Cozy Mystery Box Set: Murder Mysteries in the Mountains Read online

  “No,” Victoria said. “I couldn’t. I still can’t.”

  “Your mother, she was a wonderful woman.” Her father said. “She was the prettiest girl I'd ever met. I remember the first time I saw her. We were eleven, and she was the new preacher’s daughter. My goodness, Victoria. There was never another to equal her. The innocence of her eyes, the warmth of her smile, I knew right then that I’d die to have her. I knew that she’d never look at me. A girl like that… she needed a man far better than me.”

  “Did you think that all your life?” Victoria asked. “Is that why you spoilt her so? Why you let her temper run free, and placated her even when she was in the wrong?”

  “She was… a strong woman. If I hadn’t placated her… she would have left me. She always had her pick of men and I, without her, I’d have died. There was no one but her for me in this world.”

  “Papa, you were wrong,” She said. “You would have found another woman. You should have let her go.”

  “She told me, you know.” Her father said. “She told me that Karen was Boyd’s. She told me she’d give me a divorce, and that she’d go to Boyd. She had some fool idea that she loved him. But I was a good husband. I forgave her. I told her that if she left, her name would be ruined in town and you kids would suffer. But she could stay with me if she liked and we’d be a happy couple and good parents to the two of you. I was right. We were. Oh, I wanted to kill Boyd right then, but she begged me not to. She promised me he’d never tell that no one would ever know. I left him alone, for your sakes.”

  “You blackmailed her into staying?” Victoria read between the lines and felt sick. “You used Karen and me as … as pawns?”

  “I did no such thing.” Her father protested. “I just… persuaded her. That’s all. She stayed of her own free will.”

  “She sacrificed her love for us,” Victoria said. “She must have known you better than anyone else in town. She must have seen the sickness inside your mind.”

  “I loved you both.” Her father said. “You were everything to me, after your mother. After you had left, and your mother died, well, Karen was the only one in my life that mattered. Only Boyd, Boyd wanted to take her away from me too.”

  “Why?” Victoria said. “Why, after all these years? If you had to kill him why didn’t you kill him right when mother wanted to leave you?”

  “Because she begged me not to. I left him alone. But a month ago, he called me over to his house one night.” Her father said. “He’d gone mad. He was pacing the room, babbling. He told me that now that your mother was gone, and now that I had only a few more months to live, he wanted to tell Karen that he was her father and not me. He said it was only right that she know. He said that he’d promised your mother he wouldn’t tell but now, after all these years, Karen needed him, and he needed her.

  I warned him. I warned him that I wouldn’t tolerate it. But he didn’t listen. He emailed you. He made you come back to town. Did you ever stop to think why? It was because he thought I’d trade you for Karen! That if he helped you reunite with me, I’d be alright with telling Karen about him! The night you came back, that was the night I knew Boyd was going to talk. That nothing I said was going to hold him back anymore. Maybe he’d talk before I died, maybe he’d talk after but he was going to talk all the same. I had to… I couldn’t let that happen, Victoria. I couldn’t let him take my Karen from me. If only I’d known about his will, I would have ripped it up and thrown it away.”

  “You slipped out of the house while we were downstairs, and thanks to the elevator outside, none of us even noticed,” Victoria said. “You broke into Boyd’s house and killed him.”

  “I did,” He said.

  “Selfish.” Victoria thundered. “You were selfish, through and through. Not once did you think of what Karen would want? All you thought of was yourself.”

  “Karen didn’t want him!” her father thundered. “It was me Karen wanted. What all Boyd did was father her. I was her Dad. I’ve changed her diapers. I’ve taught her ABC's. She was mine. He had no right to take her love away from me. He had no right to pollute her memories of me or to pollute her mind the way he polluted your mother’s.”

  “Everything mother did was her choice,” Victoria said. “But nothing she did was as heinous as what you did, Father.”

  “I did what I had to.” Her father said. “But how did you know, Victoria? I thought I’d left no clue behind.”

