Killer Dress: A Small Town Cozy Mystery (Shot & Framed Book 1)

by Nancy McGovern

  “None of it matters though, does it?” the sheriff asked. “I was lucky no one was in the office when Caro came to me with the notebook. But once I read it, I knew that I’d be done for. Jess left behind evidence that I was stealing from the town. I knew I had to move fast. I invited Caro here for lunch, pretending I had a piece of evidence in my basement that might help us crack the diary’s code. She was foolish enough to take me up on my offer.”

  “What have you done with my sister?” Dani asked, letting menace creep into her voice.

  “Nothing,” the sheriff said. “Not yet. I was about to finish her when you knocked on the door.”

  “If you touch a hair on her head!” Dani threatened.

  The sheriff laughed. “What will you do? Try and kill me?”

  “Actually, the better question is what will you do?” Dani asked. “Look, killing her won’t help you. You’ll be caught and you know it. You’re only prolonging your sentence. With two murders, you might still avoid capital punishment. Maybe. But if you kill my sister in cold blood-”

  “You think I’ll let myself be caught?” Elaine laughed. “I’m too old to be caged, my dear. I’m not going to be caught. I’m locking you in the basement, and then I’m getting into my car and driving across the border to Mexico. I’ve got enough money in offshore bank accounts that I can live a very long and happy life.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Dani said.

  “Bet on it?” The sheriff unholstered her gun, and pointed it right at Dani.

  “Drop that gun,” Dani said. “Drop that gun or you’ll regret it. I’m warning you.”

  The sheriff laughed and pointed her gun straight at Dani’s forehead.

  “You really think that scares me?” Dani asked, hoping her voice wouldn’t crack.

  A shot rang out and then a pained cry. There was the sound of footsteps as Darwin and Jim Newell ran up from either side of the porch.

  The sheriff clutched her shoulder while Dani kicked her gun away.

  Dani only smiled as the sheriff sobbed. “Do you really think I was silly enough to figure out you were the killer and then just walk into your house to confront you?”

  The sheriff cursed her.

  “Thank you, Darwin,” Dani said, as he bent down to handcuff the Sheriff. “You saved my life.”

  “I should thank you,” Darwin said. “Without her confession, it would have been hard to prosecute her. But, now, I guess she’s going to jail for a very long time! Though, I can’t believe I just shot my boss…”

  *****

  Chapter 21

  Happy Endings

  One Year Later.

  The consequences of Elaine Mackenzie’s actions would haunt them for a long time to come. It helped that she had been sentenced to life in prison. It also helped that their mother’s name had been cleared completely. A lot of the townsfolk had dropped by in the weeks after the sheriff’s arrest and proclaimed that they had never really believed in Angela’s guilt.

  Dani wasn’t sure if they were telling the truth or not but, it made her father happy, and that was what mattered most.

  Caroline had taken time to recover. She never said much about the whole situation, at least not to Dani or Sharon, but you could see on her face that she missed Jess, and even Leo, every day. Martin was there by her side like a rock throughout.

  As for Dani, she’d left town a week after Elaine’s arrest. There wasn’t much for her to do, after all, and she had her own set of issues to work through.

  For one, she’d felt tremendous guilt. Guilt that she’d misjudged their mother so badly. Guilt that, because she took one conversation out of context, the sheriff had been able to drive the investigation in a direction that implicated their mother.

  There were also the years of conditioning she had to break out of. Her mother was not a bad person. She had never lied to them. She had never betrayed them. The thought should have filled her with happiness or relief. Instead, it just filled her with the grief that she’d never allowed herself to feel before.

  Life isn’t a simple thing, Dani thought. Death lurks around corners and shadows wait to spring out at you.

  Yet there were good times, too. Moments that were worth capturing forever. Moments that could be framed, and looked at years later, as a reminder of all the good things life brought with it.

  She held up her camera and commanded, “Smile!”

  She didn’t need to say it. Caroline and Martin had both been smiling since the moment they had seen each other. Caroline was dressed in a silk gown that flowed around her like water, and Martin wore a dark blue tuxedo that made him look positively royal.

  “Go on, kiss!” Sharon commanded from the first row, throwing rice at them. Next to her, their father wiped away a happy tear. Darwin and Ellie sat in the second row. Ellie’s eyes were wide, as she drank in every aspect of the wedding with the enthusiasm of a young girl full of dreams. Dani smiled at Darwin, who gave her a brief nod and his electric grin.

  Then, she focused her camera back where it belonged. On Caroline and Martin. They were looking at each other with a mix of tenderness, protectiveness, love, and just a hint of mischievousness.

  Dani clicked the camera, thinking that maybe, finally, she’d found that perfect picture to represent the town of Innocence, California.

  THE END

  Thank you so much for reading the first story in my new series, “Shot & Framed”! If you liked it, Book 2 will be available for Pre-Order soon! Please follow me on My Amazon Author Central Page to be notified when it is ready! And, to hold you over until it’s ready, please continue to the next page for a FREE BONUS STORY!

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  Rights & Disclaimer

  This is entirely a work of fiction. All people, places and events contained have been completely fabricated by the author. Any similarities to real people, places, or events are completely coincidental.

