Cozy Mysteries Women Sleuths Series: Box Set III: Books 9-12

by Hope Callaghan

  “Are you going to the store with me?” Loretta reached inside the folder for the shopping list.

  “I reckon. Unless Lacy is gonna go,” he said.

  Lacy, Loretta’s identical twin sister, wasn’t much of a grocery shopper, although a high-end mall or department store was a different story. In Lacy’s mind, grocery shopping was a chore…work, and Lacy had an aversion to work.

  Loretta reached for her purse sitting on the chair. She made it as far as the back door when Lacy came running into the kitchen, a look of panic on her face.

  “Ted just called my cell phone. He went over to the clubhouse to clean out the pool for the upcoming party and said he found a body floating face down in the pool!”

  Chapter 2

  Loretta stared blankly at her sister, the words not registering. “You mean like dead in the pool?”

  Lacy rolled her eyes. “No. I’m sure the person is alive and floating face down in the pool. I already called 911, but we better get over there.”

  The trio bolted out the back door and hopped into the golf cart with Loretta behind the wheel. They raced through the trailer park, cutting through a tenant’s yard and arrived in front of the clubhouse moments later.

  Loretta, followed by Lacy and Uncle Ichabod, raced around the side of the building and stopped near the fence that surrounded the pool.

  Loretta’s first thought was to wonder if Jeremiah Bureaux was somehow involved. Jeremiah was a local teen who had gotten into a spot of trouble at the trailer park a short time ago. To make up for the trouble he’d caused, his mother was forcing him to help out around the trailer park by mowing the grass, although it wasn’t too difficult since they had a riding mower, raking the leaves, picking up trash and any other small task Loretta gave him.

  At first Loretta was against having the boy around until Clairee, Jeremiah’s mother, told her that her son’s friend had confessed to placing Barkley, Savannah Dogwood’s Chihuahua, inside the dumpster during one of the boys’ mischievous excursions. Jeremiah swore up and down he knew nothing about it.

  So far, it had worked out all right and Jeremiah was turning out to be a hard worker. Loretta kept a close eye on him and, kept him away from Barkley. She thought he was a good kid, although a little on the mischievous side. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  Ted Tuttle, the part-time maintenance man Loretta had hired a few weeks ago, stood near the deep end of the pool and pointed to the water. “Found him just like that, face down.”

  Loretta and the others shuffled to the side of the pool for a closer look. The man was bald, short and a little on the plump side, and wearing a black Speedo which was a few sizes too small.

  Lacy wrinkled her nose. “Ew! It’s a good thing he’s face down. Look at that nasty Speedo.”

  “Lacy!” Uncle Ichabod admonished.

  “What? Just sayin’. I’ll wait over there!” Lacy made her way to the patio furniture near the slider door and perched on the edge of a chair.

  Meanwhile, Loretta slowly walked around the pool, studying the area. “Was the gate locked when you got here?”

  “Yep.” Ted nodded his head. “Everything was locked up tight. ‘Course, wouldn’t be hard to hop over the fence.”

  Lacy was familiar with the trailer park residents since she handled applications, screening and contracts. Loretta, on the other hand, handled the short-term teepee rentals. None of the current tenants resembled the man in the pool.

  Loretta plucked her cell phone from her back pocket, flipped it on and snapped several pictures of the body, the bushes and the patio furniture. She stopped in front of her sister. “Are any of the Breezy Point residents bald?”

  Lacy drummed the tips of her acrylic nails on the tabletop. “Well…let me see. I don’t see them very often. Most of them drop their payments off in the drop box or do direct deposit into our account. Not that I can think of.”

  Officer Phil Gatlin arrived moments later, along with another officer Loretta didn’t recognize. He tipped his hat and made his way to the edge of the pool. “Whew! I’d like to say I’m surprised to see a body floating in your pool, but I’m not.”

  He turned to the officer next to him. “This is rookie Officer Lester Bowen. He’s my new partner.”

