Pretty, Hip, & Hoodwinked

by Madison Johns

  “What if she was too embarrassed to say she ordered a walker,” Eleanor suggested.

  “But Eleanor, she was in a wheelchair.”

  “I know, but she also had a cane. She probably doesn’t want anyone to know she really needs a walker.”

  “I can imagine she would for physical therapy,” Agnes countered.

  “So she didn’t give up much of anything, but she mentioned that the bird sisters quit helping her after the money fiasco. Apparently they had an argument about you, Kimberly.”

  “Oh, my. Poor Jenny. She must be at her wits end taking care of Mrs. Barry now.”

  “She hired someone, Wilma. Does that name sound familiar to you?”

  “No, but at least Jenny can have some peace. Mrs. Barry runs her granddaughter ragged.”

  “I could tell that just from the brief time we were there,” Agnes said.

  “Will we be questioning the bird sisters today, too?” Eleanor asked.

  “Yes. We’ll have a long day of it.”

  Agnes washed the dishes and led the way into the SUV. Agnes slipped behind the driver’s seat with Kimberly next to her and an irritated Eleanor in the back, since she was so used to sitting in the front.

  Agnes headed into the Willow Creek Estates, which was an upscale mobile home park. All of the trailers appeared brand new. Each had a manicured lawn and red petunias in a hanging basket. Each trailer also had a carport. Agnes drove past the signs that said, “No Parking.”

  “I suppose those signs mean you can’t park at the curb,” Agnes said.

  “Duh,” Eleanor replied.

  Agnes didn’t let that bother her since that’s how Eleanor was. Eleanor and Agnes often spared about clues and interrupted one another when questioned by law enforcement. Luckily they were friends to the bone and loved each other like sisters.

  Agnes parked at the curb when Kimberly spotted Rosemary’s car.

  “Are you certain that’s her car?”

  “That’s it, alright. I almost hit it in the bank’s parking lot.”

  “She drives like you, Eleanor.”

  Eleanor grumbled. “I can vaguely remember that you nearly got us killed many times on U.S. 23.”

  “We better question Rosemary now. Who wants to knock at the door?”

  “I will,” Kimberly said.

  “I can handle it. You’re pregnant,” Eleanor insisted.

  “I hate how people always say that. I’m quite capable of doing anything other than jumping over a fence.”

  “We couldn’t do that either,” Eleanor said with a chuckle.

  Agnes stared under the carport that had a motor on a tarp and pointed it out. “Apparently Rosemary is violating an ordinance.”

  Kimberly climbed the steps to the door and said, “It appears she’s been notified to remove it.”

  Agnes and Eleanor joined Kimberly on the porch and stared at the pink slip citations that were stuck to the door.

  “It looks like she has three days worth of them,” Agnes observed.

  “Lets check out the back. This porch wraps around to a deck from the looks of it,” Eleanor pointed out.

  Kimberly led the way and Agnes and Eleanor followed.

  “I have a bad feeling,” Agnes whispered to Eleanor.

  “Don’t jinx us,” she whispered back, just as Kimberly screamed.

  Kimberly raced back to them, her face white and she trembled from head to foot. “I-I R-Rosemary i-is d-d-dead!”

  “That’s certainly a mouthful,” Eleanor said. “Let me take a look.”

  Agnes and Eleanor peered into the patio door where a woman, presumably Rosemary, was sprawled out on the floor. The door was also slightly open.

  “She’s dead all right, or I think she is,” Eleanor said.

  “Of course we won’t know unless we go inside and check her pulse,” Agnes added.

  Kimberly bit a fist. “We can’t do that. We need to call 9-1-1.”

  Eleanor kindly took Kimberly’s phone out of her hand as she tried unsuccessfully to call in the law. “We’re going inside.”

  “But we can’t. The sheriff will be so angry.”

  “I know you’re new to sleuthing, but follow our lead.”

  Agnes covered her hand with her shirt and opened the door enough for all of them to enter. They stepped over coffee grounds and smashed Pop-Tarts. Agnes stared down at the body. “Is this Rosemary Johnson, Kimberly?”

