Darlene Franklin - Dressed for Death 02 - A String of Murders by Darlene Franklin

Author:Darlene Franklin [Franklin, Darlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery: Christian - Cozy - Vintage Clothing Store - Oklahoma
Publisher: Heartsong Presents
Published: 2009-03-27T05:00:00+00:00

15

From: Jerry Burton ([email protected])

Date: Friday, April 25, 9:36 PM

To: Magda Mallory ([email protected])

Subject: Hidden secrets

The truth will come out. You are like the religious leaders that Jesus accused of being white-washed sepulchers.

I not only know what happened forty years ago; I know what happened eighteen years ago.

Expect to see me soon.

Saturday, April 26

When I stopped by Gaynor Goodies on Saturday morning, I wondered if Jessie would greet me with questions about Suzanne and Magda.

Yesterday, Jessie had ribbed me about the incident with Mrs. Lambert at the nursing home. The day before, she had asked how the premarital counseling session had gone with the pastor. She also admired Magda’s pearls and tried to pry more information out of me. I was wearing the pearls, of course. I tried to be circumspect in my answers—anything told to Jessie would soon be known town-wide.

Today she didn’t say much of anything. She didn’t mention Magda at all or anyone else involved in the play. For one day I had not provided fodder for the town gossip mill, and that suited me fine.

I spent the morning planning my next window display. I decided against putting the ’30s material back out; why remind potential customers of mayhem and murder every time they walked by?

Instead, I would proceed to the next decade, the War Years. I had located several well-preserved women’s uniforms from each branch of service: WACS, WAVES, SPARS, WASP. I was partial to the uniforms of the Cadet Nurse Program, which was supervised by the Public Health Service. My father’s mother had worn the brown army-style jacket—khaki blouse, skirt, and tie—with pride.

For my window, however, I decided to highlight native Oklahoman Marjorie Dresbach. After her meeting with Jacqueline Cochran, the driving force behind the WASPs, Marjorie served at Spence Field in Moultrie, Georgia. I had the perfect WASP uniform to go with her life story.

By lunch time I had sketched out the display and penned placards for the featured items. I went through my back storeroom to locate other items from the ’40s. I wouldn’t actually sell the uniforms; that seemed like a sacrilege to the women who defended our country so bravely. But I expected to turn a tidy profit on a large inventory that harkened back to America’s “greatest generation.”

I was dressing my mannequin in a bomber jacket and slacks when Dina and Peppi entered.

“Bologna today.” Dina held up a brown paper sack. “Hope you don’t mind.”

I would have eaten peanut butter and jelly if Dina brought it. She rarely provided lunch. The girls’ arrival reminded me of Magda’s decision to reveal all about Suzanne. For a few hours, I had immersed myself completely in the heroics of the War Years and forgotten my own personal quest for answers. Who killed Vic Spencer? Who was burglarizing Lincoln County? And who was sending threatening e-mails to the people of Grace Gulch? I was no closer to an answer than I was a week ago, when Audie discovered Spencer’s body.

“You left me a message. Said it was urgent.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.