The Pepper and Longstreet Mysteries

By J.T. Lewis

Meet Pepper Jones and the mysterious Jacob Longstreet... Neighborhood burglaries, snobby cheerleaders, hidden clues, missing children, haunted houses, historic bank robberies, secret codes, ghosts, eerie graveyards and all the usual suspects. Pepper and Longstreet are on the case in the Young Adult mysteries that fans say, "Hearkens back to the stories of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys."

Stories:
The Wolf Creek Bandit
The Mystery at the Mall
The Missing Clue
The Roadside Rescue
The Haunted Mansion
The Unsolved Robbery
The Mystery of The Rose
The Haunted Camp
The Apple Junction Payroll
The Legend of Ol Red Eyes
The McGruder File
A Christmas Tale

The Great Plane Robbery (Preview of The Adventures of Young Gabriel Celtic)

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.T. Lewis
• Release date: Aug 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310844164

J.T. Lewis

Mystery abounds in the books of Amazon Best Selling Author J.T. Lewis.Living in Southeast Indiana with his wife, J.T. has always loved a mystery. Striving to bring readers a story packed full of action, adventure, and suspense has led to his current selection of titles.His first full length novel, Murder! Too Close To Home, was the beginning of the acclaimed Adventures of Gabriel Celtic series, and was voted #1 on Goodreads Best Debut Mystery Series list. The thriller/adventure series continued with Gabriel's Revenge,followed closely by In Case of Death as well as The Book of Gabriel in 2014. The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic is as series about the life of Gabriel Celtic...an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary adventures!Another new series, The Nick Behr Mysteries, starts with the story Kidnap Inc., where we get to meet Nick Behr...as well as all of the people that have crowded into his head! Fighting against the craziness of his life while trying to solve the murders of the current case sometimes leads the story to veer off-kilter a little. This unexpected result has caused the story to be labeled, "One of the funnest mysteries I've read in quite some time!"Also added to J.T. Lewis' series list this year...The Artifact Hunter! Jesse Flanagan is just a guy who enjoys making a profit from the antiquities he buys and sells. When one of his discoveries suddenly puts him in the cross-hairs of assassins, he must change his whole life as he goes underground to try and reclaim his life!An electrician by trade, at night JT Lewis morphs into a fictional detective with a keyboard, a transition that suits his need for creating exciting stories for his ever-growing audience.Find and follow JT Lewis @:http://jt-lewis.blogspot.com/https://www.facebook.com/JTLewis.Authorhttps://twitter.com/JTLewis_Bookshttp://www.wattpad.com/user/JTLewisAuthorhttp://pinterest.com/jtlewisbooks/https://www.facebook.com/Murdr.Too.Close.To.Homehttps://www.facebook.com/gabriels.revengehttps://www.facebook.com/ThePepperAndLongstreetMysterySeries

Book preview

The Pepper and Longstreet Mysteries

By

J.T. Lewis

Copyright 2012-2014 J.T. Lewis

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. The

names, characters, places, and incidents are products of

the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and

are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to

persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or

organizations is entirely coincidental.

******

~ Chapter 1 ~ The Wolf Creek Bandit

~ Chapter 2 ~ The Mystery at the Mall

~ Chapter 3 ~ The Missing Clue

~ Chapter 4 ~ The Roadside Rescue

~ Chapter 5 ~ The Haunted Mansion

~ Chapter 6 ~ The Unsolved Robbery

~ Chapter 7 ~ The Mystery of The Rose

~ Chapter 8 ~ The Haunted Camp

~ Chapter 9 ~ The Apple Junction Payroll

~ Chapter 10 ~ The Legend of Ol Red Eyes

~ Chapter 11 ~ The McGruder File

~ Chapter 12 ~ A Christmas Tale

~ Preview of The Young Gabriel Celtic Adventures (The Great Plane Robbery), J.T. Lewis’ new Middle Grade Adventure series!

~ Preview of The Artifact Hunter! JT’s new YA/NA Adventure series!

