Thrown Off: A Cozy Mystery (Brenna Battle Book 3) by Laney Monday Read Free Book Online

around some more, and then—
    The light went out.  
    “Hey!” I said. “Turn the light back on!”
    I dropped my shopping basket and jumped toward the door and turned the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. I banged on the door. “Hey! There’s someone in here!”
    The only sound was the low hum of the freezer. And then it hit me. Carlos wasn’t in here, or he’d be yelling, too. I was in the cooler alone, and someone was holding that door shut or blocking it somehow. Someone who was either incredibly strong, or very, very heavy.  

9

    “Help!” I cried.
    “You should learn to mind your own business,” a muffled voice told me through the door. Young, female. Maybe Amy?
    “Amy?” I demanded. “Amy, open the door!” But there was no answer. Why would Amy say that to me, after everything she’d just told me? My heart pounded. My breath came out in puffs of steam. I kicked at the doors. “I’m stuck in here! Help!”
    It was so dark. My phone! I fished it out of my pocket and turned it on. At least I wasn’t in complete darkness now. Who should I call? Blythe? Will? No way. I didn’t want either of them to know I was stuck in a freezer because I’d been snooping around, trying to solve Millie’s probable murder. But what choice did I have? The store! I could call the store.
    I searched for the Cherry Bowl’s number. I dialed, and it rang and rang. The cold seemed to be squeezing in on me like an icy, black vise. Come on, Brenna, you’re trapped in a freezer, but you’re in a grocery store. You’re not alone.
    A store that was closing in fifteen minutes. Oh, crud. What if no one answered? How long after closing did the employees stay? Maybe someone would need to get into the freezer to do some restocking. Did frozen food get restocked every night? Surely they’d sold a bunch of popsicles or something and someone would come to fill the case. If they didn’t, I was going to turn into a giant popsicle. At least my ice cream wouldn’t melt.
    “Hello, Cherry Bowl.”
    Finally! Someone had picked up! “Hi, I know this is going to sound weird, but I’m stuck in your freezer.”
    “What kind of stupid joke is this?” the employee said. It sounded like a young man. “No one could even fit in my freezer. Stop playing around with the phone, kid.”
    “I’m not a kid. And not your freezer, the—”
    He hung up on me. Idiot! I dialed again. While I waited, I took a deep breath and yelled, aiming my voice at the seam in the door. These walls were thick, insulated to keep the cold in. You know, probably the same kind of construction that made things sound-proof. Like a giant, icy coffin. But if I’d heard that voice through there, hopefully someone could hear me out there.  
    No one answered. Not the phone and not my yelling.
    Who was I kidding? No one was going to answer the phone now that they thought some kid was pranking the store. And no one would hear me unless they came right by the freezer door. I’d only heard Amy or whoever that was because I had my ear to the door, listening. That’s what I needed to do! Listen, and save my voice for when I heard any signs of life. If I heard any signs of life while I was still showing signs of life, anyway.
    I had Blythe’s number pulled up and was just about to resort to calling her and telling her to run as fast as she could over to the Cherry Bowl and tell Takashi her stupid sister was stuck in the back room freezer, when I heard a man yell, “Hey, where’s the power jack?”
    Footsteps drew near. “What the…? Who parked the power jack right in front of the freezer door?”
    I sprang into action, pounding on the door. “Help! I’m stuck in here!”
    “What? Is someone in there?”
    “Yes! Let me out!”
    “Hold on.”
    Was that stifled laughter I heard? This wasn’t an innocent prank, and it wasn’t funny. I heard some beeping and humming, and then the door flew open and the light flipped on. Blessedly warm air wafted around me. I ran out of