J.R. Murdock

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park. Kindle|CreateSpace

Girlfriend

Having people comfort her and tell her everything was going to be alright started to get on Girlfriend’s nerves. She wanted to scream and just tell them all to leave her alone, but she couldn’t be alone at the moment. She didn’t even get to say goodbye, or ask what had happened, or why they were taking Sam away. He looked so scared. The only comfort she took was that they hadn’t handcuffed him. Maybe they just needed to ask him some questions.

And poor Pops. When she saw him burst into tears, she knew something bad had happened to Casper. Something really bad. Again she buried her face in her hands and started sobbing.

“I’m sure Sam’s going to call any minute,” Patty said as she put her arm around Girlfriend. “They just needed to ask him some questions. He’ll call any minute now and he’ll need you to pick him up.”

Girlfriend sat up and wiped her eyes. “So why don’t I just go down there and wait?”

“You know they’re not going to let you do that. Besides, you’re here with friends. There you’ll just be waiting. And alone.”

She knew Patty was right, but sitting in the café and drinking coffee from white, porcelain cups with blue flowery designs wasn’t going to keep her mind off of Sam and his dilemma. He had no one. Would he be alright? Maybe she could take him a slice of rhubarb pie, his favorite, while he was stuffed away in some cramped room answering questions. She could do that, couldn’t she?

“Patty, I need to go there. I really need to.”

“Girlfriend,” Patty said that in her best attempt to sound authentically ghetto and made Girlfriend laugh. “See, you just need to sit tight.”

“He didn’t do it.”

Patty sighed. “I know that. You know that. Hell, the whole park knows Sam would never do anything like that.”

“Hear, hear!” chimed in Leroy Gaines and Martin Van Buren who were having lunch in the booth behind Girlfriend and Patty. Leroy said, “And even if the police think he’s guilty of something, we’ll all go down there and break him out.”

“Leroy, we’re not going to stage a jail break. Sam’s innocent and he’ll be home before you know it. Now just sit there and eat your burger or I’ll force feed it to you,” Patty snapped at him.

Martin punched Leroy in the arm. “She’ll do it, too, you know?”

“Just you eat your own burger,” Leroy said in a dejected tone to Martin. “Look, Girlfriend, all I’m saying is that if anything bad happens to Sam, we’ll all be there for you. Thick or thin, we’re there. Hear?”

Girlfriend smiled. Everyone wanted to protect her, but why couldn’t they understand it wasn’t her that needed protecting? It was Sam that needed her! “Thanks Leroy. Martin. You’re both very sweet.”

“See there. She thinks I’m sweet.” Leroy took a poke at Martin, but missed. Martin laughed.

“Boys.” Patty rolled her eyes.

Plates clattered as Mrs. Kowalski dumped their order down on the counter. Girlfriend had ordered a salad, Patty asked for steak and eggs. “You want my opinion? Casper finally got what was coming to him.”

Girlfriend gasped. “How dare you say that?”

Mrs. Kowalski had managed Charlie’s café ever since it’d opened. No one even knew who the mysterious Charlie was and many had speculated that Mrs. Kowalski had somehow slept with a rich man named Charlie and convinced him to open the café. She was a wonderful cook and Girlfriend and Sam had eaten many good meals there. She’d never gotten friendly with Mrs. Kowalski because of the woman’s tendency to be blunt and crude, despite the cheeriness of her bright-pink uniform and the heavy make-up on her chubby face.

“I dare because I’ve known that boy since he was hanging on his mommy’s skirt. That’s why. That boy has never been good for anything. Did I ever tell you I’d caught him in here one night? I don’t know what the hell he thought he was doing. Everyone knows I live in the back. I had come up front to check on everything before I went to bed and there he was, sitting right where Leroy is now. He had a stupid look on his face, staring at the Sandy Bar. I think he was one of those stalkers or something. He’s been trying to get in Julie’s pants for near four years now and I think he’d been using my café as his stake out.”

“How’d he get in?”

“Oh, Honey, it’s no big secret. Everyone knows I leave a key for Sampson, the delivery boy. Funny that I call him a boy when he’s nearly forty now, but he’s been delivering here for the past fifteen years and I have a key set on the sill over the door. Sam and Casper both knew it was there because I had them do some work for me and Leroy and Martin know it’s there because they’re usually here before I wake up and they get the coffee going. It’s no secret, but I don’t want anyone in here after I close the doors at night. He crossed the line with me and I made sure he knew it.”

“Sam never told me about that. Why wouldn’t he tell me that?”

Mrs. Kowalski smiled and tucked the towel she’d been wiping the counter with into her apron. “Sam and Casper have been friends since before I knew them. I think Sam is what’s kept Casper from getting into more trouble. You’ve got yourself a good man, Girlfriend, but you need to get him out a little more. He’s a homebody.”

“I try. I really do. I told him just this morning we needed to take a vacation. Anywhere. Anything.”

“Well, after this, I don’t think you’ll have much trouble getting him away, if the police don’t want him around until they finish this investigation that is.”

“Why would they need him around?”

Patty said, “Just because he found the body doesn’t mean they’re going to assume he’s innocent. Quite the opposite in fact.”

“What?” Girlfriend couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Oh, they’re not going to arrest him, don’t worry about that.”

“Hush,” Mrs. Kowalski told Patty. “Police by their very nature are suspicious. That’s their job. They’ll want to ask Sam a lot of questions, but unless they have something, evidence, motive, a confession, they won’t even talk to Sam again. They’ll get his statement and that’ll be that. You’ll see. You just get to planning that vacation of yours.”

The phone rang. Girlfriend nearly leapt out of her skin. It’d been so quiet except for their talking. Mrs. Kowalski smiled a big smile. “I’ll bet you a nickel that’s him now.” She picked up the phone from the wall. “Hello. Yes. Yes. I’ll let her know, you just sit tight, Honey.”

“Was that him?” Girlfriend asked anxiously.

“He’s ready for you to come and pick him up. He’s at the station in town. Patty, dear, I think you should drive. This one is in no condition to drive.”

# # #

Patty smoked nearly non-stop as she sped to the police station. The smoke did nothing to calm Girlfriend’s nerves as the ’69 Mustang raced down the road into town. Patty swerved around the few cars, carrying elderly folk into town for dinner at the one fancy restaurant, and narrowly missed a semi in the process.

“You can slow down a little bit. I would like to actually see Sam,” Girlfriend said as a joke, but her voice wavered nervously.

Patty gasped; she had a tendency to do that. “I’m so sorry. Am I making you nervous? Oh, Girlfriend, I didn’t mean to do that.”

She slowed considerably.

“I was trying to make a joke. Please. Don’t slow down on my account. I really want to see Sam.”

Patty pressed down on the gas pedal and sped the rest of the way into town. They picked up Sam in front of the police station and Girlfriend climbed into the back of the car with him.

“Oh, Sam! I was so worried.” She tucked her face into his neck and cried.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.”

Patty looked back in the rear view mirror. “You don’t look alright, Sam. You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What the hell happened?”

“I’m not supposed to talk about it. In fact, I don’t know that I feel comfortable talking about it.”

Girlfriend sat up and slapped Sam in the chest. “Oh no you don’t. I’ve been worried about you all day. You’re not going to sit there and not tell me what’s going on. Tell me what happened.”

