Deadly Places: A Mapleton Mystery Novella by Terry Odell Read Free Book Online Page A

said she took care of routine correspondence for Gordon, but Ed had wanted a better feel for all things Chief Stuff, and had been dealing with the same general questions from citizens, requests for interviews, and complaints. Laurie was undoubtedly better at drafting responses than he was.
    He admitted he’d been trying to do too much himself. Time to cut some strings. After all, she opened his snail mail and screened it. Since emails addressed to Ed came to his computer, he’d felt an obligation to deal with all of them directly. No more.
    He called Laurie in, and they worked out a system where he’d forward the time waster messages to her, then she’d draft a response and shoot it back to him so he could modify it if necessary, then copy and paste it as a direct response from himself. Her smile said he’d made the right decision.
    He went back to his email and opened the one from Detective Rosen.
    M.E. said cause of death for Cardona was a diabetic coma. Man had a history of neglecting to monitor his insulin levels. Ruled it natural causes. However, given your query, I’ll ask whether it could have been homicide.
    Ed replied with a thank you. The seeds of doubt had been planted, although Ed had no evidence the M.E. might have been too hasty in his declaration.
    He opened the email from the mayor. A request for a summary of everything Ed had done for the town of Mapleton? By Friday? Ed looked at the forms the mayor wanted him to fill out. Fifteen pages? Compiling the information Mayor McKenna wanted would take at least a week.
    This had to be some kind of game.

Chapter 8
    Ed printed out the form and summoned Laurie into his office again. After all, if this was a routine process, complex and aggravating as it might be, Gordon must have dealt with it, which meant Laurie had seen it, too.
    “These are new under Mayor McKenna,” she said. “And he gave Chief Hepler three months before asking for one. Most of the numbers are already in the various departmental spreadsheets. It’s a matter of pulling them and entering them into the new format. If you’d like, I can do that part of it, and you can do the subjective parts.”
    Ed sighed in relief. “Please. And, in case I haven’t told you, I couldn’t do this job without your help.”
    She grinned. “Glad to be of service, Acting Chief.”
    With that out of the way, Ed did his crossing guard duty, promising the kids a look inside a real police car and a chance to meet a real police dog if they came to the Trick or Treat Parade. When he returned to the station, he plunged into Chief Stuff, wondering again why he hadn’t utilized Laurie more. He’d known from day one he needed help. Gordon had told both of them to work together. Pride? Stubbornness? Control Freak? Or all three?
    His mind strayed to Charlotte Strickland’s interview. Should he call the Weekly? Talk to Paul Lipsky, the editor? Ask him to consider all angles before approving it? Edit it judiciously? It wasn’t as if Ed wanted to shackle the press, or tell them what to write. On the other hand, there was no point in printing alarmist articles.
    And then here he was, turning to Laurie again.
    “They met for lunch at least a couple times a month,” she said. “As time allowed, or the need arose. Nothing regular on his schedule. I never got the impression Chief Hepler tried to get the editor to see things his way, but they both had—have—the best interests of Mapleton at heart.”
    “I’ll see if Mr. Lipsky is free for lunch.” He paused. “Or is scheduling meetings something else you did for Gordon?”
    “Sometimes,” she said. “Depended on how cop-related it was, or how flexible his schedule was. I’d be happy to set things up with Mr. Lipsky.”
    Ed pondered that. “No, this time, let me.” Before she left, he added, “And if there are any other of these touchy-feely things Gordon did you think I should be doing, let me know.”
    “Will do, Chief.”
    Not Acting Chief. A load of