Ice Cream Corpse

by Stacey Alabaster

  I nodded and opened the car door. “The ice cream was always delicious. I never knew it was locally made, though. I guess those are the things you don’t think about when you’re a kid. We’re going to have to go to Misty’s. Check it out. Ask the owner a few questions. That guy was kind of a character, if I recall correctly.”

  “Yeah, well, right now, I don’t feel anything like a scoop of ice cream,” Pippa said, her teeth still chattering. “I think I need a big bowl of soup.”

  “It’s after five anyway,” I said, checking the time on the dash. “They’ll be closed for the night. We can head there first thing in the morning. Why don’t you and Marcello come over for dinner?” I knew that my new housemate, Sue, was already planning to cook for the two of us and she always made way too much food. “Will that make you feel better at all? I’m not sure about soup, but Sue is a great cook. Anything she makes is going to be delicious.”

  Pippa wasn’t entirely convinced. “We’ll have to leave the farm for the night. Find a sitter for Lolly…”

  “She can come too!” I exclaimed. “I’ll make some mashed apples, just for her.”

  I turned the blender off and pulled it apart, looking at the carnage. I really wished I hadn’t volunteered to stew and blend apples on an eighty-degree evening. Mine and Sue’s house had an air conditioner in the living room, but Sue and I were both crowded in the kitchen with two fans on.

  Sue had come straight from the art gallery and was wearing a 1950s-style polka dot dress while she pulled trays out of the hot oven. I moved to the side and waved the hot air out of my face.

  “It looks amazing,” I said to Sue. She had made a beef lasagna, overflowing with creamy sauce and cheese, which she set on the counter. “And don’t worry about it being a hot meal. I think that’s what Pippa wants right now.” We had moved the dining table over a bit so that it was near the door to the living room and some of the air-conditioned air could reach it. Sue told me she had made a vegetarian option for me, a small spinach lasagna in its separate tray, which she also pulled out. Vegetarianism was something I was trying out for a few weeks, to see if it worked for me…so far so good.

  I hadn’t said anything to Sue about what had happened to us that day. I just wanted to have a nice dinner and forget about it. I’d already told Pippa not to mention anything when she arrived.

  Sue laid down the last piece of cutlery on the table and stood back. “Should I dress the salad?” she asked. “How much longer are your friends going to be?”

  I sent Pippa a text to try and find out what was taking her so long. She was already twenty minutes later then she’d said she was going to be. When she still hadn’t replied after another fifteen minutes, I figured it out. Her digital diet. Great. What if there was an emergency or something? I wasn’t even sure her farmhouse had a landline. If it did, I certainly didn’t have the number for it.

  “I’m not sure what the holdup is,” I said to Sue, who was holding the quickly cooling tray of lasagna in between two gloved hands as she set it on the table and then sat down. “And I have no way of finding out.” I shrugged. “So we might as well start eating. Hey, it’s Pippa’s own fault for not having her cell phone on her.”

  We’d already finished off our lasagna, and I’d assumed Pippa was no longer coming, when we heard a knock on the door and Pippa came tumbling into the dining room with a portable baby car seat in her arms. “I’m sorry!” she exclaimed. “Lolly was crying so we just drove round and round town till she went to sleep.” She sat down next to me. “Sorry, I couldn’t phone you.” She didn’t look sorry at all though. She looked smug. I shook my head.

  “You’ll be on more than just a digital diet if you keep this up,” I said. “You’ll be on an actual diet if you keep missing meals like this. And what about Lolly? I’ve got a whole jar of mashed apples. Is she on a diet as well?” I supposed they were just going to have to take the jar home with them.

  Pippa stuck her tongue out at me.

  “I guess we’re just in time for dessert!” she said with a grin, looking at the empty plates that had once held lasagna.

  I looked over at Sue. “What is for dessert, anyway?”

  She grinned at me. “Keeping it simple! Or trying to. In the end, I got the last tub in the store—had to wrestle another woman for it—but at least we can all cool off with a nice cold bowl of ice cream now!”

