Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Stacey Alabaster

  Excuse me?

  “I…I don’t know what you are getting at, Princess. Truly, you’ve lost me. Or was that just a random brag?” Knowing Claire, it very well may have been.

  She sighed and explained her train of logic to me. “Lola Bloom was a pop star, wasn’t she? A glamorous pop star? A glamorous, BLONDE pop star. Well, look at me?” She waved her hand up and down as if to show me that her and Lola were one and the same. “I could be the next target of the killer.”

  I rolled my eyes and this time, I held the door open for her. “Okay, I think you may be reaching a bit there. This is all just about your Porsche. You think a car is more important than the fact that a young woman died and there is a killer on the loose.” No harm in heaping a little bit of guilt on top there. Hey, it might even change her mind.

  It didn’t, though.

  “I’ll text you when I get to the new hotel.”

  J had been in her room the whole time, but she popped her head out and I sighed at her, not at all surprised that she’d just been pretending to be asleep. That was how she always got all the goss out of the grownups. She was clever and knew we only revealed our secrets after dark when we thought all the children were asleep.

  “Go back to bed, J.”

  “…But it’s a weekend,” she said with a little pout.

  “Fine, but no scary movies.”

  I made her choose a cartoon to watch and went to the bar fridge to find some milk to heat up.

  “Where is Auntie Claire?” J called over her shoulder. “Did you two have a fight?”

  I poured the milk into a saucepan and set it to simmer. “She is just being precious, as usual.” I shot J a strict look. “You shouldn’t be staying up late to eavesdrop on us, J. We’ve talked about this.”

  J shook her head. “I wasn’t staying up on purpose, Alyson! There was a noise next door.”

  “I’m sure it was only… Wait, what?” I took the milk off the stove and waited for her to repeat what she had just said.

  J’s bed was right next to the room where Lola Bloom had been killed. “J, there couldn’t have been any noise in there. No one is in that room now.” I didn’t wish to tell J any of the details about what had happened, but there was no chance that room was being rented to a guest any time soon and maybe never again.

  “Well, I heard something crashing!”

  I handed her the warm milk and told her to stop making up stories. She’d already gotten what she wanted, I was letting her stay up late, so she didn’t have to go pushing it with a lie.

  But I couldn’t concentrate on the movie after that. Even though I tried to dismiss what J had said, it niggled at me. I decided to go and check, just in case.

  I locked the door and told J not to answer it for anyone, that I was only going to be five minutes. “Just going to reception for some extra towels, okay?”

  She shrugged and went back to her cartoon, looking sleepy.

  I crept down the hall and tried not to make a sound.

  Room 204 was open a crack. And there really was someone inside.

  11

  Claire

  The Golden Inn wasn’t as nice. 4 stars at best. Maybe even a 3.5. But it was all I could afford on my own. And at least here, no one knew who I was. No one knew which car was mine. And they had undercover parking as well. Probably because we were nowhere near a beach or the city center.

  I was just unpacking my things when I got a call from Bianca.

  “I’m at the car park next to The Onyx,” she said, sounding worried. “And I noticed that your car isn’t here? Is everything all right?”

  “I’ve, uh, changed hotels,” I had to admit and cringed a little, wishing I hadn’t picked up the phone. I didn’t want to tell her that I was too scared to stay there and that it had been a threat to my car of all things that had pushed me over the edge. “It, um, wasn’t quite up to my standards,” I mumbled.

  She laughed in a jolly, understanding way. “Oh, Claire, I can see how we are related. I can only sleep in the highest thread count sheets that I bring from home, and if the mattress even has a single loose spring, I can feel it. Sort of like the princess and the pea, I suppose!”

  I had to laugh at that. “Alyson always refers to me as Princess.” Perhaps a nickname I had truly earned that day. Still. Maybe I hadn’t actually overreacted. What if my life really was in danger? I had tried to tell that to Alyson, but she had just dismissed it. And yet there she was, still staying in that room with her nine-year-old niece. Maybe she could do with a little more overreacting and a little less needing to stay chill all the time.

