A Saucerful of Death (Starlight Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Loretta Johns

I stood in the doorway of Stephen’s bedroom. “Guess who’s a free man?” I asked her.

  She jumped in surprise upon seeing and hearing me and threw her arms around me with a loud squeal. “They are leaving you alone now?”

  “Yes. I was quite surprised to get called back to HQ where I was told the good news.”

  “He must have looked at the pictures!” she squealed.

  “What pictures? The ones of my car? He’d seen those and was ignoring them.”

  “No, the ones the special agent had of the whole scene.”

  Stephen and I exchanged looks. Neither of us had a clue what she was on about, Stephen shrugging that he was just as puzzled as I was. Not that it mattered. The charges were dropped and I couldn’t be charged with the same crime twice, so I was done.

  “I just hope they do find who did it, give his family some closure.”

  Jeannie kissed my cheek. “As long as she knows she can’t have you.”

  “Who can’t?” I asked. I really couldn’t make head nor tail of what was going through her mind this time.

  “His wife. She has a crush on you.”

  This was news to me. “I don’t know where you got that idea, but I assure you, I have no intentions of dating his wife. None whatsoever.”

  “Good, because you’re mine.”

  I laughed. She looked so cute when she felt so earnest.

  “Well, Stephen has offered to let you stay if you want to, but we both figured you might rather go back home with me.”

  “Yes! I’m your girlfriend, not Stephen’s.”

  That was indeed our established cover story, so I felt relieved. It would have gotten a bit awkward if we’d have had to publicly play out a scenario where she suddenly was dating Stephen or we’d broken up but she was now his roommate.

  “Ah, well, good thing I have my little black book,” he winked.

  “Why, what’s in it? Is it a good book?”

  “It’s got phone numbers of people he dates,” I explained.

  “I’m not a one person kinda guy. Well, I might be, if I found the right person. That’s not happened yet. Though more than one would be okay, if they were both the right people,” Stephen mused.

  “Come on, let’s go. Stephen’s driving us home.”

  “I just need to get our coffees!” she said, making a dash for the kitchen. “Okay, I’m ready!”

  “Did you want your milk and stuff?”

  “Nah, we can stop for someone the way,” I said.

  “Okay,” he said. “I am so relieved this is over. I was scared they were going to frame you and send you to the electric chair.”

  “I was beginning to be afraid of that, too,” I admitted. It had lurked in the back of my mind all where I’d tried to ignore it. So much so that when I heard the good news, I had a moment where all I could do was stand stock still. It was as if the world had ground to.a halt for several seconds, then resumed, with the colors brighter, the air fresher, and light a warmer caress. My whole body had even felt lighter as if a heavy burden had been physically lifted. I never ever wanted to go through that again.

  Arriving back at my house, I could see the press were still gathered, though not as many as before.

  “Hi, I’m Tom from 5 Action News. Tell me, how does it feel to have the charges dropped?” a man said, thrusting a microphone in front of my face.

  “It feels, great, thanks. I knew I didn’t do it and the evidence showed quite clearly I didn't do it.”

  The members of the press, having gotten their sound bite, moved aside to let me past.

  “Congratulations on being cleared,” a cameraman called out.

  I flashed him a smile. “Thanks.” I unlocked the door. I had never been so glad to be home in my life. Stephen peeked out through the blinds.

  “Looks like they’re packing up.”

  “Yeah, well, they got me saying was happy and NASA is calling an official press conference tomorrow. Partly to announce this and partly to appeal for information about China’s death.”

  Jeannie smiled at that. “More information?”

  ‘Yes, there will be a tipline number put up across the bottom of the screen so absolutely anybody can call it. They’re only supposed to call if they have legit info, but these things actually get a lot of crackpots calling them.”

  “But they check out all the tips in case they are a real clue?” she pressed.

  “Yeah, they do,” Stephen answered for me. “Poor bastards, I wouldn’t want to be them. They will be flooded with thousands of calls I bet.”