  “You were the only one who could have done it,” Victoria said. “You were the only one who had knowledge about the famous Haas Locks. You were the only one who could have picked those locks open, and then closed them again without any sign of foul play. It was a clever trick. The police were baffled. How could a man be dead inside a locked room, with the murderer vanishing into thin air? You never bothered to hide your tracks either, you were showing off your knowledge of the Haas Locks to us the day we came to you with news about Boyd’s will.”

  “Yes.” Her father laughed. “I was boiling with anger. I’d never anticipated that will; I’d never anticipated Karen finding out. But thinking about the locks and thinking about how I’d killed him, that calmed me down. Boyd won in a way, but I won too. He never got Karen. Karen chose to remain my daughter, not his.”

  “She would have chosen that even if you hadn’t killed Boyd, Papa,” Victoria said. “That’s what you don’t seem to understand. Karen and I weren’t like mother. We wouldn’t leave you just because you didn’t pamper us. We, we truly loved you, unlike her. Nothing would have torn us apart, except for what you did. This, there’s no way we can forgive this.”

  “Don’t tell her.” Her father begged. “Victoria, I’m begging you. Don’t tell Karen. I’ve got only a few months to live, and I couldn’t bear it if she found out. It would destroy her.”

  Victoria recoiled. “I have to tell,” She said. “My first duty will always be to the truth. I’m not going to shelter you even if you are my own father. You committed a crime. You sinned. I’m going to go down to the police station right now. When Karen finds out, and she’s broken hearted, I’m going to pick up the pieces and help her work through her grief. But I’m not going to let you get away with this, especially when there’s a risk that an innocent man could be convicted of your crime.”

  She stormed out of the room, hearing her father crying after her. Tears were falling from her eyes, and her heart was thundering in her chest. No, she was tempted, so tempted, to do as he said. To let him die with this secret inside him. But that would be a sin. She had to talk. She had to...

  “Victoria what’s the matter!” Karen bumped into her and gave a little exclamation as she regained her balance.

  Chapter 29

  Victoria shook her head, refusing to answer. “I have to go, Karen. I have to… I’ll talk later.”

  “You’re crying!” Karen said. “You’re not going anywhere! Sit down and talk to me first.”

  “Vanilla! Vanilla! Bad dog!” Annie was shouting from the kitchen. “Aunt Karen! Vanilla’s run out on the road!”

  “Go run after her then!” Karen shouted back.

  They heard the door bang open as Annie ran behind the puppy. “Got her!” Annie was yelling. From upstairs, they could hear the lift moving.

  “Looks like Dad’s coming down for lunch,” Karen said. “You don’t want him to see you like this, do you? You need to tell me what the matter is.”

  Victoria shook her head. “I...” She turned pale and froze.

  Behind Karen, a lurching figure stepped into the living room. It was Angus, drunk, and nearly tottering, but huge and mean all the same.

  “Angus,” Karen said, turning around. Her voice, normally so upbeat, became very quiet as if she were calming an animal. “Good to see you.”

  “Must be,” He said. “Must be good to see me, you thieving … you bandit. You took my money. My inheritance.” He bought one hand out from his jacket, and Victoria gasped as he drew out a knife.

  “Now Angus...” Kare
n was moving, Victoria realized. Very deliberately, her sister was moving away from her, so that Victoria would not be harmed if Angus attacked.

  “Angus, we can talk about this. If there are any loans you want me to get rid of...”

  “There’s only one thing I want to get rid of,” Angus said. “I knew it as soon as I came up the road and saw that niece of yours had left the door open. I knew what I had to do. It was a sign.”

  “I can sign the money over to you,” Karen said desperately. “You don’t need to do this. If you’ll just calm down and hand me the knife...”

  “Liar!” Angus thundered. Losing his patience, he stormed towards her, his knife held high.

  Victoria dove at him, tackling him bodily. He went down hard, the knife clattering on the floor. But before she could attack him, he had recovered and banged Victoria’s head on the floor. Victoria blacked out.