Sam wiped the tears from her face and did his best to smile. “They don’t think I killed Casper. I’m sure that’s first on your mind.”

“Thank God. So why did they take you all the way into town?”

“They wanted to ask me questions and they wanted to do it quietly. It’s hard to say this, but they only found half of Casper’s body.”

Patty slammed on the brakes and the car slid onto the shoulder. She spun around. “What?”

“They only found half of Casper’s body.”

“Well where the hell is the rest of it?” Patty asked, her tone a mixture of fear and anger.

“I don’t know. The detective said that was one of the things that puzzled him about the crime scene and why they wanted to take me into town.”

Girlfriend rubbed Sam’s face. “One of the things? Was there more than one thing?”

“You know, there was. I think that has me more freaked out than only finding half of Casper. I mean, at least I can wrap my mind around some sicko cutting someone in half. I’ve seen scary movies and stuff. It’s horrible to think that someone did that to poor Casper. He didn’t deserve that. But I mean, I can somehow make sense of that. It’s the other thing I still can’t make sense of.”

“What other thing, Sam?”

“The lizard head.”

“Lizard head?” Patty sounded dubious. “Are you going to tell me they found some iguana head next to Casper?”

“No, nothing like an iguana. This head was big. Not as big as a crocodile, but not like any lizard I’ve ever seen. This one had a long neck and brown and yellow skin, but it had small serrated teeth.”

“Serrated? You mean like a bread knife?”

“The detective said more like a shark’s teeth, but there’s no lizard he knows about that has teeth like that. He was wondering if I’d ever seen anything like that, and I said ‘no’. So he’s going to be calling some kind of expert on lizards and reptiles.”

Girlfriend shook her head. “Does he think that lizard cut Casper in half?”

“That much he didn’t say, but he did say that the mystery around Casper’s death had something to do with that lizard head. He kept telling me that he didn’t think I was guilty. So much that I think he does think I’ve got something to do with it. Whatever he thinks, I’m guessing that we’ll be seeing a lot more police around the park.”

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park. Kindle|CreateSpace

Sam

Sam had never sat in the back of a police car before. He never thought he would. The leather seat was comfortable, but he felt so alone behind the wire mesh that separated him from the officer in the front seat. No music came from the radio and nothing, not even static, from the police dispatcher.

They’d told him he was being taken in for questioning regarding the body. Because of the ‘special circumstances’ surrounding the body, the half of the body, they wanted to ask Sam more questions. There was also something next to the body they wanted to ask him questions about, but didn’t want the entire Paradise Palm community to be around. He didn’t know whether to be more shook up about finding his friend’s body, the fact it was cut in half and there was no trace of the other half, that he was being hauled in for questioning, or the mysterious thing they wanted to ask him about.

The caravan of emergency vehicles would take about an hour to get to town. Sam was certain they drove slowly on purpose. He hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Girlfriend before they loaded him up into the police car, but at least he saw her. She’d looked worried. He hated seeing her like that. It agonized him that she might think he was guilty of something.

The myriad of trees blurred by. Sam had driven this road ever since he’d gotten his driver’s license. It surprised him how beautiful the trees looked as their colors changed. And the woods went so far back. Woods he’d walked in, hunted in, explored, but had never really seen from the road. How many times had he driven this road? Hundreds? Thousands? All those trips into town for wood or supplies that weren’t readily available at the Shell station. Trips for groceries, even though Lin had offered to set him up with free delivery for life. He had to turn that offer down. He loved to drive; putting the windows down and feeling the rush of cool fall air.

Something in his throat tightened. Even though he wasn’t restricted in any way, he needed to put the window down. Get some air. He reached for the handle, but it wasn’t there. It made sense not to have them if a criminal sat in the back seat. There weren’t even door handles.

“Can you put my window down?” Sam asked and swallowed hard.

“Can’t do it. I’ll turn the air on for you though.”

“Thanks. Say, got anything to drink up there? I’m a little shook up.”

“I’ll get you something when we get to the station. Sorry. I can’t stop. This is a big deal.”

Sam scooted forward in his seat.

“Hey!” The officer snapped. “Sit in back. I can’t have you getting too near the screen.”

“Sorry.” Sam sat back. “I just wanted to ask you, am I in any kind of trouble? No one has told me anything. Just that I needed to go with you to the station to answer some questions.”

“Look… Sam, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“I feel safe in telling you that this incident is possibly the strangest thing that’s ever happened around these parts. Heck, it’s the weirdest thing I ever saw. I mean, half a body and no bloody trail. It looked to me like he was dragged, you very likely saw that, but I mean, where’s the rest of him? How can you cut someone in half and get away without leaving a trace of the rest of the body?”

Sam almost felt like the question was directed at him, like a tactic or a ploy to catch him off guard. His palms began to sweat. He didn’t like this. He really needed some air.

“Um. I guess I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Well someone did think about that. That’s what gets me. Who would think to cut a body in half and make away with the other half of it? Sick people. I never thought I’d see that happen in my neck of the woods. No sir. So, did you know the guy?”

Guy? How impersonal. Of course Sam knew ‘the guy.’ He almost didn’t want to respond, but would the officer take it as an admission of guilt?

“Yeah. We were on the high school football team together. Done a bunch of odd jobs too.”

“I thought he looked big enough to play ball. You too, in fact. You look like you’re strong as an ox, I figure.”

Sam didn’t answer. Now he was certain that this guy was probing him for anything that might be used against him. He hadn’t been read his rights, so he wasn’t under arrest or anything. He’d found the body, didn’t that count for anything? He was in the right, so why did he feel like a criminal? Maybe if they’d let him ride up front.

“Oh crap,” Sam said mostly to himself.

“What’s that, pal?”

“Nothing.”

Sam knew exactly what was going on. Why they were so nice to him. They did think he was guilty. Perhaps the murderer returning to the scene of the crime to see how everything would play out. This cop wanted to pump him for answers. If they didn’t think he was guilty, he’d have been allowed to ride up front. He’d been tricked. In his shock over finding Casper’s body and seeing Pops cry like he did, he hadn’t even thought they might suspect him as a culprit. Now he really needed some air. His mouth went as dry as Death Valley and his stomach knotted up. What was Girlfriend going to think?

The rest of the ride, Sam remained quiet, except for an occasional grunt when asked if he was alright.

# # #

Sam had never had the distinct pleasure of sitting in an interrogation room. There was no two-way mirror as he’d suspected, but he did get a paper cup of bitter coffee to drink. He wondered just how long they intended to leave him sitting alone in the cold room with the plain white walls. At least they could have given him something to read while he sat and waited at the small table. The only other fixture was a much more comfortable looking chair across the table.

The door to the ten-by-ten room opened, and a man with a bad comb-over entered. He carried a paper cup of coffee, newspaper, and a cigarette in one hand, and a folder in the other. He plopped the folder and newspaper on the table and gently set down his coffee. After poking the cigarette in his mouth, squinting as the smoke bothered his eyes, he closed the door and took a seat.

“Samuel Jeffrey, isn’t it?” the man asked in a flat tone.

“Yes.” Sam wanted to ask if he was under arrest or something, but he wasn’t given the chance.

