Raining Men and Corpses: A Fun Cozy Mystery (A Raina Sun Mystery Book 1) (8 page)

“You'll take care of this? I have class in a few minutes.” The look of relief on Jones’s face would have been comical if not for the situation.

Gail nodded. “Don’t tell anyone about Cora. We don’t want this to be blown out of proportion.”

After Jones left, Gail stared into space. When she came out of her daze, she picked up the phone and made several calls in rapid succession.

Raina shifted in her seat. The low murmur of Gail’s voice reminded her that she had spent the night with Po Po’s knee on her back. Fetal position sleepers should be banned after the age of two. She closed her eyes and let the background noise washed over her.

Gail put down the phone and sighed. “They’re just questioning her. Donna said Cora volunteered to leave with the police because she didn’t want to be interviewed in front of her friends.”

Raina started and glanced at the clock. She covered her yawn with her hand. “I’m sorry. I must have drifted off. So it’s just an interview. Then they’ll let her go soon. How did you get the front desk clerk to talk?”

Gail averted her gaze. “You owe Donna a spicy cheddar cheese quiche. She wants to bring it to our church potluck.”

“Not a problem. I’ll deliver it warm and toasty Sunday morning.” Good thing Po Po had offered to stock up her fridge. Raina would show up with a buffet if Donna gave her the inside scoop to the gossip at the police station.

Gail opened a drawer and grabbed her purse. “I’m taking an early lunch to go down to the police station. Cora will probably need a ride home.”

Raina stood. “You were hiding something from Eden the other day. I think it has to do with Cora.”

“It’s not my secret to tell.”

“Do you think Cora killed Holden?”

“No.”

“I want to help her, too.”

Gail looked at Raina, assessing her. “Cora’s nephew is Holden’s son. He was paying child support to her family. Her family needs the money.”

Raina ran a shaky hand through her curly hair. Was this the shame Holden had been too embarrassed to confess? “Wouldn’t killing Holden give them immediate access to his money?” She thought about his salary and made some rapid calculations. “You’re talking about two hundred thousand from just his retirement and life insurance. And with his Spartan lifestyle, there’s probably more.”

Gail closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t believe it. She’s the first one in her family to go to college. This is her chance.”

A few minutes later, Raina sat in her car mulling over her morning. The cold air blasting out the vents did little to cool the interior. She pulled her shirt away from her moist body, sighing in contentment when the chilly air drifted down her chest. Her backside felt extra crispy from the hot seat. She folded the sunshade and tucked it in the space between the seat and console.

She pulled her notebook from her purse and added the information about the nephew under Cora’s name with shaking hands. The straight lines and sharp corners looked out of place next to the existing swirls and loops on the page.

First Natalie and now Cora. The police were questioning all the people who were personally involved with Holden. Raina licked her dry lips. Matthew would eventually come looking for her, if she wasn’t on his radar already. Did this mean Olivia would be questioned as well?

Her vision blurred at the sudden tears in her eyes. All she’d wanted was to escape the drama at home with her move to Gold Springs. Now she was up to her armpits in muck again. She straightened and swiped a finger under each eye. Time to get cracking. Sitting here wasn’t going to solve her problems.

B
y the time
Raina got home, she was beat. She trudged from her car to her unit on autopilot to find her living room drapes opened. Her grandma tapped on a laptop on the dining room table. The small piles of books and magazines in her apartment looked much worse from the outside.

Raina banged open the front door, grabbed the cord for her drapes, and closed them with a whoosh. By the time she spun around, Po Po had already closed her laptop screen. “I don’t like my neighbors looking in on their way to the laundry room.”

Po Po shrugged. “If you clean up your little mole hills, then you’ll have no reason to hide from your neighbors.”

“And why are we talking about my housekeeping?” Raina raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t exactly fall far from the apple tree.”

Raina flopped down onto the sofa, pulled out her notebook, and studied the time line she’d created. Po Po came over and sat next to her, tucking her short legs on the sofa.

