Miss Frost Solves A Cold Case: A Nocturne Falls Mystery (Jayne Frost Book 1) (15 page)

I pressed the down button and waited for what felt like three years. When the chime went off with the car’s arrival, I swore the sound blasted as loud as an air horn.

I ducked in and hit the button, urging the doors to close as quietly as possible. They didn’t, but I didn’t hear Juniper or Buttercup opening their apartment doors to see what was going on, either. Even so, my heart was racing. I was not cut out for criminal behavior.

Half a minute later, I stood in the warehouse. For a couple seconds, that’s all I did. I needed to make sure I was completely alone, and as I waited there in the dim space, I knew I was. The whole breaking-and-entering thing was giving me hives.

Sure, I’d done it at Bertie’s, but Bertie was out of the picture. Toly could show up at any moment. And if that happened, I guess I’d…I wasn’t sure what I’d do actually.

I hoped I didn’t have to find out.

The small bit of street light filtering in through the warehouse door transom and the handful of security lights in the warehouse itself gave off just enough illumination to see by, at least with elf eyes. So by the time I was sure no one had followed me down, my eyes were pretty well adjusted. I walked over to Toly’s office and tried the door. Still locked.

I did the Saint Nick slide and went under. Inside, I leaned against the door while I waited for everything to stop spinning. Without the benefit of the security lights, the office was almost pitch black. I could see much better out of the pebbled glass window than I could on my side of the door.

My phone was my only option. Using the flashlight was taking a risk, but what was the point of doing this if I didn’t get to look around?

I moved right with the hopes of getting away from the glass in the door and knocked into something metal. I winced. Probably a filing cabinet, judging by the unfortunate clanging sound.

The upside was I didn’t knock anything over. The downside was that was going to leave a mark. With my knee throbbing, I inched around the filing cabinet and lit my phone up.

I squinted at the brightness of the screen and knew I could forgo the flashlight. This was enough. I grabbed the handle of the top drawer and pulled.

Locked. I tried the one beneath it. Also locked. Turned out, the whole filing cabinet was locked. Oh joy.

But only the top drawer had a lock, which meant once opened, all the drawers would be accessible. So that was good.

What was also good was that I hadn’t actually lied to Juniper when I said I could pick locks. I could. Simple ones. You needed a safe cracked, I was
not
your girl. Unless you wanted the whole thing frozen solid and shattered. That I could do. But a little lock like this? Cake. It was a skill I’d taught myself early. Like around fifth grade. What can I say? Once a snooper, always a snooper.

But there was no way I could do what I needed to and hold the phone, but light was kind of imperative if the lock picking was going to happen.

With no other options, I yanked my hoodie off and stuck the phone lengthwise into the front of my bra, right across my cleavage. Made for a better phone holder than anticipated. Nicely done, boobs.

Hands free, I drew on the magic in me and spun two narrow slivers of ice from my fingertips. I regulated my body temp down to about freezing so the ice wouldn’t melt as fast. Normal ice would snap if you tried to use it to pick a lock, but this was magical elven ice. The stuff was like steel. Until it wasn’t. Which meant I still had to work fast.

Using the light from my phone, I slipped the picks into the lock and manipulated the tumblers. A filing cabinet lock was about a two on the difficulty scale and took all of six seconds to unlatch.

I dropped the picks. Without contact with me, they’d turn into normal ice and melt, leaving no trace of what I’d just done so long as the wet spot dried before anyone noticed it. I reclaimed my phone, pulled my hoodie back on and began flipping through the files in the first drawer.

Nothing all that interesting. Inventory sheets. Years and years and
years
of inventory sheets. Snooze.

Drawer two got better. Personnel files. I’d come back to that one if I had time.

Drawer three was the one I was looking for. Bills. There was a folder for Georgia Power and Light, one for the town of Nocturne Falls, a handyman service, an electrician, heating and air company, etc., etc.

Then I came to a file marked Thrifty Maids. I opened it and brought my phone closer to the first sheet of paper. There was no owner’s name on the bill, just the company and the address and the write-up for a month’s worth of weekly cleanings. I fired up my camera and snapped a picture.

The flash blinded me, which I deserved for being so dumb.
Snowballs
. That must have looked like fireworks going off from the other side of the window. I blinked away the glowing fuchsia orb left by the flash, hoping my activities were still undetected.

By the time my sight returned, no one had burst into the office and accosted me, so I assumed I was still in the clear. I went back to snooping, this time in the personnel files.

This drawer was divided into two sections. The six files in the back of the drawer all had a little black dot next to each employee’s name. The employee names on the front files had no dots. No college degree required to figure out what that meant.

As much as I wanted to look at my own file, I dug deeper and pulled Bertie’s instead. The very first piece of paper in the folder was the note of resignation that he’d written. Very to the point. Probably not fifty words. I thought about taking a picture of it, but after how the last one went, decided against it. Besides, I had copies in the file my dad had given me.

Next was Nora’s. Same thing, her letter was first in the sheaf of paperwork. This one was a little longer, but not much. The handwriting was more flowery, too. Full of swirls and loops. But a little shaky, too, like a grandmother’s might be.

The third file I pulled belonged to a guy named Will. I remembered him from the dossier because he’d won the skiing gold in the North Pole Games three years running before being transferred here. He’d been the second to leave, after a young woman named Trina, and long before anyone had begun to think it odd. His letter was much longer, but also up front.

