by Lee Hollis
The old woman chuckled and told me, “That’s just sweet ole Charlie. He loves people, and is just excited to say hello to you.”
I turned to look at sweet ole Charlie, who was panting and growling on the other side of the screen door. He didn’t strike me as sweet at all. He was staring at me with hungry eyes.
The old woman introduced herself as Edna, and suggested I might like to go out back and get some fresh air on the porch while Danny finished checking in. She pointed to a door down the hall.
Slightly shaken, I decided it might be a good idea, and I walked down the hall and out into the backyard that was laden with thick weeds and dead-looking trees, and I sat down in an old wicker chair on the back porch.
As I glanced around, I noticed just beyond the trees past a sagging fence was a large cemetery filled with old headstones. Wilted flowers in vases had been scattered around the graves.
I contemplated getting up to read some of the old headstones, but I stayed fastened to the wicker chair because I knew if I started seeing the names of family pets, I would probably drop dead from a heart attack given how much Pet Sematary, another Stephen King novel, kept me up at night for weeks after reading it.
I relaxed in the old wicker chair, and was close to nodding off, when all of a sudden I saw a skeletal-looking old man with sunken cheeks and long white hair slowly sit up from one of the graves, like he was rising from the dead!
I let out a bloodcurdling long shriek and then all went black.
When I woke up I found myself in a dark room. I was disoriented at first, not sure where I was, but then it all came back to me. After I screamed and fainted dead away on the porch, I was awakened by Danny a few seconds later, gently shaking me. I could hear Edna yelling out in the yard, “Darrell, I told you to stop taking your cat naps out here in the family plot while you are weeding, you damn near scared the poor girl to death!”
Danny suggested I take a nap before dinner, which was the first good idea he had come up with all year. Edna led me to a room, and I was so tired, I didn’t even bother switching on the lights, I just crashed on top of the bed, pulled a blanket over me, and fell fast asleep.
Now fully awake, I was feeling foolish for passing out on the porch earlier, and so I made the decision to just make the best of our new accommodations. I was going to enjoy this weekend come hell or high water!
I felt around the side of the bed until I came in contact with an old lamp sitting on the nightstand, and flipped the switch on, bathing the room in a soft light.
I gasped, almost choking, as my eyes darted around the room at the horror! Everywhere I looked there were clowns. I hate clowns! They terrify me! Ever since I was a little girl! And now I was trapped in this room, surrounded by them, all laughing at me, with their big red noses and wide lips and painted white faces and wild, unruly hair and colorful party hats! It was awful! Just like, yes, here it comes, another Stephen King novel I had devoured in grade school, It! There were clowns on the wallpaper! Toy clowns on the bookshelf! I glanced down at the squares on the handmade quilt that was draped over me, and yes, it was embroidered with, you guessed it, clowns!
I let out a deafening scream, and hightailed it out of there as fast as I could, flew down the stairs, and almost collided with Edna, who had darted out into the hallway from the kitchen when she heard the commotion.
Choking back sobs and trying not to blubber in front of a stranger, I attempted to compose myself all the while muttering about my fear of clowns attacking me. She didn’t flinch. She just took my hand and guided me to the dining room and set me down in a chair next to Danny. At the head of the table was Darrell, the grave napper, who stared at me dumbfounded. I let out a sigh. Mercifully it was time for dinner.
Danny reached over and patted my knee and I tried to relax as Edna smiled and said, “Your husband called ahead and told me about your favorite dish so I prepared it special for your first night here.”
She lifted the lid off the casserole, and announced, “Voila! Seafood casserole!”
Both Danny and I gasped out loud and clapped our hands to our mouths as we stared at the live, wiggling and jiggling baby squids crawling on top of a huge pile of spaghetti. It was the grossest thing I had ever seen!
We both pushed back so hard from the table that Enda dropped the lid, which hit the casserole dish, and turned it over. The slimy squids rolled all over the table. Darrell reached out and picked one up, popping it in his mouth.
Enough was enough! We bolted out the front door, past the barking, growling, snapping dog from hell luckily tied to his leash (friendly my foot), jumped in the car, and drove out of there as fast as we could, never stopping once until we crossed the Trenton Bridge and were safely home.
I can confidently claim that Edna’s seafood casserole doesn’t come close to my own special recipe. So trust me on this and try the recipe below! But first, relax with a Blueberry Gin Fizz Cocktail. I had a few after we got home from our ill-fated Old Orchard weekend and they sure did the trick!
Blueberry Gin Fizz Cocktail
Ingredients
3 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
½ cup sugar
2 cups gin
½ fresh-squeezed lime juice
Club soda
In a medium saucepan combine your blueberries, sugar, and water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down heat and simmer for six minutes. While simmering, mash the berries as much as you can. When done, strain the syrup into a cup and let cool.
In a pitcher add the gin, lime juice, and cooled blueberry syrup and mix well together.
Fill a glass with some ice and blueberry mixture about halfway and top with some club soda. Enjoy this refreshing beverage by yourself or with friends.
