The Peridale Cafe Cozy Box Set 4

by Agatha Frost

  Roxy huffed as she tossed the rock onto the back doorstep. They split up and searched the yard, but there were no hanging baskets or obvious hiding places for keys. Julia yanked on the giant black bin, surprised to see a rock in a plant pot. She picked up the rock and smiled when she saw a shiny key underneath a layer of cobwebs.

  “Jackpot,” she said as she plucked it out. “Good thinking, Johnny.”

  “Not just a pretty face.” Roxy pinched his cheek. “Although, I was excited to smash something.”

  Julia shook off the cobwebs before trying it in the lock. It slotted in perfectly, clicking into place like a hand in a glove. She twisted it, and the door gave way.

  “We’re not a bad team for a school teacher, a journalist, and a café owner,” said Roxy, grinning with excitement. “All we need is a talking dog and a Mystery Machine.”

  Julia pushed on the door. It opened into a basic staff area. The room contained a small kitchenette and a place for two people to eat lunch. Roxy was about to walk right in, but Julia blocked her with her arm.

  “Look in the corners,” Julia whispered. “Alarm triggers.”

  “It’s not too late to leave, guys,” Johnny said, his voice shaking as he looked around the dark yard. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

  “But we’ve come this far.” Roxy huffed as she scratched her hair. “They could be fake. I’ve heard of people doing that.”

  “It’s possible,” Julia admitted as she scanned the room. “Although, if they are fake, they’ve put in a lot of detail. I think that’s a keypad on the wall.”

  “There’s only one way to find out.” Roxy pushed past Julia’s arm and walked into the kitchen.

  Julia held her breath and waited for the alarm to start blaring. She waited at least ten seconds, but nothing happened. Roxy shrugged with a satisfied smile.

  “Nothing!” Roxy cried, tossing her arms out. “I knew it was a dummy. It was so—”

  A sudden beeping interrupted Roxy, and the sensors in the corners of the room started to flash red.

  “It’s a countdown,” Julia said. “We need to leave.”

  “How long do we have until it goes off?”

  “About thirty seconds,” Julia replied, her heart pounding. “If we’re lucky.”

  Undeterred by the beeping, Roxy ran across the room and tore back the panel for the keypad. She stared at the numbers, but her finger froze over it.

  “Do we know her birthday?” she cried over her shoulder. “Or her son’s birthday?”

  “We need to go,” Johnny whined. “I don’t like this one bit.”

  “Try 1234,” Julia suggested.

  Roxy punched in the numbers, but the beeping continued.

  “1111?”

  “Nothing,” Roxy muttered, the panic rising in her voice. “How long do we have left?”

  “Seconds.”

  “Try 0000,” Johnny said, his hands vanishing into his curls. “That’s what mine was when I bought it.”

  Roxy punched in the four digits, and to their collective sighs of relief, the beeping stopped. Roxy hovered on the spot as she looked up at the sensors in the corners of the room, but nothing happened.

  “My heart is pounding.” Roxy forced a laugh. “That was close.”

  “Too close,” Johnny said harshly. “Let’s just go! The police are probably already on their way.”

  “I’m not turning back now.” Roxy rolled her eyes. “I just deactivated an alarm system! We’re unstoppable right now.”

  “And what if there’s another alarm for the shop?” Johnny began pacing in the yard. “Or worse.”

  “Worse?”

  “Boobytraps!”

  “It’s a bridal boutique, not an Indiana Jones movie set!” Roxy opened the door that led into the front. “See. No poison darts or giant boulders. If you want to leave, leave, but I’m not going anywhere until we either confirm or deny Brooke’s involvement. I’ve just been accused of killing Leah, and I’m not stopping until I fully clear my name. Are you in, Julia?”

  Julia glanced at Johnny, and then at the gate. It would have been easy to turn back, leave the boutique until morning, and get away with what they had already done, but Roxy’s stare compelled Julia to continue. They were both on the same page; they wanted to find Leah.

  “I’m in,” Julia said, stepping into the kitchen. “Johnny?”

