To Bedevil A Beauty (Southern Sanctuary - Book 5) (2 page)

Chapter
One

“Problem?” 
Ramsey queried, stepping out of his office into the large airy open central
work area of the Haven Bay police station.

No
one jumped.
 
No one cowered away. 
In fact, his presence was rewarded with a couple of welcoming smiles and one
look of pure relief.  He couldn’t count on one hand the number of times
that had happened in his adult life time. 

“Chief.”

Now
he was the one who fought not to flinch.
 
When would he get used to that title?  It had been five weeks now, man
up already and accept that this is your new life. 
Temporary
new life, he amended mentally. All he needed to do was
survive six months in this Mayberry mind-fuck town, where the locals were super
nice, super friendly and ridiculously good-looking.  A perfect example of
the local citizenry was the four police officers currently crowded around the
dispatcher’s desk. 

Mentally,
Ramsey had dubbed them the JLA (Justice League of Australia).  Which made
today Superman-day, as all four McKenzie brothers; Mac, Cam, Zeke and Gideon,
were on duty.   The brothers were uniformly tall, hovering around the
6.2ft mark, broad shouldered, black haired, blue eyed and square jawed. 
All four looked as if any moment they would unbutton their khaki work shirts to
reveal a cape and spandex, taking to the skies in a single bound to fly off to
save puppies and damsels in distress. 

“We’re
getting a couple of reports coming in Chief.”  Mac McKenzie, the oldest of
the brothers spoke up.

Ramsey
didn’t bother to ask for the call log, if he’d learnt nothing else in the last
five weeks it was that the station didn’t operate that way.  Instead he
looked to the station dispatcher, Maureen Bright, and the cell phone she held
clutched in her hand. 

Maureen
was the equivalent of a lightning rod when it came to all the latest news,
information and happenings in their three town district.  In five minutes
or more the station phone would commence ringing off the hook with the official
emergency calls, but he’d quickly learnt to trust Maureen’s uncanny ability to
be ahead of the game when it came to trouble.  Just as he’d quickly learnt
to shut his office door when making personal calls, the woman had the hearing
of a bat.

“Tell
me.”
 
He directed his request at Maureen.

“There’s
trouble at the camping ground over at Reverie Valley, a fire. I think the girls
are going to need back up.  It’s contained now but there’s property damage
and finger pointing going on.”

Ramsey
nodded, Reverie Valley, was a town located a twenty minute car ride inland and
had its own police sub-station, manned during daylight hours by two female
police officers.  The Valley held a famous arts and crafts market every
Saturday and since today was Friday, the camping ground would be packed solid
with people.

“What
else?” 

Maureen
dutifully responded. “I’ve heard on the grapevine Barty is taking a stroll
along the far end of the beach, heading towards the cliffs.”

“He’s
the nudist right?”

Five
heads nodded emphatically in agreement.  Thankfully mostly only locals
utilised the long gorgeous stretch of Haven Bay beach, but still, an elderly
man running around naked was cause for concern. 

“Anything
else?”  Knowing this district, there was bound to be a kitten up a tree
somewhere.  In five weeks he’d quickly discovered it was far from a hotbed
of activity, just a constant stream of niggly minor annoyances.

“Well,
there’s the sheep.”

Of
course there was. Ramsey fought the urge to roll his eyes, he supposed at least
livestock made a nice change from trapped kittens. 

Maureen
continued talking.  “They’ve invaded Southey’s Bar and Grill, causing
chaos and scaring the patrons.”

“Cedric
must have fallen off the vegan bandwagon again.”  Cam volunteered. 
“What was he thinking going into the grill?  He knows those sheep are
watching him like hawks.”

“The
man bought his sheep into town?”  Ramsey frowned. Small town life was a
mystery to him.

“Their…” 
Gideon coughed as his brother Zeke abruptly elbowed him in the ribs. 
“Very attached, was what I was going to say…” turning to send his brother a
quick fleeting dark blue glare.