Hayley’s Lobster Seafood Casserole
Ingredients
½ pound cooked lobster meat, rough
chopped
½ pound crabmeat
¼ pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
¾ cup chopped onion
1½ cups mayonnaise
1 cup shredded cheese (your choice)
8 ounces evaporated milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1½ teaspoons ground black pepper
1 sleeve Ritz crackers
4 tablespoons butter
Mix together the first 9 ingredients in a greased casserole dish.
Finely crush the Ritz crackers in a bowl. In a small sauce pan melt the butter and pour over the crushed crackers, stirring to mix well. Pour crackers evenly over the top of the casserole.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and cook the Lobster Seafood Casserole for 20 to 25 minutes until hot and bubbly and crackers are nicely browned.
Let sit for ten minutes, serve, and enjoy.
Chapter 26
Old man Rufus lived in a modest, single-level clapboard house located on a quiet residential street just a few blocks from the police station. After Mona strong-armed Billy into scribbling the address down on a Post-it note and handing it over to her, she and Hayley hoofed it over there on foot, arriving to find Sheriff Daphne’s squad car parked out front and a small crowd of gawkers hanging out on the sidewalk and in the street in front of the house.
Sitting on the stoop just outside the front door was Rufus’s granddaughter Ellie, in a pretty pink sundress, slumped over, her face buried in her hands, sobbing. Hayley made sure Sheriff Daphne was nowhere in sight before she worked her way through the gaggle of onlookers and hurried up the walk to reach Ellie.
“Ellie, I’m so sorry . . .”
She looked up at Hayley, her eyes red from crying, and wiped her runny nose with the back of her hand.
“I just got here . . . the sheriff wouldn’t let me go inside . . . somebody in the crowd had to tell me what happened . . .” she said, choking.
Hayley sat down next to her and gently put an arm around her shoulders but didn’t say anything. She sensed Ellie just needed someone there with her, and none of her nosy neighbors was offering any k
ind of emotional support at the moment. They were too busy whispering and gossiping with one another.
“I know my grandfather could be challenging, and when he drank too much he was a downright pain in the butt, but he was a good man . . . and . . . well, I just can’t believe he’s gone!” Ellie sobbed.
Hayley held her tighter, and Ellie covered her face again with her hands and leaned in to rest her head on Hayley’s chest as she cried. Hayley stroked the back of her hair with her hand to comfort her.
Suddenly Boyd raced around the corner, walking fast, in a full sweat, his face full of worry. He stopped at the sight of Ellie inconsolable and weeping, and he melted on the spot, pushing past a few onlookers who stood in his way, in order to rush to his beloved’s side. He looked as if he wanted to shove Hayley aside and take her place as Ellie’s savior of the moment, but he resisted the urge. Instead, he reached out with a big, fleshy hand and softly touched her bare forearm.
“I got here as soon as I heard,” he said, out of breath.
Ellie looked up at him, and there was relief in her eyes. Hayley let go of her as she jumped to her feet and fell into his embrace, blubbering.
Boyd gave Hayley a look that said, “You can go away. I’m here now!”
“Ellie, did the sheriff tell you how your grandfather died?” Hayley asked in a soft, soothing voice.
Ellie shook her head. “She refused to tell me anything!”
“It was the aliens!” Boyd said, anxious and upset. “I’m telling you they are here and among us.”
Good Lord, not this again, Hayley thought, rolling her eyes. Ellie did not deserve to hear the paranoid delusional rantings of a comic book obsessive. And fortunately, she didn’t have to because at that moment Sheriff Daphne marched out of the house.
Ellie broke free from Boyd’s bear hug and rushed over to Daphne, who was leaning into her squad car to grab her radio.
“Sheriff Wilkes, please, I have to know how my grandfather died!”
Sheriff Daphne held up her hand for silence and then spoke into her radio. “Billy, I want you to call the coroner and let him know I have assessed the situation and I believe we’re dealing with a death from natural causes, but he’s welcome to draw his own conclusions if he still wants to come all the way out here.”
“Roger that,” Billy’s disembodied voice said followed by static.
“So you believe his old body just gave out?” Ellie asked, sniffling.
Sheriff Daphne looked at her for the first time, took in her fragile face and broken spirit, and finally mustered up some sympathy.
She nodded solemnly. “He was well into his eighties, Ellie. It happens.”
“Can I see him?”
Sheriff Daphne instinctively began shaking her head no, but she couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pathetic, needy, wispy, distraught girl in front of her, so she sighed, relenting, and said, “You can come with me inside but just for a minute, and don’t touch anything.”
“I won’t, I promise!” Ellie said, her voice cracking.
“Do you want me to come with you, Ellie?” Boyd asked, worried for her.
“No, Boyd, you better stay out here,” she said quietly with a half smile. “But I appreciate you rushing over here to be with me.”
Boyd beamed, thrilled over the validation.
She liked him, she really liked him.
Sheriff Daphne took Ellie by the arm to lead her inside to see her grandfather when she noticed Hayley standing next to the front stoop.
She stopped abruptly.
“If I see your head poking around inside this house at any time, I swear I’ll knock it off!” Sheriff Daphne warned, scowling.
And then she continued on inside with Ellie.
Mona walked over to Hayley. “I say we get the hell out of here before Sheriff Cruella De Vil finds another excuse to arrest us!”
