Star Spangled Murder

Book 11: Lucy Stone Mystery

by Leslie Meier

Genres: Holiday books; Mystery; Amateur Sleuth; Cozy Mystery; Female Sleuths

Synopsis

Lucy Stone is in the doghouse with her next-door neighbor, Mrs. Prudence Pratt. It seems that Kudo, the Stones’ misbehaving mutt, has developed a taste for Mrs. Pratt’s blue-ribbon winning chickens, as well as an escape artist’s talent for sneaking out. With the Fourth of July coming up, Lucy doesn’t want to set off any more fireworks with the crabby Prudence. Another sign that the crazy days of summer are in full swing arrives when a group of naturists—a.k.a. nudists—descends on Tinker’s Cove, skinny-dipping at the pond that borders Mrs. Pratt’s property, giving her something else to complain about. Worse still, the local lobstermen are upset about poachers, and suspicion falls on Mrs. Pratt’s husband and son. Then the July Fourth fireworks are canceled to protect a patch of extremely rare purple-spotted lichen, and Mrs Pratt is the victim of a hit and run. Tinker's Cove is full of suspects, but none with so personal a motive as the Stones. Their feud with Mrs. Pratt has put them at risk of losing their freedom this Independence Day—unless Lucy can start things off with a bang by catching a killer…

Release date: October 24, 2011

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

Lucy Stone wasn’t usually a clock watcher. Time didn’t pass slowly for her; it galloped ahead of her. As a part-time reporter—not to mention feature writer, listings editor and occasional photographer—for the Pennysaver, the weekly newspaper in Tinker’s Cove, Maine, and the mother of four, her life sometimes seemed to her an endless chase after a spare minute. She was always late: late for meetings she was supposed to cover, late for doctor’s appointments, late for picking up the kids. But not today.

Today her eyes were fixed on the old electric kitchen clock with the dangling cord that hung on the wall behind the receptionist’s desk in the Pennysaver office. If only she could stop the minute hand from lurching forward, if only she could stop time, then she wouldn’t have to go to the Board of Selectmen’s meeting at five o’clock.

“Is there something the matter with my hair?” asked Phyllis, whose various job descriptions included receptionist, telephone operator and advertising manager. She gingerly patted her tightly-permed tangerine do. “You keep staring at it.”

“Your hair’s fine,” said Lucy. “I’m looking at the clock.”

Phyllis peered over her rhinestone-trimmed cat’s-eye glasses and narrowed her eyes. “Have you got the hots for Howard White? Can’t wait to see him,” she paused and smoothed her openwork white cardigan over her ample bosom, “wield his gavel?”

Howard White was the extremely dignified chairman of the Board of Selectmen, a retired executive who was well on in years.

Lucy laughed. “Howard’s not my type,” she said.

Phyllis raised an eyebrow, actually a thinly penciled orange line drawn where her eyebrows used to be. “Why not? He’s not bad looking for an old guy, and he’s rich.”

“He also has a wife,” said Lucy. “And I have a husband.”

“Details.” Phyllis waved a plump, manicured hand, nails polished in a bright coral hue.

“I don’t want to go to the meeting. I wish Ted would cover the Board of Selectmen until this dog hearing is over.”

Ted was the owner, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Pennysaver.

“Did I hear my name?” he inquired, sticking his head out of the morgue where the back issues going all the way back to the Courier & Advertisers printed in the 1800s were stored.

“Ted? Do me a favor and cover the selectmen’s meeting? Please?”

“Trouble at home?”

“You could say that,” said Lucy. “It’s Kudo. He’s been going after Prudence Pratt’s chickens and I got a summons yesterday for a dog hearing. I just feel so awkward trying to cover the meeting with this thing hanging over me.”

“Is the hearing tonight?”

“Next meeting.”

“Sorry, Lucy, but I don’t see a conflict of interest tonight. I’ll cover the next hearing though.”

“Do you have to?” asked Lucy, picturing her name in the headline. That darned dog was such an embarrassment. She felt like a criminal. “Couldn’t we just skip that meeting? Pretend it never happened?”

