Traveling Town Cozy Mystery Box Set

by Ami Diane

Rose gave a start when she looked at the clock, her hand going to her blonde pin curls. “Dear me.”

  After much cajoling, she dragged Jimmy from the wingback chair, bid the others goodnight, and swept out of the parlor.

  Once the innkeepers’ footfalls died to whispers then to nothing, Flo shoved the cards back into their box. “Finally. I thought they’d never turn in.”

  After stretching, Ella strolled to one of the dark windows and peered out.

  “We sure we want to go out this late? It’s dangerous enough during the daytime. Who knows what’s lurking about right now?”

  Limited as her dinosaur knowledge was, she was pretty sure most of them had excellent night vision.

  “We’re prepared.” Wink stood near the hallway, waiting and tapping her foot impatiently. “Come on. We have to gear up.”

  As it turned out, “gearing up” entailed congregating in Flo’s bunker, donning hockey and football gear, and slinging a variety of weapons over their shoulders.

  Ella had decided a shotgun that could supposedly render both corporeal and noncorporeal foes alike incapacitated overkill—whether that meant permanently or not, she’d never gotten a straight answer about. Therefore, she felt comfortable with the sonic slingshot and an ordinary-looking crossbow. Flo had insisted that the crossbow was just that, and not some extra-dimensional weapon, but Ella had her doubts.

  Flo’s head was swaddled in a tall, custom-made black ski mask to accommodate her hair. After digging through a pile of what Ella mentally dubbed junk, Flo pulled out an antique film camera that had wires and antennas glued to the sides which she passed off to Wink.

  “Right, you carry the I-SEC.”

  “iSec?” Ella eyed the device now in Wink’s hands with a healthy dose of fear. “Is that like a really old iPhone?”

  Unsurprisingly, they blinked at her in confusion.

  “It stands for Infrared-Sensitive Electron Camera.”

  Ella cleared her throat. “Right, no. That was going to be my second guess. What’s it do?”

  “See, here,” Flo said, pointing to a wire snaking around the camera. “This modified camera allows us to see in the dark using infrared something… in the lens here which turns the electric—electrons to…”

  “You’ve no idea how it works, do you?”

  Flo shrugged. “It just does okay. I was staring at Will’s dimples when he explained it—”

  “Stop.”

  “—so I don’t remember much. I just know we can look through the lens to see in the dark.”

  “Like night vision.”

  “I already named it I-SEC.”

  “Okay, but—never mind. Why haven’t we used this before? It’s big as a house, but it really would’ve come in handy a few times.”

  Wink’s biceps already appeared to be straining under the cumbersome I-SEC.

  Flo spoke slowly and louder than normal. “‘Cause he just gave it to me. We couldn’t use it, ‘cause we didn’t have it.”

  Wink shifted her weight from foot to foot, waiting in the mechanical doorway, a rifle slung across her body. “Let’s get going sometime this century, ladies.”

  “One more thing.” Ella reached across the bar to Wink’s purse and fished out an eyebrow pencil she knew was inside.

  Before Flo could react, Ella attacked the woman’s face with the pencil. The old woman hissed and spat like a feral cat, and Ella finally released her.

  “There. Much better. That was killing me.”

  Instead of the high arch Flo had scrawled on, giving her a constantly surprised expression, Ella had swiped off the marks, replacing them with level lines that tapered near the end. Only, on account of Flo’s squirming, the brows began near her nose, making her appear like an angry witch.

  “Let’s go, ladies,” Wink called from the doorway.

  Still fuming, Flo ripped the boxy infrared camera from Wink and shoved it so hard into Ella’s chest that air fled her lungs in a rasping cough.

  “Just for that, you get to carry the I-SEC.”

  She draped the wide strap attached to the device over Ella’s head so that it hung from her neck like a millstone. Then, the boarder stomped out of the bunker.

  “Why are you mad? I fixed your face. You’re welcome!”

  “Don’t forget Bertha,” Wink called into the basement where Flo had disappeared and pointed to a dim corner of the bunker.

  Flo reemerged and retrieved a duffle bag, grunting, as she struggled to carry it over her shoulder.

