From New York to the Smokies: A Collection of Sam Jenkins Mysteries by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2021-11-06T13:52:06+00:00

* * * *

Mae Waddell had composed herself and waited for me at the kitchen table, sitting across from PO Bobby John Crockett. She still showed signs of having cried. Her mascara was a little messed up, but as I approached, she smiled at something Bobby said.

Mae is somewhere over fifty. I never asked how far and never ran her name through the driver’s license files to get a year of birth. She’s blonde, wealthy, can ride a horse as well as a Comanche warrior, and is drop dead gorgeous. I had no doubt Bobby was trying to make time with her, and Mae was flirting right back.

“Mind if I interrupt?” I said.

Mae looked up at me. “Sammy, do you know this young man looks like he could be your son?”

“So people tell me. But I was nowhere near Blount County thirty-three years ago.”

“Land’s sake, Sammy.” Mae feigned a mild case of shock.

Bobby added, “Looks like time for me ta go. See ya, boss.” Then he turned on a 500 watt smile. “Bye, Mae.”

“You be careful out there, Bobby John.” She returned the smile—also high wattage.

I sat in the chair Bobby had used, ready to talk business.

“Tell me about Rosanna Perry.”

She waited a long moment to respond. Her eyes clouded, she sniffed and as a tear rolled down the outside of her right cheek, she blotted it with a tissue.

“Sammy, darlin’ I’ve known her for almost ten years.”

“I saw her business cards in the other room. She work for you that long?”

“She did. Rosanna was a very good salesperson.”

I shifted in my chair. My lower back ached from the dampness, and I couldn’t get comfortable.

“What brought you here today,” I asked.

“When Rosanna didn’t show up in the office this mornin’ and didn’t answer my calls, I got worried. That was unlike her.”

“How did you get into the house?”

“The front door was unlocked.”

I frowned. “And you just walked in?” My tone implied I didn’t think she did the right thing.

Mae lowered her eyes and looked embarrassed. “Uh-huh.” She sounded like a little girl caught misbehaving.

“You should have called 9-1-1 or me first rather than walking into a potentially dangerous situation.”

“That’s what Bobby John said.”

I stared at her and thought that if she arrived a bit earlier we might have had two new bodies.

“Rosanna ever married?”

“Divorced twice.”

“Any recent love interests?”

She paused. “More than one, but I don’t know if love entered the picture.”

“How many?”

“Rosanna was, uh...fond of men.”

“What does that mean?” My patience was not limitless.

Mae looked into my eyes and blinked a few times.

“Sammy, let’s just say Kate is lucky Rosanna didn’t set her sights on you.”

“Would you say she was promiscuous?”

“I would say, sugar, she was romantically active.”

“With both single and married men?”

“I didn’t keep score.”

“Mae, your friend was stoned to death. A message the killer left implies she was adulterous. This is no time to protect her reputation. And it’s possible a man with whom she was having an affair may be the next victim.”

“I understand.”

“Did she talk about her liaisons?”

“Nothing and no one specific.

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