She climbed into bed and pulled the covers up over her head. Duke crawled into bed with her. “Don’t worry,” Sunny said and stuck out an arm from under the blanket to pat her dog. “I still think we’re going to be okay.”
Oh, but Sunny wasn’t out of the harm’s way just yet, and she was far from being right about what the day had brought. What she didn’t know was that in her and Divit’s little escapades, she’d actually met the murderer. And because of that lens cap with her name and phone number on it, and the fact she’d introduced herself to everyone she met with that camera around her neck, the killer knew who she was, too.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sunny woke up early, she was excited about the day. For some reason, she had a new sense of purpose. She usually just would think of the things she wanted – willing them to be true as if her hopes and dreams would just miraculously come her way. But other than her love for photography, she’d never done much to bring those expectations to fruition. But that had changed. She’d gone out, for the first time in her life, and tried to do something about something she wanted. True, she hadn’t learned anything that could clear her with the detective, but she had tried.
I bet Pops would be proud of me.
Sunny, happy, practically danced around the apartment as she got ready, she fed herself and Duke, washed up the dishes, made her bed, and headed down to the studio. She didn’t have any appointments, but she was excited to get a look at the pictures from the vigil. Even though she hadn’t had the opportunity to work on the layout she’d shot the day that Fleming died, the one she was being paid to produce, she was going to make the shoot from the memorial her priority.
She flipped over the “Closed” sign to “Open,” went to her darkroom and set to work. But she hadn’t been in there long when the wall mounted buzzer let her know someone had entered the shop.
She walked out front and saw March Bennett standing right inside her door.
“Oh, hello,” Sunny said, not quite sure how March had found her, she walked past the counter to greet her.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a suspect in my sister’s murder?”
“What?” Sunny said stopping in her tracks. “I’m not.”
“According to Detective Phillip Dunley you are,” March said. “He even told me about your shop.” She waved her hand around.
“I-I . . .” Sunny couldn’t get her words out.
Oh my, Sunny thought, is he really going around telling people I might be a murderer?
“Chetney told me you were asking all kinds of questions. Trying to talk to everyone. Looking for Naomi. And then Naomi tells me this morning, two people were in my sister’s apartment with that creep, Michael Sullivan from the second floor.”
So, I’m not the only one who thinks he’s creepy.
Sunny reached out her hands to March. “I was not . . .” she said trying to explain. “Wait!” her face changed to a look of confusion. “Did you call him Chetney?”
“That’s his name. Why wouldn’t I call him that?”
“He told me that people at the bar call him Chet.”
“They do, but I don’t know him from the pub. I’ve known him since the sixth grade.”
“The picture . . .” Sunny mumbled.
“What did you say?”
“Did Fleming know Chet?”
“Don’t say my sister’s name.”
“I’m sorry,” Sunny said. “But he told me he didn’t know Flem . . . Uh, your sister.”
“Well he lied. Just like you did. He’s had a crush on her since forever.” March waved her hand dismissing the conversation. “Why did you go around telling people you were there for my sister?”
“I was,” Sunny said. “I have the pictures. I was just in my darkroom . . .” she pointed in the back. Then hung her head. “I mean . . .” She blew out a breath. She figured she may as well tell the whole truth. “I saw her get shot. Your sister. And I’ve been trying to help.” She looked up at March. “I just wanted to help. Do something.”
“You saw it?”
“Through the lens of my camera.” Sunny pointed to the pictures on her wall. “I couldn’t see who it was. The detective should have told you that. I didn’t do anything to her.”
March stood and looked at Sunny for a moment, considering what she said. “You should have just told me.”
“I wanted to try and help, and yes, clear my name, but I didn’t know who the murderer was so I couldn’t let on. You know, if I said to someone that I was looking for the murderer, I could have been talking to the murderer. But I’m really sorry for deceiving you.”
“Did you find out anything?” March asked, her eyes pleading. “Was it Michael Sullivan?”
“I don’t know,” Sunny said not surprised that March would think it was Michael. “But no. I didn’t find out anything.”
She was definitely crossing March off their “figuratively speaking” list of suspects. Sunny could see in her eyes, she wasn’t capable. She loved her sister.
“So your snooping around didn’t do any good?”
Sunny sighed. “No. It didn’t do any good.”
“Well, do me a favor,” she said swiping at the tears on her face. “Just let the police handle this.” With that she and turned and walked out the door.
“What about the pictures?” Sunny called after her, but she was gone.
After March left, Sunny felt her hands trembling. She sat down behind the counter and held her head.
“Why couldn’t I figure out who did it?” She pushed the curls off her face. “Ramiel,” she looked up and spoke to the ether. “Where are you?” She shook her head. “What are you doing? You could have just told me who did it. What good is an angel that only delivers messages?”
As tears started to roll down her cheeks, she got up and headed back to her darkroom, she knew concentrating on her pictures would calm her. But as she sniffed back her tears the smell of flowers wafted past her nose.