  Bianca had a suggestion. “Come on, cuz, it’s the weekend in the city. Neither of us should be cooped up indoors. I say we should go on an adventure!”

  “I bet they don’t have places like this in Eden Bay.” Bianca walked to the window of the third level of the casino and looked over the harbor, which was glittering in the lights of the skyscrapers.

  I had to shake my head as I looked down. “Nope, there’s no place you can get a steak and blow ten thousand dollars at a roulette table at two a.m. in our town.”

  Bianca threw her head back and laughed like this was a very funny joke. I laughed a little too. It was easy to make fun of Eden Bay when you compared it to the largest city in the country. And I knew that Bianca was only teasing.

  But part of me still felt a little funny about the fact that Bianca had insisted on having our meeting with the solicitors here in Sydney. She said she was too busy to make it out to Eden Bay for the meeting and I’d told her I understood. I knew what it was like to be busy and caught up in a city life. I mean, I’d lived in Sydney for almost ten years and not even visited Eden Bay even though it was less than a two hour drive south. Still. If she really wanted to own the bookshop, then wasn’t she going to have to make some huge life adjustments? As in, wouldn’t she have to move to Eden Bay full-time? She had told me once, over Skype, that she’d love to, that she had been looking for a sea change.

  But these little jabs she made about Eden Bay made me feel uneasy. Defensive. Protective of my little coastal town.

  Bianca winked at me. “Now that you’ve put the idea in my head, we have to hit the roulette table.”

  “Whoa, whoa,” I said, almost choking on my cocktail. I laughed. “I don’t gamble.”

  “Oh, come on,” she said with a little wink. “It will be fun!”

  I could see that I had a missed call from Alyson, but I put my phone back in my pocket and decided to enjoy myself. She’d only be laying another guilt trip on me and trying to get me to come back to The Onyx. It didn’t matter what she said. I was not going to change my mind.

  Bianca was on a winning streak and she told me I must be her good luck charm.

  “Spin it again,” she said confidently.

  That was a lot of money there on the table. Five thousand dollars’ worth of chips. It wasn’t even mine and I was sweating. But there was no fear on Bianca’s face. Strange. In some ways, I could clearly see how we were related. Same strong features. Same attitude. And we even looked pretty identical from behind, or so Alyson had said. But Bianca had a kind of recklessness to her that I didn’t understand. In that way, she was more similar to Alyson. The way she threw caution to the wind. Didn’t look at price tags. Didn’t think about tomorrow. Didn’t worry about consequences.

  Bianca was shrieking and jumping up and down. Her gamble had paid off.

  I was stunned. Five thousand dollars, tripled. I high-fived her and hugged her and cheered along with her. “I can’t believe it!”

  But then there was this weird sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that stopped me from enjoying her victory. The more money Bianca had, the more chance she had of taking my bookshop from me.

  And I still couldn’t figure out why she wanted it at all. It made me uneasy. Made me question her motives.

  I swallowed my fear and agreed to another round of cocktails and another late-night steak. “May as well spend it now t
hat I’ve got it!” Bianca cheered and put down another five thousand dollars on the table while my head spun.

  It was 4am and the nightlife in Sydney showed no sign of slowing down.

  I had to admit—I missed city life.

  12

  Alyson

  I put my phone away and decided to give up. Claire Elizabeth Richardson was deadly serious when it came to her Porsche. It was her pride. You’d basically think it was her child, the way she brought it up in conversation. One time, she had said that she’d rather have me hitchhike on the side of the road than let me drive it. So I had to remember, as ridiculous as I thought it was, if someone had threatened her car, that was like threatening a family member as far as Claire was concerned.

  Then again, her going on about her ‘beautiful singing voice’ was a bit much. I had heard Claire sing and believe me, no one was going to offer her a recording contract. She would be lucky to get a gig in a pub getting fifteen bucks and two free drinks. But Claire had always had this secret pop star fantasy: that one day someone would discover her singing karaoke and make her a star. She’d always had this secret longing for fame. Maybe that was why she had written a book.

