Murder in the Morgue: A Senoia Cozy Mystery

by Susan Harper

  A few more minutes went by, and soon Jack was whipping back into the waiting area. Felicity jumped up to greet him, and the rest of her friends followed suit. “Have you heard anything?” Felicity asked before he had a chance to speak.

  He merely shrugged and then ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Not really,” he said.

  “Why were the police called?” Felicity asked.

  “Apparently, Autumn managed to tell one of those nurses in the hazmats that she found evidence suggesting Rose had been killed,” said Jack.

  “Someone killed that poor old woman?” Dawn questioned.

  “Yeah, but until they let us back to see Autumn, we can’t even start our investigation because we have no idea what she found that would suggest something like that, and the nurses are telling us until they know what happened to Autumn, they’re having to tape off the elevators and access to the morgue,” said Jack. “They should be letting me back there soon to talk to her, though.”

  “What in the world happened!” Felicity exclaimed. “She was fine one minute, and then all of a sudden they’re rushing her away and taping off the morgue? And who would murder a little old lady? And how?”

  They heard someone clearing their throat, and they all spun on their heels to see a doctor standing behind them near the entry to the back of the ER. “Officer Hudson?” the doctor asked.

  Before Jack could respond, Veronica butted in. “Dr. Roberts,” she said. “What’s going on? What happened in the morgue?”

  “Not now,” the doctor told Veronica. “Let me speak with Officer Hudson first, all right?”

  Veronica rolled her eyes as Dr. Roberts and Jack disappeared behind the secured double doors. He sure did fill me in on what he knew pretty quick, even if it wasn’t much, Felicity thought as she recalled the Charles Jones case she had helped solve earlier that year; Jack had been livid with her for putting her nose in police business. She had helped Jack only recently solve the murder of his younger sister, and for that reason, Felicity was sure Jack had been more willing to open up to her this time. He must trust me now, she thought as she and her friends headed back to their seats.

  Felicity slumped down into her chair and watched as each of her friends attempted to find ways to occupy their time. Monte flipped through an old magazine. Dawn played on her phone while Veronica leaned over Dawn’s shoulder, being nosey about whatever it was her friend was doing. Jefferson had propped his feet up on a coffee table and seemed close to taking a quick snooze.

  From the corner of her eye, Felicity spotted Linda entering the emergency room wing from a side entrance. The woman scanned the room and upon spotting them, she slowly walked over. She looked like she had finished crying about her grandmother for the time being, for she had regained some of her composure. “Hey,” she said softly to the group of friends, and they all responded with similar greetings or simple nods. Linda looked at Felicity with sad eyes. “I thought I should come check on your friend to see if she was okay.”

  “We haven’t heard anything yet,” said Felicity. “But thank you, Linda. That was very kind of you.”

  “What do you think happened?” Linda asked. “I didn’t know they kept any sort of dangerous chemicals in a morgue. Did something spill?”

  “We don’t know,” said Veronica.

  “You going to be all right?” Jefferson asked her as he removed his feet from the coffee table.

  “Yes, I think so,” she said. “I mean, she was very old and sick. I suppose we should have all seen this coming. I am just still so mad at Tommy for leaving her alone in a haunted house! She probably just died of fright!”

  The group exchanged glances. Monte rose from his seat and spoke with carefully chosen words. “Linda, we were just told by Jack that they don’t think your grandmother had a heart attack. They’re starting a murder investigation.”

  Linda shrieked in response. “What do you mean a murder investigation! Why haven’t I been told this yet? Are you telling me someone killed my grandmother? Who would do that!”

  Linda was panicking, which caused her to hyperventilate a bit. Fortunately, they were in a hospital surrounded by nurses. Monte, showing his great nursing skills, took Linda by the arm and checked her pulse. He told her to slow down her breathing and made sure she was calm. Linda listened and calmed down a bit, though she still appeared pale.