  Ella dragged her feet as she followed them out of the inn. As she saw it, this evening could only go one way, given the company and the number of experimental weapons they carried. All of this for a dinosaur who’d make them his next meal if given the chance.

  Trudging up the sidewalk, she lifted her gaze from the concrete to Wink and reminded herself why she was doing this.

  It took a bit of juggling to cradle the camera with one hand and the crossbow with the other, but she managed it successfully after several blocks. The problem quickly became apparent, however, that if she were to spot a dinosaur through the small lens, she’d have to decide between putting the camera aside to shoot the thing blind or watch it as it moved in for the kill.

  Because she was the one with night vision, the other two stuck to her like a rash. Ella moved the large camera on a constant swivel. So far, the most dinosaur-like critter she’d seen was a brave raccoon.

  “Trash panda,” Ella muttered, drawing a curious glance from Wink.

  When they were abreast of the library, they ducked into the alleyway between it and the sheriff’s office.

  Aged mortar flaked off onto Ella’s clothes as she peered around the corner. A soft, stale light spilled from the front window.

  “Crap, he’s here again.”

  Apparently, Chapman didn’t have a life, or he wanted to prevent more defacing of his building.

  The front door was open which was unusual, but given the blanket of humidity suffocating the town, it wasn’t a surprise. What was surprising, however, were the voices coming from inside.

  Her ears strained to pick them out. One belonged to Chapman; the other…. She looked to Wink who’d also been listening.

  “That’s Nellie Robbins. Nosey little thing.” She signaled Flo. “You’re on.”

  Despite their mission calling for stealth, Flo charged down the alley like a T. Rex, lugging her duffle bag over her shoulder.

  Ella hefted the camera around her neck. “Doesn’t she need the iVision thingie?”

  “I-SEC,” Wink corrected. “No, she’s not going far.”

  Ella frowned as Flo disappeared around the back of the building. If Bertha was to be a distraction that lured Chapman away, and Flo deployed or fired whatever apocalyptic hellfire Bertha was, wouldn’t it have been better to be further away?

  Rather than voicing her concern aloud, she edged closer to the open door, stopping just short of the window. One bicep quivered, so she alternated which handheld the I-SEC and which gripped the crossbow.

  Nellie’s voice was shrill and easy to pick out.

  “I’m telling ya, she had sticky fingers. I heard him accusing her of skimming from his campaign money. From the way they were shouting at each other, I thought they’d come to blows. Quite a row, it was.”

  “Mrs. Robbins, I don’t doubt you, but you sure it was them you overheard? You were hiding in the bushes—”

  “Wasn’t hiding. I came by way of the park, see, and happened to be passing some bushes when I heard them hollering on the other side. She called him ‘Sal’. And he said something about his campaign man’ger being a thief. It was them, I tell ya.”

  Ella’s eyes widened, and she glimpsed back to see if Wink had heard too. If Nellie was right, at their impromptu meeting, Mary and Sal had fought, and he’d accused her of stealing. They now had a motive for Sal to want Mary dead.

  Nellie’s and Chapman’s shadows moved over the glass, causing Ella and Wink to retreat to the safety of the alley on
ce again.

  “What’s taking Flo so long?” Ella squinted into the darkness behind them before pointing the camera that way.

  They’d considered bringing their walkie talkies but hadn’t wanted to add to their burdens—a decision Ella now regretted.

  As she turned to ask Wink if she’d remembered to bring food to lure Peanut out, the roar of a motor echoed off the lake.

  Chapter 22

  THE RUMBLE OF the motor shifted from a roar to a throaty rattle. Chapman tore out of the open doorway. Ella’s heart seized, and she began to run before he bolted down the alley to get to the lake.

  Wink followed on her heels as they booked it for the dark recess where Flo had disappeared. Under the weight and awkwardness of their gear, not only were they slow in running, but they were noisier than an entire drum section of a marching band.

  Halfway down the alley, she expected to hear Chapman yelling at them. When he didn’t, she chanced a peek back and saw in the weak glow cast by the street lamps that the alley behind them was empty.

