Ouna Bay Cozy Mystery Boxed Set (4-Book Bundle)

by Deany Ray

  “I didn’t want to make a fuss because we’re not one hundred percent sure about the camera,” I said. “Besides, if I had told Houston and especially Dwight we would have had to call the cops. And then what could we have told them? That we were snooping around in Mr. Haggerty’s office illegally and found out about the motion sensor? And also that Ms. Landry was there? And what if I'm wrong? Or what if the murderer knew about the camera and took it? I want to make sure it's there before we tell anyone.”

  Rosalie nodded. “You are so on the right track! That makes perfect sense. So we're going to sneak into Mr. Haggerty's office again, snoop around for a camera, and then turn it in to the police?”

  “Basically, yes. We need to look in places that the police wouldn't have thought to look because they've already taken everything they thought might be important. Then, if we do find it, we can wrap it up and turn it in anonymously,” I told her.

  “I love this plan. Let’s roll.”

  As we walked into the bank, Rosalie turned to me. “How are we going to get past the executive administrator this time? We were in luck last time when Mrs. Archer was here.”

  We stood in the lobby trying to figure out what to do when we saw Mrs. Archer yet again standing in the cashiers’ line.

  When she spotted us, Mrs. Archer left her place in line and walked to us. “So nice to see you two again,” she said.

  Today she wore a light blue pantsuit with a white scarf and white lace gloves. I wondered if the ladies from the Contemporary Book Club had meetings to discuss their dress code.

  “Hello Mrs. Archer. You here again?” Rosalie asked.

  “Well, dears, apparently I didn’t get everything settled the other day. They say I forgot to enter some number so here I am again. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be young again. Then I would know how to handle these things. In my day, everything was so much simpler,” she said.

  “Oh, you can do this, Mrs. Archer. We’re cheering you on,” Rosalie told her.

  “That’s very nice of you. So what clues are you looking for today?” she asked.

  “We're very close to solving the murder,” Rosalie answered, clearly distracted and not thinking. “We just need to get past the executive administrator again.”

  “I'm sorry I can't help you out this time,” Mrs. Archer said. “I don't think it would work a second time.”

  Right then, the executive administrator left his office holding some papers in his hand. We realized that this was our chance to get into the hallway.

  “And how are we going to get back out?” Rosalie asked.

  "I'll fake a heart attack if I have to in order to keep him away," Mrs. Archer joked.

  “That could work,” Rosalie said.

  “Don't you think that's too extreme?” I asked.

  “You girls better hurry before he's back. In ten minutes I'll create a diversion. You can count on me,” Mrs. Archer said.

  We quickly said thank you and slipped into the hall. When we entered Mr. Haggerty's office, we were relieved to see that no one was there this time.

  “Okay Miss Detective, where should we be looking?” Rosalie asked quietly.

  I shrugged. “I don't know. Cameras are supposed to be installed somewhere near the ceiling.”

  As we looked around, I spotted an air vent on the wall that was directly opposite to Mr. Haggerty's desk. I pointed the vent to Rosalie and she clapped her hands in excitement.

  I pulled a chair underneath it and stood on it so I could see in. Rosalie kept her hands on the chair, keeping it steady so I wouldn't fall.

  “OMG, I think I see something shiny,” I said. “But I need something to help me open the cover.”

  Rosalie looked through her purse and found a nail file with a pointed end. “Here,” she said, handing to me.

  I accepted it and began to work on prying the cover open. It took a few tries but I managed to get it off. I looked inside and, sure enough, I saw that the shiny object was a small, white camera.

  “Bingo!” I said as I grabbed it.

  “I can’t believe we found it! This is so cool. We rock!” Rosalie was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.

  After I climbed off the chair, we stood in the office for a few minutes, wondering what to do.

  “Should we really send it to the police?" Rosalie asked.

  "Why shouldn't we?" I replied.