“Let me assure you that all your rights are intact. If you wish, I can have a lawyer called in, but no charges are being presented against you at this time. We just wanted to separate you from the scene in order to ask you more questions.”

“Why?”

“Can I call you Sam?” he didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m Detective Andrew Schneider. You can call me Andy if that makes you feel more comfortable.”

Sam didn’t answer, as nothing at this point was going to make him more comfortable.

Andy opened the folder and pushed aside the newspaper. “I’m looking at the pictures that were taken at the scene this morning. I’d like to say these are disturbing, but I was a detective in the cities for a long time. In Minneapolis I once had to recover a few dozen trash bags scattered all over Plymouth, each containing a different body part, and I had to figure out which went with which. That was gruesome. This just has me confused. Do you know why, Sam?”

Sam shook his head.

“I’ll tell you why. First, I don’t think you’re responsible for this. You’re far too shook up and you’ve got that deer in the headlights look. For now, drink your coffee and try to relax. If you need it, I can get you something to help you relax. Would that help?”

“No, I’m fine. Just ask me your questions so I can go home.” Sam didn’t like the tone of his own voice. He thought he sounded too defensive.

“Very well, Sam. When I look at the pictures, the first thing I notice is Casper appeared to be dragged into the woods whole. I say whole because there’s only a small trace amount of blood along the path to where he was found. Did you notice any large quantity of blood?”

“Only where the body was.”

“Exactly. That’s my point. If Casper Jasper was killed then dragged into the woods, why isn’t there any blood. Doesn’t make any sense. We must, therefore, assume that he was killed after he was dragged into the woods. Right?”

“Sure. Where are you going with this?”

“Just try to follow my thinking on this. If he was killed in the woods, where are my footprints? The officers said they only found your boot prints around the body and they wanted to immediately press charges against you. They all think you did it. I’m not so certain.”

“I thought you said…”

Andy held up a hand. “I really don’t think you did this, Sam. I really don’t. But like I’ve said, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve also interviewed a lot of perpetrators. You don’t come across as unstable. Just scared. After finding half of your friend, I can imagine why.” Andy put out his cigarette and lit up another. He offered one to Sam, which Sam declined. “Bad habit, I know. So, Sam, I need to stress something. I’m bothered by only two things with this case.”

“What’s that?”

“First, there’s no sign of anyone leaving with the other half of the body. Based on the amount of blood at the scene, it’s obvious he bled out there. If he’d been cut in half somewhere else, we wouldn’t see quite so much blood. You may have already figured that out. But if he was cut in half there, we’d have a bloody trail leading somewhere. Deeper into the woods, to the road, to a trailer. Somewhere. But there’s nothing. It’s like half his body just disappeared, but things don’t just disappear.”

“No, they don’t,” Sam mumbled.

“You were there first. I need to know as best as you can, what did you see? This is very important. Did you touch anything? Did you pick anything up? Move anything?”

“No.”

“What happened? Why did you go into the woods in the first place?”

“I heard a beep, like a dying cell phone. I went around the Sandy Bar, I was going to borrow their ladder, and I saw the trail leading into the woods.”

“So you followed it? Go on.”

“Yeah, I followed it into the woods. The phone rang, and I froze.”

Andy flipped through the folder’s contents. Sam saw pictures of the scene and turned away. “Yes, here. I see that Casper Jasper Senior called his son. I’m guessing he was trying to locate him.”

“That’s right. I had spoken to Pops, that what we call him at the park, and he’d been trying to call Casper all morning.”

“Okay, so what happened next?”

“I went deeper into the woods. I saw the drag line pretty clearly. I mean, Casper is a big guy. He left a big trail. When I saw the body, I nearly lost it. I thought I was going to puke. I ran back to the café and called 911.”

“That’s it? You didn’t see anything else?”

“What else would I have seen?”

Andy closed the file and snuffed out his cigarette. He pocketed the pack and picked up the folder, his newspaper, and his coffee. “Sam, I’m going to show you something. I need to know if you saw it. Come with me.”

With that, Andy got up and led Sam out of the room. Finally Sam felt like he could breathe. The police weren’t in charge of the investigation, and he didn’t need to be concerned with what they thought. Andy stopped leading and walked side-by-side with Sam.

“Sam, are you sure you didn’t see anything else when you saw the body?”

“Nope. I pretty much turned and ran back.”

“Nothing out of the corner of your eye that didn’t look quite right? Anything out of place?”

That wasn’t an easy question. Once Sam saw the body, that was pretty much all his brain could comprehend. Nothing else mattered but his friend and calling the police. “Nope. Nothing.”

They stopped at a door marked “Coroner”. “Sam, be ready. This isn’t a nice room to enter. It smells pretty bad.”

With the door opened, Sam had to take small breaths to keep from gagging. The room not only smelled bad, but it had the chemical smell trying to cover up the stench that overpowered Sam’s senses. Inside on two stainless-steel tables were two objects. Sam might have known they were bodies if only either one looked complete. Neither was. He could make out the half body under the sheet that must be Casper, but the other’s shape didn’t look right at all. Andy approached that table and motioned Sam to stand next to him.

“I need you to look at this and tell me what you see. This, Sam, is the other thing that baffles me about this case.”

Andy pulled back the sheet and Sam thought he was going to pass out from fright when he saw the massive lizard head, severed at the neck.

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park. Kindle|CreateSpace

Lin

The bet to call was $100,000. Lin Pza Pza looked intently at the board. She held the Ace and King of hearts. She’d flopped two pair. The remaining card was of no consequence, the five of clubs. The board held a rainbow, one of each suit, so she wasn’t afraid of a flush. A straight was a possibility, but she doubted that would hit.

With a click of her mouse button, Lin called.

Another Ace turned. She now had a full house. Aces full. All she had to do was trap Imagr8player. She looked at his stupid Monty Python avatar.

“Bet, sucker. I’ll nail you this hand.”

He’d managed to suck out on her with the river on three consecutive hands. No one could get lucky every hand. She was going to nail him to the wall this time. The prize didn’t matter. She was too young to claim it anyway. Being only seventeen, she’d never be able to make it to the World Series of Poker no matter how much she wanted to. It was all about the competition. She just wanted to win and Imagr8player had been a thorn in her side during the entire final table with all his suck-outs. If it weren’t for luck she’d have put him away a long time ago.

He pushed all in. Lin ran through her mind how he’d played. He had pushed in with a lot of draws, gut shots, pairs, and trips. He’d push all in with nearly anything. If he had pocket kings, she’d still have a better full house. She doubted he’d be in a straight draw at this point, based on his bet on the flop and the straight didn’t matter to her. She’d have to commit all her chips, but she had the better of it.

He hadn’t bet very strongly pre-flop though. Perhaps he was holding fives and the ace had given him a full house. That had to be it. His modest pre-flop raise must’ve been to indicate he had a small pocket pair. That being the case, only one card could win it for him. He wasn’t going to suck out this time. She had him. She was at a 98% advantage to take the hand. He needed a miracle.

As her timer popped up to force her to bet, Lin called and pushed all in. As she did, she was glad to see that he was the dog. The donkey had overplayed his hand and did indeed have pocket fives.

