Whipped Wedding Woes: A Cozy Mystery (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book 8) by Constance Barker Read Free Book Online Page A

dead, and now we can’t find him or Luella!”
     
    “Supposedly his body is at the funeral home,” Paige said. “The funeral home where nobody answers the phone, but still we can assume he is there. Now Luella is another story.”
     
    At that moment, Sammi and her friends walked into the shoppe to take over for the rest of the day as we headed to the funeral home more than an hour away. Brandon walked over to keep Charlie company and we headed out. Of course, we had no idea that we would find more than we were searching for.

Chapter Nine
     
     
    The funeral home in Marshall was small. Heck the town was small. I was surprised they even had a funeral home. The town had a small grocery, a tiny hardware store, and a funeral home. They didn’t even have a restaurant…, which might be a good thing.
     
    The funeral home appeared to once have been someone’s home. A long concrete porch covered the front and one side of the building. A sign out front said Johnson Funeral Home. So this had to be the place.
     
    Paige grasped the knob to the front door and found it locked. “To say I’m surprised would be a lie.”
     
    “Guess we know why no one answered the phone,” I said.
     
    “This is nuts,” Stormi exclaimed. “Where the heck is my cousin’s body? The fur’s going to fly when I get to the bottom of this mess.”
     
    “Hello ladies,” a small voice behind us said.
     
    We spun around to see a little old man wearing brown slacks, a white shirt, and carrying a cane. “I live right next door. Are you looking for someone?”
     
    “Yes,” Paige answered. “We’re looking for the owners of this funeral home. We need to talk to them.”
     
    “That might be difficult,” he said. “The owner died a few months ago and the funeral home has been closed since then. The family is going to sell it, but they have to wait until all debts are paid.”
     
    Stormi turned white. “But my cousin’s body was sent here to be cremated.”
     
    The old man shook his head. “I’m sorry dear. This funeral home never had a cremation facility. They sent the dear departed remains to a crematorium in Atlanta, that is when they were open.”
     
    “I’m going to rip her a new one!” Stormi belted.
     
    The poor man looked stricken, so we thanked him and ushered Stormi into Paige’s SUV.
     
    “What in the frick is going on?” Stormi was headed for a tirade.
     
    “There’s only one person who does know, and that’s Luella,” Paige said as she drove out of the tiny town of Marshall. “We need to locate her or we’ll never know what happened to Howie.”
     
    “If I remember correctly, she still had her dorm at Southern State University. Maybe we can ask around and find her,” Stormi offered.
     
    “Sounds like a plan to me,” Paige said as she headed towards the outskirts of Atlanta.
     
    “This isn’t making any sense,” I replied. “Why would Luella hide Howie’s body?”
     
    “Maybe she’s some sicko,” Stormi said. “Maybe she’s in some cult and they have Howie’s body right now.”
     
    “You’re hopping on the crazy train,” Paige replied. “You better leap off and calm down.”
     
    “It’s not your cousin’s body that’s missing,” Stormi whined.
     
    “No, but going off the deep end isn’t going to help anyone. Let’s look at this rationally.”
     
    “That’s it though,” I said. “There’s nothing rational about it. Luella took Howie to the hospital, or so she said. She then tells Brandon everything is okay but the doctors want to run some tests. Then we get the call that Howie has passed and Luella has sent his body to a funeral home for cremation.”
     
    “How can she do that…she’s not even next of kin,” Stormi replied.
     
    “Supposedly Doreen talked to someone at the funeral home and gave the go ahead to have his body cremated as that was his wishes,” I said. “But I think everything went through Luella. So that means Luella directed his body towards this