“What are you doing?” Po Po peered at the squiggles on the page and her face brightened. “So the rumor is true. Someone offed Holden Merritt.” She rubbed her hands together. “This is exciting.”

Her grandma was a Miss Marple on training wheels among her friends in San Francisco. When the mahjong ladies wanted to find a missing tile or cheat, Po Po took to the case like white on jasmine rice. The last thing Raina needed was for Eden pressuring her to pump people for information with Po Po riding shotgun and offering to pistol-whip anyone who wouldn’t squeal.

Raina slapped her notebook close. She couldn’t believe her grandma had rubbed her hands together. This wasn’t an invitation to a tea party. “You’re reading too many Sue Grafton novels.” She shoved the notebook back into her purse. “Don’t you seniors have anything better to do than sit around and make up rumors?”

Po Po rolled her eyes. “And don’t you young people know how to respect your elders?”

“Touché,” Raina mumbled. She turned on the TV and pretended to channel surf.

The retired seniors were better informed than Eden when it came to the goings-on in town. Raina was dying to know the rumors surrounding Holden’s death and who was saying what, but if she asked, she’d only encourage Po Po to do more snooping. But with her grandma in town, she couldn’t drop by the Senior Center to have a chat without Po Po finding out. The timing of her grandma’s visit was starting to be a tad inconvenient.

“Maggie invited us to dinner. We can stop by for groceries on the way home later,” Po Po said.

“And just how long are you planning to stay?” Not that Raina minded having Po Po around, but a grocery store was a foreign country to her grandma.

Po Po shrugged. “I’m mighty bored at home.”

In other words, her grandma was planning to snoop around Holden’s murder whether Raina wanted her to or not. She sighed. “What were they saying at the center?”

Po Po beamed, rattling off names and theories that swirled over Raina’s head. She listened with half an ear. UFO probing and secret science experiments indeed. Holden was a history professor, not Dr. Frankenstein.

“Wait. What’s this about the mob?” Raina asked. She dragged her attention from the “real” testimonials about P90X.

“Frankie Small thinks Holden was killed because he stopped doing the pickups for the triad. He had been seen with a black gym bag stuffed with money.”

“What pickups are you talking about? How could there be a triad in town when there are only a few dozen Chinese families?”

“Triads are known to have a long reach.” Po Po shrugged. “It could be a branch from one of the bigger cities. Kinda like how banks have branches everywhere.”

Raina gave her grandma a sideways glance. “And how does Frankie know the bag was full of money? It’s not like Holden opened it for him to have a look-see.”

Po Po rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows what a gym bag full of money looks like. It’s all lumpy, like they show on TV. Honey, you need to watch more of these crime shows. It’ll teach you a thing or two about life.”

Raina laughed. “I’ll get right on it.” She flipped the channel.

“Janice Tally thinks Holden was part of the witness protection program. Her granddaughter, Christine, saw two large men robbing Natalie Merritt’s apartment,” Po Po continued. “By the time the police arrived, Natalie downplayed the whole thing. Said she was tied up because of some kinky sex games and her partners left to respond to an emergency.”

Raina’s eyes widened. Kinky sex game? Words like this shouldn’t come out of her grandma’s mouth. “Did they take anything?”

“Natalie told the cops they didn’t take anything. But Christine saw the men leaving with a TV and a laptop. And that night, Natalie up and left. Nobody has seen her since.” Po Po nodded. “Yep, that’s why Janice thinks Natalie is now on the run.”

“And what do you think?”

“That’s her theory, not mine. It’d explain why Matthew is having a hard time tracking Natalie down for follow-up questioning.” Po Po shrugged again. “I still think Holden got probed one too many times for some kind of experiment.” She laughed. “That’d explain why he’d seemed to have a stick up his butt the last couple of times I spoke to him during the Open House events.”

Raina cringed inwardly. Good thing her brief relationship with Holden had been discrete.

