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

already closed funeral home, which means she had no intention of his body going there.”
     
    “But what in the heck is she doing with his body?” Paige asked. “That is just creepy.”
     
    “See,” Stormi said. “She’s some kind of weirdo that’s holding Howie’s body hostage!”
     
    “If you holding something hostage, don’t you ask for a ransom?”
     
    “But instead we haven’t heard a thing from her,” I surmised. “So we won’t have answers until we find her.”
     

Chapter Ten
     
     
    We kept our eyes peeled as we walked the Southern State University campus. Although the grounds weren’t as large as some major college campuses, it was still a lot of ground to cover. When we couldn’t see hide or hair of her, we began asking some of the students who were walking the campus if they knew her. Luckily, we had several snapshots from the wedding to show the students. Many didn’t know her, which wasn’t surprising since she’d been living with Howie for several months in Caesars Creek.
     
    Finally, we found several girls who knew Luella. In fact, she lived right down the hall from their room on the third floor in their dormitory. They gave us her room number and we thanked them profusely. It didn’t seem like they cared for her, likely the reason they were so free to give out information on her.
     
    We devised a plan on our walk to the dorm. Stormi and I would ask at the front desk to see Luella, while Paige would sneak up the back stairwell and wait for her to come out of her room. Once she did, Paige would sneak into the room and look for incriminating evidence. Since Paige enjoyed her undercover work at the hospital, despite the sidetrack to the ER, she volunteered to steal into Luella’s room.
     
    After we entered the building, Paige slipped into the stairwell as we walked over to the front desk. We didn’t want to hurry so as to allow Paige enough time to climb three sets of stairs. So we looked at the bulletin board that hung on the wall. Finally, we walked to the front desk and asked if they could call Luella Vance’s room to come down and talk to us. When the lady got off the phone, she said Luella would be right down.
     
    I felt like multiple toads were playing hopscotch in my stomach. I had no idea what to expect from Luella, and I could tell Stormi was feeling the same way. She bounced from one foot to the other in anticipation.
     
    “Now don’t scare her off Stormi. I know you’re pissed, but we’ve got to allow Paige enough time to look around in her room.”
     
    “I’ll try,” Stormi said through gritted teeth.
     
    Before we knew it, the elevator door opened and Luella stepped out. As usual, she looked like she stepped out of a bandbox. Every hair in place, wearing a tan pantsuit with an emerald green blouse.
     
    “Hi girls. What are you two doing up here?”
     
    “We came looking for answers,” Stormi stewed. Not what I was hoping for.
     
    I interrupted Stormi. “Luella, we’ve had some issues come up. No one can seem to find Howie’s remains so the family is very concerned.”
     
    Luella looked confused. “Well that’s odd. Last I knew the funeral home was sending the ashes to his mother.”
     
    “That funeral home is closed,” Stormi steamed. I gave her a pleading look.
     
    “We thought maybe we got the name of the funeral home wrong, so when we couldn’t get you by phone, we decided to come up here. Perhaps you have the phone number and address to the funeral home?”
     
    “Sure,” Luella replied with some impatience. “I’ll have to find it upstairs in my room.”
     
    Stormi and I blanched.
     
    “I’ll be right back,” Luella said as she headed to the elevator.
     
    We ran behind her and got into the elevator with her. “We’ll go with you,” I stated. “No reason for you to keep riding the elevator up and down for us.”
     
    If we were going down, it might as well be together.

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    We hurriedly followed behind