  I was going to have to go into room 204 on my own.

  I crept inside the door and waited for someone to greet me.

  This was a big mistake. I should have brought a weapon.

  “Hello?” I called out finally when I could no longer stand the tension, the silence. There was someone else in that hotel room and I needed them to show themselves.

  There was a crashing sound coming from one of the bedrooms. Just like J had described it. Maybe I ought to listen to her more often.

  “HELLO! SHOW YOURSELF!” I called out again and a woman, face red as a tomato, came barreling out and stared me down while I caught my breath.

  She had pink hair. My heart raced. It was the maid who had found Lola Bloom’s body. Back when we thought she was just plain old Emily Ryan.

  She glared at me for a moment before she panicked and grabbed one of the knives from the room service tray she was pushing.

  “Whoa, whoa,” I said, putting my hands up. “I think we all just need to chill out for a second.” I smiled at her.

  I was hoping my levity would disarm her, but it only seemed to make her see red and she came towards me with the knife.

  So, what did I do? I pulled an Alyson of course. Decided to keep things light. I glanced down at the tray that held housekeeping items as well. Spare soaps and trash bags and towels. “I didn’t know a dead woman made such a mess.”

  Then it hit me, and I was suddenly not so light and amusing at all. What if this maid was in here cleaning up the mess that SHE had made two nights earlier?

  Uh oh. This was suddenly not funny. Not funny at all.

  “Well, I suppose I will just leave you to it,” I said, sprinting for the door. But she reached it before I got there and, still holding a knife, pushed it all the way shut. I tried to reach for the handle and got the door open just a little, but she pushed it shut and held it so.

  “You’re not going to tell anyone what you saw in here, Miss Foulkes.”

  13

  Claire

  I glanced up at the sign to make sure that I had the right place. “Brown and Mascorro Solicitors.”

  “It’s a little awkward, isn’t it?” Bianca said sheepishly as she approached me and stopped out front. I supposed we were going to walk in together then? I glanced around for my own solicitor, suddenly feeling as though I needed him there as armor. Randy Mascorro was his name, but there was no sight of him or his too-long-for-a-lawyer hairstyle.

  Bianca was right. For the first time, we were meeting like we were complete strangers. There had been no warm hug and no mention of our time at the casino the night before. Like it had just never happened. She was wearing the leather coat with fur trim that she had bought at Blooms, even though it was fairly warm outside and I was only in a light jacket. She even did a little shiver like she was cold. “You look amazing in that coat,” I said, trying to break the ice. But I ended up going over the top with it by adding. “I wish I could pull off something like that. I’m severely jealous.” I then eyed the coat like I would steal it off her back if I got the opportunity. I mean, I wouldn’t. But I would be tempted to.

  I didn’t have my regular Eden Bay solicitor, Dawn Petts-Jones, with me in Sydney. But I had used Randy Mascorro before for previous matters when I lived in Sydney. He used to look over my work contracts and he’d helped me write my will at age twenty-six. Hey. I am a Virgo. We prepare for everything. Anyway, even though I had used Dawn for all matters bookshop-related so far, it would be Randy taking the reins now. He was more qualified anyway. He was a city lawyer with a real office. But I kind of missed Dawn’s blunt manner.

  I kind of missed Eden Bay.

  Randy rushed up the sidewalk to meet me. His long hair was slicked back into a ponytail and he was full of apologies for running late. I just hoped I wasn’t going to be charged for the time I had spent waiting around staring at Bianca’s jacket like a crazed lunatic. Bianca’s lawyer was an older woman in her sixties with a short bob who joined us as we entered the office and didn’t smile at anyone.

