Life's A Beach: Cozy Mystery Short Story

By S. Y. Robins

Melanie Brown is 29 years old and getting a bit old for Spring Break. Her friends, Amber and Tina, convince her to give it one last go before they really are too old to let loose for a week. A spring tradition for the girls since college, they book the same house on the beach for the same week, and book their vacations from work at the same time. Determined to give it her all, Melanie begins the drive from her home in Georgia to Daytona, Florida with nostalgia and anticipation. Their last Spring Break!

Recently divorced Melanie is tired, feeling physically ill, and emotionally battered. She decides the trip might be just what she needs after all. She daydreams about days on the beach and nights in the bars with her friends. Finding their house occupied by a corpse wasn't part of the plan, or the daydreams. The cops dismiss it as a weekend gone wrong but the ladies suspect it's far more. The body isn't just some unknown stranger, after all, it's Tina's fiancé's ex and her death wasn't suicide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lovy Books Ltd
• Release date: Dec 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386932253

Book preview

1

Melanie! It’s probably the last year we can do anything like this! One last blowout during Spring Break! We’ll be 30 next year! My best friend Tina all but shouted through the phone.

I’d tried to call off our annual trip to Daytona this year but Tina and Amber weren’t having it.

It’s just been a really tough year, Tina. I thought you’d be more focused on planning your wedding anyway. Tina had only just gotten engaged and I knew what that was like.

Unfortunately, I now also knew what it is like to go through a divorce. After four years of marriage I’d finally kicked my unemployed, soul-sucking husband out and divorced him. It had been a long brutal battle that included fights over everything from our house and dog, both of which I’d paid for, to even the lawnmower. Jace, my now ex, lived in an apartment, which begged the question of where he was even going to store the huge ride-on lawnmower he’d insisted we buy a couple of years ago? He hadn’t even used the thing, preferring to hire a local teenager to keep the lawn mowed.

Pushing the memories, and the anger, to the back of my mind I went back to my phone conversation. Tina was going on about having time for one more blowout with her girls before settling down.

I sighed, listening to her go on about hot days in the sun and warm nights drinking and clubbing. I thought I’d outgrown that kind of night but the more she described it the more I realized nights like that might just be what I needed.

It’s time to get our buzz on, Melanie, come on! Please? Tina drew the last word out so long it made me laugh. Then I gave in.

Alright, Tina. Alright! We’ll go. Same house? I asked, starting up my laptop to find the house’s website so I could book it for us.

Well yeah, girl, where else would we stay? A hotel? I don’t think so! Tina was already yammering on about buying drinks and food, and getting new bathing suits. The house was right on the beach and we usually spent a lot of time on loungers in the surf, developing a nice golden tan before we headed home to finally get over a week’s worth of hangovers.

I saw the house was available on our dates and used my debit card to book it. The other ladies would pay me back. I let Tina ramble on, nothing unusual for her, and started writing out a list of things we’d need to take with us or buy once we got there. We’d been doing this since our first year of college, when we’d all shared a dorm and become instantly inseparable.

I would have to arrange for time off from work but it wouldn’t be difficult. As a junior lawyer at a large firm in Atlanta I was vital to my employer but I wasn’t indispensable. It was a lucrative, if sometimes exhausting, career that I loved. It wasn’t the path I thought I’d be on when I graduated from the university but it’s where I’d ended up.

I eventually hung up the phone when Tina ran out of