Craft Circle Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Stacey Alabaster

  I walked to the front of the shop, ready to count the cash in the till and see if the profits we had made could cover the loss I'd take on the spinning wheel, when I stopped dead in my tracks.

  "It's Caroline!" I gasped, taking off my apron. It was early afternoon and nearing my busiest time of the day, but right then I wasn't thinking about that. If Adam's 'word on the street' was right, then I needed to talk to Caroline. And I needed to take my chance. I wasn't exactly her favorite person in the world right then.

  "Where are you going?" Adam called out. "Are you crazy? You can't leave me alone with all this!"

  But this was his chance to prove himself, to let me see if I actually could rely on him. And in that moment, I had total faith, because I had to.

  "You'll be fine, Adam! I believe in you! All the best!" I yelled out, grabbing my coat as, for the second time that week, I chased my lookalike down the street.

  As I flew out of my shop, I never could have imagined the carnage I'd return to later that night.

  Maybe it wasn't the best thing to call out, but I yelled, "Stop! Freeze!" down the street, loud enough to make Caroline, as well as about a dozen or so passersby, stop in their tracks.

  I apologized to the innocent bystanders and headed toward my target in a bee-line.

  "Caroline."

  She crossed her arms. "Georgina."

  Only Brenda ever called me by my full name like that. It got my shackles right up, but I decided that Caroline had no way of knowing.

  I cleared my throat. At least she hadn't run away. She almost looked open to listening to what I had to say. Almost. "I know we didn't get off to the greatest start the other day."

  Caroline surprised me. Her face even softened a little. "Actually, I was hoping to apologize to you for that."

  "Oh." I was a little caught off guard. I'd assumed I would be the one groveling and I'd assumed she would be the one punching me in the face.

  "I shouldn't have stormed out of the restaurant like that, without even paying the bill," Caroline said.

  I shook my head. "It was nothing," I said. "I can cover the cost of a plate of pasta and a bowl of salad."

  "Still, I shouldn't have gotten so angry with you," Caroline said. "I should have been grateful that you are investigating Julie's death." She nodded at me and there was a look of sincerity in her eyes, which were the same green as mine. "At least someone else cares. And I'm glad you're looking into her death. Julie was very dear to me. I'm just a little emotional."

  "Of course you are." I took a few seconds to collect my thoughts. Could Adam’s source have been completely off base? If Caroline truly had been in a feud with her sister, the last thing she would want was me poking around. Or talking to her.

  Caroline went one step more than just talking and invited me to a late lunch, reminding me that I hadn't had a chance to eat yet. "This time, I'll pay," she said with a friendly smile. "You know, Georgina, it would be nice if you and I could be friends. I don't have many in this town either."

  This time, I did what I wanted and ordered the creamy pasta. "This is amazing," I said, digging in. I asked the waitress for some extra parmesan on top and extra cracked pepper—even better.

  But this time, Caroline ordered the salad. And she pushed it around the plate, soaking the lettuce leaves in balsamic vinaigrette while staring at me. For someone who wanted to make a new friend, she was being standoffish.

  I needed to tread carefully. I didn't want a repeat of last time, when Caroline had overturned her plate and stormed off, leaving me with a very red face and a double bill to pay.

  "Caroline, were you and Julie..." I stirred my fork in my pasta, hoping the right words would come. 'In a terrible feud right before her death' didn't seem like the right choice. "Close? Before she died?"

  I let out a small sigh of relief. I hadn't totally blown it yet.

  "Julie and I were incredibly close," Caroline said, choking up a little as she spoke. She apologized and grabbed a tissue from her purse. "I'm sorry. I don't usually get so emotional," she said, before dabbing at her eyes and then blowing her nose.

  "Well, this is a very emotional time for you," I said. "Your sister has just died." I reached across the table and patted her hand.

  Caroline pulled her hand away and sat up straight. "But I have to be practical now," she said. "There are things to take care of. There is a business that's been closed for days. It needs to re-open at some stage. My family needs to keep the money coming in. A closed shop can't make any cash."