  Officer Bowen nodded his head. “Pleasure to meet you. I mean…er.” He cast a quick glance at Officer Gatlin, who waved a hand.

  “You’ll become well-acquainted with these folks. Seems like every time I turn around, they’re finding dead bodies, manage to become the target of vandals, or are running away from buildings fixin’ to explode.”

  Officer Bowen grinned. “Sounds like a lot of excitement.”

  “You could say that,” Loretta mumbled under her breath and gazed at the pool deck.

  “Do you recognize this person?” Officer Gatlin pointed at the body in the pool.

  “Not right off the bat,” Loretta admitted. “Course it’s hard to see what with him being face down and all. We haven’t touched anything. Right Ted?” She turned to her maintenance employee.

  “No ma’am. I arrived here to clean the pool for the upcoming party and when I stepped inside the gate, I saw him right off the bat. Miss Lacy called 911 and we’ve been waiting right here ever since.”

  “You found the body?” Officer Gatlin gazed at Ted with interest.

  Ted swallowed hard, his eyes widening as he realized that tidbit of information would make him a prime suspect. “Yes…”

  “Detective Zackery will be along shortly, as well as the crime scene crew. Let’s head inside to wait. I don’t want anyone accidentally tampering with potential evidence.”

  Officer Gatlin, Officer Bowen, along with Ted, Uncle Ichabod, Lacy and Loretta stepped into the clubhouse to wait.

  Loretta paced the floor while Officer Gatlin attempted a conversation with Lacy, who looked as if she wanted to be anywhere but there.

  Perhaps it was a suicide…or maybe the person had gone for a late night swim, had a heart attack and drowned, and the coroner would rule the death natural causes.

  She stopped pacing, stared out the slider and watched as Detective Zackery, accompanied by two men dressed in white jumpsuits, circled the pool.

  One of the men in white pulled a camera from the bag he was carrying and began snapping photos. After he took several shots, the investigators pulled the body from the water and placed the man on his back.

  Detective Zackery watched the men work for several moments before making his way inside.

  “Hello Ms. Sweet and Ms. Sweet.” He nodded to both the girls. “Tell me what happened.”

  He eased into a chair next to Officer Gatlin, pulled a notepad and pen from his pocket and flipped the notepad open.

  Ted Tuttle spoke first, explaining how he had arrived earlier to clean the pool and found the body. He swore he hadn’t touched anything and they had called authorities as soon as he found the body, which technically may have been incorrect since Lacy said Ted had called her first and then she called 911. Either way, it probably wasn’t important.

  “No one touched anything,” Loretta added. “We were careful to stand off to the side and wait for Officer Gatlin and Officer Bowen to arrive on scene.”

  Detective Zackery scribbled in his notepad and then looked up. “Do you know the deceased?”

  Loretta glanced at Lacy and then Uncle Ichabod before shaking her head. “No, but then he was face down so we’re not certain.”

  The detective closed his notepad. “I’ll need you to take a look. Perhaps he is a resident here at the trailer park.”

  “Or teepee tenant,” Lacy added. No way was this all going to land squarely on her shoulders just because she was in charge of the trailer park!

  Detective Zackery led the way and the others followed behind as they made their way back outside and over to the body.

  Loretta swallowed hard and glanced down. Her hand flew to her mouth as she got a good look at the face of a bald-headed Ernie Sapp, the owner of Misery’s one and only bar,
Clink and Drink.

  Chapter 3

  “Oh no,” were the first words out of Loretta’s mouth.

  Officer Gatlin blew air through thinned lips. “Oh no is right.”

  “Ernie Sapp,” Uncle Ichabod said.

  “That nasty, disgusting old man who owns the bar downtown?” Lacy asked.

  Ted Tuttle crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels. “Haven’t seen old Ernie in years. Whew! Looks like he changed and not for the good.”

  Lacy averted her gaze. “Looks like his hearse is finally gonna come in handy.”

  “Lacy!” Uncle Ichabod said.

  “Well, it’s true. Maybe he had a heart attack or something. It wasn’t as if he led the most exemplary life.”

