Read 03 - Three Odd Balls for Free Online Page B

we did.
    ***
    But Buster Okolo was not so adept at following simple instructions. He came back to Seagull’s Roost with Chris, wringing his hands and sputtering out question after question about who was dead, how it happened, and how could something like this happen, anyway.
    None of us had any answers, but Wilson still spoke with authority. He stood his ground at the top of the porch stairs and refused him entrance. Buster argued that he was the owner and needed to see what had happened. Wilson argued it was a crime scene and needed to be left undisturbed. Chris hovered at the bottom of the stairs telling Buster to listen to Wilson. I contemplated asking my mother where she had purchased her nightie.
    Wilson again reiterated that someone needed to guard the parking lot. “There’s been a murder here.”
    “Murder?” Buster squeaked, and the rest of us nodded.
    He stood frozen while that horrid fact sunk in. Wilson again mentioned the parking lot, and Buster turned around and walked off.
    Chris made as if to climb the stairs himself.
    “No!” Wilson held up a hand. “Go stand beside Jessie,” he ordered and then glared down at me. “And you stay,” he said. “You, too, Tessie,” he said in a much gentler voice and walked back inside.
    “Yes, Wilson, honey,” my mother answered to the empty porch. She squeezed my hand. “I guess he knows us, Jessie.”
    Yes, I guess he did. And considering the present circumstances, perhaps he had a right to talk to me in that bossy tone, since I have, in the past, on occasion, stuck my nose into his police business. One time I had even gotten my mother involved. Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the brightest idea I’ve ever had, but this time I was behaving myself. I had not done anything whatsoever to get in the way and was obeying Captain Rye without question. This, despite the fact that he was off duty and out of his jurisdiction.
    Chris also decided to listen to Wilson. He came over and stood next to me as directed.
    “What the heck happened?” I asked.
    “We need to wait for the cops,” he said. “That’s what Dad wants us to do.”
    “But surely we can tell Jessie what happened?” my mother said.
    I smirked at Chris. “Surely,” I agreed.
    “I’m afraid it all started with weather.” Mother pointed to her porch. “I was up there watching the rains come and go when Chris walked by on his way home from Emi’s. I invited him to join me, and we’ve been keeping an eye on the storm all night. We’ve been getting acquainted, haven’t we, Chris?”
    I raised an eyebrow at Rye Junior. He shrugged, but said nothing.
    “We stayed on the porch until it started raining that last time,” Mother said. “And then we moved inside.”
    The tray of pink drinks I had glimpsed on my mother’s bed suddenly registered. “Don’t tell me you two have been drinking those stupid Pele’s Melees all night?”
    “Nooo.” Chris finally spoke. “We didn’t have anything until the rain let up again.”
    “But then we decided on a nightcap before the bar closed,” Mother added. “It closes at two, you see.”
    No. I really, really did not see. But I only whimpered slightly as Tessie continued, “So I rang the bar and ordered one last pitcher of Pele’s Melees.”
    I closed my eyes and prayed for strength.
    “We ordered just a small pitcher,” she said in her defense. “Davy offered to bring a tray down, but Chris said he’d run up to the bar and fetch it himself.”
    “It’s only, like, ten steps away,” Chris said. “When I got back, we decided to kick back on Tessie’s bed.”
    I opened my eyes and glared. “And, of course, my mother just happened to be in her nightclothes, and you just happened to be half-naked?”
    “It wasn’t like that!” they both exclaimed.
    “There’s a perfectly good reason why poor Chris is half-naked.” Mother patted his broad, bare chest. “The poor thing was soaking wet from the rain when he got back from Emi’s. His