by Jack Parker
"What guy? Mom, did you bring a date and not tell me?" Tara asked, suddenly grinning.
"Oops, I guess I forgot to mention it since you were asleep when I got home last night. No, I did not bring a date. Are you crazy?" here Alexa sobered, "But, you probably should hear this from me instead of the police. Last night as we were leaving MOF's house, I found a dead body in the creek."
Tara laughed at first, but then noticed the look on Alexa's face, "Mom, you're joking. What are you talking about? A dead body?! Who? What happened? How?"
"All questions I want answered too." They all turned to see Chief Chris standing at the screen door of the kitchen, travel mug in hand. "Can I get a refill?" he asked, holding up his mug.
"I smelled breakfast from my truck and figured you were all back here. Hope you don't mind the interruption," he looked apologetic as they waved him inside. As he pulled up a chair, Alexa automatically grabbed his mug and refilled it from the coffee pot on the counter.
"Don't worry about it. You know you're welcome – anytime." as she set a plate of food and his coffee in front of him.
CC looked over at her, caught her expression, and relaxed. She really means that. She's so good at making people feel at home and comfortable.
"So, back to the topic of the day… CC, what's going on with the dead guy?" Tara wanted to know. "And don't tell me I'm too young for this," she warned, pointing her finger at the others.
"Unfortunately for you, age has nothing to do with this subject. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions about when you left Mrs. Moffet's house last night."
"Ok, shoot."
"What time did you leave?"
"I guess it was about 7:00 pm or so. I had to get home and finish my science report. It's due on Monday and I hate leaving stuff hanging over my head for the whole weekend."
"Did you see or hear anything when you left? Did anything feel wrong or look out of place? I'm trying to gauge your impressions here, not really looking for specifics, unless you have those."
"Well, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but I heard an engine gunning up the road. That didn't seem strange though. It sounded like it was coming from a way off, so I couldn't really tell where the sound originated. I heard the train coming right after that, so everything else was kind of drowned out."
As Alexa watched the exchange between them, she went over those moments in her head, trying to pick out anything useful. She looked over at Phil who was sitting there finishing his breakfast, but his focus was on the conversation. CC knew more than he was telling and she would definitely have some questions for him when he was done with Tara.
"So, what time did you get home?" CC asked.
"It was 7:17. I was on my cell phone with a friend all the way home, and right after we hung up, I looked at the time."
"When you left Mrs. Moffet's house, did any vehicles pass you on the road? Did you see any headlights or hear any tires squeal? Anything like that?" CC's brows were drawn together, an intense expression on his face – he was definitely in the "Chief Chris" role right now.
"No one passed me, but I saw Mr. Henderson pulling into his driveway a couple of streets over. It looked like he had some relatives over or something because there were a lot of cars parked on the street in front of his house. Maybe one of them heard or saw something," Tara suggested.
"Alright Tara, I want you to really concentrate and go over that time in your mind. If you come up with anything – doesn't matter whether you think it's important – I want you to call me." CC handed her a card with his cell phone number on it.
"Ok. I hope you catch the person who did this. But, CC, what happened? How did the guy die? Who was he?"
"In deference to your mom, I'll let her fill you in after she and I have had a chance to discuss some things. I need to ask her a couple more questions anyway. Is that alright with you?" here looking at Alexa.
"Yeah, that's fine with me. Tara, I'll fill you in later, honey. Or, hey Phil, can you do the honors? I know she's dying of curiosity, and CC is in the zone." Alexa said, pleading to him with her eyes.
"Sure, no problem. You don't even have to ask." Phil stood up and started for the front door, urging Tara along. "We'll head over to the park, be back later."
"Bye," CC and Alexa said in unison. "Be careful," Alexa added.
Once she heard the front screen door close, Alexa gave CC an encouraging look. She walked over to the counter for more coffee. "So, what is the latest? Feel free to elaborate," she said, refilling his cup as well as hers.
