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    Good Grief in Lottawatah
    Good Grief in Lottawatah
    Good Grief in Lottawatah
    Ebook134 pages1 hour

    Good Grief in Lottawatah

    By Evelyn David

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    About this ebook

    Good Grief in Lottawatah is the eighth book in the Brianna Sullivan Mysteries ebook series. A novella-length story, Good Grief in Lottawatah continues the spooky, yet funny saga of reluctant psychic Brianna Sullivan who planned to travel the country in her motor home looking for adventure, but unexpectedly ended up in a small town in Oklahoma.

    In Good Grief in Lottawatah, Brianna's first day on the job in the town funeral home is full of surprises, including ghosts with complaints and the unexpected murder of Lottawatah's richest and crabbiest citizen. Now that she's got a job and health insurance, it's time to turn up the heat on her romance with hunky deputy Cooper Jackson. But Brianna's life is upended when her globe-trotting mother descends on Lottawatah, charming all the men in town and even capturing the heart of Leon, the adorable and digestively-challenged bulldog. Can Brianna survive both a killer and her mother? Good Grief in Lottawatah continues Brianna Sullivan's adventures in Lottawatah, a town filled with more than its share of unruly ghosts and quirky humans.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEvelyn David
    Release dateFeb 12, 2012
    ISBN9781466016194
    Good Grief in Lottawatah
    Author

    Evelyn David

    The author of Murder Off the Books and Murder Takes the Cake, Evelyn David is the pseudonym for Marian Edelman Borden and Rhonda Dossett. Marian lives in New York and is the author of ten nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics ranging from veterans benefits to playgroups for toddlers! Rhonda lives in Muskogee, Oklahoma, is the director of the coal program for the state, and in her spare time enjoys imagining and writing funny, scary mysteries. Marian and Rhonda write their mystery series via the internet. While many fans who attend mystery conventions have now chatted with both halves of Evelyn David, Marian and Rhonda have yet to meet in person.

    Read more from Evelyn David

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      Book preview

      Good Grief in Lottawatah - Evelyn David

      Brianna Sullivan Mysteries Series

      Volume 8

      Good Grief in Lottawatah

      Evelyn David

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2012 Evelyn David

      Discover other titles by Evelyn David at http://www.evelyndavid.com

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. Thank you.

      cover photo of bulldog by Jill Smith

      cover photo © Jakub Jirsak – Dreamstime.com

      Good Grief in Lottawatah

      Chapter 1

      ***

      The dead make a lot of noise.

      Monday

      In case you missed the front page story in Friday's Lottawatah Herald or didn't visit the Shear Artistry Hair Salon on Saturday or failed to listen to local radio host Mutt Jeffrey's call-in segment this morning, let me tell you the big news that has this small Oklahoma town abuzz – I'm engaged to Lottawatah Police Detective Cooper Jackson.

      Yes, engaged to be married. I know, you never thought I'd make such a big commitment. Frankly, I'm a bit stunned myself. And before you can ask, no I'm not pregnant. Cooper proposed to me while I was in the hospital in Tulsa, recovering from a gunshot wound I received in early November. Granted I was on heavy drugs at the time and the memory of actually saying yes to his offer of marriage is still a little fuzzy, but I'm sure this is the right decision. I'm almost positive.

      Brianna? Is that you? Come on back to my office, I'm on hold with a casket supplier.

      I realized I was standing just inside the Myers Funeral Home, the door chime still ringing. Today was the first day of my new job. Doc Joseph Myers, mortician, fisherman, and as needed, coroner was my new boss. I had no clue what my employment entailed. Of course I've spent most of my life without a clue. I'm Brianna Sullivan and I'm a psychic. And yes, I should have a clue. And no, that's psychic spelled with an ic not an o.

      ***

      It's noon now. I've been on the job four hours. Okay, three-and-a-half since I was late. Cooper dropped me off at his friend Denny's garage. My vintage Mustang convertible was road worthy–barely. Denny had been working on the car off-and-on for almost a year. The good citizens of Lottawatah had finally chipped in and paid my outstanding balance at the garage as sort of a reward for my actions in finding a missing child or maybe as a reward for exposing a murderer in their midst. Either way, I was happy to have a second set of wheels to drive around town. My other mode of transportation is Matilda, my 30-foot motor home. I love Matilda but I don't like driving her around Lottawatah. Right now she's parked out at Lake Eufaula and I stay there when I'm not keeping Cooper company at his apartment in town.

      Doc Myers, who said he had already made a house call (yes, that's what you think it is), showed me around the funeral home before he left for his regular Monday lunch at Tiny's with his Lodge buddies. I'm not sure which Lodge or even if there really is a Lodge anymore since I think this lunch has probably been happening since before I was born.

      But back to my job-I was given a nice desk, a chair on rollers that spins, a phone with two lines, and a desktop computer that I haven't yet figured out how to turn on.