  “Yes, that’s her. Shouldn’t you be checking her pulse?”

  “I think it’s too late,” Agnes said, “She’s cold.”

  “How long do you think she’s been like that?” Kimberly asked.

  “Well, she was at the hank on the tenth when Barry’s money was withdrawn and she hasn’t worked since.”

  “So she must have been killed yesterday sometime,” Kimberly added.

  “Very good deduction, Kimberly.”

  “I think she was killed last night sometime,” Eleanor added.

  “How can you be so sure?” Kimberly asked.

  “Well, her limbs are quite stiff,” Eleanor said.

  Agnes went over to the thermostat. “Probably since the air conditioning is blasting.”

  “So it delayed the body decomposing,” Kimberly mused. “So that could mean she was killed any time in the last few days.”

  “The money was taken out of bank and the teller who waited on the person is now dead,” Agnes said. “It sounds like a cover-up to me.”

  Kimberly fidgeted. “Should we call in the law now?”

  “Not yet,” Eleanor said. “We need to survey the crime scene.”

  Agnes leaned down. “She’s laying on her stomach so I’m not certain how she was murdered.”

  “And no pool of blood,” Kimberly added with a shrug.

  Agnes leaned over. “I don’t see a wound on her head.”

  “So what does that mean?” Kimberly asked.

  “There are plenty of ways to kill someone and it appears that we can’t determine the reason since we’re not a coroner.”

  Kimberly pointed out a container in the trash can. “Or she could have been poisoned with this rat poison.”

  Agnes went over there and then nodded, staring back at the scene. “She was eating oatmeal from the looks of it.”

  “Then why are Pop-Tarts smashed on the floor?”

  “I wish I knew.”

  “So how could rat poison be put in it without her knowing it?” Eleanor asked.

  “I don’t know, but someone else might be living with her, for all we know. Possibly even spiked her oatmeal with the stuff.”

  “But wouldn’t she taste that?” Kimberly asked.

  “Not if someone put plenty of brown sugar in it,” Eleanor said.

  “There is plenty of butter and brown sugar on the table,” Agnes said.

  “What if the empty container of rat poison in the trash is planted?” Kimberly asked.

  “If it has anything to do with the missing money, it had to be something else,” Agnes said. “Rat poison would take longer.”

  Eleanor tiptoed into the living room while Kimberly examined the body.

  “I think I see a medicine bottle under her,” Kimberly observed.

  Agnes pulled a pencil from her purse and rolled the bottle out. “It’s Oxycodone.” She sighed.

  Eleanor returned. “Her bed was made and her clothes laid out.”

  “It’s time to call 9-1-1,” Agnes said, creeping back out the patio door, sliding back the glass to the position it was when they arrived once they were outside.

  Kimberly made the call and they waited by her SUV for the cops to show up.

  “I wish we had never come here today,” Kimberly said. “I don’t think this will help me out a bit. In fact, I imagine when Deputy Danworth shows up, I’ll be the main person of interest.”

  Cop cars skidded to a stop and surrounded the SUV. Sheriff Barry hurried toward them. “Are you the ones who called 9-1-1?”

  “I was,” Kimberly admitted
, with tears sprinkling across her face. “When Rosemary didn’t answer her door, we checked the patio door.”

  “And that’s when we spotted Rosemary’s body,” Agnes added.

  “So, the three of you were here together?”

  “Yes, unfortunately,” Eleanor said. “I don’t really like finding a body.”

  “I don’t think anyone does,” Barry said. “Wait here while I check out the scene. I’ll have more questions for you.”

  The deputies made way past them and Agnes wasn’t sure how this was going to go down. Would the sheriff think they were somehow responsible for Rosemary’s death because they found the body? Back home in Tawas, Agnes had a rapport with the sitting sheriff, but here in Redwater, she had no idea how a crime scene would be handled.

  Sheriff Barry came back and said, “Come along. I want to show you something.”

