A Fowl Play on Christmas Day, page 1
A FOWL PLAY ON CHRISTMAS DAY
AN AUNTIE CLEM’S BAKERY AND REG RAWLINS PSYCHIC INVESTIGATOR CROSSOVER
P.D. WORKMAN
ABOUT A FOWL PLAY ON CHRISTMAS DAY
FROM USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, P.D. WORKMAN!
The perfect recipe for a cozy holiday read
The cookies are warm and the milk is ice cold. Get ready for a heartwarming and suspenseful holiday mystery with A Fowl Play on Christmas Day.
When colorful con Reg Rawlins arrives in Bald Eagle Falls to visit her foster sister, Erin, she never expected to get caught up in a haunting mystery that threatens to unravel the town’s holiday cheer. With strange occurrences linked to the ghost of Jacob Marbleton, Reg and Erin must work together to uncover a long-forgotten injustice.
But are Reg’s vivid dreams of Marbleton’s ghost real or just her imagination? With the Christmas rush on at Auntie Clem’s Bakery, a mysterious stranger, and a missing cat thrown into the mix, this holiday season in Bald Eagle Falls is anything but ordinary.
Join Reg and Erin on a wild sleigh ride through Bald Eagle Falls in this suspenseful and heartwarming mystery. Perfect for fans of cozy mysteries and holiday stories, A Fowl Play on Christmas Day is a must-read this holiday season.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ this entertaining mystery has lots of action for Bakery owner Erin Price and P.I Reg – with a ghost and a mystery to be revealed – at a haunted theatre, where show preparations are beset by mysterious goings-on.
A Fowl Play on Christmas Day is a lighthearted mystery that will keep you turning pages until the very end. It is a crossover between the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series and the Reg Rawlins, Psychic Investigator series.
It is Day 6 of the Twelve Days of Christmas Cozy Mysteries multi-author series.
Praise for the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series:
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ I love the lively characters in this series and always get hungry reading about Erin and Vic’s gluten-free goodies.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ In addition to the wonderful characters, the book is well written and contains nice plot twists. I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next in the series.
Praise for the Reg Rawlins, Psychic Investigator series:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Just when I think Ms. Workman can’t possibly think up anything different for this series, she delivers big time. —Sandy
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I love the magical characters in this series. They never fail to keep you entertained. Such a fun series.—Kandy
Copyright © 2023 by P.D. Workman
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 9781774686959 (KDP Paperback)
ISBN: 9781774686942 (ePub)
ISBN: 9781989080610 (Lulu)
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For believers and non-believers
hand in hand on Christmas Day
❄︎
CONTENTS
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
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Preview of What the Cat Knew
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Also by P.D. Workman
About the Author
CHAPTER 1
Reg looked up and down the street. She didn’t see anyone watching so, hopefully, her arrival had been unobserved. She gathered her colorful skirts and walked up the sidewalk to Erin Price’s house and rang the doorbell.
Erin opened the door a moment later. Her eyes widened in shock.
“Reg! What are you doing here? Oh, my goodness! Come in.” She opened the door wider to usher Reg inside. Reg saw Erin arm the burglar alarm on the keypad beside the door after closing it again.
Erin hugged Reg impulsively. They had never been real huggers when they had been foster sisters in the same home, but then, physical contact between the kids was discouraged, as social services didn’t want to have to separate children who were too attached to each other or boys and girls who happened to get too friendly. But with Reg living in Black Sands in Florida and Erin in Bald Eagle Falls, Tennessee, they didn’t see each other very often and hugs were definitely in order. Reg returned the squeeze and then pulled back.
Erin’s eyes sparkled. She pushed a lock of her short dark hair back over her ear, shaking her head as she looked Reg over, from the top of her fortune-teller headscarf to the toes of her sandals poking out under her voluminous skirt. “I can’t believe that you just showed up on my doorstep. You didn’t even tell me you were coming!” A shadow passed over her face. “You’re not in trouble, are you? If you’re on the run, this isn’t the best place to land…”
Certainly not, considering the fact that Erin’s partner was a cop. A small-town cop who knew Reg and had previously had reason to suspect her in a cluster of jewelry thefts that were not Reg’s fault. She had promised herself after the last whirl-wind visit to Bald Eagle Falls that she would come back and have a real visit the next time, when everything had calmed down.
“No, I just wanted to come for a visit. We didn’t really get a chance to visit when I was chasing down that truffle company, and…” Reg shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. I just thought it would be nice. If you want, I will stay at a hotel…”
“Oh, no,” Erin shook her head vigorously. “There’s no hotel in town and I don’t want you having to go back and forth to the city. Even the B&B is booked up. It’s Christmas, and a lot of people are visiting, especially if they want to see the Christmas Carol Carnival.”
