Fireworks and Felonies

by Allyssa Mirry

  She headed into the main area of the taffy shop. Daniel was still waiting for her but was in conversation with Jeff about the current force of the waves on the beach. Lydia looked for her aunt and saw that she was saying goodbye to her friend. Then, she headed right over to Lydia.

  Lydia was about to start rambling about the reasons she came up with to visit the condo complex, but Aunt Edie spoke first, “Lydia, dear, Dolores was just saying that she thought she could gather some of the ladies I used to work with together for lunch. Would it upset you if I caught up with them instead of spending the whole day with you?”

  “That would be great!” Lydia said. “I mean – I need to run an errand, and I thought it might be boring for you, so the timing is great. Go spend some time with your former coworkers. It should be fun.”

  “We could head to the beach sometime after lunch,” Aunt Edie said with a smile. “If you think you’ll be finished with what you have to do by then.”

  Lydia assured her that she would be finished in time to go to the beach. She felt very lucky about the timing of the plans, and as soon as Aunt Edie left, Lydia explained to Daniel that she wanted to return to Cora’s Coral Condos.

  They made sure that the taffy shop staff would be okay without her for a little while, grabbed some firework taffy for the road, and then headed to the complex. The building looked similar to the way it had the last time that they were there, but there was no longer a large crowd outside.

  Lydia headed toward Cora’s office but saw that she wasn’t alone. The two neighbors that she had overheard speaking with Cora right after the fire were outside her door.

  The woman, Maggie, was banging on the door. “Are you still on the phone? How long is this going to take? Is the call about fixing the water damage?”

  The man, Neil, also looked distraught. He was holding a small terrier in his arms who barked to punctuate Maggie’s yells.

  “Are you trying to talk to Cora too?” Maggie asked Lydia. “She’s avoiding everyone. But I know that she’s inside!”

  “We wanted to see if there were any updates about our friend’s home,” Lydia said.

  “There was a lot of water inside it right after the fire,” said Daniel. “But she would like to know when she can safely return home.”

  “I didn’t have too much damage,” Maggie admitted. “But my condo has this terrible smell because of what happened. I want to know what Cora is going to do about it. It might not be such a big deal if she weren’t ignoring us!”

  “My condo is right next to the doctor’s,” said Neil. “And it does need work done. I want to know what the timeframe is going to be for when I can move back. Otherwise, I need to find another dog-friendly place to stay.”

  “Don’t even think of asking me to dog-sit, Neil,” Maggie said. “I can’t stand your mutt.”

  These cruel words were undermined by the way Maggie petted the dog’s head after the pup reached out to her. However, she soon turned her attention back to the office door and banged on it.

  “Cora, you can’t hide forever!”

  “I’m not hiding,” Cora said, finally opening the door. “I was on the phone with my insurance company trying to get this all sorted out. Dr. Statler never should have had explosive fireworks in the building, so they don’t want to pay. Some fireworks are legal in the state, but were his to code? Even though I do have fire insurance and I thought I had policies to cover tenant stupidity.”

  “What’s going to happen if they don’t pay you?” Neil asked.

  “They’re going to,” Cora said. “They have to.”

  “I hadn’t thought about how this would all work,” Lydia said. “Were you expecting a large payout to deal with the damage?”

  “I don’t know! I wasn’t expecting the damage,” Cora said. “Dr. Statler seemed like such a nice man. I don’t see how he could do this to me. He was so friendly when he visited my office. Unlike many other tenants.”

  “We can’t help it if we’re displeased now,” Maggie said. “How am I supposed to live with the scent of waterlogged smoke?”

  “I don’t know. Light a candle?” Cora suggested dismissively. “Wait. No! No more fire.”

  “Cora, do you have any idea when this will get fixed?” Neil asked.

  “Not yet,” said Cora.

  “Well, it better be soon,” said Maggie. “Too many of us have already experienced our fair share of heartbreak. Neil’s wife died earlier in the year from food allergies. And I lost my family home because of bad investments and had to move into this dump.”

  “I am sincerely sorry to hear about your wife,” Daniel said. “I’m also a widower. I know how… well, there really aren’t words to describe how terrible it is.”

  “Thank you,” Neil said.

  “It’s also terrible to lose a home,” Maggie said. “We need the whole complex looked into, Cora.”

  “I am working on it,” Cora said. “And there’s nothing I can do with the areas right next to the doctor’s unit until it’s no longer considered a crime scene.”

  “Have the police told you any news about that?” asked Lydia.

  “They were asking questions about Dr. Statler’s wife,” Cora said. “And about whether he was seeing anyone new. I told them that he was waiting for the divorce to be finalized before he made any moves. I did think he might have been considering these moves, but he was a proper man.”

  Cora looked wistfully away, and Lydia knew that Cora had seriously been hoping that the doctor was planning on pursuing a relationship with her.