  Suddenly, Rosalie pointed to the far end of Mr. Haggerty’s office. There was a shelf in a dark corner. And something was on it. A television. Underneath was something that looked like a DVR. She turned to me and looked me in the eye and I knew exactly what she was thinking. We were both curious to see what was on the tape.

  Rosalie snapped the camera from my hands, took the tiny tape that was in it and placed it into the recorder. The TV flashed on and after a moment we could see ourselves on the screen, with no sound.

  “Oh my, this is freaky,” Rosalie said mesmerized. “This is us, like two minutes ago.”

  “You know, if we turn this in to the police they're going to see us snooping around,” I said to Rosalie.

  “I know. Either way, the curiosity is killing me now. Hit it.”

  Nodding, I pressed the back button and the tape began to skip backward. After a while we saw Ms. Landry enter the office followed by Rosalie and me a few moments later. We skipped backward again and watched the police search for evidence. A few skips later we finally reached what we were looking for.

  As we saw who killed Mr. Haggerty, Rosalie and I froze in place.

  “I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I just…I just can’t…,” Rosalie said with half opened mouth.

  We could see Mr. Haggerty having a heated conversation with a woman. Their hand gestures showed that they were both upset. Mr. Haggerty got up from his desk and walked over to her. He vigorously shook his head "no" while pointing to the door.

  She kept arguing and things grew more and more heated. Suddenly she grabbed the envelope opener off the desk and strove it into Mr. Haggerty. Just like that. After a quick second of shock, she quickly left his office, leaving him covered in blood. Mr. Haggerty leaned over his desk, took a pen and the check which was closest to him, and began to write on it before he collapsed.

  Rosalie turned to me, both of us in shock.

  “I really don’t know how to react right now,” she said, stunned.

  “Me neither. Is this really happening? I mean, did that really happen?”

  Just as I realized I wasn’t breathing anymore, I heard a clicking noise behind me. Rosalie and I snapped our heads toward the door to see Mrs. Archer standing in the office, pointing a gun at us.

  Chapter Eleven

  As we stood staring down Mrs. Archer and her gun, she said, “So you finally found out what it was he wrote. I've been hanging around here trying to figure it out myself so that I could get rid of the evidence.”

  “Mrs. Archer?” That was pretty much all that came out.

  “But you’re a sweet little old lady. You’re not supposed to murder people. Or know how to work a gun,” Rosalie gulped, looking intensely at the barrel of the gun.

  Mrs. Archer flashed a wicked smile. “I’m pretty good at playing the helpless, frail old woman.”

  I got goosebumps hearing her talk. She was suddenly a whole new person.

  “But why?” Rosalie finally got the courage to ask. “Why did you kill Mr. Haggerty?”

  “Because he was trying to cut me off,” Mrs. Archer snapped. “You see, I went to a party a few years ago at his house. I was talking with his wife and asked her how they were able to afford all the luxurious vacations they were always going on. Because she was drunk as usual, she let it slip that he was giving himself a little treat now and then. He was taking money from rich customers’ accounts and adding it to his own. I wanted a piece of that cake, so I decided to blackmail him. He would give me my money in cash so there was no trace. But then he got tired of being blackmailed and told me he wanted out. He was trying to stop everythi
ng and so I went to his office that night to convince him that he needed to keep it going. I wasn't going to lose my comfortable lifestyle because he was turning into a coward. He wouldn't listen to me, and I just lost it in a rage and stabbed him.”

  “That’s disturbing,” Rosalie said.

  I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Mrs. Archer was such a kind woman. Or so I’d thought. We couldn’t let her get away with it. The problem was that she was pointing a gun at us so you might say she had the upper hand. My only idea was to stall for time.

  “What are you planning to do now?” I asked. “How are you going to get away?”

  “I only want that tape,” she said. “Once that's destroyed, there will be no way to pin the murder on me. It'll be your word against mine and who is going to believe that a little old woman who grew up in Ouna Bay and is an active member of the community is the murderer? Now, the tape please. And no funny moves.”

  Crouching down slowly, I took the tape out of the recorder. Mrs. Archer held one hand out to take it while keeping the gun pointed at us.

