Too Much Monkey Business

By Deborah Lee Lott

Olivia’s life had just gotten back to normal after the death of her parents, when her beloved grandmother passed away. This was when her world began to turn upside down. She would soon discover some shocking things about her family, especially the grandmother whom she had lived with for so many years and her sister had turned into someone completely different than the beautiful person that she thought she knew. How could anyone know so little about the family they grew up with? She was even beginning to wonder how well she knew her best friend. Olivia seemed to wake up one morning to a life that wasn’t her own and nothing could have prepared her for the involvement she would have in a whirlwind international event involving the world of fashion, diamonds, detectives and theft. Then there’s the circus thing. Who would have ever thought she would be drawn into the middle of that? And to actually find a little romance within all of the chaos was so far beyond anything she could have ever imagined. This was too much for a small town girl to deal with in such a short period of time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deborah Lee Lott
• Release date: Jul 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301315178

Deborah Lee Lott

Several years ago, Deborah Lee Lott wrote a magazine article just as a fluke - a “why not” kind of thing. She never dreamed that the magazine she submitted the article to would accept it, but they did. They even asked her for photos to go with the article, so she took a travel weekend and got the photos. Her efforts paid off, as they gave her a two page magazine spread. Then life took her away from writing. Years later she took it up again by writing a children’s rhyming book. Life took her away from writing, yet again; until she had a dream one night and woke the next morning with a strong nagging to write it down. When she did, the words just kept flowing and flowing for days until she had written a book. This time she knew she couldn’t give up her passion for writing. Mystery is her favored genre and where her heart lies, but she also pursues other areas of writing. She has written articles, newsletters, manuals, song lyrics, copywriting, fiction and non-fiction books and stories. She has had several articles published as well as a short mystery in an issue of the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. She has also self-published a mystery, a non-fiction and a children's book. When Deborah Lee Lott isn’t writing, she enjoys working in her garden and being surrounded by nature or immersing herself in painting. “We’re all given gifts and we shouldn’t waste those gifts”.

Book preview

Too Much Monkey Business

Published by D. Lee Lott at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 D. Lee Lott

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter One

Olivia awoke in the middle of the night to the feeling of freezing feet. Actually, she felt pretty cold all over. As she reached for the comforter, her eyes were drawn to the open bedroom window. She knew she hadn’t opened it before going to bed and why would she anyway. Although it was early April, there was still a light layer of snow on the ground and it was still cold. She suddenly felt very uncomfortable and slowly raised her head to look around the room, but she didn’t see anything out of place or anything out of the ordinary other than the window being open. She cautiously sat up and looked around before getting out of bed and moving ever so slowly towards the window to close it. It was hard to get her thoughts together when she was freezing. She felt the window sill for dampness as she pulled the window down, but there didn’t seem to be any, and there definitely would have been if someone had come through it considering the snow on the ground. She looked out the window and checked the ground for footprints before closing the window completely, but she didn’t see any footprints in the snow leading to the back of the house where her bedroom was located. Of course, even if there were footprints, they would be hard to see from her second story window along with the shadows stretching across the yard from the big elm trees. She closed the window and crawled back into bed, deciding that she must have, for some unknown reason, opened it before she fell asleep and had just forgotten about it. This was her first night in the old house and it was a big house for one person to be alone in.

Olivia fell back to sleep and didn’t wake again until early the next morning when, again, she felt the same coldness that she had experienced in the middle of the night. This time, she was a little frightened. She opened her eyes without moving and slowly looked around the room which was well lit from the daylight pouring in through the window. Everything was just as it had been when she woke up in the middle of the night. Her bedroom door was still open as she had left it and her closet door was shut. The closet! All of a sudden she was stricken with panic. What if someone was in the closet and she was just lying here in wait? She suddenly remembered the mace in the drawer of her nightstand that she kept there as a precautionary measure and to help her feel more secure. So she slowly reached over to open the drawer while keeping her eyes on the closet door. She would never consider keeping a gun in the house, so the mace would have to suffice in offering her protection. She eased out of bed with the mace in her hand and moved slowly and quietly toward the closet door planning on opening the door quickly to surprise whoever might be in there. With the mace aimed at what she hoped was eye level, she jerked the door open. An immediate sense of relief drifted over her whole body as she found the closet to be empty. Still she moved some of the clothes around just for self satisfaction, then turned around and tip-toed over to the bedroom door to bolt it shut. She really didn’t know why there was a bolt on the door, but right now she was awfully glad it was there. She determined that being alone in this big old house, must really be affecting her imagination.

