A Fatal Fall: A Senoia Cozy Mystery Read online

  A Fatal Fall

  A Senoia Cozy Mystery

  Susan Harper

  Fairfield Publishing

  Contents

  Copyright

  Message to Readers

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Thank You!

  Copyright © 2017 Fairfield Publishing

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.

  This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Thank you so much for buying my book. I am excited to share my stories with you and hope that you are just as thrilled to read them.

  If you would like to know about all my new releases and have the opportunity to get free books, make sure you sign up for our Cozy Mystery Newsletter.

  FairfieldPublishing.com/cozy-newsletter

  Chapter 1

  Felicity Overton took a gulp of scorching hot coffee, nearly spilling it in her surprise. “Slow down there, cowgirl,” Jefferson, her long-time assistant, teased her.

  They, along with their friends who worked at Newnan Hospital, were gathered at Senoia Coffee on the corner of Main Street. It had become a Tuesday morning ritual for them, as Tuesday mornings seemed to be the only time that the entire group could manage to get together. Plus, the coffee shop offered some rather tempting discounts on Tuesdays to try to bring in more foot traffic on the slower business day.

  Felicity’s closest friend Autumn worked in the local morgue, while Veronica was a part-time employee at the hospital while she was studying to become a surgeon, and Dawn and Monte were both practicing nurses who, evidently, were both considering a career change.

  “I just don’t feel fulfilled anymore, you know?” Dawn said, looking drained.

  Felicity couldn’t imagine working the night shift four nights a week, or working twelve-hour shifts. Felicity owned her own shop, one that was filled with couches and beanbag chairs that she could slouch down in when she felt the need, so being on her feet all night running around the hospital did not sound like a pleasant way to spend the evening to Felicity. She could understand Dawn’s change of heart after spending two years working as a nurse.

  “At least you know what you’re going to do. I’m still just bellowing about how much I hate my job,” Monte griped. He was in a similar boat as Dawn; the nursing world was simply not for them, it seemed.

  “Oh, so you did decide on a major?” Felicity questioned Dawn, offering her friend a smile. The woman had been back and forth for several months now.

  “Education. I think I want to teach,” Dawn said proudly.

  “You know what?” Jefferson said with a smile. “That sounds perfect for you.”

  “I know, right?” Dawn said, looking incredibly perky. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I guess just because my mom and my sisters were all nurses that it just sort of felt like I was supposed to be a nurse too, but I am just not happy doing it. I love kids though. I could see myself as a science teacher, especially with my background. But I might do early childhood education, so who knows.”

  Felicity smiled at Monte, who was scowling slightly. “Don’t worry, Monte. You’ll figure out what you want to do.”

  “I just thought I’d be settled into my career at this age, and starting over kind of freaks me out. Maybe if I knew what I wanted to do, it wouldn’t seem so intimidating.” Monte sighed.

  Jefferson took a cautious sip of his coffee. “You know, Monte, I never in a million years thought I would wind up working as a party planner for Felicity. And Felicity had been going to school for investigative journalism before we created Overton Events. Just keep your mind open, and maybe you’ll find something you love that you wouldn’t have expected to be perfect for you.”

  Monte nodded approvingly. “That’s true. I never would have guessed a guy like you would be into party planning.”

  “He’s just into Felicity,” Veronica teased, and Felicity blushed slightly to see how fidgety Jefferson got at the comment. She chose to ignore the joke and not add fuel to Veronica’s fire.

  “Speaking of party planning,” Monte said, diverting everyone’s attention from that comment. “I don’t think any of us have seen the shop since you two remodeled.”

  “That’s right!” Autumn chimed. “You two only opened up a few months ago, and you are already doing remodeling. That was pretty bold.”

  “Well,” Felicity said, turning her eyes toward her assistant, “Jefferson’s idea to feed off the new fame we’ve gotten turned out to be genius.”

  “I still can’t believe you solved a murder and broke up a potential drug ring,” Dawn said.

  It was true. When Overton’s Events had first opened, during the midst of their first event for the city, a murder had taken place. Felicity had worked alongside the police—or rather, behind their backs—to solve the murder of a man named Charles, an out-of-towner whose son had gotten caught up in drug dealing. She had stopped drugs from being brought into her little town and had brought the killer to justice, earning herself some newfound fame with the local stations and newspapers. They had even done a story on her on the Atlanta news stations.

  Jefferson had had the genius idea to theme their party planning shop to look like something out of an old timey crime detective series, as an example to how they could do themed parties. People had travelled from all across the state to meet Felicity and her uniquely designed shop, and to hear about how she had solved a local murder. They had nearly doubled their bookings since posting sneak peek photos of the new shop design on their website.

  “Well, I was just doing my civic duty,” Felicity proclaimed, but truthfully, she was quite proud of herself. It had felt good stepping in, and solving the case had been quite a rush.

