1 A Small Case of Murder Read Online Free Page B

breasts, and legs that didn’t stop. I was fifteen and eager to learn.”
    “Do you mean that—”
    Tad said, “Aunt Claire didn’t know. She would have killed Lulu.” He paused. “Now if they didn’t make an odd pair.”
    “Why did they make an odd pair?”
    “Lulu played the guitar and knew all the guys. Aunt Claire only dated your dad from the time they were old enough be boyfriend and girlfriend. She dressed more like Laura Petrie than Joey Heatherton, which was how Lulu dressed, but they were the best of friends.”
    Tad took a couple cookies from the bag and handed one to Joshua. “Too bad,” he mused before biting into the cookie. “That was so bizarre.”
    “What?”
    “Lulu and Aunt Claire died separately on the same day.” Tad put his feet back up on the table and pushed his chair so it teetered back on its hind legs.
    “How did Lulu die?”
    “A drug overdose on the same day your parents were killed in that car accident out West. That was one awful week.” Struck by a realization, Tad asked him, “Why do you want to know about Lulu?”
    “I heard the name.”
    “You heard the name from whom?”
    “Around.” Joshua stood up and stretched. “Thanks for the tea.” He patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    Admiral waited for his master to open the door to make his escape from the other dog.
    “Want a piece of advice?”
    To answer Tad’s question, Joshua stopped at the door and turned around.
    “Watch with whom you spread certain names. Reverend Rawlings may be old, but he’s not dead.”
    “I said nothing about Reverend Rawlings.”
    “Didn’t have to. A mysterious death in Chester? You don’t have to look long before Reverend Rawlings’ name creeps up like a cancer. He didn’t become a drug lord by quoting Jesus.”
    Admiral looked longingly up at the unopened door.
    Joshua stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “Did Lulu ever mention a dead body to you?”
    “Are you talking about the body your folks found on their prom night?”
    Joshua whirled back around. “They found a dead body on their prom night?”
    “I thought you knew about it,” Tad replied. “You brought it up.”
    “All I know is that Mom and Dad found a dead body, and Lulu and a Ricky Pendleton were with them.”
    “I didn’t know that. I assumed they were alone.”
    “But you know about the body.” Joshua gave up on leaving and leaned against the kitchen counter across from him.
    Admiral plopped down onto the floor between them.
    “I remember your folks talking about it like once. It really scared them,” Tad said. “Lulu never mentioned it to me at all."
    “Because you two didn’t talk that much,” Joshua replied. “How did they come to find a dead body?”
    Tad said, “All I know is that it was the night of their senior prom and your folks went to Bosley’s barn to make out—”
    “Make out?”
    “That wasn’t the way they put it when I was in the room, but I assume they wanted to have sex.”
    “I know what making out is. What happened at Bosley’s barn?”
    Tad shrugged his shoulders. “They found a dead body. It was a man.”
    “Murdered?”
    “I don’t know the particulars, but I assume so.”
    “Did they know who he was?”
    “Never saw him before,” Tad answered. “They went to get the sheriff. Chuck Delaney was the sheriff then. When they came back, the body was gone and the sheriff threatened to arrest them for filing a false police report.” He threw up his hands as a gesture of completing the story, as he knew it. “That’s all I know.”
    Joshua squinted. “The body was gone?”
    “Yep.”
    Joshua asked, “Who’s Ricky Pendleton?”
    “Maybe Jill Stewart’s brother. Her maiden name is Pendleton.”
    “This guy moved to Youngstown after he graduated from high school.”
    Tad said that he was thinking of the same person. “This guy moved to Ohio to work for General Motors.”
    “He was there,” Joshua muttered.
    “If you want to know