“I’ll have to ask your friend Eden. She seems to always know about all the conspiracies on campus,” Po Po said.

“There are no conspiracies on campus. Please don’t encourage her. The college is the biggest employer in town. Eden shouldn’t get on their bad side.”

Po Po raised an eyebrow, but changed the subject. “Speaking of Matthew, he came by looking for you earlier. He looked upset. Did you do something to upset him?”

Raina raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think his mood has anything to do with me?” She clicked the button on her remote, her mind racing as the stations flickered by.

Did he find out about her relationship with Holden? She should have confessed at lunch yesterday. It wasn’t her fault. She’d wanted to. If Brenda hadn’t interrupted, she would have said something.

Po Po snapped her fingers in front of Raina to get her attention. “What happened between the two of you in high school?”

Raina dragged her eyes away from the TV, hoping she didn’t look as shaken as she felt. “I’m not discussing my love life with my grandmother.”

“Do you want me to ask Eden to ask you?”

“We broke up. The End.”

Po Po peered into Raina’s face and chuckled. “You sure you don’t need my help?”

“You’ll be the first one I call if I need help,” Raina said through gritted teeth.

Po Po smiled and patted her knee. “Now are you done hiding in Gold Springs yet? It’s a cute little town, but aren’t you ready to come home?”

Raina froze. “I’m not hiding. I’m just on hold until I figure things out.” She wasn’t going to tell her grandma about the lawsuit contesting her husband’s will. It would break Po Po’s heart if she knew her grandchildren were squabbling over money.

She’d been on track to become a Senior Project Manager before she’d called it quits. The view hadn’t been rosy during the climb to the top. A promotion meant she would have even less time for a personal life with all the travel and overtime.

The bittersweet inheritance from her granddad had shoved her down this path. Not that her freedom from a rigid work schedule this past year had done much to improve her personal life. She wasn’t any happier than before. In the right lighting and after a bottle of wine, she’d even allow herself a good cry at the emptiness.

“I grieved for your granddad too, but it’s been a couple of years. And life goes on. At some point you’re going to have to live again.”

Raina stared at Po Po. Was this supposed to be a joke? Grief for Ah Gong?

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I admit he was controlling and used money to bully people around, but he provided for the family. I never had to worry about money.”

“But Ah Gong treated you and”—Raina gestured at herself—“the entire family like he owned us.” And even after his death, he was controlling her with money. Why did she still feel such loyalty toward him?

“And you had a roof over your head and food on the table after your dad died. You went to college debt free. There are two sides to every coin. Without Ah Gong, you think you could be here moping about your life?”

Raina snapped her mouth shut and nodded her head. The family had been shocked by the large sum Ah Gong had left her. What they failed to understand was hush money came at a price for the giver and the recipient. The lawsuit from her cousins, the vocal complaints from the aunts, and the weight of granddad's secret had forced her on this self-imposed isolation.

R
aina took a quick shower
, wondering the entire time if dinner was a set-up for a chance dinner date with Matthew under the watchful eyes of the two grandmas. Po Po rode shotgun with a frown on her face and a death grip on her red purse. Not exactly the look of someone anticipating a happy visit with her BFF. Something was up.

“Everything okay?” Raina asked, sneaking sideways glances at her grandma.

“Everything’s peachy.”

Now Raina knew something was wrong. Po Po made fun of women who used that term. Said it reminded her of Southern women with scented face powder and tea doilies. “Are you going to point your pinkie finger up in the air now when you drink your tea?”

Po Po harrumphed, but Raina could see a smile forming at the corner of her lips. Score one to Raina for knowing her grandma like the top of her nose.

“Something is bothering me, but I’d rather talk it through with my friend.”

Raina nodded. There were things she didn’t want her grandma to know about either. Fair was fair.

“Maggie would definitely love more of your company,” Po Po said. “She only has Matthew. And he’s been busy lately with the murder and the fiasco with the pileup at County Road Twenty-seven.”