  Reluctantly, Agnes, Eleanor, and Kimberly walked onto the deck and stood outside the patio door where the sheriff pointed out footprints. “Do any of those belong to any of you?”

  Agnes swallowed hard. “If you’re asking me if we went inside, yes we did.”

  “But we tried not to compromise the scene,” Eleanor added.

  “Which you did when you walked inside.”

  “But we wanted to see if we could help Rosemary,” Kimberly said. “For all we knew she was still alive.”

  “Until we saw the condition of the body,” Agnes said. “She looks like she’s been dead for twelve hours.”

  The sheriff cocked a brow. “Oh, and are you a coroner?” Barry asked.

  “No, just an educated guess.”

  “Just because you investigate crimes hardly qualifies you to do so here in Redwater. I don’t tolerate anyone interfering with my investigations.”

  “I guess that depends on what the investigation is.”

  Barry whipped the sweat off his brow. “And you of all people, Kimberly, shouldn’t be here.”

  Kimberly’s hands slipped to what was once her narrow waist. “And why not?”

  “Because Rosemary is a teller who worked the day my mother’s money went missing.”

  “She handled the transaction, you mean,” Agnes added. “Or so I learned from another teller at the bank.”

  “She’s not helping you a bit, Kimberly.”

  “I hope you don’t think I’m involved with Rosemary’s death, because nothing is further from the truth. I was concerned when Agnes here told me she wasn’t working yesterday at the bank. Rosemary is always so dependable.”

  “I wasn’t aware you were friends, Kimberly,” Barry said.

  “We aren’t, but that doesn’t mean I’m an uncaring person.”

  “Agnes must have told you about her not being there, since I can’t imagine you going into the bank anytime soon after what you did.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Isn’t it obvious, when you cleaned out my mother’s bank account.”

  “I-I didn’t do that, I tell you. There has to be a reasonable explanation.”

  “Your mother says that she has trouble remembering because of her medication,” Agnes explained. “What if she took the money out and forgot about it?”

  “You do know my mother can’t drive right now, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but Jenny took her to the bank.”

  “So you’re accusing my daughter, now?”

  “No, I was trying to come up with another explanation is all.”

  “From what Danworth told me, Kimberly’s image was captured going into the bank on the tenth to close out that account.”

  “That can’t be, I wasn’t even at the bank that day.”

  “So, there’s another blonde wearing sky-high heels here in town?”

  Kimberly lifted her foot. “As you can clearly see, I haven’t worn heels since I had my daughter.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything, but this is a conversation for another day. I have a crime scene to attend to now. We’ll have to photograph the bottom of your shoes to match them to the scene since you’ve wandered inside instead of calling 9-1-1.”

  They waited until their shoes were photographed before Agnes said, “As you can see we don’t have any blood on our shoes. I don’t believe Rosemary was shot or stabbed, though.”

  “And the rat poison in the trash is a plant, we think,” Kimberly commented. “Although there was an empty bottle of pills near the body.”

  “I’ll thank you all when you’re off my crime scene.”

  Kimberly sighed and they walked back to the car and caught sight of a woman who pulled a teenage girl near her. Agnes observed the woman and teen proceed up the street and enter a mobile home a few doors down. Then Agnes drove over there.

  What are we doing here?” Kimberly asked.

  “The neighbor sure seemed to be watching us. Wouldn’t you like to know why?”

  “I suppose, but what makes you think she’ll talk to us?”

  “I don’t know if she will, but it can’t hurt to try.”

  Eleanor led the way to the front door of the trailer and knocked a few times before the woman looked out of the curtain and said through the door, “Please, go away.”

  Agnes took over, knocking rapidly until the door was finally opened by the rattled woman. “What do you want?”

  “We were wondering if you noticed anything out of the ordinary at Rosemary Johnson’s place the last few days?”

  The woman pointed at Kimberly. “I sure did, the blonde with you was over there just yesterday. They had an argument and I could hear it all the way over here.”

  Kimberly swallowed. “I wasn’t here yesterday.”