  She was conscious again in merely seconds, but the scene around her had changed.

  She gasped in amazement.

  On the floor in front of her, their father was scrapping with Angus.

  He had burst in through the elevator doors as if the sight of his daughters being attacked had bought out a hidden demon from inside him. Without a thought for his own safety, he had leaped upon Angus and struggled to wrest the knife from his hands.

  Behind the two of them, Annie appeared, her face streaked with tears, and Corporal Jager and Constable Keeney with her.

  “Angus! Stop! This is the police! Stop!” Corporal Jager had his gun out and pointed, but Angus didn’t stop. He had gone too far now, for him to stop.

  Much later, when the paramedics arrived, it became clear that her father had not survived Angus’s attack. Angus, too, was declared dead from a well-placed bullet from Corporal Jager’s gun.

  “He was on a rampage,” Jager said, shaking his head in sorrow. “I’m terribly sorry, Karen, there was nothing we could do. We arrived seconds too late to save your father.”

  He had taken Victoria into another room while the paramedics tended to Karen, and Constable Keeley sat outside with Annie, Byron, and Vanilla.

  “It was for the best,” Victoria said.

  “Yes.” Corporal Jager said. “Your father was a hero, Victoria. He gave his life up for his daughters. It was a mark of his love that he didn’t even hesitate. He was a great man.”

  “No,” Victoria said. “I don’t know.”

  “What is it?” the Corporal asked.

  Her heart overflowing, Victoria narrated everything to him. How Boyd had invited Victoria back to town with the intention of revealing his secret to Karen once she was back. How her father had murdered him for it.

  The Corporal listened gravely and nodded his head when she finished.

  “What shall be done?” Victoria asked. “I don’t want Karen to know, especially not now. But she has to...”

  The Corporal thought for a long time, before answering.

  “Your father died a hero, Victoria,” He said. “We cannot judge him anymore. He is in far greater hands. On a practical note, with him dead and only your word that he’d confessed, there is no proof. Not in the eyes of the law anyway, that he murdered Boyd. By law, your saying he confessed is only hearsay. So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to close the case on Boyd I’m going to let the townspeople draw their own conclusions about who killed him and why. As for Angus, he died the way he lived, like a coward. Let Karen live with the memory of your father as a hero. There’s only one question, though. Will you be able to live with your memories of him?”

  Victoria stared into the Corporal’s eyes for a minute, before turning away. She squared her shoulders.

  Like her mother, her father had been complicated. But he had loved them. He had loved them all. Perhaps, with time, she would be able to reconcile his love for them; with the evil he was capable of.

  But for now, for now, there was Karen, and there were her kids. They needed her, and she needed them.

  She turned back to Corporal Jager. “My father used to love Shakespeare, you know. His favorite quote was from Julius Caeser. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

  “Maybe just this once,” Corporal Jager said, “The opposite shall be true.”

  ***The End***

  Trail Mix Murder

  Chapter 1

  Steven had been looking forward to the hike all week. Even though Amanda would rather have been lazing around at home that Saturday after a long week at work, she decided to humor him.

  At 42, with one marriage behind her, Amanda Rainer had never expected to find love again. Especially not in a town like Larch Hot Springs, whose population only just topped 1000.

  But when Steven Boonsbury had moved into town five years ago, Amanda had felt something click in her heart the minute she saw him. There was a quiet intensity to him, a burning fire that lurked within his gray eyes that had drawn her to him.

  Of course, she’d never imagined that he would be drawn to her. After all, Amanda was just a librarian. One that fit all the clichés of being quiet, introverted, and plain. She had grown up used to the idea that the boys that she loved would seldom love her back. Who could love her as she was? With mousy brown hair and eyes that she thought were merely adequate that were normally hidden away behind some square, unfashionable glasses. Her teeth were a little crowded and fit a bit haphazardly in her mouth.

