Free May Cooler Heads Prevail by T. L. Dunnegan Page B

see if I can get it fixed for you. No sense putting too many miles on my Mustang. We’ll come on over there around lunch and see if you’ve made any headway at the library. Nissa plans on us bringing some fried chicken and all the fixin’s, so be sure and tell Connie. Oh, and tell Freedom he’s invited to lunch also.” He hesitated a moment then added, “Never mind about telling Freedom, I’ll call him first thing in the morning and tell him our plan and invite him to lunch myself. Well, good night, sleep well.” Then he hung up.
    Oh yeah, I was going to sleep well. I had so much to look forward to.
    Aunt Connie and I hugged each other and tottered off to our respective bedrooms. After I put my pajamas on, Ididn’t waste time with any nightly healthy-skin rituals. I just planted my tired bones on Aunt Connie’s slightly lumpy guest bedroom mattress and fell asleep.
    Lumpy mattress or not, it didn’t stop me from having a vivid nightmare. In the nightmare it was my wedding day, but instead of a flowing white gown and veil, I was wrapped up head to toe in pink cellophane, and I had to be carried down the aisle. Everyone stood up and clapped, only they kept making this banging noise. I tried to make them stop, but they kept it up. Finally waking up, I realized that the people in my nightmare weren’t clapping, someone was banging on Aunt Connie’s door.
    Aunt Connie came stumbling out of her bedroom at the same time I stumbled out of mine. I mumbled that I’d get the door. She nodded and veered toward the kitchen.
    After tying my robe, I opened the door, and there stood a grim-looking Freedom Crane. “You and Connie had better get dressed and come on down to the flower shop. Somebody broke in there last night.”
    I started to push past Freedom, but he stopped me. “No, whoever was in there is gone now. It won’t make a bit a difference if you take a few minutes to throw on some clothes before you come down. I’ll go on back down and wait for you.” With that he turned and went back down the stairs.
    As Freedom’s words began to sink in, Aunt Connie walked into the living room and asked what was going on. Judging from her reaction when I told her, she is not a morning person.
    It was barely six, still dark outside, by the time we dressed and met Freedom down in the flower shop. Aunt Connie and I stood just inside the doorway and looked around. It struck me that it was an odd sort of burglary.
    Everything had been neatly taken off the shelves and out of the cabinets. Clay flowerpots were all stacked, one on top of the other, in a corner. Next to the pots, bottles of flower shine and a various array of plant food containers were all lined up. Flowers and a few baskets were the only things strewn around the floor. Whoever broke into the shop was certainly a neat freak.
    Freedom, standing near the opened flower cooler, nodded for us to look inside. Aunt Connie and I walked over and peeked in. Inside the cooler was the only real chaos. The now headless and mostly un-stuffed scarecrow lay at an odd angle on top of wads of pink cellophane.
    I took a few steps into the front of the shop. Like the workshop, everything had been taken off of shelves and out of windows and placed neatly on the floor. Why? I thought I knew why the mangled scarecrow, but why take everything off the shelves? What was he looking for?
    “Aunt Connie, you don’t keep any money in the shop overnight, do you?”
    Coming over to stand next to me, she shook her head and said, “Never have. If I can’t make a night deposit, I keep it upstairs in my safe, so they couldn’t have taken money—there wasn’t any. Nothing seems to be missing. What were they after?”
    “I think whoever was in here was looking for Aaron’s body, Aunt Connie.”
    “What!” Aunt Connie’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped. “You mean the killer came back to the scene of the crime? What would the killer want with Aaron’s body?”
    Leaning on the door frame