“No,” said Ted, flatly. “And if you don’t get a move on, you’re going to be late for today’s meeting. It’s five, you know.”

Lucy checked the clock. It was five minutes to five.

“They never start on time,” she said, slowly gathering up her things. “And town hall’s just across the street. There’s no hurry, really.”

“You better get a move on.”

Lucy hoisted the faded African basket she used as a purse on her shoulder and drifted towards the door.

“I’m not going to miss anything. Bud Collins is never on time and they always have to wait for him.”

Ted yanked the door open, making the little bell jangle. “Go!”

“See you tomorrow,” said Lucy, walking as slowly as a convict beginning the last mile.

The door slammed behind her.

Selectmen’s meetings were held in the basement hearing room of the town hall. The walls were concrete block painted beige, the floor was covered in gray industrial tile, and the seating was plastic chairs in assorted colors of green, blue and orange. One end of the room was slightly elevated and that’s where the board members sat behind a long bench, similar to the judge’s bench in a courtroom.

What with the flags in the corner and a table and chairs for petitioners, the room was quite similar to the district court, thought Lucy. It wasn’t a comforting idea and she tried to put it out of her mind as she took her usual seat, smiling at the scattering of regulars who never missed a meeting. Scratch Hallett, a gruff old fellow who had a plumbing and heating business and was active in veteran’s affairs, was a particular favorite. She also recognized Jonathan Franke, the former environmental radical who was now the respected executive director of the Association for the Preservation of Tinker’s Cove, and several members of that organization. They were exchanging friendly nods when Lucy’s attention was drawn to a newcomer. Tall and gaunt, with her skimpy red hair pulled back into a straggly ponytail, it was none other than her neighbor Prudence Pratt, dressed in her customary summer outfit of baggy blue jeans and a free Blue Seal T-shirt from the feed store.

Lucy’s heart sank. She hoped Pru hadn’t gotten the date wrong, and thought the dog hearing was today. Or maybe she wanted to file an additional complaint. Kudo had gotten loose again the other day, and had come trotting home with a chicken feather stuck in his teeth. The memory made Lucy wince. She was at her wit’s end; she’d tried everything she could think of to restrain the dog but he was some sort of escape artist. And whenever he got out, he went after her neighbor’s chickens.

Lucy tried to catch Pru’s eye, hoping to start some kind of dialog. Maybe if she apologized for the dog’s behavior, or offered to pay for the damages, they could work something out and avoid the hearing. But Mrs. Pratt stared straight ahead, pointedly ignoring her.

A little flurry of activity announced the arrival of the board members, who filed into the room accompanied by their secretary, Bev Schmidt, who kept the minutes. They always came in the same order, with IGA owner Joe Marzetti going first. He was a bundle of energy, tightly focused on the task at hand.

He was followed by newly elected member Ellie Sykes, a dollmaker and member of the Metinnicut Indian tribe whom Lucy had gotten to know when Indian rights activist Curt Nolan was murdered a few years before. Kudo had actually been Curt’s dog and Lucy had taken him off Ellie’s hands when he’d begun raising Cain with her flock of chickens. Ellie gave her a big smile as she sat down and arranged her papers.

Next came board veteran Pete Crowley, whose crumpled face and world-weary attitude seemed to imply he’d seen it all in the twenty years or so he’d sat on the board and nothing would surprise him.

Chairman Howard White always took the center seat, and was the only board member to wear a sport coat. He invariably shot his sleeves when he sat down, as if he were chairing a high-level meeting of movers and shakers instead of this oddly assorted group of public-minded citizens.

Bud Collins always brought up the rear. A retired physical education teacher and coach, he seemed to have used up all his energy urging Tinker’s Cove High School students to run faster and jump higher. He often dozed off during meetings. Lucy would have made a point of it in one of her stories, except for the fact that she sometimes dozed off too, especially during presentations by the long-winded town accountant, who tended to drone on endlessly in a monotone.

“The meeting is called to order,” said White, with a tap of his gavel. “As usual, we’ll begin with our public comment session. This is the time we invite citizens to voice any concerns they might have, keeping in mind that once we begin the advertised agenda discussion will be limited to the issues under consideration.”