Hayley nodded in agreement and they turned to go when Sue suddenly stumbled out of the house, her face wet with tears.
Hayley approached her. “Sue, I’m so sorry, I heard you were the one who discovered the body.”
Sue choked back more tears as she nodded. “Rufus was at my bar every morning when I opened the doors and left every night when I closed them. Every single day, like clockwork, but not today. Shortly after you left earlier today, he said he wasn’t feeling well and he went home. Later, I called to check up on him and got no answer. I didn’t think much about it at first, I thought maybe he was taking a nap or something, but I must have tried three more times and he never picked up. I started to get worried so I just came over to check on him. He told me where he hides the spare key in case of an emergency. The TV was on in the living room and I found him in his kitchen, on the floor. At first I thought maybe he had just fainted, but then I kneeled down to touch him, and he was so cold, and that’s when I knew . . .”
“The sheriff believes he died of natural causes,” Hayley said.
Sue sniffed. “Of course she does! That will save her a boatload of paperwork.”
“You think she’s wrong?”
“No, I didn’t say that, I mean, I’m realistic, I know Rufus was in his eighties. But I drove him around town all the time to his appointments and just last week he had a complete physical and the doctor told him he was in excellent health for a man his age.”
“Just goes to show you never know,” Mona said. “My older brother was a marathon runner, in tip-top shape, didn’t drink or smoke, and he had a heart attack in the shower! It really hit close to home, and made me think I need to live my life differently.”
“You mean take better care of yourself?”
“Hell no!” Mona yelled. “If my goody-two-shoes brother can follow all the rules and still have a heart attack, then I’m going to eat and drink as much as I want because all our days are numbered!”
“That’s not necessarily the lesson I would take from your story, Mona,” Hayley said. “But okay.”
“I know Rufus drank like a fish, and that’s never good, especially for someone as advanced in age as he was,” Sue said.
“He was at your bar drinking every day of the week,” Hayley said.
“The logical thing for me to do is accept what the sheriff says and be done with it, start planning the memorial service, but I can’t. I want a thorough autopsy,” Sue said.
“Do you have reason to believe he might have died from something else?” Hayley asked.
“I honestly don’t know. The sheriff makes perfect sense. All the signs point to natural causes, but my gut is telling me there’s something else going on here.”
“What?” Mona asked.
“I can’t quite put my finger on it. But Salmon Cove has had two deaths in the span of a week, and that doesn’t necessarily raise a red flag, I mean, people die all the time, right? But unlike the sheriff, I’m not willing to let go of another possibility just yet.”
Murder.
She was talking about murder.
“Sue, Jackson Young was strangled at the beach. When you found Rufus’s body, did you happen to see if there were any marks on his neck?”
“No.”
“What about signs of a break-in or struggle?”
“No, not that I could tell.”
“So there were no obvious signs that Rufus could have been a victim of the same killer,” Hayley said.
“No, like I said, it’s just a feeling I have.”
Hayley had the same feeling.
Two deaths in a small, quiet town that normally had an infinitesimal crime rate.
And then there was the matter of a mysterious disappearance.
They still couldn’t find Liddy.
And they were not going to leave Salmon Cove without her.
Chapter 27
“What? Are you two out of your friggin’ minds? No, no way, absolutely not! Count me out!” Mona roared as she slammed down her mug of beer on the bar at the Starfish Lounge, where she and Hayley had gone to regroup and figure out what to do next in their s
earch for Liddy.
“But Mona, if Sue’s hunch is right, and Rufus’s death was not from natural causes, and if it is related to Jackson Young’s murder and Liddy’s disappearance, then the only way for us to find some possible answers is to search Rufus’s house for clues that might help us determine if there was any foul play involved,” Hayley implored.
“Hayley, have you forgotten that we are already facing serious breaking and entering charges not to mention tampering with a crime scene?” Mona asked, red-faced, in total disbelief that she would even suggest such a plan.
“But you heard Sheriff Wilkes say herself that she believes Rufus died from natural causes so there is no crime scene!” Hayley said.
“She’s right,” Sue said, refilling Mona’s beer mug from the tap and setting it back down in front of her. “And Rufus has made me the executor of his estate so I have every right to let myself in with the key I know he keeps hidden and go through all his paperwork, and there is no law that says I can’t bring a couple of friends along with me.”
“This is crazy!” Mona cried.
“She can’t arrest us again!”
“Come on, have you met the woman? She’ll do whatever she has to in order to take me down and keep me away from Corey!” Mona said, shaking her head. “No, I’m sorry, I’m done playing Marg Hell-of-a-burger.”
“Who?” Sue asked, a puzzled look on her face.
“You know, the crime scene investigator from that TV show, you’re always watching the reruns, Hayley!”
“Marg Helgenberger!” Hayley said.
“Yeah, her!” Mona said, sipping the foam off the top of her beer mug. “I’m done doing that.”
“Fine,” Sue said. “You can stay here and watch the place while the two of us go!”
“If I stay, can I drink for free?”
“Yes, on the condition you serve any customers who happen to come in. Can you make a decent cocktail?”