~ Other works by J.T. Lewis

~ Contact the author

This book is dedicated to the memory of my son, Tristan Lewis. He left this world during the writing of The Mystery of The Rose, and although he wasn’t a big reader, I believe he is smiling down on me now as I finish it. While the world as a whole will barely notice the void created by his passing, it too will be forever changed.

Chapter 1

The Wolf Creek Bandit

She felt his presence behind her.

Never having an inkling of his approach until he arrived, she felt him standing behind her right shoulder as he silently took in the scene before them.

Not much of a house, he stated clinically, Should be no problem getting in.

Glancing back, she took in her inescapable partner. Nothing had changed, nothing ever changed with him…except his level of annoyance.

His piercing eyes gleamed in the darkness under his old Civil War cavalry hat. The off-white double-breasted cowboy shirt tucked into his well-worn jeans was always just a little dirty looking, like he had just rode in from the range. The dark bushy mustache was surrounded by a day’s growth of beard, and his untrimmed hair stuck out here and there from under his hat.

Smiling inwardly, Seriously Longstreet, could you put on a different outfit now and again?

A confused look crossed his face as he looked down on his well-worn clothes. Pepper Jones enjoyed taunting him about his clothing choices, knowing he could do nothing about it. Right on cue, his attention returned to the decrepit house, as if her question had never been asked.

You got a plan missy?

Pepper, my name’s Pepper! she whispered, annoyed yet again at his incessant need to call her something besides her name.

Nodding distractedly like he understood, he nonetheless continued with, ok girly, what next?

Shaking her head, she turned back toward the dark house. Taking a county map out of her jacket, she opened it up while moving to a pocket of moonlight that had fought its way through the thick trees overhead. Holding it in the dim light revealed a series of dots in a haphazard circle, surrounding an open area in the center.

I’ve found a pattern to the series of burglaries of the last month, all of them surrounding, but never entering this clear area in the middle. I just happened across this old house, I never knew it was here but it seems a likely place to store the stolen pieces.

Where are we anyway? Longstreet asked, looking around, unsure of his surroundings.

Wolf Creek Road, Pepper answered, wondering how he had gotten here if he didn’t know where here was.

Pepper had been intrigued when she happened to notice the increase in burglaries in the area, deciding to put her untested investigative skills to the test.

Of course, she had to do it on the sly, as her parents would never agree to let their sixteen year old daughter run around the county at night, looking for criminals. They thought they had their hands full just dealing with a hormonal teenager.

Seems right to me, Longstreet uttered, the sound of his voice followed by a swishing sound, like a small breeze.

Looking behind her to ask him a question, she saw that he was gone.

"Dammit!" she whispered to herself. He was always disappearing at the most inopportune times.

Longstreet! Get back here!

Only the sound of crickets chirping answered her demand. Waiting a few more moments for his return, she then made her way quietly toward the old house. Carefully threading her way through the underbrush so as to remain stealthy, it took her a full five minutes to reach the side of the old wooden building.

There were no lights coming from the inside and a deathly quiet surrounded her. She was fairly certain that she was alone. Moving slowly, she made her way to the front door, trying it and finding it locked. She was about to go around to the back when a noise from inside of the house made her heart jump into her throat.

Getting ready to run, she heard wait a minute, from the other side of the door, along with a kind of scratching sound on the door itself.

Longstreet…is that you? she whispered loudly through the door.

There was no answer, just the continued scratching sound emanating from inside. Longstreet had a hard time manipulating anything mechanical, so she assumed it was him working on the lock from the inside. Finally, she heard a click as the latch of the door released and it creeped slowly opened.

You could have told me where you were going, Pepper scolded. I thought you had left me.

Just doing my job, missy, Longstreet answered, unconcerned. We made an agreement if I remember correctly.

She remembered.

She thought back to the day when she had admitted her keen interest in solving mysteries to Longstreet, and his immediate and insistent offer to help. Although she had known him since he had appeared to her when she was fourteen, she nonetheless did not consider him a reliable sidekick. She had finally relented however, if for no other reason than to get him off of her back.

He could be quite annoying.

Looking around the moonlit old home, she immediately spotted piles of electronic equipment stacked in one corner of the room.