This wasn’t getting me anywhere. Maybe there’d be something in Toly’s desk drawers. I shifted my phone around to get a peek at the rest of the office. It looked exactly the way you’d think a tinker’s office would. Stuff everywhere. Stacks of papers on the desk, shelves crammed with books and toy prototypes. Drawings tacked to the wall. From the looks of it, he was still inventing. Good for him, but I was never going to get through this mess in a timely fashion.

I decided to try the desk anyway in hopes of turning up something that would make this clandestine visit worthwhile.

Then the elevator chimed.

I froze for a split second, then turned my phone off and went to the door to find out if I was about to get busted.

I stood to the side and stuck my head around just enough to see through the window. Light appeared from the opening elevator doors. I jerked back. Then took another look to see if I needed to find a hiding place.

That’s when I realized the light was coming from the restricted elevator, not the one that went to the apartments. I could just make out a dark shape stepping into the vestibule. They’d be gone in seconds.

Curiosity got the best of me. Without another thought, I magically slipped back under the door. The speed only added to the after effects, causing me to wobble toward the elevator. I felt like I was wading through molasses while being tilted forty-five degrees. Fun. The street door was swinging shut. Or maybe that was a trick of my vision. No, whoever had come out of the elevator had left the building.

I finally reached the vestibule, pushed through that door and nudged the street door open a crack. The dark form I’d seen disappeared around the corner and was gone.

My only lasting impression was that the dark form had also been tall and slim. So that narrowed it down to all the tall, slim supernaturals in town. So helpful. And frankly, I wasn’t even sure I trusted my judgment on that assessment considering how shaky I was from the under-the-door trick.

A sigh of frustration slipped out as I slumped against the door in disappointment. I stayed there for a moment, my head not quite done spinning.

Whoever it had been, they’d moved quickly and kept their head down. As my vision came back to normal, the thought made me look up. Were there security cameras? I glanced around the street. Nothing that looked like a camera.

Maybe they just wanted to get home and into bed. The idea sounded like perfection. I had a full dayshift ahead of me and then another non-date with Cooper. I’d be running on fumes if I didn’t crash soon.

Toly’s office was a battle for another day. Or night. Like tomorrow night. I slogged back into the warehouse and pushed the button for the elevator. While I stood there, I stared at the dark office window. Breaking in had gotten me nowhere. The name of the cleaning service was something my father could have figured out by contacting the Financial Department to sniff through Toly’s check register. I felt like a failure. I was no closer to figuring this thing out than I had been two days ago.

Cranky and frustrated, I rode up to my apartment and let myself in. I shucked my clothes, threw on my PJ’s then did a quick search for Spider. I found him sleeping on one of the kitchen chairs.

“That’s not comfortable, you silly thing.” I scooped him up, getting a stinky cat-breath yawn in return, and brought him to bed, settling him on the pillow next to mine. He stretched, then curled even tighter.

Being tired apparently wasn’t enough to equal sleep. For me. Spider was comatose. I stared into the dark, watching the shadows and trying to make sense of what I knew. I got nowhere, but I kept at it until my head ached with questions.

I thought about calling Greyson and making another attempt at finding out more about that elevator. Despite what my father had told me, I couldn’t believe all that lay under the town’s streets was electrical conduits and sewer mains.

If that was true, why so much cloak and dagger?

I opened my eyes to the persistent clanging of one of the worst sounds in the world: my phone alarm. I guess I’d slept after all. I fumbled for the phone, hating the noise but thankful I’d set the alarm, because over-sleeping definitely could have happened.

I kicked it into gear, getting Spider fed, his box cleaned (wow, that cat could poop), then grabbed a Dr Pepper for myself and took it in the shower with me. What? Don’t judge.

Clean, dressed and hungry, I ate a couple of donuts with another Dr Pepper while I checked my phone. Two messages from last night that I’d missed.

Cooper had texted the fire station address along with
see you soon
and a winky face.

Greyson had texted a selfie from Insomnia, judging by the background. He was holding a drink and making a very come hither look. On second glance, that was just his normal face. The only note attached to that was
Tomorrow
.

My dating life had never been better. I should have lied about who I was ages ago.

I finished the donut in my hand, dried my hair, did my makeup and locked up behind me.

Juniper was already in the hall. “Morning!”

“Morning.” I screwed the top onto my Dr Pepper and stuck it in my purse. “You’re awfully chipper.” I smiled. It wasn’t her fault I’d had a lousy night.

“Well…” She drew the word out as she made a coy expression. “I might have called this guy I’ve sort of had a thing for, Pete Cathaway, to see if he wanted to join us at the fund-raiser tonight.” She squealed softly. “I hope that’s okay. I figured since you’d be hanging out with Cooper, I might as well have a guy there too.”

How could I say I’d been hoping Juniper being there meant I wouldn’t have to be alone with Cooper? Especially when she’d squealed? Clearly she was excited about seeing Pete. “Yeah, sure.” Now it was going to seem like a double date. But I kept my smile in place. I didn’t want to dampen her good mood. “So this guy, Pete, you dig him, huh?”

“Dang skippy, I do.”

“What’s he like?”

We walked to the elevator while she talked.

“He’s a pharmacist at the drugstore in town. I know, not the most exciting job, but he’s really sweet. He came in to buy Christmas gifts for his nieces and nephews, and we sort of hit it off. Then I pretended to have a cold as an excuse to go see him.”