Toxic Attack: Spirit of the Soul Wine Shop Mystery (A Rysen Morris Mystery Book 2) Read online

  "Um," Rysen said, which she thought probably made her sound like a clueless tourist. "I'm actually here to see Beatrice?"

  The officer didn't answer, and he didn't move.

  "She runs the shop?" Rysen tried.

  Nothing but stony silence.

  "If I could just talk to Beatrice, maybe? I think that would clear—"

  “Ry! Oh thank goodness that you’re here!” Beatrice came out from the back of the shop and threaded her way through the standing officers to the front.

  There were tears in her friend's deep blue eyes. Her hair was coming out of her hair clasp in honey blonde strands that fell across her eyes. She wore one of her green aprons over jeans and a white blouse, like she had been getting ready for work when all of this had happened.

  "It's all right, Officer," Beatrice said to Richards. "This is my friend. She's with me."

  Officer Richards tipped his sunglasses a little lower. "Actually, I'm afraid it's not all right, Miss Leary. We're almost done back there. But until the Sergeant gives me the word, no one else gets to enter the shop. I'm sorry."

  The way he said it made Rysen think that he actually meant it. He could see how upset Beatrice was, too, but he had to follow his orders.

  "Fine," Beatrice griped. "Come on, Ry. Let's talk outside."

  She pulled Rysen out the front door and around to the side of the building where they were mostly out of sight from the small crowd of locals and tourists who had gathered to watch the activity.

  “Bea, what’s going on here?" Rysen asked. "Where's Josh?"

  “It’s completely awful!" Her voice broke, and she took a few deep breaths before she could say any more. "Josh came this morning, like he promised, to help me with inventory. Oh, Ry, I know it's hard for him to still do this for me after, you know, I kicked him out and he started dating you. I'm just so grateful for his help and I need someone to help me and he's always been such a great guy…"

  She broke off, holding up a hand to let Rysen know she needed a second. Wiping madly at the tears in her eyes, she said, "Anyway. That's not the point. He came in, and in the back of the store was…was a…body!"

  "A…body? You mean like a dead person?"

  Beatrice nodded.

  Rysen couldn't believe it. "Who, Bea? Who is it?"

  "I have no idea! It's a woman, but it's nobody I recognize from town. He called me when he found her. Josh did, I mean. I was running late so I didn't get here before him like I had planned and then he said he found the body there in the back and I thought he was kidding but…" She took another breath, and made herself slow down. "It's just horrible, Ry. He got blood on his hands when he was checking for a pulse, or something, and when the police arrived they arrested him!"

  Checking the body for a pulse. That sounded just like something Josh would do. He was a medical professional, after all, and he always wanted to help people. The whole idea of Rysen starting a detective business had been his. Sort of. It had been an offhand comment for him. It was something of a growing plan for her. She might have to take it a little more seriously if things like this were going to keep happening in town. One thing was for sure. If Josh was in police custody, he was going to need someone to help him.

  "Bea. This is important." She spoke slowly, and directly, because she could see how upset her friend was. "Did the police tell you anything? Do you know anything about the woman or how she was killed or anything like that?"

  Her friend shook her head, but then stopped, staring at the ground like she was thinking. "Well. I mean, the back door was unlocked when Josh got here. That's how the killer must have gotten inside with the victim. But why here? Why my shop?"

  "I don't know. Maybe it was just convenient. I don't know," Rysen repeated. "Did Josh tell the police the door was unlocked?"

  Beatrice nodded. "Yes, sure, but there's an alarm system too and that was disabled. The police think that makes Josh look all the more guilty because someone had to have a key and the code to the alarm."

  That made sense, but there were ways to disable electronic alarms. Weren't there? She'd seen stuff in the movies and on television. This wasn't the movies, though. This was real life. How could someone get into a locked building to commit a murder? And why?

  Wow, it really wouldn't look good for Josh.