Reg chuckled. “The Christmas Carol Carnival?”
“I know, it’s a bit much, but small towns do that kind of thing. It’s like a pageant or a talent show, different people doing different songs or performances for Christmas. I’m helping with the performance of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Cindy Prost is coordinating The Twelve Days of Christmas—with live animals.”
“You’re kidding.”
A yowl issued out of the cat carrier Reg held at her side, as if Starlight couldn’t believe the news either. Reg’s arms were aching. She set down the cat carrier she held in one hand, and the suitcase she held in the other. She let the oversized handbag on her shoulder slide down to land on top of the cat carrier.
“Oh!” Erin’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even see! Who is this?” She crouched down to look through the metal grill at Starlight, Reg’s tuxedo cat, who blinked at her with his one blue eye and one green eye. “Aww…”
“This is Starlight.” Reg tried to think if further explanation was required. “He’s… well, I couldn’t leave him alone for Christmas.”
“No, of course not.”
“He comes with me on vacations. He doesn’t like it when I go off on my own, even if I leave him with someone to take care of him.”
“No, cats worry about their owners, don’t they?”
A large orange cat came padding down the hall, his eyes suspicious, nose twitching as he caught Starlight’s scent. He approached the cat carrier and started sniffing around it, yowling complaints at Erin.
“I know, I know, Orange Blossom,” Erin laughed. “You probably don’t like another cat coming into your territory. But Starlight is only going to be here for a little while. You guys can get along.”
Blossom hissed at Starlight, who didn’t react. He didn’t act afraid of the bigger cat, but Reg knew he wanted out of the carrier to stretch his legs and explore.
“If it’s too much trouble, I can find somewhere else to stay,” Reg repeated, hoping this would prompt Erin’s hospitality.
“No, no, of course you’ll stay here. You can stay in the spare room. Do you remember where it is?” Erin motioned toward the room Reg had previously stayed in. “There are fresh sheets on the bed, and I will bring you some towels. You can let Starlight out in there… I’m not sure how the two of them will get along if we put them together. It might be best if we don’t do that right away. Let them get used to being in the same house first.”
“Okay. Thanks. I really appreciate that.” Reg picked up her things and took them into the spare bedroom, which was homey and a good size. Better than staying in a hotel, which might not like the presence of a cat. And then there was Erin’s baking… Erin was the best gluten-free baker Reg knew. She was a top-notch baker of any kind, but the gluten-free treats she made just blew Reg away. She’d tasted some of the prepackaged commercial stuff out there, and Erin’s baking could not even be compared to such things. At Erin’s house, there would be muffins, freshly-baked bread, or cinnamon rolls for breakfast every day.
If Reg could get up for
She put down her luggage and shut the spare room door before opening the cat carrier.
Starlight flowed out of the carrier and stretched himself top-to-tail, his muscles quivering. He then stretched out each back leg, toes wide apart and extended, before flopping in the middle of the floor for a bath and grooming session.
“Well, I’m glad to see that you’re comfortable here,” Reg laughed.
Starlight paused in his licking to look at her momentarily, the white star mark in the middle of his forehead shining snowy white in the afternoon sun. Then he continued to attend to his toilet.
CHAPTER 2
Erin worried about Reg as she got dinner ready in anticipation of Terry’s arrival.
Was she telling the truth when she said she wasn’t there because she was in trouble? For Reg to show up on Erin’s doorstep with her cat carrier in hand, there had to be something going on. She had received only occasional phone calls from Reg for the year and a half since she had stayed in town last, and that one visit during the summer when she had been looking for information on the company distributing some truffles that were apparently making people sick where Reg was living in Florida. But Reg had never even told her how that had all turned out. She assumed they had caught the culprit and the poisonings had stopped, but it had never made national news. Erin hadn’t been able to find out anything about it online.
So what was Reg up to?
Was she there to run another con? Was she just lonely and wanted to see Erin again?
Reg was still dressed like a fortune teller, with a green scarf wrapped around her head, her red box braids swaying free underneath it, a poofy blouse, vibrantly colored skirt, and some tacky costume jewelry on her fingers, arms, and neck. So she was still playing the “psychic medium” con. It must have turned out to be profitable for her.
Erin wasn’t sure how she was going to fit in a house guest on top of her other responsibilities. Christmas season was a busy time at the bakery. The time that she was spending at the theater was pretty significant, and they were ramping up for a Christmas Day production. It was likely to take more time over the next six days, not less. It was not a good time for company to drop in.