  “His wife was a piece of work,” Maggie said.

  “I could hear yelling whenever she visited,” Neil agreed. “I tried not to listen to the arguments, but it was impossible to ignore them completely. I knew they were fighting. She thought he had never made enough time for her because he was always dealing with his patients.”

  “I heard that Dr. Statler even saw some of his patients at his home,” Lydia said. “Is that true?”

  “I think so,” said Maggie. “He had an official office as part of his house before his wife kicked him out. He still saw some people here if they didn’t want to go to his other office at the hospital. I told him that he better not have too many sick people crawling around the complex. I didn’t want to get sick.”

  “I can understand that,” Lydia said, trying to finesse the conversation. “And it might have been annoying if there were any arguments between a doctor and his patient about a diagnosis or billing here instead of at an office.”

  “I didn’t see many arguments,” Maggie admitted.

  “Dr. Statler was a man that was easy to get along with,” Cora said sadly.

  “But there was one lady patient that was mad about something,” Maggie said.

  “A woman?” asked Cora.

  “Claudia Bean. I saw her storming off before with a medical form in her hand,” Maggie reported.

  “Oh, so she really was a patient,” Cora said.

  “And Jack something-or-other was always hanging around,” said Maggie.

  “Jack Landings,” Neil said. “I know him. He runs a dog grooming business in town. My Rascal was just with him. And I’m lucky he was! Otherwise, he might have been hurt by the doctor’s explosion.”

  “Yeah. Jack was always trying to see the doctor. I don’t know what his problem was,” said Maggie. “But I got the sense that he showed up for unscheduled visits and that Dr. Statler wasn’t always very happy to see him.”

  Lydia nodded. This was interesting news. She had hoped to find out more about Dr. Statler’s patients to see if they could have wanted his condo blown up so their medical files would also be destroyed. Now, it sounded as if she had two suspects based on his neighbor’s reports.

  Lydia listened as Cora made another excuse about not knowing when the repairs would be made but that she would work on them as quickly as possible. However, Lydia’s mind was not on what she was saying. She was trying to figure out how to track down these new suspects.
<
br />   12

  Some Hairy Questions

  Lydia and Daniel left the condos, discussing what they had learned. Unfortunately, they hadn’t uncovered anything useful to tell Mona about her home, but they did have some new leads to follow.

  “It sounds like there was a chance that Jack Landings was obsessed with the doctor,” Daniel said. “Maybe he wanted to destroy his patient file and the doctor.”

  “I know of a dog grooming place that I think could be the one Neil was referring to, but I’ve never been there,” Lydia said. “I don’t know who Claudia Bean is.”

  Daniel conceded that he didn’t know who she was either, so Lydia gave Trina a call. Maybe Claudia was one of her clients at the salon.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” Trina said. “Not only do I know who Claudia Bean is because she’s one of my regulars, but she has an appointment this afternoon. Do you want me to ask some questions? Or do you want to ask some questions? I’ve been wanting to give you a haircut, so it could be a perfect excuse for you to sit next to her.”

  “I’d only want a trim,” Lydia said. “But I think that would be a great plan. What time?”

  “She’s here at two,” Trina said. “Why don’t you come a little earlier so you can be in place?”

  “Perfect,” Lydia agreed.

  She told Daniel about the plan to talk to Claudia. Daniel didn’t think that he could fit in at the salon, but he had another idea to offer.

  “I could go and talk to Jack Landings at his grooming place,” Daniel said. “If I could take Sunny there as an excuse.”

  Lydia frowned, and he quickly added, “I would make sure that nothing happened to her. I could protect her.”

  “I’m sure you could,” Lydia agreed. “But even though Sunny is a dog, she has some catlike qualities. She loves napping, and she hates baths.”

  “But it might help us stop a killer,” Daniel said.

  “She probably does need her nails clipped,” Lydia said, agreeing. “You can take her to the grooming parlor and see what Jack has to say. But you do need to take care of her.”

  “I will,” Daniel promised.

  Lydia nodded. She was feeling good about the progress they were about to make with the case, splitting up to cover more ground. However, then she got a call from Aunt Edie saying she was almost finished with her lunch and asking whether Lydia wanted to go to the beach.

  Improvising, Lydia said, “Actually, Aunt Edie, how would you like to visit Trina at work? We can get our hair done.”

  Aunt Edie loved the idea, and at a quarter to two, she and Lydia were seated in salon chairs. Lydia was adamant that she didn’t want anything more than a trim. She knew that she would inevitably end up throwing her hair up in a bun so it wouldn’t get in the way of her sticky candy making. However, Aunt Edie loved listening to Trina’s advice about her cut. She opted to go a little shorter than she normally did, and it ended up looking adorable.

  Aunt Edie was under the dryer to set in her coloring when Trina began work on Claudia Bean.

