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Previously published as Alibi in April |
Each novel in the series works as a standalone – begin with any book and be charmed by them all! Vanessa Wright never intended to return to Calendar, but a failed relationship, a lost job, and inheriting her great aunt’s crumbling Blackberry Inn leave her little choice. Her plan is simple: fix up the old Victorian house, sell it, and move on. But her first night alone in the inn takes a chilling turn when she discovers a dead body on the veranda.
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CHAPTER ONE
"C'mon, Vanessa. It might not be that bad." My best friend and upstairs neighbor, Mallory, popped the cork from the bottle of wine she arrived carrying thirty minutes ago. She passed the bottle to our friend, Jill, before she rummaged in the box on the kitchen counter. She was searching for the long-stemmed wine glasses I packed only an hour before. A moment later, she turned around and held up the three glasses triumphantly.
"It is every bit that bad," I protested. I looked at the boxes spread across the small kitchen and living room of my pretty apartment. My soon-to-be former apartment. Every box was filled with my clothes, books, housewares and appliances. All of my worldly possessions had been reduced to a teetering stack of cardboard boxes and packing tape. Two weeks ago, everything was in its rightful place on my shelves or hanging in the closets and my life was perfect. It was startling how fast it managed to all change. "I don't have a job. My quasi boyfriend dumped me, and my landlord refused at the last minute to renew my lease. I'm currently jobless, single, and homeless," I whined.
"Remember when you called your job ‘a soul-sucking nightmare’?" asked Jill in her gentle Southern drawl. Next to her, Mallory nodded.
"Vaguely."
"Every day for the past year!" Mallory reminded me with a toss of glossy, black hair that made Jill's pale blond hair look even icier. "I've never said that about my job."
"That’s because you guys love your jobs!"
"I do," agreed Jill. She worked in a small but very chic art gallery in downtown Chicago and had curated several showings over the past year. "And Mallory loves being in fashion retail; but you do not fancy working at that graphic design agency. It's not worth the paycheck. Plus, your boss was a total ass."
All of that was true but instead of arguing or agreeing, I simply nodded and swallowed another mouthful of wine.
"And I seem to remember how you often said Barry was so boring, all he wanted to talk about was his tedious dentistry conferences and all the new innovations in mouth retainers. As I recall now, weren't you telling us you weren’t sure you wanted to date him anymore?"
I remembered that comment too. I said it on several occasions. Even I was stumped as to the reason why I'd gone on several dates with him. "But I never expected him to dump me first! Or for him to hire a gorgeous receptionist whom he found more date-worthy." I held my hand out for the wine glass and Mallory gracefully slotted it in place.
"Only Barry thinks she's gorgeous. The rest of us blame it on her blouses being opened two buttons more than necessary and giggling at all of his (yawn) boring jokes while telling him how wonderful he is. Of course, he sucked that up."
"She's a gold-digger and he's a soulless worm. They deserve each other," added Jill. "It was only a matter of time before you realized he wasn't worth your time."
I laughed. "She did talk about his Porsche a lot. Almost as much as Barry did, actually."
"Exactly. Yawn. And need I remind you, you're not homeless either? You just inherited that big, old house in that town with the funny name," said Mallory.
"Calendar," I supplied. "It does have a funny name but that's always been its source of charm." Having grown up in the pretty mountain town of Calendar, my family still lived there, and they fully enjoyed everything the quaint town had to offer. It was seasonally popular with tourists who haunted the chain of antique shops and creative boutiques along with all the holiday events the town hosted. The local residents figured with a town name like that, they might as well play it up by holding a celebration for every month. Even in August, when there were no holidays to celebrate. The festive atmosphere further cemented the town's unparalleled popularity with families and visitors who vacationed there most of the year. Soaking up the town fun, or going for hikes and camping in the summer, as well as skiing in the winter, it attracted plenty of tourists. Another welcome bonus included in all the activity and features was making it a fairly wealthy town and some of the older Victorian-era houses were suddenly irresistibly desirable. Now I unexpectedly was privileged to own one.
"That's right." Mallory reached for the wine bottle on the coffee table and refreshed our glasses. "You've been wondering what to do with that house since your Great Aunt Ethel..."
"Edie!" I corrected her. A mental image of my lovely, warm, and arty great aunt popped into my head, making me smile. For a while, she used her old house as an inn for travelers, attracting all kinds of people who admired her zest for life and unique art. She stopped all of that a few years ago when her health went into substantial decline, saying she intended to enjoy her last few years peacefully alone.
"Great Aunt Edie," corrected Mallory. "Like I said, she surprised you by leaving it to you last month and now it could be the answer to all your problems! You have a wonderful home that's entirely yours! You'll find a new job eventually and you don't even need another boyfriend. Boyfriends suck big time."
Jill arched her eyebrows at me before turning to our friend. "Is Hal still mad at you?" she asked.
"One hundred percent irrationally mad."
"You do keep calling him Hallory," I said.
"Catchy, isn't it? Anyway, enough about me. Tell me more about Calendar. Why did you leave it if it's such a great place to live?" asked Mallory.