  Jeannie looked amazed. “Then they should find many clues and be able to solve the case!”

  “Only if the right person or persons calls in what they know,” I told her. She nodded at that.

  “So, I’ll see you in the morning,” Stephen said, turning to leave.

  “Yep, and thanks, man. I couldn’t have gone through all this without you and not lost my mind. Hopefully, they’ll let me have my car back tomorrow, too.”

  “Yeah, well, anytime. Just, don’t do this in particular again, okay?” he said.

  I chuckled. “Yeah, once was more than enough.”

  “I’m putting on coffee!” Jeannie called out.

  “Remind me to buy some decaf,” I said, watching my best friend leave.

  “Good idea!” he replied, then got in his car and drove away. I turned to go back. “Good night, Agnes!” I called at the figure standing on her porch. She glared at me and went inside without saying a word. I laughed again. Boy, it was good to be home, nosy neighbors and all.

  Chapter 31

  Jeannie

  “I can send a taxi for you if you want to be there,” Darren said, referring to that afternoon's press conference.

  I shook my head. “I shouldn’t be around your news people and officials too much. Don’t have my papers yet.”

  He looked rueful. “Yeah, if you ever do. I’m sorry, I haven’t had time to look into anything for you or come up with a plan that won’t get. Any of into any trouble.”

  “I could ask Martin,” I said.

  “Martin?” he looked perplexed. “You mean Martin at the diner? Why would you ask him about that?”

  “Because he has papers that are legal.”

  “I didn’t know he was foreign. Is he Canadian or something? He doesn’t have an accent. How did you find that out, anyway?”

  “You could say we’re cousins,” I said, imbuing my tone with meaning.

  He stared at me in disbelief. ‘Martin is an alien? A shape-shifting alien?’

  I nodded.

  “And you found this out when?”

  “Oh, I knew right away. I could see his aura which identified him as being of my species.”

  “And now she tells me she can also see auras,’ he mumbled.

  “Of course I can. How else do you think we can tell us from a mimicked appearance? There are primary auras,which tell us that and a secondary aura, which is like a fingerprint. That allows us to identify the individual, if we know them personally so are familiar with their secondary aura.”

  ”Well, I’ll be damned.” He shook his head as if something had landed on him, like an insect’s web. “Right, we’ll talk about this later, after. I get home and then you can tell me from the beginning how you know he has papers. And you won't leave anything out, Jeannie. I know there’s something you’re not telling me and I bet it has something to do with while you were at Stephen’s.”

  I swallowed. He really was too smart for me to fool. “I will, I promise.” I just hoped he didn’t get too mad with me about it. I’d been careful and it had all worked out fine. It had gotten the DA person to look at the pictures and drop the charges, hadn’t it?

  “No leaving the house or yard today,” he added.

  Yup, he’d figured out I’d gone out into the city on my own all right.

  “I won’t, I promise. I’ll stay here and watch you on the television, ” I said solemnly, letting him see the truth within my eyes. The
n I leaned over and kissed his cheek.

  “Show me your hands,” he said. “No crossing your fingers.”

  I had no idea why crossing my fingers would upset him, but I’m glad he reminded me about what I had in my hands. I’d made him a sandwich to take in as I’d noticed he’d forgotten. I brought my hands forward and held up the brown paper bag I held in one hand and the Thermos similar to the one Stephen had, which I’d found in the back of a bottom cabinet.

  “I made you something for lunch,” I said to him.

  His expression softened as he took it. “Thanks,” he said gruffly. “See tonight.”

  I stood at the door and watched him leave, getting into the car waiting for him. I waved to Stephen, who waved back.

  “Bye, Jeannie,” he called out to me.

  “Bye, Stephen,” I called back, wondering if I should have packed a sandwich for him as well. It seemed cruel to have Daren happily carrying a sack filled with food made with love and him having nothing. I decided to make him one tomorrow as well, though Darren’s lunch needed to be a little more special. I was his girlfriend, after all, and the more real I made it, the more Darren would understand it was true. I closed the door and locked it, seeing Agnes wander out into the front yard, carrying what looked like a cocktail. It had a little umbrella in it and looked quite cute, but I did wonder at how she always seemed to be holding one every time I saw her. Did she actually drink them or did she just carry them around?