“Yes! You suck! I finally got you. Wiggle out of this one.” She smacked the side of the monitor and stood up. Her poker face, being that she only played online in a house by herself, needed some work, but right now she didn’t care. She’d bested three hundred people who’d bought in at $500 to get into this tournament and she was going to win. Of course she’d have to find someone to take her seat at the World Series of Poker, but that wouldn’t be difficult. She could give it to a client.

Lin took a step back from the desk. “Let’s see a deuce! End this.”

The final card came up.

“No!”

The case five. The miracle card. Imagr8player had sucked out one final time and it was over. A polite message popped up, “You have finished in second place. Thank you for playing at tendeuce.com”

“No!” She couldn’t believe it. She’d been beaten by quads. How could one person suck out so many times?

She closed ten-deuce down. She’d lost. She got money for second, sure, but first place was what she’d been after. Winning was everything, wasn’t it? Wasn’t that the point? To win? Wasn’t that the point of everything?

Lin didn’t sit back down at the desk in her bedroom. After a bad beat like that, and for the game even, she had to cool off. She clicked off the monitor and walked down the narrow hall of her trailer to the kitchen. The fridge contained a multitude to choose from. It’d been stocked just yesterday. Once a week she’d e-mail her inventory needs to the store and they’d deliver. It worked great. She had been the one to set it up, so why wouldn’t it work?

In fact, Lin now owned the local grocery store. She’d gotten tired of hearing, “I’m sorry, Ma’am, we can’t order that special for you.” She figured if she bought the store outright, she could stock it with whatever she wanted. She’d also brought in the delivery trucks and started a grocery delivery to the area which had tripled the revenue of the store within a few months. Now the elderly could phone in what they needed and get it delivered. She’d even worked with Medicare and Medicaid to get the delivery cost covered, which only served to boost profits.

But that was all a drop in the bucket. In fact, she didn’t even manage the store anymore. She’d turned all that over. She just wanted to get her own items like tapioca drinks and energy drinks imported from Japan. Things she could order on the internet, but it was less expensive to order them in bulk. She couldn’t store such large quantities in her trailer or the basement, so she did the next best thing: she bought a store that could hold it all for her.

Lin always had extreme demands ever since she’d gotten her Master’s Degree in abstract computer theory at the age of ten. She’d finished high school at six and wanted something that would challenge her intellect. By age twelve she was a multi-millionaire, but her parents controlled all her assets. The process of emancipation was completed on her thirteenth birthday, upon which she started a new venture and had gotten fat government contracts. By age fifteen she retired to Minnesota. She didn’t want the fast life anymore and after a life of people poking and prodding the little protégé, she’d had enough.

She’d hired Sam, a nice guy, and Casper to dig her basement. It took them several months, but she didn’t care and they were happy with the money. Sam and Girlfriend didn’t seem to have much, so she’d bought him some big-boy toys to keep his interest in the job. Girlfriend had also benefited with a satellite uplink so she could keep in constant touch with her parents. Casper she’d bought a Bronco he’d had his eye on. Such simple things for simple people.

Lin didn’t hold power or money over the people in the trailer park. In fact, when she’d bought it from Mrs. Bilkins, a fact she demanded in the contract that remained silent, she kept the rents at the same price and would not raise them, ever. People in this part of the world didn’t have much, but they all either worked hard or had worked hard and now lived a retired life and deserved to have it made as easy as possible.

In her wildest dreams, Lin had never thought that she’d own 20,000 acres in northern Minnesota. She held domain over two lakes and a massive preserve area where hunters were allowed to go only with permission. She liked that kind of control. She needed it.

She’d also used Sam to fill her basement. Though she’d retired, she still had a service agreement with the government to maintain their servers. The main ones were in her basement in a clean-room environment. A backup power generator, a T3 connection with additional satellite connectivity, and environment controls to keep it 65 degrees year round made for an ideal secret location. An identical location had been set up in Manitoba just in case anything ever happened, but she doubted anything could defeat her security or discover her location.

Nothing in the fridge looked good. Her stomach ached after getting dealt a bad beat. She thought about logging into the admin control for tendeuce.com and deleting Imagr8player’s account. She did, after all, run the business. Since she ran it out of the Canadian site on a reservation, she could do so legally. It made her laugh, because she was interested in playing poker, she wanted to make sure it was on her own system. She made a tidy sum off of it, but nothing compared with the millions she’d made with private ventures and filling government needs. Those would continue to bring in money for decades.

A flashing red light from the living room window caught her attention. Police? What were they doing here? Nothing ever happened in this trailer park. She closed the fridge and went to the window. She was amazed at the number of police and other emergency vehicles. She’d seen the occasional ambulance arrive to take an elderly resident to the hospital, or heaven forbid, to the morgue, but never anything like this. It looked like a full-blown emergency.

Lin rushed back to her bedroom and clicked on the monitor. With two clicks she brought up the security cams for the park. No one knew that she’d installed them. She’d had fun being out late at night installing them, and took pride that she could see anything going on in the park at any time. She flipped to the cam over the Sandy Bar. That’d give her the best vantage. In a smaller window, she brought up the cam over the office. It looked as if the entire community had walked or rolled their way to the front entrance. A gurney rolled out of the woods, dragged by two paramedics. Something was on it, but far too small to be a body, wasn’t it? The sheet draped over it looked to be over a head and torso, but what about the legs? The torso seemed to end abruptly.

Lin gasped.

What or who could be under that sheet? She hadn’t installed mics, as she had never suspected she’d need sound. She zoomed the camera in to the back of the ambulance. She saw Sam sitting there with his arm around, who? Pops Jasper? Why would Pops be there? One of the paramedics lifted up the sheet. Pops burst into tears and Sam hugged the old man.

She wondered if her cameras could have picked anything up. Lin minimized the cam window and opened the log files. They were put into twenty-four hour blocks starting at six in the morning. Since her camera pointed to the front entrance, it would only show people leaving or coming, but maybe she could find out something.

The files played back at double speed. She sped it forward to two in the morning. The bar would have closed at that time. A couple of pickups left, along with a couple of walking patrons. Nothing special. She watched in fast forward. Julie wouldn’t have left until around three or three-thirty. Casper exited the bar followed shortly by Julie, only the tops of their heads visible, at 3:32 am. Two minutes later, Julie got in her car and sped away, without Casper. Two minutes after that, the camera blinked. Not a pausing blink as with the stop motion it ran under, but actually blinked like there was a power surge or even a possible failure.

Lin felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck as the woods across the street changed and the night sky brightened. Not just changed, but the highway went away too. Could that be right? The timer kept running as it always did, but something changed. It was all different.

Casper reappeared at the front of the bar and stared momentarily at the same scene Lin looked at, then he walked away. Three minutes and twenty six seconds later the screen flashed again and the highway and backwoods returned like magic. If she hadn’t seen it, she wouldn’t have believed it.

How could that be? And what happened to Casper?

She scanned the rest of the cameras, but nothing gave her a good angle and all had the same ‘blip’ in the video. If that denoted a drop or loss of power, she should be able to see it on her server logs.

She opened a telnet session and accessed the server in her basement. She opened the power logs. At 3:36 am the generator had been activated due to loss of power but powered off just before 3:40 am. Something had dropped the power and brought it up again. And the woods. What happened to the woods? And the sky?

