Twistchapel Witch Cozy Mystery Box Set: Books 1-4 plus Christmas Short Page 12

  The door creaked open and a surprised, but happy, Mr. Thompson appeared.

  “Detective Drake! How are you?” asked Travis. Looking over the detective’s shoulder, he spotted me, adding, “Miss Foster, now why am I not surprised to see you two together, hmm?”

  “Uh,” began Drake, looking back at me in surprise. I felt my face blush and pretended to focus on the craftsmanship of a column on the porch. “I… I don’t really know what that means, Mr. Thompson, but I was wondering if it would be alright if I came in and asked you a few questions.”

  “I’m not quite sure why, but sure. Please, come in! Is this about my old company?” asked Travis, opening the door further and inviting the detective in.

  “I’m afraid it is. Is it okay with you if Miss Foster joins us?”

  “The more the merrier!” exclaimed the older man with a big smile. Was this really the face of a murderer?

  I followed Drake in and Travis closed the door behind us.

  “Would you like to join me in the dining room?” asked Travis.

  “No, right here is fine,” said Drake. I tried to hide my disappointment. I bet his dining room was really amazing.

  “Fire away, Officer.”

  “I’m going to be brutally honest with you, Travis,” began Drake. “I’ve been looking into an old case concerning the fire that shut down your business about a decade ago. I believe the evidence points to you burning the place down, and intentionally killing Jenny Fairfox.”

  Travis looked taken aback for a moment, but then composed himself. I didn’t expect for Drake to come out of the gate swinging.

  “I won’t lie to you, Detective,” said Travis. “I was never a fan of the woman. To be honest, I never knew what Darren brought her in for.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. Drake gave me a look, but then turned back to Travis and nodded to answer the question.

  “My brother, Darren, was the one that brought her on board. I always had a knack for the actual putting together of the furniture, working on the lines and throwing together a blueprint to follow. I’ve always been a stickler for precision when it came to our work, and I know that made some of the workers not like me. Darren, though, had a way with numbers. He left me to manage the product, while I left him to manage all the back end things.”

  “Travis, did you know that you’re business was not doing well financially?” I asked.

  Drake sighed.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  I didn’t mean it.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “Please answer her questions, too, Mr. Thompson. If you’d like to.”

  “We weren’t succeeding financially?” said Travis, bewildered. “I’m sorry, I just don’t think that’s possible. We were shipping out more product every week than we ever had.”

  “Jenny Fairfox was brought in as a consultant to examine why you were losing money,” said Drake.

  “That just doesn’t add up,” said Travis. “I wish Darren was here to help clear things up, but we hadn’t expanded any additional operations, and hadn’t hired anyone for months before the plant caught fire.”

  “Where else could have the money been going?” asked Drake.

  “Maybe someone was stealing it?” I offered.

  “Anything’s possible at this point,” nodded Drake. “You were there the night of the fire, is that correct?”

  “Yes, sir,” nodded Travis. “I forgot my watch in my office.”

  “If you went back into the warehouse, how come you didn-”

  “But I didn’t go back into the warehouse,” said Travis.

  “What do you mean you didn’t go back into the warehouse?” asked Drake.

  “I went back to get my watch, but as I did so, one of my employees came out and handed it to me.”

  “Plot twist,” said Bart.

  I shot Bart a look of my own.

  “Sorry,” he said, tail flickering side to side. “I wanted to feel like I was contributing.”

  “Who was the employee?” asked Drake.

  “Maggie Davis,” said Travis.

  “Wait… Maggie was there?” I asked.

  “Yes, Maggie Davis. Do you know her?” he asked.

  “I do… she said she didn’t see the warehouse until the next day.”

  “Well, that can’t be true,” he chuckled. “She was there before I arrived. She was always the first one in and last one out. I always respected Maggie for that. Such a hard worker. She’s the one that gave me my watch back. Lucky for me, Maggie said she had seen it when she was running out to escape the flames.”

  “I was just there a few days ago, and I was escorted away by a security guard,” I said, shifting gears. “Are you the owner of the building?”

  “You went to the warehouse?” asked Drake. I shrugged and gave him an innocent smile.

  “Yes, I’ve still been paying for the plot of land,” nodded Travis. “Darren loved that place so much, that I haven’t had the heart to sell it. I’ve actually been planning on knocking it down soon. Perhaps opening up a tavern for the local factory workers.”

  “You could call it Darren’s Pub,” I offered.

  “That’s… that’s a great idea!” said Travis, his big smile returning.

  “Is it okay if Detective Drake or I check out the warehouse sometime?”

  “Absolutely,” nodded Travis. “I’ll tell Fred, the security guard, not to pester you two. Just don’t go hurting yourself! I’m not sure how safe that place is. Is there anything else I can help answer for you?”

  “Not me,” said Drake, turning to me. “How about you, Miss Lips-Are-Sealed?”

  “I think you’ve answered everything I could think of,” I smiled.

  “We’ve taken more than enough of your time,” Drake said to Travis. “Thank you for your hospitality, but we should probably get going.”

  “Not a problem,” said Travis, opening the door for us. “If either of you need any more help, please don’t hesitate to let me know!”

