12. Elrik

12

ELRIK

M y phone rang. Melly again.

I'd stalled with the investigation and had planned to go through a case Monsters, PI had just taken on, one involving a local selkie clan and the theft of the king's and queen's skins when they came to shore for dinner. We were sure it was a prank. Kids sometimes didn't think before doing things like that. But we were also determined to track down their skins and return them.

"Hello?" I said with a smile. "Let me guess," I joked. "You were scrolling through porn, and you had to reach out to me."

"Elrik!"

At Melly's frantic cry, I bolted to my feet, peering around as if a threat to her loomed inside my office. "What's wrong?"

"Someone's trolling my business." Her voice choked off with a sob. "I've got a troll. A very mean troll."

Troll ?

Despite being a monster myself, I had only met one troll in my life, a hulking, ten-foot-tall dude with mottled green skin and wiry black hair sticking out in all directions. From what I'd read online, his physical appearance was the norm for his species. I'd met him during one of my jobs when he'd volunteered to help us find a lost three-year-old girl, who thankfully was found and returned to her family.

The troll's bulbous nose sat above a wide mouth filled with jagged teeth, but the little girl had run right to him when we appeared. He'd scooped her up and cradled her in his enormous green arms, telling her over and over again that she was safe.

Unfortunately, I'd lost touch with him not long after that.

"I'll be right over," I told Melly. Creature Cones was only a few doors down, and I strode inside within moments.

She locked the door behind me and turned the sign on the door to Closed before taking my hand and tugging me around the counter and into the back room. She sat at a table and wrung her hands on her lap while I leaned against the counter of the small kitchen area. A door on my left was labeled Freezer, and through the open doorway on the right, I spied a hallway and a set of stairs leading up. Grannie had rented an apartment up there at one time. No one was living there at the moment.

"Someone's trying to ruin my business." Melly scrolled into her phone and handed it to me. "Look at this. Thousands of bad reviews for Creature Cones. None of them make sense. They're saying I'm poisoning people."

"What?" I flipped through the comments, most coming from Anonymous, something the site must allow for confidentiality.

"I don't understand." Melly's eyes shimmered with tears. "But this has to be related to the social club poisoning."

"I can't imagine how."

"They left a warning on your truck. Now this. I think someone will do almost anything to make us stop investigating. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me to discover that Anonymous is the one who dumped Xylitol into Grannie's punch."

Frowning, I handed her phone back to her, and she laid it on the table. "This could be a bunch of random trolls. You know how mean people can be, how some like to gather together with a few friends and gang up on a business. Have you received odd emails from anyone?"

"Why would someone like that email me?"

"It's not unheard of for people like that to one-star a business and then ask for money to remove the bad reviews."

"Extortion?"

"Sadly, yes."

She quickly scrolled into her email before shaking her head. "No new email other than one from someone eager to sell me something to increase my penis size."

Under any other circumstances, I'd make a joke about that, but this was serious business.

"No email demanding money," she added, laying her phone back on the small table next to her chair. She heaved a sigh. Settling in the chair, she tipped her head back and closed her eyes. "I don't know what to do about this. I'll reach out to the group who runs the website to see if they're willing to delete the ratings. Other than a few mentioning poisonings, none left real reviews. Surely, they won't allow random ratings like that to remain. This could ruin me."

Carla opened the back door and stepped inside, her gaze flicking to me before landing Melly. "Hey, did you know the front door is locked? I couldn't get in."

Melly handed her phone to Carla. "We've got a problem."

Carla's eyes widened as she read. "What is this? How dare they?"

"I'm worried the two things are connected," Melly said.

"You think someone found out what happened at the social function and decided our ice cream must be poisoned as well?" Carla bit down hard on her lower lip, her brow scrunching. "It makes no sense. Everyone knows your grandmother would never do anything like that. Not unless she was getting forgetful and added too much Xylitol by mistake."

"She doesn't put any Xylitol in her punch," Melly snapped, taking the phone back and sliding it into her pocket. "The recipe doesn't call for that. It's an old recipe from before Xylitol was even created."

"You'd know," Carla said. "You're the sole person she's share the recipe with. You made the punch while she was in rehab and since she was released. Other than the most recent punch, that is." She sat at the small table opposite Melly. "I've got a friend who runs a PR firm in Boston. Would you like me to reach out to her to see if she has any suggestions? Unless you want to handle this yourself."

"That would be wonderful." Melly rubbed her face with both hands. "Thanks."

"We've closed for the day, I take it. No wonder we weren't seeing any customers earlier. This is horrible." Carla rose and started pacing inside the tiny kitchen. "We need to open the shop soon. I need this . . ." Pausing, she sucked in a breath and released it, her hands fisting, then opening at her sides. Spinning, she faced us. "I'm going to go take a quick walk on the beach. That'll clear my head and help me come up with some ideas to help you."

"Actually, why don't you take the rest of the day off?" Melly said. "We won't open again today. When you get here in the morning, we'll brainstorm."

Carla strode over to Melly and braced her shoulders, staring into her eyes. "No one's going to ruin this business. We're going to fix this."

"Thank you."

Bending closer, Carla gave Melly a long hug. "I just don't get it. You work hard. You've done all you can to make this business a success. People suck."

"You're right," Melly said. "They do."

Carla straightened. "I'll call you if I think of anything, and I'll let you know what my friend says. I'm sure she has some suggestions."

"I'm more than willing to pay her if she has some ideas that can fix this. "

"Let me see what she says." Carla's smile came out grim. "She owes me, and it's time for me to call in that favor." She grabbed her purse and left through the back door.

Melly's gaze met mine. "Why would anyone do something like this?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out."

Her phone pinged with an incoming text, and she lifted the phone and read.

"Like those ratings? Stop investigating or it'll get worse," she read dully, tilting the screen my way. "It is related. Why is someone so determined to ruin Grannie Rose?"

"Let me see." I wrote down the number and looked it up online, finding nothing. "I'm sure they used a burner phone. No one would send a threatening text message with their own line."

"I feel like we're no closer to solving this crime than we were when we started." Utter defeat filled Melly's voice.

I hated seeing her feeling like this. How could I give her hope? "Detective Carter was intrigued by the information about Sue and Alfred. He was going to question them both."

"Alfred has a motive. My grandmother does not."

Tugging her up from the chair, I held her, wishing I could give her comfort in some way. "It hasn't been long. This may take time."

"I know." She leaned back in my arms. "Thank you for helping, for being here for me. "

"We're going to keep investigating. We're not giving up."

"We'll have to be more careful, or they could do something more serious than cut your radiator hoses or ruin my business."

"That's why we're going to remain alert. If someone tries something, we'll catch them."

"They've been good at hiding the evidence so far."

"They'll make a mistake." I tilted her chin and gave her a quick kiss before hugging her again. I spoke against her hair. "They always do, and then we'll catch them."