Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Stacey Alabaster

  I nodded toward the bump on her head. “You said it was a man who did that?”

  She nodded. “I am pretty certain.”

  I leaned forward. “What were you doing today?” I asked her.

  She blinked and thought. “Not much. Went to the beach. Hung out at the hotel room. I did make a call to Bas from the vineyard actually, when I saw my credit card statement. I’d said no to getting married there, but Charlie had already paid the deposit. So I was trying to get it back.”

  The hit to the back of Lilly’s head. The murder of Charlie Lewis.

  It was Bas.

  And suddenly I understood why it happened right near my bookshop, on that day, the day after I told Bas that I didn’t want the wedding there. That I wanted it at my bookshop. Not only would Lilly and Charlie get punished, but I would as well. No one would want to get married in the bookshop now.

  But Matt was down at the vineyard right then. Trying to get a deposit back.

  I called him, but he didn’t answer.

  22

  Alyson

  I was on the phone to Troy as I hurried to the parking lot. We didn’t have a car between us, so I was going to need his help. Again.

  “Of course,” he said. “I’ll pick you up in five. Just stay where you are. And stay safe.”

  “I don’t think it’s so crazy that you thought you were being blacklisted now,” I said to Troy as I leaned over the front seat of his BMW. Claire was in the passenger seat, and Troy was driving. “I think that Bas must have told people not to book with you. Threatened them.”

  Claire was looking more and more nervous as we made the turn-off out of town. It was going to take us twenty minutes to get to the vineyard, even if Troy floored it. We’d called the police, but that didn’t mean we were just going to sit back to see how this all panned out. This was my brother we were talking about. Matt wasn’t picking up his phone. I placed a hand on her shoulder. “It will be okay,” I said, reassuring her as much as I was myself. “We will get there in time.”

  Lilly was beside me chewing nervously on her nails. She didn’t jump in to offer any further assurances—she already knew what this guy was capable of—so it was up to me to be cheery and confident, and I just tried not to think about the fact that my older brother was in danger.

  “Why isn’t he answering his phone then, if he is all right?” Claire said in a snappish tone that little miss ‘cool calm and collected’ never used.

  That was a good question. I sat back silently in my seat and just hoped that we would make it in time. When I’d gone into Byron’s room, she had briefly opened her eyes and looked at me with terror in her eyes. She had told me that I needed to be careful. That something bad was about to happen, and then shut her eyes. I’d thought that she was getting confused, that it was the strong painkillers, that maybe she’d been talking about herself.

  Why did the vineyard have to be so far away? It seemed to take hours to get there. The knot in my stomach grew worse and worse.

  Finally, the BMW pulled to a stop and Troy got out. He glanced around. “Er, I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” he said. “Not much about this appeals to me.”

  “I have to agree,” I said as I started to jog. At least we were on the same page there. In fact, it seemed like we were on more and more of the same pages lately. Not as different as I first thought we were.

  But there was no time to get romantic then. At least, I didn’t think there was. But I hadn’t seen what was up ahead yet.

  The ground was still soggy from all the rain that week, and it was difficult to run on the grass without getting bogged down in it, but we were all racing toward the buildings on the other side. We didn’t know where Matt was, but we assumed that he was somewhere inside the buildings where the offices and the ballroom were.

  Ugh, why did I have to let myself get so unfit.

  Suddenly, we all slowed down when we spotted the same thing.

  There was a wedding taking place that day. We all stopped, shocked. Not just because it was a wedding but also because it was the middle of the week…and something about the wedding party looked awfully familiar.

  The bride.

  A blonde.

  But from the back, it looked like a fresh dye job, like someone who’d been brunette had recently bleached all the color out of it. If it was her, then she was even lighter than she had been a couple of days before.

  “Is that…Lorraine?” I asked, dumbfounded. “What happened to her hair?”

  Claire stopped and stared. “Oh yeah, I listened to that album of his. There is this song on it all about how much he loves blonde hair called Long Blonde Hair Club.”

  There was a man beside her at the end of the aisle. Joey Hedge.

  “Don’t tell me she is actually getting married to that guy!”

  Lilly ran up behind me and pushed me out of the way in order to get to her errant maid of honor.

  “What are you doing, Lorraine?” she cried out. “You’re a complete fool!”

  The whole ceremony came to a halt as everyone turned to stare at Lilly. There was a collective gasp as Lilly stomped down the aisle and ripped the gold locket from around Lorraine’s neck. “Look!” she said, shoving it into Joey’s face. “She carries a photo of Charlie around with her all the time! And you really want to marry her? She’s not even a natural blonde!”

  Uh oh. Here we were trying to ruin another wedding. Probably the worst possible thing we could be doing at that moment. Bas glared on from the sidelines, looking like he was about to commit another murder.

  But where was Matt?

  I ran over to Bas. “What have you done with…” I started to ask breathlessly, but Claire stepped in front of me and did a total U-turn.

  “Bas,” she said with a bright smile like she was greeting an old friend, and then shot me a glare over her shoulder. Oh, right, I knew what that glare was. It was the same one that she had shot me inside Byron’s office that first time we’d gone together. It meant, shush, be quiet, this isn’t about you.

