Read Bed & Breakfast Bedlam (A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery Book 1) for Free Online Page B

Ten
     
    “I’ve decided to solve the murder.”
    Vivienne Pennywell made her announcement
as she came out the house, followed by her dog, and sat next to me on the porch
swing.
    “You have?” I asked.
    “I have.” She set her lips in a firm line.
She seemed quite resolute.
    I didn’t say anything at first, making
sure she didn’t have any more to say. I had just finished giving my statement
to the deputy and thought I’d get away from all the fray that was still going
on in the house. The crowd of people outside had nearly dissipated. After Miss
Vivee’s comment though, I’d probably would’ve been better off staying inside.
    I thought I’d try my “no murder happened”
approach again.
    “Maybe nothing happened,” I said. “It is
possible that she had an aneurysm or a heart attack or something. Something
natural.”
    “I told you once, there wasn’t anything natural
about her death. I know exactly how she died and I aim to find out what caused
it.” She paused and threw me a glance. “I might need help, though.”
    “You want me to help?” I pointed to myself
and shook my head. “No. Not me.” I furrowed my brow.
     “Yes you,” she said. “Seems like you got
a streak of mischief in you. Thinking you’d make a good partner.”
    “A streak of mischief? What makes you say that?”
I shook my head. “Not me,” I said again. “I’m as upstanding as you can get.”
    “That’s not what I heard.” The edges of
her lips turned up in a grin.
    That stupid FBI guy.
    “What did you hear?” I asked. “I’m sure no
one knows anything about me. I just got here.”
    “My grandson told me you thought you were
Indiana Jones.”
    “Indiana Jones? He doesn’t . . . I didn’t
. . . I don’t know why he’d say that.”
    “Are you? You are an archaeologist.
They’re good at digging up stuff and piecing together clues.”
    “Am I like Indiana Jones? No. Not at all.
How do you know who that is anyway?”
    “When you get to be my age all you do is
watch TV. It keeps people from thinking you’ve gone daft when they see you staring
off into space ‘cause your mind done gone blank. You stare at the TV that way
they think you’re engrossed in a show.”
    “I’m not anything like Indiana Jones,” I
repeated and shook my head. “Nothing like that. Maybe my mother is,” I add
under my breath. “But not me.”
    “Sounds like your mother is a hoot,” Miss
Vivee said with a gleam in her eye. “Believing in Martians. You must have had a
ball growing up.” She smiled at me. “Maybe you think outside the box like she
does? That’s the kind of thinking you need to solve a murder, you know.”
    “That may be a little much for you,” I
said. “Solving a murder. Seeing that you’re . . . older,” I said coughing into
my hand. “I think that Sheriff Haynes and Deputy Pritchard just might have
everything covered. Don’t you?”
    “Don’t patronize me,” she said. “If I
thought they had everything covered, I wouldn’t say I was going to solve it
myself.”
    “And why don’t you think they can handle
it?”
    “Lloyd Haynes is a good man and eventually
I think he may get to it, but by that time the Maypop Bed & Breakfast will
have a reputation of its food killing its customers. Renmar’s already in there
bawling her eyes out on Hazel Cobb’s shoulder. With the Maypop in ruin, there’d
go me and my girls’ livelihood and our good name. Just can’t let that happen.”
She sucked her teeth. “And that Colin Pritchard, well he’s about as dumb as a
box of rocks.”
    I laughed. “He did seem like he was
bumbling things at first,” I said. “But after I talked to him he seemed pretty
sharp to me. Took down all my information. Asked the right kind of questions.”
    And he was cute. Very cute. Nice body and he
had the most beautiful emerald green eyes I’d ever seen. And that dimple in his
chin was just too sexy.
    “He asked me where I was when Gemma Burke
died,” Miss Vivee continued