  Monte again spoke carefully. His words were calm and soothing. “I believe this is a brand new development. The police are probably with the rest of your family right now explaining what they know. We only found out because our friend is the forensic pathologist, and she’s the one who insisted the police be called. And our other friend was the on-scene officer, Officer Jack Hudson, whom you met earlier. I don’t want you to think people are just talking about your grandmother without keeping you and your family informed.”

  Linda crossed her arms and then nodded like she understood. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you. That just makes me so sick, though! Who would hurt a little old woman like that?” She took a deep breath and then continued, “Well, what did your police buddy tell you? Do you know anything at all about what happened to my grandmother?”

  “We’re still pretty clueless,” Felicity said, rising from her seat as well to go stand by Linda and Monte. “The police are too. The only person who knows anything is Autumn, but she’s still being seen by a doctor.”

  “Oh, this is so frustrating!” Linda exclaimed. “What in the world happened in that morgue?”

  Suddenly, there was a loud clap of thunder, causing Felicity to jump a bit. It was rather fitting for Halloween night in the midst of a party where there had evidently been a murder, but Felicity didn’t care for the irony. “Twas a dark and stormy night,” Jefferson muttered, and Felicity gave his heel a solid kick to let him know that no one appreciated the humor.

  Felicity had forgotten about the weather. The storm had rolled in while she and her friends were dealing with Grandma Rose’s death and Autumn’s illness. Felicity hoped the guests wouldn’t leave. There was plenty to do inside. The food and drinks were there, and the dance floor was large and inviting. Felicity made a mental note to check on the guests after she heard how Autumn was doing. She looked around the emergency room and realized it would get busier in there because of the storm. She hoped the doctors and nurses would be able to handle the extra patients that night.

  Linda rolled her eyes, then suddenly gasped. “The table!” she whaled. “Oh my goodness, that thing is nearly two hundred and fifty years old, and it’s sitting outside in that flimsy little tent!”

  Jefferson hopped up from his seat, seemingly infected by Linda’s onset of hysteria. “Come on, I’ll go with you. Let’s go get it before the rain ruins it.”

  They started across the ER and the automatic doors opened onto drenching rain. The weatherman had been right. It was partly cloudy, earlier. Now it was a full on thunderstorm. The trees were bending and the wind was howling. The weather was known to change quickly in that small southern town. Felicity looked out and saw people running in from the rain. She hoped people from the party were ducking into the hospital and not their cars. People were coming into the ER. Felicity could hear the wail of an ambulance as it approached the bay. Doctors and nurses ran to meet the ambulance and Felicity hoped the person inside was not injured too badly. Halloween was one of the busiest nights of the year for hospitals, and the rain only made it worse. Felicity looked and saw Jefferson following Linda out into the storm.

  Felicity nodded approvingly at her friend and watched as he rushed out of the ER with Linda.

  Chapter 6

  Felicity nearly jumped out of her skin when Jack reared around the corner, his eyes narrowed and looking directly at the group of friends. Felicity, Dawn, Veronica, and Monte were all that remained since Jefferson had run off with Linda to rescue her family heirloom. “What’s going on with Autumn?” Felicity demanded of Jack. “Is she okay?”

  Jack nodded as he spoke. “Yes,
she’s going to be just fine. They’re monitoring her still, but the doctor says they got her over here just in time.”

  “Just in time? Jack, what happened to her?” Monte demanded.

  “She inhaled some sort of poisonous gas,” said Jack. “There wasn’t a lot of it, but it was enough to make her sick. It’s in her lungs.”

  “Poisonous gas?” Felicity questioned. “Where did it come from?”

  “That’s the part that’s making me a little queasy,” Jack admitted and stuck out his tongue to emphasize his statement. He continued, “Autumn says that when she was performing the autopsy, she noticed that the woman’s stomach was slightly swollen. She cut into the woman’s stomach, and, well, gas. She’s really beating herself up about not wearing the protective mask she’s supposed to wear when she’s working, otherwise it probably would have just gotten in her eyes. She breathed it in, but thankfully she was able to call for help.”