  “Trina really is the best,” Lydia said, using a compliment as an icebreaker. “You can’t let my hair be an indication of her skill. I purposely want mine simple.”

  “Oh, Trina really is delightful,” Claudia agreed. “I’ve been coming here for years because of her.”

  “Stop it,” Trina joked. “You’re making me blush.”

  Lydia smiled. “I thought I needed a little pick-me-up today, so I decided to get pampered and visit the salon. I was feeling down when I heard about Dr. Statler’s death.”

  “I heard about that too,” Claudia said. “It was in the newspaper, though there weren’t very many details other than the police were looking into the matter. He was my doctor too. I can’t believe he’s dead.”

  “He was a great doctor, wasn’t he?” Lydia suggested. “He had a wonderful bedside manner with those silly jokes.”

  Claudia nodded. “Most of the time, they could soften the blow of bad news. Of course, not always.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, it’s not his fault. Sometimes when you have bad news, there’s nothing anyone can say to make it better. And that’s what happened to me the last time I saw him. I hope I wasn’t rude when I stormed away from his home office. I’m sure he understood, but I don’t like to think that was our last interaction together.”

  “If it was because of test results, then I’m sure he did understand,” Lydia assured her. “And I hope that you’re all right.”

  “I am. Or I’m not ill,” Claudia explained. “But I had a false positive result with an at-home pregnancy test. My husband and I had really been looking forward to starting a family. I went to see Dr. Statler because he was my primary care doctor, and I wanted to get his opinion on who should eventually deliver the baby. But another test of his showed that I wasn’t pregnant. There was something off with my hormones that could be easily treated but was throwing off the results to other tests. I’m sorry! I’m going on about matters you don’t want to hear about.”

  “Not at all,” Trina said. “It helps to talk, and I think the ladies at my salon are always willing to help.”

  “That’s right,” said Lydia. “And what I want to talk about is how I can’t believe that I was in the ocean at the same time that Dr. Statler was in a fire that morning. That thought bothers me.”

  “That morning was the same as any other for me,” Claudia said. “My husband and I had breakfast, and then we went to work at nine. I didn’t know anything was wrong until a coworker pointed out the smoke outside.”

  “I think I’m done!” Aunt Edie called as her dryer stopped.

  Trina excused herself for a moment to check on her, but Lydia thought that she was done with her questioning. It sounded like Claudia didn’t really have a motive for the murder and she had an alibi for that morning.

  She hoped that Daniel had discovered something with his undercover investigation because all Lydia had to show for her work was slightly shorter hair.

  13

  Beach Business

  After their time at the salon, Lydia didn’t think there was a high likelihood that Claudia was the killer. Trina echoed the sentiment. Based on her time as a regular at the salon, Trina thought that she was too nice to blow anybody up, but she was glad that she had no motive too. Part of Lydia wondered if Trina failed to mention this because she wanted to cut her hair.

  Aunt Edie was in a good mood after their salon visit. However, when she and Lydia returned home, it was clear that Sunny did not enjoy her doggie salon trip. Daniel was waiting on Lydia’s front porch with the dog, but she was not by his side. She was on the opposite of the porch and seemed to be glaring at him.

  Sunny rushed up to Lydia as she approached the porch. Lydia scooped her up into her arms as a sheepish Daniel stood up.

  “They gave her a bath,” he said. “She didn’t like it very much. But you both look very nice.”

  “Thanks,” Aunt Edie said, spinning around to show off her hair.

  “I’m sorry, Sunny,” Lydia said. “But you do smell nice. And hopefully, Daniel learned some information?”

  Daniel shook his head. “Our friend wasn’t there. The groomer working said that he was out with a pair of Irish setters.”

  Lydia frowned as Sunny let out a little whine. “I don’t know why she doesn’t like baths when she likes running in the ocean, but maybe I can make it up to her with a beach trip. Aunt Edie, would you mind if we took Sunny to a dog beach as our outing this evening?”

  “I think that would be a real treat,” Aunt Edie said.

  Daniel said his goodbyes so they could have some family time, but promised he would keep his eyes and ears open for news of Jack Landings.

  Then, Lydia headed to a dog beach that she liked in town. She enjoyed seeing Sunny chase some waves and then fall asleep in the sand. She and Aunt Edie dipped their toes in the water and then did some sunbathing of their own. However, as much as Lydia liked the beach and ti
me with her loved ones, she felt like something was wrong.

  She had the feeling that she was being followed again, but she still couldn’t catch anyone in the act of it. Also, Sunny wasn’t acting protectively, so maybe there was no need to be nervous. While Sunny wasn’t the most fearsome guard dog, she normally did bark when someone she didn’t know was approaching the house.

  She kept looking over shoulder even as Aunt Edie began drifting off in her beach chair as she pet the snoozing Sunny’s tummy. However, she didn’t see anything suspicious. She stared out towards the water and tried to relax.