Traveling Town Cozy Mystery Box Set

by Ami Diane

  “It can tear the legs off of a grizzly bear?” Ella supplied. “I know. That’s what we—well, I have been trying to say.” She shot Flo an accusing glare.

  “He wouldn’t hurt anyone.” Wink reached out to pet the dinosaur, but he retreated a step. He made an odd vocalization before his tongue lapped at something meat-like dangling between his teeth.

  The contents of Ella’s stomach, which was mostly cobbler, rolled around. “Gross. If he wouldn’t hurt anyone, then why’s he look like me after a Thanksgiving meal? Please tell me that’s not a piece of Mary in his mouth.”

  Groaning, Rose swayed on her feet and turned away. Ella propped her up for support with one arm while Flo held up her other.

  Patience, who had done a good job of making everyone forget she was there, pointed a menacing hand at the pet. “That beast hath slain that wretched woman! It hath no right to draw breath!”

  “He didn’t do this!” Wink cried.

  Chapman took a step forward, his hand brushing the ivory handle of his pistol and intoned the diner owner’s name. “That’s a dangerous animal you got there. It’s not fit to be a pet. You have to understand what this looks like.” He gestured from Peanut’s crimson-stained mouth to the tarp.

  Wink stepped protectively in front of Peanut but didn’t completely turn her back to him. “He didn’t do it. He was locked up in the basement.”

  “He obviously got out.”

  “And was hungry,” Ella said under her breath.

  “I don’t know how he escaped.” Wink’s voice rose in sharp contrast to the drum of rain on the surrounding leaves. “The blood’s probably from his food.” She searched, pleadingly, both Ella’s and Flo’s faces. “Remember? I fed him that slab of beef before the debate?”

  “It’s true,” Ella told Chapman. But what she didn’t say was that was nearly two hours ago and that the gore covering the dino’s mouth appeared fresh.

  Marching closer, Patience kept a safe distance from Peanut while nearing the sheriff. “You must shoot the infernal beast.”

  “He must, huh?” Wink spat. “Oh, come off it, will you.”

  Chapman released a deep breath that spoke of exhaustion. “Look, Wink, I’m not gonna shoot it, but I can’t let it roam free. Not when I think it’s killed a person. Once animals get a taste for blood, they don’t stop.

  Ella wanted to point out that Peanut was a carnivore, so he’d already had a taste of blood before Keystone jumped to the late Jurassic period. But he’d probably meant human blood.

  Wink swallowed. “What’re you going to do?”

  One of Chapman’s calloused hands dragged down his face. “Lock it up, I suppose. Just until I can decide what to do with it.”

  “Him,” Wink corrected. “Not it. Him.” Her shoulders drooped with resignation. “Alright,” she said, stepping aside.

  Ella wished she had her phone with her so she could record the moment. “You’re going to cuff the dino? Take him downtown? Can I watch you fingerprint him?”

  Chapman didn’t bother responding.

  Much later, exhausted, Ella stumbled into the kitchen. Rose had already mopped up the mess on the floor Ella had made when retrieving the tarp. A twang of guilt tightened her chest, but she promised herself she’d make it up to the innkeeper by doing the next day’s dishes.

  She rooted through the fridge for a pre-bedtime snack. Outside the picture window above the table, the darkness of night had almost completely settled over the town.

  The bloodied meat that Rose had been thawing on the counter was gone, and one look inside the antique refrigerator told her that Peanut had helped himself to a meal. Rubbing her eyes, she mentally made a list of questions. At the top: how had Wink enclosed Peanut before leaving for the debate?

  Ella had remained at the park long after Rose, Wink, Flo, and Patience had gone home, only leaving when Pauline and the others had transported the body. Jimmy had also remained behind to assist Chapman in capturing Peanut.

  Flo had produced a tranquilizer gun at some point, thereby putting the juvenile allosaurus into a deep slumber before they carted him off to the sheriff’s office. Ella had many followup questions for Chapman about putting the animal in a jail cell designed for humans, specifically bathroom-related ones, but the sheriff never reappeared.

