The Emma Wild Mysteries: Complete Holiday Collection Books 1-4 (Cozy Romantic Mysteries with Recipes)

by Lin, Harper

“What’s up?”

  “What are you up to?” he asked casually—or trying to sound casual.

  “I’m just grocery shopping,” I said.

  “You? Grocery shopping? Shouldn’t you have an assistant for that?”

  “No. But in New York, my housekeeper did it.”

  “Okay, well, I know that you know about the new ransom note,” he said.

  “The one about the money?” I asked.

  “Yes. And I just have this feeling just now that you are going to get involved somehow.”

  I hadn’t planned out what to do yet, but he was right: I was planning on going to the Canoe Creek later, but I was hoping I would figure out who did it before it came to that so there wouldn’t need to be a big showdown.

  “What do you mean?” I asked innocently.

  “You know what I mean. I just wanted to warn you because we’ve got a lot of undercover guys covering the whole thing. We have the Canoe Creek bugged and everything. There’ll be guns. It’ll be too dangerous for you.”

  “Guns? But you know the kidnapper will be with the kids.”

  “We’re going to be careful, but if this guy is armed, it’s a possibility. That’s just a worse-case scenario, but I don’t want you to be in a dangerous situation like that. The guns are just for protection, and we might not use it, especially if the kids are involved, but if this guy is armed and dangerous, we are prepared. And I think we figured out part of his plan. We discovered that there’s a hidden section in the Canoe Creek after talking to a historian about the place. It’s a hidden speakeasy and there’s a passage to the basement starting in the forest. So I think this guy will use this tunnel somehow.”

  “Really? Wow. That’s crazy.”

  “Yes. So we’re stationed around the area in the forest where the tunnel leads to.”

  “Just tread lightly,” I said. “Remember those kids.”

  “Promise me that you won’t get involved. We have plenty of men on this case. Please promise me.”

  I couldn’t do that.

  “Sterling, I think we’re breaking up. Can’t hear you.”

  “Emma…”

  I hung up.

  Isla’s Jeep was still in my sight, but we weren’t in Hartfield. We were going further out North, into the woods. Isla lived in Hartfield. Where would she go?

  As we made our way farther up and the cars became more scarce on the road, I turned my headlights off. As long as I stayed close enough to Isla, I could still see enough of the road.

  She kept going, driving right up into the woods. I’d been up to these neck of the woods once. My high school friend Jennifer’s family had a cabin up here, and I used to come here often with her on some weekends.

  What was Isla doing near these cabins?

  She pulled up to a moderately-sized cabin. We were surrounded by trees. The moon was out and it was a spooky place to be. I parked a good distance away from her. Thankfully Mirabelle’s car was dark and blended in. There was no time to hide the car. Isla was moving fast.

  I got out and followed her. Each step crunched the snow. It sounded extra loud in the silence.

  She approached the cabin and I saw Isla drop the bag of groceries on the porch and walk away. Then she pulled out her phone and began texting. This was odd. I got closer, and Isla walked away, back into her car and I heard her drive off.

  I prayed that she didn’t see my car on her way out.

  When she was gone, I waited. There were shadows moving in the light of the cabin windows.

  The most bizarre sight greeted me when the door opened. I gasped.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  It was a snowman. Or a person dressed as a snowman.

  It was one of the costumes from the Snowman Festival. There had been at least six of those guys running around at the festival. But this snowman was in a cabin in the middle of the night.

  I also heard kids’ voices. Could they be the mayor’s kids? When the door closed, I inched closer. The porch light seemed to be automatic, so I went to one of the side windows.

  Slowly I inched up and peeked into one of them. It was Zoe and Joseph! They were jumping up and down because of the food. The snowman pulled a felt hand into the bag and got out some candies. The kids actually looked happy.

  So this was where they were? Kidnapped by a crazy person dressed like a snowman? It could’ve been anyone!

  Isla was involved, but was she the mastermind? She had dropped off the food, so she definitely knew what she was doing. The question was, who was in that snowman suit?

  Maybe it was one of her friends and she was paying them off.