  Pippa stared down into her bowl while Sue returned the tub to the freezer. “To be honest, I don’t think I can stomach it,” she said, leaning over to whisper to me. “But I don’t want to offend Sue.”

  I wasn’t sure how offended she would be. All she had done was scoop it out of the tub and added a few sprinkles to it. She hadn’t made it from scratch. I suddenly groaned a little, inwardly. “That’s what we should have done. Made it from scratch.”

  “Huh?” Pippa whispered back.

  “If we had made the ice cream ourselves, we wouldn’t be in this situation.” I stared into the bowl of my own untouched ice cream, which was slowly turning to a pool of liquid. “And we’d still be able to enjoy ice cream without being traumatized.” Then again, that body might have remained in cold storage for who knew how long. I dipped my spoon into the melting liquid and tried to put some of it into my mouth. Who was that guy we had discovered in the freezer? And just how long would he have remained there if not for the crazy heat wave we were experiencing?

  I pushed my bowl away. I was with Pippa. There was no way I was going to be able to stomach ice cream for a while.

  At least, not until we had solved this mystery.

  Chapter 4

  Pippa and her family ended up crashing for the night at my house. Even after nine o’clock at night, the temperature had not dropped below eighty and Pippa was complaining that, without air conditioning, the farm house had turned into a sauna within days and it made Lolly grumpy. I had no problem agreeing. Pippa and I had lived together for years before she’d married Marcello, and even for a little while after that, so I set them up in the living room. Still, with Sue in the house, it did seem a little strange to have a whole extra family there with us. I promised Sue it would just be for the night. “What happens when the roof to their farmhouse collapses?” Sue asked, not buying the one night only story. “Or the farmhouse catches on fire?”

  She had heard the stories about Marcello then. Buildings did have a habit of burning down, or flooding, or collapsing, when he was in them.

  At least when Pippa was with me, I didn’t have to worry about her receiving—or not receiving—my texts. I walked into the living room where she was still asleep on the floor and pointed my toe into her chest to roll her over. “Rise and shine.” The sun certainly already was. It shone right into her eyes, showing no mercy.

  She opened her eyes with a grumpy look. “Shoot, what time is it? It must be the middle of the day, it’s so hot!”

  I shook my head. “No, it’s only seven a.m., I am afraid.” But the mercury was already at eight-five. “We need to get ready if we’re going to go to Misty’s Ice Cream Parlor. There’s kind of a queue for the shower.” I lowered my voice. “And Sue has a habit of using all the hot water, so you might want to get in before she gets a chance.” Then I thought about it. “Hang on, you might want cool water today anyway.”

  Pippa made a face and gripped her stomach, grumbling for good measure. “Do we have to? Go to Misty’s, that is,” she said with a pout. “I don’t think I want to see ice cream today.”

  “It’s not like we have to actually eat some of the stuff,” I said. “We just need to ask the owner a few questions.”

  Pippa climbed off the floor. Marcello and Lolly were lying on the sofa, both of them still asleep. “Just let me shower first, then,” she said. “Otherwise, in this heat, things aren’t going to be pretty.”

  “I already found the location, using my old trusty map of the city,” Pippa said, looking pretty satisfied with herself as she clung to an old sheet of paper that was torn at the edges. We were
heading to the car, Marcelo and Lolly were still in the house, and I wanted to escape before Sue saw that Marcello had knocked all her honey flake cereal onto the kitchen floor. “See, we don’t even need smartphones at all. There’s nothing that can’t be found the old-fashioned way. Even old-fashioned ice cream parlors.”

  “Fine,” I said. “You can drive then, seeing as you know exactly where you’re going.”

  I rolled the window down and tried to get some air on my face as we headed to the other side of Belldale where Misty’s was located. It was just out of town, in a slightly more industrial area, and was the size of a small warehouse. Perfect for hosting kids’ birthday parties.