"Let's go out on the porch. I would like to see just how clear the coast is. Tara is your daughter, after all." CC suggested.
Alexa laughed, "True, she loves a mystery just like me, but this one is hitting too close for comfort. I'm kinda creeped out."
"Well, get ready for more creeping. You were right. The guy is someone you knew." At her shocked face, he decided to just spit it out. "It was Garret Brown, the new guy who worked at the library."
"What? The brand new guy who barely started working there last month?" Had she not been sitting down, Alexa might have had problems maintaining her balance. Her head swam, her heart sank, and she felt nauseous. "I just saw him last Tuesday when I went in to check out a book for my lit class. He flirted with me and commented on the book I checked out – and now he's DEAD."
CC reached over and took her hand. He held it and said, "I want to give you some time to absorb this before I question you any further. Let's just sit here until you're ready to move on."
She looked over at him with relief written on her face and said in a small voice, "Thanks, CC. You're sweet."
Even though he knew he shouldn't, CC couldn't help but feel pleased with her matter-of-fact compliment. They were sitting on the porch swing together; he was holding her hand and occasionally patting it; it just felt right to him. Then, she leaned over toward him, put her head against his shoulder and heaved a sigh. I want to put my arm around her, but this is not the time or place. Sometimes this cop thing is just a kick in the pants.
They stayed like this for several minutes until Alexa suddenly sat up straight and asked, "How did he die? Did he drown?" CC sighed and looked down at the porch because he knew this next piece of news would hit her hard.
"No Lex," using a nickname he had made up for her the first night they met. "He was hanged."
CHAPTER 4
Alexa drove onto campus trying to keep her mind focused on her upcoming class. This was one of the self-preservation mechanisms that she had developed over the years when she didn't want to deal with something, but tonight, the trick wasn't working. This was the fourth week of her detective fiction class; of course, when she had signed up for it, she never realized that she would be caught in the middle of a real live murder mystery – again.
In the two years since she had been living in Neosho, Alexa had already been involved in three investigations like this one. Most people in town would say that either she had the really bad luck of finding dead bodies, or that she went looking for them. In Alexa's case, the first scenario was true. She did have the bad luck to keep finding dead bodies – luckily, most of the victims had been from out of town. Not like the last guy she had found, though.
Poor Garret… she still couldn't believe that he had come to such a terrible end. It still creeped her out to think about how he had died. As she walked toward the café on campus, she perused the crime scene again in her mind. Did I miss something important? As she stood in line, her thoughts were interrupted, "Hey, I know you! How is the investigation coming?"
She turned to see another student in line behind her. It was the head librarian, Bob Dempsey. Ignoring the question about the investigation, "Hi, Bob. I haven't seen you in a while. Whenever I come into the library, you're either off that day or on another shift."
"Yeah, my schedule has been just a little hectic lately. I moved to another place closer to work. Plus, just this week, my girlfriend decided to move back in, so we had all of her stu
ff to pack and move. She said she liked my new place a lot better than her own. Sudden, I know. I just can't figure women out sometimes."
Woah, Alexa didn't know exactly how to process or deal with this information, so she opted for the interested friend approach. She lightly patted his arm, "Well, I hope everything works out for you two. I heard that you guys had already set a wedding date and everything, and then she decided to move out. What happened? If you don't mind the nosy questions."
"Well, we had been having problems for a while. We both thought it was a commitment issue, so we decided to move on with marriage plans, but things started disintegrating after that. So, she suggested we see other people, and that just blew my legs out from under me. I had no idea she had pulled that far away from me. Guess I had my head in the sand. And then, all of a sudden this week, she came over to apologize. Said she loved me more than ever and wanted to move in and get married. I let her move back in, but I'm not sure exactly where we stand anymore."