Lin sat back and stared at the screen. She had a lot more video to look through, but she felt nervous about doing that. She instead scrolled through the power logs.

“Damn.” There it was, plain as day. The generator had been activated several times over the past month. Every time at almost the same time of night and only for minutes at a time.

What is going on?

Lin wanted answers, but she needed to do some more digging. She may even need to call in some help. But who?

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park. Kindle|CreateSpace

Girlfriend

Girlfriend waited until she heard the patio door close as Sam left. Some days Sam could be a real handful. She just wanted him to take her as seriously as he took his job. Most of the time, she felt as if everything in Sam’s life took a back seat to his job, and she couldn’t understand that. Perhaps that was why he was pushing forty and still hadn’t gotten around to getting married. It wasn’t that he was a bad person — he didn’t smoke, or drink, or do drugs, heck, he hardly ever left the house. Perhaps that’s what frustrated Girlfriend so much. Her family had moved from the Soviet Union when she was a baby and had traveled all over the United States and much of Canada before settling in Minnesota. Sam was contented to live in this trailer park and work on his eighteen by sixty trailer, adding a basement, a patio, an upper-level deck, and a huge storage shed near the woods, for his ‘big boy toys’ like his snowmobile, jet ski, and quad. Toys he’d use, but rarely bring her along.

She’d run these thoughts over and over in her head before, and it always got her down. Now wasn’t the time. She picked up Sam’s towel off the bathroom floor and tossed it into the hamper in the bathroom, certain he hadn’t even seen it when she’d brought it home. He noticed little in the trailer unless it was something relating to work.

“Don’t get yourself down. He’s a good man. You know that.” She had told herself this many times over the seven years she’d been with him, the longest of any girlfriend he’d ever had. She was thirty-five now and didn’t want to hassle Sam about children, or marriage, but when was he going to get around to it? Perhaps she needed to be more up front with him. Perhaps.

Rather than worry about it all, Girlfriend stripped and got into the shower, allowing the first cold blast of water to wake her up fully and relax as the water warmed. Well water was the coldest she’d ever felt and loved the way it made her body feel in that minute before it warmed. She washed her hair, her body, brushed in conditioner, and generally took her time.

She had nothing to do until around noon, when she would pick up the laundry from Pops and Leroy. She did laundry for several retired men in the trailer park, and once a month would do maid service for them. She only charged them a small amount as she and Sam didn’t need much, and it made her feel useful knowing that these men were taken care of. She’d tried to clean Mrs. Jenkins’s trailer once, but with all her cats, it was nearly impossible. Just the smell of all those litter boxes made her eyes water. She wondered if that trailer would ever be clean again, or if it would need to be burned to the ground when Mrs. Jenkins died. Girlfriend shuddered at the thought.

After she put on her black Capri pants and a wine-colored blouse, she sat cross-legged on the bed and opened up her laptop. Her parents never lost their travel bug and, once her father retired, they bought an RV and had traveled everywhere they could. Currently they were somewhere in South America, but still had internet access so she could keep in touch with them. They also had a GPS device attached to their RV that she could use to track them if they were on the move. Some days she wondered how anyone could separate from their parents for such a long time.

As the screen came up, the phone rang. She nearly jumped. She hadn’t been expecting anyone to call. Rarely did anyone call her. Her friend, Patty Kudola, would usually come after her daughter, Ashley, the cutest little eight-year-old you ever saw, caught the bus for school, but never did anyone call her in the morning.

“Hello?”

“Girlfriend! Why aren’t you out here?” Patty sounded frantic. Not that it was anything out of the ordinary for Patty to sound frantic, but usually she’d come over and be frantic. Usually going on and on about something one of the residents in the trailer park had done, like leaving the lid off their trashcan and raccoons scattering the trash everywhere. She sounded out of breath, like she had just run somewhere. The phone call caused her more concern than did Patty’s tone.

“Out where? What’s going on? Where are you?”

“There’re cop cars, and fire trucks, and an ambulance. The cops are talking with Sam. I don’t know what’s going on, but everyone is out here except you. Get over here.”

“But I’m not fully dressed yet. I haven’t done my makeup.” Girlfriend almost never left the home without her makeup, but the police were talking to Sam? About what? “Patty, what is going on with Sam?”

“I don’t know. He looks okay, I guess, but just get over here.”

“Where are you?”

“We’re all at the front entrance. You can’t miss everything that’s going on. I think we’re going to be on TV or something. This is really exciting. Come on, get over here Girlfriend!”

The line went dead before she could ask any more questions. She looked dumbly at her laptop. Was Sam alright? The only time an ambulance ever showed up at the trailer park was when one of the residents died, and that hadn’t happened for three years. Who could have passed away? Pops was the oldest in the park, but he was in great health. Could her thinking of Mrs. Jenkins dying have made her pass on?

“No, you’re being stupid.”

She powered off the laptop and pushed it to the foot of the bed. For a moment she thought about picking up the clothes tossed to the floor the night before, about picking up the dishes from dinner, about doing her makeup. She thought about everything she could do except walk out the front door and see what had happened to Sam. Fire trucks? Police? Ambulances? What could be going on? Nothing ever went on at the Paradise Palms. That was part of its charm. Why would something be happening now?

She shook her head and put on her sandals. She’d only find out if she went out there. Her hand trembled as she reached for the door. Could she stand it if something bad had happened to Sam? She couldn’t bear the thought. She hadn’t even kissed him goodbye. Oh, sure, he’d kissed her, but it wasn’t the same.

She grabbed the door knob and pushed the door open. The air felt cold, like she’d need a jacket.

You’re just stalling.

Girlfriend stepped out and noticed that Blue’s food and water dish were empty as usual.

Stop it.

Looking out the patio door she could see all the commotion at the front entrance. Lights flashed and people milled about looking as if they had nothing better to do. In fact, most of them didn’t have anything better to do. If any of them stood in the way of her Sam, there’d be hell to pay.

“Girlfriend! Girlfriend!” Pops yelled down from his crow’s nest.

She stepped out and looked up at him. “Yes!”

He lowered a bucket down. “When you get over there, let me know what’s going on and if I should come over!”

She walked over and looked in the bucket. Sure enough, he’d passed her down a walkie-talkie. She picked it up. It weighed a ton! Depressing the button on the side she said, “Pops, can you hear me?”

“Ten-four. Loud and clear. Now get on over there. Sam looks like he’s in need of moral support. Over.”

She wanted to say, “Then why the hell are you delaying me?” but she bit her tongue. She didn’t want to upset Pops, as he meant well. “I will, Pops.”

She bit her lips as she looked toward the park entrance. It looked as if everyone was there. She swallowed hard and walked, slowly at first, but hurried her pace the more she thought about Sam. Fighting back the tears was difficult, but she would need to be strong if Sam needed her.

She resisted the urge to run. Enough people were there that if anything had gone wrong, they could deal with it, but she lost. She broke into a run, slowed only by the dreaded walkie-talkie. Everyone stood behind yellow police tape all the way back by Mrs. Bilkins’s office. She could see the Sandy Bar and all the vehicles, but couldn’t see Sam.