  Lacy had a point. Ernie Sapp was a man who forged his own path, who could care less what others thought of him yet wasn’t shy about sharing his own opinions. For all of Ernie’s faults, he was also a decent guy.

  On more than one occasion, Loretta had heard where he loaned a little money to a local who was down on his luck.

  He also made a point of driving bar patrons home when he thought they’d had a few too many and shouldn’t be behind the wheel.

  No, Ernie wasn’t all bad and Loretta whispered a small prayer for the man and his family, if he even had any.

  Ernie’s father had owned the town’s funeral parlor and after he passed, Ernie had sold the funeral parlor and bought the bar. The only thing he’d kept as a reminder of his father was the hearse, which he drove around town.

  Lacy claimed he was a terrible driver and had almost run her over and ran her off the road, but Lacy could be dramatic and she was not in line to get a “driver of the year” award anytime soon.

  Loretta focused her attention on the body, trying not to think about poor Ernie. She didn’t see any open wounds, like blood or bruises, although his body was bloated.

  She slowly walked around the deck, looking for beach towels, flip-flops, anything Ernie may have left behind. The place was cleaner than a whistle, which was odd.

  If Ernie had wanted to take a late night dip, why here? He wasn’t a resident of Breezy Point. Even so, at the very least, he would have brought a towel or shoes. It was odd and something wasn’t adding up.

  She was relieved there wasn’t any blood, which would have made a big mess and they would have to drain the pool, clean it and refill it. The party was only days away and the clubhouse needed to be in tiptop shape. This caused another concern.

  “Uh, are you going to close this place off with police tape during the investigation?” she asked.

  One of the investigators looked up. “It’s standard procedure to secure the area and potential evidence while investigating, unless, of course, we determine no crime has been committed and the victim died of natural causes.”

  “How…long?” The party was in three days, the invitations already sent out! How would it look to residents if crime scene tape covered the pool area? Residents would move out of the trailer park! Not only that, but it would tarnish their reputation. Who would want to move into a place where dead bodies kept popping up?

  At least the bag of bones they had found awhile back under one of the trailers had been there long before Loretta and Lacy moved in and took over.

  “A few days,” the investigator replied.

  “Do you think you can put a rush on it?” Lacy asked. “We’re having a party here this Saturday.”

  Loretta could tell from the look on the investigator’s face he didn’t consider it to be his problem. “Please?” she pleaded.

  “We’ll see what we can do,” he caved. “After all, you two keep us in business. You’re like job security,” he joked.

  Detective Zackery failed to see the humor and cleared his throat…loudly.

  There wasn’t much left for the girls to do so they left Ted in charge of locking up after the police and investigators left, and headed back to the golf cart.

  Lacy climbed into the passenger seat and nodded toward the back. “Don’t you want to keep an eye on Ted?”

  “Why? Did he do something suspicious?” Loretta started the golf cart and pulled onto the road.

  “No, but he was the one to discover the body. On top of that, he hasn’t worked for us very long. He knew Ernie. Maybe they had a feud and Ted murdered him, dumped his body in the pool, knowing we would take the blame.”

  Uncle Ichabod shifted his arm so it rested on top of the back seat. “Yeah. Ted did have a colorful history here in Misery, which was one of the reasons he left town years back. Left the bar one night, drunker than a skunk and got into an automobile accident. The crash killed Ted’s girlfriend, Jan. He spent some time behind bars for vehicular manslaughter.”

  He went on. “Ted always blamed Ernie for Jan’s death and they had a few run-ins. After a particularly bad brawl out in front of the bar, Ted left town and hasn’t been back ‘til recently.”

  Loretta tightened her grip on the steering wheel. If what Uncle Ichabod said were true, it would give Ted plenty of motive to kill Ernie Clapp. Revenge. Perhaps Ted had somehow managed to lure Ernie to the trailer park, killed him and then dumped his body in the pool.

  “Won’t investigators look into Ted’s past, discover what had happened years ago and then turn the heat up on him?”