By this time, they had paid for their coffee and found a table. They began to talk more about the classes they were taking, mixed with a little personal information. The more they talked the more Bob smiled. I hope he feels a little better, she thought. He looks like he could use some cheering up. Alexa made herself as personable as she could – pretty easy to do with a veritable stranger. She learned a lot about Bob as they conversed, although she didn't care to reveal too much about herself except her love of literature.
Bob was taking a class about sailing techniques. He said that although he had not been much for water sports when he was younger, he had come to love that type of recreation as of late, and was trying to grasp a greater understanding of it.
Their conversation moved on to work and Bob told her that he had read in the paper about Garret's death. At first he was incredulous about her finding the body. "What luck! How many dead bodies does that make you now?" he asked, with a slight smirk on his face.
Alexa gave him 'The Rock eyebrow' and said, "I don't mean to find any of these bodies, I am just in the wrong place at the right time, or something. I can't help it. Plus, I LOVE mysteries," she laughed.
Suddenly, he pulled his chair close to hers so she could hear him as he half whispered, "I wish things were different between us," he said with a sad look in his eyes. "We have so much in common, and I think we could be great together." He had a vulnerable, hungry look on his face. Then, Bob reached over and pulled Alexa's hand into his. He started caressing her hand and kissing her fingers lightly, all the while looking at her pointedly.
"Dude, what are you doing?!" She half yelled as she jerked her hand away from him, she had thought he was talking about his fiancé. Everyone in the café stopped eating and looked at them. "Don't do that," was all she could come up with – this is just creepy. It took her completely by surprise. She pushed back from the table, grabbed her books and rushed out of the café to class. Bob leaned back in his chair, took a sip of his coffee as if nothing had happened, and stared after her with a possessive look in his eyes.
Later, on her way home after class, Alexa called Phil. "Hey Superman, what's up?" She tried to sound nonchalant, but he saw through that immediately.
"AIG, what's wrong? You sound upset."
"Oh, I am, although I thought I was hiding it well."
"Ha! I see all, hear all, and understand all, plus I'm a really fast runner. That, my dear, is why you call me Superman. Remember?"
"You're so right, how could I have forgotten," she said smiling into the phone. "Well, you won't believe what happened tonight before class."
Phil was all attention, "Oooh, did you find out something about the murder?"
"No, you weirdo. It's not all about the murder, you know." She then launched into the story about Bob. Phil was laughing one minute and livid the next. By the time she finished explaining how much the guy had creeped her out, Phil was disgusted with him.
To lighten the mood, and because he had no idea what else to say, Phil suggested, "So, we should come up with an acronym for Bob. Something unusual to fit his disgusting personality."
"He makes me want to barf," said Alexa, "So, it has to be something that captures his true ickyness."
Both of them exclaimed at the same time, "Barf Bag Bob!"
"And we'll call him BBBob for short," Phil said. Alexa had to pull over because she was laughing so hard. As they went on in their celebration of a new acronym that so perfectly fit the situation, Alexa saw lights in her back window. Police lights.
"Aw man!! Hey Phil, gotta go. The cops want to know why I'm pulled over banging on the steering wheel, laughing. I'll call you tomorrow."
Phil could barely contain himself as he heard about this development. "This will go into the archives of all the weird things that have happened to you. One day you can tell your grandchildren about it," he laughed.
"Ha, ha! You're funny. Ok, I gotta hang up, the officer is right behind my car."
"Ok, bye. Good luck!" Phil offered.
"Ma'am, do you know how fast your car is NOT going?" the officer asked as she rolled down her window and stared up into the flashlight.
"CC!" he was laughing at her and trying to replay the first time they met. "You scared me! Why aren't you out harassing some REAL criminals at this time of night?" she asked him, pushing his flashlight aside.
CHAPTER 5
"Hey, follow me to Dan's," CC told her as he turned to leave. "I'm just getting off duty and I want to talk to you about a couple of things."
"Ok," Alexa said, still chuckling about the whole BBBob situation.
