Free Heather Horrocks - Who-Dun-Him Inn 02 - Inn the Doghouse by Heather Horrocks

body.
    A real dead body.
    Stumbling backward, I dropped the flowers I brought for Robert’s grave, stifled a scream, and yanked out my cell phone, fumbling with it and nearly dropping it.
    Having collapsed onto the ground, I scrambled back up and punched in the number for Paul’s cell phone.
    “Hi, Vicki. What’s up?”
    “Paul, oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh. He’s lying there. I think he’s dead.”
    Now that was pretty stupid. The man was obviously deader than a doornail, his limbs twisted in an unnatural position and his face half blown away. I had to restrain my gag reflex. “He’s definitely dead. Very dead. Deader than a doornail.”
    “What are you talking about? Is Grandma handing out her medicinal-purposes-only cold medicine again?”
    I started to cry.
    “Vicki, where are you?” His voice became quiet and he talked to me as if I were a little girl.
    “I’m at the old cemetery. I came to put flowers on Robert’s grave. But there’s a body here on top of the ground.”
    He swore. “Stay right there and I’ll be with you in five minutes.”
    “Don’t hang up!”
    “Okay, I won’t. I won’t.”
    “There’s a piece of paper tucked into his coat. The wind is fluttering it.” For the first time, I got a good look at the man’s coat and groaned. “Oh, no… I’m going to be sick.”
    “What’s going on now, Vicki?”
    “I think he’s wearing the coat Liz gave him last Christmas. I think it’s Gene .”
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    I did get sick. Behind another gravestone. I only hoped Matilda Barrister, 1898-1946 would forgive me.
    It took Paul four minutes to arrive. Another two for DeWayne to show up. And a good fifteen for my deputy friends from Park City.
    Deputy Mary Beth Shannon, a very nice lady sheriff with the Summit County Sheriff’s Department, who spent time at my Inn during last month’s crisis, shook her head at me. “Lordy, child, you’ve gotta quit finding bodies like this.”
    Her partner, Lt. Joe Josephson, didn’t smile, but went straight to work.
    I found out soon enough that Deputy Shannon’s job was to question me. She was really good, too. It took me another five minutes before I figured out she’d gone from idle chit-chat to delving for the details of finding the body.
    I told her everything. From talking to Robert and deciding to move on with my life, to being ready for new adventures…everything.
    “New adventures?” She sounded surprised.
    “I certainly didn’t mean this!” I motioned toward the body of my sister’s husband, now surrounded by hovering authority figures. I put my head in my hands. “Oh, my gosh, what will Liz do now?”
    “Liz is your sister?”
    “Yes. He’s her husband.”
    She looked over toward the body. “How can you tell who it is with his face half gone?”
    “It’s the jacket. It looks exactly like the one that Liz gave him. And he’s probably wearing his wedding ring. It’s a huge gold thing with a big diamond set down in it so you don’t notice it as much, but it’s really huge. Does he have it on?”
    “Joe, is he wearing a wedding ring?” she called out to her partner. “Gold with a huge diamond?”
    A moment later, Joe nodded. “Huge is about right.”
    “It’s Gene. I just know it is. Who’s going to call my sister? I’m not going to be the one to tell her Gene is dead.” I knew I was rambling, but dead bodies seemed to have that effect on me.
    “What’s his name?”
    “Gene Eklund.”
    “I understand the Eklund family is very wealthy.”
    “Yes,” I said. “His family comes from Salt Lake and Park City and they have millions. Not that any of it can help him now.”
    She patted my arm. “Don’t worry,” she spoke in a slow, warm Texas drawl, “y’all won’t have to say a thing to your sister about the murder. I’ll tell her. Or your brother will.”
    I leaned my head back and rested against the—shooting upright, I suddenly realized I was sitting here among gravestones, leaning back against a