by Tina Anne
Theme Park Mysteries: The Beginning
By Tina Anne
Copyright 2015 Tina A Snyder
Proofreading by Gary Snyder
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to locales, events, or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: A Big Decision
Chapter 2: Trapped in a Moving truck with a Stranger: My Son
Chapter 3: Arriving in Sunny Florida
Chapter 4: Adventure Planet: Let the Adventure Begin
Chapter 5: Deal Maker
Chapter 6: Getting to Work
Chapter 7: Ground Breaking Surprise
Chapter 8: Marlowe’s on the job. Uh-oh.
Chapter 9: Who Done It? Let’s Make a List.
Chapter 10: Shopping for Suspects
Chapter 11: You Just Have to Talk to the Right People
Chapter 12: Just the Facts, Marlowe. Just the facts.
Chapter 13: I Got the Golden Shovel
Chapter 14: Another Arrest
Chapter 15: Clues Over Pizza
Chapter 16: Grilled Adolf, Anyone?
Chapter 17: The Right Outfit Will Get You Anything
Chapter 18: What Next?
Chapter 1: A Big Decision
I opened my eyes and looked around my beautifully decorated bed room. Yes I had a very nice home. I had spent years getting it decorated just the way my husband Frank and I had talked about. We had spent all of our adult life in this house. We bought it just after we were married, almost thirty years ago. We were lucky enough to have a family who believed in giving cash as wedding gifts and smart enough to use the money to buy a very large five bedroom house with three acres of land in Pennsylvania farm country. At least it was farm country when we bought the house. Now it was more like a suburb. This was ok with me because now I had people close by and plenty of shops to visit.
At this stage in our life, however the house was practically empty. Our son Frank, Jr. (or Frankie) had moved out just after graduating from business school and getting a job as a financial advisor in the city. Our daughter Angela wanted to teach first grade, so she went to New Mexico to attend college. She met her husband there and she never returned home, except to visit. She has two sons whom I love very much.
“Good morning, Misty.”
I turned and smiled at my husband.
I kissed him and said, “Good morning, sweetheart”.
“So,” he asked me, “what are your plans for today?”
A feeling of sadness came over me, not that Frank would have noticed. “I have none,” I said.
“Well, John, Bill, and me are planning to spend the day in Bill’s garage working on that old Chevy of his. He still thinks it’s going to run some day.” Frank chuckled at the thought.
Frank, John, and Bill had been friends since grade school. They still spent every possible waking hour together. No surprise that Bill was perpetually single and John was always ending what seemed to be a promising relationship.
Frank got up and walked to the kitchen to get the coffee started. Our bedroom was on the first floor of the house. The second floor contained the other four bedrooms. One was Frank’s study or hobby room. Two were guest bedrooms, for the guests we rarely had. And the last was supposed to be my craft room. It was filled with things like a sewing machine, a crafting table, and lots of organizers for the various crafting projects I tried over the years. I wanted a hobby, I really did, but I could never find one that held my interest. Sometimes I envied Angela because she had fallen in love with jewelry making and even sold jewelry at the farmer’s market in her town. Maybe I’m just not as creative as my daughter.
Well, thinking about my lack of interest in a hobby was not making me feel any better. Thankfully that’s when Frank entered the room with two mugs of coffee. He set one on my nightstand and went to the ensuite to take a shower so that he could get dirty working on Bill’s car.
I sat up in bed and sipped my coffee. What was I going to do today? I had a part time job, but I was off today. I could go shopping, but I didn’t really need or want anything. I could go to the gym and work out, but I hate working out. I would love to go swimming in our pool, but it was only the end of January and way too cold for swimming. Ice skating, maybe, but not swimming. I hated winter. I really wish we would have splurged and installed some sort of heating system to our pool. Or we could have enclosed it in a building like I wanted, but Frank said it was too expensive and a big waste of money. I really wanted to be able to swim all year round. The only way to do that in Pennsylvania was to have the pool in a building.
Well, since I could not change the location of our pool, what would I do today? Should I ask Frank to change his plans and spend the day with me? Or would that be too selfish? After all, Frank worked hard as the chief of our small town’s police force. He worked his way up to get to his position. Not that anything ever happened in our town. There was the occasional drunk driver, but those tended to be the same people. No, he had a good working life, not a tough working life.
“Honey,” I yelled in to the bathroom as I heard the water shut off, “would you like to do something today?”
“I am doing something today.”
“No, I mean together. Let’s go for a drive, try a new restaurant. Let’s do something new together.”
Frank stuck his head out of the bathroom door and looked at me. “Why?” he said.
“Because I think it would be fun.”
“Why don’t you call Sara or Susan if you want to do something fun today?”
“Because I wanted to do it with you,” I mumbled under my breath.
“I’m sure they’d love to do something with you.” He continued.
