Triple Dip Debacle: A Cozy Mystery (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book 7) by Constance Barker Read Free Book Online Page A

wheelchair. He took a hold of the slow moving sign with his latex covered hands and inspected it. “Just what I thought. Charlie, I’m going to have to take your wheelchair in as evidence.”
     
    “Now wait a minute Greg, you don’t think Charlie had anything to do with the crime?” I asked.
     
    “Oh I think he was a big part of it, yes,” Greg answered.
     
    “You say you want my wheels?” Charlie asked Greg.
     
    Greg raised his voice so Charlie could hear. “Yes I’m going to have to take the wheelchair for a few days. I’ll get you another one from the pharmacy up the street.”
     
    “If you have to,” Charlie replied. “I’m kind of partial to this one.”
     
    “Don’t worry; I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can.”
     
    “I’m lost Greg,” Stormi replied. “How is Charlie tying into this?”
     
    Greg took off the latex gloves. “This is just a theory but I believe this is what happened to Mr. Pennington. I don’t believe it was a murder at all, but an accident.”
     
    “How in the world do you plunge a knife into your chest by accident?” Stormi asked.
     
    “Yeah Greg, this seems a little preposterous,” I agreed.
     
    “Okay, let me show you,” Greg answered. He walked over to Charlie. “Charlie, do you remember leaving the shoppe this morning?”
     
    “Yes’m. The girls left and I finished my coffee. I was going to leave out the front, but I can’t open the door by myself. I can get out the back way though because the door isn’t as heavy. That short fellow was standing behind the ice cream counter. He was very involved in whatever was in that box sitting on the counter. I didn’t want to bother him, so I thought I’d come around the other end of the counter and go out the way of the back door.”
     
    “Which means you would have to go through the swinging door leading to the back room first right?” Greg asked.
     
    “Yes, it’s easy to get through, although it does swing pretty hard.”
     
    Greg nodded. “Go on.”
     
    “I got half way in and one of my wheels got stuck and I couldn’t get all the way through. That’s when I asked if the man could scoot my chair over so I could go straight through. I heard him say something about his hands being full or something like that. I couldn’t turn around to see him. My neck and back won’t allow me to turn to far either way, but I felt him kicking the stuck tire on my wheelchair. I didn’t really want him to kick it, but he did dislodge it from where it was pushing against the door frame.”
     
    “Let me stop you right here Charlie,” Greg said. “In which direction was the swing door? Was it pushed in towards the backroom or out into the shoppe?”
     
    “It was pushed in,” Charlie answered. “I pushed it in with my wheelchair.”
     
    “So the door was propped inward with your wheelchair?”
     
    “Yes’m. Once he got the wheel around the doorframe, I backed up to straighten the chair to get through the door. Then I continued through and let the swing door fly shut behind me. I thanked him but I didn’t hear an answer so I went ahead out the back. I figured he‘d close the back door after I went through it.” Charlie shrugged. “That’s all I know.”
     
    Greg patted him on the shoulder. “That’s fine Charlie, you did good.”
     
    Dottie, Brandon, Stormi and I stood at the counter. “Okay Columbo,” Stormi said. “Tell us how this all fits together.”
     
    “My theory, based on the evidence, is that Mr. Pennington was holding the cake service knife in his hand when he was helping to dislodge the wheelchair tire. After he dislodged it, Charlie said he backed up to straighten the chair so he could get through the door. That’s when I think he backed over Mr. Pennington’s shoe leaving the tire mark. The sudden pain to his foot likely made him jerk forward where his face met with the slow moving sign, causing the cut to his face.”
     
    We all nodded. It was starting to make sense.