Eureka! she whispered with her heart beating wildly in her chest as she made her way over to the stash.

"I knew this was the place!"

Don’t get the big head yet little lady, I need to hop on ole Lady and go get the marshal.

Pepper had to giggle to herself; there hadn’t been a marshal in these parts for a hundred years.

Um, your horse…she’s gone…remember?

Forgot, he finally said after a few moments silence, I sure do miss that old gal.

Taking out her cell phone, she noticed that she had no signal.

We’ll have to get back to the car and head into town and get a sheriff’s deputy, she said distractedly as she looked at her phone.

Who the hell are you?

The booming voice startled her out of her reverie as it rang out from the doorway.

Looking back over her shoulder, Pepper made out the silhouette of a large man standing in the doorway holding a box under his arm…completely blocking the doorway!

The man then reached down beside the door and came up with a baseball bat, setting the box down as he started walking quickly toward her.

You made a big mistake coming here kid! he growled as raised the bat over his head.

Longstreet immediately jumped into action, covering the distance between himself and the dark figure in seconds. Throwing a hard left jab at the man, followed by an exaggerated roundhouse with his right, his large calloused fists nevertheless missed both times.

What the hell? he said with dismay, looking at his useless fists like they belonged to someone else.

You made a big mistake little girl, breaking into another man’s house, the large man continued as he brought the bat back to swing at Pepper.

Pepper relived her whole life in those few moments, concluding that it hadn’t been near long enough. Spotting a table to her left, she immediately dove under it as the wooden bat missed her head by mere inches.

She had felt the air from the bat’s swing on her face as she moved.

You can run, but you cannot hi…

"Dong!"

The loud, solid sound of a metal pan crashing into something was followed immediately by the large man crumbling to the floor.

Get some rope! Longstreet said excitedly.

Looking around quickly, Pepper replied, I don’t see any rope.

Longstreet was silent for a moment. Pepper was sure that he was confused by the fact that there wasn’t a pile of rope in everyone’s house.

Something else then, we need to tie this rustler up before he comes to!

Pepper found a bed in the corner and pulled the sheet off, ripping off small pieces to use as binding.

When are you gonna learn to touch a human? Pepper scolded her partner as she hurriedly ripped off one piece of sheet after the next. It would have been pretty handy tonight.

Yeah, well, I’ve been busy, Longstreet answered somewhat defensively, Seems I completed my mission though.

Pepper had to admit that he had saved her butt.

I guess when you work with a ghost, you just gotta take what you can get, she finished with a grin.

***

Jacob Longstreet had shown up in her kitchen one day when she was fourteen. Approaching her from behind, the first inkling she had of his presence was he had said, Howdy missy.

It had scared the bejeezus out of her

As she screamed and ran off into the next room, he had just stood there with a confused look on his face. Finally, curiosity had gotten the better of her, and she returned to the kitchen to find him calmly standing in the same spot awaiting her return.

Gathering up her courage, she demanded to know who he was, and why he was in her house.

A confused look again crossed Longstreet’s face as he gave her question some thought.

I don’t rightly know; where am I anyway?

***

As Pepper finished tying up the bandit, she continued to reflect on their initial meeting and their developing relationship since. She had eventually found out that he had served in the cavalry in the Civil War, and also that he had survived the whole war unscathed.

He really couldn’t remember what had happened after that, except that he thought he had traveled west to seek his fortune.

Oh, and by the way, he didn’t know he was a ghost.

She had been trying to convince him of that fact ever since, helping him work though his confusion about where and when in time he was now.

It could be an annoying job most days.

Since then he had visited her daily, eventually offering his services in her new investigative endeavor. She was realizing now that although the partnership was far from perfect, he had certainly saved her bacon this night.

You done good kid, Longstreet bragged when she was done, Got him trussed up real good!

She had to admit, she was excited; her first bit of detective work had been a huge success.

She could get used to this!

He should be fine for awhile, let’s get back to the car so we can get someone here to arrest him.

Walking out of the old building, Longstreet looked around with confusion before hollering, Lady!...where are you girl?