  If she got away and destroyed that tape, somebody would still have to believe our story. Even with no solid proof. Somebody would have to.

  She put it in her purse and slowly backed toward the door.

  “Shouldn’t we do something?” Rosalie whispered to me.

  “What can we do? She’s got a gun,” I whispered back.

  “I don’t know. Maybe just jump on her and hold her down.”

  “And risk getting shot?” I asked.

  After a moment of hesitation, she answered, “True.”

  Mrs. Archer looked at us one last time and disappeared into the hallway.

  “How fast do you think she is?” I asked Rosalie.

  “I don’t know. She usually moves with the speed of a turtle, but maybe she’s got hidden athletic talents.”

  “Should we dare?” I looked her in the eyes.

  “Let’s get her!” Rosalie said.

  Just then we heard a thud. We ran out the door to find Mrs. Archer lying on the floor with Houston standing over her. By the looks of it, she had run into Houston and must have lost her balance, causing her to fall to the floor. I was so grateful that she had already put her gun back into her purse so she didn't end up shooting anybody, especially Houston.

  “Would you look at that?” Rosalie asked, stunned.

  Houston leaned over to give Mrs. Archer a hand up just as two policemen entered the hall. Rosalie pointed to Mrs. Archer and said, “She's the one who killed Mr. Haggerty. There's a tape in her purse that proves it.”

  The policemen walked over to the old woman and took her by the arms. One of the policemen took her purse and pulled the tape out, holding it carefully between two fingers. "Thanks, ladies," he said nodding. “We're going to need you all down at the station for your statements.”

  I turned to Houston. “I'm sorry that I didn't tell you we were coming here.”

  He didn't say anything, but held his arms out and wrapped me in them. I leaned my head against his chest and took comfort in his calm breathing and the regular beat of his heart.

  Rosalie stood next to me grinning as wide as she could.

  Chapter Twelve

  The day before had passed in a whirlwind. The police had taken us to the station to get our statements, and Mrs. Archer was arrested and placed in jail. Now it was Saturday and I was able to work without worrying about catching a killer. I was so in the mood to bake, Maia was serving customers and everything was just the way it was supposed to be.

  Rosalie was at the counter talking to me as I worked when Houston walked in. It had just turned noon and I had a pot of coffee brewing. He kissed me on the lips before taking a seat next to Rosalie.

  “How are you ladies feeling today?” he asked.

  “Relieved,” Rosalie said. “Though I still can't believe that a little old lady like Mrs. Archer was capable of something so horrific.”

  I nodded. “And she was willing to endanger others to make certain nobody found out. Thank God no one else got hurt.”

  I was so grateful it was over that I had baked an extra cake along with the cake of the week. It was lemon with a lemon curd frosting and candied lemon zest on top. The cake of the week was German chocolate with pecans and coconut caramel over a pecan frosting.

  “What I don't understand is how her fingerprints weren't on the envelope opener,” Rosalie said. “Clearly everyone else's were, to the point where they were beginning to suspect me.”

  Holding my hand up to stop her, I explained.

  “Remember how when the ladies were here for the book club they were all wearing gloves?”

  Rosalie nodded.

  “Well, that's just how they dress almost all the time. She had her gloves on the day she killed Mr. Haggerty so, for her, it was just a stroke of luck.”

  “Jeez Louise, that’s wicked!” Rosalie exclaimed. “That old bat almost got away with it. I didn’t even notice her wearing gloves on the tape.”

  “Of course not,” I said. “We were too appalled by everything else we had to see.”

  "Well I, for one, am just incredibly happy that you ladies are safe. I don't know what I would have done if you'd gotten hurt,” Houston told us.

  “How did you know to come to the bank?” I asked. I hadn't had a chance to get his side of the story.

  He flashed me a half smile. “When I woke up and you weren't there, I knew something must be wrong.”

  “Sounds like he knows you pretty well. This must be true love,” Rosalie mumbled.