  Under the guise of “helping,” which mostly involved watching and comparing Pauline’s methods to what Ella had watched on CSI, the real reason she had volunteered to stay behind was to search for the library book Mary had been toting around just before her death. As near and far as she scoured, the book was nowhere to be found.

  This left one conclusion, one she ruminated over while settling in at the kitchen island, propped up on a barstool. Mary must’ve given the book to Sal. She needed to find it and see what was within the pages that might cost Chapman his badge.

  Chapter 7

  ELLA ROLLED OUT of bed Monday morning, changed into her pink gingham diner uniform, and bolted downstairs, running her fingers through the knots in her hair as she did. She had to vault over Fluffy as the large Maine coon had set up camp on the stairs. A passing glance in a hallway mirror deemed her appearance acceptable to be out in society, so long as she dabbed a bit of lipstick on before work.

  As she poured a cup of coffee from the percolator on the stove and grabbed an apple, Rose swept in, wearing a smile that matched the sunshine-colored walls.

  “Morning, dear.” After pouring coffee for herself, she leaned against the counter, scrutinizing Ella over her glasses. “I have something that’ll get that stain out.”

  Ella looked down at her uniform. “Seriously? Because I’ve been trying for a couple of weeks. It’s tough when you can’t just order a new dress, you know?” The apple crunched in her mouth as she chewed.

  Jimmy rolled through the kitchen, much like his wife but with half as much grace, pecked Rose on the cheek, then exited through the back door.

  Ella raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it a bit dangerous to be out and about right now?” As it was, she was expecting the diner to be dead and for her boss to close up early.

  “He’s just checking the property. He thought he heard a herd of something move through the yard during the night and wants to make sure they didn’t cause much damage.”

  “You sure it wasn’t Flo snoring?”

  More seriously to herself, Ella couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard anything. How many people could say they slept through a herd of dinosaurs?

  She alternated between the fruit and her coffee, keeping an eye on the clock. There wasn’t enough time to settle in at the table with a meal.

  Her eyes drifted to the door Jimmy had just gone through. In the light of day, and with caffeine pumping through her system, a thought struck her. One that she should’ve had last night.

  The door had been ajar when she’d gone to get the tarp the evening before. Looking at the wood and surrounding frame, she didn’t see any visible claw marks. That left two conclusions. Either one of them had been negligent in closing the door or Peanut had the ability to open it—which, given the movies she’d seen, she wasn’t ruling out.

  Who had been the last person to use the back door? Since all the occupants who lived in the manor had gone straight from the debate to the park, if the door had been left open, it would’ve been before the debate. That was another strike against Peanut in Mary’s death.

  Just to be thorough, as she stirred more creamer into her coffee, she asked the innkeeper, “Hey, yesterday, when we were coming home from the debate and heard Mary scream, did you go straight to the park or did you come through the inn?”

  “Straight to the park. Why do you ask?”

  “Because the back door was open when I came to grab the tarp.” She’d been living at the inn as a boarder for a few months now and had never known the door to have problems catching in the latch. She asked Rose about it.

  The innkeeper’s expertly drawn eyebrows scrunched together as her fingers played with the pearls at her nec
k. “That’s odd. We’ve never had problems with it before.”

  “Maybe whoever went out it last didn’t shut it all the way.”

  “It was Jimmy. He went that way with Flo when they left for the church because they needed to pick up cloth napkins from the diner.” She took a long draught from her cup. “I’ll ask him about it when he comes back in.”

  “Ask me what?” Jimmy strolled into the kitchen again from the hallway door.

  Ella looked at him then at the back door. “Did you just… am I having déjà vu?”

  “I just checked the perimeter and came back in through the front door,” he explained.

  Reaching out, Rose straightened the collar on her husband’s shirt and asked him about the back door.

  “I definitely closed it before we left.”

  “You sure?” Ella asked.

  “Positive.”