  “You certainly were and yesterday you had an all pink getup with heels just like you wore in that ad of yours, Kimberly.”

  “She also wore sunglasses,” said a teenager from behind the woman.

  “Stay out of this, Serena.”

  “I was just trying to help.”

  “I assure you it couldn’t have been Kimberly,” Agnes insisted. “She was with us most of the day yesterday.”

  “Most isn’t all, is it,” the woman said, slamming the door.

  Agnes threw an arm around Kimberly’s shoulder as they walked back to the car. “Let’s go back to your house and regroup.”

  Chapter 7

  Kimberly sat down with her head in her hands. “I just don’t understand.”

  “You didn’t go anywhere while Eleanor and I were gone yesterday, did you?”

  “How could you think that I’d kill Rosemary?”

  “We don’t know for sure if she was murdered or not yet. I just want to know every detail, even if it’s painful.”

  “I called Jeremy and after that took a nap like you suggested. It will be hard to get the sheriff to believe that if you don’t.”

  “That’s good enough for me. I just needed to hear that, Kimberly,” Agnes said.

  “Now we know that someone in town is disguising themselves as you, Kimberly,” Eleanor said. “And doing it on purpose to make you look guilty.”

  “Rosemary must have known something that got her killed,” Agnes remarked.

  “Could it really have anything to do with Mrs. Barry’s stolen money?” Kimberly asked.

  “This is certainly not a good revelation. I’d like to know exactly how long you were gone to Port Austin and what time you came back.” Agnes said. “It might help if we can have a good alibi for you.”

  “Do you have a receipt when you picked up the walker?” Eleanor asked.

  Kimberly’s shoulders slumped forward. “No, I gave it to Mrs. Barry.”

  “Talk about an obstacle,” Eleanor said. “Do you think she might give it to us, Agnes?”

  “It’s hard to say, but we better try now before word gets out about Rosemary’s death.”

  * * *

  Kimberly huddled in the car while Agnes and Eleanor rang Mrs. Barry’s doorbell since Agnes didn’t ring the doorbell when they were here yesterday.

  Jenny ope
ned the door and frowned, stepping outside. “I hope you’re not here to see grandmother, she doesn’t want to see you here again. She’s quite upset about all your questions yesterday.”

  “I imagine that she is, but today all I’m asking her about is a receipt for the walker Kimberly picked up for her in Port Austin .”

  “It might give Kimberly an alibi for the time the money was stolen,” Eleanor added.

  Agnes pushed open the door and she entered with Eleanor, ignoring the pleas from Jenny for them to stop.

  Mrs. Barry was sitting in her chair watching a soap opera when they barged in.

  “I’m sorry to bother you,” Agnes said.

  Mrs. Barry looked up. “Not you again. I thought I told Jenny I didn’t want to see you again.”

  “We’re not here to question you like yesterday.”

  “We were wondering if you had the receipt for the walker Kimberly picked up for you on the tenth,” Eleanor said.

  “I never sent Kimberly to pick up a walker.” She frowned. “Or I don’t think I did.”

  “Is there anywhere you keep your receipts?”

  “What makes you think I do?”

  “A woman at your station in life is organized enough to keep all your receipts in case you need to make a return,” Agnes said.

  “I was like that, but this hip surgery set me back.”

  “I’m sure it has. I have a bad hip myself and I keep hoping that I never have to have surgery.”

  “Mine actually broke, which makes it much worse.”

  “How is your therapy going?”

  “It’s going. I only hope I won’t have to use a wheelchair, walker, or cane the rest of my life.”

  “Does a therapist come here or do you go there?”

  “Here. I haven’t been out of the house since I came home from the hospital.”

  “That seems lonely. I bet you must be stir crazy,” Agnes remarked.

  “Are you going somewhere with this?”

  “I’d appreciate if you could look for that receipt.”

  Mrs. Barry sighed. “I’ll have Jenny look for it.”

  * * *

  They arrived at Mrs. Peacock’s house and Agnes stepped over the property line to admire the cabin next to it. “Did your parent’s renovate the cabin, Kimberly?”