Dying Echo A Grim Reaper Mystery - By Judy Clemens Page 0,25

come in?” with what she hoped was a welcoming voice.

“I hate to impose,” Geraldine said as she shouldered past. She lumbered right through the foyer into the kitchen and around the side to the living room where she plopped herself down on the sofa. She situated herself where she had a view of the side and front yards, then crossed her ankles and placed her hands in her lap, like a genteel southern belle. “I only met the girl once, you see, and it wasn’t here. The two of them were at the grocery store, picking out fruit, and I went right up and introduced myself. She was a pretty little thing, wasn’t she, and Ricky looked so happy!”

“Did she tell you her name?”

“Of course, which is more than you’ve done.” She looked at Casey knowingly.

“Casey.”

“Well, Casey, Ricky introduced her as Alicia and said they were getting snacks for watching a movie that night. Now, isn’t that romantic?”

Sounded pretty normal to Casey, but what did she know?

“I never saw her here,” Geraldine continued. “I’m not sure why. I pretty much know everything that happens on this block, and why Ricky never brought her home is a mystery to me. They were holding hands and looking at each other all lovey-dovey when I ran into them at the store. It’s not like she was hideous or deformed or anything. She looked like a nice, normal girl.”

“Most girls do.”

“Well, that’s true. But the things I’ve seen!” She fanned herself with her hand. “Delivery men staying longer than they should, girls out running with hardly a stitch on, people, you know, doing it, in their yards at night. It’s enough to make a grown woman blush.”

The thought of this woman adding one more color to her palette made Casey shudder.

“But Ricky and his girl—woman, I suppose I should say, you know, to be what they call politically correct—they acted in love, not in lust, if you know what I mean. Very sweet, actually. It made me remember my young days, when I first met my Arthur.”

Casey groaned inwardly. Was this woman really going to go on about her past? But no…

“I saw Ricky come home that night, you know. The night the girl was murdered. Late, of course. But he looked completely normal. At least, what I could see through his car window, and when he got out of the car before the garage door closed. I really think I would have noticed blood or torn clothing or even if he looked upset.”

“What did he look like?”

Geraldine smiled, her expression going all dreamy. “Happy.”

It was like a punch to Casey’s solar plexus. Her poor brother. He might have been happy then, but the next morning it was like his world had exploded. But that’s how life worked. One moment you were content, feeling like nothing could touch you, and the next…

“Relaxed,” Geraldine said again. “Like those nights when Arthur and I had been, you know, intimate—”

“Aah!” Death screamed.

“Is there something I can do for you, Geraldine?” Casey said, hoping she didn’t sound as desperate as she felt.

“Oh, you don’t need to do anything for me,” Geraldine said, not even fazed by the interruption. “But I think there’s something I can do for you.”

“And what’s that?”

She smiled mysteriously. “I can tell you about the man who showed up here at your brother’s house the day after she died.”

Casey gripped her chair’s arms. “What man? And do the police know about him?”

“Of course they do. I told them right away. He was a bad man, I could tell. He had that look in his eye.”

“You saw him up close?”

“Of course I did. He was over at Ricky’s house after Ricky went to work. This was before we knew anything had happened to his girlfriend, you know. The man was wearing a uniform, like from a home repair place or something like that. Hometown Interiors, the patch said. I wasn’t able to find them anywhere in the phone book, but you know how things are these days, with cell phones. If you don’t have a landline you have to move heaven and earth to get your name in the yellow pages.”

“What did the man say?”

“Well, I watched him go right around the back of the house, and when I didn’t see him for a while I went over. He was just coming out, and I asked him what he was doing. He was very polite, I must say, but like I said, his eyes were all