  “Okay, well, I know most of us are going to have to go to work soon,” Autumn said. “So I say while we’re all here, we go up the street to check out the new look.”

  The group agreed, and they picked up their coffees and headed out the door. As soon as they left the quiet of the coffee shop, their ears were abruptly greeted by the sound of jackhammers, saws, and various other noises from the construction work taking place on Main Street. A few doors down from the coffee shop, and right next to Overton’s Events, a group of apartments were being added. With the thriving movie industry so close to home in this tiny little Georgia town, there was a growing need for rental housing for people travelling to Georgia to film who would be taking extended stays—namely, actors. A local businessman had seen the future need and was taking full advantage by adding in the tiny apartment complex. The construction had been going on for many months now, and it was far from complete.

  “Ugh, I am so tired of this,” Jefferson grumbled as they walked into the middle of the street, since the sidewalk was blocked off all the way up until they would reach the party shop. There was dust in the air, and the men working on the construction made a painful amount of noise.

  “It’s going to look really great once it’s finished,” Felicity assured him. “They’re at least keeping the old timey look, right?”

  “The city wouldn’t have let them add anything that would modernize the place too much,” said Dawn.

  The two side-by-side apar
tment buildings were only two stories high, but they maintained the familiar architecture that made Senoia, well, Senoia. “Always the optimist,” Jefferson teased, giving Felicity a slight nudge as they walked. The apartments were not the only new buildings to their little corner of the world. The street behind the party shop, which was essentially just an add-on to Main Street, was hosting a new cluster of buildings as well. Only one of the new shops were open, and it happened to be a tiny gym. Felicity had sent flowers to the new owners just as all of the kind people on Main Street had done for her when she and Jefferson first arrived on the scene.

  Once they were standing in front of the shop, the group stopped to admire the new sign that hung over the door. The O in Overton’s Events was now a large magnifying glass. “Jefferson, you did a great job with that design,” Autumn praised, and he gushed slightly.

  “Wait until you see what Felicity did on the inside,” Jefferson said and unlocked the doors. It was nearly time to open the shop anyway.

  They flooded inside, and Felicity smiled proudly as hers friends became very vocal about the new décor. Upon entering the shop, you got an immediate sense of an old time detective movie. “It looks like Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, and the Hardy Boys threw up in here,” Veronica laughed. She then paused and pointed to one of the end tables by the couches where she saw that one of the lamp’s base was made to look like a stack of detective books, Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes both among them. “Did you make that? Too cute!” Veronica exclaimed as she examined the lamp.

  “I did,” Felicity said proudly. “Well, we did. I had Jefferson create the wooden books for the base. I painted them and attached the book base to the actual lamp.”

  In the center of the room was a chalk drawing of a body, which wasn’t as unsettling as Felicity had thought it would be. Police caution tape wrapped around the room where the walls and ceiling met, the red couches gave a sort of cigar room feel, and the paintings and pictures of thumb prints and magnifying glasses gave the room a lovely touch. The place was still full of sample books of various types of parties they had done, but turning the entire shop into one giant example of a themed party had been nothing short of pure genius. In fact, a few birthday parties they had booked had changed their minds about their concepts after seeing the shop. Felicity and Jefferson now had a special Super Sleuth package for those wanting to do what was now their most popular party theme.

  While their friends were gawking at the new design, Jefferson grabbed a broom from the back. “I’m going to sweep away all the dirt and sawdust that the construction has kicked up in front of our shop.” Felicity could sense the agitation in his tone.

  She laughed slightly at him as he made his way out front. “Poor Jefferson,” she said, and her friends laughed.

  “So you got any upcoming open invite events we need to know about?” Dawn asked hopefully.

  Felicity nodded excitedly. “Yes! We have some really cool things!” she exclaimed and hurried over to the counter to pull out her booking information. “A Miss Abigail Dumont has booked us for something fun and a little unusual. So she owns this DJ business, and we may even start working with her in the future so that we can have some additional sources for music at our parties. Well, anyway, she and the owner of those apartments Jefferson has been griping about all morning got permission from the city to do a rager in the empty apartment buildings.”

  “A rager?” Autumn questioned, and Felicity nodded excitedly again.

  “She means booze, loud music, and blinding lights,” Monte said.

  “Pretty much,” Felicity admitted. “And a ton of glow sticks. That’s probably why they’ve been working non-stop this week on the building. They’re adding in some temporary railing since they haven’t added in windows or doors to make sure the party is safe. It’s coming up in about a week or two, and Jefferson and I are running things. Abigail’s business will be providing the music and the bartender.”

  “Why is she doing it? Who is the party for?” Veronica asked.