Pru’s hand shot up.

Lucy swallowed hard and sat up straighter.

“You have the floor,” said White, with a courteous bow of his head. “Please state your name and address for the minutes.”

“You know perfectly well who I am,” she snapped, “and so does Bev Schmidt. Gracious, we were in school together.”

Howard White was normally a stickler for detail, but after glancing at Bev and receiving a nod in reply, he decided to allow this breach of procedure. “Please continue,” he said.

“Well, as you know, my property on Red Top Road goes back all the way to Blueberry Pond, which is owned by the town. It’s conservation land, open to the public for swimming and fishing, duck hunting in the fall, and up ’til now there’s been no problem.”

“But now there is?” inquired White.

“I’ll say there is. They’re naked back there. Butt naked! It’s a disgrace!” Pru was clearly outraged: her mouth seemed to disappear as she sucked in her lips and her pale blue eyes bugged out.

Lucy fought the urge to giggle in relief, concentrating instead on the board member’s reactions. They also seemed to be struggling to keep straight faces.

“I think there has always been a certain amount of skinny-dipping at the pond,” said Bud Collins. “The kids like to go there after practices, especially the baseball team. To cool off with a swim.”

“I don’t know who they are and I don’t care. I don’t like it and I want it stopped! Isn’t there a law against this sort of thing?” demanded Mrs. Pratt.

White looked to the other board members, who shook their heads.

“I am not aware of any town bylaw that forbids nudity,” said White.

“And a good thing, too,” offered Joe Marzetti. “There’s nothing the matter with a hard-working man stopping by the pond for a quick dip on his way home on a hot summer day. Or at lunchtime, for that matter. There’s nobody there most of the time. What’s the harm?”

“What’s the harm?” Pru’s eyes bugged out in outrage. “It’s immoral, that’s what. It’s time this town took a stand and stood up for public decency!”

“You’re welcome to write up a proposal and put it on the town warrant for a vote at the town meeting,” said White.

“Town meeting! That’s not until next April!”

“We could call a special town meeting, but you’d have to get signatures for that.” White paused. “Bev, how many signatures would she need?”

“Two hundred and fifty registered voters,” said Bev.

“Bear in mind that a special town meeting costs money,” said Marzetti. “It’s not generally popular with taxpayers.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Pru. “I’ll be back, you can count on it.”

“We’ll look forward to it,” said White, casting a baleful glance at Ellie, who was struggling to suppress a giggling fit.

Lucy knew her duty as a reporter, so she followed Pru out of the room, catching up with her in the parking lot.

“Do you have a minute? I’d just like to get your reaction to the board’s decision for the paper. . . .”

“My reaction isn’t fit to print,” snarled Pru. “That board’s a bunch of godless, lily-livered, corrupt scoundrels. They’ll rot in hell and so will you, Lucy Stone, you and that dog of yours.” With that she climbed into her aged little Dodge compact and slammed the door.

“Can I quote you on that?” yelled Lucy, as she rolled out of the parking lot.

When Lucy returned to the meeting, Jonathan Franke was making a presentation with the help of a laser pointer and a flip chart. He had certainly adopted all the accessories of success, thought Lucy, who remembered the days when he was usually seen holding up a sign protesting government inaction or big business profiteering and sporting an enormous head of curly hair.

“As this chart shows,” he said, indicating a bar graph, “Tinker’s Cove is blessed with one of the few surviving communities of purple-spotted lichen in the entire state. Once abundant, this complex life form has fallen victim to a sustained loss of environment due to development and pollution. It is now considered endangered and is protected under the state’s environmental protection act. I’m here tonight, with other members of the Association for the Preservation of Tinker’s Cove, to request that the town take all appropriate steps to protect our priceless legacy of purple-spotted lichen.”

Judging from their pleased expressions, Lucy understood the board members were congratulating themselves on their good judgement and wise management of a resource they hadn’t actually known they had. Whatever they’d been doing, it had apparently been the right thing, at least for purple-spotted lichen.

“And how do you suggest we continue to care for this rare and wonderful little plant?” asked Ellie.