  “It’s down this way,” Pippa said, frowning a little. “Just before you turn off on the highway. I definitely remember it now that we’re heading this way. Ah yes, Misty’s Ice Cream. It’s funny, though, I haven’t been there for years. It’s just not the sort of place I think of visiting, even when it’s hot.”

  I shrugged. “It’s not that usual. It’s more of a kids’ place. We used to have birthday parties there when we were like ten years old.” It was the kind of place where a clown made balloon animals and you would make plaster animals and then cover them with glitter. “I would never think to go there these days.” I shrugged. “Maybe when Lolly is a few years older, you’ll visit it more.” It was the kind of gaudily decorated place made to look retro with lots of bright decorations. There were black and white checkered walls and floors and life-size grinning clowns everywhere. It always smelled like strawberry syrup.

  We were headed to the top of the hill where Misty’s should have been, and my car was struggling to make it all the way to the top. Pippa slowed the car down and frowned. “I’m pretty sure this is the address. Can you double-check on the map?”

  I sighed and picked it up. It was one of those town maps that came for free at the start of the year. A free ‘present’ from the council that they shoved into your mailbox, along with a calendar, when really it was all just advertising material for local businesses. I checked the date of printing, which was on the top left hand corner. It was printed five years ago.

  “This is the address all right,” I said with a long sigh. “But this is not Misty’s Ice Cream.”

  “Aww, what happened to it!”

  Pippa stopped the car in front of the old address, which was now a small organic food market. It had a much barer interior and exterior than it had when it had been Misty’s. No more clowns or black and white tiles.

  “Whoops,” Pippa said, making an apologetic face at me. “I guess that map is a little out of date.”

  “Maybe we do need smartphones after all,” I said, undoing my seatbelt. “Are you willing to concede that point yet?”

  “Where are you going?” Pippa cried out. “This isn’t Misty’s! I doubt an organic market is ordering ice cream from Pure Gelatosphere.”

  I stopped. “Yes, but they might know what happened to Misty’s, mightn’t they? Maybe Misty’s moved to another location.”

  Pippa raised her eyebrows and chased after me.

  It was just after 8:30 and I could see the owner of the store setting up inside when I pressed my face against the glass. I tapped on it gently and waved to him. He was a man in his late forties or so, with longish hair that was almost white, and he was wearing loose-fitting white clothing. A good idea in this heat. He had his arms full with a box of oranges he was struggling to carry.

  He smiled back at me and shuffled toward the door, struggling with the lock for a moment.

  “Hello there,” he said, looking at us with a little bit of trepidation. “I’m afraid I’m not open for a little while longer. We open at nine.” He set the box of oranges down and a couple of them spilled over the top and started to roll out the door. Pippa reached down and picked one up, looking excited.

  “I have orange trees on my farm!” she exclaimed. “Oh, are you thinking about taking on any new suppliers, Mister…”

  “Oxford,” he said with a smile. “But you can call me Levon.” He mused over Pippa’s query for a moment, very thoughtfully. “Well, to be honest with you,” he said gently, “I am all right in the way of suppliers, at the moment. But, oranges are hard to get this time of year, now that spring has ended and summer has begun. I guess, if you want to bring a couple of samples of your products in, I can take a look at them,” he stated.

  “Oh, that would be wonderful!” Pippa said, putting the orange back in the box. “This is fantastic, Rach, isn’t it? I might actually be able to make some money from my farm, rather than just sinking cash into it!”

  Well, it was fantastic in one sense, but in another sense, no, it wasn’t. Because we’d come here to find an ice cream parlor, which Pippa seemed to have entirely forgotten about.

  “Is there anything else I can help you with this morning?” he asked. “I am a little busy setting up my stock.”

  “We’re not actually here about becoming suppliers,” I said. “Well, not just that.”

  “Oh?” Levon asked.

  “We were actually wondering whatever happened to the ice cream parlor that used to be here?” I glanced around the room that was now unrecognizable from the way it had been when I was a kid. There was no longer any black and white checkers on the wall, all the red plush booths had been ripped out, and the clowns had been retired. Now there were just rows of wooden shelves holding fruits and vegetable and eggs laid by local hens. “Misty’s?” I added, in case he didn’t know what I was talking about.

