Read The Legacy: A Kimberly & Sykes Mystery Novel Online
Authors: Kasey Mulligan
“I’m not being miserable, it’s just my life is so boring now,” Jackie tried to explain for the umpteenth time. “I miss the adrenaline rush - I miss the excitement of not knowing what’s going to hit my desk every day. Now life just meanders from one event to the next with no surprises and I’m bored silly.”
Jackie Preston, former Detective Chief Inspector with the Greater Manchester Police Department in England had been retired for eighteen long boring months. And she missed the action.
“But this is what you worked for Jackie, to get a good pension, leave the madness behind, and hang out with me and Claude.” Fannie Lou Washington, who liked to tell people she was named in honor of Fannie Lou Hamer, loved every minute of her own semi-retirement and couldn’t understand why her long-time friend wanted to be back at work. “We worked darn hard for thirty years just to do this,” Fannie said as she swept her hand at their surroundings and put her newspaper down.
Jackie’s eyes followed the path of Fannie’s hand. It’s true, the restaurant at the Sandal Golf Club provided a great view of the ninth hole, and, though many people hated the wind turbines on the horizon, she loved seeing the massive blades, about half the length of a football field, spinning in the wind. Their patio seating provided an uninterrupted view.
The power generating wind turbines hadn’t been there when Jackie took her first vacation to Oasis some twenty nine years earlier. She had been so taken with what was then a small, quaint desert city in Southern California, and the climate, a welcome relief from England’s rainy Manchester, that she took her next vacation there, and the next. On her fourth visit she bought her small Arts and Crafts cottage and made Oasis her bi-annual respite from the stress of investigating murders and major crimes in one of Britain’s largest cities. It was inevitable that she would make Oasis her retirement home.
Jackie sighed, and not for the first time. “I know. I couldn’t wait to retire and be here full time, but, I didn’t know retirement would be so dull. Every day I’m waiting for something exciting to happen but nothing ever does.”
“Well Claude’s here now, so enough of the moaning. She still has to work and you carrying on about being bored all the time isn’t very considerate.” Fannie moved her handbag off the third chair at the table as their friend Claudia Oldham plopped herself in the seat.
“Thank god you’re here Claude. You done for the day?”
“Has she been moaning again?” Claude asked nodding towards Jackie. “I’ll swop places with you any time Jackie, just say the word. I picked up a new case today. You wouldn’t believe some people. Parents! They want me to follow their daughter during her school lunch break to make sure she doesn’t sneak off with her boyfriend. The girl is sixteen and says she doesn’t have a boyfriend, but they’re not convinced. If you want to take over, just say the word.”
Jackie’s head dropped back and her sparkling white teeth practically gleamed in the sun as she let out a loud laugh. Claude and Fannie joined in. The three women spent a lot of time together and Friday was their regular afternoon lunch at the Sandal Club. Fannie and Jackie usually started the day playing nine holes and Claude typically joined them for lunch. Her work as a private investigator didn’t leave her time for leisurely games of golf, and that suited her just fine. Her golf game left a lot to be desired and Claude’s idea of relaxation was to hit the local casino rather than little white balls.
Fannie and Jackie had been friends for many years. They first met at the beginning of their professional careers at a crime conference in Washington D.C. At the time, Jackie, a rookie detective, was seconded to D.C for six months on a police friendship exchange, while Fannie was a newly hired forensic pathologist in Boston. The two had hit it off and maintained their friendship over the years. When Fannie’s husband passed away after a heart attack, Fannie took a leave of absence and stayed with Jackie in England while she decided what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. During that time, the two made a trip back to the United States to Jackie’s cottage in Oasis, where Fannie too fell in love with the location, climate, and culture. In fact, Fannie loved the area so much she decided to join her friend in retirement and went back to Boston only to quit her job, sell her house, say a few goodbyes and then moved lock, stock, and barrel to the west coast and the dessert city of Oasis.
Claude made up their threesome when Fannie hired her to find the real estate agent who had absconded with her escrow for her new home. Younger than Fannie and Jackie, Claude ran her own small and exclusive private investigations business. Oasis was a haven for celebrities and the nouveau riche and Claude was never without clients. She spent much of her time between Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco and life was never dull. She had been trying for months to get Jackie to join her as a business partner. American’s loved her English accent and with her extensive background and specialized training, she knew they would make a great team.
“Teenagers? No thanks.” Jackie responded. Catching a glance between Fannie and Claude she held her hands up in defeat. “Okay, I promise not to complain about my idyllic, boring life,” she laughed picking up the Events section of Fannie’s discarded newspaper. “But only if we do something fun this weekend. I need a change from our routine.”
Familiar with Jackie’s idea of fun, Fannie raised her eyebrow. “I’m not going parachute jumping!”
The newspaper shook in Jackie’s hands she was laughing so hard. “I wasn’t serious! I just wanted to see your faces when I told you I had booked us in for a jump. I wasn’t actually going to go up.”
The previous week Jackie had persuaded Claude and Fannie to go on a ‘magical mystery tour’ but they had balked when she pulled up at the Parachute Club. Jackie hid her disappointment by telling them she was joking. What she didn’t tell them was she had pre-paid for their jumps, preferring to swallow the costs than admit she genuinely expected them to jump with her.
“There’s a big antique auction up in San Bernardino this weekend,” Claude chimed in as she reached forward and took a few pages of the Events section from Jackie. “Let’s go there, we all love antiques. Who knows, we might even find an unknown treasure.”
“It’s not this weekend, it was last week. We missed it.” Fannie remembered seeing the advertisement in the paper the week before. “I just saw a bunch of antiques being unloaded at Duncan’s. Why don’t we go there first thing in the morning and then have brunch afterwards?”
The three women were regulars at Duncan’s Consignment & Thrift Store and had each furnished their homes with treasures and knick knacks they found there. People were very laid back and slow in Oasis and they wouldn’t have any competition viewing the new arrivals if they got there when the store opened. Leaving it to later in the day on the other hand, meant they would be dealing with a crush of people.
“Will that give you enough to look forward too, Jackie?” Claude’s eyes twinkled. “You never know, we might find a trunk with a dead body inside,” she added with a huge smile.
Jackie smacked Claude with the folded paper but Fannie ducked out of the way in time to miss the assault from her backswing. Conversation temporarily stopped when lunch was served and the three women spent the next couple of hours talking about Claude’s latest case and tales of their own teenage escapades. Little did they know that the wheels they had put in motion for the next morning would change their lives.
*****
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