  Sighing, she drained the rest of the dark brew in her cup, tossed the apple core in the trash, and left by way of the terrace, pausing in the doorway to inspect the molding one more time. It had no more nicks and scratches than any other doorframe in the old mansion.

  She jogged the few yards to the back door of Grandma’s Kitchen, keeping Flo’s slingshot handy, gripping it like a sword.

  The sweeping view of the lake and park were dino-free, except for a pterodactyl overhead and something with a long neck drinking at the water’s edge across the way. The windows in the houses along the opposite shore were dark and shuttered in the morning light, like drowsy eyes. She yawned along with them, stepping into the diner.

  The air was just as muggy inside but surprisingly several degrees lower thanks to the swamp cooler, which was actually just a bucket with a fan, ice, and water, taking up a portion of the floor. Will had taken pity on them, due to the oven and abundance of appliances, and had created a poor man’s evaporative cooler.

  The kitchen was empty. She located Wink in the railcar section of the diner, sitting in a booth, reading the local newspaper Keystone Corner. “Newspaper” was a generous term as it was more like a two-sided newsletter.

  Wink glanced up when the kitchen door swung out.

  She waved the paper as a greeting. “Shelly’s fast. There’s already a writeup in here about Mary Kirkland. You believe it?”

  Being in the late Jurassic period and with the coming election, the paper had begun to print special editions nearly daily.

  “Speaking of Shelly, where’s Horatio?” Ella jabbed her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the empty kitchen, referring to the reporter’s husband and the diner’s cook.

  “I told him not to come in. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Um, thanks?”

  “He’s got farther to walk.”

  Ella plopped into the booth. “And a wife and kid, you mean.”

  Wink lowered the paper a hair, fixing Ella with one of those piercing gazes in much the same way Rose had. “You wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

  “No, sorry. I didn’t sleep well.” As she got up to pour herself a second cup of coffee she asked, “When you left for the debate yesterday, did you shut Peanut in Flo’s armory or just in the basement?”

  “In the armory. We slid the false wall into place. Then closed the basement door.”

  Ella leaned against the lunch counter, sipping the strong brew of mud, a sinking feeling in her gut. “So, he got through a brick wall and two doors?”

  She told Wink about finding the speakeasy door open and the basement door closed.

  “So, how’d he get out?”

  “You know, if it was only one door, I can possibly see Peanut figuring it out, but that’s a stretch. I don’t think he’s capable of that kind of dexterity, no offense.”

  She’d seen the animals forelimbs and noticed no opposable tarsals. Claws, on the other hand, he had that in spades, but that was neither here nor there.

  “But for him to get through three doors, one of which is heavy duty and only slides on tracks? Come on.”

  “Then how’d he get out?”

  It left one conclusion. One she wasn’t ready to say aloud yet.

  Ella repeated the question. “Yes, how did he get out. Maybe—holy poor taste, woman.” She just noticed the chalkboard where Wink usually wrote the day’s specials. On it was a Dino-mite Burger and a shredded BBQ Steak-asaurus Sandwich.

  “I wrote that out yesterday before Mary was found,” her boss said defensively.

  “Did Flo help you come up with those names?”

  Wink sniffed. “I came up with them all on my own. They’re not that bad, are they?”

  “Well, considering that three people have been mauled this week… some might find it in poor taste. Not me, of course. I take more offense to the puns. They’re weak Dad jokes at best.”

  At Wink’s hurt expression, Ella amended her statement. “But hilarious. Steak-asaurus?” She gave a hollow laugh she hoped was convincing. It must’ve been because Wink shrugged and went back to reading Keystone Corner.

  The morning dragged on at a glacial pace. After finishing off her coffee, Ella used a rag to wipe down every surface in the diner until it shone. Then she cleaned the kitchen. When she finished that, she cleaned the milkshake machine. Bored, she swiped through blurry pictures on her phone she’d tried to take of the less dangerous dinosaurs roaming the town. If she ever returned home, nobody would believe what she’d seen unless she came back with proof. Of course, looking at the blurry, far-off photos, they still might not believe it.

