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

Jimmy’s house was a vinyl ranch in a subdivision off Highway 61.  His wife had died in a car accident some years ago, and he lived alone.  All of which made me feel distinctly uncomfortable entering the place.

You could tell a woman didn’t live there.  Everything was for comfort and nothing for decoration.  The pillows on the couch were big and soft and didn’t match the couch at all.  Red plaid on  blue.  There was a coffee table, but there was nothing artfully arranged on it, just the newspaper and some kind of police magazine.

Jimmy showed me to the guest bedroom, which must not have been used in eons.  “Let’s throw the sheets in the wash,” he said.  “They haven’t been cleaned in a while.”

We stripped the bed, and I followed him to a closet area off the kitchen.  We worked without speaking, putting the sheets and detergent in the washer and starting it up.  Meanwhile, Nancy was sniffing around her new surroundings.  I took her out back, and she sniffed there a while before squatting to pee.  I rewarded her with a treat when we came back in.

“Come on,” Jimmy said.  “Let’s watch some TV until the sheets are done.”  We sat on the couch, Nancy curled up on the end on one of the plaid pillows, and watched more football.  All I could think about was that some psychopath was taunting me, and there was a chance I was going to be the next dead body.  I took a shaky breath.

Jimmy put his arm around my shoulders.  “You can cry if you want,” he said.  “It might make you feel better.”

“I don’t cry,” I said.  “I eat when I’m stressed.”

I could feel his soft laugh.  “Then let me see what we’ve got to eat.”

He came back to the couch with two bags of corn chips, a bag of M&Ms, a beer and a Diet Coke.

I ate a handful of M&Ms and some corn chips, then took a long drink of the Diet Coke.  Then I leaned back on the couch and sighed.

“Well, happy Thanksgiving,” I said.  “It was one for the books.”

“I kind of liked it when your aunt got drunk.”

“Yeah, that was pretty good.  ‘This lemonade is really good,’” I said, imitating her.

“And it was entertaining when Ralph dumped everything in his lap.”

“He deserved it for trying to pick up Darlene.  I don’t know why Eileen likes him.  He’s such a sleaze.”

“An eleven on a scale of ten,” Jimmy agreed.

After we put the sheets in the dryer, we switched from football to an old movie.  It was all nostalgia and happy families and no one wanted to kill anyone else.  It only made me feel worse.  So I ate some more M&Ms.  Jimmy had a second beer.  We were carefully avoiding talking about what was on both of our minds.  Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Why is someone trying to scare the heck out of me?” I wondered out loud.  “It’s not like I have any idea who the killer is.”

“But he must think you do.”

“So it has to be someone I’ve talked to.”

“That would be my guess.  Someone who feels threatened by the fact that you’re poking around in the murder.”

“But I haven’t really found out anything important yet.  The police have more information than I do.  I just keep turning up more suspects.  You’d think that would make the killer feel more safe.”

“Maybe you know something, but you don’t realize it.”

“I doubt that,” I said.  I was starting to feel tired.  It had been a long, stressful day.

“Whoever killed Kara must have come in the back way where the camera at the bait shop didn’t see them.  We have Rose leaving through the front door about 7 or so.  She turns and calls something as she’s leaving.  About half an hour later Kara comes out and smokes a cigarette before going back inside.  And that’s the last anyone sees her alive.”

“No one saw anyone come or go by the back way?”

“It’s an alley.  Not much traffic, and the back faces another business, a health food store, which was closed by then.”

Jimmy and I went over the suspects again until I was feeling exhausted.  I put my head back on the couch, and Jimmy massaged my neck.  It felt really good, and I guess I drifted off.

I woke up much later to Jimmy nudging me.  “Come on.  Time for bed.  I put the sheets on.”

“You should have gotten me up to help.”

“I decided you needed the sleep.  Are you really going shopping tomorrow?”

“It’s a tradition.  We’re not leaving until 9 though.  We just do the downtown area.”

“Well, I guess you’ll be safe enough in a big crowd of shoppers.  Be sure to take your cell phone.”

I toddled off to brush my teeth, and Nancy trotted after me.  The clean sheets smelled wonderful, and Nancy was snoring within a minute.  I lay awake staring up at the ceiling.  I’d told Jimmy I didn’t cry, but sometimes I sure felt like it.  I was fifty years old, I was tired, and someone was threatening to kill me.  I wanted to live long enough to at least get Medicare.  And maybe save enough money to take a nice vacation.  I wanted to do all the things that people my age got to do.  Go to buffets, take a cruise, play Bingo.  Well, maybe not Bingo.

My usual heartburn was kicking in, and I worried that if the psycho killer didn’t get me, then a heart attack would.  Life was complicated.  Jimmy was in the next room, and I’d never told him how I felt about him.  I might never get the chance.

I got a Tums