“Okay,
well sounds like we have a busy afternoon ahead of us.  Cam and Mac you
head for the Valley to provide back-up.  Zeke and I will take the sheep
and Gideon can…”

Ramsey
ceased talking as the station phone abruptly began ringing. Maureen visibly
jumped, gasping in surprise.
 
No way
should that phone be ringing just yet, it was just not possible. 
Reflexively she snatched it up, bringing the handset to her ear, very aware of
the interested audience she had surrounding her, only four of whom would be
aware of how absolutely unprecedented this incident was.

“Hello…
I mean, Haven Bay Police, how may I help you today?”  She unconsciously
frowned.  “Dear… you need to speak up… I can barely hear you.”  Maureen
frowned again.  “Oh, no.  Hmmm, the cats? … Oh, those cats. Well yes,
I can have someone out there immediately… what was that?  You’re… breaking
up.  You want them to bring what?”  Maureen abruptly yanked the phone
away from her ear as the dial tone sounded.  She looked up at the five men
surrounding her.  “It seems Judge Beryl Malone has been locked out of her
house and needs assistance.”

“Judge?” 
Ramsey knew the Southern Sanctuary district had unique historic rights to run
and maintain their own local police force but it hadn’t occurred to him that
there would be a corresponding justice system.  Of course he’d spent most
of the last few weeks in his office reading reports and coming up to speed on
local laws and regulations, it wasn’t surprising that he wasn’t quite au fait
with how everything worked just yet in the district.

“Our
last judge, Gr… I mean Uncle Alfric, stepped down eight months ago.
 
Kept falling asleep at the bench, cousin
B…” 

“Beryl,”
Maureen interrupted Mac’s information download.  “Beryl, graciously agreed
to take up the position.”

Ramsey
nodded to prove he was listening but seriously, one old doddering fart steps
down and another one steps up was not really all that interesting.  He
wondered if the poor old dear was more worried about the fact she was locked
out of her house or that her sea of cats were stuck inside, alone, an
untended.  He didn’t know what possessed him but he found himself
saying.  “Okay, I’ll take the Judge.
 
Zeke, you’ll have to deal with the sheep on your own and Gideon, you get
the streaker.” 

*                        
*                     
*

Judge
Beryl ‘Berry’ Malone, shivered on the side porch, glaring through the window
pane at the - swear to the Goddess, haughty amused looks of - three cats. 

“…blanket.” 
She kept talking even though she knew Puffball had already hit the disconnect
button on her mobile phone.
 
She supposed
she should be thankful he’d accidently pressed the 000 emergency number at all. 
“I’m naked and I really need a blanket.”  Her eyes narrowed.  “I’m
getting you all fixed.  I don’t care if you’re not my cats.  All
three of you are headed straight to the vet after this little incident.”

Cicero
yawned, Puffball batted the mobile, sending it skidding across the hardwood
floors whilst Limbo, the ringleader, just flicked his tail dismissively. 

Grrr,
Berry wanted to scream but she was too busy hugging herself and trying to stay
calm.  It wasn’t all that cold, the Autumn day had been sunny but the
lengthening shadows of the afternoon for some reason made it seem cooler than
it really was. Plus there was the whole naked thing, as a light breeze played
across her bare skin and slowly dried her shoulder length hair.  Double
damn, without the aid of a hairdryer it was going to be a wild mess of curls.

Honestly,
she knew she should be grateful she even had a place to live these days, but
when her Great-Grandparents had asked her to housesit whilst they travelled to
South American to participate in an archaeological dig, they had completely an
utterly failed to warn her about the cats. 

Possibly…
Berry hugged her arms more tightly around her upper body as the late afternoon
breeze picked up slightly, that was because the cats didn’t even belong to her
Great-Grandparents.  They were the property of her Great-Grandmother’s
sisters, who all lived in the beachside retirement village on the far side of
the Bay. 

So
she had two mysteries on her hands.  How did the cats even get all the way
out here to the farm, seemingly on a daily basis?  And how did the
vindictive little bastards keep getting into the house to wreak havoc?
 
