The Magic Library Mysteries Collection: The Complete Series, Books 1-3 by Hillary Avis

Author:Hillary Avis [Avis, Hillary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cozy mystery with dogs
Publisher: Hilyard Press
Published: 2021-05-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Allison left Willow in the back yard with a bowl of water and the remains of the butcher bone while she made the walk to the ministorage place. The storage unit was a little over a mile away, sandwiched between the Dream-a-Lot motel and the trailer park on the other side of Claypool Creek, and she wasn’t sure she could manage her wheeled basket, the one she used for hauling clothes to the laundromat or groceries when she made a big run, and Willow at the same time.

She dragged the cart behind her, bumping it over the places where tree roots had pushed up the sidewalk until she reached the storage unit, a row of uniform metal buildings punctuated by blue doors that was surrounded by tall, chain-link fencing. She punched in the code to enter the gate—easy to remember because it was 0521, the same as her wedding anniversary, May twenty-first. Then, conscious of the security cameras watching her every move, she wheeled her cart around to the back of the second building, where her unit was located, and unlocked the door.

The cramped, five-foot-by-five-foot space was stacked high with boxes. Thankfully, she’d had the sense to label them on the outside with permanent marker when she’d packed them. Paul’s two boxes of clothes and shoes were on top. She broke open the seal on the first one and found a short-sleeved button-up and a pair of stone-gray chinos to match, the kind of dressy outfit Paul wore on the rare occasions he wasn’t up to his elbows in flour and yeast.

She stowed the clothes in the bottom of her cart and turned her attention to the other boxes—the ones marked “kitchen” and “misc.” On top of Paul’s outfit, she piled as many items as she could reasonably fit in the cart—decorative plates, a tea set nestled in a hat box, a marble mantel clock, a set of steak knives, a snow globe with a tiny dog inside, some silver iced tea spoons, and a stuffed lamb with a music box inside that had been hers as a baby. Nothing from Paul’s family.

Satisfied, she sealed up the boxes and stacked them neatly back in the storage unit. When she got home, after a trek made much more arduous by the twenty pounds of junk in her cart, she was surprised to find Taylor in the back yard with Willow. They were both lying in a giant hole that Willow had excavated in the middle of the lawn while Allison was gone.

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” she asked him, more dismayed by the layer of reddish dust that covered him from head to toe than the hole in her lawn. Michelle was going to be thrilled when he tracked all that inside. Willow paddled her feet, kicking more clods of dirt on top of him.

Taylor puffed the dirt away from his nose and rolled over to squint at Allison. “Nah. Grandma says it’s better if I rest. I’m going back tomorrow.

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