Sara, Susan and I had been friends since we were small, like most people in this town. But we were at very different stages in our lives. Sara waited until she was in her thirties to get married and have children. While my children were grown and gone, hers were still at home and in junior high and high school. Susan got married in her late twenties, then her mid thirties, then her early forties. She never had children and never wanted any. She married men with money and always did well in the divorce. The three of us had very little in common any more. We hadn’t even seen each other for over a month. Not that Frank would know, because he never asked.
No, it looked as if I had a long boring day ahead of me. Again. I dragged myself out of bed and opened the curtains. Yep, definitely January. The sky was grey and gloomy. The trees were bare. The snow was pure white, and pretty, but it did not take away from the gloominess of the day. Especially since it covered my little yellow convertible. I had a cover on the car, but the garage was for Frank’s truck, so my baby was out there shivering. I closed the curtains again and I shivered.
Frank came over and gave me a kiss on the forehead. “Goodbye, honey, I’ll be back tonight,” he said.
“Frank, isn’t it too cold to work on Bill’s car. It’s freezing out there.”
“No, he had his garage insulated and installed a furnace. It’s half the size of his house, remember?” Oh, I remembered now. “It’ll be warm. By the way, it’s not freezing out there it’s about twelve degrees below freezing.”
“Oh, ha ha. Enjoy your day in the cold.”
He kissed me again and left. I got showered and dressed. I put on my comfiest pair of jeans, a white blouse, and a beautiful purple silk sweater. Then I went to the kitchen to make my breakfast.
The house was large and lonely. Once there were four of us living there and the house was full of life. But now it was usually just me. I spent most of my time here, alo
ne. Frank was almost never here. He was either working or with his buddies. We didn’t even have a pet because Frank preferred animals he could shoot and eat to those who served no purpose and cost money to feed. My beautiful house was very lonely and so was I.
Frank didn’t even come home for meals very often. He and his buddies would order take out or microwave something. Or when he was working he would eat at Minerva’s, the local diner. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he spent a lot of time at Minerva’s Diner. Even when he was off and I cooked for us he would go there. Maybe he spent too much time there. Was he having an affair? No, not Frank. His morals wouldn’t allow it. Besides, around here everyone would know and so would I. No, he wasn’t having an affair. But did he want to, was he tempted?
Maybe. I mean, it occurred to me that he and I were more like friends than anything else these days. Sure we would kiss, but that was it. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time we had made love. Or the last time either of us even wanted to. I suddenly realized just how blind I had been. We loved each other but we weren’t in love any more. What happened and when? I wasn’t sure.
Ok, so what was I going to do about it? How was I going to save my marriage? Did I want to save my marriage? Did Frank want to? I’m not so sure either of us did. But I’d hate to see it end after all these years. We’ve been together for more than thirty years. We started dating in junior high, we got married right out of high school. We had Frankie about a year later. I couldn’t imagine not being married to Frank. He had been my whole life since I was thirteen years old. What should I do? I had a decision to make but, I didn’t want to think about it right now.
I decided to take my mind off of things and watch a little TV. Frank had left it on the weather channel, that and the news were the only thing he watched. The weather channel was talking about the storms that were pounding the northeast. We would be looking at subzero low temperatures in the next few days and more snow was coming. Then they changed subject and started talking about Florida’s beautiful weather, temperatures in the seventies and sunny skies. I started to get depressed, so I changed channels. The next channel was showing a travel show about one of the theme parks in Orlando, FL. Two channels in a row were talking about Florida. Ok, was fate trying to tell me something, or was I trying to see something? I pressed in a random channel number. It was a show about Florida’s warm, sunny beaches.
I turned the TV off. I hated winter. Right now I even hated Florida because it was warm and sunny and I wasn’t there.
I went to my computer. I decided that checking my e-mail might take my mind off of things and let my subconscious work on my problem. Among my e-mails were my subscription to Theme Park News, a travel company’s special on tropical vacations, and a department store ad for bathing suits. Why did they start advertising bathing suits in January any way? I never did understand that.
Ok, that was it, I’d made a decision. Either both or one of us was going to Florida. I clicked on the link for the tropical vacations and made all the arrangements. When Frank got home he would have a decision to make. He would have to decide if we were going to a warmer climate together or if I was going to go alone.
When he finally got home late that evening, I showed him the trip I wanted to take and the arrangements I had made. He just looked at me kind of funny.
“Um, honey, if you’re tired of the cold you could always go visit Angela for a while. It’s warm there,” was all he had to say.
“No, Frank, what I want is a vacation. I want to see new scenery. I want to go to a beach. I want to visit a theme park. I think you and I need to spend some time alone together.”
He just stared at me. He didn’t get it. He never understood my desire to wander, to go somewhere warm. If we couldn’t drive there he always felt it was too far away.
So, instead of pushing it I asked him if he would like to get a divorce. He sat down next to me with a shocked look on his face. At first all he could say was, “Um”. I gave him a moment I knew he was gathering his thoughts, looking for the right way to tell me something. Finally he said, “I’ve thought about it, but I don’t hate you. People only get divorces when they hate each other, right?”
