by Molly Dox
Tourist Trapped
Poppy Pepper’s Paradise Cove & Mini Golf
Molly Dox
Copyright 2015, Molly Dox
When a body goes missing at the morgue, Poppy’s brother is the number one suspect. After all, as the medical examiner, he was the last one to sign out the body. In a panic to save his reputation, Panda asks his sister to help him unbury the truth.
Unfortunately, once the body is found, it only leads to more questions. Can Poppy unravel the mystery or will she get in too deep, prying in where she doesn’t belong. Things take a dangerous turn when she confronts a stranger.
Set in balmy Central Florida, "Tourist Trapped" is perfect for a light weekend read. This cozy mystery is family friendly with no foul language, no blood, and no sex. “Tourist Trapped” is book 4 in the ‘Poppy Pepper’s Paradise Cove and Mini Golf’ series.
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Toc
Chapter 1
The cupcakes were dry, but the air was moist with humidity. Poppy dropped the snack into the trashcan. “What’s the point of buying non-fat cupcakes if you can’t eat them?”
“That’s how you lose weight,” her father teased. “You throw them away instead of eating them. Think of all the calories you’re avoiding.”
Poppy rummaged through the cabinets, looking for something better. Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and glanced at the caller ID. It was Panda, her brother. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I’ve got a problem. I need your help,” he started, panic laced through his voice. “A body went missing and they’re fingering me. I had nothing to do with it. You’ve got to help me. They’ve put me on administrative duty until I’m cleared.”
“Wait, what? Slow down. Say it again.” She wanted to absorb as much information as possible. She waved her father closer.
“A dead body went missing. They think I’m responsible. I was the last person that signed out the body, but Poppy, I didn’t do it. We need to figure out who did to clear my name.”
Poppy repeated her brother’s words, so her dad could hear the news. “Where are you?”
“I’m just leaving the police station. They brought me in for questioning. I’m on my way home. Can you meet me there?”
The trembling in his voice told Poppy all she needed to know. “Sure, I’m on my way.” Turning to her father, she asked him to cover the front counter. She’d be back soon and share any new information.
Hopping in her truck, she found her way to Panda’s house. He was just arriving home and looked like he needed a hug. “Hey, are you okay?”
“I have no interest in stealing bodies from the morgue. Why would they even question me?” He shook his head. “I mean, I know why, but come on.”
She followed him inside as he continued his rant.
“I’m a suspect. Me.” Panda shook his head.
“They can’t seriously suspect you, right? They’re probably just covering all their bases.” She tried to reassure him.
“I was the last one that signed out the guy’s body. I was doing an autopsy, and Jonesy who would normally clean up and take care of things after had a date, so I told him I’d take care of things and to get out of there. We’d already run over,” he finished.
“So you put the body back, and then…”
“And then nothing… I went to clean up. I was wrapping up my shift when the funeral folks came to pick up the body. It was gone. We had to report it because records are vital, but next thing I know I’m told I’ll need to go in and give a statement and answer some questions. I feel like a criminal and I didn’t even do anything.” He was obviously shaken up.
Poppy gave her brother a hug. “We’ll figure this out. Somebody has to know something, right? Who else has access to the morgue, and are there any security cameras? Where are they located?”
“I’ll get that when I go back into work. I’ll go talk to security. They’re putting me on administrative duty until I’m cleared. What is that? Some polite way of saying, we sort of believe you, but we don’t?” Panda grumbled.
Poppy asked for more details. “Tell me everything you know about the body. Who was it, who would be interested in knowing that information, and was there family? What funeral home came to pick him up?”
“He was brought in as a John Doe,” he said. “We’re waiting on dental records to see if we can get a match. Until then we only have a rough estimate of information.”
“Somebody obviously had to know he was there if a funeral home came for him.” She was perplexed.
“You’d think. Let’s hope they can provide some information.” Panda sat on the sofa after pacing back and forth, finally coming down from the experience. “I didn’t do it.”
“I believe you. Let’s just figure out who did, and why they wanted the body in the first place. Something odd is going on. If nobody knew who he was, how would they know he was there?” There were more questions than answers at this point.
“Somebody knew what they were doing. There wasn’t a large window of opportunity,” he sighed. Crossing his arms over his chest, he tried to steady himself.
Poppy looked at her brother. It was the first time she’d seen him vulnerable in ages. “We’re going to figure this out.”
Panda put a call into security to see if they could identify anybody in the area around the time that the body went missing. He was going to wait, but patience wasn’t his strong suit at the moment. The police already made a copy of the tapes, he was told. The best clue they have is what looked like a man’s build in scrubs, but his face was down and not visible. Wearing booties over his shoes stopped footprints from showing. He also appeared to be wearing latex gloves, so fingerprints weren’t traceable, and lastly his hair was covered. He blended in with some of the other hospital people, but turned to go into the morgue. Due to the video being black and white, they didn’t have a color of the scrubs he was wearing. The weird thing was that they saw somebody go into the room which was normally secure, but they just never saw anybody coming back out. No actual dead body was seen on the footage. Nobody was pushing a gurney with a body. Nothing. It was a dead end.