  Killer Dress Copyright © 2017 Nancy McGovern

  http://www.Facebook.com/AuthorNancyMcG

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any manner or used in any way without advanced written permission by the author.

  BONUS STORY:

  A BLUEBELL KNOPPS WITCH COZY MYSTERY

  BOOK 1:

  The Locked Room Murder

  By

  Nancy McGovern

  Chapter 1

  Steve Talzer & The Girl With Blue Hair

  There were two things that Bluebell Knopps could rely on. The first was that no matter how she dyed it, trimmed it or otherwise attempted to tame it, her pixie-cut hair would always turn neon blue again before the day was up.

  Her parents had chalked it up to some quirk of genetics, but her friends never really believed that she wasn’t coloring it deliberately. As for Bluebell, she had learned to stop caring. Neon blue hair was part of her, as much as the freckles on the underside of her arms, or the small crescent scar hiding behind her knee. There were far weirder things inside her head than on it.

  By the time she was 16, as Bluebell was fond of saying years later, she was “halfway between a decent human being and a monkey hopped up on too many hormones.” And, at 16, she was madly in love with Steve Talzer.

  Talzer wasn’t blessed with what you’d call classic good looks but, like the most attractive men often do, he had “that special something.” He worked as an intern at Dowell Industries, an
d Bluebell had first met him when he came over to her house to drop off a bunch of papers.

  It had been love at first sight for her.

  “There’s just something about his eyes, you know?” she’d said to her best friend Nolan Eckles later that day, as they both sat on the wall surrounding her house.

  “I’ve seen him. They look muddy brown to me,” Nolan said, with a gulp of soda. “There’s no magic spark between you two. It’s no secret why you and all the ladies in town swoon over him. He’s six feet tall and has a full beard.” This last was uttered with some envy. At sixteen, Nolan was a late bloomer with a few whiskers forming on his round face. “My mom said he looks like a dirty hippie. He’ll have to shave that off soon if he wants to keep his job.”

  “I’m going to be married to him one day,” Bluebell said with conviction. “I just know it. I know he’s four years older than me, and I know I’ve only met him once, but I also know he’s the one.”

  “What, one of your feelings again?” Nolan looked alarmed. “This is just a silly crush.”

  Bluebell shook her head. “Not exactly. This is deeper.”

  Nolan Eckles had known Bluebell since she was five and had loaned him her crayons at school. He was the only one who knew about these little flashes of insight she sometimes inexplicably had. Like when she was in sixth grade, Bluebell had insisted that old Mrs. Fizzberry and not the local goon Jared was responsible for the theft of the school’s art funds. The evidence had been decidedly against Jared, and yet in two weeks, Bluebell had proved that Mrs. Fizzberry was indeed the one who had taken them.

  Then, when they were 14, the night before the infamous Lledrith earthquake, Bluebell had phoned Nolan in complete hysteria, telling him that the world was ending. He’d calmed her down, but mentally dismissed her that night as a kook. He’d had serious second thoughts when he woke up to the house shaking like a wet dog just out of the water.

  Nolan looked at his best friend now. She was staring seriously into the distance, her eyes glazed as she thought of Steve Talzer.

  “Look, if it’s one of your feelings, maybe you’ll end up being right about it,” Nolan said. “Who knows what the future brings, right?”

  “Yeah.” Bluebell had smiled. “Who knows?” At sixteen, all she knew was what she wanted. But she had to wait three more years before she got it.

  Things seemed to fall into place for Bluebell the year she turned 19. She finally found a hair dye that stayed on her hair, and now she could dye it a brilliant orange instead of having it neon blue.

  Her new hair gave her new confidence. It was Bluebell who, after a month of using increasingly silly pretexts to meet him at his volunteer shift at the local pet shelter, had finally decided to apply as an intern at Dowell. She spent three months deciding that engineering was definitely not the field for her, while sitting a cubicle away from Steve, who enthusiastically told her all about his work.

  “What we’re doing will change how transport works,” he said. “We’ve used drones in war already, but when we put them in charge of logistics, the economy will boom faster than ever before. We’ll be able to exchange actual things almost as fast as we exchange data. Dowell Industries is focussed on automotive parts, but in ten years, we’ll probably be a very different company!”

  Bluebell, who couldn’t quite muster up enthusiasm about robots, instead asked him out on a date. To her surprise, he readily agreed.

  They spent two years happily in love, and Bluebell knew in every bone of her body that he was the one. He was everything she’d ever wanted - smart, funny, popular and ambitious. Everyone loved Talzer. He’d risen quickly, going from an intern to an assistant manager to project lead at the Dowell’s plant. But a year ago, he’d quit and started his own company on Elm street. It was new and risky, but Steve was excited. He’d spent a lot of money on a 3D printer, and on the day he started his new company, Steve gave her a present, a curiously shaped metallic bracelet with spokes protruding from it.

  On most Friday nights, they’d take his rattly pick-up truck and drive around the country, listening to Rockabilly music. Steve was a huge fan of Johnny Cash, and he’d crank it up as they drove around together, with Bluebell’s hand on top of his. Some nights, they’d lie on the bed of the truck, counting the stars as they kissed each other, and dreamed of the future.

