Lucille Pfiffer Mystery Series Box Set

by Tanya R. Taylor

  I’d just been sitting there wishing I could beat Merlene publicly at Backgammon since she was always such a competitor and a sore loser. She reminded me of little Johnny Eden from elementary school who cried everytime he lost a race. Guess it wasn’t my day to show her up.

  “What on earth is going on with Nilla barking like that? Nilla!” I cried. “Come to Momma!”

  But the barking continued.

  “I’ll go and find out what she’s up to.” Merlene got up from the sofa and headed out back. I’d told Anthony to keep the sliding door open for Nilla to be able to have her fun in the backyard if she so pleased. Thought it was the only fair thing to do since everyone else was having a good, old time. That’s when I heard the ear-piercing scream and everyone took off in the direction of the horrific sound. Using my cane, I made it out where I heard all the commotion going on.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Then there were screams overriding other exclamations of shock and bewilderment.

  “Get the dog away from there!” Carla yelled.

  “What the hell’s going on?” I insisted, by this time both confused and annoyed that no one seemed to remember that I didn’t have the same use of my eyes as they did theirs.

  “Lucille!” Merlene, grabbed me by the arm as gently as she could.

  Then I heard footsteps running toward us from inside the house. I figured it must’ve been the other guests who’d gathered out front. “Oh, my God!” David cried. “Oh, no!”

  “Merlene, if you don’t tell me what’s happened, I’ll plant my cane up your…”

  “Lucille!” she exclaimed. “Sabrina’s…”

  “Sabrina’s what?”

  “She’s dead! Looks like she’d fallen from the balcony!”

  My ears went numb. All of a sudden, I felt both blind and deaf. She couldn’t have just said what I thought she said.

  “What?” I felt my knees collapsing under me.

  “I’ve got you!” Theodore caught me, just before my decades old derriere met the ground. He stood there with a strong arm around my waist.

  “Where’s Nilla? Bring her to me right this second!”

  “Here she is,” Judy said.

  I grabbed Nilla in desperation and held her as securely as I could. I still couldn’t fathom what I’d heard about Sabrina could be true. Could it really be that someone was lying dead in my back yard? My stomach started to feel queasy. This was not the time for a bathroom break. Darn it!

  “How could this have happened?” Merlene cried, as if she actually felt badly for the poor girl. And I do believe she did.

  David was crying uncontrollably and it wasn’t long before Merlene left me and was over there at her son’s side trying to console him.

  The voices around me became muffled as I saw them again – the same ones I saw the night my sweet Donnie was having a heart attack. And finally, I could see Sabrina, lying there motionless in a crooked pose. They were standing around her in a circle, looking down. Sir Clement, as dapper as ever, stood on the western side, facing me. He was the only one not gazing down at poor, dead Sabrina. Instead, he was looking at me. I never understood why these special souls appeared to me. Though I felt I knew why Sir Clement might still have a connection to Harriet’s Cove, since he was the actual developer of the subdivision, I had no idea who the others were and why they chose to use my place as the occasional hang out.

  When my head became unusually light and my legs finally gave out, the last words I remembered hearing were, “Catch her!”

  10

  _________________

  After I’d regained consciousness and had run off the EMTs, Sheriff Cooke and two strange men wearing dark suits entered my bedroom. They must have passed Merlene on the way up who’d returned downstairs to be with her son. Right away, I asked Anthony to reach for my sunglasses. He’d alerted me that the Sheriff had arrived and police officers were pretty much all over the property. No one had been allowed to leave, but were directed to assemble in the living room while the coroners took care of the deceased.

  “Lucille...” Cooke started.

  “Sheriff, I’m sorry it took a death to have you show up at my party.” The words sort of rolled off my tongue... probably haphazardly.

  I could tell from the look on Anthony’s face that it was probably in poor taste.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I quickly sought to do damage control.

