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  Trouble Magnet

  Eliza Carlisle Mystery, Book One

  Also by DelSheree Gladden

  The Handbook Series

  The Crazy Girl’s Handbook

  The Oblivious Girl’s Handbook

  Eliza Carlisle Mystery Series

  Trouble Magnet

  The Catalyst

  Firebrand

  Instigator (coming soon)

  The Arcane Wielder Series

  Life & Being

  The Ghost Host Series

  The Ghost Host: Episode 1

  The Ghost Host: Episode 2

  Escaping Fate Series

  Escaping Fate

  Soul Stone

  Oracle Lost

  (Coming Soon)

  Twin Souls Saga

  Twin Souls

  Shaxoa’s Gift

  Qaletaqa

  The Destroyer Trilogy

  Inquest

  Secret of Betrayal

  Darkening Chaos

  Someone Wicked This Way Comes Series

  Wicked Hunger

  Wicked Power

  Wicked Glory

  Wicked Revenge

  The Aerling Series

  Invisible

  Intangible

  Invincible

  The Date Shark Series

  Date Shark

  Shark Out Of Water

  The Only Shark In The Sea

  Shark In Troubled Waters

  Trouble Magnet

  Eliza Carlisle Mystery, Book 1

  DelSheree Gladden

  Smashwords Edition

  Trouble Magnet

  Eliza Carlisle Mystery, Book 1

  Written by DelSheree Gladden

  Copyright © DelSheree Gladden 2016

  Cover Design DelSheree Gladden

  Published by DelSheree Gladden

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher and/or author.

  Printed in the U.S.A.

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-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 person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Acknowledgments

  I had three chapters of this book written when Emily Kimelman invited me to be a seed author in her Sydney Rye Kindle World, and mentioned combining one of my worlds with hers to help promote both. This was my only mystery based world to mashup with Sydney Rye’s so I figured I better get it finished! So thank you to Emily for giving me the push I needed to introduce Eliza Carlisle to my readers.

  Because this ended up being a little more fast-tracked than usual, I went straight to my fabulous sister-in-law Deanne Gladden and my right hand beta reader Sneha Mohite for comments and suggestions on this story. I know I can always count on them to be honest about what needs fixed and willing to read whatever random project I send them. Thank you so much!

  As always, thank you to my husband Ryan for his support and love, and for squeezing in reading this book between all his work deadlines. He’s the best in so many ways. Love you, hun!

  Dedication

  For my little sister Kass, who’s had her share of Eliza-style craziness lately. Hang in there and know I’m here whenever you need me. Love you, sis.

  Table of Contents

  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

  Also by DelSheree

  About the Author

  Preview of The Crazy Girl’s Handbook

  1: Grandma Crazy Town

  I was going to kiss my sister full on the mouth the next time I saw her. Staring out the window of the cab at the gorgeous old apartment building, I couldn’t believe how things had worked out. Four years older, Bernadette had always taken care of me. This was above and beyond. The moment I called her to gush about my acceptance to culinary school, she’d had all the answers.

  Her boss had been trying to talk her into taking an overseas assignment for months, but she was still under lease on her apartment and didn’t want to have to put all her stuff in storage for the next year or sublet to a stranger. Solution: let me move in while she was in Spain. I got super cheap rent while going to school, and she didn’t have to box everything up.

  Stepping out onto the curb, I could barely stop myself from jumping up and down. At twenty-three, I was finally living on my own in a big city, ready to start a top notch program at my dream school. It was a few years later than originally planned, but it was perfect.

  I was startled out of my glorious revelry by my one, gigantic suitcase being dropped at my feet with a loud slap of plastic wheels against concrete. “This is where you’re going to live?” the cab driver asked. His skeptical tone seemed ridiculous. And why did he look like he was shying away from the building like it might be contagious? “I should have known when your sister called me at the cab company to pick you up from the airport.”

  “Isn’t it great?” I said, determined not to let him ruin my moment.

  “That’s what everyone thinks…at first,” he grumbled. He shook his head. “Good luck.”

  Having already paid my fair, he walked back to the driver’s side and drove off a few seconds later. I had no idea what his problem was. I didn’t have more than a second to dwell on it before a woman burst through the main door of the apartment building and bounded down to shake my hand. It seemed a little overenthusiastic, but I was beaming and shaking back with equal gusto.

  “You must be Eliza Carlisle. Bernadette’s sister, right?” The woman stared at me expectantly, looking ready to pass out from her excitement. This place was really friendly, apparently. No wonder Bernadette liked it. It might take me a little getting used to. Me and people hadn’t been real tight lately, but I was pretty sure I could manage.

