Aretha Moon and the Dead Hairdresser: Aretha Moon Book 2 (Aretha Moon Mysteries) by Linda Ross (pdf to ebook reader txt) 📕

a B and D party, but I had another suspect for Kara’s murder.  Well, two actually.  I was feeling kind of proud of myself until I saw Jimmy’s blue truck parked across from the door.  And there was Jimmy leaning against it with his arms crossed.  He was wearing jeans and a leather jacket, and he was watching me with a smile.

I looked for Thelma’s car just in time to see her tail lights disappearing down the drive.  The coward.

“I didn’t know what to do, Jim,” Leonard said apologetically.  “I mean, I had no idea she was into this kind of stuff.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised what she’s into,” Jimmy said.  “Puzzles, pot brownies.  She’s a real wild woman.”  He looked at the pair of handcuffs dangling from my left wrist and sighed.  “I take it that was your ride that just left.”

“Thelma.”

“Doesn’t look like you needed back-up.  I could hear the man screaming from out here.”  He fiddled with the cuff, got it off and tossed it to Leonard.  I realized I was still holding the buggy whip and handed that to Leonard as well.  He took it as if it were a hot poker.  I guess it was covered in B and D cooties.

Jimmy held open the passenger door for me and I climbed in as best I could in my milk maid outfit.  We went straight to my house without Jimmy saying a word.  Then, just as he turned into my drive, he said, “I don’t have to call you Mistress now, do I?”

I hit his arm, and he chuckled.

He walked me to the door and I asked if he wanted to come in.

“You’re not going to tie me up, are you?” he asked, and I hit his arm again.

“Only if you’re good,” I said.

I put my purse on the counter when we got inside, and Jimmy asked me why there was a big hole in it.

I told him about Stewart the Horrible and how he was missing now.

“Sounds like somebody might be after his owner’s lottery winnings,” he said.

“I thought the same thing, but so far no one has demanded a ransom.  Of course if they tried to write a ransom note Stewart would probably chew it up.”

I let Nancy out, then cleaned up the pee on the kitchen floor.  There were pee pads in various places around the house, but Nancy still hadn’t caught on to their purpose.  If she used one, she tended to use the corner, so that most of the pee went on the floor anyway.

After I washed my hands, we sat at the kitchen table, and I got a Diet Coke for myself and a beer for Jimmy.  I had some pizza rolls in the freezer, and I popped them in the microwave.  Jimmy took a long pull from his bottle and looked at me over the lip.  “What are you supposed to be anyway?” he asked.  He shrugged out of his leather jacket.  “You look like Gretel from Hansel and Gretel.  But when you were holding that whip you were more like Indiana Jones.  And your face is all flushed.”

“I’m having a hot flash.  I need to get out of this thing.”  I stared down at my outfit.  “And I’m supposed to be sexy.”

Jimmy raised his brows.

“Here,” I said, turning around.  “Unlace me.  I feel like I’m in a straight jacket.”

It felt wonderful when I’d pulled off the bustier and more so when Jimmy’s hands massaged my back.  I left to change into jeans and a sweater, and when I got back Jimmy had put the pizza rolls on a plate.  I was starved and dug in.

“So, did you find out anything tonight, other than you’re not the B and D type?”

“I’ll have you know I was invited to return as a dominatrix, whatever that is.”

“It’s a woman who dominates others, both male and female.  I don’t see you as that either.”

“I don’t know,” I said.  “It actually felt kind of good when I connected that buggy whip with David Henderson’s backside.  There are several men in my life I wouldn’t mind doing that to.”

Jimmy took another long drink of beer.  “Maybe you’d be good at it after all.”

“Why wouldn’t I?  I’m an overweight, menopausal woman who got shafted in a divorce she didn’t ask for.  If anyone would want to smack a man’s ass, I’m the one.”

“Point taken,” he said.  “So what did this David Henderson say?  Other than Ow.”

I grinned at the memory.  “He remembered Kara all right,” I said.  “She tried to burn down his house after he got rid of her.”

“Why did he get rid of her?”

“She got a little too aggressive with the guests.  He said that one time she nearly beat someone named Jeffrety Connell to death with a crop.  Henderson was sworn to secrecy because Connell was so embarrassed.”

“I would guess so,” Jimmy said.  “Do you know who Jeffrey Connell is?”

“No idea.”

“Years ago he was mayor of a little town about fifteen miles from here.  He owns a car dealership and fancies himself a ladies’ man.  He was talking at one time about running for Congress.”

“Oh, wow.  I guess being beat up by a woman wouldn’t look good on his resume.”

“And he’s married.  His wife’s the one with money.  If she left him, he’d be in a bad way.”

“Double wow.  I guess he might have motive to kill Kara, just to keep her quiet if nothing else.”

“Speaking of Kara, someone broke into her shed the other night.  County handled it, but when Leonard came to your house looking for me he took me by there to check it out.”

“Did you find anything?”

He shook his head.  “Ralph Pierce had changed the lock a couple of days before.  He said kids were always trying to break in