  “It’s okay, Lucille,” Cooke replied. “Are you all right? Heard you had a fainting spell.”

  “I’m all right, Sheriff. It must’ve been the mere shock of it all that got me for a minute there.” The two men that accompanied him looked eager to get down to business. “Are you alone?”

  “No. I’m here with Detectives Lance Matthews and Tyrone Stewart. We’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened to your guest, Sabrina Abrams.”

  “Mrs. Pfiffer...” Lance stepped forward. “What we’d like to do is get a group interrogation going, so we can get everything on the table one time and find out if anyone knows anything. Are you feeling well enough to join us downstairs?”

  While his partner was sort of “average” as far as looks were concerned, Lance was an African-American with the shiniest, short, curly hair I’ve seen, high cheek bones and clean-shaven. Looked like a real heart-breaker. I nodded sort of slowly, kind of understanding his undisclosed reasoning behind wanting to do a group interrogation. It was pure laziness, in my book! But I couldn’t really blame the officers. Who’d want to individually question forty or fifty people when they could ask each question a total of one or two times the most? Smart, lazy guys they were, as far as I was concerned.

  “I can go downstairs. No problem,” I replied.

  “Are you sure, Lucille?” Cooke asked.

  “I’m positive.”

  Yeah, I was positive they were a bunch of loafers on the people’s tax paying pockets!

  “But before we do that,” Lance came again, “Is there anything you know or heard of pertaining to what might’ve happened to Sabrina?”

  “She’s blind,” Anthony interjected. “She can’t possibly know anything of the sort.”

  There was little, quiet Anthony speaking up for me—a man who apparently only came out of his shell when arranging a party—obviously something he had a true passion for.

  “Let the lady answer! She has a tongue, doesn’t she?” the other detective said, rather gruffly.

  I turned in that officer’s direction without looking him squarely in his face. “Officer, I appreciate your wanting to get to the bottom of this most tragic matter, but I will have you know that you will not come into my house and address Anthony in that way. Do you understand?”

  I watched him cut his eye, without the guts to respond.

  Sheriff Cooke cleared his throat. “Lucille, by any chance, did you happen to have heard anything suspicious—anything at all?”

  “Sheriff, I asked your detective a question, to which I’ve not received an answer. If any of you plan on getting any response out of me regarding anything, that gentleman or should I say supposed gentleman knows what to do.”

  Cooke gestured with his eyes and a tilt of his head to the detective to just go ahead and appease the old lady, which the man seemed not to believe the Sheriff had actually expected him to do. Guess he was used to speaking to citizens in any manner and getting away with it, but not in my house!

  “I understand,” he finally said.

  “That’s better,” I replied. “And the answer is no—I don’t know anything; neither have I heard anything suspicious. We all were having a grand time celebrating my and my husband’s fiftieth wedding anniversary. We danced, chatted, played games and over-ate. That’s about the size of it.”

  “Thanks, Lucille,” Cooke said. Guess he was in a hurry to shut me up more than anything else, especially now that I’d admitted knowing absolutely nothing about anything. “Can we go downstairs now?”

  “Absolutely!” I started to get up.r />
  In spite of my resistance, Anthony helped me down the staircase and into the living room. Before we even got there, I could hear the sobbing and whispering.

  Thankfully, there were enough chairs to seat everyone, including a few crashers, if they happened to stop by. The spacious room had been set up like a hall with chairs neatly arranged in rows and space on one side for the caterers’ table, along with adequate walking room. I could see Sabrina over there right now near the waterfall, after she’d finally shown up, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else in the world, but there.

  Merlene was seated up front with David who was a complete wreck. The boy’s face was soaked in tears; he couldn’t stop crying and my heart went out to him. I could tell he loved the girl, in spite of everything. Claire and the others from the Pet Society were among the crowd, as well as the Andersons, and Diane and Robert Clover. No one had left the party… except for the Clover boys. They were nowhere to be seen.