Raina sneaked a glance at her grandma. “What fiasco?”

Po Po’s eyes lit up. “Oh, you haven’t heard? It happened the evening before I came. Turned out the car that started the five-car pileup had a trunk full of marijuana. And the marijuana grew legs in the evidence room.”

As strange as it sounded, Raina had unconsciously thought Matthew would have as much time as she did to follow-up on leads. This only confirmed that he needed her help all right.

They entered the wallpapered lobby of the senior center with its fussy antique furniture drowning in doilies. Po Po signed them in and strolled through the lobby, past the game room, and continued to the elevators that would take them to the living quarters. Po Po chattered the entire time about the dance scheduled for the following Thursday, but Raina wasn’t listening.

Mrs. Louie beamed at Raina, opening her arms for a welcoming embrace as wide as her door. Vanilla and lemon drops enveloped her as the warm arms encircled her. For a second, the tension of the day melted from Raina’s body as she returned the soft and doughy hug. No wonder Matthew adored his doting grandma. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with the human embodiment of milk and cookies?

“I’m glad it’s out in the open that I’m in town. I hate having to scurry off every time I see you coming,” Mrs. Louie said. “Come inside.”

The condo held some of the smaller pieces of rosewood furniture from the Louies’ home in San Francisco. The bigger pieces were replaced by more compact items from IKEA. The beige coloring, from the fast food version of the furniture world, did little to hide the reduction of circumstances for the elderly woman. Raina tried to hide her frown. She hadn’t spared much thought for the woman who had been a second grandma to her.

She ran a finger over the framed photo of Matthew in his dress uniform on the side table next to the sofa. Her heart lurched at the familiar smile. She should have been at his side, snapping photos and hugging his arm.

“That’s Matthew at his graduation,” Mrs. Louie said.

“I wish I could have been there,” Raina whispered.

“He didn’t want you to follow where his job took him. Besides, the two of you would have been too young for that kind of commitment.”

“We both married in our teens,” Po Po said.

“That was a different generation,” Mrs. Louie said. “Matthew didn’t need the distraction while he was off doing dangerous work.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Raina flushed at the catch in her voice. “I’m sure Ah Gong didn’t care one way or the other as long as I didn’t leave with Matthew after he gave him the money.”

“Are you talking about the trust fund Mr. Louie left for Matthew in his estate? Ah Gong was the executor,” Po Po asked.

Raina froze. A cold hand squeezed her gut. She glanced at her grandma and Mrs. Louie.

Mrs. Louie blushed and averted her gaze. “I didn’t want him to take out the money, but I couldn’t afford to live in San Francisco. Not after the dot com crash.”

“And so he took out his college fund to pay for this condo,” Raina said through numb lips. Her granddad hadn’t given Matthew money so he’d stay away from her. He’d chosen to stay away. It had always been his choice.

“It’s not what you think, honey,” Po Po said.

“You don’t understand,” Raina said.

“Matthew’s choice wasn’t about you. He couldn’t very well let his grandma sleep in a cardboard box on the street. He was nineteen and needed money for college so he joined the marines.” Po Po straightened. “And he’ll always have my respect for not dragging you into a life you weren’t ready for.”

Raina blinked rapidly, willing the tears away.

“I’m so sorry,” Mrs. Louie said. Tears ran down her face. “It was my fault. I should have looked over the papers I’d signed from the brokerage house, but my husband handled everything when he was alive.”

A hot flash of shame sliced through Raina’s pity party. Not only had she been a tad melodramatic, but she’d also made a sweet elderly woman cry. She patted Mrs. Louie's hand. “What's done is done. And we all survived to live another day. Now where are those red bean buns?”

Po Po nodded in approval behind Mrs. Louie's back.

Raina soon found herself with a plate full of red bean paste buns and a mug of white tea. “I should go,” Raina said, biting into her third bun a while later. “These mini buns are addicting.”