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Myrtle Crumb, the sassy, sixty-something sleuth from BETWEEN A CLUTCH AND A HARD PLACE and WHEN GOOD BRAS GO BAD, is suspicious when the mall Santa is found dead "on the throne"--the Santa Land throne, that is. The police are saying it was suicide, but Myrtle knows no self-respecting Santa Claus would let himself die in front of the children! She goes undercover to investigate the suicide and uncovers more than she bargained for!
Excerpt:
From Chapter One
I
was all snuggled up in my recliner with a blanket over my legs and
Matlock beside me when the doorbell rang. I’d been watching my show—The
Young and The Restless—and they were right in the middle of something
dramatic. It was Friday, and they always do something overly dramatic
and then leave you hangin’ over the weekend.
I heaved a big sigh, which made Matlock heave
a big sigh—he wasn’t one to go barking every time somebody came to the
door—as I put down the footrest and got up to peek out the window and
see who was there. You remember Matlock, don’t you? He’s the chocolate
Labrador retriever I got at the animal shelter a few months ago. He’s my
buddy—that’s for sure. When I first got him, I thought I’d lost my
mind. Now I don’t know how I ever got along without him.
Anyway, back to who was at the door. I looked
out the window, and there stood Tansie and her sister Melvia. I know
you remember Tansie—she’s my big, mouthy neighbor that throws money
around like it was confetti. Melvia is also my neighbor, but she’s nice.
She can’t help who her sister is. And, like myself, Melvia is on a
fixed income.
I turned off the television before I opened
the door. I didn’t want Tansie and Melvia to think I just sit around
watching soap operas all day because I don’t. I watch one, and that’s
only because I’ve watched it for years. And me and Matlock enjoy some of
them old shows they have on sometimes like I Love Lucy, The Dick Van
Dyke Show, The Big Valley…that kind of thing. And we watch talk shows
sometimes. We have to keep up on what’s going on in the world, you know.
But we don’t spend all day in front of the television. We have things
to do.
“It’s about time,” Tansie said, when I opened
the door. She brushed past me. “I thought you were going to let us
stand out there in the cold all day.”
“Well, no,” I said. “I hadn’t planned on it, Miss Impatient. Hi, Melvia.”
“Hello, Myrtle,” Melvia said.
“Here. Give me your coats, and I’ll hang ‘em up,” I said.
Tansie wriggled out of her long wool coat and handed it to me. Melvia said she believed she’d leave her jacket on.
“I took a chill when we were at the mall, and I’ve not got over it yet,” she said.
“Is
it that cold out?” I asked. It hadn’t snowed or anything, but I knew it
was in the low thirties or the high twenties…about right for early
December in southwest Virginia.
“It’s not so much the cold as what happened at the mall,” Tansie said.
“Can I get ya’ll some coffee?” I asked.
“I’d like a cup,” Melvia said.
We all went into the kitchen, Matlock
included. He was as eager as I was to find out what happened at the mall
that had given poor little old Melvia a chill.
I poured Melvia a cup of coffee and handed her the sugar bowl, the creamer, and a spoon as she sat down at the table.
“How long has that coffee been settin’ there?” Tansie asked.
“Not
long. I made a fresh pot at lunchtime. But if you don’t want any, it
won’t hurt my feelings.” I poured myself a cup as Tansie said she
believed she’d pass. Hateful thing. Like her coffee don’t taste as thick
and strong as motor oil no matter when it’s made.
I took my coffee and sat down at the table with Melvia.
Tansie sat down across from Melvia. “You gonna tell her, or do you want me to?”
Melvia shook her head. “I don’t want to. You tell her.”
“Well,
I wish somebody would,” I said. This was getting worse than one of them
soap opera cliff hangers. I put sugar and creamer into my coffee and
stirred it up. I didn’t have all day.
“Melvia and I went to the mall to do a little
Christmas shopping. I needed to finish up.” She looked down her nose at
her sister. “Had you even started before this morning?”
Melvia shook her head. “I told you. I had to wait on my Social Security check to get here.”
I
told you Tansie was hateful. She didn’t have to bring that up in front
of me or anybody else. She just wanted me to know—and Melvia to be
reminded—that she didn’t have to wait for money to come in. She could go
shopping whenever she wanted.
“I do mine a little bit along,” I said to
Melvia. In fact, I had mine pert near done, but I didn’t say so. No
sense in making Melvia feel even worse.
“Will
ya’ll please stop interrupting?” Tansie huffed. “Melvia and I were
going through the mall. Belk had their pantsuits on sale, and we were
headed down there to look at them when we saw a commotion at Santa
Land.”
She was waiting for me to ask what happened,
but I didn’t say a word. She’d just told us to stop interrupting, so I’d
be dogged if I was going to now.
Since neither me nor Melvia said a word, Tansie just blurted the rest of it out.
“Jackson Barnard, who was playing Santa Claus, killed himself.”
“And
he was on the throne when he did it,” Melvia said softly. “Oh, I don’t
mean in the bathroom. He was on his Santa Land throne.”
“He killed himself?” I asked. “With what? A gun?”
“No. It was poison. He’d put it in his coffee,” Tansie said.
Melvia looked down at hers like it might have poison in it, so I took a sip of mine to reassure her.
“Are you sure?” I frowned. “Maybe he just had
a heart attack or something. No self-respecting mall Santa would kill
himself right there in Santa Land in front of all those little kids.”
“It wasn’t too bad crowded today,” Melvia said. “I reckon most of the young ‘uns were in school.”
“Still, what makes y’all so sure it was a suicide?” I asked.
“Because
we heard the police talking about it with the woman who works at the
Bagel Barn,” Tansie said. “She saw the whole thing. She said he was fine
as frog hair, said ‘good morning’ to her as he passed by, went over to
Santa Land and sat down on his throne, took a drink of his coffee, and
five minutes later he was dead.”
“But why do you think it was suicide?” I wasn’t letting this go without some hard evidence.
“We know because one of the police officers said there were signs of poison,” Melvia said.
“Then how do you know it was suicide and not murder?” I asked.
Tansie rolled her eyes like I was stupid. “Because people get depressed this time of year. Besides, who’s gonna kill Santa?”
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