  “Will do,” we both said.

  Travis waved goodbye and closed his door.

  “Maggie must have done it,” I said to Drake as soon as the door shut.

  “What would her motive be, though?” asked Drake.

  “I’m not sure…” I admitted. “Could we go check out the warehouse? Maybe we’ll be able to find something if we’re both searching.”

  “Sure,” he said. “Let me head back to the station real quick, and then I’ll meet you over there. How about in an hour?”

  “That works for me,” I smiled, leaving him to his car and heading to mine.

  “What are you going to do in the mean time?” asked Bart, hopping into the car as I opened my door.

  “Might as well head home,” I said, starting my car and backing up. “No point in heading to the store just for Charline to grill me. I’ll give Bridgette a call and see if she wants to meet up later today or tomorrow to catch up.”

  We left the gated community and headed for my house. Could Maggie have been the killer? What was I hoping to find at the warehouse? The police at the time would’ve checked out everything, and if there was a killer, they would’ve taken any incriminating evidence, surely. Perhaps I was foolish for trusting Travis, and he was lying the whole time.

  Buzz. Buzz.

  My cell phone? I glanced down and pulled out my phone. It was work.

  Ugh, not now.

  Don’t be Charline, don’t be Charline, don’t be Charline.

  I picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Miss Foster? This is Charline, one of your cashiers” said Charline on the other side.

  Really…

  “Charline, now's not a good time.”

  “One of the produce boys won’t stop badgering me to give you a call. I really think you should reprimand him.”

  “Is it Jimmy?” I asked, gripping my phone a little tighter.

  “Now let me see…” she said, pausing for what seemed like an eternity. “Yes, it is Jimmy... Walin?” />
  “Ralin,” I clarified. “Great, can you put him on?”

  “I can,” she said.

  I waited to hear Jimmy’s voice.

  “Hello?” I asked.

  “I’m still here,” said Charline.

  “I thought you said you were putting Jimmy on!”

  “No,” said Charline. “I said I can put him on.”

  “Will you please put him on?” I said through gritted teeth. Sometimes it took all I had not to burst.

  Charline sighed. “Very well.”

  “Miss Foster?” came Jimmy’s voice.

  “Jimmy! Were you able to fix the phone?”

  “I was,” he said, pride evident in his voice. “However, I wasn’t sure if this was the right phone.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “The background is a selfie of a woman with blonde hair tied all the way back.”

  “That’s an old friend of mine,” I said. It wasn’t exactly a lie. If I was able to give Jenny some justice, we’d probably be friends. She was also older than me. “Scroll through some of her text messages.”

  “I… I feel like that’s a bit invasive…” he said.

  “It’s okay Jimmy, I’m giving you permission.”

  “Okay…” he begrudgingly accepted. “What am I looking for?”

  “Look and tell me what people refer to me as,” I said.

  “Kind of a weird request but…” he said, spending a moment or two checking through messages. “Why do people call you Jenny?”

  Jackpot.

  “I’ll be at work in a few minutes, Jimmy! Come by the front so I can pick my phone up!”

  “I’d be happy to!” he said, excited to have helped.

  Hanging up, I looked up ahead and saw an opening in the road. Slamming my breaks, I jerked hard on the wheel to take a harsh U-turn.

  SCREEEEEEEEE!

  “You’re driving like a crazy person!” shouted Bart, sitting up and trying to grip his seat with all four paws.

  “Sorry, you’re right,” I said, glancing down to make sure I was just going a few miles over the speed limit. I picked up my phone and called Drake.

  After a few rings, he picked up.

  “Drake, this is Zoey,” I said. “I’ve got to make another call and a quick pit stop. Meet me at Thompson and Thompson Industries’ old warehouse as soon as possible.”

  “Zoey?” asked a surprised Drake. “But wh-”

  I hung up and flipped through my call history.

  “Do you know who did it?” asked Bart.

  “Yes. 99 percent.”

  “Wait, what about the other percent?”

  “That,” I said, “I’m going to have to bluff.”

  Chapter 10

  I paced back and forth on the main floor of the old Thompson and Thompson Industries factory floor.

  “Are you sure about this?” asked Bart. “This seems a bit risky…”

  “It’ll work,” I mumbled under my breath. I didn’t want to take the chance of someone hearing me talk to Bart.

  “What if you’re wrong?”

  “I’m not. I know I’m not.”

  Headlights briefly flashed across the windows and I heard a car pull up.

  Good, I thought. They made it.

  “What if they try to kill you?” asked Bart. “You never practiced the shield spell!”

  He had a point. I probably should’ve tried that out a few times before confronting another killer. It was too late now, though.

  “Hello?” called out the woman’s voice.

  “I’m in here!” I shouted back.

  Maggie Davis walked in and looked around, her large purse off to her side.

  “It looks so different, yet completely the same,” she said, taking in the old warehouse.

  “I’m surprised you haven’t been here since the fire,” I said. “Murderers typically return to the scene of their crime every once in a while.”

  “What are you talking about?” laughed Maggie. “There wasn’t a murder. Even if there was, I had nothing to do with it.”