  He stopped pacing and stared at her with wide eyes. She offered a reassuring smile. Johnny sighed before hurrying in behind her.

  While Roxy began searching the boutique, Julia and Johnny looked around the kitchen. There was a counter with a microwave and a kettle, and a small white fridge underneath. She opened the fridge door, but it was filled with the usual items: a pint of milk, a tub of margarine, some cheese, and yoghurt.

  “These guys love soup,” Johnny said as he peered into the bin. “There must be ten empty tins of chicken soup in here.”

  Julia glanced into the open bin, and then at the shelf on the wall above the counter. The shelf held a dozen cans of the same soup and nothing else.

  “Maybe they really like that soup.” Julia scanned the room. “I don’t think there’s anything in here.”

  Julia joined Roxy, digging through a stack of letters, in the boutique. The soft furnishings and the plastic-wrapped dresses felt a lot less inviting in the dark. A car drove past, its headlights dazzling her through the window.

  “Cameras,” Johnny said when he joined them. “In every corner.”

  “At least she wasn’t lying about having them,” Julia replied. “Can we check them?”

  Johnny squeezed past Roxy and sat in the chair behind the desk. He wiggled the mouse, and the computer screen lit up. A picture of Brooke and Max standing in front of the shop popped up. Their unsmiling faces stared out at them.

  “No password.” Johnny smiled as he pulled himself under the desk. “I just need to find the software, and I should be able to check.”

  “And maybe erase that we were ever here,” Roxy muttered as she dropped the papers onto the desk. “Nothing in there.” She planted her hands on her hips and looked around the boutique. “There must be a record of her home address in here somewhere.”

  “I can check the computer,” Johnny said as his fingers rapidly tapped the keys. “If she doesn’t have a login password, I’m sure she doesn’t have them anywhere else.”

  Roxy dropped to her feet and tried the desk drawers, but they were locked.

  “No password on her computer, but she locks her desk,” Roxy said as she yanked on the locked doors. “I need to find a key.”

  Julia joined her behind the desk and looked under everything for a key, but their endeavour was fruitless. She rooted through the pens and pencils in a branded mug, and bright pink paperclips caught her attention.

  Julia dug a paperclip out. “Let me try something.”

  Julia bent one of the paperclips, leaving an end hooked over. Using a pair of scissors as pliers, she squashed down the hook before cutting the clip in half. She dropped to her knees and forced the clip into the keyhole. With slight pressure, she forced it all the way down before turning it clockwise. With the cut-off piece of metal, she jiggled the wire into the lock, feeling for each pin. Her tongue poked out as she stared into the corner of the room, her eyes focussing on the camera as she felt the last pins of the lock slide back. It clicked, and the tension gave way.

  “I lost the key to my jewellery box,” Julia explained. “Barker showed me a little trick he picked up during his years on the force.”

  “Have I ever told you how constantly you impress me?” Roxy planted her hands on Julia’s shoulders. “I want to be you when I grow up.”

  Julia stepped out of the way and let Roxy search through the drawer. She leaned against the back of the chair and watched as Johnny scrolled through a long list of timestamped files.

  “Okay, I’m back to Tuesday.” Johnny moved closer to the screen. “Every day has its own twenty-four-hour video clip, and it looks
like it keeps them on a rolling thirty-day period. I was at Leah’s from six until about quarter to nine, so should I start at eight and watch what happens?”

  “You were at Leah’s?” Roxy looked up, her brow wrinkled. “Wait, I didn’t see you.”

  “I was upstairs,” Johnny muttered, his ears burning bright red.

  “Oh,” Roxy replied. “Oh! Johnny Watson! So, it was you I heard snoring? You little rascal!”

  “I-I—”

  “I didn’t think you had it in you.” Roxy winked. “We’re all adults here, but Leah? Really? I never thought she was your type.”

  “And what is my type?”

  “Julia,” Roxy offered with another wink. “You’re blushing.”

  “I’m not,” Johnny muttered, dropping his head. “Why were you at Leah’s, anyway?”