“That brings me to my next illustration,” said Franke, flipping to the next page on his chart, a map of the town with prime lichen areas indicated by purple patches of color.

“As you can clearly see,” he said, making the little red laser dot dance over the map, “one area of particular concern is out on Quisset Point. This is actually the town’s largest community of purple-spotted lichen, thanks to the abundance of ferrous rock.”

The board members nodded, indicating their high level of interest in an issue that was surely noncontroversial and certain to resonate positively with voters.

“That is why our organization, the Association for the Preservation of Tinker’s Cove, is here tonight to request the cancellation of the upcoming July Fourth fireworks display.”

All five board members were stunned, even Bud Collins, who had been nodding off. They had certainly not expected this.

“I’d like a clarification,” said White. “Did you say you want us to cancel the fireworks?”

“You mean call them off?” demanded Marzetti.

“No fireworks at all?” exclaimed Crowley. “Isn’t that un-American?”

“Believe me, we are not making this request lightly,” said Franke, looking very serious. “We wouldn’t consider it except for these facts.” He lifted a finger. “A: The lichen is severely endangered throughout the state. B: The lichen is extremely fragile and easily damaged by foot traffic. And C: The lichen is highly flammable and one errant spark could wipe out the entire Quisset Point colony.”

“I get you,” said Crowley. “What say we move the fireworks off the point? Onto a barge or something?”

“Once again I believe there would be substantial risk from sparks.”

Crowley scratched his head. “Okay, you say this is the best colony in the entire state, right? Well how come, if we’ve had the fireworks out there every year since who knows when? I mean, maybe this pinkyspotted moss likes fireworks! Have you thought of that, hey?”

“Actually, we have, and we’ve concluded that the continuing success of this particular colony of purple-spotted lichen is nothing less than miraculous. We’ve been lucky so far, but it’s far too dangerous to continue endangering this highly-stressed species.”

The board was silent, considering this.

“Can I say something?”

Lucy turned and saw Scratch Hallett was on his feet, his VFW cap in his hand.

“Please do,” invited White, desperate for an alternative to calling off the fireworks.

“This just don’t seem right to me,” began Hallett. “A lot of folks have fought and some have even made the supreme sacrifice to keep America the land of the free and the home of the brave. We celebrate that freedom on the Fourth of July, always have, ever since 1776, and I don’t see what this purple-spotted stuff has got to do with it. We didn’t know we had it, none of us did except these here environmentalists. I never noticed it myself, and I don’t care about it. We defeated the Germans and the Japanese and just lately the Iraqis so we could enjoy freedom, and you’re telling me we have to stop because of an itty-bitty little plant?”

“Mr. Franke, would you care to reply?” said White. “I think this gentleman has made an important point.”

“Yes, yes he has,” said Franke, beginning diplomatically. “And I and the other members of the Association value our American values and freedoms as much as anyone, and the sacrifices made by members of the Armed Forces. I want to assure you of that. But,” he continued, his voice taking on a certain edge, “I’d also like to remind you that the purple-spotted lichen is on the list of endangered species in this state and is therefore subject to all the protections provided by the state’s environmental protection statute, which includes substantial penalties to any person or agency judged to have caused harm to said species.”

The board members looked miserable. If she hadn’t known better, Lucy would have suspected they were all coming down with an intestinal virus.

“As much as I hate to cancel the fireworks, it seems to me we have a responsibility to preserve our environment,” said Ellie.

“I think we have to look at the APTC track record,” said Crowley. “They’ve been active in our town for a good while now, and Tinker’s Cove is a better place for it. We’ve preserved open space, we’ve maintained our community character, I think we’ve got to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.”

“I don’t know what community character you’re talking about. It’s things like the Fourth of July parade and the fireworks that give our town character. I refuse to vote against the fireworks,” declared Marzetti, who had grown hot around the collar.

“Well said,” drawled Bud Collins.

“Is this a vote?” Howard White seemed uncharacteristically confused.

The others nodded.

“Two for and two against. I guess it’s up to me.”

The room was silent.

“My inclination is to hold the fireworks. It’s been a tradition in this town for as lo. . .