Murder Between the Covers by Maddie Cochere

Author:Maddie Cochere
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: murder, comedy, family, small town, amateur sleuth, private investigator, ohio, women sleuths, female protagonist, confederate gold
Publisher: Maddie Cochere

Chapter Nine

Nell Preston set a cup of tea in front of me and poured Scotch over ice for Gus.

She had already explained she was Meredith’s sister and had come into town to stay with Gus to help him with funeral arrangements and to adjust to his wife’s passing.

“Again, I’m sorry for your loss,” I said to both of them as Nell set her own cup of tea on the table in front of her. “I only met her once, and she seemed like a lovely person.”

I hoped I wouldn’t be struck down dead for telling the whopper of a lie.

“There was nothing lovely about her,” Gus said.

“Now, Gus,” Nell said, reaching over to pat him on the knee. “Mare did right by you for a lot of years. She took good care of you when you couldn’t work anymore.”

It was then I noticed the cane by his chair. Could he have struck his wife in the face with it?

“What did you do for a living?” I asked.

“Do you know what a flibbergasper is?” he asked.

“No.”

“Neither do I, but I ran a forklift at a lumber yard for over twenty years.”

I glanced at Nell. She closed her eyes and shook her head. I suspected she had her hands full with the man. “Gus and Mare haven’t lived here very long,” she explained.

I pulled out my card and handed it to her.

“I’m a private investigator. Meredith called and wanted to meet me this past Monday morning. She said she was thinking of hiring me. Do you have any idea why that might have been?”

Gus looked up from his drink and said, “She probably wanted you to follow me, so she could find out who I was having an affair with.”

Nell shook her head and sighed loudly. “You weren’t having an affair. Don’t start telling your stories.” She turned to me. “I don’t have any idea. She was bitter after she lost her job at the prison. We haven’t kept in touch much this past year.”

I hadn’t yet run a background check on Meredith, so I didn’t know about her past. The prison comment intrigued me. “She worked at a prison?”

“She gave conjugal visits to the prisoners without women.”

“Gus, that’s enough,” Nell said sharply. “She did no such thing. She maintained a library for the inmates. She loved books, so it wasn’t a surprise when I found out she was working in a bookstore here.”

I couldn’t let on that I thought Meredith had been murdered, but the thought crossed my mind she might have made an enemy at the prison – someone who wanted to hurt her.

“Was she at Mansfield?” I asked.

“No, Gary,” Nell said.

“Gary, Indiana?” I asked.

Nell nodded.

“We lived in Gary ‘til Mare went off the deep end,” Gus said. “She said Buxley was one of the top five places to live in Ohio, and she moved us here. I hate it, and now that she’s gone, I’m going back to Gary.” He looked at Nell and said, “Hurry up and get her in the ground, so I can go home.

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