  Huh. I didn't know there were plans to keep Julie's shop open. I tried not to show my look of disappointment. It was wrong of me to be disappointed anyway. And I should have known that my own increased business was an anomaly, not something to get used to.

  Looks like I'm gonna have to find a way to cover the cost of that spinning wheel.

  By the time I looked back up at Caroline, she had completely composed herself and half of her salad had disappeared from the plate. "Enough crying," she said in a clipped tone. "I intend to look toward the future now, not dwell on the past."

  Caroline did have a certain coldness about her, but I wasn't sure if it was due to a lack of true emotions and remorse, or whether it was just a defense mechanism, a way of surviving such difficult times.

  But she was already closed off. "How about when you and Julie were growing up? Were you close as young girls?" I tried to ask, but Caroline just glared at me and reminded me that the past was the past and that was where it should stay.

  "When was the last time you saw...?"

  "Drop it, Georgina, please. If we are going to have a pleasant lunch or any chance of a friendship." Caroline's salad was totally gone and she asked the waitress for a dessert menu. "Now, onto more pleasant matters," she said to me, her hands folded in front of her.

  There were pleasant matters at that moment?

  "I've heard the rumors about you, Georgina," Caroline said, a little twinkle returning to her eye, proving to me that she was human, after all, not a robot. She ordered a caramel cheesecake from the dessert menu, but I had to decline after the full plate of pasta I'd only just managed to get through.

  "What rumors are those?" I asked with a little laugh, trying not to sound nervous. Gosh, what has she heard?

  Caroline arched an eyebrow. "I heard that you're involved with a younger man."

  Great. So she knew about Adam. "He's not that much younger, he's only forty. And, anyway, I am not involved with him. He's my ex-husband!" I said, feeling myself getting a little flustered, before I reached for my glass of ice water.

  Caroline looked a little bewildered. "No, I am talking about that hunky young policeman."

  "Oh. You mean Ryan?" I had to laugh at that. "How did you know about that? Never mind," I said, finishing off my glass of water. "That little dalliance is dead and buried. Whoops, poor choice of words," I said, sitting my glass back down.

  Caroline didn't seem upset about the unfortunate word choice. "That's a shame," she said. "I was hoping to live vicariously through you. Or at least hear a little bit of gossip."

  "Oh, I've got plenty of gossip, don't worry about that..."

  Then, I heard the police sirens. I turned my head to see the car speeding past.

  "There goes your boyfriend," Caroline said with a little knowing laugh.

  Yes. Fantastic.

  What on earth could have happened now?

  Chapter 7

  "Yikes!" Caroline called out, backing away from the shop front. "Good luck, George. I'm afraid I'm going to have to love you and leave you, though."

  I spun around to look at her briefly, my mouth wide open. Oh, she meant it. She was already practically making skid marks, the speed at which she was fleeing the scene.

  But the scene of...what exactly? I wondered as I stepped gingerly into the shop. There were no more customers, and we were technically past closing time, but the sign was still turned to 'open.' There was no sign of Adam anywhere.

  I honestly couldn't
believe what I was looking at. My shop, abandoned, not even locked up, and the cash register open with all the day's takings just sitting there.

  "I'm lucky I wasn't robbed!" I said out loud as I hurried through the aisles to push the till shut. I'm going to kill him.

  Then I saw that something even more important and valuable had been left out in the open.

  "Jasper!" I cried. Jasper ran up to me in distress. "I'm so sorry, boy," I said, kneeling down to comfort him. "I can't believe that Adam would just abandon you like this. Oh, you are such a good boy to stay put and not run away," I said as I wrapped my arms around him.

  Though, from looking at the contents of the shop, I could see that even though he might not have run away, perhaps 'good boy' was pushing it. He had knocked three shelves completely clean and ripped apart an entire aisle of yarn and string. It looked like he had attempted to make a very large, multi-colored nest to sleep in out of the destroyed materials.