  It was nearing noon, and they hadn’t had a single customer. Ella spun on one of the counter stools, incidentally, the one Patience had tied her to and tried to set her on fire. She was on the verge of being motion sick, with the room blurring past, and about to suggest to Wink that they close up when the bell over the door jingled.

  Her hand hit the counter in an attempt to stop. The newcomer swam in her vision a moment until her eyes adjusted.

  “How are things?” Will took off his fedora and scanned the empty diner.

  “As you can see, sir, we’re very busy. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

  He stood silently while she sipped her water. The sweaty glass left a puddle in the shape of a ring on the counter. After she wiped the condensation away with a cloth napkin, she used the chrome reflection in a nearby stainless steel milkshake cup to pick something from her teeth.

  Finally, she stood. “What can I do for you?”

  “Are you sure you don’t need another moment?”

  “Nope.”

  “Because I can always come back.” He hung his hat up and dropped onto the stool beside her. “Why’s Wink still open?”

  A voice came from behind Ella as Wink stuck her head in the passthrough. “Because I get bored sitting at home all day.”

  “What about me?” Ella asked. “I could go home. I’ve got things to do.”

  Wink’s forehead scrunched with the silent question like what?

  “I mean, there’s…” Surely she had something that needed to be done? “Okay, I got nothing.”

  A chitter preceded Chester as he bounded through the passthrough and into the diner.

  Ella waved the squirrel away. “Don’t sit on the counter. I just cleaned it.”

  “Is that—Is that a dinosaur costume?” Will stared at the rodent in bewilderment.

  Wink said, “Of course,” in a way that implied this should’ve been obvious and what else could the rodent wear?

  Shooing the miniature Tyrannosaurus rex away before he urinated on the soda fountain, Ella asked the inventor if he wanted a burger.

  “Actually, I wanted to ask if you wanted to accompany me—”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Don’t you want to hear where?”

  Ella was already untying her apron. “Sure, but it doesn’t matter. If you were asking me to accompany you through the nine circles of hell, I would’ve asked if you wanted me to bring water.”

  “Dante’s Inferno, right? Anyway, I’m
going to the professor’s house. Chapman gave me the key, so I can start figuring out the professor’s time-wave invention.”

  Ella bounced on the balls of her feet, rubbing her palms together. “Wink?”

  The diner owner still had her hot pink head poking out of the kitchen. She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Just be safe. And take a couple of burgers with you. I’ll fix them now.”

  Ten minutes later, Ella carried their meal in one hand while the other gripped Flo’s slingshot. After she climbed into Will’s classic marine blue Chevy truck and felt semi-secure, she said, “You know this doesn’t count as a date, right?”

  “I know.” He took longer than usual fiddling with his keys before sticking one in the ignition. His ears tinged pink, indicating he had thought this counted as a date. “Pull open the jockey box.”

  When she opened the glove compartment, revealing two mason jars of juice, he asked, “What about now?”

  “Ah, who am I kidding?” she said lightly. “Food. Good company. An adventure where we get to snoop around someone’s home and meddle with a time machine. It’s a date.”

  Chapter 8

  ELLA SAT ON an important-looking machine in Dr. Kaufman’s basement, watching Will flip switches on panels filled with gauges and lights. The remnants of her sandwich—largely crust—lay on the napkin beside her.

  After her fifth time of saying, “What’s this do?” and pressing a button, the inventor had asked her to sit on her hands and not touch anything more. Humming, she leaned against the wall, staring at the device on the table in the center.

  The culprit. It was a box with cables running out of it like tentacles and was the offending device responsible for her being stranded in Keystone.

  She glared at it. “Did he have notes or something?”

  “Yes, they’re upstairs.”

  Popping to her feet, she spoke a little too enthusiastically. “I’m going to go look at them.” At his expression, she said pointedly, “Maybe I won’t understand them, but what I lack in scientific prowess, I make up for with the collective knowledge of my time. And a lot of science fiction books and movies.”