Ramiel . . .
Then she heard the jangle of the bell, and door to her shop open. She turned around to go back into the front expecting to see her angel, and wondering why he’d use the door and instead of an opening he made in the wall. And there, as she came up front, a figure entered her shop. Only the outline of its form visible due to the glare from the easterly rising sun.
“Oh now you come,” Sunny said to Ramiel.
“Hello,” a faintly familiar voice said.
A voice that Sunny knew wasn’t Ramiel’s.
“Chet,” Sunny said, she could see him clearly as he crossed the threshold of the door and stepped inside. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought you told me you were a better photographer than you were a writer,” he said, a smirk on his face.
Sunny glanced over at her wall of pictures. “I am.”
“Funny because I’ve been watching this place all morning and the only person I saw come in here was March Bennett, and she seemed pretty upset with you. I don’t think she’ll be hiring you to take any pictures.”
“You’ve been watching me?” Sunny said and gulped.
He’s as creepy as Michael Sullivan.
“How did you know where my studio was?” Sunny asked. “Did you follow me?”
“Didn’t have to, he said. “You left your calling card.”
“My calling card,” Sunny mouthed the words.
The lens cap.
“You saw my lens cap?”
“Yep. At first I wasn’t sure it was from that day. You know,” he said taking a step closer to her. “There was a lot of rubbish around that place, could’ve been lost any time. But, it was laying in that freshly fallen snow all by itself, it did cause me to wonder.”
“You didn’t take it,” Sunny said. She knew that for a fact because that bothersome detective had it in his custody.
“No, I tossed it in a pile of old trash. No one else to ever find it. And I wasn’t too worried that anyone had seen me anyway,” Chet said.
“But then I saw that little blue Beetle drive away.”
“My car,” Sunny said in a whisper.
“Yep. Your car. That was the only real sign I had that day that someone might have seen me. That little car taking off. But when no one came to . . . uhm . . . pick me up, if you get my drift, I figured no one saw me there.”
“I didn’t see you,” Sunny said, she eased behind the counter.
“I figured that when you gave me your number,” Chet said, a wicked smile on his face. “But after I walked you out to your car and saw that blue machine, and knowing you were a photographer, I put two and two together.”
Sunny swallowed hard.
“You shouldn’t have been asking so many questions.”
“I was just trying to clear my name,” Sunny said.
“Yeah, I figured,” Chet said. “Try to find the person responsible all on your own.”
Sunny nodded, her whole body trembling.
“Well,” he said, a grin on his face, he spread his arms out wide. “You’ve found me.”
“Why did you kill her?” Sunny asked.
He squinted his hooded eyes, lowered his eyebrows and puckered up his mouth. “She was just a tease,” he said between clenched teeth. “She tried to lead me on. Just like she did everyone else. But I’m not everyone else.”
“You did it because she didn’t want you?”
“She acted as if she did,” he said, his voice angry. “Been acting that way since we were in grade school. Then I saw her at the pub, and I thought it must be fate. Finally, we’d be together. But no.” He let out a dark chuckle. “She thought she could play with me like she did all the other men in her life.”
“Brandt,” Sunny mumbled.
“She won’t be doing that to anyone else.”
Sunny looked toward her darkroom and over to the walls, she wondered why she hadn’t seen a light, a flicker of her guardian angel. She knew she had smelled him. Now, she reasoned, would be a good time to appear and do the smiting he was always offering.
“What are you looking at,” Chet snarled.
“Nothing,” Sunny said. “I was looking at nothing.”
“You’re no different than she was,” Chet said. “Saying one thing, but meaning something else. You didn’t want me. You just wanted to catch a killer.”
“I don’t know what you want,” Sunny said.
“I want what you want,” Chet said. “Not to be suspected of anything. Especially a murder.”
“I have a scheduled appointment,” Sunny lied. She pointed at the computer that sat on her counter. “They’ll be coming in at any moment.”
Hopefully, it will be Ramiel that arrives, Sunny thought.
“I don’t think that’s true,” Chet said. “One thing I’ve noticed about you is that you have a hard time lying.” He pointed his finger at her and twirled it around. “Just look at that face, all contorted. Just like last night when you told me you were writing a blog. I knew that wasn’t true, but I thought you were just saying it to get the chance to talk to me.”
“I took pictures,” Sunny said. “I didn’t lie about that.”
“But you lied about everything else,” Chet’s voice was suddenly angry. “You were trying to trick me.”
“No!” Sunny said shaking her head vigorously. “No. No. No.” Tears were running down her face. “I wasn’t trying to trick you. I didn’t even know it was you. Please.”
“Please what, Leah?” He snickered. “Oh I forgot, you liked to be called, Sunny, isn’t that right?”
“I think you should just leave,” Sunny said. “Please.”
“It doesn’t look like you have any customers,” Chet said then turned and looked at the door. “No scheduled appointment seems to be knocking on your door. Seeing that you’re not busy, why don’t you come and take a ride with me?”