Shaking her head once more with a smile, she knew she should say something, but suddenly didn’t have the heart to rebuke him again after what they had just been through.

She’s around here somewhere, she said beaming, she’ll turn up, don’t worry.

Chapter 2

The Mystery at the Mall

Pepper Jones was bored.

It had been over two weeks since she and her partner had captured a robber that had been stealing electronic equipment around the whole county. It had created quite a stir when everyone found out the case had been cracked by a sixteen year old girl! The local papers had even gotten a hold of the story, dubbing the robber ‘The Wolf Creek Bandit’.

Of course, her partner’s name never made the papers, by necessity. It would be hard to explain a ghost’s role in capturing the bandit.

Of course he really didn’t mind. Jacob Longstreet had a hard time understanding the modern world, and seemed happy only as long as he could keep busy doing something that he was familiar with.

She was embarrassed at first by all of the attention that had been heaped upon her, but eventually came to accept that it was exactly what she needed at the moment…advertising!

Pepper had been toying with the idea of testing her investigative skills for quite awhile now. When she had noticed a pattern to the robberies…well, she just went with her gut, taking Longstreet along only at his insistence.

She was glad that she had.

Sitting at her desk, she was rapidly chewing her gum and twirling her long red hair with her left finger, while distractedly trying to come up with a business name for her enterprise.

She thought she had come up with it until a minute ago, when she had crossed out ‘The Pepper Jones Agency’ with annoyance. That just wasn’t right either, and she knew why. Although she had garnered all of the attention, it was Longstreet that had saved the day.

Leaving his name off of the business’ title just wasn’t right, even though she had no idea how she could explain who, or even what he was to anyone that asked.

Sighing with resignation, she ripped off the sheet of paper she had been working on, wadding it up and shooting it through the miniature basketball hoop across the room. Staring at the top of the new sheet of paper, she used her best hand to fill in the title across the page.

Pepper and Longstreet

Investigators

A smile crossed her face when she looked at it in print. She thought it sounded very professional! She could definitely get used to giving out business cards with that title imprinted across them.

"Business cards!" she thought suddenly, writing that on her to-do list for later investigation.

Howdy missy, the voice suddenly behind her caused her to jump as she turned to look at her partner.

Longstreet! Can’t you learn to knock or something? And my name’s Pepper!

A confused look crossed Jacob’s face for a few moments before it returned to the normal, determined look that she was used to seeing. Although she still had much to learn of her sometimes-invisible partner, she was starting to put a finger on some of his unexplained habits.

She had realized over the last couple of days that he had no problem handling tasks as long as they were mission oriented, a leftover of his days in the Union Cavalry she supposed. Given orders, he would lead his men to a conclusion of his mission, and then he would return for more orders. It was just the day to day stuff…and the modern world that seemed to baffle him sometimes.

One other observation she had made after her last case was that he was very brave. It wasn’t because he was a ghost and no one could really hurt him though, it was just in his nature to be fearless.

She was exceedingly glad about that!

Nothing is going on… I’m so bored I can’t stand it! Pepper lamented, turning back to her paper. If I didn’t have work in a couple of hours, I’d probably be crazy by now.

"bzzzz"

She picked up her cell, seeing that her friend Beth had sent her a text. Bringing it up, she sat straight forward at the words on the screen.

"Something weird is going on down here."

Pepper loved weird!

Beth was her best friend, and they both worked at the pretzel stand in the food court at the mall. Looking at her watch, Pepper determined that she would go in early to investigate. She didn’t care what was going on; she just needed to do something!

I’ve gotta go to work Longstreet; there is something going on down there, but I don’t know what…it’s probably nothing. I’ll see ya later.

You sure girly? He asked, not wanting to be left out. It would be no problem to go down there with you, check it out.

No thanks, she said a little too gaily, I think I can handle this myself.

Nodding imperceptivity, Longstreet turned on his heel and walked out of the room, straight through the wall.

"I wonder where he goes when he leaves here?" she thought to herself for perhaps the hundredth time. Shrugging off the question as she put on her uniform, she grabbed up her stuff and headed out of the room. Grabbing her keys off the table by the door and then running down the stairs, she called out, I’m going to work…Cya!