  But it was not Jasper I was angry at in that moment. It was a human that was the object of my fury. One who should have known far better than to leave a shop—and a dog—unattended.

  He is just as unreliable as he was when I was married to him!

  I stood up and took a few deep breaths. First I just had to make sure all the money was still there. Then I could lock up. Then I could kill Adam. Then I could throw him out of my house.

  Cleaning up took far longer than I expected and after half an hour, I had only managed to make the shop look worse. I also had no idea what I was supposed to do with all the ruined and broken items. I didn't know where I was supposed to store them, if I could write them off, send them back to the manufacturer... I ended up just filling up a trash bag and collapsing down beside it while Jasper tried to comfort me.

  Where is Brenda when I need her?

  For the hundredth time that day, I considered phoning her for help, then just as quickly reminded myself not to stoop that low. I couldn't bear to give her the satisfaction, nor could I bear to swallow my pride.

  As I cleaned up the remainder of the mess, I vowed that no matter how desperate I got, I wasn't going to call her to ask her to come back to work.

  But when my own cell phone rang while I was sweeping up, making me jump, I hoped, just for a second, that it was Brenda calling me. Maybe she would be the one swallowing her pride.

  It wasn't. It was a voice asking if I would accept a call from the Belldale Police Precinct.

  "Yes?" I said nervously.

  There was static on the other end of the line, and a sinking feeling in my stomach. "You're my one phone call," Adam said. "I can't believe I'm asking you this again, George..."

  I hung up the phone without even giving him my answer, I was in such a daze. But I grabbed my coat anyway, and my checkbook, and hurried out the door.

  "I guess that's why he left in such a hurry," I said, calling Jasper to come with me. This time, I actually locked the door.

  It took everything I had in my savings to bail Adam out of the tiny cell he was being held in. "You'd better not leave town," I said as we walked out of the station two hours later. "I can't believe I actually just said that..." Wasn't leaving town precisely what I'd wanted him to do all this time?

  "I'm surprised you didn't just let me spend the night," Adam said. "It was free room and board after all. And probably more comfortable than spending a night sleeping in the field."

  "You don't have to sleep in a field tonight," I said with a sigh. "Although the thought of making you do so is terribly tempting."

  "I appreciate it," Adam said. "Even though the sofa is getting a little hard on my forty-year-old back," he said.

  Don't push your luck.

  "Do they really think you did it?" I asked Adam softly.

  Adam shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up at the moon. Uh oh. He looked worried. Adam never looked worried. "My prints were at the crime scene," he said.

  I stopped walking. We were still in the parking lot of the station. "So you were there," I said. It wasn't a question. Somehow I'd known it all this time.

  "George, I know how it looks," Adam said, rubbing his brow. "I was looking for you! I'd found out that you ran a craft store in Pottsville. When I got here, I asked for directions. I asked this young kid I met when I got off the bus."

  "Gem," I said, shaking my head.

  "Yes," Adam said guiltily. "I asked him where the best craft shop in town was. He said he could show me, so he walked me over to Julie's."

  I tried not to take offense at Julie's being called the best craft shop in town. It wasn't the time nor the place.

  I shook my head. "So Brenda was right..." I muttered. "She did see you and Gem there. So, what, you were there right when it happened?"

  Adam shook his head slowly. "I walked in through the doors. I was a little nervous, thinking I was about to see you for the first time in sixteen years." A little smile danced on his lips. "But when I walked in, obviously you weren't there. There was a woman with dark hair behind the counter. I asked her for the owner. She got a little annoyed with me and told me that the owner was busy right then, and could I help her."

  "So it wasn't Julie?"

  Adam shrugged. "I don't know who it was. I just realized I had the wrong shop. And that maybe you owned the second best craft shop in town."

  "Hey!" I said, giving him a playful little whack on the arm. "You can't trust Gem Dawes's opinions on this matter," I said.

  "I guess not," Adam replied glumly. "But I didn't know any better right then. Anyway, I left, and the brunette woman closed the shop right away, which I thought was a little strange. And I tried to find the right shop. Gem wasn't interested in coming with me."

