Page 51 of Merry Murder Season
“What about the Christmas craft fair in Bakerstown? I’ll see if I can find anything for my family. It can’t be too big since I’m shipping everything.”
“I just need to make a stop at the jewelry store. I’m a little worried that Matty hasn’t reopened.” I was mostly curious and hopeful that she was thinking about moving again. Especially after Mandy had stopped whatever Matty had going on with Josh.
“Honestly, I am too. I talked to someone at the bookstore who was looking for a piece of jewelry for a Christmas gift and I immediately thought of Matty’s shop. I can’t believe she’s missing all these impulse shopping days right after Thanksgiving. Everyone’s freaking out, thinking they waited too long to get theperfect gift.”
I was half listening to Beth as we approached Matty’s shop. I looked in the window. The lights were off and mail had been piling up under the mail slot in the door. I tried the door, locked. Then I knocked. “Matty? Are you in there?Are you okay?”
I thought I’d heard something, but when I called out again, nothing. I called the dispatch line and got Esmeralda. “Hey, real quick, did Matty Leaven put in a vacation notice?”
“Hold on a second, Jill, I was just looking that up. It’s been crazy here.” Esmeralda put me on hold for about a minute. When she came back, I could tell the news wasn’t good from her tone. “I went back to last month’s book, just in case someone had written it in wrong, but no, there’s no vacation notice. Do I need tosend Toby out?”
“Beth and I are going to look around. I’lllet you know.”
“Call me when you leave the property even if you don’t find anything. I’ve got a bad feeling.” Esmeralda cut off the call and I tucked my phoneinto my pocket.
Beth met my gaze. “Everything okay?”
“Not really. She’s not on vacation. Or at least she didn’t report it. She could have not known to call in. Let’s walk around and find out if we can see into any of these windows.” I went left and Beth went right. We both kept calling out Matty’s name.
When I got to the back door, it was locked but had a window in the door. I looked into the back room and saw a woman lying on the floor. Blood pooled around her, turning herblond hair red.
I saw Beth coming around the building. “Call 911. Tell Esmeralda to send Toby and an ambulance.I found Matty.”
We heard the sirens almost immediately. Toby showed up in his police car. Beth stayed in the front to wait for the EMTs and the ambulance. Since they were located on the highway rather than in town, they had a few more miles to drive to get here. Toby followed me to the back door. “She’s in there.”
“Matty? Can you hear me?” Toby yelled through the locked door. A groan answered him. We looked at each other, then Toby moved me away from the door. “Close your eyes. I’m breaking this windowto get inside.”
I stepped away from the doorway and turned my face toward the backyard. The building used to be a house that Matty converted into her business. She lived upstairs. Had she fallen down some stairs I couldn’t see through the door? Or had someone done that to her?
Questions that I couldn’t answer. I thought of Josh and the phone call. Had she been down here since then? But no, Mandy had said she’d answered it. If Matty had been hurt then, all she had to do was call 911.Or tell Mandy.
“Ma’am, where’s the victim?” A tall, young man in an emergency service uniformwas at my side.
“She’s in there, with Officer Killian.” I pointed to the door. “Tell Toby that Beth and I are leaving. We’re going to Bakerstown. I’llhave my cell.”
“Maybe you should hang around and talk to the police officer,” the second guy who was following with a gurney saidas I walked by.
“They know how to find me.” I grabbed Beth’s arm and led her away from the backyard and toward our house. A crowd had already gathered around the sidewalk and we had to push our way out of the mess.
After we got through and before the hill dipped to the house, Beth turned around. “Maybe we should go back.”
“Beth, Greg’s the police chief. If he needs us, he’ll call. Right now, we need to let them do their jobs.” There wasn’t anything we could do or say to change what happened to Matty.
Beth resumed walking toward the house. When we reached the front porch, she sank into one of the porch chairs. “Do you think she’s alive? How many times have I walked past her store and maybe she was lying backthere, dying?”
I went inside and got a bottle of water and took it out to her. “One, I heard a groan when Toby called her name. Two, we don’t know when this happened. It could have been this morning. And three, you don’t have X-ray vision or the power to talk to ghosts, do you? If she dies, Esmeralda will hear her from the other side.”
Beth started giggling, then slapped a hand over her mouth. “It’s not funny and yet I can’tstop laughing.”
“You might be in shock. Do you still want to go to Bakerstown?” I glanced at my phone, but so far, no message from Greg telling me to either come down to the station or stay home. Which was a good sign that Matty was still alive.
“Do you think it’s okay? They won’t arrest us for leaving thescene, right?”
“We didn’t do anything but find her.” My phone beeped and I read the message from Greg aloud. “Matty’s at the hospital. She’s heading into surgery. It was a head injury. They don’t know what happened, so we’re free to go shopping. He won’t be home for dinner.”
Beth stood and headed inside. “I need to freshen up and change clothes. I’ll be down ina few minutes.”
I let Emma out, checked my fridge, and added items to the shopping list. Since we were going to be in town, I wanted to stop at the grocery store before we came home. That way, tomorrow we could just hang out without doing chores. Beth needed a day with nothing scheduled. In January, her life was going to be filled with to-do lists. A thought hit me and I called the bookstore and talked to Evie. She promised to set what I’d requested aside, ready for me to pick upin the office.