“What’s going on? Where’s Sam?” Girlfriend asked, trying to control the tremor in her voice. Everyone standing around and talking were in different states of getting ready for the morning. At least all the kids in the park would have caught the school bus and missed this fiasco.

“Just calm down. I’m not sure what’s going on. The police aren’t telling us anything yet. All I know is I’ve never seen Sam look so bad. Something happened. They blocked off everything and the paramedics are in the woods. They said they’d let us know what was going on just as soon as they could. As far as I can tell, they even shut down the highway, redirecting traffic to one side of the road. This is a really big deal.”

“But Sam, is he alright?”

“I’m guessing he is. He’s over there.” Patty pointed to the back of one of the ambulances.

Girlfriend had noticed that three had shown up. Why would they need so many? And all the police cars and fire trucks? It was if they’d brought out all the emergency response people for one incident.

But Sam! He looked white. All his color had drained from his face. He sat on the bumper of the ambulance with a blanket around his slumped shoulders. He didn’t look up. He didn’t even move. Even when the officer standing next to him asked him questions.

She stepped forward.

“Slow down there, lover. The police aren’t letting anyone by,” said Patty, but Girlfriend only heard her voice, she barely registered what was said.

She needed to be by Sam’s side. She pushed past June Sanchez, holding her baby, Jan (short for January). June’s husband, Julio, drove a Peterbilt for the county and left at 4:30 am every morning except Sunday, so he wasn’t here. June clicked her tongue and said something in Spanish to Mr. Van Buren. Who said something to her, but she didn’t hear them. Her sole focus was on Sam. He had to be alright. He looked like he was in shock. She wanted to see the rest of his body under that blanket. She wanted to know nothing had happened to him. She had to know.

Something brushed against her waist.

“Hold on there, Missy,” an officer said. His blue uniform fit snugly on his pudgy frame causing his name tag to tip downward against his fat chest. His name was Rudy Dalrymple. “This is a police matter. We’ll have all this resolved shortly. Just stay behind the line and we’ll let you pass as soon as this is all done.”

“That’s my boyfriend over there, Officer Dalrymple. Please can I go see him?”

The police office looked over at Sam. “Yeah, he’s pretty shook up. He found the…” The officer sucked in a breath. “Look, just stay behind the line. This will all be wrapped up shortly and you can talk to your boyfriend. If we don’t need to take him in for more questioning.”

“Questioning? Regarding what?”

“Ma’am, I can’t talk about that. As soon as everything is clear here, we’ll be around asking questions and letting people know what happened. Until then, just stay behind this line.”

She wanted to run to Sam. Call to him. Anything, just to let him know she was there for him. The police officer didn’t move out of her way and she was certain that he’d quell anything she tried to do.

The walkie-talkie at her side crackled. The officer reached for his radio, but noticed her lifting up hers.

“Girlfriend. Girlfriend. This is Pops. Over.”

She wiped her nose. “Hi Pops.”

“What’s going on? Over.”

“They’re not letting me talk with Sam. I don’t know what’s going on.” She glared at Officer Dalrymple. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”

There was a long pause before Pops spoke again. “They’re bringing something out of the woods. I’d say it was a body, except it looks much too short to be a body.”

“Hey!” Officer Dalrymple yelled. “Give me that!”

Girlfriend didn’t know what to do. Pops had to be watching with his telescope like he always was, but everyone should be able to see the men carrying out-

The body? Could Sam have found a body? Who could he have found? And here? At Paradise Palms? Nothing exciting ever happened here. Why now?

Before she could react the officer pulled the radio from her hands and switched it off.

“You can have this back when we’re done here. I think you just earned your boyfriend a trip downtown. Who was on the other end?”

“Pops.”

“Who?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. It was Casper Jasper.”

“How’s that possible?”

“Casper Jasper Senior? He’s our neighbor.”

“Oh.” The officer turned the radio back on. “Mr. Jasper. I need you to come to the front of the park please.”

“Who’s this? What for? Over.”

“Sir, I just need you to come over here. I’ll explain everything to you once you’re here. I can’t say this in front of all these people.”

“They’re all my friends. Anything you gonna say you can say in front of them.”

“Sir, this is really not the appropriate means to convey this information.”

The radio stayed dead.

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park. Kindle|CreateSpace

Sam

Sam Jeffrey rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed. After smacking his lips and rubbing his face, he decided it was time to get up. He’d never needed an alarm clock. Somehow he could just tell when the time was right to get up.

He ran his fingers over his scalp; he’d worn his hair in a tight buzz cut since junior high.

“Sam, come back to bed,” Girlfriend Sokolov purred as she rolled toward him, her accent thicker than normal.

Sam rubbed her thigh. “Girlfriend, you know I have to go to work.”

“You work here in the trailer park. It’s not like you have far to go. Just keep me warm for five more minutes.”

Sam loved Girlfriend. Her parents came from Russia and had gotten heavy into the hip-hop scene of the 80’s. They thought ‘girlfriend’ was a name, not just slang they used. Because it was said so much, they assumed it was also a popular name and hence, had a child named Girlfriend. Being raised in the States made her accent light and bordering on unnoticeable, but when she wanted to entice Sam, she could lay it on thick.

“Sam,” she said in a husky, accented whisper reminiscent of Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle. “Come back to bed, Sam. I will take care of you all day long.”

“Aw, Girlfriend. You know I can’t.”

Sam jumped up and ducked into the bathroom before she continued her advances. He shut and locked the door, knowing that Girlfriend wouldn’t try to get in. One thing she respected was privacy. He’d have at least a few minutes to himself. He knew Mrs. Bilkins was waiting for him with the paint. Every August 21st she insisted that the Paradise Palms sign be repainted. Sam had sanded it down yesterday and today she expected it to be painted. When she expected something, she could be quite a bear to deal with if she didn’t get it, and if Sam didn’t start painting it right away, he wouldn’t get done before dark.

Girlfriend knocked on the door. “Sam, I want to shower with you.” She kept it up with the accent. It had a way of tearing down Sam’s defenses.

He reached into the shower then turned the water on. Cold. “I’m already in the shower.”

“Sam,” she whined.

Quickly Sam stripped and leapt into the shower. The cold water brought all his senses to life. He washed his body and the little bit of hair on his head and leapt back out, all in under a minute. He toweled himself off, dropping the towel to the floor, and opened the door.

“All done,” he said, standing naked in front of Girlfriend. She only had on a tight, white camisole and matching panties. She wasn’t going to make getting to work easy today.

Her deep-black hair framed her face in a disarrayed mane, but Sam kissed her on her slender nose and tried to push past her. She put a hand on his chest, leveled him with an intent stare of her deep green eyes that held him back.

“What does she have that I don’t have?”

“Aw, geez, Girlfriend. You know I’ve only got eyes for you. If I don’t get that sign painted today, Mrs. Bilkins is going to get upset.”

“You work too hard around this place, you need some time off.” Girlfriend pouted. “Time off for me. Can’t you take a couple days off and we’ll head up to Duluth? Or maybe take a week off and go to Canada? Something. Anything. Please Sam.”

Her hand drifted down his chest to his stomach. He had to stop her. As much as he didn’t want to, he had to.

“Mrs. Bilkins pays me well and takes care of the lot rent and utilities for us. If I’m late, she could very easily take that away. The last thing I need to do is get on her bad side, and you know how she gets in the fall.”