      Doc told me my title was director of sales and public outreach. As far as I can tell that means I answer the telephone, take messages, and serve coffee and Kleenex to family members when they come in to pick out caskets and make funeral arrangements.

      Good Morning, Myers Funeral Home. How can I help you?

      Are you going to the apartment during your lunch hour to walk Leon?

      Hello to you too, sweetheart. Is the magic already gone?

      Brianna, I'm at the scene of a three-car pileup with a fuel spill. I don't have time for magic.

      Yet you took the time to worry about Leon's bladder. I'm touched. Leon was the bulldog I had inadvertently inherited. He has a grumpy disposition, a sensitive digestive tract, a penchant for chewing on leather couches, and I was devoted to him. Cooper less so.

      Right. Just take care of your dog. I don't want any more accidents to clean up, Cooper said. And don't forget to call my mother and set up a dinner.

      I hadn't forgotten. I was hoping something would happen to prevent me making that call. Maybe a natural disaster. Hey, we get a lot of those in Oklahoma. Last year there were two ice storms, a blizzard, a flood, three tornadoes, a drought, and then 60 one-hundred degree days in a row. Just when I thought I'd experienced all that Oklahoma had to offer; last month there was an earthquake that knocked down an old brick tower in the Miner's Memorial Park, located in the center of Lottawatah. Odds were that something else would happen if I could just delay making that call.

      Cooper, there's a lot of static on the line. I didn't hear that last part. See you tonight!

      Brianna, call–

      Okay, yes, I admit it. I hung up on him. He doesn't understand that my relationship with his mother is unpredictable. A couple of months ago, she really hated me. Then hate sort of morphed into grudging tolerance. When I was in the hospital, she was very kind. I thought we were really bonding. Then the engagement happened and Sassy Jackson chilled up fast.

      Could I get a moment of your time?

      Startled, I glanced up. The elderly man in front of me was polite, but not alive.

      Do you have an appointment? Okay, I knew the answer to that question before I asked it but really, I was going to have to set some boundaries or the walk-ins would run me ragged. And of course there was Leon's bladder to consider.

      My viewing is tonight and I wanted to warn you that my wife and my brother will probably get into a shouting match if you don't keep them separated. He thinks she only married me for my money.

      How long have you been married? I was guessing he'd married a younger woman and his family hadn't approved.

      Fifty years come June, he answered, sitting down uninvited on the chair in front of my desk. But my brother isn't one to change his mind. He's been waiting for Emma to leave me, so he could say I told you so.

      Fifty years was a long time. I don't know if I could conceive of living with Cooper for fifty years. What would we find to talk about after all that time?

      I'll make a note for Doc.

      Before I even finished my sentence he was gone.

      I grabbed my purse and the set of keys that Doc Myers had given me. I had an hour for lunch and about a dozen personal errands to run. I didn't have to be psychic to understand that having an 8-5 office job was going to interfere with my normal routine.

      Just before I walked out the front door, I stuck my head in the three viewing rooms and let everyone know that I'd be back by one.

      According to Doc, the viewings were generally set from 3 to 7 pm. Doc assured me that he'd handle the after-5 stuff. People in Lottawatah ate early and liked to be home in front of their television or in bed before it got dark. So the evening visitors were few and far between.

      Today, although it was barely noon, there was already quite a crowd gathering in one room. I could try to run them off, but these visitors didn't pay much attention to clocks, policies, or locked doors.

      Not only the living attend funerals.

      ***

      My first stop was Cooper's apartment. Leon was ecstatic to see me, which for the laconic bulldog was quite an unusual sight. He was dancing around my feet in joy, but I realized that could also signal that he was two seconds away from him deciding that the living room carpet was the men's room (if there were a canine equivalent). I scooped him up and hurried back down the steps of the apartment. Leon immediately scurried under the nearby rhododendron.

      I wandered to the front of the apartment building to get the mail while Leon took care of his business. It hadn't arrived, but Mrs. Gorgeson who owned the building and lived in the downstairs apartment was sweeping the front stoop.

      Brianna, is that dog watering my rhododendron again? It's getting yellow leaves from all his.… She gestured with her hand to finish the thought.

      No point in denying it, but I somehow doubted that Leon was solely responsible for the health of the backyard bush. There was a coon hound that lived in the house next door who had also adopted that spot. I suspected Leon kept watering it in a vain attempt to mark his territory against a dog that outweighed him by 80 pounds.

      I'll try to keep him away from the bush, but you know Whizzer, that dog next door–

      You just take care of Leon, she said with the same tone that my mother always used when I tried the everybody else is doing it too excuse.

      Mrs. Gorgeson started to go inside, when she suddenly pivoted. By the way, Brianna, some woman stopped by to see you. When there was no answer at Cooper's apartment, she knocked on my door.

      Who was it?

      She didn't say. Only asked if Brianna Sullivan lived here. I didn't want to get into any explanation about you and Cooper living in… she gestured again and I mentally completed the sentence with the words, in sin. Mrs. Gorgeson didn't much

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