The house had belonged to her grandmother and was left to her along with a substantial amount of money when her grandmother recently passed away. She was only keeping the house because it was what her grandmother wanted, as she often firmly stated. It was much more house than she wanted to deal with, but a promise was a promise and she had promised her grandmother that she would keep it. She could always rent it out if it got to be too much for her to handle. Although she had such wonderful memories of her childhood here, there was no way she could live in the house comfortably without remodeling the outdated downstairs, especially the kitchen, so she used a small amount of the money she inherited to make the updates that she felt were needed. She only made changes to the downstairs because she didn’t feel the need to make any changes upstairs and she wanted to be able to retain remembrances of her childhood here as well as keep some of the originality of the house. She realized she hadn’t been in the house in years, but she couldn’t remember there ever being a bolt on her grandmother’s bedroom door and wondered what had possessed her to put it there.

She walked over to shut the window and, again, checked for footprints in the snow, but found none. Finding the window open a second time, was a little unnerving, so she grabbed her purse and dug through to the bottom for her cell phone and began dialing the number of her long time friend, Jordan. They had been friends since junior high, which really didn’t seem that long ago. Jordan wasn’t answering. Now what was she going to do? Should she call the police when she didn’t know if she had a real reason to call them? Even though she felt silly doing it, she walked over and put her ear up to the door to see if she could hear any noises in the house. There was nothing but silence and her imagination was now in full swing. Maybe if someone came in during the night, they went back out early this morning. She shuddered to think that someone might have been in the house all night while she was sleeping. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the ringing of the phone on her nightstand. Should she pick it up? What if someone is still in the house and picks up the phone from downstairs? She quickly answered to keep it from ringing again; listening for the slightest sound that would indicate someone picking up. If she heard anything at all, she would hang up and quickly call the police from her cell phone.

Thankfully, it was Jordan. Hi, I just saw your number come up on the phone. Why didn’t you leave a message? She managed in a sleepy voice.

Jordan, Olivia was whispering I’ll call you right back on my cell phone. She hung up without even giving Jordan a chance to say anything and immediately called her back and quickly explained what had occurred during the night and early this morning. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to call the police because I don’t know for sure if anyone has been in here and I haven’t heard any noises coming from anywhere in the house. Maybe whoever was here already left through the window. Although, if they were already in the house, why wouldn’t they go out the door? She still couldn’t understand why anyone would come in the window or how they even got up to it.

Well, you, obviously, have to do something. There definitely was or is something going on there and you can’t just hide in your room all day. I’ll call Dad and see if he can go over to check things out, or see what he thinks you should do. I’ll call you right back. Jordan hung up horrified at the possibility that someone could be in there with her friend.

The minutes seemed to drag by before Olivia’s cell phone finally rang again. I talked to Dad, Jordan hesitated. He said he’d be right over, but don’t expect him to be in a good mood. He has been very busy this morning and if he doesn’t find anything, it might worsen his mood. Of course, I hope for your sake, that he doesn’t find anything. Are you still not hearing any noises? Olivia, why would anyone come in through your window and how would they get up there anyway? Jordan kept her friend on the phone and chatted idly trying to keep Olivia’s mind occupied and to pass the time while they both waited for Jordan’s father to get there.

Olivia had no other choice, but to sit there and wait. She hung up the phone when she heard a car in the driveway. She couldn’t see who it was because of her bedroom being at the back of the house, but assumed that it was Jordan’s father. This made her wonder if she should move her things into one of the bedrooms at the front of the house. She only chose this room to stay in because it had been her grandmother’s and was still strong with her memory. Perhaps she would even consider getting a roommate. She hadn’t even considered what it might be like living all alone in such a big house, but she just got a good taste of it and wasn’t sure she liked it at all. She then heard the front door open, but wasn’t worried because Jordan’s whole family had keys to the house simply because it made it easier for them when they would check in on her grandmother during times when she was sick. Next she heard footsteps on the stairs and instinctively knew that it was Jordan’s Dad. She took a deep breath and held it, anyway.

Olivia? Are you in there? It’s Vince. It was, in fact, Jordan’s Dad, so she ran to the door to unlock it. As she opened the door and saw him, she breathed a big sigh of relief.

Thank you so much for coming she exhaled. I was so scared and I really didn’t know what to do. Did you find anything downstairs?

Well, you either had a wild party in your kitchen last night or someone was very hungry and couldn’t find what they wanted to eat. As they headed downstairs he continued, Prepare yourself, your kitchen is a big mess. I think you need to call the police now, so they can check for fingerprints. I looked around downstairs and checked the other bedrooms at the front of the house before going to your door and whoever was here is gone now. I don’t think you’re in any danger, but I’ll call Jordan to come over and stay with you while you wait for the police to arrive. Jordan told me that you said they came in through your bedroom window. I’ll look around in there and outside before I leave.

As they neared the kitchen, Olivia’s eyes grew larger and her mouth dropped open because she just couldn’t believe what she saw. The pantry door was open and boxes of cereal, rice and instant potato flakes, as well as other food