  At least the kids weren’t hurt in any way. I began to back away slowly. I took out my phone to tell Sterling where I was and what I found out.

  But suddenly a face appeared before me.

  I almost screamed.

  “So you’ve been the one following me around. I knew I wasn’t being paranoid.”

  Isla looked at me in the moonlight with one eyebrow raised.

  I jumped back, arms up and ready to fight. It was the Krav Maga training.

  “Wow, take it easy.” Isla jumped back herself. “I don’t want to fight. Who are you?”

  “I’m a friend of Eleanor’s!”

  Her eyes grew wide.

  “Really?”

  “You might want to tell me what you’re doing with these kidnapped kids!”

  I talked a mean talk, but I was actually very scared. What if Isla had a gun? She did kidnap these kids after all.

  “I know it looks bad, but—”

  She stuttered, nervous, and I realized that I had the upper hand.

  “Keep talking or I’ll call the police,” I said roughly.

  “Okay, okay. I was just helping. I didn’t actually kidnap the kids. I found out about it, and I was talked into helping. I mean, it was for the mayor’s own good. He treats his children like shit. He treats everyone like shit. But I didn’t know it was going to go this far, with the money and everything. I just wanted to make sure that the kids were okay and well-taken care of.”

  “That’s why you brought them the food?” I looked at her, still not completely trusting the story. “How much are you getting out of this?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Like I said, I didn’t know that there would be money involved. It wasn’t even my plan.”

  “Then who is it? Who’s the guy in the suit?”

  “Please don’t tell the police,” Isla begged. “God, it wasn’t supposed to get this serious.”

  “How is kidnapping not serious?” I asked. “If you tell me, I’ll try to help you, but the police are on your trail. They will find out.”

  Her eyes got even wider. “No, please don’t. I’m on a scholarship. I can’t be a criminal.” Isla began to cry. “I can’t deal with any more pressure these days.”

  “Do you have any idea how serious this is? There are dozens of armed policemen ready to take the kidnapper down. We have to put a stop to this.”

  “Okay, okay I’ll tell you.”

  She let out a big sigh.

  When Isla told me the name of the kidnapper, I wasn’t completely surprised. Why didn’t I realize it sooner? Of course. No wonder the snowman suit was required.

  “I really didn’t think it would go this far,” Isla said. “As far as I knew, it was supposed to be a prank to retaliate against the mayor.”

  “Yes, but Eleanor is in absolute panic.”

  “I just feel awful. Of course she would. It’s so stupid of me. I just wanted to make sure the kids were okay.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said, “Now just go tell your snowman to call the thing off.”

  When we headed back to the house, we noticed all the lights were off. We heard an engine start. A car was driving away!

  “Oh no!” Isla cried. “They’ve gone to the Canoe Creek.”

  “I didn’t know there was another car.”

  “It’s rented,” said Isla. “Just for the occasion. It was parked on t
he other side of the house.”

  “I see,” I said. “Let’s go stop them. Otherwise, you’ll be in big trouble. I’ll take the kids to the police and I won’t mention your name if I can avoid it. If you’ll just help me now.”

  Isla nodded.

  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s drive.”

  She got into the passenger side of my car and began to sniffle.

  “Tell me the best way to go to Canoe Creek,” I said.

  She gave me the directions and told me what the plan was.

  “Zoe has been instructed to take the money from the mailbox at the Canoe Creek. Then she would go back into the Canoe Creek. There’s a secret passage in there. There used to be a speakeasy in the basement, and there’s a tunnel connected to the speakeasy from the forest in case the patrons needed to sneak out.”

  “And this little girl is going to do this? Wouldn’t she be scared?”

  “Well, Zoe is a tough little girl. She’s very bright, and was taught what to do as a sort of game. She was supposed to be dropped off in the woods, get the money, go into the Canoe Creek, and head straight into the tunnel.”

  “You know what?” I said to her. “The police know about your plan. They’re going to catch them right at the tunnel’s entry in the forrest. And the men will be armed!”

  “Oh no!” Isla exclaimed. “I’m so stupid for not talking them out of this. Now the kids are really in danger too.”

  I looked ahead in the darkness. “I don’t see their car.”

