Sweet Ginger Poison Read Online Free PDF Page A

hooker? ”
    “Yes. Former hooker. But let’s try not to call
her that.”
    “This should be interesting.”
    “There it is—that blue house on the right.”
    Elijah pulled into the driveway and parked behind the
cherry red Miata.
    They walked up the stairs, onto the porch and Elijah
knocked.
    After a few seconds, a woman yelled, “Just a minute.”
    Finally the door opened.
    “Yeah?”
    She was wearing a robe and her hair was a mess. Ginger
figured she must have just gotten out of bed. But then she noticed the socks
and tennis shoes.
    “Are you Kayla,” said Elijah.
    “Yes.”
    “Hi. I’m Elijah Bideman, pastor of Corey Acres Baptist
Church, and this is Ginger Lightley. I’m afraid we have some bad news. Would
you mind if we came in?”
    “Can’t you just tell me? As you can see, I’m not
dressed for company. I just got out of bed. I like to sleep in on Saturdays.”
    “Sure, I understand,” said Elijah. “It’s about Navy.”
    “Yeah?”
    She seemed curious, but not particularly concerned.
    “This morning he was out at the nursing home and he
fell down and…he died.”
    “What? He just fell down?”
    “The police think the fall is what killed him. But
they’re not sure. They’ll know more after the autopsy.”
    Kayla contorted her face. Ginger couldn’t tell if it
was because Navy was dead and now they were going to cut him up, or because the
thought of autopsies in general made her ill.
    “Well…thanks for coming to tell me. Goodbye.”
    She closed the door. They could hear her walking away,
toward the back of the house.
    Elijah looked at Ginger.
    “That was kind of a weird reaction,” said Ginger.
    “People react differently to the loss of a loved one,”
he said, as they walked down the stairs. “Five minutes from now she’ll probably
be crying her eyes out.”
    Ginger walked to the front of the Miata and felt the
hood.
    “What are you doing?” said Elijah.
    “It’s still warm.”
    They got into his car.
    He started the engine. “So? What are trying to say?”
    “Why did she lie? She told us she just got out of bed.
Yet her car engine is still warm. And she was wearing tennis shoes.”
    He pulled out of the driveway. “Okay, I’ll admit—it
does seem strange.” He drove toward town.
    “Not just strange. Her boyfriend died mysteriously—”
    “—well, I wouldn’t say mysteriously . We’ll know
exactly what killed him after the autopsy.”
    “Maybe the reason Kayla wasn’t torn up about Navy’s
death…is that she had something to do with it.”
    “Who are you—Jessica Fletcher?”
    “No. But think about it. It’s possible. A big-city
hooker probably knows all kinds of ways to kill a person.”
    “Okay, stop. Your imagination is starting to run wild.
The police will solve this thing. Just leave it up to them.”
    “You’re right, Elijah. That’s what I need to do.”
    But somehow she knew it wouldn’t be that easy.
     
     

6 - Mr. Mayor and the Sheriff
    Daniel Foenapper sat down at his desk. The twin
gold-plated pens stood at attention on their marble base at the sides of the
little clock. It had been a thoughtful gift from his mother in celebration of
his promotion to Chief of Police. Nine-fifteen. Had it really only been ninety
minutes ago that he got the call about Navy Newcomb?
    Kip had assured him the job would be a cakewalk.
Nothing much ever happens in Coreyville. Yet he’d only been chief for six days,
and was already having to deal with a suspicious death. But maybe it was
accidental. If the medical examiner determined that Navy simply fell down and
busted his head open and died, all Daniel’s worrying would have been for
nothing. He just needed to chill.
    His desk phone rang. Who would be calling him at his
office on Saturday? And when were they going to upgrade the phones? Caller ID
would come in handy.
    “Chief Foenapper.”
    “Hi, Chief. This is Ginger Lightley. The dispatcher
put me through. She said she really wasn’t supposed to, but I told