  “Probably,” Uncle Ichabod agreed. “I was gonna warn you about him when he applied for the part-time maintenance job, but everyone deserves a second chance. I’m sorry if I steered you wrong,” he apologized.

  Loretta reached behind her and patted his arm. “Don’t blame yourself. You did what you thought was best. It could be Ted had nothing to do with this. I think I’m a good judge of character and I liked Ted and still do. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Instead, we should let the investigators and police sort this one out.”

  She pulled into the drive and parked next to the garage.

  Lacy hopped out of the golf cart as soon as it stopped. “Well, I think you should feel bad, letting us hire a known convict. We have enough troubles without inviting more.” She flounced up the steps and into the house, slamming the door behind her.

  “She’s right.” Uncle Ichabod’s shoulders sagged.

  “No she’s not!” Loretta insisted. “I would have hired Ted Tuttle even if I’d known.”

  “You would have?” Uncle Ichabod brightened.

  Loretta wasn’t 100% certain she would have hired the man, but there was no sense in making Uncle Ichabod feel worse than he already did. What was done, was done.

  “I’m gonna go grab my purse and van keys. A trip to the grocery store will take our minds off poor Ernie.” Loretta darted inside, grabbed her keys and purse, and headed out. “We’re going to the grocery,” she hollered into the house.

  “Bring me back one of those variety pack snack chips. The last bag you brought home was full of the baked kind and I don’t like those. They taste like cardboard,” Lacy yelled back.

  Loretta stuck her tongue out in the direction of the living room, which made her feel slightly better and then headed outdoors.

  Uncle Ichabod was already waiting for her inside the van. She climbed in and set her purse on the console. “Don’t let me forget to buy Lacy some variety pack potato chips, the fattening kind.”

  The two of them chatted on the way to Thrift-Co, the large grocery store in nearby Glimmer, careful to avoid talking about Ernie Sapp or Ted Tuttle. She felt terrible for poor Ernie and his family.

  Loretta grew quiet and started to wonder what she had ever done to cause them to become a magnet for crime. She had never had these kinds of problems when she lived in Chicago…not even a robbery, which was common in certain areas of the sprawling city.

  One would think a small town like Misery would be free from crime. So far, it had been the exact opposite.

  The store was packed and she drove up and down several aisles before finding an empty parking spot near the back of the lot. Loretta pulled into the spot, shifted into park and reached for her
purse.

  “Well, will you look at that,” Uncle Ichabod said.

  Chapter 4

  “Look at what?” Loretta shut the engine off and pulled the keys from the ignition, dropping them into her purse.

  “Over there,” Uncle Ichabod pointed.

  She followed his gaze to an old black hearse two aisles over. “That looks like Ernie’s hearse.”

  “Sure does.”

  Uncle Ichabod and Loretta exited the van and slowly walked over to the hearse.

  Loretta bent down and looked in the driver’s side window. The inside was filled with crumpled fast food bags, soda cans and newspapers. There was even a dirty sock sitting on top of the center console.

  “Do you think this is Ernie’s hearse?” Loretta asked.

  “Fifty bucks says it is. Maybe we should call the police and let them know,” Uncle Ichabod suggested.

  “Yeah.” Loretta opened her purse to reach for her cell phone and then stopped. “We might not want to do that. Think about it. What are the chances Ernie’s body is found floating in our pool and then we ‘happen’ to discover his hearse parked in the grocery store parking lot, miles away?”

  “True. It might look suspicious,” her uncle agreed.

  “I say we leave well enough alone. Maybe it’s not Ernie’s hearse.” Loretta turned to go and then turned back. She pulled her phone from her purse, pressed the ‘on’ button, switched it to camera mode and placed the front against the window. “It won’t hurt to get a few shots of the interior, just in case.”

  She snapped a couple quick photos of the driver’s side, the passenger’s side and inside the rear window before turning it off and shoving it back in her purse. “Let’s get out of here before we run into someone we know.”

  Loretta’s shopping list was extensive and they ended up using two grocery carts to get everything needed for the party.