As she followed CC, she thought back to the first time she had seen his police lights in her rearview mirror…
"Ma'am do you know how fast your car was going?" he had asked her.
"I have no idea," she had grumbled. Then her playful side took over and she took the steering wheel with both hands and crooned, "How fast were you going, my little pumpkin? Hmm? How many times has mommy told you not to go over the speed limit?"
CC had not looked amused; actually, he had looked rather peeved, according to the clenched jaw and hard line of his lips. His sunglasses covered his eyes, so she couldn't read them, or she would have been able to see the ornery glint there.
"License and registration, please," he demanded with an outstretched, gloved hand.
She reached inside the glove compartment for her papers, "Aww, come on, dude. Give me a break. I just moved here, I don't know all the streets where you guys lurk, awaiting unsuspecting and otherwise law-abiding citizens."
"Step out of the car, ma'am," he said, once he had examined her papers and handed them back.
"WHAT!!"
"You heard me Mrs. Graham. I need you to step out of your vehicle."
"The name is Alexandra Inez Graham – not Mrs. Graham! And, I don't appreciate being treated like a criminal. Surely, there are more dangerous people out on the streets that you can harass with good reason." She jerked open the car door and stepped closer to him. She read his badge – C. Nettles. He didn't even step backward. He didn't seem very intimidated by her 5'8" height.
"Truly, Officer Nettles, this is an outrage!" she yelled up at him.
"Truly, Alexandra Inez Graham, this is standard procedure for testing sobriety. And, it's Chief Christopher Nettles," he said, taking in her shoulder-length curly hair, jeans and OU sweatshirt.
"You have GOT to be joking!! If I were not a religious person, opposed to taking the Lord's name in vain, I would have a few choice things to say, Chief Chris," she came up with that nickname partly because of the habit of shortening everyone's name and partly because he was ticking her off.
He stiffened at the nickname, but then shot back, "Apparently, you're not so religious that you're opposed to speeding. Over here, Lex," giving her a nickname of his own. "Hold your arms straight out, walk this line until I say stop, and then turn around and come back."
She huffed over to where he was pointing, held out her arms, and walked a perfectly straig
ht line. After about five steps, he told her to stop and return. She did so.
He then told her to touch her index finger to the tip of her nose; she gave him an incredulous look, "Why? I already walked the line perfectly without a hitch! Surely, you can't still think me intoxicated!!"
With a straight face, he said, "Finger to the tip of your nose, please. Then walk the line again while touching your finger to your nose."
She was incensed by this time, "FINE," she yelled and proceeded to do as he asked.
When she returned to him, she threw him a sarcastic look and curtsied, "Are you satisfied, my dear Chief Chris?"
"Actually, no, I'm not Lex. I need you to hop on one foot while touching your finger to the tip of your nose," he said, as he gave her a sweet smile.
She did a double take, "You want me to hop on one foot while touching my finger to my nose? Shall I also hop along the line while I'm at it?" she asked a little bitterly. She started hopping.
When she returned to him, she stopped and put her hands on her hips. She is feisty, he thought. "Well, did I pass the sobriety test?"
"Of course you did. I could tell you weren't drunk after you stepped out of your car and read my badge," he smiled as her jaw dropped.
"So, why did you have me do all that ridiculous walking, touching and hopping?" she demanded, still extremely angry with him.
"I just wanted to show you how annoying it is when someone doesn't believe you, and how demeaning it feels when someone thinks you're incompetent," he smiled slightly. He chose this moment to take off his sunglasses. Beautiful brown eyes, she thought.
As she arrived at Dan's Diner and parked beside CC's police truck, Alexa remembered how she had felt thoroughly chastised after his statement. It didn't take long for that story to get around Neosho, so for the first few months, she had to deal with people snickering at her. CC and she had talked it out later, and come to an understanding and mutual appreciation of each other. Why they had never gone out was still a mystery to the townspeople.