EPPINGTON: THE GUARDED SECRET

EPPINGTON
THE GUARDED SECRET
(A COZY CONSPIRACY)
HEWEY SPADER COZY MYSTERY SERIES
BOOK ONE
Tanya R. Taylor


Copyright© 2020 Tanya R. Taylor
All Rights Reserved.
No portion of this work may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the Author.
This is a fictitious work in its entirety. The author bears no responsibility for any possible similarities concerning names, places or events.


CONTENTS
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Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
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Thank you, Rose Kenny, for all of your assistance in getting this book ready for publication and for your insight on what would work for this cover design. You are awesome and valued. xx
 


1
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I’ll never forget the day my life was changed in the blink of an eye. Before that strange thing hovered above us, we were an ordinary town with somewhat ordinary people like Mr. Mark Jeffreys who lived across the street, for example. He was a reclusive bachelor who’d obviously planned to remain one for the rest of his days. He’d already mastered the lifestyle for the greater part of his sixty-two years of existence and seemed quite contented and conceited, I might add. Didn’t matter if he was sort of the odd one out in our neighborhood where other homes were mainly comprised of both a father and a mother, and a couple of snot-nosed kids, although there were a few single parent homes where the woman or man of the house had to courageously play both roles.
My name is Hewey, short for Hubert, but just so you know, I refuse to be called Hubert. What kind of a name is that anyway? I swore to my folks that when I turned twenty-one I was gonna change that sucky name and put Hewey on the dotted line instead. I think Hewey has sort of a flair to it. Don’t you think? I lived with my dad and mom, Steve and Pepper Spader. They were the best parents a kid could ask for. My younger brother Carl was generally a pain in the butt, but I figured we may as well keep him since he's already here.
Anyway, I’d better tell you what happened to my hometown of Eppington a long time ago and if you ever got to know me now as an adult, you’d probably understand why I turned out the way I did. When this whole thing happened, I’d just turned sixteen and Carl was twelve. That was twenty-five years ago and I still think about what occurred back then to this very day. It really doesn’t matter if you believe me or not; I just felt the urge to finally let the truth be told. Nobody else in Eppington seems to want to relive those events, but the fact that I never stopped reliving them probably means I’d be better off sharing with the world what actually happened. Dispel all the rumors, if you were unlucky enough to hear them. These are the facts…


2
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The town of Eppington
Population: 7,572
Saturday, June 3, 1995
The four of us were the best of friends. We grew up in a community that believed in the village raising a child concept—which meant that Rob, Jason, Sam and I knew fully well what it was like to get the occasional whooping from random grown-ups, particularly when we were allegedly caught doing something mischievous. Subsequently telling our parents about the said whooping was a horrid mistake since that only made things a thousand times worse. Most folks back then would just compile another whooping on top of that whooping for the initial transgression. Undeniably, playing pranks on other kids and throwing eggs at the neighbors’ houses whenever we felt like it pretty much fit our M.O. Mr. Jeffreys’ house was mainly our target since we got the impression he thought he was better than everybody else. To be honest, we usually got blamed for everything, even when our hands were squeaky clean.
Jason, aka Jase, and I were the same age. He was five feet eleven; three inches taller than I was at the time. To say he was a sloppy dresser was putting it mildly. The guy didn’t give one iota if his clothes were smelly or not, had gaping holes or even remotely matched. Never mind the well-known fact that his folks constantly overstocked his closet with brand new rags simply because they had the money to do so. Broad-shouldered and handsome, straggly-haired and all, Jase was unapologetically carefree and didn’t have to do much to impress the girls either. I wasn’t as lucky as he was when it came to girls, but I wasn’t ugly either. I had short brown hair at the time, sort of spiky; a dimple in my left cheek and was more on the slim side.
Rob was fifteen, freckled face with crimson colored hair. He was the shortest in the bunch, but a nice guy whenever he wasn’t hungry. Did I say, he was roughly about two hundred pounds? Nevertheless, he wore his extra poundage well, probably because as much as he ate, he was also almost equally as active. I mean… how could he not be? The four of us were hardly at home during the daytime since we never ran short of something to do outside of school.
Sam—short for Samantha—was a twin. She was sort of like the tomboy in the group. Never did anything girlish and literally scoffed at girls that did, including her identical twin, Taylor, who acted like a princess and couldn’t keep her nose out of a book. Sam hated reading and basically only had the mindset for outdoor activities or watching action-packed movies. Just