“We checked other cameras too, but we didn’t see anything suspicious. Cars coming and going, an ambulance pulling in, but they were dropping off a body, not retrieving one. There was one car…well, never mind.”
“What?” Panda wanted to know whatever the guard would tell him.
“Well, the cops didn’t think anything about it. It was an old station wagon, you know the kind with the wood side paneling on it. Anyway, it kind of seemed out of place. The car had a kayak on the rooftop, or a canoe or something. I mean I’m not a boater, but you know one of those long, thin boats. I mean, I guess it shouldn’t be a big deal, it is Florida and people boat, but something about it felt out of place to me. Who brings a boat to the hospital? The cops think it was a family member of someone that was probably just paddling at some point in the day. It’s not like I saw a body in it or anything, but it sure was the right size, just no video of someone dragging a body outside and flipping him in there. Besides, the plates were too grainy to read. We have a seriously outdated video system. They need to invest some money and upgrade these things. Anyway, I should probably go.” The guard hung up the phone after saying good-bye.
Poppy and Panda tossed around thoughts a bit longer, but she needed to head home for now. She’d left her father in charge, and while Martin used to run the place years before, he didn’t have all of his wits about him. He
still had some, just not all.
Chapter 2
“I say we replay the situation and see where else the guy could have disappeared to. Do you think instead of leaving, he stayed until the coast was clear? Maybe he just moved the body to another holding box. Though I’m sure they checked them all, right?” Poppy wanted to talk the scenario through while looking for answers.
“I’ll be the body. You can wheel me in,” her father said with a laugh.
“He wasn’t wheeling a body in Dad; the problem is how did he wheel him out? Did he get him out another way? What other means of transporting a body is there?” She’d need to ponder this one a bit longer.
Martin snapped his fingers. “A wheelchair could have been the getaway car. They could wrap the body up in blankets, like the person was cold, and pushed that bad boy right out of there.”
She took in what he was saying, and had to admit it was a possibility, but the security camera didn’t see anyone going by. They would have mentioned that part, she was sure of it.
“What else? Wait. What about the janitor? Could he have used a trashcan, or maybe a rolling cart? No, there was nothing that stood out to them…but what if it was something that blended in?” Poppy started pacing, excited by the thought. Her mind was ticking. “What we need to do is go to the morgue and look at any and all possible exits. Was there another way somebody could leave? Windows, other doors, air ducts?”
As long as her brother had worked as a medical examiner, she’d never gone to the morgue. It was just…well, not her thing. Even as a paramedic in the past, she’d roll the body into an exam room at the trauma center so a doctor could fill in details before it went to the examiner. She wasn’t the one to bring it down. They had orderlies for stuff like that. It’s not that dead people freaked her out, but a room full of refrigerated bodies did.
When Reggie, the long-time resident at the short-term rental ground, came in, Poppy filled him in on the news. Reggie was a sheriff, he was usually good for an inside scoop or helping with information. Of course, there was their slow relationship that was evolving too. Reggie moved into the resort after his wife passed more than a year prior. Once he moved in, he didn’t move out. He’d grown attached to the Pepper family.
Poppy would need her brother to sign her in and bring her down for a tour of the morgue. She wanted to see every conceivable exit. And were there cameras at all the entrances and exits of the hospital? What about in every hallway?
And was there security? Did they need a key or code to get in? How did the person get inside seamlessly, unless… Could he have been security under disguise? No, they would have recognized security, she was sure of it. Noodling the details, she jotted a few thoughts down. After all these years, she realized how little she knew about his work and working environment. Sure they’d talk bits and pieces, but overall, she was oblivious.
She was just about to call Panda when her phone rang. “Hey Poppy, it’s Panda.”
“What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“We got an identity back. There were some issues with prints, as most of the victim’s fingers were scalded and some skin was missing.”
Poppy tried not to gag. “Gross.”
“Yeah, so anyway, we have a name now. Things just got worse. He was a cop.”
“Wait, what?” She wasn’t sure she heard him right.
“An undercover cop,” he answered. “Only, he was supposed to have been off a case, but was working on his own. He’d gone rogue. They won’t tell me much else. Maybe Reggie can put his ear to the ground and see if he can dig up more information.”
“Did he have a partner? What case was he working on?” Things just got more complicated.
“I don’t know anything else. A friend gave me a head’s up, since I was the first suspect. They don’t think I’m responsible, but until they have more information, I was all they had. They’re going to dig around his files and see what he was doing. Maybe his partner can shed some light.”
“If he was rogue, would he have had a partner?” It was a valid question.
“I don’t know. They couldn’t tell me anything else. He wasn’t even supposed to tell me that much, since they have me listed as involved, but he slid the information to me quietly.” Panda sighed.
