Murder at the Art Gallery Read online

  Once in the car, Mandy started to fill Fred in on the situation. “I tell you Fred, just yesterday when I spoke to her, I thought this would become a new money-maker for me. I'm still out of a job, you know. I had absolutely no reason to kill Ms. Parks. If anything, I looked forward to this relationship because it meant I would make money in the future.

  “And now, she's dead. I hope it's from natural causes. Who knows if I'll get to make the commercial now. Luckily, I also got a call from another company, but they're smaller and they don't have the class of Hedon Foods, but the lady who runs it, Loretta Gumble, is very nice.”

  “You think she had reason to hurt Stacy Parks?” Fred asked.

  “No, she's a small business owner, selling products and toys, not a competitor, just a regular person. She even said, 'We're not as esoteric as Hedon.' So, she knew the size of her business.”

  “While you were in the office, did you touch anything else other than the vase?” Fred asked.

  “Nothing. The only reason I touched the vase was because Roger knocked it over. At the time, I was glad it didn't break, but the vase is what led me to Stacy Parks lying there. If that hadn't happened, I may have sat on a chair and kept wondering and asking myself, where is this woman?”

  “You know Mandy, it's strange; in the past you never had any contact with any murders, but since you solved the David Towsky case, here you are running into another dead body. Let's hope it's not a murder, but a heart attack like the doc says.”

  “I know, I thought the same thing earlier. I mean, you know me Fred, the last thing I want is this kind of excitement. A great new job, a lot of tarot reading and zodiac charts, that's exciting. Dead people - not so exciting. Actually it's pretty scary stuff. I thought I would never again have to go through what happened to me with David's death, but here I am again in the middle of another strange death.”

  “Well, so far the doctor is ruling it a heart attack. His thinking is going in the direction she was alone in the office, she had a heart attack in the back of the room, the secretary didn't hear her, and she fell down and hit her head on something. Me, I'm always looking for the logical answer, not for the supernatural answer. As far as we know, the woman didn't have any enemies to speak of and certainly nobody who would want to kill her. She has run a pretty clean business, so there's no reason to suspect foul play. And there's no evidence to support that either.”

  “Yes, I remember from David's situation.”

  “And you see, eventually you found evidence to the contrary. Whatever you do, don't get involved in this, okay? Let us handle it.” Fred's used a no-nonsense tone of voice.

  “Oh believe me, I'm not touching this with a ten-foot pole. The situation with David was different; he was my friend, and I didn't believe his death was natural. However, I only talked to this woman yesterday and saw her for the first time today, unfortunately dead. So, I have no interest whatsoever in any replays.

  “This situation, as far as I'm concerned, is closed. If they call me back and want to do a commercial, fine, but meanwhile, I think I'm going to talk to Loretta Gumble. That sounds like a straight-up situation where Roger is filmed and everybody goes home at the end of the day and we all live happily ever after.

  “When I first dealt with Stacy Parks, she had me watch a company video about what they do, this is a VERY fancy operation. It's possible even the death of the owner may not affect business dealings. So, it's either a commercial with one company or the other. ” Mandy said.

  “I'm glad to hear it, Mandy. I didn't want you to have any more problems. Anyway, once at the station, give me a report and you can go home. I'm sure this was not the day you planned,” Fred said.

  “You got that right!” Mandy left no room for doubt.