Deadly Ride Read online

  Deadly Ride

  Charleneland 1

  Nic Saint

  Puss in Print Publications

  Contents

  Deadly Ride

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from A Tale of Two Harrys (Ghosts of London 4)

  About Nic

  Also by Nic Saint

  Deadly Ride

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  Mia Rugg and her family run an amusement park in California called Charleneland, named after her famous grandmother Charlene, the well-known songstress. They all share the same house, with things getting pretty hectic from time to time, as Mia’s two sisters Maya and Marisa don’t always see eye to eye, while Charlene, being the diva that she is, manages to get on everybody’s nerves pretty much all the time.

  All in all, though, things are going well for the enterprising family. At least until a voice doctor is found murdered on one of the park’s most popular attractions, the Haunted Ride, and Mia is forced to cooperate with local police detective Blane Jamison to solve the crime. When Charlene’s longtime arch-rival Phoenix accuses her of being behind the murder, things suddenly look very bleak for Charleneland, and soon Mia and her family’s future hangs in the balance.

  Will Charleneland survive the sudden uproar? Will Mia and Blane be able to work together to find the killer, in spite of their differences? And will Blane get through his first meeting with Charlene and her two Corgis unscathed? Find out in Deadly Ride, the first installment in the new humorous cozy mystery series Charleneland.

  Prologue

  “Come on, Carson. We gotta go now! Before she catches us!”

  Carson darted a quick look back at his mother and aunt, who were checking out Charlene’s childhood home. They’d be gone for at least an hour—if they were lucky maybe longer. And if they were really lucky, they wouldn’t even notice they were gone until they were done with the tour.

  “Okay, Jamie,” he told his cousin. “Let’s do this!”

  Dark-haired Jamie was the daredevil of the duo, blond-haired Carson the careful one. When their mothers had decided to visit Charleneland, the famous amusement park in Sapsucker, California, they had been disappointed. They’d wanted to go to Disneyland, or Six Flags, or even Legoland. But Charleneland? That creaky old place? Not exactly a ten-year-old’s dream destination.

  Now that they were here, though, it was a lot more fun than Jamie thought. Charleneland boasted no less than nine roller coasters. And a bunch of haunted houses. And some other great attractions. In fact they’d all but forgotten about the Magic Kingdom. Only problem was that Mom and Carson’s aunt wanted to do all the boring stuff, too. Like going to Charlene’s concert. Or look at a bunch of old junk in Charlene’s childhood home. Booooring!

  So they’d devised a plan. While Mom and Auntie Doris soaked up the atmosphere in Charlene’s rickety old house, they decided to sneak off and explore the Haunted Ride instead! They’d done the ride, and it was way cool. Like, supercool! It was full of monsters and scary stuff and there was even an oven the ride whizzed through that looked like it was going to burn you alive! But they wanted to see more of it. Explore what it looked like when you weren’t zooming past all the good stuff at fifty miles an hour.

  “Let’s go, Jamie. Don’t dilly-dally!”

  “Hey, don’t use Mom’s words. And I’m not dilly-dallying!”

  They’d snuck behind the Haunted Ride and were looking for a way in. The noise from inside was way cool. People were screaming, and he could hear the ghouls wailing and the skeletons rattling their chains. And every few minutes or so, there was a WHOOSH! when fire roared in the oven.

  They crouched low, determined to stay out of sight.

  “There!” Jamie yelled. “There’s an opening!”

  He looked where Jamie was pointing and saw that his cousin was right. The haunted ride was basically a metal skeleton covered with thick rubber cladding. At least three stories high, it towered over them like a black monster, but at the base, a piece of cladding had gotten loose.

  They hurried over, and Jamie was the first in, squeezing through two pieces of cladding. Carson quickly followed suit, his heart beating a frantic drum inside his chest. They were doing this! They were actually doing this! If Mom caught them there’d be hell to pay, but it was so worth it!

  Inside the ride, it was pretty dark, but there were flashes of light when a car passed by overhead, and the ghouls started moaning.

  “This is so cool!” he said.

  “See? I told you,” said Jamie triumphantly.

  “So where are we going?”

  “I wanna see that oven,” said Jamie. “I’ll bet those are real flames!”

  “No, they’re not. Mom said that’s just a light show.”

  “What does your mom know?” Jamie scoffed. “Those are real flames and I’ll bet those are real skeletons, too.”

  His eyes went wide. “Real skeletons? Like, from dead people?”

  “Duh, Carson. Where do you think skeletons come from, huh?” He gave him a thump on his shoulder. “Of course they’re from dead people! When they built this place I’ll bet hundreds of workers died, and their bodies were all buried in the rides and stuff. This place is a graveyard!”

  Before the holidays, Mrs. Miller had made them watch some documentary about the Great Wall of China, and had told them about the bodies that were buried inside. Way creepy!

