Trawling for Trouble Read Online Free PDF

gathered up their belongings and carried them back to their two cars.
    â€œNow what?” Liv asked. “Do we go to the sheriff’s office, or do we wait for him to call?”
    â€œIf Bill and A.K. went after Seamus and Gus, I doubt they’ll be back by now. I say we just wait for a while. Pick me up around three. We’ll go over together.”
    â€œAye, aye, Captain.”
    *   *   *
    Liv stood under the shower until her skin was pink, then washed her hair and was wrapping it in a turban when her doorbell rang.
    She slipped into a bathrobe and went to see who it was. One of her landladies, certainly: Miss Ida or Miss Edna, or both. Whiskey had beaten her to the door and his tail was thumping furiously.
    Liv opened the door to Miss Edna.
    Edna Zimmerman was the taller, more down-to-earth, and, perhaps, older of the two retired teachers. Her hair was cut short and frizzed around her face. She had given up her floral shirtwaists and sensible shoes the day she retired from teaching. Today she was dressed in a pair of seersucker slacks and a collared knit shirt.
    â€œI thought you were going to be gone all day,” she said. “Is anything wrong?”
    Liv opened the door wider and invited her in.
    â€œOh no, I won’t bother you. I really just wanted to make sure you were all right. Ida and I heard they found a body up at the lake today.”
    â€œYou heard already?”
    â€œOh yes, it was on the morning news. We went right to our radio, but there wasn’t any chatter on the police band.” She sighed. “Did you see anything? Do you know what happened?”
    Liv huffed out a long sigh of her own. “I sort of fished the guy out of the water.” She hung her head. “I caught him by his pants pocket.”
    â€œOh dear.” Miss Edna put her hand to her mouth, but Liv was pretty sure it was to hide her laugh.
    â€œI know, only I could do something like that.”
    â€œNot at all, it’s just, of all people to find a murdered man . . . Can I fix you a cup of tea?”
    â€œNo, I’m fine really. How did you know it was murder?”
    â€œWell, not from the television. Actually Ruth Benedict saw the coroner’s van from her window. She lives on that hill across Lakeside Road. She knows everything that goes on there. And it isn’t all fishing. She called her friend that works in the coroner’s office to get the skinny.”
    And then called everybody she knew,
thought Liv. Ruth was the worst busybody in town.
    â€œOh, but you must be getting a chill. Why don’t I take Whiskey and give you some time to relax, then come over. We’ll have a little lunch and you can tell us all about it.”
    â€œI’d love to, but I have to go out to the sheriff’s office and give them my statement.”
    â€œWhy didn’t Bill just take it while he was there?”
    â€œBecause he was sort of in a hurry to pick up these two fishermen we saw for questioning.”
    â€œNobody we know, I hope.”
    Liv shook her head. “I didn’t know them. Two older—” She started to say
gentlemen
, but that didn’t really describe Gus and Seamus. “I think they live around here somewhere. Chaz said they were veterans.”
    â€œOh dear, you don’t mean Seamus and Gus?”
    â€œYes. You know them?” Of course she did. Seamus—or was it Gus?—said they were going to give Miss Ida the fish they caught.
    â€œWe’ve known them for years. Well, Seamus, at least. He grew up around here, came home after Vietnam.” Edna tsked. “Never was the same after that. Kept to himself. Then Gus showed up one day, just passing through, and stayed. They knew each other in the war.”
    Liv watched as Edna’s eyes misted. Remembered that Miss Edna and her sister Ida had both lost fiancés in “the war.” They never spoke of it and Liv hadn’t asked, though she