Disco Dead by Marcia Talley

Author:Marcia Talley [Marcia Talley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2022-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel (Tavares)

Less than an hour after our conversation ended, Cheryl came through.

I accepted the invitation to collaborate on her DNA account, logged on to make sure the permissions were working correctly, and was about to dive in when she texted:

Check out my Facebook page! More about me than you’ll ever want to know!!

Eager to put a face on the woman I’d so recently been talking to, I tapped the Facebook icon on my phone and accepted the friend invitation she’d sent.

Cheryl June Lannigan was in her mid-forties, but could easily have passed for someone a decade younger. She had fair, unblemished skin, blonde hair cut in a stylish chin-length bob and green eyes peeking out from under expertly shagged bangs. For her profile picture, she’d worn a navy-blue suit with a pink blouse, and I wondered if she’d uploaded a professional headshot. Did she sell real estate? Work for the government? Teach?

According to her Facebook profile, Cheryl lived in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, a suburb on the Allegheny River just northeast of Pittsburgh, and worked as a librarian in nearby Monroeville. She had 398 friends with whom she enjoyed kayaking, attending book signings at a place called Mystery Lovers Bookshop, and partying at sports bars where she drank draft beer and rooted for the Steelers, who were having a so-so season and could use all the encouragement they could get. With a smaller group of girlfriends, she’d taken several Royal Caribbean cruises and one, much longer cruise to the Greek Isles with the luxury Azamara Line. The rest of her life seemed to revolve around Holy Family Parish, Saint Irenaeus Catholic Church in particular.

Cheryl listed herself as single. Had she ever been married? I wondered.

A baby picture for Throwback Thursday showed a chubby, laughing three-year-old dressed up for Halloween like a bumble bee. Who wouldn’t fall in love with this kid?

Scrolling back in time through her posts, I found a photograph of Cheryl’s adoptive parents, the Lannigans. Sitting side by side, Patty Lannigan is tilting her head toward Joe’s shoulder and both are grinning at the camera over an enormous sheet cake iced with red and white roses and ‘Happy Fiftieth Anniversary to Joe and Patty!’ Patty’s permed, iron-gray hair looks beauty-parlor fresh while whatever hair remained on Joe’s head is covered by a baseball cap embroidered with a big, yellow ‘P’. Joe is wearing that same baseball cap – a Pirates fan till the end, it seems – in another photo Cheryl posted on Father’s Day two years later. ‘Miss you tons, Pops!’

According to the US Phone and Address Directory I consulted next, Cheryl had lived at the same Highland Park address for almost twenty years. Using Google Street View, I strolled by a turreted, extensively remodeled Victorian pile that had been subdivided into four apartments. A peek inside one of the apartments via Zillow revealed elegant staircases, dark wood paneling, varnished pine floors, stained glass transom windows and fireplaces galore. I could be happy living there.

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