"I told you. After college, I never went back. Not permanently anyway. I visit my family obviously and it's great for skiing vacations in the winter, but there's nothing else there for me. It wasn't exactly the most exciting place to grow up. I swore I'd never go back." I recalled my final days there and the going away party I hosted with my friends, Tia, Melissa and Danielle. Like always, I couldn't help including Nate Minoso too and once again, I realized how much I missed him, but we both lost touch. He probably moved away from Calendar anyway. Tia and Danielle did, although Melissa came back after college and recently married a local man.
"You're not going there permanently. Just until you get back on your feet. You can sell the house or rent it and finance your move back here!" Mallory clinked her glass against mine, then Jill's, as she shouted, "Cheers!"
"Since I don't have to worry about a job anymore and I’m not paying for an apartment to live in, I'll stay just as long as it takes me to fix it up. Aunt Edie was very house proud but Mom said some of the siding needed to be fixed and it could easily use a new coat of paint. That's cosmetic work. It won’t take long! I'll be back before you know it!" The house appeared in my head, and the thought was warm as always. It was sturdily built to the highest specifications of the time, and it stood out amongst many of the other Victorian-era neighbors. It had a turret, beautifully-maintained gingerbread trim, and a big, wrap-around veranda. Over the years, the wisteria vine grew unchecked, sending its branches to intertwine with the trim until it formed a stunning purple and green canopy. It was one of the prettiest houses in all of Calendar and I really loved it.
Aunt Edie purchased the house with her husband when they were first married and they lived there for all their lives. Their childless marriage was happy, although they both wanted children very much. They were always thrilled to have nephews and nieces to dote on, although my cousins moved away when they were still pretty young, leaving just my twin sister, Tammy, and me as their most recent visitors. I spent a lot of spare time in Aunt Edie's house, going over there after school and helping my aunt on my college vacations after her husband died. That was when she turned the big, rambling house into an inn. The Inn closed its business doors ten years ago but Aunt Edie lived there until she passed on, just as she wished. When she left it to me in her will, I was both surprised and touched.
"Exactly," agreed Mallory. "Plus, you don't want to live in that dusty, old house anyway."
"It’s beautiful," I said. "It was the best house for hide and seek, summer barbecues, and when I think of all the people Aunt Edie allowed to stay there! She once hosted a summer-long artist retreat during my freshman year of college. Everyone wore caftans, even the guys, and they all spoke in this breathy, esoteric, funny way."
"That sounds nuts," said Jill, "and that’s coming from someone who deals with a lot of nutty artists."
"No, what was nuts was the guy who brought his pet mongoose, which later escaped!"
Mallory giggled.
"I miss her now," I sighed.
"I know." Mallory laid her hand over mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Packing up her house will be good therapy for you. You can get nostalgic and do all that reminiscing stuff so you come back home with a clear head. Jill and I talked it over already and we'll come visit you there too."
I brightened. "You will?"
"Absolutely. It won't be the same here without you, especially when the new tenant moves in. You have plenty of rooms in that big, old rambler, so we'll stay with you and bring the wine. We'll cook the food too. We'll even help you make improvements on the house. I don't know what that might entail," she said, waving a silencing hand before I asked what she might do. "It'll be like a long sleepover. How does that sound?"
I smiled at the thought. Mallory had a way of uplifting me no matter what the situation. "Perfect! I can't wait. Just don't leave it too long because as soon as I fix the place up, I have to flip it and get it on the market. Then I can come home and start interviewing for new jobs. I can't stay there," I said. My parents already planted the idea that I could move back, and they got so excited, it was hard to tell them no.
"I know. You said that already. Plus, how could you swap all of this for a sleepy, little town in the middle of nowhere?" asked Jill, using her hands to encompass the whole room.
"Not the middle of nowhere, it’s got mountains!"
"Mountains!" said Mallory as she swallowed the rest of her glass.
"That's the third time you've said 'mountains' and taken a drink."
"Drinking game," grinned Mallory. "You've said mountains seventeen times since I got here. I thought I'd make it more fun."
I turned to Jill. "Did you know about this game?"
Jill looked at her empty glass and give me a guilty smile. "Maybe."
"I think you're supposed to do shots in a drinking game," I pointed out.
"You packed them already, and I brought the wine. I'm improvising," said Mallory.
"I'm going to miss you." I put my arms around my friend and hugged her tightly. She gave me a squeeze in return. Then Jill opened her arms and pouted so I hugged her too.
"You'll be back before you know it," she whispered in my ear. "There is no way on earth you could give up all this..."
"I have nothing to fall back on," I reminded her. It was disheartening to point it out, but everything I had, except for Mallory and Jill, was coming with me in my car or would soon be shipped to me.
"There is no way you would give up the chance to come back here! And when you return, you'll have lots of money in the bank so you can buy a gorgeous apartment instead of renting one for an exorbitant price. Now, stop being so maudlin. The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll come back. You are definitely coming back?" Mallory asked.
"I think we already covered that. There is not a single thing on this earth that could manage to convince me to stay in Calendar!"
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