She heard the front door open, Terry arriving home with K9 at his side. Erin left her pots to greet her “Officer Handsome” and give K9 a scratch behind his ears.
“Uh… something happened today,” Erin told Terry nervously.
“I didn’t hear news that you stumbled across another body,” he teased, eyes twinkling. His cheek dimpled.
Erin kissed his sandpapery five o’clock shadow. “No, it’s not that… it’s… we have a guest.”
Terry’s head turned to look at the guest room, the door still shut so that Reg could have Starlight out of his carrier.
“Oh? Were we expecting company?”
“No, we were not. But I can’t turn Reg away.”
“Reg Rawlins?” Terry’s brow furrowed and the dimple disappeared. “What is she doing here? Is she in trouble?”
“No, she said she wasn’t. I don’t know.”
“I can check for outstanding warrants.”
“Not while she’s here. If there were, you’d have to arrest her.”
Terry hesitated, then nodded, conceding the point. If he wanted to avoid having to arrest Reg during her visit, he couldn’t open himself up by searching for warrants, leaving an electronic trail that could be used against him. There was more deniability if he didn’t bother to look, claiming that it never occurred to him that Reg could be in any trouble.
As if anyone would believe that.
“You really want her to stay here, given how she left last time?”
Erin shook her head. “I can’t turn her away. And there’s no proof that she did anything wrong last time.”
“Those heirlooms and trinkets did not grow legs and walk away.”
“No. But you can’t prove that it was Reg.”
He tilted his head and gave a shrug. “I’m going to change before dinner.”
Erin let him go and returned to the kitchen. Terry would be more comfortable in street clothes, and it would be better if he weren’t in uniform while visiting with Reg. That would just increase the tension between them. While Erin was excited about having Reg there for a few days, she was worried about the friction between her and Terry.
CHAPTER 3
There was a light tap at the door. “Dinner, Reg,” Erin called.
“Be right there.”
Reg made sure that Starlight was settled comfortably on the hand-stitched quilt on the bed and wasn’t going to make a break for the door as soon as she opened it. He curled and stretched, nose to back toes, turning his white tummy upward. Reg resisted going in for a belly rub, which would likely only earn her a number of new scratches and gouges when Starlight attacked with all four pointy ends.
She quickly opened and closed the door and joined Erin in the kitchen. The aroma of the casserole and whatever else she had been warming filled the house and made Reg’s stomach growl. After all the restaurant meals Reg ate, it would be nice to have a home-cooked meal. Though her landlady Sarah’s leftovers should count for something too. Then again, Reg rarely ate the leftovers, feeding them to Starlight or dumping them in the garbage.
Maybe she actually wasn’t that big on home-cooked meals.
But Erin’s dinner smelled great, and Reg was sure that there would be fresh rolls to go along with it and cookies or something even better for dessert.
Terry was coming down the hallway toward Reg with K9 at his side. She nodded at him, trying to keep her face neutral. She didn’t have to worry about Erin’s partner. Reg had a cop friend of her own, so it shouldn’t be that hard to have a natural conversation around Terry and to pretend that his presence didn’t bother her.
“Evening, Reg,” Terry greeted casually.
“Terry,” Reg acknowledged. It was hard not to call him Officer Piper, but that wasn’t his role here. They were just having dinner together. A nice casual get-together.
She waited for an instant when they reached the table to allow Terry to take his usual chair. She didn’t know where each of them usually sat and didn’t want to usurp Terry or make either of them uncomfortable. Terry took his seat and nodded to the chair at the side of the table. Reg took it gratefully. K9 lay down next to Terry.
Reg had heard Erin feeding the animals while she had been getting Starlight settled. So they were quiet and out of the way. Orange Blossom had a particularly raucous meow that made Reg giggle. The other of the furry cohorts that she had not yet seen on this visit was Marshmallow, a brown and white rabbit that Erin had rescued. He got along with both the cat and the dog, as unlikely as that seemed. The cat and the dog getting along with each other was another matter. While K9 was tolerant of Blossom and would have been happy to make friends with him, Orange Blossom had his own opinion of dogs that he did not hesitate to make known.
As long as the dog didn’t have food that Blossom wanted, in which case they were the best of friends for two minutes.
“Dinner smells delicious, Erin.”
“Thanks. It’s mostly just warmed up from the freezer. With everything going on right now, I don’t have a lot of time so, whenever I cook, I try to make several meals at once and freeze them.”