  No, by all popular notions of beauty, Steven Boonsbury, standing six feet tall, with sweeping brown hair, sparkling gray eyes and absurdly broad shoulders should not have loved her.

  Yet he did, and the thought made her want to hug herself each time it crossed her mind.

  Steven Boonsbury, of the broad shoulders and the aquiline nose, was at that very moment trembling with fear.

  He looked at himself in the mirror, feeling all bones and jutting cheekbones as he knelt on one knee, with the ring in his hand.

  “Amanda,” He practiced. “Amanda Rainer, since I met you five years ago, I’ve never been happier. I knew I was attracted to you the first time those melting chocolate eyes of yours met mine, and you asked in that amazingly smooth voice of yours if you could help me. I knew I liked you when we went to the Milburn Fair, and you gave your shawl away to that little boy who was complaining that he lost his jacket. You didn't think twice about helping him out. I knew I loved you when you took care of my daughter and me. No complaints even though it meant canceling a weekend at the spa that you’d been looking forward to for a year.

  But until last week, I didn’t know that I wanted, more than anything else in my life, to marry you. Because Amanda, I can’t believe a girl like you would ever want to. Would you do the great honor of...”

  His daughter, Ida, scrambled up from the bed behind him and hugged him tight around the neck.

  “No, no! The ring!” Steven exclaimed as it went flying out of his hand and in a crevice under the closet. Ida looked up at him with a horrified face, and Steven felt a pang of irritation. His daughter took after him, tending to be clumsy at times, and after her long-gone mother, tending to be over excited and jumpy all the time.

  Still, he gave a little smile and kissed her on the forehead. “Never mind.” He said. “I’ll have it back soon enough. It’s like a little quest. Find the ring, get the princess.” He laughed. “Well, queen. You’re my princess, Ida.”

  “Did Amanda’s mother and father agree?” Ida asked, her voice a little strained.

  “Oh yes,” Steven smiled. “I had to drive up to Calgary, and then another hour to his town to see her father, but he willingly gave me his blessings. As for Amanda’s mother, you know she loves nothing more than her daughter,except perhaps for planning weddings!”

  Ida swung her arms around, managing to whack her father on the head accidentally as he bent down to retrieve the ring.

  “So tell me again,” Ida said. “All about it.”

  “Alright,” Steven said. “Ida, you won’t be upset about this, wi
ll you?”

  “I’m getting a new mom, I guess.” Ida shrugged. “I don’t know. I like Aunt Amanda, and I’m used to thinking of her as an aunt.”

  “Well, if she agrees to this, she’ll also legally adopt you,” Steve said.

  Ida’s lower lip trembled. She sat on the bed.

  “What is it, darling?”

  “I know it’s silly,” Ida said. “I want you to be happy, daddy, and I want you to marry Aunt Amanda, but, I miss mom. I don’t even remember her anymore, but I miss her.”

  “You were three when she… when..” Steve stumbled for words. “Ida… what is this about?”

  “What if you get a new daughter, and you and Amanda love her more?” she asked.

  Steve laughed.

  Ida’s eyes filled with tears again. “Promise me that won’t happen, Daddy?”

  “I promise,” Steve said, hugging her. “Even if it did, Amanda loves you very much, Ida just as much as she loves me.”

  The doorbell rang, making a trilling sound. Steven smiled. “I think I know what that is.”

  He opened the door and nodded at the woman standing outside.

  Dressed in jeans and a black shirt, Victoria Armstrong stood with a picnic basket in one hand, and a bouquet of flowers in the other.

  “As promised.” She smiled, “One extra special picnic basket for you and Amanda.”

  “Thanks, Vicky, you’re awesome.”

  “Oh, I had to cater something a little extra special for my best friend’s soon to be husband.” Victoria laughed.

  Steven nodded three times, in quick succession, and stamped his feet on the floor. “I feel like I’ve eaten an entire boatload of sugar and it's all exploding inside me.” He said.

  “Nerves,” Victoria said. “Don’t worry about it.”