  “Yeah, I guess she told you I’d be here today.” Either that, or my sister had the world’s most perky stalker.

  Her smile grew, which I hadn’t thought possible. “Of course she did! She told me all about you.”

  Well, hopefully not all about me. Whoever this lady was, even as aggressive as she seemed to be about making friends, Bernadette knew how to keep her mouth shut when she needed to protect someone. It was no surprise to anyone when she went into journalism.

  “I’m, Sonya, the manager, and I’m here to welcome you and get you settled.” She reached for my suitcase, and I thought about trying to stop her, but it seemed slightly rude to say no, and I was just a littl
e afraid of provoking her into some kind of super welcome mode. Instead, I followed her up the steps while she continued to talk.

  “I can’t tell you how excited I am to have another woman my age around here. I mean,” she said, looking back at me while she yanked my suitcase over another step, “your sister is really nice, but she was hardly ever around. It’ll be great having someone to talk to.” She was still smiling, even as she wrestled my bag up another step.

  I guess I hadn’t really thought about how old Sonya was until that moment. She was young, but I hadn’t realized she was that young. “How old are you?”

  “Twenty…four,” she said, her words broken up by the effort of hauling my suitcase up and over the last, unusually tall step. “My grandma owns the building. When managing it herself got to be too much, she offered me a rent-free apartment in exchange for keeping an eye on things.”

  That explained how she came to manage an entire building at such a young age. “Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.”

  For the first time since meeting her, Sonya’s smile faltered. “Yeah, well, it’ll be better now, right?”

  Not really sure how to respond to that, I nodded and hoped it was the right response. When her smile wattage went back to blinding, I figured I’d guessed correctly. Sonya pulled one of the doors open and gestured for me to go ahead of her. Stopping to stare as soon as I entered the lobby, it took me a moment to take it all in. It was beautiful with its dark wood scrollwork and vintage wallpaper. The carpet runners were a little worn from traffic, but high quality and well cared for. It instantly felt like home.

  “I closed the dumpster lids. Are you happy now?” some shuffling, grumbling older gentleman snarled as he made his way across the lobby.

  I looked back at Sonya, hoping he was talking to her and not me. She rolled her eyes, but her voice was perfectly pleasant as she said. “Thank you, Mr. Piper.”

  He flapped his arm a few times in annoyance without turning back, and disappeared around a corner.

  “Never mind him,” Sonya said as she directed me to the office. “He’s always like that.”

  She brushed it off quickly, but I tucked the warning away for later. Avoid angry old men ranting about dumpster lids. If Sonya and I were the only younger residents, I hoped that didn’t mean all the elderly people in the building were as irritable as Mr. Piper. Old people kinda creeped me out. Angry old people even more so.

  “So,” Sonya said once she was tucked away behind her desk and I was seated in front of her, “let’s get all the paperwork out of the way and then I’ll show you to Bernadette’s…well, your apartment, okay?”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  I swear it was like watching a little kid handing over a birthday present to their best friend that they knew was going to be the best possible gift on the planet. Sonya seemed nice—a little overly so—but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why she was about to bust a seam over this. It was just a lease agreement. She pushed the paperwork across the desk and I was happily signing away when the office door burst open so hard it slammed into the wall behind me.

  Spinning around in my chair, I gaped at the man in the doorway. His dark hair and emerald green eyes were certainly something to take notice of, as was his height and broad shoulders. In any other situation, I would have been struck by how attractive he was. Seeming to be a few years older than myself, I was instead stunned by the anger in his body language. What really had my fingers turning white as they clutched the chair arms was the livid expression on his face as he thrust a piece of paper out in front of him.

  “If I get another damn complaint from Ms. Sinclair about my TV being too loud after seven p.m., I swear I will take that cat of hers that spends half the night yowling, and pitch it right out the window! Not everyone goes to bed at seven in the evening, and the only way she can hear my TV is if she’s got a glass against the wall again!”

  He didn’t even wait for a response before tossing the paper at Sonya and storming out of the office, the door slamming closed behind him. As soon as it felt safe to speak again, I asked, “Who on earth was that?”

  Sonya sighed. “Baxter. Never mind him. He’s always like that. He’s total eye candy, but the fights he and Ms. Sinclair get into make me insane. She’s the bigger pain in the ass, but dealing with those two makes me crazy sometimes.” She shook her head again, but dismissed the whole encounter a moment later. I wished I could have done the same. “Anyway,” Sonya continued, “if you have any questions about the lease agreement, just let me know. You’ll actually be subletting from Bernadette since her lease isn’t up yet, but all the same rules and requirements apply.”