  “Where are Brady and Drake Clover?” I asked Anthony after we’d taken our seats and Cooke and the detectives were off in a corner having a quiet, little preliminary discussion.

  “Don’t know. I think they might’ve left after the incident with David’s girlfriend,” he said.

  “I guess it doesn’t matter, especially since it’s obvious that the sweet girl’s death was nothing more than an accident.”

  “I’ve been hearing sip sips that it may not be an accident after all,” he whispered. “Some people believe she’s been murdered.”

  “Murdered?” I whispered back. “That’s impossible and utterly ridiculous to even conceive!”

  He quickly tapped my arm to remind me to keep the volume down.

  “I surely hope that’s not the case!” I said. “I really can’t afford to see another ghost!”

  “You see ghosts?” He looked surprised.

  Merlene’s famous scratched record played again inside my head: “Lucille, you talk too much!”

  “Just kidding.” I decided to end the subject there. But the expression on his face was: Kidding? Really? At a time like this?

  I don’t know why people just don’t learn to pardon people my age. Frankly, I think we’ve lived long enough to say whatever the hell we want.

  This Lance fellow seemed to take charge of this so-called group interrogation, while his partner and the Sheriff stood idly behind him. My living room had two tall, mahogany double doors that were usually kept ajar. Just before Lance Matthews commenced the interrogation, a uniformed police officer shut the doors. I was really so grateful to have the air-conditioning on because I shuddered to think what it would’ve been like stuck in that room in the heat with dozens of people releasing nothing but hot air and misery. I was miserable enough sometimes without a tragic accident or murder adding to it.

  “I’m sure you all know why you’re here, but for the record I’ll say there’s a young lady that died here tonight and our job here is to get to the bottom of it.”

  He seemed frank enough to me.

  “I’d like to know if anyone actually saw with their own eyes what happened to Sabrina,” he continued.

  I thought it was a stupid question—the way he put it. Could anyone have seen what happened with anyone else’s eyes? I’d think it would’ve had to be their own, but maybe it’s just me.

  Crickets could be heard in response to his question – literally.

  “Well, we need to establish who last saw her and what she was doing before she fell to her death.”

  Jenny Barry, a neighbor from around the corner, cleared her throat. “I didn’t want to say anything, but I think you should know. That lady got into an argument with a young man less than an hour or so before she was found dead.”

  All eyes were on Jenny. Many of the stares seemed to depict shock that she actually publicly made mention of that. This crew really was a joke if they thought no one would squeal.

  “An argument? Where did it happen? On the balcony?” Lance asked.

  “No. It was in here. They were standing right over there near the waterfall.” She pointed. Jenny went on to explain what she’d witnessed.

  “Who was she arguing with?”

  Everyone was looking around the room, but I was more focused on Diane and Robert, the boys’ parents. I didn’t know if they were aware of what happened earlier since they’d been outside when the incident involving Sabrina and Brady occurred. They both had a nervous look on their faces.

  “He’s not here!” Jenny exclaimed. “He must’ve left. The guy who was with him also exchanged a few words with the lady and he’s not here either.”

  “Is anyone able to identify who these two men are?” Sheriff Cooke interjected.

  There was no immediate response, even though about half of the room, residents of Harriet’s Cove, could have easily answered that question. I certainly wasn’t going to be the one.

  Robert Clover stood up moments later. “The young men she’s referring to are our sons, Brady and Drake Clover,” he said, rather unwillingly. “It’s awful what happened here tonight and that a beautiful young woman lost her life, but I can assure you, Detectives… Sheriff… that Brady and Drake had nothing to do with it. They may be hard-headed and all, even biggity at times, but they’re no killers.” He paused, then sat down again.

  Diane was sitting there looking petrified.

  “Where are your boys, sir?” Lance asked.

  “They’re at home. They told us they were leaving because a girl had gotten mouthy or something and started attacking Brady. My older son, Drake, felt it was best in order to prevent his brother from getting in any kind of trouble.”

