A Charming Crime

Dedication and Acknowledgments

I want to thank every
single member of the Tonya Kappes Street Team! They are a group of readers who
have stood by me and supported me. Readers are so important to me and I’m
honored that at the end of the day they take the time to escape into my
imaginative world. You guys rock!! AND I love you to death!

Thanks to Ann Miller
for winning the contest for naming my magical village in the Magical Cures
Series! Whispering Falls is the perfect name!

A big huge thanks to
Eddy, Jack, Austin, and Brady (my guys!) for giving the reassurance to follow
my dreams and supporting me throughout our day!

This book is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part
of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, without the permission in writing from the
author or publisher.

Edition: June 2012

Copyright © 2012 by Tonya Kappes

All rights reserved

Cover Artist: Laura Morrigan

www.lauramorrigan.com

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This
ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to
share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for
each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was
not purchased for your use only, then please return to the publisher and purchase
your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

What others are saying about Author
Tonya Kappes

“Full of wit, humor and colorful characters, Tonya
Kappes delivers a fun, fast-paced story that will leave you hooked!”
Bestselling Author, Jane Porter

“Fun, fresh, and flirty, Carpe Bead ’Em is the
perfect read on a hot summer day. Tonya Kappes’ voice shines in her debut
novel.” Author Heather Webber

“
Tonya Kappes strings together the perfect blend of
family, friends, and fun.” Author Misa Ramirez

“
I loved how Tonya Kappes was
able to bring her characters to life.” Coffee Table Reviews

“I love, love, love this book.  I enjoyed
reading about Hallie's friendships and her trials and tribulations.  Her
Aunt Grace was a hoot, especially the pink poodle.  Too darn funny. 
As you already know I was crying and I had to put the book down.  That,
makes a truly awesome read for me, because I became a part of the story and
loved Aunt Grace as much as Hallie.

 Again, this was worth the wait and I can't
wait to read your next story.” Reader, Dru Ann

“I don't write many reviews but some books are so
outstanding I just have to. This is one of them. Tonya Kappes is one of the
freshest new voices in women's fiction, and I can't wait to read more from
her.” Reader, Melissa Lapierre

"This book was
fun, entertaining and good to the last page. Who knew reading auras could get
Olivia in so much trouble? Sit back, smile and cozy up to Splitsville.com,
where Olivia does the dumping for you. There's heap loads of humor, a dose of
magical realism, sprinkles of romance, and mystery when someone ends up
dead!" Author Lisa Lim

“This book was funny
and clever with a unique premise. I truly couldn't put it down.” Author Diane
Majeske

“Tonya Kappes has
written a fast paced cozy mystery that kept me guessing till the end. Full of
likeable characters, Splitsville.com is humerous and I was caught up in the
story right from the beginning. I'm definitely looking forward to more books in
this series!” Author Sheila Seabrook

“Unique, imaginative,
funny, with a tantalizing mystery to boot. What more could one ask. But there
was more ... compassion and passion ... Olivia is an animal lover with the good
sense not to become jaded by her "day job" of helping people break
up. She gets the guy, solves the puzzle and rises above all of life's messy
situations. Aunt Matilda was the icing on the cake ... as I said ... PURE
MAGIC.” Reader PJ Schott

“I loved this book. Grandberry Falls is my kind of town and I
for one would love to live there and get to know all the local folks. I enjoyed
reading this book and can't wait to read the next book about Grandberry Falls
by Tonya Kappes.
I have added Tonya
Kappes as one of my new favorite authors.” Jean Segal

“I love it when I pick up a book because of its cover and the
story to follow is just as great or better. That's what happened here.
” Stephanie
Overton

“I read this in a day and loved it! You felt that
you were part of Grandberry Falls. The small town folks who know everyone and
know everything about someone in a matter of hours.” Avid Reader

“I was looking for something different and easy to
read...meaning nothing too involved, something that if I put down could come
back to and remember all the characters and where I left off at...well I didn't
put it down I finished it in a day... what a great read !!” Cimarron

Also by Tonya Kappes

Women’s Fiction

Carpe Bead ‘em

Anthologies

Something Spooky This Way Comes

Believe Christmas Anthology

Olivia Davis Paranormal Mystery
Series

Splitsville.com (Book One)

Magical Cures Mystery Series

A Charming Crime

Grandberry Falls Series

The Ladybug Jinx

Happy New Life

A Superstitious Christmas

Never Tell Your Dreams

A Divorced Diva Beading Mystery
Series

A Bead of Doubt

Non-Fiction

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Chapter
One

“I know, I
know.” I waved my hands in front of me trying to stop anything that was about
to come out of Oscar Park’s mouth, but I knew it was useless.