“A ride?”
“I thought since you’re interested in Fleming, we’d go visit the place she took her last breath.”
“I’ve already seen that place,” Sunny said. “I don’t need to see it again.”
Chet pulled out a gun from his jacket pocket and pointed at her. “I want you to.”
“I need to get my coat,” Sunny said trying to stall. Surely, she thought, Ramiel would come and save her.
“You can leave it.” Chet said waving her along with the nozzle of the gun. “Where you’re going, Sunny, you won’t need anything to keep you warm for very long.”
But as he spoke, shards of shattering glass from the large window flew in, glints of light shining on them as they crashed and splattered onto the floor all caused by a projectile that sailed through the front of the studio.
Bap! Bap! Sunny heard those same pops of fire that she’d heard just the day before. And then everything went black.
Epilogue
Every story needs a moral, and, as you know, there is certainly one here.
Wait. What? Don’t tell me you need me to spell it out for you? Surely you can figure out the moral of this story on your own.
No? Want me to give you a little hint?
Fine. I’ll tell you.
The moral here is that you can always find the strength to make it through the obstacles that arise in your life, whether they are big or small. It doesn’t take a miracle for it to happen. Yes, you’ll find that what you need to weather any situation is already inside of you.
Oh, it’s true. Sometimes you just need a little push, a nudge, or some encouragement from somewhere else. Maybe knowing that you have someone there for you, someone you can rely on, will make your confidence in yourself a little stronger. But even when there’s no one there to cheer you on, don’t give up. Keep hope warm in your heart, optimism at the ready in your life, and know that you are much more capable than you think.
You got that? Good. Now tuck it away and save it for one of those days when you’re not so sure whether you can take one more thing . . .
Now, what about our Sunny having to suffer at the hands of that wily Chet? Well, don’t fret. While Chet did fire off a couple of shots after having been startled by the glass breaking, he missed, just as Sunny fainted. But, oh joy, Dear Reader, that projectile that broke the front window of Sunny’s studio didn’t miss. It hit its target – Chet’s head. Seems as if Divit’s skills as a pitcher were just as good as they had been when he led his little league team to victory in that championship game.
Divit, luckily, just happened along, but there were others whose keen eye led them to help in Sunny’s rescue, too.
Good thing, huh?
When Chet picked up that lens cap and threw it in that pile of rubbish, never to be seen again (so he thought) his fingerprints were all over. With a history of assault, those prints were in IAFIS, and that had put Chet on Detective Phillip Dunley’s radar, coming in second on his list right after Sunny.
But it didn’t take long before Chetney moved up to number one. And that was because March hadn’t been so angry with Sunny that she didn’t notice Chet’s car sitting across from Sunny’s shop. After she found out Chet lied about knowing Fleming, a girl he had loved since the third grade, she pulled out her cell phone and let the detective know all that she knew and had seen.
And now I guess you’re wondering about that angel. Well, I only have one thing to say about that – angels are real, and they are always there when you need them.
Okay, maybe that was two things . . .
THE END
Thank you for taking time to read Angel Angst. Look for more books in the Normal Junction Cozy Mystery Series coming soon. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends about it. And don’t forget to take the time to click on the link and post a short review.
A Note from the Author
Welcome to Normal Junction, my new cozy mystery series!
I love stories about ghosts and witches, so I thought why not write one? So I did. Actually I wrote three. Angel Angst is the second book in the series. The first was Witch’s Wheel. Look for Ghostly G
adfly, to be released near the end of summer 2017.
I wanted this series to be fun (aside from the murders), so I had a narrator tell the story who is like the fairy godmother of Normal Junction. She guides the reader through the story, even gives them a little insight. In all my books I try to do something different. I hope you enjoy this little twist.
All the books are cozies, and take place in the magical imaginary place of Normal Junction. A place where people can find help when life’s little bumps send them on a roller coaster ride. In each the amateur sleuths have a supernatural sidekick which is different in each story.
Thanks to my beta reader and friend, Kathryn Dionne. You never fail me, and as always, the book is better because of you.
I got another series up my sleeve that I hope to release sometime in the fall of 2017, so look for it. And of course, Miss Vivee and Logan, from my Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery series hasn’t finished up yet, still a few more installments to come.
I appreciate all my reviews and look forward to reading what you thought about my book. Grammatical errors are of course unintended, so if you find any, just email me and let me know what you’ve found.
I love connecting with my readers and look forward to chatting with you soon.
Read My Other Books
Witch’s Wheel
Normal Junction Cozy Mystery
http://amzn.to/2t0Ui75
Bed & Breakfast Bedlam
A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery
http://amzn.to/1Ar6zkr
Coastal Cottage Calamity
A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery
http://amzn.to/1SvL1Z4
Maya Mound Mayhem
A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery
http://amzn.to/1fah16e
Food Fair Frenzy
A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery
http://amzn.to/2blGgne
Angel Angst Page 13
