by Tina Anne
Away in a Murder
A Theme Park Mysteries Book
By Tina Anne
Copyright 2015 Tina A Snyder
Proofreading by G Snyder
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to locales, events, or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: I Love My Job
Chapter 2: But Not Every Part of My Job
Chapter 3: Meal From Hell
Chapter 4: The Interview From, Well, You Know Where
Chapter 5: This Just In
Chapter 6: Gate Crashers
Chapter 7: First Date: Take 1
Chapter 8: Too Smart For That
Chapter 9: Relaxing With Dinosaurs
Chapter 10: Investigation or Burglary? You Decide
Chapter 11: Marlowe, are you out of your mind?
Chapter 12: A Revelation
Chapter 13: Not the Morning I Expected
Chapter 14: What a Kick in the Head
Chapter 15: Wait, Let Me Write That Down For You
Chapter 16: Death by Chocolate?
Chapter 17: My Happy Place
Chapter 18: First Date Take Two
Chapter 1: I Love My Job
The room was dark. I could feel the heat from the fire. I could smell the smoke. I could feel it saturating my lungs. I started to cough. It was getting hard to breath. What was happening? How did I get here? Where was I? I could hear a man calling my name. I tried to yell back, but I couldn’t my throat hurt too much. His voice was familiar and comforting somehow, but I couldn’t place it. Suddenly I sat up and screamed.
I opened my eyes and looked around the room. It wasn’t on fire. That must have been a dream. I was in my bedroom and everything was normal. I loved my bedroom. It truly was my sanctuary. I was happy here. The sun was streaming in through the windows. I could see blue sky, white fluffy clouds and palm trees. I was having an “I’m lucky to live in Florida” moment. Here it was mid-November and the temperatures were still in the seventies. If I were still back in Pennsylvania I would have been seeing a depressingly grey sky, bare trees and the ground would probably have been covered with snow. Pretty, but freezing. Here I had pretty with sunshine. It made me happy.
Something in the back of my mind was giving me a feeling of dread. Maybe it was the dream, maybe not. I felt as if something was going to happen soon that would change my life. Again. Something not good. Hopefully not another murder. Please don’t let it be another murder.
“Knock it off, Misty,” I said to myself. “You love your life, you work hard. Everything is going great. Nothing will go wrong. It was just a dream. It’s ok.”
I shook my head and tried to do what I called the etch-a-sketch brain. You know, shake it and clear the screen. Once shaken and cleared, I got out of bed and prepared for the day. I still had to go to work. I still had a job to do. I needed to focus so I could go do that job.
When I was just about ready to go there was a knock at my door. It was my son Frankie. He lived in the apartment above me. I say apartment, but we each had the floor of what was once a large guest house. The first floor was a garage built to hold six cars. The second was my apartment. The third was Frankie’s. They were large, comfortable apartments.
Together we left to start our day. As we walked to work, I thought about how I got here. It was fate really. My son Frankie was helping me move from Pennsylvania to Florida after my very amicable divorce. We came across a rundown theme park, now called Adventure Universe, and we bought it. That’s when the real adventure began. I found the dead body of the wife of the park’s former owner on the park’s property. Jerome, the man Frankie and I wanted to make our chief engineer was accused of killing her. Well, Frankie and I solved that murder for the Chief of Police Marlowe Campion and cleared Jerome’s name. I also discovered that Marlowe and I were strongly attracted to each other and didn’t know it. At least I didn’t.
Then again I should have. Marlowe was just about six feet tall. He had dark brown hair which just had little tiny wisps of grey that acted as natural high lights. I’d never tell him he had grey in his hair, though. He had the most gorgeous brown eyes. Admittedly the first time we met I had just found a dead body and was really not myself. All I noticed about him was his sloppy appearance. He hadn’t shaved, his t-shirt was dirty and his hair needed combed. I didn’t see past that at the time.
That was all back in April. Since then the park has had its grand reopening and things are going extremely well. Not all of the attractions were complete when we reopened, but most of them were. Now everything except one or two attractions were up and running. People were coming to our theme park and loving it. We were even starting to get international guests. I was proud. I had a sense of accomplishment like I hadn’t had in a long time. I also had a purpose again. Life was good.
Oh, and I also bought some property with a main house and the guest house that Frankie and I were living in. It was on land that touched the land Adventure Universe was on. I had a private entrance made for Frankie and I that attached the park and the guest house. The main house, ok mansion, was being converted into a hotel and restaurant. The restaurant was being run by my ex-husband Frank’s girlfriend, Minerva. Oh, and my ex-husband Frank was the head of security at Adventure Universe. Sounds complicated, right? Don’t worry, you’ll get it.
“Mom.”
Hearing his voice reminded me that my son Frankie was walking with me this morning. He often walked with me. But, some days he was at the park from sunrise until way after close, a throw back to when he worked as a financial advisor in Pennsylvania. Did I mention that Frankie was certified as a genius when he was a child? He has a sister named Angela. I’m proud of her too, but I love telling people that my son is a genius. Maybe he gets some of it from me, after all.
