Murder in the Mystery Suite (A Book Retreat Mystery) Read Online Free Page B

flashlight in hand.”
    Jane smiled. She loved that the twins would have a hard time deciding whether to spend their allowance on a toy or puzzle from Geppetto’s or a comic from Run for Cover Book Shop. Either purchase would do more to foster their burgeoning imaginations than the majority of the items at the sprawling shopping mall over the mountain.
    Storyton Village looked like it belonged to another era. The buildings were made of brick or stone and had leaded windows with diamond-shaped panes and thick oak doors polished to a high gloss. Each cottage had its own small, but spectacular, garden. Herbs, roses, perennials, flowering vines, and vegetables vied for space and sunlight in front of every shop, office, and eatery. All the business owners tried to outshine their neighbors by crowding their gardens with benches, birdbaths, statuary, and gazing balls. This friendly competition lent the village an eclectic air.
    For example, Storyton’s pub, the Cheshire Cat, had an enormous sculpture of a smiling feline in its garden. The cat’s famous toothy grin was made out of chipped dinner plates, which glimmered eerily in the dark. Betty, the publican’s wife, had planted five varieties of catnip around the base of the statue. As a result, most of Storyton’s tomcats crept to the pub after sundown to nibble the fragrant leaves. Jane had heard tales of inebriated men stumbling out of the pub to encounter a herd of felines high on catnip. According to local legend, the two species would sometimes join together in yowling at the moon. Their high-pitched keening often resulted in the sheriff being roused from his bed.
    “I’m first!” Fitz shouted upon reaching the pub’s gate.
    Without slowing, Jane pedaled past her son and called back over her shoulder, “Last one to touch Pinocchio’s nose is a rotten egg!”
    She didn’t maintain the lead for long. Hem whizzed by her, his sandy brown hair forming two wings above his ears.
    “Maybe we should stop at the barber’s!” she shouted at him, knowing the remark would only spur him into increasing his pace.
    “No way!” Fitz protested as he drew up alongside her. “We had a haircut last month!”
    Jane laughed. “You two truly belong in Neverland.”
    “Yeah, then Hem could kiss a mermaid,” Fitz goaded his brother as he and Jane came to a stop in front of the toy shop.
    Hem, who’d already dismounted and parked his bike against Geppetto’s picket fence, ran into the garden to touch the metal statue of Pinocchio. Standing on his tiptoes, he grabbed hold of the puppet’s steel nose and stuck his tongue out at his brother. “And
you
could kiss Wendy. I know you love her and want to marry her.” He began to blow raspberries against his palm.
    Knowing this conversation would likely escalate into a full-blown fight, Jane held out a warning finger. “One more word, and I will revoke your allowances.”
    Hem gave her a guileless stare. “What does revoke mean?”
    “It means that I’ll take your money back,” she said.
    The boys exchanged horrified glances.
    “You can’t do that!” Fitz declared indignantly.
    Jane smiled. “I’m your mother. I can do anything I want.”
    Grumbling about the imbalance of power in the family, Fitz and Hem entered the shop. Barnaby Nicholas looked up from the pirate marionette he was painting and beamed.
    “Ah, Ms. Steward! Master Fitz! Master Hem! How are we on this fine day?”
    Hem brandished his leather wallet, which he’d sewn using a kit the toymaker had sold him. “We have money.”
    Grinning at the boy over his half-moon reading glasses, Mr. Nicholas worked the strings on the marionette so that the wooden pirate bowed. “A man with gold coins in his pocket is me favorite kind of customer, to be sure,” he growled in his best swashbuckler voice.
    “Can I leave them here for a bit?” Jane asked. “It always takes them forever to decide what to buy.”
    “Certainly, my fair lady.” It was the pirate who replied.