  A thought occurred to her. She could really use help from someone who knew about these things. Like a security expert.

  Like Brandon.

  She sighed out a breath. Of course. Well, Christina had hired him back anyway. It looked like she was going to have to spend time with him, whether she wanted to or not.

  Chapter 2

  Back at her sister's wine shop, Rysen's mind was still distracted by the mystery of the dead woman in Bea's shop. No way was she going to let her boyfriend be accused of murder. Josh was a decent guy. A good man. He didn't deserve this. There had to be some way for her to find out what had happened. Some facts. Some clues. Something. Not that the police were going to talk to her about it. Not even if she did have a private investigator's license.

  She desperately needed to see Josh. She needed to make sure he was okay, and let him know she was here for him, but more than that she needed to hear the story from him. Maybe there were some clues in what he saw. Maybe she could solve the whole thing just by talking to him.

  Even if she couldn't solve anything, she needed to know he was all right.

  The little bell above the door dinged as she came in. Behind the counter, past the racks of wine and novelty glasses, Christina stood anxiously waiting. “Hey, you! So tell me all about it. Was there really someone dead?"

  Rysen gave her all of the details that she knew, which really wasn't much. The worst of it, of course, was that Josh was now locked up for murder.

  "Oh, Rysen that's terrible." Christina came around from the back and gave her a big hug. "What are we going to do?"

  "I'm going to prove he's innocent," Rysen told her quickly. Until that moment, she hadn't been sure. Her heart was telling her to jump in and fix this and make everything right. Her brain said this was crazy, that she was just a small town girl with hopes of starting an interior decorating career. She wasn't a detective. She wasn't Stephanie Plum.

  Rysen told her brain to shut up and mind its own business, and then she went with her heart. She was going to help Josh no matter what. If that meant doing a few things that were outside of her comfort zone, then so be it. She loved the man. That was all that mattered.

  She blinked, stepping back from her sister to think about what she had just said in the private spaces of her heart. She loved Josh? She had been away from him for a long time but these past few weeks with him had brought back memories of when they had been together in high school. How they had made plans and shared dreams. How special he had made her feel.

  Was that love?

  She should be sure. Not asking herself questions.

  Maybe she just wasn't there yet.

  Christina saw the look on Rysen's face. Marching back to the sales counter, she grabbed two long-stemmed glasses from a shelf that had the town's seal printed on them, and set them down next to the cash register. Then she took a bottle of red wine down from a display shelf and poured a generous amount into each glass. "Come on, sis," she said to Rysen. "I think you could use a drink."

  There was no denying that. Drinking in the middle of a work day wasn't her style, or Christina's either, but today wasn't a day to stick to formalities. She took the glass gratefully, and sipped the dry, fruity liquid. "Thanks, Chris. I can't believe this is happening."

  "So what are you going to do? Helping Josh sounds great, but how are you going to do it?"

  She took another sip of the wine, pursing her lips. It suddenly tasted a little sour. "I'm going to need help. When is Brandon coming to town?"

  Christina beamed. Rysen knew it wasn't from the wine. "I got in touch with him while you were over at Beatrice's. He said he just finished up another job and he could be here tomorrow. He sounded r
eally happy that he'd be coming back."

  Rysen rolled her eyes. "Stop it, sis. I'm with Josh now."

  "He asked about you," Christina said, her voice a sing-song.

  "Chris!"

  "What? He's such a gorgeous man. That's all I'm saying."

  "I'm with Josh," she repeated.

  "Yeah, but I see the way your eyes light up whenever I say Brandon's name."

  "Okay, I'm going to leave now."

  "Brandon," Christina said, and even though Rysen tried to hide her face her sister still thrust a finger at her. "Ha! See?"

  "You're a trouble maker. That's what I see." She set her glass of wine down and went over to the shelves to shuffle the bottles into a different line even though they didn't need it.