I took his hands in mine.
“I don’t hate you, either, Frank. I‘m just not sure that I am in love with you anymore. I think our lives have gone in very different directions. We’re best friends now. Nothing more, possibly something less. I really want to leave here. I want to move somewhere warm. Florida, maybe. You can come with me. Maybe it would save our marriage.”
He let out a deep, slow sigh. “No, it won’t. It’s too late. If you really want to go I won’t stop you. Does this have anything to do with me making you give up your career all those years ago?”
“I don’t think so. I gave up my career to be home with you and the kids. I had to decide. Doing both just wouldn’t work. You were right.”
I think. Was I angry? In the beginning, but now? Yeah, I had a great job. Yeah, made a lot of money. But my kids and husband needed me at home. I loved being home with my kids. So, no, I’m good.
“I just feel its time,” I said.
“Ok. In fact, if we do this we’ll split everything fifty-fifty.”
He took me by surprise, so much so that I let go of his hands. I really thought he’d argue with me. He was always saying he didn’t believe in divorce. And I never thought he’d sell the house. He was so proud of it.
“I’m sorry, did you just agree to a divorce and talk about selling the house?” I asked.
“I told you, I’ve thought about it. We can sell the house and each gets half. I’ll give you alimony, because I think you’ll need it and you deserve it.”
He never planned anything. He really had been thinking about this.
“Frank, if we sell the house, where will you live?” I asked.
“Well, there’s a little cabin I’ve had my eye on. I was thinking of using it just for hunting, but it’s nice and I could live in it.”
When was he going to tell me that he wanted to buy a cabin?
“And then will you start dating, Minerva?” I said out loud. I was trying to hide my shock and anger, but he knew me too well.
He looked at me with wide eyes. “What…Why do you think that?”
Was he blushing? Frank never blushed. Even on our wedding night.
“Frank, I see how you look at her. And how she looks at you.”
“Misty, I’m not having an affair. I would never do that to you. I would never violate the marriage vows.”
“Oh, I know. You’d rather the vows keep you trapped and unhappy than violate them. You never violate or even bend the rules.”
He just looked at me. “I never thought about it that way,” he said.
“It’s ok. After the divorce, and a break so people don’t talk, date Minerva. I like her, a lot. She would be good for you.”
“Thanks. I think. What will you do?”
“I am going to get my resume together and start job hunting and apartment hunting on line. And I’m going to Florida.”
He looked at me in surprise. “Wow. You really do want to go south. You’ve thought about it.”
“Just started planning today.”
“I believe that. But I don’t think you’ll go. It’s too far for you. You won’t have any family there.”
“Frank, I’m going.” I was getting pissed. Even if I did have doubts about going to Florida I was going now. I was going to prove him wrong.
“Ok, ok.” He smiled at me.”Take any furniture you want for your new home. In fact, take anything you want. Some of this stuff is a little girly for me. Besides, my cabin is fully furnished.”
“Thank you.” I think. He was a good man, but he was pissing me off right now.
We decided to conference call the kids that same night. They were shocked and really did not understand. We really didn’t want to get in to a lot of detail with them. Instead Frank just told them that it was o
ur business and we will share more with them when we were ready. Angela invited us to call her if we wanted to talk. Frankie just whined and kept asking why.
****
The next several months were long ones. There is so much more involved in selling a house than I ever imagined. It had to be cleaned, painted, and all small repairs had to be made. Then the realtor had me put my furniture in storage and rent some so the house was more appealing to buyers. This all took time and money. In fact, selling the house took so much time that the divorce was complete and Frank bought his cabin and moved in before the house was sold.
I stayed at the house as long as I could. I just had to disappear when the realtor wanted to bring someone over to see it. I ended up spending a lot of time at Minerva’s Diner. In fact, I spent a lot of time talking to her. I began to really like her. She was very nice. We even spent some evenings together just talking. I think maybe I was making a friend. Bad timing, but that’s ok.
She even helped me pick out an apartment online. Thanks in part to her help I was able to get an apartment on-line in Florida, thanks also to my stellar credit rating and a large down payment. But I still didn’t have a job. I had chosen to move to Orlando, the theme park capital of the world. With so many theme parks, malls, and other tourist attractions there had to be somebody who would want to hire me. The pay might not have been great, but it didn’t have to be. Frank was giving me plenty of money and I had saved well over the years.
When I told the kids that I was going to move to Florida the stuff really hit the fan. How could I move so far away? Didn’t I want to be near my family? Why don’t I just come stay with Angela in New Mexico? All I could say was that I didn’t know why I wanted to go to Florida, I just did. I wanted to tell them to stop questioning me. I am their mother and I have made a decision, if they didn’t like it that was too bad.
Then when Frankie found out that I was planning to drive the moving truck on my own, he insisted on coming.