  I stepped back a bit and watched for what her plan was here, exactly.

  “So glad to have caught you,” she said, still smiling sweetly. “I have had a bit of a think about things over the past week, and in the end, I decided that this would be the most wonderful place for our wedding…”

  He narrowed his eyes and looked her up and down skeptically. But she was a pretty good actress. She could even do community theater, she was that convincing.

  “Well, clearly you have been left out of the loop,” he said, smugly turning his face upwards so that his nose was in the air.

  “Oh? How so?” Claire asked all innocently. Seriously. She could actually be in a low budget movie with this performance. Maybe all that time hanging around movie sets had actually rubbed off on her.

  Bas was still acting smug, and it was all I could do to keep quiet as I watched them and heard him talking about my brother. “Well, that surfer dude fiancé of yours has already booked and paid the deposit. There is no chance of him getting it back.” He stopped and gave Claire a cool look. “Didn’t stop him from trying, though.”

  I was starting to get nervous. We had seen what happened to Lilly when she’d tried to get the deposit back.

  I could see Claire struggle to keep her face composed as she asked the next question and tried to look like she was shocked to hear all this and it was brand-new information to her. “Oh?” she glanced around the winery. “Haha! Well, looks like we are on the same page after all then. Wow. He’s— He’s not here by any chance, is he?”

  Bas mused on this for a moment as though he was genuinely trying to remember. “Hmm, I may have seen him around a little earlier.”

  “Where?” Claire asked as casually as she could.

  Bas nodded toward the ballroom. “Come. I’ll show you.”

  But there was a very eerie vibe as we hurried along behind him.

  “See? I told you there was something wrong when Matt didn’t answe
r his phone,” Claire hissed at me under her breath so that Bas didn’t hear.

  I gulped. Yep. She had been right. But we still had time. He hadn’t done anything to my brother just yet. And if she could keep up her amazing acting job, it would all be alright.

  It just had to be.

  Bas spun around. “Have you really changed your mind about having the wedding here? I mean really?”

  Claire shot him a very realistic grin. “Yes, of course! Gosh, Bas, this place is just beautiful. And now, especially, with the weather clearing up and the sun filling the valley, I can see just how beautiful it is here.” She shrugged. “I just had to check out the other places first, you know? Do my due diligence and all that jazz.”

  He nodded slowly and turned back around to lead the way again.

  We all entered the ballroom, but we couldn’t see Matt anywhere.

  “Where is he?” Claire asked.

  “Give me the money—the full amount for the reception—and I will tell you.”

  We heard the screams coming from a room next door. “Claire!” he shouted. “I’m in here!”

  The door was locked, but Troy got it open and then held Bas back while Claire and I ran into the dark room where Matt was tied to a chair.

  “He wasn’t going to give me the money. But I told him that was illegal and he had to give the deposit back… That’s when he dragged me in here and told me he’d be back when the reception was over.”

  Hmm. Bas had left that part out.

  Claire untied him. It wasn’t until then that we finally heard the sirens arriving.

  Matt stood up. “If you hadn’t have come here, he would have killed me.” He embraced Claire like an old friend.

  We were all a little dazed and bruised as we stumbled out into the fresh air.

  But the wedding party had no idea what had just happened inside the walls of the ballroom. They were just celebrating a happy occasion as the celebrant made it official with the final ‘I do’ and the kissing of Lorraine and Joey.

  Seemed like he didn’t care about the locket. Or he’d just paid the money for the ceremony and didn’t want it to go to waste.

  The bridesmaids were all giggling as they chased off after the bride and her rock star husband. I just shook my head. Was that going to last?

  I looked up at Troy and slipped my hand through his. Well, in this life, you just never knew what was going to work out—or which way the tide was going to turn.

  Epilogue

  Claire

  A book slid toward me. Ooh. I could see that it was already dogeared. I pulled my pen back.

  I looked up at him apologetically. “Sorry, it looks like this copy was purchased elsewhere. And I don’t sign non-physical copies.” I pointed toward the display stand that I had filled with brand-new copies of The Book Shelf at full retail price and told him he’d need to purchase one of those and then get to the back of the line. A bit of a harsh rule, but it was the same for everyone who had come to the book signing that day.

  Troy would be proud of me. Alyson was less so, of course. She thought I was ripping people off. But it was just good business sense.

  Finally, the last book was signed and I stood up to join Alyson at the back of the store, thinking my author duties were over. But she had a pen ready for me as well. And her old copy that she had gotten months earlier. “So you aren’t going to make me purchase one fresh today, are you?”

  I had considered it for a moment. “No. You are the one exception to the rule.” I signed it “To my biggest fan. All my love, Claire.”

  She laughed and took it off me. “This better appreciate in value.”

  “Maybe after I’m dead.”

  I looked upstairs where the loft was still a mess and sighed.

  It was a bit of a disaster.

  But we still needed a wedding venue.

  The bookshop was not fit. There was literally a hole where the rain was coming in, as the Beatles would say. And it was too small. It had never been the right fit for a wedding.