  Levon threw his head back and laughed a little. “Ah, you’re actually not the first person to drop by in the last couple of days to ask about the old ice cream parlor,” he said, sounding a little nostalgic. “I guess it has something to do with this terrible heat,” he said, nodding outdoors where the sun was already behaving like a menace. “It’s not good for the product, either,” he commented. “Makes the fruit and veggies rot quicker than the cooler weather…”

  Pippa nodded like she knew exactly what he was talking about, even though she had only been living on the farm for a little while. “Tell me about it.”

  “Oh, it’s terrible, isn’t it?” Levon asked. “Trying to keep all the bugs away as well.”

  Pippa laughed. “I know! Gosh, people who don’t farm produce just don’t understand what we go through.”

  I could see that Levon was passionate about what he did, but I needed to get him back on topic. He seemed to be a little absentminded. He and Pippa really made a perfect pair. “Do you know what happened to Misty’s?” I asked, trying to pull him back to the subject we had actually come to discuss.

  Levon shook his head slowly. “No. I think the reason people still drop by, even today, thinking it’s still here is because it closed down so suddenly and without any warning,” he commented.

  It had closed down suddenly? Hmm.

  “When was this?” I asked, frowning.

  Levon pondered the question for a moment and when he didn’t answer and started swatting at a fly that was heading toward the oranges, I thought he might become distracted again. “I took over…let’s see…about two years ago, I think.”

  “Two years?” I glanced at Pippa. That was when Athena said the freezer had been rented out.

  He offered me a little apologetic smile. “Yes, I think so. I can double-check that if you like. Have a peek at my calendar?”

  “No, that’s all right. Thank you, Levon.” I pulled Pippa aside and whispered, “Two years ago. That’s when the freezer was last returned to the factory.”

  “Is everything all right, ladies?” Levon asked breezily.

  I looked up and smiled at him.

  “So Misty’s didn’t change location or anything?”

  Levon shrugged. “No, I don’t think so. The owner left town suddenly, as soon as the business went under,” Levon said. “Or at least, that’s what I heard. I only took over once he had left and the place was already deserted by then. Though it did take me a while to pull out all his
old fittings and repaint the place.”

  A few memories were starting to come back to me from when I was a kid. The parlor had been owned by a large, jolly fellow with dark curly hair and a booming voice. He was always good with kids. The perfect person to run a kids’ party place. “Rocky…that was his name, wasn’t it?” I murmured.

  Levon nodded. “Rocky Morlock.”

  “That’s right…” I murmured. I turned to Pippa. “You know, I haven’t seen him around town in ages.”

  Levon nodded a little. “People have occasionally come in to ask for him, but he left no forwarding address. I’m sorry.” He looked at Pippa and then at me for answers. “Are you looking for him? For Rocky?”

  I didn’t want to trouble Levon with what had happened. With what we had found at Pure Gelatosphere. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that a murder might have taken place in his shop, and it wouldn’t do him any good to find out.

  I decided we’d better take off. “We are looking for him, yes. But only because we want to eat an ice cream sundae, haha,” I called out with a smile as we started to walk away. “You definitely don’t have any idea about what might have happened to him?”

  “I’m sorry,” Levon said with a shrug. “I never met the man, I’m afraid to say. Apparently he was a good man. Very popular with the children who used to come here for birthday parties.”

  Hmm, maybe not such a good man after all, as it turned out. But Levon didn’t need to know that. In fact, if this town found out what Rocky Morlock was really capable of, a lot of people would have their childhood memories destroyed.

  “Thank you, Levon. We’ll let you get back to your day.”

  “And I’ll be back with my fresh produce!” Pippa called out with a wave.

  He laughed and waved back. “I look forward to it!”

  “What do you make of all that?” I asked Pippa as we headed back into the car.