  “Their headlights could be off.” She sighed. “It could be too late. They could be there already.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  As we continued to the Canoe Creek, I tried calling Sterling. He didn’t answer and I had to leave a message telling him who the kidnapper was.

  I was afraid that they would do something drastic to seriously hurt the kidnapper in the snowman suit.

  When we drove up, the place looked dead. Not a sound. The police must’ve been hiding. They didn’t even come with cars. The situation was beginning to scare me. I checked my watch. It was almost six.

  I couldn’t believe that the kidnapper would actually be driving in that snowman suit.

  “I tried on the costume once,” Isla said. “Just the head. You can actually see through the eye holes quite easily, and there are sound holes for the ears and around the neck , so it’s not that bad.”

  “Still, it takes dedication. Let’s just hope that your friend gets out of this unscathed. The mayor must’ve put the money in the box already.”

  Then we saw her. Zoe came out of the woods and ran to the mailbox. Gingerly, she stuck her hands into the box and pulled out a thick envelope. $50,000 in bills wasn’t as much as you would think.

  “Do you know where the end of the tunnel is?” I asked Isla.

  “Yes,” she said. “But, I wouldn’t know how to get there by car because it’s in the woods.”

  “Are they going back to the cabin after?”

  “Yes.”

  Just then, we saw a couple of cops run into the Canoe Creek with guns in their holsters.

  “What if they catch them?” I looked at Isla accusingly. “I can’t believe you guys would let the kids be in this situation. They’re going to be scared to death.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. But what can we do?”

  “Is the snowman armed?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so. Wait, maybe he is. They do keep a spare gun in the cabin.”

  “If they so much as catch a glimpse of a gun, who know how they would take him down?”

  Once we got into the woods, we became quiet. I was scared because I knew there were armed policemen all around us. Isla continued to lead the way.

  We ran, and I tripped over a branch and fell on my knees.

  “Oufff!”

  “Are you okay?” Isla whispered.

  “Fine.” I grimaced.

  We kept going, until we saw a glint of metal under the moonlight: the rented car. Then we saw the snowman, its face white underneath the moonlight. Joseph, the little boy, sat in the passenger seat.

  “Just crazy,” I muttered.

  We approached and saw a shadow sprint before us.

  “It must be a cop,” I said. “They must’ve seen the car too.”

  “They’re surrounding him.”

  “We gotta go stop them.”

  We ran to the car just as Zoe ran out of the tunnel and jumped into the car.

  I saw a few of the men in shadows, armed with guns.

  Isla gasped. “Stop them!”

  The snowman hugged the boy close.

  One of the men was Sterling. I could tell by the way his hair fell in the back of his head, its specific swirl.

  “Sterling!”

  He looked back at me.

  “Emma, what are you doing here? This is not the time.”

  “I know who the kidnapper is!”

  “Who?”

  “It’s Matthew, Eleanor’s son! He’s not a dangerous criminal. Hold your fire.”

  Just then, the snowman drove off, but the police fired anyway, aiming at the tires so that the car sputtered and deflated.

  “Oh my God!” Isla cried at the sound of the gunfires.

  “Stop!” Sterling cried to the men on his team.

  Sandra appeared on the scene. She was in her pantsuit with a black coat over it.

  Isla called out to the car, to Matthew. “They know it’s you. Just give it up, move slowly and you’ll be fine.”

  He did. It was a funny sight: a snowman coming out of the car. The men surrounded him and got him into handcuffs.

  “Okay, but please don’t take off this costume,” Matthew said. “I don’t want the kids to know that it’s me.”

  I supposed he was like a person in character at Disneyland. Taking off the costume would traumatize the kids.

  “This is absolutely ludicrous,” Sandra said.

  The police took Matthew away. The kids came out and hugged Isla.

  “Where’s the Snowman going?” Joseph asked. “He said we were playing a scavenger hunt.”

  “Is Matthew in trouble?” Zoe asked.

  Isla frowned. “How did you know it was Matthew?”

  Zoe rolled her eyes. “Of course I knew it was him. I’m not a baby you know. I also know that there’s no such thing as Santa Claus either.”