Today is the fifth day of the release fun for the Ever After Mystery series. You can find the beginning of this mystery HERE on Cathe Swanson’s blog! I’m so excited as mine is the second book to be release, A Giant Murder. All the stories have their roots in a fairy tale. Can you guess mine?
The first release, The Last Gasp is available now HERE. Squee! The Last Gasp is based on Cinderella, so to celebrate that book release, all of the Ever After authors are doing a short blog hop – complete with a mini-mystery and prizes.
Someone has stolen Cinderella’s glass slipper.
Why Rebekah Jones thought it was me, I’ll never know. (Read her post about it HERE!) But I was sure shocked when an officer showed up at my door.
“You are Marji Laine?”
“Yes.” I peeked across the street where Mrs. Myers was pretending to water her plants with an empty pitcher. Ugh. Gossip central. I stepped outside and waved in her direction as if I hadn’t a care in the world.
The officer barely paused. “And you picked up and have in your possession a glass slipper belonging to Cinderella?”
Mrs. Myers shot me a suspicious look and went back inside her house. At least, if I did hear gossip, I would know where it came from. “Yes and no.”
“You did not pick up the slipper?” The short man lifted an eyebrow and pierced me with a suspicious gaze.
“I picked it up all right. I hate spiders.”
“Excuse me?” Obviously, I had lost him, but I had no idea how. Seemed perfectly clear to me.
“I was wearing sandals when I visted that mine. I didn’t want to take the chance that the creepy bug would skitter onto my toes.” And that little thing was speedy, too. “The glass slipper was just there on one of the displays at the little souvenir store. I picked it up and smushed that bug, quick as a wink.”
He looked at me like he was waiting for more.
I glanced back toward the Myers’s house just in time to see the blinds on one of her windows drop back into place.
“And.”
I let my head roll back and looked up at the ceiling of the porch. “I didn’t mean to take it. I didn’t even know it was in my bag. It had slipped down to the depths of my mammoth purse and I didn’t even uncover it until I got off the plane at DFW airport.”
“Then?”
“Well, I couldn’t take it all the way back. And I didn’t want to keep it. I might be willing to murder a wandering bug, but I’m no thief.” Of all the nerve. “Besides, if the thing got busted, I’d have felt horrible!”
“So?”
If I didn’t get this man out of here, my whole neighborhood would be spinning stories in no time. “I took it into the airport restaurant and left it next to a pile of menues. That’s all I know about it.”
The eyebrow rose again as he jotted something into his notepad. “Can anyone corroborate your story?”
I lifted my chin and raised an eyebrow at him for a change. “As a matter of fact, April Hayman can. She was seated next to the hostess stand where I put the slipper. I left it there, found my baggage, and zipped back home.” So there.
As you can see… I am not the guilty party.
Thankfully, the officer left and Mrs. Myers was robbed of her juicy, spreadable tidbit.
But apparently, some princess’s prom shoe is still missing. Maybe April knows something about it? You can find out what she has to say on her blog HERE, tomorrow!
Follow the clues each day to discover the culprit. And click THIS LINK to enter to win an Amazon gift card!
Marji Laine 