  But before Roxy could reply, Johnny clicked on the video file, and it began playing. The screen showed the shop in grainy black and white, the timestamp starting at eight in the evening.

  “Well, she wasn’t here,” Julia said. “Can you fast forward it?”

  Johnny hit a key, and the timestamp in the corner zoomed up. The shop remained still, car headlights zooming past every so often.

  Johnny exhaled. “Almost midnight.” He shook his head. “She wasn’t here. She lied to your face.”

  The video footage reached midnight and stopped. Julia squinted at the screen, sure she had seen movement for the first time.

  “Can you go back a couple of seconds?” Julia leaned in closer, her finger tapping on a door in the corner. “I’m sure I just saw that door move.”

  Johnny scrubbed the video back and played it in normal motion. The door began to open at 11:59:57pm.

  “Where’s the rest?” Julia urged. “Did you see that?”

  “See what?” Roxy stood up and joined Julia behind Johnny. “I didn’t see anything.”

  “Rewind it again. Can you zoom in on that door?”

  Johnny did as he was told, and the door filled the screen. It was subtle, but the door cracked open before cutting off.

  “Maybe it was a breeze?” Roxy suggested, scratching her head.

  “From where?” Julia replied, glancing at the door in the boutique. “It’s inside. Johnny, where’s the rest of that clip?”

  “It will be on the next day.” Johnny clicked off the video and scrolled down the list of files. “Wait, it jumps to Thursday. Wednesday isn’t here.”

  Johnny clicked on the next file, which showed Brooke and Max in the shop in the middle of the day. Brooke was vacuuming the carpet, and Max was rearranging the dresses in the window display.

  “Why would Wednesday be missing?” Julia asked, her stomach knotting.

  “Maybe the file is corrupted?” Johnny clicked off the video and scrolled through the list again. “It looks like Wednesday is the only day that’s missing.”

  “Then someone deleted it.” Julia stepped back from the chair and stared into space as her mind whirred. “There’s something there Brooke didn’t want anyone to see.”

  “But isn’t it more obvious to delete one day?” Roxy asked. “Surely she’d just delete everything?”

  “Maybe she didn’t think anyone would come looking?” Johnny suggested, his fingers still working the keys. “When we delete things off computers, they’re not always as gone as we think they are. Computers cling onto a shadow of a deleted file in case we need to recover it later. If she doesn’t put a password on her computer, I doubt she knows that.”

  “Can you find it?” Julia asked.

  “I can try.”

  Roxy returned to her drawer rummaging while Julia watched anxiously as Johnny searched through the folders on Brooke’s computer.

  “I’ve found it!” Johnny exclaimed. “I didn’t think to look in the most obvious place first, but it’s right there in her trash folder.”

  “Oh my God,” Roxy whispered. “Julia. I think that drawer was locked for a reason.”

  Julia investigated the drawer. Her heart stopped when she saw a large, bloody knife wrapped up in a plastic bag.

  “The file, Johnny?” Julia urged.

  “It’s recovering,” he replied. “Another forty seconds.”

  Roxy’s covered her mouth with her hand as she began to cry. She backed away from the drawer, stumbling into a dress-wearing mannequin. Julia dove to catch it before it fell, but it slipped through her fingers and clashed with the wall. The head broke free and thudded onto the carpet before rolling away. It hit the front door with a bang and rolled back on itself, its unmoving face staring at them as it settled.

  “We need to leave,” Julia whispered, her eyes glued to the knife. “The police can deal with this from—”

  Before Julia could finish her sentence, careful and crisp footsteps made them all turn and look towards the door that had begun to open on the security footage.

  “Someone’s here,” Roxy said as she tried to straighten up the mannequin. “Julia, what do we do?”

  “Ten seconds,” Johnny whispered, his eyes fixed on the screen. “It’s almost done.”

  But they didn’t have ten seconds. The footsteps grew louder as they came closer.

  “Out the back door.” Julia turned off the computer screen and spun Johnny’s chair around. “We don’t have time. We need to leave now.”