  The trouble was, she couldn't deny what Christina had said. Every time she even thought about Brandon her blood raced and she was sure her face heated up. She had already decided she loved Josh, so what were these feelings she had for Brandon?

  Well. Whatever they were, she would just ignore them. When Brandon was here, it would be just professional between them. She would need his help. Just his help. She wouldn't let there be any repeat performances of the two of them kissing in the back room. He had his chance. He never called her back.

  Having gotten out of a bad relationship before leaving San Francisco, little things like not dropping off the face of the Earth and never calling her after a first kiss meant a lot to her.

  They drank more of their wine and talked. Thankfully her sister gave up trying to tease her about Brandon. A few customers came in through the morning, all of them talking about the rumors swirling around the murder down the street.

  Rysen would smile and nod and sell them their wine, but after a while it became too much to take. She told her sister she was leaving for the day. Josh had already been with the police too long. She needed to go see him and let him know she hadn't forgotten about him.

  ***

  The County lockup was not a happy place. It was dreary, built from cinder blocks and cheap floor tiles. Her interior decorator's eye wanted to add color everywhere, and curtains over the windows to hide the metal bars and maybe some flowers on the officer's desks.

  That wasn't what she was here for, Rysen reminded herself. She was here for Josh.

  After giving her identification and emptying her pockets before going through a metal detector, she was led to a little cubicle with a chair in front of a plexiglass panel. There was a black wall phone on her side. An identical one hung on the other side of the glass. This was how visitors could talk to the people who were being held here.

  People like Josh.

  He sat on the other side of the plexiglass. His sandy hair was messed up, like he'd been scrubbing his hands through it over and over, and his pale brown eyes were wide. He was wearing an orange and white striped jail outfit that was too big for him and hung off his broad shoulders. When he saw her, he stood up, putting his hand against the glass between them.

  She put hers up over his, wishing she could at least touch him.

  They both picked up the phones at the same time. "Rysen, I didn't do this," he said to her immediately.

  "I know." She did know that. It was a fact that no one had to convince her of. "Josh, do you remember anything about what happened that could tell us who did this? Do the police know anything?"

  He was shaking his head even as she was speaking. "I think they know who the woman is, but they ain't telling me. They keep expecting me to know. They're sure I killed her. This is so crazy!"

  "Josh, don't worry. I'm going to help you. Just think. Is there anything you can remember that will help us? When you got to the flower shop and opened it up was there anyone around? Anyone hanging out behind the store or on the street or anything?"

  "I didn't open the store up."

  She didn't understand.

  "That's the thing," he said. "I didn’t have to unlock the store. It was already unlocked. The alarm was off, too."

  Just like Bea had said. "Was the door forced?"

  "No. I thought maybe Beatrice was already there or something. Until I saw the body, anyway."

  He shivered at the memory of it, and if Rysen hadn't known before that he was innocent, that would have proven it for her. Josh wasn't the type who could kill someone. He didn't have it in him.

  "How did she die?" Rysen asked. It seemed like a good next question.

  "She was stabbed. Several times. I've seen wounds like that at the hospital. They were deep, and they were narrow. Whatever made them wasn't a normal knife. Maybe one of those survival knives or something."

  Rysen made a mental note of everything he said. Stabbed in the front. Several times. Did that mean the woman knew her attacker?

  "So what we need to do," she spoke her thoughts out loud, "is to find out who could possibly have had access to Beatrice's store."

  "Besides me," he pointed out.

  "Right. Besides you. Or Beatrice. Then we need to find out who this woman was and who would want to kill her."

  He slumped back in his chair as his expression fell. "Gee. Is that all?"

  "Hey, I'm an aspiring detective, remember? You have to trust me. Okay?"

  It took him a moment, but he finally came close to the glass again, resting his forehead against it. "All right, Ry. I'll trust you. I don't know how you think you're going to do all of this, but I trust you. Listen, my mother has an attorney on retainer. Can you call her and get him over here? I haven't been able to even get ahold of her to let her know what's happening. She's probably off playing cards with her friends or something."