Hold on young lady! her dad’s voiced boomed from the kitchen.

She stopped dead in her tracks, a sigh escaping her lips before she turned to trudge into the kitchen with slumped shoulders.

Pushing through the swinging door, she saw her parents sitting at the table drinking coffee.

I thought you didn’t have to go to work for two hours? her father questioned.

Her parents had been super angry at her for getting involved in her last case, being beside themselves at her putting her life at risk. They were even more baffled as to how she had overpowered the large man that had been robbing houses all over the county, and had questioned her endlessly on how she had survived unscathed.

She had been unable to come up with a good explanation, and she had basically been grounded for the last two weeks…except for work…and of course school.

Beth called…they are….busy…

Her father mulled this over for a few moments.

Ok, but nowhere else but the mall.

Pepper smiled, telling her dad that was the only thing she had in mind as she crossed the room and gave first her dad then her mom a kiss.

Bye, she said nonchalantly as she turned and waved her hand over her shoulder. See you tonight!

Heading out to her car, she drove as fast as she legally could to get to the mall, literally running from the parking lot to the pretzel stand after she had parked the car.

When Beth spied her coming through the food court, she came out from around the counter and met her thirty feet away.

What’s going on? Pepper asked as Beth approached.

I’m not sure, Beth answered, looking around warily, Look over there!

Pepper glanced in the direction Beth had pointed, seeing two uniformed men patrolling along the food stands. Seeing nothing unusual at first, she was taking a second look when it finally hit her.

"One’s a real cop?

I know, right? Beth said with excitement. Real cops never patrol the mall, just the mall cops. Something is weird, and they all look real serious too.

The voice behind her suddenly made her shoulders stiffen with anxiety.

Extra patrols mean they’re expecting trouble, the voice intoned with authority. They must have an informant with the enemy, or something has already happened that clued them in.

Glancing over her shoulder confirmed the presence of Longstreet, the determined look of his face telling her he was ready for action. Relieved that no one else could see him, she turned back toward Beth, telling her she needed to go to the restroom and she would be right back.

Turning around, she made her way to the woman’s restroom with Longstreet in tow.

"Didn’t I mention staying home?" she hissed through her clenched teeth as she walked.

Seems you may have mentioned that, Longstreet said, unconcerned, But I smelled trouble brewing.

Pepper had to grudgingly accept Longstreet’s assessment. After seeing the extra cops patrolling the mall and having a growing respect for Longstreet’s supernatural senses, she was now sure trouble was brewing...but what kind of trouble?

Longstreet seemed uncomfortable when she locked both of them in a single stall in the restroom before continuing the conversation in a whisper.

"Got any ideas?" Pepper said lowly, trying not to draw attention.

I could reconnoiter the perimeter; see if anything jumps out at me. It’ll be quicker on a horse; I’ll find ole Lady and get started on a patrol.

Another one of the things she constantly had to deal with was Longstreet’s constant confusion over the past and present, especially about his horse, Lady. He must have really loved that horse, and it was hard to have to continually remind him of his loss

Um, about your horse, she said with compassion, she’s gone…remember?

Forgot, he finally said after a few moments silence, I sure do miss that old gal.

Tell you what, she started, you go look around and see if you come across anything, I’ll go talk to the cops.

Sounds like a plan, he said, the sound of his voice followed by a swishing sound as he quickly disappeared. Leaving the stall, Pepper started toward the sink to wash her hands but stopped in her tracks…a woman police officer was standing before her, flicking water off her fingers as she prepared to dry them off.

This was her chance!

Trying to act like she knew something, she stepped up to the next sink before saying, I can’t believe it is taking so long to…uncover this thing.

Eyeing Pepper suspiciously at first but knowing the mall owners had let a few of their employees in on the threat the officer finally relented.

Looking over her shoulder to make sure they were alone, "I know, I can’t believe it would be this hard to find, I’m about ready to call our chief and tell him they need to evacuate…but it could still be a hoax I guess."

Saying she had to get back to her patrol, the cop turned and left the restroom,