  I’d just been trying to make something fit that wasn’t ever supposed to.

  There was a jingling and Matt came through the door, apologizing profusely that he had missed the signing. “It’s okay!” I said with a grin as I grabbed a book off the shelf for him. “You are the other exception,” I said as I signed it for him.

  “To Matt. My friend forever.”

  I handed it back to him and he read over it slowly, then nodded at me with wise, knowing eyes before he closed the cover. “I’ll catch you around, kiddo.”

  I took a deep breath and spun around to where my best friend was waiting. I never thought I would see her like this. She couldn’t stop looking at the bright sparkling ring on her left hand.

  There was going to be a wedding… It just wasn’t mine.

  Surfboards and Suspects

  Hang Ten Cozy Mystery, Book 12

  Part I

  Claire

  1

  104 degrees. The sun was glaring down on me. Oh no, not my delicate skin. I could feel the burn as I ducked into the ice cream shop and immediately got an elbow in the ribcage. “Hey!” I cried out.

  I could still feel the heat coming through my shoes even though I was indoors. Summer had hit the Bay, and that meant the town was in full-on “Tourist Season” mode. But I was having trouble feeling particularly hospitable as I made my way to the front of the line for my strawberry gelato.

  “Sorry, miss, all sold out,” the owner said as I backed away, being shoved by angry faces who were still hoping their favorite flavor was available. What had gotten into the people of this town? And why were we suddenly overrun by what appeared to be vacuous zombies? I never remembered tourist season being so vicious in the past.

  It wasn’t any better when I got to my bookshop, Fabled Books, and tried to get in through the door. Usually a full shop would have delighted me, but on this day, it only irritated me as I couldn’t even get to my front counter and everyone was manhandling the latest hardcovers with their greasy mitts.

  Surely there are other shops in town, I thought as I tried to squeeze past them. “Sorry. No food or drink in the shop,” I said, taking an autobiography out of the hands of a man who had a spinach and feta Danish in the other. He glowered at me.

  There was a particular grouping of people right near the counter, under one very specific—and popular—vent that was blowing out cold air.

  Right. Not all the shops in town had air conditioning, and those that did announced it on signs out front in neon colors. A huge selling point on a 104-degree day

  Bianca, my cousin and co-owner, waltzed in from the backroom, wearing a bikini top and actually carrying a new box of books. I noticed how bare the shelves were. We’d been almost cleaned out of reading material. Wow. I couldn’t believe I was witnessing her doing some real life, actual work. Maybe the heat had really gone to her head.

  Suddenly, there was a whirring sound, then a fizzle, then a gasp as we all realized what had happened—the air conditioner had cut out. One woman actually shrieked. Another looked at me with amusement and asked if I had paid the electric bill. “Well, the lights still work, don’t they?”

  “Fix it!”

  All I could think was, maybe if there weren’t so many of you crammed in here stealing all the air, this never would have happened.

  Bianca climbed up on a chair to take a look, but it was no use. The motor had blown. It would need the parts replaced.

  “What is going on in this town in this day!” I cried out in frustration as people hurried to leave the shop when the heat started to creep back in. They were all headed for cooler pastures. Captain Eightball’s had air conditioning year-round. “Everywhere I go, it is wall-to-wall people! And angry ones at that!”

  “Don’t you know?” Bianca asked, still standing on the chair, as she looked over her shoulder at me. “Really?”

  I shook my head. “Put me out of my suspense then, please.”

  “There is a cru
ise ship docked down on the beach,” she said, nodding out the window where I could see a glimmer of the ocean water but no docked ship.

  Apparently, there had been some sort of emergency. “A gas leak,” Bianca said. “Everyone had to immediately get off.” So they had pulled into Eden Bay for the evening and all 3000 guests evacuated. No wonder the town was so packed. Eden Bay was already at full capacity in the middle of tourist season. We couldn’t fit another 3000 people.

  “Well, where are they all going to stay?” I asked Bianca, seeing as she seemed to have all the answers on this topic. “All the motels and hotels have been booked out for weeks!”

  She shrugged and climbed down off the chair. “Maybe they will just camp out at the beach. Or maybe they will still sleep on the cruise ship. Who cares? It really isn’t my problem.”

  Maybe not. But it was her—our—problem that we were almost sold out of books and had no air conditioning in the shop. I looked out the window and saw my best friend skating her way down the street towards me.

  “Whoa, it’s even hotter in here than it is outdoors,” Alyson said with her skateboard tucked under her arm.

  She was right. Because the shop was small and brick, it held the heat like an oven. Made it a great place to be during the short cooler months, but not in the dead of summer.

  I sighed. “Time to close up. Time to hit the beach.”

  At least the surf was gentle and welcoming that afternoon and just being next to the ocean made me feel ten degrees cooler. We managed to squeeze past the throng of people so we were close enough to get a little of the sea spray. I closed my eyes and felt it wet and cold against my skin for just a moment before the sun’s rays evaporated it and opened my eyes again. So much had happened out on that ocean since I’d been back in Eden Bay. And so much had happened out of the ocean.