  “How long ago was this?” Lance asked.

  “You mean—since they left?”

  Lance nodded.

  “About an hour ago, I think,” Robert responded.

  “Did anyone else see the young men leave?”

  At least five or six people confirmed they saw the Clover boys head out.

  Sheriff Cooke whispered something into Lance’s ear, then went on his radio. I assumed he was arranging for someone to either pick up the boys or to question them at home.

  “My wife and I decided to stay for Lucille’s sake,” Robert noted. “Young people disagree all the time, but most times, it doesn’t escalate to anything.” He quietly sat down again.

  Carla Walkes stood up. “This might not mean anything… “she started rubbing her stubby fingers together nervously, “but while I was passing the staircase about fifteen minutes prior to the lady being discovered in the back yard, I saw that gentleman there,” she pointed at David, “descend the stairs like he was in some sort of hurry. He looked really angry. Like I said, it might not mean anything.” She took her seat.

  David became the focus of everyone’s attention and suddenly, his once constant sobbing ceased. He looked around the room as the eyes were darting away.

  “Wait! I… I had nothing to do with Sabrina’s death,” he said. “Sure, we had a falling out, but it wasn’t like I killed her because of it!” He turned to the detectives. “I basically told her I knew she didn’t wanna be here and suggested she leave. As much as it hurt, I intended to walk away from the relationship tonight. There was no reason for me to kill her.”

  Sheriff Cooke stepped forward. “Accidents happen, son.”

  Even a fool knew what he meant. I was still appalled that Carla even brought that up. Didn’t she know the guy was a tenant of mine? But I shouldn’t have been surprised at all that the neighborhood number one gossiper was more than willing to sweeten the pot and rat someone out who she knew could be completely innocent.

  There was no way those guys would’ve heard a word about David and Sabrina’s argument from me, and I pretty much was like a fly on the wall when it took place. It would be silly of me to single out David when I knew the boy was as innocent as a kitty cat.

  There was determined scratching at the double doors.

  I stood up.

  “Where are you going, Lucill
e?” Cooke asked.

  “Am I the only one that hears my dog at the door?” I replied. “I’m going to get her.”

  “Mrs. Pfiffer,” Lance started, “we cannot have an animal running around the room while we’re conducting an interrogation.”

  “She won’t be running around, Detective. I’m going to hold her.”

  “Now, ma’am, I won’t permit that. The dog will remain outside of these doors until we’ve finished here.”

  I took my cane and continued on toward the door. Nilla’s scratching intensified and now she was barking. I stopped all of a sudden and turned in the officers’ direction. “First and foremost, Detective, let me remind you that this is my house! Vanilla is my pet and she needs me. You cannot and I repeat cannot stop me from tending to the needs of my pet!” I continued walking. I didn’t know what their plan was at that point and I really didn’t care. If they wanted to test me and see this old, blind woman fight anyone and their momma, this was the day. I felt for the handle and opened the double doors to my darn room. Nilla rushed to my feet and I quickly scooped her into my arms. She must’ve slipped away after I fell unconscious and hid under a chair.

  “Let me help you back,” Anthony offered.

  Suddenly, the room erupted in applause and I realized they were mainly the members of the Pichton Pet Society who seemed elated by my supposed bravery. Nilla wagged her tail eagerly, I’m sure, feeling like she was the center of attention.

  About midway back to my seat, my inner vision faded away and I really depended on Anthony then for guidance. Having a room full of chairs was not so easy for me to navigate through.

  “Shall we carry on?” Lance asked after I’d taken my seat.

  Nilla was licking my face and upper arm. It was her way of showing her love for me and also appreciation for ultimately getting what she wanted.

  “What’s your name?” Lance asked someone in the room.

  “My name’s David; David Bostwick.”

  “Where were you and Sabrina arguing?”