  She clutched Wink’s arm, slowing her to a halt. “I think he went around the other way.”

  They crept the rest of the way to the back of the building. Ella pressed her eye to the lens and swathed the camera back and forth over the grassy knoll.

  Chapman’s glowing green form bent forward as he streaked towards the water and the distant motor.

  “She took a boat? Is Bertha a raft of some kind?” Ella stood on tiptoes, as if that would help her see better, and kept the camera trained on the lake. “That doesn’t seem so bad. Strange. But not bad.”

  As far as plans went, it was a better one and would certainly keep Chapman occupied for a while. Although, she didn’t know how Flo planned on—

  The boat exploded.

  Ella choked back a scream. Flo!

  A fireball roiled from the surface of the water up into the sky followed by a percussive wave that hit Ella’s chest.

  The I-SEC blinded her.

  “Holy Chernobyl.” She squeezed her eyes shut, but the afterimage was burned into her eyelids.

  “That is Bertha.” Wink laid a hand on Ella’s shoulder. “Come on.”

  How could the woman be so calm after watching her best friend go up in smoke?

  “But… Flo?”

  “Aw, were you scared I got hurt, Poodle Head?” Flo emerged from behind an azalea bush—at least Ella assumed it was an azalea. It could’ve been a purple giraffe for all the good she could see.

  “What? No, of course, I wasn’t worried. I was curious so I knew whether or not to divvy up your belongings.” But the tremor in her voice betrayed her.

  The trio jogged towards the front of the building, finally free to sneak inside.

  She’d never admit to the palpitations in her chest upon seeing that explosion while thinking the crazy woman still aboard, nor to the cold sweat that had broken out, nor to the moisture that had mysteriously accumulated at the corners of her eyes.

  Inside the sheriff’s office was a sweltering jungle of damp brick and a wood stove that smelled faintly of a campfire. Wink went straight for Peanut’s prison cell.

  “Good thing Millie left.” Ella homed in on Chapman’s desk, not wasting any time. “The blast must’ve scared her off.”

  Flo snorted. “I bet your britches she ran home to call everyone she knows about that explosion.”

  “I think people two hundred million years from now heard that explosion.” Ella paused, scrunching her face in concentration. “Will hear that explosion? Is that the right verb tense?”

  She shook her head and scoured the sheriff’s desk. The surface boasted scuffs from the Chapman’s boots and a few scratches from his spurs. It had been paper-free the other times she’d seen it, but tonight, it was covered in stacks of folders, typewritten reports, and a reporter-style notebook.

  The corner of her mouth tugged at spotting the notebook, and she brushed a finger across it. He still used the present she’d gotten him. Then a glimpse inside revealed he liked to doodle more than taken notes.

  Careful not to disrupt the mess, she concentrated on the reports, searching for one from the coroner.

  “Here.” Flo held up a manila folder she’d grabbed from atop a filing cabinet. “I don’t think he had a chance to put it away yet.”

  “I don’t think he’s had a chance to put much of anything away yet,” Ella said, abandoning the desk. “Which is strange given that he’s been spending an inordinate amount of time here.”

  Wink, who had been cooing at Peanut through the bars, replaced Ella behind the desk. She tugged on drawer after drawer, presumably searching for a key for the cell. From Peanut’s cell came the crunching of bones as he devoured one of the “snacks” Wink had tossed inside.

  Ella dropped the autopsy folder on the desk. The scent of fresh ink wafted up as she ran a finger lightly down the first page, which listed the cause of death in morbid detail. It also included a diagram of the victim, noting sites of trauma. She didn’t linger on the diagram and flipped to the next page. It, too, failed to list what she was searching for, and she slammed the folder shut.

  The camera was an anchor around her neck. Cursing she shrugged it off, setting it on the desk. Chapman was sure to return soon once he found the boat empty.

  “Okay,” she said, more to herself, “obviously the autopsy report was a stretch. I thought Pauline would list whatever meat had been in Mary’s purse.”

  “Why would there be any of that meat on Mary?” Flo asked. A moment later, it clicked in her eyes. “Because it attacked Mary after eating the meat.”