  Well, I wasn’t going to be so cold. Once I had glugged down the glass of water that Randy had gotten for me, I decided all these formalities were unnecessary. I smiled across the table at Bianca. “I am sure this is all just a silly misunderstanding and we can reach some sort of a compromise.” Even though inside I was thinking, There really is no compromise to be had. I mean, the shop was mine. My grandma had left it to her “only granddaughter” and at the time of writing that, she had no idea that Bianca even existed. Dawn assured me that that was what would ensure my victory. But still. I was willing to let Bianca come and visit the shop whenever she liked. Hey, she could even work a few shifts if the fancy really took her! I was even willing to cut her in on it if push came to shove. Say, ten percent of the business.

  Now that would be an amazing compromise. I sat back for a moment and let Randy briefly explain what I was willing to offer and thought that Bianca would be overwhelmed with how generous I was being. “As I said,” I added with a little shrug. “Just one of those funny misunderstandings.”

  I even laughed a little. But Bianca stared at me blankly. “There is no misunderstanding,” she said. “You have been occupying a shop that rightfully belongs to me and I intend to get that shop for myself.” Her tone was icy cold, and she was wearing the exact same stony expression as her solicitor, Nancy, who had still not cracked a smile in twenty minutes.

  It took a few moments for the shock to set in, to process that Bianca was really going to play it like this. It wasn’t just what she had said—she was going to get the shop for herself?—but the tone she had said it in. Like a stone-cold killer. Hang on. Who was this woman sitting across from me? What happened to my friendly, lively cousin? My friend?

  I straightened up and nodded for Randy to pour me another glass of water from the jug. My mouth was dry. But I was not about to appear unsettled. “I have been running the shop for six months now,” I said confidently. Smoothly. It was just a fact. “That alone should prove that ownership belongs to me.”

  Bianca pulled out a folder that had a bunch of sheets of paper with figures on it. I only caught a glimpse. My heart froze. It looked like paper work from the shop. Profit and loss figures. “And it looks like you are doing a wonderful job,” she said wryly, pushing them across the table. She had highlighted, in yellow, the weeks where the shop had spent more money than it had taken in. Where did she get these figures from?

  I felt my mouth go dry again and I suddenly felt a little nauseated. I pushed my chair back.

  “Excuse me a moment.”

  Out in the hallway was another water cooler. I filled up a plastic cup and threw back another few gulps with my hands shaking. Does this give her the upper hand?

  Part of my sinking feeling was due to the fact that I was worrie
d she might have a point. Maybe the bookshop WOULD be better off in her hands.

  As I was gulping down the glass of water, I felt a hand on my arm and thought it was Randy trying to get me to go back into the meeting room. I snatched my arm back when I realized it was Bianca grabbing at me.

  I scowled at her like I was a wounded animal. But out in the corridor, she was smiling at me sympathetically again and she even tried to pat my arm again. “Get away from me,” I said, turning back to the water cooler.

  “All I want is a fair compromise,” she said. “I’m sorry I had to do that. But Nancy told me to bring out the big guns. It’s nothing at all personal, cuz.” She was all trying to play nice now. “I hope we are still friends after this. Still family.”

  I spun around. “You lost your chance at a fair compromise when you stole those figures and used them against me. This is war now,” I said before stomping off out of the lawyer’s office.

  Randy tried to ring me once I was already back outside, pushing my way through the city streets. But I was done with him. This was a fight that I was going to have to win on my own.

  14

  Alyson

  I was out of breath by the time I got back to my room, trying not to shake, trying to compose myself, before I entered. My nine-year-old niece was in there! I shut the door firmly behind me. J had fallen asleep and I heaved a sigh of relief. I collapsed on the seat beside her and hoped that I wasn’t about to receive a knock on the door from housekeeping.

  My pink-haired maid friend had told me not to tell anyone that I had seen her in the room. To back off. As I stared at J sleeping on the couch, I decided to take that threat very seriously. Maybe if it had just been me on my own, it would have been different. I am not that easy to scare. But I wasn’t on my own and when J was involved, I was scared.