  “What I’m working on will change everything,” Steve would say. “That’s what I’m after. I’m going to get so rich, Bluey, that I’ll make Old Man Dowell look like he’s a pauper by the time I’m done.”

  “I’ll love you either way,” Bluebell said, giving him a little kiss.

  “Can’t you imagine it? It’ll be so exciting. All the money you could ever want. All the power you’d have. Hey, if I earn a million dollars before I’m 25, I want a yacht. What do you say?”

  Bluebell laughed. “A yacht? You don’t know how to steer a paddle boat, Steve!”

  “I’ll learn though,” he said, and although she was lying on her back, facing the heavens, she could picture the cocky thrust of his chin as he said it.

  “How’s that sound? A yacht with mahogany interiors and.. And.. a bar full of champagne.”

  “Some good that’ll do me, I don’t drink, remember?” The one time she’d tried alcohol at a party, Bluebell had ended up being sick for a week. She’d steered clear of the stuff ever since.

  “Pcht. You tried the cheap stuff,” Steve said. “Wait till you try the real thing. Champagne’s like liquid gold.”

  “Thanks but no thanks,” Bluebell said.

  Steve turned over on his side, impatient. “Fine, what do you want then? Diamonds? Something to match your eyes... have I ever told you how beautiful your eyes are? They sparkle like sapphires. But nothing compares to your hair, of course...”

  Bluebell giggled and gave him a kiss. “Who needs diamonds when I have this awesome bracelet?” She held up her hand and dangled it. “Anyway, Steve, the only thing I want is to be with you forever. How about you introduce me to your parents someday?”

  Steve pulled away from her. Sitting up, he ran a hand through his hair. “Did you have to bring that up?” His voice was cold.

  “Baby… I’m sorry.” She put out a hand, touching him on the shoulder, but he stayed stiff and unresponsive. Sighing, she sat up too.

  “It’s just that you know everything about me,” she said. “You’ve seen the hospital I was born in, the school I studied at, the house I’ve called home all my life…”

  “Yeah, and it’s all perfect,” Steve said angrily. “Every bit of it. The perfect ivy covered house, the perfect red brick school, the perfect parents, the perfect friend circle. Your hair’s the only thing about you that isn’t a cliche, Bluey. That striking bright orange. It’s why I like you.”

  “My hair isn’t really orange,” Bluebell said. “I’ve dyed it orange. It was blue when we first met, remember.”

  “What?” He looked shocked. “I’d assumed that was a dye job.”

  “It’s true,” she said. “Hard to believe, but true. That’s my natural hair color.”

  He gave her a baffled look. “Two years and I just find this out. What else have you been hiding from me?”

  “Don’t be mean, Steve.” She felt tears prick at her eyes. The whole evening had been wrapped up in a kind of sweet glow, and in minutes, they’d managed to destroy it. For a while now, he’d been like this - quick to anger, lost in his own world. She looked at him, trying to figure out his thoughts, but his eyes were a shrouded mystery.

  “I will be mean if you keep bringing my parents up,” he said. “I know you can’t imagine someone who never wants to see their parents, but I don’t. All they’ve ever done is mess things up for me. They hold me back. The best decision I ever made was to run away. Ever since then, I vowed that I’d only look forward, that I’d only focus on what really matters in life. Getting friends, getting fame, getting fortune. Now I don’t know why I chose Lledrith. It was part coincidence, and part good luck. But something
brought me here, to you, and in my mind, it was a kind of magic. You’ve bought me good luck since the day we met.”

  “Oh Steve.” Enveloping him in a hug, she slowly coaxed him back into a better mood, and told herself she’d never ask him about his parents again.

  As it turned out, she had no need to ask. Faster than she knew, his past was coming closer, and would affect their whole future.

  *****

  Chapter 2

  An Uppercut

  “Bluebelllll!” Nolan gave her a big hug as he walked into the salon later that week.

  “Nolan! You’re back in town!” Bluebell’s voice was an excited squeak. “I can’t believe it!”

  “Hey, I couldn’t miss out your birthday now, could I?” Nolan smiled.

  Bluebell grinned. “Liar, you’re just back for your nerdy tournament.”

  “Drone racing is not nerdy.” Nolan took out a tiny drone that fit in the palm of his hand, and showed Bluebell. He took out a remote control from his back pocket and fired it up. “This thing is a beauty. The newer cooler version of RC planes. The tournament has a prize of $500 and it’s a toss up whether I’ll win or your Steve will.”

  “All my money’s on Steve.” Bluebell smiled. “He’s the fastest nerd I ever saw. He races those things all the time. He almost knocked off a vase in my house the other day.”

  “Well, you can tell me all about it over a coffee.”

  “Mom, can I take ten minutes?” Bluebell asked.

  “Take your time. You’ve got a half an hour.” Jill Knopps smiled as she adjusted the curlers on one of her regulars, Mrs. Malone. “We’ve got a new customer coming in at three and she requested you specifically.”