  “If there was one, do you think it would’ve been Travis Thompson?” I asked.

  “This is silly,” she said, turning around. “Did you call me all the way out here just to play some weird mind games? I should really get going.”

  “I thought you wanted to hear how things were going with my sleuthing?”

  She stopped moving.

  “Okay,” she said slowly. “If there was a murder, which I don’t think there was, then sure. I would think Travis would be the one who did it.”

  “I thought so too, at first,” I nodded. “There were a lot of things pointing to it being him. Almost too many.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you are trying to get at.”

  “Did you know that TTI wasn’t doing well? Financilly, they were losing more money than they were making for months.”

  “How would you know that?” she asked suspiciously.

  “I’ve been asking around,” I said vaguely.

  “Why don’t you tell me what you think happened, since you seem to have your mind so made up?” said Maggie, crossing her arms.

  “I think you shouldn’t have been able to retire off the money you made off of TTI,” I began. “On top of that, I don’t think you would be able to afford the kind of house and niceties that you currently have if you did try to retire.”

  “I was a sales representative,” interrupted Maggie. “We make a high commission from time to time.”

  “TTI had been losing money for months, but Darren Thompson couldn’t figure out how,” I continued. “They had been growing in business, but money seemed to just… disappear. Jenny Fairfox was brought in as a consultant to help figure out where that money was going. She would compile a report every Friday evening to let the Thompson brothers know what her findings were. Her final report showed that the money must have been draining from one of two departments: the factory line, or sales.”

  I paused to let it all sink in. Maggie just stared at me, arms crossed, without saying a word.

  “You got wind that Jenny was getting close to finding out where all the money was disappearing to. You had been an employee for the Thompson brothers for a while, so they trusted you. They probably mentioned offhandedly that the consultant was looking deeper into your department, and you.”

  “This is some really good stuff,” laughed Maggie. “Please, keep going.”

  “One fateful Friday night, you confronted Jenny. There was a disagreement, you took her phone and closed her door with her still inside. She didn’t have a way out, so you set the building on fire. On your way out, you went into Travis’ office to make sure you didn’t leave anything important behind, where you saw his watch. You took it, and ran into him on the way out, giving it back to him.”

  “This is rediculous,” scoffed Maggie. “What proof could you possibly have?”

  I reached in my pocket and brought out the pink phone. I opened it up, to show her the background image of a smiling Jenny Fairfox.

  “This isn’t your work phone,” I said. “This was Jenny’s phone.”

  “I noticed that the phone wasn’t in the trashcan when I walked by it after you left,” said Maggie, a wicked smile on her face.

  “Everything about your house screamed a love for the finer things in life. There’s no way this could’ve been your phone. It was too tacky,” I said.

  “It really is such an ugly phone,” said Maggie, a look of disgust on her face as she looked at it. “A stupid phone for a stupid person. All she had to do was change some things in her report, and she’d still be walking the Earth as we speak.”

  “So you admit it,” I said.

  “Does it matter?” asked Maggie. “Yes, I did it. Very similar to your story, by the way. Bravo.”

  “Humor me,” I said. “What really happened?”

  “I’d been stealing money from the company from the day I started. I was more careful about it, at first
. A few dollars here and there, then maybe a few hundred occasionally. Eventually, I was giving all the customers discounts of over half off, but telling the Thompson brothers that I sold them full price. They’d make all the items and I’d pocket a huge commission check. No one was the wiser.”

  “Someone was bound to find out eventually,” I said.

  “You’re right,” she nodded. “The plan was to make as much as I could for as long as I could, then burn the whole thing down when people started to catch on.”

  “Why burn it down?”

  “The Thompson’s were such bleeding hearts,” she laughed, digging around in her purse. “I knew they’d give everyone a percent of the money they got in insurance. Just another way to get by. Besides, Travis was such an idiot, and so many things pointed to him, that if they needed to blame someone for starting a fire, it would’ve been him by default. The perfect scapegoat.”

  “So, Jenny just happened to be the unlucky one to find you out?” I asked.

  “Exactly. Darren did mention to me that the sales department might have been losing them money, so I figured she was the one saying it. The next Friday I stayed late, as was my custom so that I could adjust numbers as I needed, and I confronted Jenny in her office. She told me to look at her computer with her, so that she could show me her numbers. I reached over and took her phone from the desk as I pretended to watch her little presentation. I told her not to show anyone else what she found, but she was resolute. So, I excused myself, shut her in, and started a fire in Travis’ office.”

  “That’s where you saw his watch,” I said.

  “Correct. I saw it on his desk and took it with me. I was just going to pawn it later, but when I ran into him while I was running out, I figured him being at the scene of the crime was even better. I gave him the watch and booked it out of there. If anyone had seen me other than him that night, I was just going to say I ran in to get his precious watch for him”

  “Why keep Jenny’s phone, though?” I asked. “That was the key.”

  “Clearly, it was a mistake. I couldn’t risk throwing it away while the investigation was still ongoing, so I held onto it. I knew I should’ve tossed it ages ago, but completely forgot about it.”