  “Leaving traces on Mary’s body, presumably.” Ella sighed. “But I was wrong. It’s not here.”

  Flo opened her mouth, but Ella held up a hand, averting the question before it came out.

  “Maybe there’s something in the forensics report.”

  “Now can I speak?” Flo shoved Ella’s hand away and flipped the folder open again. “If you’d bothered lookin’ past the autopsy report, you woulda found what you were looking for.”

  Ella felt her cheeks heat up as she scanned the paper Flo was currently tapping with a finger. “Huh. How about that?”

  The older woman turned away, muttering, “Someone should check on the law dog.”

  “He’ll be fine.” Wink gripped a large skeleton key. “I need help with Peanut.”

  “No.” Flo crossed her arms. “He’s your bloodthirsty pet. I’m just the hired muscle.”

  Ella glanced up from the forensic report to the woman’s large, mushy, not-in-any-way muscular arms. Flo glared as if to dare Ella to refute her claim.

  Ella’s eyes went back to scanning.

  Meanwhile, the lock on Peanut’s cell clicked as Wink turned the key. Instinctively, Ella and Flo scuttled back and jockeyed to hide behind each other.

  “Maybe you should wait until we’re ready to leave,” Ella suggested.

  Wink’s head whipped around, her hand keeping the cell door closed. “You’re not ready? What’s the holdup? Chapman’ll be back any minute.”

  “What? You said he’d be fine!” Ella considered stealing the report but knew the sheriff would notice its absence.

  Frantically, she flipped to the next page, perforating the edge. The report was littered with medical jargon, which was another language in itself. She wondered how much of the report Chapman understood.

  At one point, the town doctor and part-time coroner had told Ella that she operated under several limited resources, without the proper equipment she’d been accustomed to in her era. That had included chromatography equipment and a blood gas analyzer.

  But as Ella frantically scanned the paper, it appeared that the resourceful woman had found some means for deeper blood and chemical analysis. In the description, she used a method called, “two-dimensional gel electrophoresis” to analyze protein biomarkers in samples collected from the victim’s extensive wounds.

  She then cross-referenced the biomarkers to bits found in “
personal items nearby,” which Ella took to mean Mary’s purse. The two samples matched which only meant that whatever biological material found in the purse was the same as the traces on the victim’s wounds.

  After that, the biomarkers were cross analyzed with a variety of “protein samples procured from the butcher shop.”

  Ella finally spotted what she was searching for after the lengthy abstract.

  “Lamb,” she half-yelled in triumph. “The killer slipped lamb into Mary’s purse. How—”

  “Great. Now let’s go.” Wink was already opening Peanut’s cell door.

  Judging by the shrieking sound that followed, the nineteenth-century hinges hadn’t been greased in decades, if ever.

  The allosaurus sniffed the air as if wary of his newfound freedom. Ella kept a wary eye on the reptile as she hurriedly placed the folder back on the cabinet before darting to the front door.

  From her purse, Wink retrieved a chunk of raw beef and dropped it on the floor. Blood oozed out. She dropped several more small bits, creating a trail that led to the open front door.

  Ella pointed at the discarded I-SEC on Chapman’s desk. “Flo.”

  “Poodle Head.”

  “Come on, seriously? You’re no longer carrying Bertha, and I’m chafing around the neck.” She bent forward to show proof then noticed how disturbingly close Peanut was getting.

  Flo rolled her eyes. “Whine about it, why don’t you.”

  “Hey, you’re the muscle, remember?”

  Flo lugged the heavy camera out the door.

  Their progress was painstakingly slow as every few yards, Wink dropped a morsel of meat on the sidewalk, and the baby allosaurus greedily slurped up the treats.

  They’d led Peanut as far as Sal’s without any trouble. In the distance, Ella could still make out a faint glow from the lake. The smell of smoke hung like a fog over the town, creating a haze around the street lamps.

  All of this, she took in in spurts, as she kept one eye on Peanut and the other on Flo who held the night vision camera.

  “Uh, silly question, but where are we taking him?” Ella asked.

  “Back to the inn, of course.” Wink dropped another hunk of meat with a splat.