  “That’s really gross,” said Monte, looking about as queasy as Jack.

  There’s a reason he doesn’t want to be a nurse anymore, Felicity thought when she saw how poorly Monte was handling this new bit of information. “What was in the woman’s stomach that poisoned Autumn?” Felicity asked.

  Jack frowned strongly and crossed his arms to show his frustration. “Autumn seems to think the woman ingested some cyanide, and her digestive track created the gas that hurt Autumn when her body was attempting to reject the poison. The doctor taking care of Autumn seems to agree with that assessment. Apparently, Autumn is not the first forensic pathologist to get hurt like this from cyanide poison, but it’s not exactly a common occurrence.”

  “Unbelievable!” Felicity said, raising her voice to the point of obvious anger. “So now Autumn is hurt because someone killed an old woman? Oh, when I find out who did this—”

  “Easy there, slugger,” Monte warned, and Felicity rolled her eyes.

  “Are we allowed to go back there and see her now?” Felicity asked.

  “I mean, I suppose you can,” said Jack. “But they have her sedated. She’s in some pain, so while they’re flushing the poison out of her system, Dr. Roberts decided to have her sedated. Autumn wasn’t at all thrilled about that.”

  “Doctors make the worst patients,” Veronica said with a sad grin, but Felicity just scowled. The thought of her closest friend in pain made her want to punch the wall, but she bit her lip and forced herself to hold it together.

  “So what are you going to do now?” Felicity asked.

  “We’re going to start our investigation,” Jack said, then gave her a sad smile. “Maybe our local super sleuth could help?”

  Felicity blushed. She certainly had not expected that. “You actually want my help?”

  “Well, you do have a proven track record,” said Jack. “Just…don’t tell the other officers. This isn’t my jurisdiction, so they already don’t want my help, but they’re stuck with me.”

  “Wow, Jack, thanks for the support,” Felicity said and smiled at him. Jack grinned, and Felicity felt her stomach drop; she could see the longing in his eyes, and she didn’t care for it. She took a step back and was close to declining his request for assistance when Jefferson came marching up to them, soaking wet.

  It was still raining hard outside, but the thunder and lightning had passed. The trees were dripping wet and a few had dropped some branches thanks to the wind. No one had gotten hurt, though it would be a lot to clean up the next day. Doctors and nurses were still running around the ER trying to keep everyone calm and get them back to the rooms as soon as possible. The parents of the boy with the broken arm were scowling at him and the neighbor was using the phrase “just kids pulling a prank.” A mother and child sat in the corner looking worried. She held her child close and reassured her that everything would be alright. The child nestled into her lap, gazing at the television screen that was droning on about some sort of miracle cleaner.

  “Hey!” they heard one of the receptionists shout when she saw Jefferson dragging in so much water across the floor.

  Jefferson had a terrible scowl on his face, and he had lost his Sherlock hat. Jack snorted slightly. “What happened to you?” he asked.

  Jefferson grimaced. “Went outside to help Linda rescue her family’s table. But guess what?”

  “What?” Monte asked, smirking much like Jack at Jefferson’s misfortune.

  “It’s gone,” said Jefferson.

  “What do you mean it’s gone?” asked Felicity.

  “I mean someone stole their family’s voodoo table, that’s what,” Jefferson groaned. “And the whole family is about as shaken up about that table as they are their grandmother. You would think they just found out another family member died or something.”

  “That’s just awful that someone would do that to them!” Veronica snapped. “As if they all aren’t already having a tough time tonight!”

  “That is a shame,” said Felicity, her wheels turning. By the looks her friends were giving her, they could see that her mind was at work. She questioned out loud, “You don’t think someone killed Grandma Rose in order to get the table, do you?”

  “Surely not,” said Jefferson. “I mean, it’s just a little coffee table made out of wood.”

  “Not to that family, it’s not,” said Jack. “I’ve talked to some of them tonight, and every last one of them seems to have some sort of fond memory or weird emotional attachment to the thing.”