  Telling myself that it was none of my business, I surveyed the room. The press conference wasn't until three, and it was not quite seven now according to the sunburst clock on the wall. Darren had eaten cereal this morning, but there several boxes of mix in the cabinet. I wandered into the kitchen to look at them. He had told me to not use the stove until he’d showed me how to use it. He’d done that the day we made tacos when he guided me as I cooked the filling on top of the stove and used the oven to warm the shells. That meant I was free to use it, surely.

  There were four boxes of mix. Two were for blueberry muffins. One was for chocolate brownies. I remembered Darren making those the night we had tacos. The last one was for carrot cake. There was also a can of frosting. I ignored that and took out each of the boxes, remembering Darren had read instructions off the back as he’d made the brownies. They looked easy enough. The carrot cake had frosting on it and the instructions suggested putting frosting on top when it was completely cooled. We had frosting so I could do that. I decided to make the carrot cake. I could surprise him with it and we could eat it for dessert.

  That just left dinner. He looked tired still, the ordeal having stressed him out even more than it had me and Stephen. After all, we weren’t the ones going to be locked away forever and made to break rocks. We were just the people who’d have gone to visit him if they’d let us. I took the bowl and a mixing spoon out and set them out on the counter, then turned the oven knob to the temperature it said on the box. I carefully measured the oil and cracked the egg in as it instructed, then turned on the hand mixer. I quickly had to grab the bowl as the beaters spun it and it nearly flew off the counter. Luckily I caught it and it hadn’t flung more than a few spatters out of the bowl.

  Once I had it in the pan. Baking, I placed everything I could into the dishwasher and wiped up the spatters. I set the egg-shaped timer and went to go get my magazines. They had recipe sections and I hoped there was something easy I could make in them. I quickly discovered I didn’t have any of the ingredients and many of the supposedly easy dishes were actually more complicated than I could handle. My hopes dashed, I poured myself another coffee and went to sit in the living room. I’d just sat down when the timer went off. Sighing, I got back up and did the test to see if it was done baking. It was, so I took it out to cool and turned off the oven.

  Sitting back down in the living room, I decided to watch some more TV. This was the same time of day I’d watched the show with the genie and the witch, then that one with the family on the prairie. It turned out to be a good choice. Sam was practicing her human housewife skills. I watched as he ran a machine over the carpets. I flicked my eyes to the closet by the front door, I’d seen a similar device in there. Now I knew, it was for cleaning the carpets. Then, an ad came on for Mr. Gleam. Now, these were things I could do for Darren. I resolved t get doing them as soon as the current show was over. I could watch the prairie one another time as Darren had told me these were something called reruns, which meant they showed them over and over, it seems. The credit had begun to roll when another product information spot came on. I paused my hand over the on/off button as it a woman was reaching into a tall, clear jar very like one Darren had. It even had the same thin sticks in it she was taking out and dropping into a pot of boiling water.

  Then she was opening a jar of some red sauce and heating that in a pan. Oh my goodness, could it get any easier? Just boil the skinny sticks, drain them in the basket with holes, and scoop heated sauce from a jar on it? I turned off the television and dashed into the kitchen. Success! There sat one of those little red jars. “Now that’s Italian!” I practiced saying. “And so easy, even I can do it.”

  I knew he was just going to be so surprised, coming home to a clean house and cooked dinner. I got so busy doing it all, I nearly missed the conference. When the number came up on the screen, I copied it down. After all, Darren had said they would only get the clues they needed if the right person called them in with a real one. I had a clue, so I called it in.

  “A taxi, you say?” the man on the other end said.

  “Yes,” I replied. “It never came to the door to pick her up.”

  “Okay, thank you.”