  “I came here first and your hairdresser friend said that she’d seen you at the bank, walking in with Rosalie. I knew that might mean trouble so I called the police and raced over there, hoping I could help.”

  “Well, we were certainly grateful you showed up,” I told him and leaned over the counter to give him another kiss. “Even if you were against this whole thing from the beginning.”

  Rosalie nodded. “That was an incredible stroke of luck. Without you showing up, Mrs. Archer would have gotten away.”

  “I'm in shock that she was capable of killing someone over money,” I said. My mind had been reeling ever since she told us her story.

  “I know,” Rosalie said as she took a sip of the coffee I'd put on the counter for her and Houston. “Greed can be a crazy thing. It drives people to do odd things. Like murder. Good thing there are also intuitive detectives out there.” She pointed to me and herself, of course. “Guess we’re back to Cagney and Lacey now. No more Charlie’s Angels.”

  “In other news,” I said, changing the subject slightly. “The other ladies from the book club have reserved a table for Monday. Now it will just be Mrs. Mildred Jones, Mrs. Irene Polacek, and Mrs. Evelyn Rosenwald. It should be interesting to hear what kind of gossip they come up with this time. I'm sure it'll be all about their former friend.”

  Rosalie laughed. “I just might have to make sure I'm here to eavesdrop. Be sure to bake plenty of cake.”

  “What did the police say about you and Rosalie snooping in Mr. Haggerty's office?” Houston asked. “I’m guessing they saw that on the tape.”

  I was quite happy about the piece of news I delivered to him next. It meant we weren't in trouble. “They said that since we ended up handing them the piece of evidence that proved Mrs. Archer was the murderer, they wouldn't worry about the fact that we were in his office. Their words were something like we didn’t see anything.”

  “Yeah,” Rosalie said. “Because Mrs. Archer was wearing the gloves, and her fingerprints weren't on the envelope opener, she would never have been a suspect, let alone convicted, without that tape. We so rock.”

  “So they've said they will excuse us from the illegal actions,” I said with a smile across my face.

  “Ms. Landry is also not in any trouble,” Rosalie said. “Even though I wouldn’t have minded it as mean as she is. Anyway, she was caught on the camera too. But if it hadn't been for her, we wouldn't have seen the or
der form for the motion sensor thingy and then Becky might not have made the connection.”

  “Well, it sounds like it's all worked out very well. Just make sure you don’t do any more breaking and entering in the near future,” Houston said sarcastically. He took a bite of cake and closed his eyes. “Mm. This is incredible.”

  Rosalie tried some too. “I can't wait to work here and learn all of your secrets,” she said with a wink.

  “Only two weeks left,” I told her.

  “I know,” she replied. “I just hope I'm not going to gain any weight from all the cakes around me.”

  “And what do you plan to do until you start working here?” Houston asked. Another bite went into his mouth and he sighed with contentment.

  Rosalie looked down at the neon green and yellow flip-flops that she wore on her feet. “First, I am going to sleep in every single day. Second, I'm going to finally go to the bay and pick out a spot of sand to lay on. Third, I'm going to lay out and get a tan and enjoy the free time I have.”

  Houston laughed. “Sounds like a great time. We may have to join you one day.” He winked at me then asked Rosalie, “How are things going with you and Dwight?”

  Rosalie blushed and looked down at her cake. “We're going to go out again tonight.”

  “Oh, oh, watch out. Major crush over here,” I pointed to her.

  She smiled shyly and blushed some more. I don’t think I’d ever known Rosalie not to have a verbal comeback. This was some serious crush.

  “Dwight kind of had a major role in solving the case,” I said. “You should let him know that. He asked exactly the right question.”

  Rosalie had a cheeky look on her face. “Maybe he will make it to captain one day.”

  Houston and I shared a look that signaled to each other we were thinking the same thing: “Let's not get carried away.”

  Out loud, I said, “Only time will tell.”

  Coughing into his fist, Houston hid a laugh that would have given away our opinion of Dwight’s chances for promotion. “Either way,” he said, “he seems like a great guy.”