Oh no, and let’s not forget the third mystery.
 
Why did the freaky furballs hate her so very
much?  How else to explain the jagged gnaw marks on all her practical,
cheap and yes admittedly, exceedingly ugly shoes?  Not to mention the
damage they inflicted with unmistakeable wanton glee on her very limited
wardrobe.  Damaged - shredded by claws – clothes, she could barely afford
to replace as it was. 

Bloody
hell, she welcomed the rush of anger coursing through her veins, at least the
emotion generated some heat, even if it was temporary.  When had her life
gone so terribly wrong?  She was a good person, but in the past two and
half years, since her marriage ended, it felt as if the fates themselves were
personally punishing her.

Grrr,
she glared at Limbo as he jumped on to the window sill, curling up in a ball as
he licked one of his paws and eyed her with unmistakeable disdain through the
glass.  Goddess damn it, she really thought her luck had changed eight
months ago when her Grandfather, Edward, had called, requesting she come home
to replace Alfric on the bench.  It was a heaven sent offer, she’d been
struggling financially to support herself and her mother-in-law, Joanne, following
her divorce and the ugly court case that had seen her ex-husband, Robert,
jailed.
 
In one fell swoop everything she
thought they’d owned had been frozen or repossessed by the government, leaving
her with almost nothing.
 

She’d
had no choice but to battle on, but the money she’d been earning at the Legal
Aid office barely covered the rent on the only two bedroom apartment she could
afford.
 
Unfortunately it was located in
Sydney’s outer, outer, outer western suburbs.  The daily public transport
costs plus food and clothing for two, dragging her under faster than she could
cash her pay check.  And thanks to her ex’s highly publicised case, not
one of the big money hungry greedy law firms that she had always loudly
disdained would offer her a job with an obscenely large pay packet that might
help resolve all her problems.

So
moving back to the Sanctuary, a good paying job, a place to house-sit, with the
added bonus of a small caretaker’s cottage at the beginning of the driveway for
Joanne, had seemed like a Goddess-send.  And for the first few months
everything had been going relatively well. Living frugally and saving every
penny frantically.  Okay yes, it had taken some time to get back in the
groove of being surrounded by her loving but ultimately well-meaning
relatives.  And despite her fears that her divorce might have caused some
friction with the older generation, for whom divorce was an unprecedented
concept, the family had barely shown any interest in the subject.  They
certainly hadn’t seemed to be embarrassed or upset by her colossal mistake, it
had been silly of her to stay away so long. 

Yet
none of her recent personal insight and growth prevented her from headlining a
whole new category of stupid today as she fell, like a simpleton, for the machinations
of three conniving felines.  Who had all too easily lured her out of the
shower with their ‘pitiful is me, I’m dying’ yowling, only to steal her towel
and lock her outside. She tapped the glass lightly to get Limbo’s
attention.  “You and me Mister… as soon as I get inside.” 

Limbo
tilted his sleek black furred head to the side, contemplating her with dark
green eyes. Abruptly he uncurled and stretched upwards, pressing his body
against the glass.  His claws jiggling the lock causing the sash window to
shoot upwards.

“Oh,
thank Goddess.” Berry whispered fervently, diving forward.  There might
just be time to find the phone and cancel the police call, saving her the
humiliation of having her story broadcast all around the Sanctuary.  She
raised a leg to scramble over the high sill and then jumped back as a flashing
claw raked lightly down her thigh.
“Dammit… Cicero.”  She danced a
little, regaining her footing before leaning inside the living room to scold
the ginger cat.  “You little…” 

There
was a blur of black above her and suddenly the sash window was sliding
downwards.  Berry let out a squeak of horror, not quick enough to move
either backwards or forward as the window came down to rest on her lower spine.
 
She tried to jerk her weight upwards, the bloody
window wouldn’t move and there was no wriggle room.  Berry eyed her three
nemeses as they returned her gaze from a safe distance of a few feet away.