  Johnny nodded and hurried into the kitchen with Roxy. Julia almost followed, but the footsteps stopped, and a door creaked open deep in the shop. Julia’s curiosity got the better of her. She mouthed ‘go’ to Roxy and Johnny before closing the kitchen door.

  “Hello?” a voice called out. “Who’s there?”

  Gulping hard, Julia turned and walked into the middle of the boutique.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Einstein once said that time was relative; it was the very thought flashing through Julia’s mind as she stepped into the middle of the shop. The clock stopped ticking, and Julia’s senses heightened. She heard a distant car driving along the top road; she smelled the plastic protecting the dresses; she felt the thick fibre of the carpet under her thin shoes; she tasted the tea she had drunk with Johnny less than half an hour ago at her cottage; and she saw the definite outline of Brooke standing in the doorway to the cellar.

  “Julia?” Brooke stepped out of the shadows. “What are you doing in my shop?”

  Julia gulped. Brooke’s usual black pencil skirt and blazer combination had been swapped for dark blue jeans, a black turtleneck shirt, and a fitted leather jacket. In her panic, all Julia could think about was how warm Brooke must feel swathed in leather.

  “I wanted to speak to you,” Julia said, her voice stronger than she had expected. “It’s urgent.”

  “How did you get in here?” Brooke’s eyes danced to the disembodied plastic head on the carpet. “Did I leave the door unlocked?”

  “I broke in.”

  “You broke in?” Brooke arched a brow.

  “Technically.”

  “You either did, or you didn’t.”

  “I found the backdoor key behind the bin in the yard,” Julia confessed.

  Brooke’s head tilted. She looked as though she was remembering the existence of her spare key and mentally berating herself for leaving it where she had.

  “I see.” Brooke nodded carefully as she took another step into the shop, the light from the lamppost outside washing her in a hazy glow. “And I suppose you guessed the alarm code? I’ve been meaning to change that.”

  “It was a third attempt.” Julia glanced at the kitchen door, which was thankfully still closed. “But I got it in the end.”

  Brooke’s thin lips tightened as her eyes narrowed on Julia. She looked like a predator trying to decide what to do with her latest catch.

  “What could be so urgent that it couldn’t wait until morning?” Brooke forced interest into her flat voice. “Something tells me it’s not about the dress you tried on earlier today.”

  “I know you lied to me about the security footage.”

&
nbsp; Brooke’s expression barely cracked.

  “And I know the police didn’t come to talk to you about your history with Leah.” Julia stiffened her spine as she gulped down her fear. “You were calling my bluff. In fact, trying to get me to buy the dress was part of your charade. You wanted me to think you had nothing to hide.”

  Brooke nodded as she took in the information. Her eyes drifted to the open desk drawer, and the corners of her lips pricked up into a half-smile that vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

  “So, you didn’t believe me?”

  “I had no reason to think you were lying,” Julia said, “but I wanted to double check. I’m glad I did.”

  “And you came here to confront me?”

  “I came here to find out where you lived.” Julia took a small step back when she noticed that Brooke had almost closed the gap between them. “I thought you might have a record of your home address.”

  “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “I found the footage.” Julia glanced back at the desk, wishing she had closed the drawer. “I know you lied about being here on the night Leah disappeared, and I know you deleted the footage after midnight.”

  Brooke almost looked impressed that Julia had figured out so much.

  “So, I lied about where I was.” Brooke shrugged as she folded her arms, the old leather groaning. “Hardly a motive for killing Leah.”

  “Who said anything about killing Leah?”

  Brooke’s lips parted, but she stopped and grinned.

  “Checkmate.” Brooke chuckled as she shook her head. “I knew you were trouble from the moment you turned up at my shop with that woman. You should have let me beat her to death then and there.”

  “I found the knife.” Julia gulped. “The knife covered in blood that you hid in your locked drawer.”

  “And you think I murdered Leah?”

  “Didn’t you?”

  Brooke considered her response for a moment, her icy gaze unwavering.

  “They were right about you being a little busybody.” Brooke sighed as she rubbed between her eyes. “Why did you have to get involved? It had nothing to do with you.”