  "So Gem stayed behind?" I asked.

  Adam nodded and shrugged. "I suppose so. The break in, and the murder, must have happened right after I left." He stared into my eyes. "But I could hardly have told anyone this, could I? Who was going to believe I was innocent? A newcomer, at the scene of the crime, with my only alibi the town crook."

  "But you touched items while you were there?"

  Adam nodded. "Yes, the door...and while I was inside, I was so nervous I probably picked up a dozen different items and placed them back down again. I don't remember. I was kind of in a daze. Then I probably leaned against the counter..."

  It was kind of touching that he'd been so nervous to see me that he'd totally forgotten what he was even doing. But that probably wasn't the right thing to focus on right then.

  I let out a long sigh. Adam was right. It didn’t look good for him. "Plus some people have this crazy idea that I am benefiting from Julie's death," I said, cringing. It wasn't that crazy, actually. I was benefiting from it. "But, I mean, you wouldn't have killed Julie just to help out my shop, right?"

  I laughed, but Adam didn't. He just stared at me. "I would do anything to help you, Georgie."

  "Come on, Adam. You're scaring me a little." I backed away from him. Suddenly, I had visions of him entering Julie's shop, realizing that I was, in fact, not the owner of the 'best craft store in Pottsville' and offing her so that I could claim the number one spot.

  Adam laughed. "Of course that is crazy," he said. "I got out of there as fast as I could. I wouldn't hurt anyone."

  I nodded and let out a sigh of relief. Of course he wouldn't.

  "I don't believe you’re guilty, Adam," I said softly.

  It took a long time for him to answer. "Of this?" he finally asked. "Or what happened seventeen years ago?"

  "Both," I answered. It was what I had to believe. I could see Ryan glancing at us through the window of the station.

  "I just want this very long day to be over," I said, walking over to untie Jasper from the poll he had been patiently waiting at. "So let's get out of the line of fire, please."

  "You know, you really should get a car," Adam said. "It's not safe for a woman to be walking alone here at night."

  "You just don't like walking," I pointed out. "You always were a little lazy, Ada
m."

  He shook his head. "Seriously. I'm worried about you."

  It was almost nine o'clock and I felt like the longest day of my life was never going to end. I didn't want to admit it, but a car would really have come in handy right then.

  "I can protect myself," I stated with confidence. Jasper jumped up a little as if to say, 'hey, I am pretty good protection too!' "Besides, Pottsville is a safe, small, loving community..."

  Adam laughed. "Small? Definitely. Safe? Come on, Georgie. And loving? Don't make me laugh. I've been here four days and already somebody has been killed, and we've both been accused of being the murderer."

  I wanted to defend the community that I'd somehow come to love, even though it had done its best to ostracize me and make me feel like an outsider. I felt like I'd just started to chipmunk my way through, though. I thought, with communities like Pottsville, it was about sticking it out. Making yourself a fixture, putting down roots, showing that you're there to stay, even when people don't want you to.

  And, anyway, Adam was even newer than I was. He didn't have the right to judge the town when he was so fresh. He hadn't put down any roots yet.

  "It's not always like this," I said defensively. Even though that wasn't entirely true. "You can't judge an entire community from one incident. I feel perfectly safe walking the streets."

  "What about what people say about the hills? After dark?" Adam asked, glancing up at the sky.

  I stopped walking. "How would you know about those tales?" I asked him. Unless he really was friends with Gem Dawes. Had they really said goodbye at Julie's shop and left it at that? Was that really the only time they had interacted?

  Adam shrugged. "People talk."

  We were about to leave the center of town to take the road that would lead us home and Jasper was already pulling forward, on autopilot, knowing exactly where he wanted to go. Home. To where his food bowl was.

  "Let's just walk past the shop," I said, changing my mind, and my course, at the last minute. "I've just got this funny feeling—probably paranoid, I know—that I didn't lock up properly."