Girlfriend dropped her hand and her gaze. He hated it when she did that. He had to get to work, though.

“Girlfriend, I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

“How, Sam Jeffrey?”

She used his whole name. She was mad. Sam had to treat this one gently.

“When I go over to pick up the paint from Mrs. Bilkins, I’ll let her know I want next weekend…week off. We’ll go somewhere nice. You just get on the net and make the reservations and I’ll make sure I have the time off. How’s that sound?”

Her face brightened, but only slightly. She moved and allowed Sam to pass. He kissed her on the top of her head. As soon as he passed her, she closed the door. He was really going to have to make this one up to her. She could get moody at times, but he had to work. What was he going to do, jeopardize his situation for some early morning sex?

He put on his boxers, a t-shirt, a pair of blue work pants, and a tan work shirt before he sat down and laced on his steel-toed boots. He hated painting. He’d choose to do anything else but paint. But today, that’s what the job required, so that’s what he was going to do. He grabbed his keys, wallet, and John Deere hat off the counter. The hat used to be bright green, but now was more faded than anything, and the brim black with years of grime. He loved his hat and was almost never seen without it. The only times he hadn’t worn it in the past five years were the times Girlfriend had made him leave it home when he took her out to a fancy dinner at the golf club. He felt naked without it.

He grabbed a piece of garlic bread off the counter and scooped up the bite of lasagna that Girlfriend hadn’t finished the night before and headed out the door. Perhaps he could take a long lunch and really make things up to her. Yeah. That’s what he was going to do. Paint fast and get back here in a hurry. She’d like that. Maybe he’d even pick some of those flowers by the road she liked.

Stepping out of his trailer and into his patio that he’d built to keep Blue inside, he caught a whiff of something nasty.

“Blue! Did you tangle with a skunk again?” Sam covered his nose with his sleeve. “That’s nasty, dog.”

Blue, a Blue Heeler, whimpered and looked at Sam with innocent eyes.

“Yeah, I guess you can’t get out anymore, can you? What’s that smell though? I hope nothing from the trash again. That took me half the day to clean up.”

Giving the rest of the bread and lasagna to Blue, Sam opened the screen door. Blue shot out, still smacking on the food, and running into the yard to take care of her morning business.

“Sam! Sam! You’re awake. Thank God. I was getting worried.”

Sam looked up to see Pops Jasper, Casper Jasper Senior, yelling down from his crow’s nest. Not only did Pops have a crow’s nest, but he’d also constructed a faux ship’s bow over the front and top of his green trailer with white trim. Pops had built the nest to keep an eye over the trailer park, and he did that with an aggression that Sam admired. He just wished the old man would quit scaring him so early in the morning.

Cupping his hands over his mouth, Sam yelled up. “Pops, what are you doing up there?”

Pops set down his telescope he used to keep a close watch and yelled back. “It’s Junior! He didn’t come home last night! I’m worried about him, Sam. It’s not like my boy to leave his place empty all night.”

That caused Sam to laugh. Casper’s powder-blue Bronco sat in his driveway. Could it be that Casper finally got Julie to go home with him? Or even that he’d gone home with her? Julie was the kind of girl to get what she wanted when she wanted it. Maybe Casper finally wore her down. That lucky bastard.

“Pops, I’m sure he’s fine. He’ll probably be back later today. Maybe there was, you know, something he had to take care of last night.”

“Sam, you know my boy. He don’t go nowhere without telling me or calling me. That’s just not like him.”

“Pops, there isn’t a lot of land between the bar and here. Maybe he gave Julie a ride home and, I don’t know, slept on her couch last night.”

“Sam, he’d have called if he was going to do that. He knows I worry. Junior would have called, I tell you.”

“Look, Pops. I’d love to stay and chat here all day with you, but I’m sure Casper will turn up. I’ll keep an eye out for him and the moment I see him, I’ll have him call you. Say! Did you try his cell phone?”

“Do I look stupid, Sam?”

Ever since Junior’s mother was gone, Pops had become obsessively protective of Junior. Sam didn’t want to answer Pops. “Just keep trying him. He’s bound to answer sooner or later.”

Pops waved his hand at Sam in disgust. Sam wasn’t winning any points with anyone this morning. Hopefully things would go better with Mrs. Bilkins.

Sam walked across the park from his lot, #303, and through Pops’ yard. Blue ran ahead to chase a butterfly. Pops had taken up his telescope again and scanned every inch of the trailer park. Poor Casper. He was in for it when he got back. He’d just better hurry up and turn his phone back on.

Mrs. Bilkins had the only actual house in the trailer park. She sat near the entrance next to the laundromat. Her house also included the rental office, but that rarely got used as everyone either gave their rent to Sam to take up to the office, or dropped it through the mail slot. The park had been full for over ten years. The last family to move in was the Sanchezes; Julio, June, and their kids.

Across the main entrance road from the office sat the Sandy Bar, next to the Shell station. Sam would stop by there to make sure everything got locked up properly just to put his own mind at ease. Pops could be paranoid, but it could also rub off easily. Sam just didn’t want any surprises.

He tried to pull his hat down before the two old men in lot 101, already out on their porch and in their rockers, got to him. The men were old, balding, and always had something to say at anyone else’s expense. Sam had washed their trailer once, the beige trailer with brown trim, and they’d only complained that it still looked dirty. Sam had tried to tell them that was the color they’d picked out. They only proceeded to give him a hard time about it.

“Sam! Look at this grass.”

“Yes. I see your grass. I cut it last week, Waldorf.”

Waldorf laughed and poked his partner. “You hear that Statler? He said he cut the grass.”

“With what? A goat?”

“Even a goat could cut grass better than that.”

The two laughed. Sam shook his head. “Look, I’ve got to paint the sign today. I’ll cut your grass again tomorrow if you want.”

Statler leaned in to Waldorf. “What’d he say?”

“He said he’d cut the grass tomorrow.”

“Oh, good. I thought he said ‘kick your ass tomorrow’.”

Again the two laughed heartily. Always those two would twist his words and laugh at him. Sometimes they were funny. Sometimes. But today, Sam just didn’t have his sense of humor. It had to be that smell. He just couldn’t place it. If only a breeze would come and sweep the area clear of it.

Mrs. Bilkins stood with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot. Her stare bore into Sam once he noticed it. Her fat lips puckered around a Pall Mall, and she narrowed her eyes when she saw him. Even her brown and yellow flower-print housedress, covering her massive girth like a poorly hung drapery, looked mad at him. This was going to be a long day. He could just feel it.

“Sam! Are you going to get that sign painted today or what?”

“Or what!” Waldorf yelled back.

“I’m coming, Mrs. Bilkins.” Sam picked up his pace.

She smashed out her cigarette once he made it over to her. “It’s about time. I need that sign painted today. You know that every year we change the colors on the 21st. That’s how we’ve done it for 25 years now and I’m not going to change today. Now.” She pointed to the paint and brushes sitting on top of a tarp. “There’s everything you need. Get to it.”

What could he say? Even she was in a bad mood today. It must be that smell that was making everyone so edgy. Sam just hoped he’d run into someone who was in a good mood.

Mrs. Bilkins lit up another cigarette and went back into the office.