  “For her. It’s a publicity stunt. It’s going to advertise the new apartments, help her promote her business, and it’s going to be a big campaign for the city. There will probably even be people from the film studios coming. The police are going to block off Main Street for the night too, as the party will probably be too big for just those little apartment buildings and will probably pour out into the street.” Felicity giggled. “Not exactly the kind of parties Jefferson and I are used to throwing, but we’re pretty excited about it. We hired security to help keep it under control because it’s going to probably get a little crazy on Main Street that night.”

  “Whoa,” Autumn said. “It’s going to be like an Atlanta club out here. You’re basically going to turn the entire Main Street into one giant party, aren’t you?”

  “That’s the plan,” Felicity bragged. Truthfully, she was nervous. All it was going to take was one broken shop window or one obnoxious teenager vandalizing a closed building to hurt Overton’s Events reputation, but the publicity she would get if the event went over well would be worth the risk. The city officials were already worried and hesitant, but Felicity and Abigail had worked together to settle their nerves. She just wished she could settle her own. Just as she was thinking about all the horrors that could take place—a broken shop window or an underage teenager getting busted with alcohol—an ear-splitting noise jolted her out of her negative fantasy.

  Autumn screamed. Monte screamed louder. Veronica and Dawn both jumped a foot in the air in surprise. After the initial shock wore off, Felicity looked up to see that her front window had completely shattered. A crowbar from the apartment building next door was now lying on the floor next to the chalk drawing. She gritted her teeth to keep from screaming in frustration, as Jefferson was already outside doing that for her. In fact, his colorful language almost made her feel bad for the clumsy construction worker—though not too bad, as she could hear the man screaming back at Jefferson as though it was somehow Jefferson’s fault the man dropped the crowbar off the roof.

  “Well,” Autumn said. “Looks like that’s our cue.”

  “You guys are going to leave me now?” Felicity moaned as she imagined how the rest of her day was going to go dealing with the broken window and what was going to be a very flustered and angry Jefferson.

  “We all have to get to work, otherwise we’d stay,” Monte said. “And we should probably get out of your way so that you can handle this.”

  “Don’t step on the glass,” she said and rolled her eyes at her friends who were quick to leave to avoid the awkward confrontation that was sure to come with the man who had dropped the crowbar through her window.

  Felicity shook her head, knowing now that she had a long day ahead of her.

  Chapter 2

  Ten Days Later

  The music coming from the apartment buildings flowed out into the street where people were already dancing and waving around glow sticks as the sun set over Senoia. Felicity smiled as she passed around a tin bucket full of glow stick glasses for people. She herself had at least eight or so glowing bracelets as well as one necklace. Thus far, the party was quite the hit. No noise complaints either, which was better than expected considering the number of homes so close to Main Street, but they had planned and had made the event well known to the locals far enough in advance that the neighboring homes had been prepared for the evening.

  Local police were stationed up and down the road as a safety precaution, and the security team that Felicity had hired was scattered within the apartment buildings and in the midst of the crowd as well. She had been running around all day preparing for this, and so far it was really paying off. “Great party, Felicity!” someone behind her shouted, and she spun around to see Autumn adorned in purple glow sticks. Apparently, the woman was working with a specific theme for the evening. She was dressed in a cream-colored blouse that seemed to glow purple from the ridiculous amount of glow sticks she had up and down her arms and around her neck.


  Felicity laughed and pulled out a pair of purple glowing glasses. “I think this will match the rest of your…attire,” she said as Autumn put them on.

  There were speakers hanging on the outside of the buildings, bringing the music out into the streets, so Autumn had to shout for Felicity to hear her. “Seriously, Felicity, you and Jefferson did a great job with this!”

  “A lot of it was Abigail Dumont. She supplied the bartender and the DJ system,” Felicity shouted back. “So who all is here besides you?”

  “Monte and Dawn are here, I saw them by the DJ station inside a while ago, but Veronica had to work tonight. I’m actually going to have to leave soon for my shift, so if I don’t see you, I’ll be sure to call you tomorrow. Ooh, Veronica is going to be so jealous when I tell her about this one!” Autumn called out before dancing her way toward the back of the crowd to make her way down Main Street toward wherever she had managed to find parking.

  Felicity headed toward the apartment buildings, sighing at the grotesque looking black trash bag hanging where her shop’s window had once been. She hadn’t had time to deal with it with this enormous party coming up, but she would be having a word with the head of the construction company soon enough.

  In a desperate attempt to make her shop more appealing for the party, she had used glow-in-the dark spray paint on the black trash bag. It was a simple drawing of a flower, but the glow-in-the-dark paint sort of matched the glow stick theme they had going on.

  She managed to push through the crowd and make her way into the apartment building where most of the dancing was taking place. Really, the entire concept of this party was a little dangerous, but the owner of the apartments had taken a lot of safety precautions. He had shut down actual construction for several days just to clean the place out of all equipment and material as well as add a number of temporary railings around the holes in the walls that would eventually become windows, as well as adding railings up the flights of stairs that were still incomplete.