“Yes, Honey,” I said as we opened the gate and entered part of the park that we referred to as back of house. You know, the part the guests don’t see.
“I have to ask you a favor.”
I stopped and looked at him. He was sounding like he was afraid to ask me something. This was unlike him. My curiosity was peaked.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him.
“Oh, no, nothing’s wrong. I’m just afraid you’ll say no.”
“I might, but how often does that happen?” For either one of my kids.
“Yea, but what I want to ask might be a burden for you,” he said.
A burden for me? I once gave up everything to devote myself to him and his sister. There was no such thing as a burden, he was my son.
“Frankie, stop it. You have guts, kid, use them. Ask me.”
“Would you mind if Pete moves in to the house with us?”
Pete was Frankie’s lawyer from Pennsylvania. And, I suspected, the closest thing to a friend that Frankie ever had.
“Sure, Pete can stay in one of the rooms on your floor,” I said. “That was easy, why were you so worried about it?”
“Because Pete wants to move here. To Florida. He liked it here so much when he came down last time that he wants to make it permanent.”
“Ok, cool.”
“No, Mom, I don’t think you get it. He won’t have a job for a while. He won’t even be able to practice law here until he passes Florida’s bar exam.”
“So, let me get this straight,” I said, “your concern is that Pete will be mooching off of us?”
“Well, yes.”
“Frankie, he’s your friend. Friends help each other. Didn’t your father and I teach you that?”
“He wouldn’t be able to pay you back. At least not
right away.”
Was he really concerned about that? We had been lucky enough that money wasn’t really an issue. If Pete couldn’t contribute financially for a while it was no hardship. Was something else going on here?
“He will not have to pay me back,” I said. “I like Pete. I’m glad he’s coming. It shows me how smart he is.”
“Why is that?” Frankie asked.
“Because, I cannot fathom why any person with half a brain would want to return to cold and snow after spending time in Florida.”
“Not everyone likes the heat and humidity. And not everyone has a choice.” He smiled at me. “You’re so judgmental.”
“We all are. At least I admit it.”
He rolled his eyes, still smiling. “Let’s go to work.”
Frankie turned toward the administrative building. We had different approaches to our mornings. He started his morning reading e-mails in his office. He says it helps him prepare for the day.
I started my day doing a lap around the park. It was my favorite time of day. The park was calm and quiet. Everything seemed full of potential. It felt so good to know that I helped bring this back to life.
The engineering team was making their rounds this morning as well. I ran in to one of them as I was walking.
“Good morning, Misty,” he yelled out.
I smiled and waved back. It was an older, very well groomed gentleman. He wore the blue shirt, black pants, and black work boots that everyone on Jerome’s team wore. I walked over to where he was and got a closer look at the name embroidered on his shirt.
His name was Bob. He was a man probably in his fifties. He had salt and pepper hair that was cut close to his head. He was about my height and had a bit of a belly. I wasn’t sure if it was from age or beer. He had been with the park long before we took over. He knew his stuff.
“Good morning, Bob,” I said. “How’s it going so far?”
“Well, we’re almost ready to open for the day. Just a few more touches. Oh, and we are going to begin decorating for the Christmas festival tomorrow night. I volunteered to help. Jerome didn’t seem to mind.”
We were really going with theming when we decorated for the holidays. Adventure Universe consisted of eight planets all centered around a hub called, appropriately enough, The Sun. The themes were: kids, super heroes, the future, dinosaurs, the Wild West, movies, magic, and fairy tales. Each planet would be decorated according to its theme.
“Oh, I can’t wait to see it,” I said. “I love the holidays. Christmas is my favorite.”
“We’ve got some really fun kinds of Santa Clauses, elves, angels, snowmen, and trees. Each and every one of them will match the theme of the different planets. And of course there will be the manger scene and the twenty foot tall tree on display at The Sun.”
We were planning on having a tree lighting ceremony every night during the holiday season at The Sun. Why just have one lighting ceremony, after all.
“I am so excited. I can’t wait to see everything. I can’t wait for the first lighting ceremony,” I said.
“Me either it’ll be a lot of fun,” he said with a smile and a wink.
I shook his hand and thanked him for his hard work. He smiled at me and got back to work. I could smell his cologne, it was very nice. I didn’t tell him though, just in case that was inappropriate.
When Frankie and I first took over running the park we made it a policy to say please and thank you to our people. Something my ex-husband Frank does not really agree with, but as the head of our security team here, he has to comply with. At first the people here were suspicious. They had probably never been thanked for doing their work before and they probably thought we were up to something. And we were. We wanted a team of people who were motivated and wanted to come to work every day. Not only wanted to come to work but wanted to do a good job. The result was highly motivated happy people and it was paying off. Although, as Frankie would point out, it would be quite some time before we would become profitable. But, we’ll worry about that later. It’s a process.
The next person I ran in to was Melanie Straight. Melanie was in charge of events at the park. Lately she’d been doing over night shifts in order to supervise all of the preparations for the Christmas festivities. Usually when I saw Melanie she looked worried. In fact, I thought frown lines were just a natural part of her face. I mean, they were there even when she smiled. I wondered if she was taking her job way too seriously.