  “I’ll bet those are real ghouls, too,” said Jamie with a knowing nod. “They’re the ghosts of the workers who died here, and now they’ve come back to haunt the living.”

  “But—but don’t you think it’s dangerous?”

  “Of course it’s dangerous, doofus. That’s the fun part! It wouldn’t be much fun if it wasn’t dangerous.”

  He didn’t completely agree with this. He could think of a million things that were fun and didn’t involve running into actual dead people and ghouls. Like rollerblading. Or Mortal Kombat. Or Pokémon Go.

  “Come on. Let’s go find us some ghouls!”

  For a moment he thought about telling Jamie that he didn’t really feel like finding ghouls, but his cousin would just accuse him of being a wimp, so he tagged along. Besides, he had no idea how to go back, and he didn’t want to be left behind in the dark either.

  The floor of the Haunted Ride was concrete, and they had to crawl across several metal girders that held up the entire structure. Overhead, the ride made a hellish noise, and the smell of burned rubber and something acrid assaulted his nostrils.

  They arrived at the point where the ride suddenly dipped down into the ‘Pit of Doom’ and did an unexpected sideways loop, leaving the visitors hanging upside down for a few seconds before being yanked back up. It was one of the sickest parts of the ride, and he’d screamed his lungs out. The bottom of the pit was full of snakes and spiders and other horrible-looking creatures, and the moment the ride hit the bottom, the flo
or of the so-called cave had lit up and the spiders had looked like they were jumping at him, ready to eat him alive, before the ride whisked him back up and away.

  “Let’s wait for the next one, and jump out!” Jamie said.

  “Um, I don’t know,” he said, starting to get a bad feeling about this.

  “Come on, Carson. You’re such a wimp.”

  He steeled himself. “I’m not a wimp!”

  “So let’s do this!”

  They crawled into the Pit of Doom and suddenly they were surrounded by the spiders and the snakes and the creatures he’d seen before from the ride. Only now, without free-falling upside down into the dark abyss, they looked a lot less impressive. They looked… pretty fake.

  He poked a finger at one of the snakes. Rubber. And the spiders were rubber, too. He didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved.

  “These are all fakes!” he said with a shaky laugh.

  “I’ll bet the skeletons are real, though,” Jamie said, kicking the biggest snake. Above their heads, he heard the sound of an approaching car.

  “There’s one coming. Let’s hide!” Jamie suggested.

  They hid behind a large cactus, right next to a giant kind of lizard.

  Carson gave the lizard a tentative look. It didn’t move, and its beady eyes looked pretty dead. Phew. Fake, just like the rest of the creatures.

  There was a deafening noise overhead, a clanking and screeching of metal on metal—people screaming in gleeful terror as they were suddenly jettisoned into free fall. And just when stroboscopic lights started flashing, and Jamie jumped out from behind the cactus, Carson’s eyes fell on a body. It was the body of a woman, and she was staring straight at him, her dead eyes reflecting the flashes of light.

  Spiders shot out from their hiding places, operating on pistons, and his own screams mingled with the howls of terror from the people in the car.

  The car squealed by and Carson was still screaming.

  Jamie looked at him, a delighted grin on his face. “How cool was that?!”

  He pointed a finger at the body of the woman. “A b-b-b…”

  “Huh?”

  “There’s a dead b-b-b…”

  Jamie looked in the direction he was pointing, and then they were both screaming. There was an actual dead body, and it sure wasn’t made of rubber.

  Chapter 1

  I woke up with a groan and put the pillow over my head, trying to get some more sleep.

  “I’m doing it, Marisa! You can’t stop me!”

  “You’re not doing it and that’s final!”

  “You’re not the boss of me!”

  “And you’re not the boss of this family!”

  I pressed the pillow down on my head, but it was no use. My sisters’ voices were so loud there was simply no escape possible. Maybe if I used earplugs, but even then there was no way I was getting any more sleep. I opened one eye and directed a look at the window. Yep. Sun was already up. My next look went to my alarm clock and this time my eyes flashed open and I sat bolt upright in bed. Nine o’clock! Oh, God, no! I’d overslept again.

  I groaned some more, but this time because of the time. No wonder Marisa and Maya were going at it. They probably already had breakfast and had loaded up on enough sugar to take them through another one of their heroic sisterly slugfests.

  Marisa is my older sister. She’s the sensible one. Maya? Not so much. She’s one year younger than me and still thinks she’s the best thing since sliced bread. Me? I’m Mia Rugg. I’m the middle child, and sometimes I feel like I was born to break up my sisters’ fights. And why not? I’ve been doing it since Maya joined the family and immediately started annoying Marisa.