“Wow, a cop.” She hated to hear that. Cops were the good guys, but this was hardly an accidental death. What was he involved with? Did he switch sides, or was he still working on a bust? “Hey Panda, I have a question for you. Can you get me into the morgue? I want to check the layout and look for things like windows, air vents, or ducts and other doors.”
“Sure, but I’d rather not do it during the busier hours. How about later tonight? And we don’t have windows, it’s in the basement. Do you think I should hire an investigator? I know you’ve been having some luck finding information lately, but I’m kind of worried about my reputation.”
“Sure, you can hire someone, but hopefully with Reggie, Dad, and me, we’ll be able to help you figure out angles you didn’t think of yet.” She tried to cheer him up.
“Dad’s going to get involved? Are you sure about that?” His confidence was slipping.
“He’s going to be a body I roll into the morgue in a day or so. I want to get a feel for things,” she said.
Panda sighed. “I should have figured so much. Maybe it was wrong to contact you.”
“Panda, have faith! Reggie will help too.”
“Whatever gets me out of trouble,” he said. “This is crazy.”
“We’re on it. What time do you want me to meet you?” she asked.
“How about ten o’clock. There’s usually a lull before the bars close,” he advised.
“Ten will work. See you then.”
Chapter 3
Panda punched a code into the pad next to the doors. The morgue had one main entrance, a side exit in case of emergencies, air ducts, but no visible opening that was close enough to climb into. She noted the screws looked rusted and hadn’t been moved anytime recently. She struck that idea out. What about the small side exit? She opened the door, which led to a hallway. “Where does this go?”
“It goes around to the elevators. We have two sets, one for bodies, and one for regular use. We don’t like patients to have to see the bodies. They tent the bodies, so nobody sees them passing by. Usually they come in through the front doors we came in through. That door is more for if there’s an emergency; say a fire, there’s a second exit for building code. Nobody uses it most of the time.”
“Is there a camera on it? Is that locked too?”
“I would suspect there’s a camera. This is a locked door, too.” He walked over, opened the door and glanced around. Pointing up he said, “The camera is over there.”
Poppy stood underneath and looked up at it. The lens seemed weird. “Hey Panda, check that lens. That doesn’t look clear to me. What about you?”
Panda’s height was a bonus. He looked up. She was right. It’s like Vaseline or something was rubbed over the cover, blurring or blocking potential images. He called up to security. “John, do me a favor, check the camera on the back hall of the morgue. Can you see me waving?”
“Nah, it just looks cloudy. We’ll have to call a repairman in. I didn’t even notice it. That’s not one of our main cameras that we focus on.”
“Thanks, it answers my question.” He hung up the phone and turned to his sister. “This might have been their escape route. He can’t see me on the camera. Somebody messed with the lens.”
“Great, now let’s just see where they could have snuck out from this point. And what do they want with the body?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Why did this have to happen on my shift?”
Poppy comforted her brother. “Come on, let’s walk the hallway. Take note of doors, air vents, windows, and anything that a body could fit through.”
“It’s the basement. There’s not much going on here. It’s just some elevators and walls.”
“Keep your
mind open, come on,” she said, leading the way. Passing the elevators, there was a door. “Wait, what’s that?”
“Supplies,” he said. Opening the door, he showed her the space. It wasn’t large, and there wasn’t room for someone to hide.
She moved products around a shelf, and then something caught her eye. “What is this?” She held up a pale yellow piece of fabric.
“It’s a bootie. What is it doing there? They’re shoe covers.” He moved other things around and found the other, but nothing else.
Poppy dropped to the ground and checked to see if there were visible shoe prints. Nothing. Whoever mopped up the floor did a good enough job that they were no longer there.
“Now what?” Panda felt a tiny spark of hope. “Let’s give these to the police. I don’t know what forensics could find on them, but you never know.”
“We’ll get you out of this mess. I promise.” She soothed her brother who was acting brave, but she knew him well enough to see his anxiety building.
The elevator had a stainless plate around the button to open the door. It was wiped clean. Even the button she examined looked like it had been cleaned up. Somebody was covering their tracks. Or were they? Inside the elevator, she noticed fingerprints on the different buttons for each floor of the hospital.
Panda saw her look closer. “The police already dusted those. Nothing came back that they felt was a clue.”
Poppy sighed, tipping her head back. “She nudged her brother’s arm and silently pointed up.”
Panda looked, his eyes opening wide.
How had nobody seen it? She turned to her brother, almost afraid to speak. Almost like she’d open her mouth and the body would be gone.
“Do you think?”
“It has to be,” she said excitedly. “Quick, call the police.”
When the dust settled, the recovered body was returned to the morgue. It was obvious what the suspect was after. Something had been dug out of the victim’s arm. A big gouge was opened up. They didn’t want the body. They wanted something that was inside of the body. First off, what was in his body, and secondly who else knew about it?