He slammed the
door of his patrol car, took his hat off, and then waved it towards my shed. .
.my burning shed. “You know what?”

Truth be told, I
didn’t know much, but I did know how to handle Oscar Park. Especially when it
came to personal matters. “I know I went a bit too far this time, but I really
need to figure out this new cure.”

Oscar grew up
across the street, raised by his uncle, Police Chief Jordan Parks. Like me,
well sort of like me, Oscar’s parents got killed in a car accident while my dad
was shot in the line of duty.

“A bit?” Oscar
shook his head and pointed to the flames shooting up in the air. “Unless you
want the new cure to blow someone up, I think you were using the wrong
ingredients.”

“Now, Oscar.” I
shuffled out of the way of the zipping fire truck, and took a bite of the Ding
Dong in my hand that I had grabbed on the way out of the shed when I knew it
was going to combust. “Was it necessary to call in all of Locust Grove’s finest?”

“Yes, June
Heal.” Oscar wasn’t the ten-year-old boy who created havoc with me in that very
shed while experimenting with my mom Darla’s homeopathic cures. Though his
crystal blue eyes were sincere, I knew he meant business. “But you’ve done it
this time. It’s a total loss.”

I held the
uneaten round end of the Ding Dong up to him and he took a bite. A big bite. I
grumbled under my breath. He knew Ding Dongs are my go-to comfort food.

Old Mac McGurtle
came running through the herb garden I had planted after Darla died, screaming,
“I told you she was going to set this whole town on fire if she kept mixing
those chemicals.”

Mr. McGurtle was
always spreading gossip when Darla died about how I had turned A Dose of Darla,
my homeopathic cure shop, into a fire hazard by putting all sorts of crazy
concoctions together.

“Settle down,
Mr. McGurtle.” Jordan Parks snuck up behind us. “Thank you for calling us, and
helping Ms. Heal save her business.”

“Hhmph.” Mr.
McGurtle threw his hands in the air and mumbled something under his breath.

“He’s the one
who called?” I huffed, my bangs flew out of my eyes, and I crossed my arms. “He
needs to mind his own business. And stop walking through my herb garden!”

For a moment Mr.
McGurtle and I stared at each other until Jordan stepped between us.

The shed looked
like it was going to be a total loss this time. All the other twenty times I set
it afire I was able to save it. Luckily, I only used the shed to create new
homeopathic cures using Darla’s old remedies. I kept the main ingredients in
the basement of our old house. . .my house now.

“I think you did
it this time,” Jordan warned, half serious. He walked away shaking his head. He
stopped briefly to talk to one of the guys from the fire department.

“Not only have
you done it this time, you’ve really pissed off a lot of your neighbors.” Oscar
put his hat back on his head, and looked around at the neighbors gathering on
the other side of the fence in my front yard. “They think you are as crazy as
Darla was.”

Darla Heal, my
mother, was the creator of A Dose of Darla, homeopathic cures. And everyone
called her Darla, even me, because she didn’t like to be referred to as Ms.
Heal, Mrs. Heal or even Mom.

“Well, the old
saying is right then.” I snarled, studying every face gawking at me. They were
just being nosy like always.

“And what old
saying it that?” Oscar asked.

“The apple,” I
pointed to myself, “doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”

Oscar’s face
split into a wide grin. “And we sure did have some fun times in there. But
you’ve got to admit you’ve outgrown this place and selling your cures at the flea
market.”

I wish I had
another Ding Dong. I listened to what he had to say. He was right. The retail
space for A Dose of Darla had started in the shed until Darla moved it to a
booth at the local flea market. She had all sorts of people coming to get her
homeopathic cures. And she had been good at it.

I spent most of
my teenage years working Darla’s booth at the flea market with Oscar right next
to me, and hated every moment of it. I always swore I’d never take over Darla’s
business. As they say, never say never. When Darla died from an apparent heart
attack, I did the only thing I could to take care of myself. I took over A Dose
of Darla and began to experiment.

Most of the
remedies needed to be updated, and since I had always been good in chemistry, I
knew I could make them better. Making them better meant doing a lot of
combinations of different things and not getting them to explode. Unfortunately,
today was not a good mix of ingredients.

“You know I
don’t want to live in the country with all those scary noises.” I knew what
Oscar was hinting at.

For weeks, he’d
been begging me to get rid of this old house and move to a farm where I could
make a real lab, so I could create my remedies the right way. Not in a shed.

“Not in the
country.” He leaned in a little closer, and said words tentatively as if
testing the idea, “I stumbled upon a little village about thirty minutes from
here when I went to check out a job opening. I have a good feeling about it.
But keep it on the down low.”