Steamy Death: Cozy Mystery Short Story

By S. Y. Robins

Annika Weiss runs a very successful spa in New York City. Well, that is to say, she did before some rogue reviewer started leaving terrible feedback for her business on several online review sites. Now her business is tanking and she can't seem to stop the reviewer. She's even contacted the sites to let them know the reviews are fake but more just pop up every day. Then a freak accident leaves a customer dead and when the police find out who the victim is and what she's been doing Annika becomes the suspect. Things go from bad to worse for Annika and as she struggles to cope with the health department shutting her business down, she has to fight to keep her freedom. Will a little help from a very cute IT guy be enough to keep Annika out of prison? And is all as it appears to be with the death of the rogue reviewer? Only time, and investigation will tell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lovy Books Ltd
• Release date: Dec 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386920632

Book preview

1

Annika, do you want the tranquil snooze-fest or the tinkling trance-dance on the sound system today? A pretty young blonde woman called out from the area staff called the control center in the spa; really just a broom closet with computers and other brightly lit and beeping equipment nestled securely within.

Annika Weiss, tall and slim, turned back to Pamela, the manager of the spa Annika owned, and smiled. Annika’s long black hair, similarly styled to Pamela’s in a tight ponytail high on the back of her head whipped around to curl over her shoulder. Annika was dressed in a loose flowing caftan of unbleached linen and soft shoes similar to ballet slippers, the uniform of her spa.

As it’s my 31 st birthday how about we go with the tantalizing walk-through-a-dream music today? The renaming of the New Age music played within the spa was an inside joke for Annika and her staff.

Oh, indeed it is your birthday today. Happy birthday, Annika! Pamela said with a cheerful smile before disappearing to retrieve a cash register tray to get the payment system online for the day.

Annika went through each of the eight rooms the spa used for massages, ensuring that they were clean and stocked; humming along with the music after Pamela turned it on. Annika checked the steam rooms, and the bathrooms as well, fastidious in ensuring a clean, safe environment for her staff and customers. Giving her customers the best experience of their lives was her main goal and keeping her staff safe in the process was a high priority for Annika and she performed these checks every night and every morning.

Running a finger over her smooth thumbnail, a soothing habit that had replaced thumb-sucking in her childhood, Annika headed back to her office, to check the latest reviews of her establishment. Lately a rogue reviewer was spending at least an hour a night leaving bad reviews for her spa on a variety of sites. It was starting to negatively impact her business and she’d emailed several of the sites, asking them to take the reviews down because the reviews were obviously flawed, listing problems with techniques and facilities her business didn’t even offer.

Annika wanted to present a calm front to her staff but her nerves were getting the better of her. Annika didn’t smoke, rarely drank to excess, and avoided drugs. Smoothing a finger over her thumbnail served the same purpose as smoking a cigarette, though. It calmed her nerves, helped her to focus, even if she wasn’t always aware she was doing it.

Reaching her office, she settled into her chair, her heart shaped face and almond eyes reflected in her monitor for a moment. Her light brown eyes were a startling shade for many that looked upon them but Annika didn’t even register that she’d seen her pretty face in the glass-like surface of the monitor as she reached to switch it on.

Most of the bad reviews had been removed but more had reappeared to replace them. Letting her head fall for a moment Annika felt the weight of anxiety crushing her for a moment. But then she followed her single-mother’s