  Felicity nodded in agreement. “I bet if we find what happened to that table, we’ll find out who killed Grandma Rose. What if killing Grandma Rose was meant as a distraction so that someone could swipe the table away from Linda?”

  Jefferson smiled excitedly then threw one of his arms over her shoulders, dampening her costume. “Oh, yes! Senoia’s own detectives have themselves another case, am I right?”

  Jack frowned. “Don’t forget, Jefferson, this is a trio now.”

  Jefferson scowled at him.

  Felicity rolled her eyes. Honestly, she thought with a slight huff. “Come on, boys, my notebook is still here on display. Let’s see if we can’t find out what unfortunate soul hurt Autumn. Oh, they are not going to like me very much when I catch them, I promise you that.”

  Jefferson smiled excitedly, quite eager to be her sleuthing assistant once more. “That’s my girl,” he said, and he and Jack followed her out of the waiting room.

  Chapter 7

  After retrieving her sleuthing notebook from the display table, Felicity headed to the large waiting room where Linda’s family had gathered to avoid the festivities and wait on information from the police about Grandma Rose. There were close to twenty-five people crowded in the little room, and Felicity was quite surprised to see how many Younglings had taken time to come to the party. It was mostly older relatives—Grandma Rose’s children, and the woman’s grandchildren who were too old to go trick-or-treating and too young to have children of their own to take.

  Jack began pulling aside family members to take to the officers who were now in charge of the investigation. He was being outed by the men since he was out of his jurisdiction, so he made for an excellent distraction for Felicity to interview family members since the other officers were too worried about Jack being the one to step on their toes. Felicity was able to pull Linda aside into a corner of the waiting room; Jefferson kindly fetched them both some punch from the party that was still going on, although Felicity was sure that now that Grandma Rose’s death was being investigated as a murder, the Newnan police would be putting an end to the partying very soon. They probably just didn’t want to spook anyone just yet until they knew who all was attending.

  Linda was pale and fidgety as she sat with Felicity in the corner of the room. “How are you holding up?” Felicity asked.

  “Not well,” she admitted. “I mean, I just don’t understand who would want to hurt Grandma Rose. She’s never done anything to anybody, you know? She was just an old woman in a wheelchair.”

  “Have you found
out what happened to the walking table yet?” Felicity asked, and Linda immediately hushed her. “Um, something wrong?”

  “I haven’t told anyone that it’s missing just yet,” she admitted. “They’re all going to hate me when they find out I let it get stolen! I shouldn’t have left the tent unattended. I just didn’t think anyone would, you know, steal a table!”

  Felicity glanced around the room at Linda’s family members who were gathered in a few small groups, all talking about Grandma Rose and the current investigation. She turned her attention back to Linda. “You don’t think someone in the family took it, do you?” Felicity asked, not letting Linda know that she suspected the thief might also be the killer.

  Linda frowned. “I mean, I don’t think so? Surely someone would have just told me that they wanted it and wouldn’t pull some sort of joke like this, right? It’s not like it’s ever been that big of a deal.”

  “So does the table belong to you?” Felicity questioned.

  “Oh, no!” said Linda. “It gets passed around from one household to the other all the time. It normally stays with someone for a couple of months before someone calls them up wanting it, and then we just drop it off at whoever’s house. It doesn’t belong to one person. It belongs to the entire family. Even Grandma Rose’s siblings’ grandchildren borrow it from time to time.”

  “So anyone can take it home with them if they’re a Youngling?” Felicity asked. “What about your Uncle Donnie? Didn’t you and Rodney tell me he wasn’t allowed to have it or something?”

  Linda laughed. “Unofficially, yes. Donnie brought it to his house one time when his son was having some friends over. Irresponsible teenagers is all. Donnie wasn’t supervising and the kids knocked it over. It used to have a drawer, but it fell out and broke into pieces. We couldn’t fix it. Grandma Rose freaked out and told Donnie he wasn’t allowed to take it to his house anymore until he learned how to handle his kids.”