A Shot of Scandal: A Cafe Crimes Cozy Mystery Book 1 by Simone Stier

Author:Simone Stier [Stier, Simone]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

On our way back from Why, I slumped in the passenger seat, my earlier confidence deflated. Where did I go wrong? The puzzle pieces all seemed to fit, but they didn’t make the picture I envisioned. “I can’t believe I was so far off. I pride myself on being able to read the clues and people.”

“Got to watch out for that pride. But hey, you weren’t entirely off. You were right about Emmett hiding something. He was going to steal the Magnolia Rose necklace for Annabelle. Plus, he did end up auctioning off a piece of jewelry. Just not the Magnolia Rose. You just misread him as the murderer. It’s hard to get a read on someone you’ve never met before. Don’t be so hard on yourself, Parker.”

My mind wandered back to the first time a similar incident occurred, which happened to be the beginning of my sleuthing career. Elementary school … The Case of the Missing Diorama.

“Missy Masterson’s diorama …” I said, without realizing that I was saying it aloud.

“Who?” Whit asked.

“My best friend from childhood. I was just remembering something that started my obsession with crime and solving it. You don’t want to hear it.”

“You know I want to hear it. Besides, we’ve got nothing but time.”

“Okay,” I took a deep breath. “For the science fair one year, Missy had poured her heart and soul into creating this incredible butterfly lifecycle diorama. I mean, it was a masterpiece, the kind of thing that made all the other kids’ projects look like they’d been slapped together with glue sticks and a prayer.

“On the morning of the science fair, Missy and I practically skipped into school. She was so ready to show off her diorama to the world. But when we got to the classroom, the thing had vanished. Poof. Gone. As you can imagine, she was beside herself, and I, being the precocious little Nancy Drew that I was, decided to take matters into my own hands.”

“I am certain you did.”

“Yes. I questioned everyone, giving them my best ‘don’t mess with me’ stare. I noticed Tommy Fincher, a boy in our class, acting shifty and suspicious. In my infinite nine-year-old wisdom, I decided he must be the culprit. I mean, he was always jealous of Missy’s projects, so it made sense, right? I accused him on the spot, convinced I’d cracked the case wide open. But instead of admitting to stealing the diorama, when I pressed him on his whereabouts that morning, he broke down and confessed he was in the boys’ bathroom, secretly trying to breed stink bugs in one of the stalls. This was confirmed when the custodian, Mr. Jankowski, was sent to investigate.”

I side-eyed Whit.

His grin was about to explode into full laughter. “So Tommy was innocent of the diorama theft, but you knew he was guilty of something …”

“Yeah, but I wanted to find the thief …”

“You never found out?”

“Years later, when I was in high school, I was going through my old diaries, and I came across the pages from the time of the theft.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.