I could not resist coming to visit a historical building like the Globe Theater. Getting some entertainment while here is just a bonus.”

  It was getting close to show-time, so the two of them headed inside the large, round building before finding their upper-level seats that looked down on the old wooden stage. Pauline had somehow managed to sneak her dog in, so Dot wound up sitting in the woman’s purse in her lap. “You’re going to get yourself in trouble sneaking that dog around like that,” Kendell warned.

  “I haven’t yet,” she said and patted the dog’s head.

  Smoke erupted across the stage, and a strobe light danced through the audience. Three women dressed in raggedy clothes appeared on stage amidst the smoke around a large, steel cauldron. The play had officially begun, and Kendell giggled slightly to see Pauline jump excitedly in her seat. The three women, Kendell knew, were the famous witches from the Scottish play they had come to see. Macbeth was one of Kendell’s personal favorites, and she was glad she was sitting next to someone else who had bothered to read the play even if it had been a lifetime ago since she last picked it up.

  “When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning, or in rain?” called the first of the three witches.

  “When the hurlyburly’s done, when the battle's lost and won!” shrieked the second witch.

  “That will be ere the set of sun,” said the third.

  “Where the place?”

  “Upon the heath.”

  “There to meet with Macbeth!” the witch shrieked his name, making sure the title of the infamous cursed play was heard loud and clear by the audience. A few people up front clapped excitedly in anticipation for the show’s leading man to make his grand entrance.