  It was only afterward that I realized I’d forgotten to tell him that it hadn’t just failed to drive up to the front of the diner, but hadn’t shown up at all. I shrugged. They’d find out when they looked into it. I was sure of it.

  Chapter 32

  Darren

  The scene I found when I arrived home was certainly a surprise. Jeannie was standing in the living room, begging the vacuum cleaner to go. She looked up at me as she heard the door and promptly burst into tears.

  “My surprise is ruined!” she sobbed.

  “What surprise?” I asked her.

  “I was going to show you I could clean., just like Sam does.”

  I had no clue who this Sam was but surmised it was probably someone on TV.

  “I did all the things with Mr. Gleam, mopping the floor, and scrubbing the sink and toilet, and all of that. But the vacuum won’t obey me.”

  I gently took her hand and placed it on the handle., first checking that she’d actually plugged it in “Okay, now see the lever here on the bottom?” I asked her,s showing her by pointing at it with my foot. “Step on it gently and pull the handle back. Good. Now squeeze this button on the handle and it will work. Not yet, let me finish. When it comes on, you have to push it forward, then backward, but not too fast. Then when done, let go of the button and pull the handle upright again.”

  She tried it. I’d honestly never seen anyone so happy to use a vacuum cleaner, but this was Jeannie. She found everything about our planet wonderful, pretty much. She did the living room while I went to take my shower and change. I came out to find she’d not only put away the vacuum but was putting spaghetti into a pan of boiling water, a jar of spaghetti sauce on the counter.

  “Let me open that for you,” I said, knowing the kids were often hard to get open. Also, well, because I wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to hurt herself draining off the water or anything.

  “Thank you, but I get to heat it on the stove,” she replied.

  “Okay. Best do it while the spaghetti is cooking as it only takes ten minutes for it to be ready. I’ll get the plates out .” I handed her the jar, impressed with how quickly was learning simple dishes. When dinner was over and she brought out the cake, I grinned.

  “You’re not trying to butter me up because of what you’re going to tell me about Martin and how you
know it, are you?”

  “No!” she said, looking cute and indignant all at the same time.

  I laughed. “Okay, I was just teasing, no need to get mad.”

  She looked at me reproachfully.

  “Dinner has been really good, but I really do need you to tell me everything.” So she did and I made her promise to wait and let me think about it. It sounded like the ideal solution, but this was her life in the balance, not to mention mine and Stephen’s careers if it all went pear-shaped. She agreed though she looked a little disappointed.

  “I won’t leave you waiting too long on a decision,” I told her. “I just want to discuss it with Stephen, since this affects all of us.”

  She nodded in understanding.

  “How about we have some coffee and another piece of that cake out on the patio?” I asked her. It was a nice evening out. I found myself wondering if she might fancy a walk along the beach after. The moon on the water would be lovely. I realized that I’d actually said that last bit aloud when she squealed out an excited yes.

  “My coffee or yours?” she called out.

  “Either,” I called back, laughing. A knock on the door cut me short. I glanced through the blind to see who it was. To my astonishment, it was Special Agent McIntyre. I opened the door. If he was here, it was no doubt very important.

  “Sorry to bother you so late in the evening, but I thought you’d like to be the first one to know.” He grinned. “We got the guy. Local PD is bringing him as soon as the ink is dry on the warrant.”

  “You got the guy? The one who killed Major China?” This was fantastic news indeed. Once the trial was over, I’d hopefully never have to hear about it again and could put this whole painful episode behind me.

  “Yep. No sooner had the number to the tipline gone out, than someone called the tip line as soon about a taxi. The officer manning the phone said he had a hunch about it and ran with it. So, we went back and checked footage from the bank across the street. We’d subpoenaed it before but only got a chance to look at it today. And there it was. A taxi speeding and turning into parking lot too fast, hitting him, then doing a U-turn to go out. He never left the darker far sider of the lot the whole time. I was about fifteen minutes after you left. We called the cab company, who told us who was driving.”