Melanie was probably in her late twenties. She has beautiful brown hair with eyes to match. She was always impeccably dressed and I don’t think her makeup ever smeared. In fact, I started to wonder if any of it was tattooed on. This morning was no exception. Even though she was wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and an Adventure Universe polo shirt, her clothes were wrinkle free and she looked like she didn’t know what sweat was. And she even smelled good. I should ask her what she wears. There was some dirt on her knee, but I wasn’t going to bother telling her that. Partially because it made me feel like she was more human that way.
“Hi, Misty,” she said smiling.
“Melanie, you look so happy this morning. Everything’s going well then?”
“They couldn’t be better. Most things are ahead of schedule.” She smiled showing her perfect white teeth. “How are things going at the hotel?”
“The first floor is open and ready for guests. We’re starting to invite travel agents in the area to spend the night for free.”
“Lucky them.”
“You get the employee discount once we’re officially open,” I reminded her.
“I know, and I’m going to use it. But how wonderful it would be to be one of the first people to stay there. How’s Minerva doing with the restaurant, by the way?”
“Minerva’s Festival De La Manatee is starting to serve guests.”
“Oh, I’ve got to make a reservation,” she said. “Why did she name it after the manatees?”
“She has fallen in love with them. They are in the restaurant’s theme from the chairs to the wall fixtures. She even has a salad selection dedicated to the manatees. When you purchase one of those salads, all the proceeds go to benefit the manatees.”
“Wonderful. I’ll have to order one. Misty, I’ve been wanting to ask you a question, but wasn’t sure if I should.”
Uh-oh. Was this a CEO of the company question? I prepared myself to be very businesslike.
“Go ahead, Melanie,” I said.
“Um, well, it’s about Frankie.”
Uh oh, what has he done now I thought, but didn’t say it to her.
“What about Frankie?” I said out loud.
“Well. I mean. Is he dating anyone?” She looked a little uncomfortable asking me.
Oh, she wanted to talk to Frankie’s Mom. I was better at that than the CEO stuff.
“I’ve never known Frankie to date anyone.” I mean ever. His entire life.
“Well, do you think it would be ok if I asked him out?”
“Hell, yea! I mean, yes, I think it would be good for him. He needs to go out and be social.”
And I could finally have a night to myself. I loved my son, but we have spent almost every evening together since we got here. It was time for him to cut the umbilical cord and start having a life of his own. Time for me to have a life of my own.
“Thank you, Misty. Well, I’d better get back to work. We open soon. I’ll see you later.”
As she walked away I decided that I really liked her and that she just might make a good daughter-in-law. Maybe I should ask HR about our dating policy. Probably should have done that before I gave Melanie my advice. Oh, well too late now.
Funny, it never even occurred to me to check with Frankie first. Maybe I should have done that as well. Too late for that too. Oh, well, let the chips fall where they may.
Chapter 2: But Not Every Part of My Job
I finished my rounds and went to my office. My secretary, Della Sitron, was at her desk. I loved her name. Sitron
could actually be translated to lemon. I wanted to address her as Ms. Lemon, with a French accent, like Hercule Poirot did to his secretary Miss Lemon in Agatha Christie’s books. I wasn’t sure Della ever read a Christie novel however, so I never said it to her. What if she was insulted?
Instead I greeted her by her first name. This was new for Della, and I knew she didn’t like it. She would prefer to be called Ms. Sitron. She would much rather call me Mrs. Summer than Misty as well. Technically, since I was single I guess I should be Ms. Summer, but I’ve been called Mrs. Summer since I was eighteen. I was used to it.
I went in to my office and turned on my computer. While I waited I grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the mini fridge in the corner of my office. I opened it and took a long, slow drink. And then I checked my e-mail. I had one from Nigel, our PR guy, requesting an emergency meeting with me. I accepted his request and scheduled the meeting. I wondered what was going on. What kind of PR emergency could we possibly have? I headed over to Frankie’s office to ask him.
“Yea, I got the same e-mail. I’ll be at the meeting,” he said. “I heard he scheduled someone to interview you. Maybe that’s what he wants to discuss”
“To interview me?”
“Yea, Mom, you’re going to be on TV.” Frankie smiled at me as if it were a good thing.
A feeling of dread came over me. I didn’t want to be on TV. I didn’t want my face to be seen. Not by all those people. I mean, I guess as the park’s CEO it was going to happen sooner or later, but I thought that’s what Nigel was for. Shouldn’t Nigel be the one in front of the camera? Or even Frankie, he’s a good looking kid. And he’s done a lot of interviews for the park already.
Frankie saw my face and understood that I was panicked. He had no clue what the real reason was behind the panic, but at least he understood that I was panicked.
“It will be ok, Mom. I’ll be there to support you. I know you don’t like this sort of thing.”
“No, Frankie, I hate this sort of thing. I am not the face of the company. I thought this was Nigel’s job. Or even better, yours. You should do the interview. You’re good at it.”