From Newsprint to Footprints: A River's Edge Cozy Mystery (River's Edge Cozy Mysteries Book 1) by Elaine Orr Read Free Book Online Page B

Shirley leaned over to whisper to me. "I know it wasn't you, sugar."
    "Thanks."
    "I knew your Mom and Dad all my life. They mighta raised a nosy reporter, but they didn't raise a killer."
    Damned with faint praise. "I appreciate that. Would you mind if I had that coffee? I got up really early."
    She popped her gum as she smiled over her shoulder. "You betcha. Be right back."
    I pulled a thin notebook from my purse and opened to a clean page. I'd been so tired last night I hadn't even done an idea page. Whenever I worked on a story, I made myself write fresh notes each evening, and I had to put at least one question at the end. Too many questions to even fool with it last night.
    I hadn't realized I was thinking about the first item until I wrote, "Where was Fred yesterday?"
    I placed my hand over the sentence as Shirley put a mug of coffee, sugar already in it, on the table. "Eat that bagel now. It'll be cold."
    "Yes ma'am." I managed a smile.
    When she walked away I scratched out the sentence. Still, since Fred had been in town so soon after I found Hal, it was a fair question. I supposed if Sandi had called him the second she stopped screeching he could have been in River's Edge that fast, but I doubted she had. Was Fred in town when Hal was killed?
    Fred had had a lot more to lose than I did. He'd bought a house just three years before Hal fired him, and he had to rent out two of the bedrooms to guys who worked at the meat packing plant. He stored his coin collection and expensive shoes at Betty's in case the men were not as honest as the shift supervisor at the plant said they were.
    I thought for a full minute. I could see Fred gloating all over town if he won his appeal to claim unemployment benefits. Killing Hal would probably just delay processing Fred's appeal. And how would Fred know there would be a fresh pile of mulch at Syl's, much less be able to get the body there?
    Fred knows where I keep my gardening tools. So do lots of other people .
    It was hard to do a list of people mad at Hal, because so many people were. I thought about a story he did on Blackner's Insurance. Hal had made it sound like they inflated prices for life and health insurance, but he'd run a correction on the front page above the fold. He had to, because Bruce Blackner said he'd sue the bejesus out of Hal if he didn't. It definitely didn't get Hal the firm's advertising budget back.
    The South County News plopped on the table, and Sandi slid into the booth across from me. "I can't believe you didn't call me."
    I frowned. "You know how to find me. Did you need something?"
    She looked offended. "I thought you'd have something to say about the article."
    I pulled the paper toward me. "It wasn't in the box at home when I left."
    "We were late putting it to bed last night, so the printer couldn't get it out by five a.m. Wish we were still a daily. The Register scooped us by putting it on their web page." She tapped her index finger on the table top. "Read it."
     
    Publisher Found Dead
    The body of South County News publisher Hal Morris was discovered at eight forty-seven a.m. Tuesday, in a mulch pile at the Silverstone place (now owned by Sylvester Maximillan Seaton) on County Road 270. Former reporter Melanie Perkins, who had been hired to do some landscaping work on the property, discovered Morris' body. Deputy Aaron Granger, first on the scene, verified that the body was that of the local publisher and editor.
     
    Morris had fired Perkins several weeks ago, but Sheriff Michael Gallagher noted he did not consider her a suspect. When asked if he thought Morris was killed on the Seaton property, Gallagher said he was more than likely killed elsewhere, but the state medical examiner would be the one to determine that.
     
    Given Morris's prominence in the community, Gallagher called in Iowa IDI to work with the Sheriff's Department. Neither Agent Charles Holcomb nor David Masters were willing to talk to South County News staff.
     
    Farm and More