  We’re the Ruggs. You may have heard of us. We’re moderately famous. My grandmother, Charlene Simple, was a big star back in the seventies and eighties. Since then her star has lost some of its luster but none of its bluster. She runs Charleneland now, the family amusement park south of Los Angeles. Well, actually we run Charleneland. Charlene graces us with her presence from time to time, when she’s doing a show. The rest, she leaves up to us, her loving and adoring family. Well, I do love her, that much is true. The adoring part? Not so much. It’s hard to adore a diva when she’s your grandmother, and seems to enjoy making your life miserable.

  Charleneland is a small operation, to be honest. We have to compete against a lot of other amusement parks in the area, juggernauts like Disneyland, Six Flags, Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm… Plus we arrived on the scene kinda late. When Charlene’s career was already in decline, Mom and Dad organized an intervention and figured the only way to monetize on her fizzling reputation was to build a theme park, near the place where Charlene was born and raised and her star still shone—more or less—brightly.

  I’m in charge of security around here, Marisa is the marketing and computer whizz, Maya handles entertainment, Mom takes care of human resources and general admin and Dad makes sure all the rides and attractions keep running smoothly and safely.

  I planted my feet firmly on the floor and rubbed my eyes.

  “Mia! Marisa won’t let me headline the festival!”

  My younger sister had stuck her head in the door. I stared at her. “Do I look like I care?”

  “You have to care! This is our future.”

  “You’re not our future,” Marisa said, shoving my door open further.

  “I am, too. I’m going to follow in Charlene’s footsteps. You’ll see.”

  “So you think we’ll name this park Mayaland from now on? Think again, sis,” Marisa scoffed. “Charlene is heading the festival. She’s been heading the festival for forty years and she’s going to do it for forty more.”

  “She’s not. She promised me I could headline the festival.”

  “I’m pretty sure she added the words ‘over my dead body,’” Marisa said.

  Sapsuckeroo is a pretty big deal around these parts. The festival existed long before Charlene burst onto the scene, but only as a local affair, sporting a couple of bands. When Charlene got involved, she made Sapsuckeroo a big thing. Not Coachella or Lollapalooza big, but still. Pretty big. And Charlene always headlines, which is an easy feat to accomplish, as the festival is hosted at Charleneland. People have been grumbling for her to relinquish her crown, as she hasn’t had a hit in over two decades, but she refuses to share the stage with anyone, even her own granddaughter.

  “Charlene promised that this year I could headline,” Maya insisted.

  “Either there’s something wrong with your hearing or she was drunk,” said Marisa. “Or maybe you were drunk. Or you were both drunk.”

  The three of us take after our mom. We’re auburn-haired and on the dainty side. Marisa has beautiful curly hair and wears glasses. Maya wears her hair long and straight and has our dad’s stubby nose, and I sport a bob and a heart-shaped face. Some people say I have cupid’s bow lips but I don’t even know what that looks like. Which doesn’t stop Maya from being jealous. She’s into Instagram these days and always applies a filter.

  Lately she seems to equate fame with posting a bunch of lurid pictures, hoping that the controversy will get her noticed. She has a great singing voice, though, and should probably just focus on making great music. That’s how Charlene got famous in the first place.

  “Have you guys had breakfast yet?” I asked, getting up.

  But they were locked in a staring contest now, and didn’t seem to hear me. I shook my head and left the room. We all live in the same house, which isn’t as awkward as it sounds. It’s a big house. We each have a room on the second floor, with the first floor being communal. Charlene occupies the entire third floor. She needs her space. Well, we all do, of course, but she needs more of it than the rest of us, apparently. She is, after all, a star.

  I was late for my meeting with Luitpold Shearwood. He and I work security together, which means he’s out there, instructing his team, while I have more of a supervisory role. I still get down and dirty when I have
to, though. Like showing up for our morning briefings, where he gives me an update on the current situation and we go over the day’s events. The briefing was at ten, which gave me less than an hour to get ready and grab some chow.

  I hit the shower and let the hot spray wake me up. Then I padded back to my room, where my sisters were still going at it.

  “You’re my sister. You should back me up,” Maya was saying.

  “I will back you up once you stop behaving like a porny slut.”

  “Everybody’s doing that stuff nowadays! If Charlene were starting out today she’d be all over Instagram, posting her heart out.”

  “Charlene has too much class. And talent. She would never do that.”

  Maya displayed her best pout. “Mia. Tell Marisa she’s wrong.”

  I was rooting around my drawer in search of a clean shirt and muttered, “Marisa, you’re wrong.”

  “See? Even Mia says I’m right.”

  “Mia doesn’t even know what we’re talking about. Do you, Mia?”

  “I’m sure she does. Mia is smart. Mia knows. Isn’t that right, Mia?”

  If all else fails, try flattery. It always worked for Charlene.

  I finished dressing and joined my sisters. I stabbed a finger at Marisa. “You need to lighten up.” I pointed at Maya. “And you need to stop posting that porny stuff all the time. It’s gross and I hate for our family name to be associated with that skeevy stuff. So who’s on for breakfast?”