  Rysen knew Josh's mother. She was very active fifty-six year old, always out and about somewhere. Finding out her son was suspected of a horrific crime would only spur her into action to help him.

  "I'll find her as soon as I leave here," she promised. "Josh…"

  "I know," he said. "I'm scared too."

  That wasn't what she had been about to say. She had been trying to tell him she loved him. Apparently his thoughts hadn't been moving in that direction. Not that she could blame him, being locked up in here.

  There would be time for all the mushy love stuff later. Once he was free again.

  Rysen managed to keep the tears in until she left the police station. She cried alone in her car where no one else would see her. Then she headed home. She had work to do.

  Chapter 3

  When Rysen woke up the next morning, she had a pounding headache, and the memory of Josh in that jail still haunted her. She wanted nothing more than to curl up under the sheets and stay there all day, or at least until the world stopped being so upside down and could make sense again.

  It was only just Tuesday now and already the week felt like it had been a month long. Stretching, she threw off her covers and sat there waiting in her pajama bottoms and cami, the ones with the pink hearts with wings. When no one popped into her bedroom to tell her the whole thing had been some kind of sick joke she grumbled under her breath about how the universe must hate her and forced herself out of bed.

  She decided to get breakfast before her shower. Then she'd have to get to the wine shop and help her sister out. Brandon was supposed to be coming today to help her with the vanishing money. Another mystery waiting to be solved. Could someone be stealing from Christina even now? Shuffling down the hallway and then down the stairs she thought about it. Maybe whoever had hired the man to steal wine from Christina was still after her. But, why? What would it gain anyone to put one small wine shop out of business in an area where there were so many of them?

  Those questions had her so wrapped up that she didn't see him sitting there. She was at the coffee pot when he spoke.

  "Hello, Rysen."

  His soft Australian accent was the first thing she noticed. Then her brain caught onto the fact that here he was, sitting right there at the table, smiling in that way he had that always made her blush.

  Brandon Dennicort was in her kitchen.

  An
d she was in her PJs.

  Something that sounded a whole lot like "meep" came out of her open mouth before she ran for the stairs. Up in her room, she tugged off pajama bottoms and her top and grabbed the first things from her drawers she could throw on. Jeans. Good. Socks. Good. Pink Iggy Azalea shirt…well. It would do.

  She tried brushing her unruly hair into a semblance of order before giving up and putting it back in a ponytail with a hair band. Her reflection stared back at her in the mirror. Not anything to write poetry about, that was for sure. She wasn't exactly a beauty queen in the mornings.

  Wait. Why was she caring about how she looked? This was Brandon Dennicort, the security consultant. The guy who had teased her with an admittedly wonderful kiss and then forgotten all about her. Not someone she was trying to impress.

  Lifting her chin, throwing back her shoulders, she stuck her tongue out at the mirror and marched herself back downstairs to the kitchen. This was who she was and he could accept it or not. Brandon was still there, still with one arm tossed over the back of the chair, his foot tapping out a rhythm on the floor. His dark hair fell across his forehead like a male model in a magazine.

  "Hi," he said to her, like none of that had even happened.

  "Hi yourself," she said back to him, crossing her arms under her chest. "What are you doing here?"

  "I'm helping your sister. She thinks someone is still stealing from her. Turns out, you need my help more."

  "No, I mean here. Why are you here, in my house?" Frustration was starting to creep in on her. Why was he sitting there, all cute and smug, like he suddenly belonged in her life? She'd already decided she only needed him for one thing.

  Her face burned. His security training. That's what she needed from him. Just that.

  "Oh. In your house," he said. "I see. No worries. Miss Christina let me in. Said to tell you she was off to that shop of hers and you could take the morning with me."

  Of course she did. Rysen made a mental note to have a long talk with her sister about how she could handle her own love life, thank you very much.