  “Rules and requirements?” I asked. Rules, sure, there were always rules, I supposed. Requirements? Like a credit check? I hoped that wouldn’t be an issue as I had almost zero credit to speak of.

  Tilting her head to one side, Sonya frowned. “Bernadette did explain how this building works, right?”

  “It’s an apartment building. How complicated can it be?” I mean, I’d never lived on my own before, but still. Pay your rent on time, don’t annoy the neighbors. What else was there?

  Slumping into her chair, Sonya’s posture made it pretty clear there was definitely more to it than that. “Oh dear.” She sighed and her smile was taken over by worry. “I really thought Bernadette would have explained everything already. I was so excited.”

  She said it like my moving in here was suddenly out of the question. That got me worried. How bad could this place possibly be? Classes started the next day and I had nowhere else to go. All of my savings had gone toward tuition. I barely had enough left to pay the inexpensive rent here for a month while I looked for a job. I couldn’t afford anywhere else.

  “Why don’t you just explain,” I said warily.

  Sonya bit her bottom lip, but nodded in a defeated sort of way.

  “My grandma, she’s a little…odd.” Sonya looked up at me, her brows knit together. “Her and my grandpa have owned this building forever, but after my grandpa passed and all the kids were gone, she was lonely and she…made some changes to the standard lease agreement, but not the rent amount.”

  I was beginning to feel like I was sitting in the lobby of the Bates Motel, waiting on a key that would surely unlock my doom. “The changes? What were they?”

  “Well, there’s kind of two parts.” She took a deep breath, the kind a doctor might take before he tells a patient they have terminal cancer. “The first part, one of the reasons rent is so low here, is because the residents all have a job…something they’re responsible for to keep the building running smoothly so Grandma doesn’t have to staff a maintenance guy.”

  “So, all the repairs are done by people who have no clue what they’re doing?” I was suddenly wary of leaning too hard on anything or flipping on a light switch.

  Sonya shook her head quickly. “No, no. Anything serious, we have a licensed repair person come in. Small things though, like changing light bulbs or repainting a scuffed up piece of railing, keeping the dumpster lids closed so trash doesn’t blow down the alley, things like that are the residents’ responsibility. Everyone has a job.”

  “You’re going to assign me a chore, then?” That didn’t sound so bad.

  “Well…Bernadette said you’d just take over her assignment.”

  Great. Just great! Bernadette the overachiever, who could do anything and everything, said I’d slip right in and fill her shoes like I’d never, ever been able to do before. I loved my sister, but we couldn’t have been more different if we had tried. I had one talent, cooking, and honestly, I wasn’t even sure I was that good. It was just one of the few things I didn’t suck at, so I figured I better attempt to make a career out of it since nothing else seemed all that promising.

  “What was her assignment?” I held my breath, hoping for once she’d picked something simple and easy to learn.

  Sonya’s eyebrows pinched together again. “Um, minor plumbing repairs.”
>
  “Plumbing?” I shrieked.

  Seriously? I had no clue where to even start with that! I was pretty sure I knew what a screwdriver was, but that was about as far as my mechanical knowledge extended. Daddy banned me from laying even a single finger on his tools after I tried to replace the pedal that fell off my bike when I was eight and ended up with my hair stuck in the spokes and a broken finger.

  “You might be able to talk one of the other residents into trading with you.” She tried to force a hopeful smile, but it died a short death. No one wanted to fish lost rings out of drain pipes or unclog someone else’s nasty sink. I didn’t have to be a plumber to know that.

  “So…the other part,” Sonya said slowly. She waited for me to focus on her again, although zoning out in that moment would probably have been preferable. “My grandma really likes to be social, but she has a hard time leaving the building much anymore. Several times a week she hosts these, uh, get togethers, and…well, you’re required to attend at least one…per week.”

  It took me a moment to process that tidbit of weirdness. I had to repeat it a few times in my head to make sure I had it right. “So, let me get this straight. Part of the lease agreement says I have to hang out with your grandma and all the other residents at least once a week, whether I want to or not?” She nodded. “What happens if I don’t?”

  Fiddling with some of the papers in front of her, Sonya said, “You get two warnings before you’re given thirty days’ notice to move out.” She looked up at me, her expression a mixture of hope and apology. “If that happens, Bernadette will lose her deposit and the option to renew her lease.”