The 1895 Murder by Dan Andriacco

Author:Dan Andriacco
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sherlock Holmes, mystery, crime, british crime, sherlock holmes novels, sherlock holmes fiction
ISBN: 9781780922386
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Wine and Weapons

Just outside the store, I texted Mac: K told Mo he was PI on a case. Joking? I sent that, thought a moment, and then added: Another fact: K had horrible taste in lit. Let him puzzle over that one.

“Polly recommended the Farmer’s Market to Kirtland, but it’s only open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, so I guess we should go out to the winery,” I told Col. Teal. “You want to drive?” If he was so hell-bent on playing amateur sleuth, let him burn up the gas at almost four bucks a gallon.

“Sure. I’m parked in The Observer ’s lot. I figured if I got towed Lynda could get me off the hook.”

My smart phone vibrated and I snuck a look at the message. This time it was Mac. Most satisfactory!

Since I usually pedal my Schwinn everywhere I go, my Volkswagen New Beetle is my idea of a luxury conveyance. The Colonel’s new Buick Lucerne was like being a first-class passenger on a top airline - in my imagination, anyway.

I leaned back against the leather. Col. Teal put half a dozen just-purchased Sebastian McCabe paperbacks on the floor behind his seat.

“You must be quite the ladies man,” the Colonel said conversationally as he got behind the wheel. “Everywhere you go you seem to have female friends.”

Just when I thought he was starting to like me.

“Oh, well, you know. I have friends. Some are guys, some are gals. I mean everybody has to be one or the other, right? Except hermaphrodites, they’re both. But I don’t know any of them.” I hate it when I babble. It’s hot for May, isn’t it? I wish my phone would ring.

My phone rang. I grabbed it out of my front pocket like a gunslinger pulling his six-shooter out of his holster. (Somehow Col. Teal inspired gun metaphors.) I didn’t recognize the phone number so I answered with, “Jeff Cody here.”

“I didn’t do it Mr. Cody!” The words came out in a rush.

Involuntarily, my hand tightened its grip on the smart phone. “Justin? Is this Justin?”

“Yeah. It’s Justin. I didn’t kill that man.”

I wondered for maybe three seconds how he had my cell number, but that was no mystery. Approximately four thousand people have my cell number and he could have gotten it from any one of them - Triple M, Johanna, or maybe a friend of a friend.

“We’re trying to help you, Justin, but you have to help yourself,” I said. “Turn yourself in. You don’t have to go the chief by yourself. I’m sure Sister Polly would go with you.” I thought that would make it easier for him, but I was wrong.

“I can’t do that!” Justin said. “I let her down. I don’t want her to be disappointed in me.”

I looked at Col. Teal. He could hear Justin and was listening intently.

“What do you mean, you let her down?” I asked.

“The reason I saw that body, Mr. Cody, I was going out to catch a smoke. Sister Polly thinks I quit.

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