“Well, Blue. It’s just you and me. Let’s go paint us a sign.”

Mr. Bilkins, God rest his soul, had always painted the sign on the 21st of August when he’d purchased the park and renamed it Paradise Palms. In fact, he died while painting the sign. Once she’d hired Sam on, Mrs. Bilkins had actually been pleasant the first few years. As the years had gone on, she’d gotten more and more cynical, but today her snippiness seemed harsher. Almost mean. He couldn’t place it.

Sam collected up all the supplies and headed to the main entrance. It was called the main entrance, but in fact it was the only entrance to the park. The rest of it, the two side roads that dead ended and the main road, were all surrounded by thick woods. Everything for two miles back was owned by Mrs. Bilkins. Fortunately no one had ever been interested in buying it. Sam had grown up here and once his parents died, he couldn’t think of ever living anywhere else. He’d worked odd jobs all over the county until Mr. Bilkins passed away and Mrs. Bilkins needed full time help. Sam, being the homebody he was, couldn’t pass up the offer. Perhaps that’s why all his girlfriends always left. Nah, couldn’t be. Girls loved a man who stayed home, didn’t they?

He put the paint and brushes down and spread out the tarp under the seven-foot sign that lay in front of the Shell station. Damn, he’d forgotten to bring a ladder. He didn’t want to go all the way back over to Mrs. Bilkins. She’d probably just get on his case about not getting started early enough. And he hadn’t even thought about bringing up his taking next week off. Damn. Now Girlfriend would be even madder at him.

He knew about a ladder kept behind the Sandy Bar. He could just go over there and borrow it. No one would be any the wiser and Julie wouldn’t mind if he borrowed it for a day.

Walking across the front of the Sandy Bar, he saw marks in the gravel as if someone had peeled out. Spit up a lot of gravel too. He’d have to rake that over later. But who’d do that? Probably some kids that had a couple too many. He rounded the corner and saw something different. What was that? Drag marks? It looked like something heavy had been dragged off into the woods. Something really big. Like, what? A body? There was no blood. No sign of struggle in the dirt.

A shrill beep came from the woods. Sam didn’t own a cell phone, but he knew the sound of a battery going dead. He waited and listened. It beeped again. Yeah, that was a dying cell phone battery alright. He walked slowly into the woods and kept his ears open for the sound. The crinkling of leaves was loud, but the piercing beep was audible over them.

Sam watched the ground. The drag marks led in the direction of the beeps. Could someone have been dragged out here to die?

The phone rang. Sam nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard it. Phone call for a dead man? The realization hit him. It had to be Casper. No! Don’t let it be Casper. He and Junior had played high school ball together. They were the best of friends and you never wanted to see a teammate go down. No. It couldn’t be.

Sam ran through the woods to the ringing. He had to find him. He had to see and know it wasn’t Casper. Pops would be torn up if anything happened to his boy. It just couldn’t be.

Sam saw the body. It was. Damn.

He took off his hat and approached. The phone stopped ringing. Sam looked at Casper’s body lying on the ground. That’s when he noticed Junior wasn’t all there.

Paradise Palms: A Murder Mystery in a Time-Traveling Trailer Park. Kindle|CreateSpace

Casper

Casper Jasper stiff-armed the screen door of the Sandy Bar and stomped out onto the gravel driveway. Again he’d helped Julie Branford clean after closing. Again he’d offered to give her a ride home or for her to stay over at his place. Again he left the place rejected and pissed off. He let the door slam close, and heard Julie yelp in pain.

He spun around and wanted to ask if she was alright, but he was mad and anything he said would come out like he was mad at her. Julie rubbed her fingers as she pushed the door open with her shoulder and stepped outside. Casper frowned at himself for allowing the spring-loaded screen door slam close on her hand. He always offered to help her. Perhaps it was chivalry, because he knew she didn’t need the help; Julie wasn’t exactly a delicate flower. In fact, she’d thrown out men even larger than himself. It was more because he wanted to spend time with her.

“Aw, come on, Julie. Let me take you home.”

“Dick! You let that door slam close on me on purpose.” Julie shoved the key in and locked the door. “You’re an asshole. That’s the last time I let you help me clean up. What do you think? I’m going to let you help me clean and then I’ll sleep with you?” She started toward her car.

That was exactly what he thought, but the way she said it made him sound like quite a prick. “Well, no. Not exactly.”

“Then why don’t you tell me exactly what you expect for helping me clean up? I see a lot of guys come in this place, Casper. You’re a nice guy and you don’t get too drunk. At least all you have to do is walk home from here.” Julie motioned with her head to the Paradise Palms trailer park.

The park, with just thirty-one units, sat just off Highway 65. At the front of the park were a laundromat, Charlie’s Café, a Shell gas station/convenience store/bait and tackle shop/lumber yard/everything-you-could-want-in-one-place mart, and the Sandy Bar. Julie was one of the few people to work in any of the places that didn’t live in Paradise Palms. At 3 a.m. Casper worried about her when she left alone. Not that there was anything around, but that was the point. Traffic on Highway 65 died out at roughly 10 p.m., unless it was a drunk going home or a trucker with a heavy load heading north. What if she got a flat tire or something? Who’d be there to help her?

“It’s not safe. You need someone to take you home.”

“Casper, I’ve been going home on these roads for ten years now. What makes you think I need your help?”

“Cuz I’m offering it.”

She looked down and rubbed her fingers. When she spoke, he could hear the pout in her voice. The husky voice really turned him on. “Look, I like you, okay, but that doesn’t mean I’m just going to jump into bed with you. You know. I want romance. I want you to bring me flowers. Take me out to dinner. To the movies. Something. I mean, cleaning up after a bunch of rowdy drunks isn’t my idea of romance. Do you understand?”

“Why you always going on and on about that romance business? I’m a working man, Julie. You know I’m busy.”

Her face soured. “You’ve got time to help me clean and time to sit here and drink and time to hang out with the boys and time to try to get me in the sack, but you don’t have time to take me across the street to get something to eat? You don’t have time to take me fifteen minutes into town to see a movie? If you don’t have time to take care of me, I guess I don’t have time to take care of you!”

Julie turned, slipping in the gravel, righted herself, and got into her yellow, ’76 Dodge Charger. Casper wanted to drive that car, it was so cherry. He wanted to drive the girl. Why couldn’t she understand him and not be all uppity about all that sissy romance business? Why did he have to jump through all the hoops to make her happy? When was she going to do something for him for a change?

The tires spit gravel as she backed up and sped away, leaving Casper standing alone in front of the Sandy Bar. He felt stupid. He felt rejected. He felt like having another beer. He wasn’t going to get that until he got home, though. He should have just gotten drunk and gone home alone like he did when she wasn’t working.

Pulling his jacket on tighter to ward off the cold of the August night, he made his way behind the bar. He needed to take care of a little business before he walked back to his trailer. Even though he lived in the middle row, he still preferred to walk through the woods to clear his head.

The light at the front of the bar clicked off. If he could see his watch, he knew it would be exactly 3:30 now. The light was on a timer. Only the light from the few street lights gave him any light to pee by. The stars were covered over with clouds and the full moon would be hidden from view. He unzipped his fly and let go.

Something tingled on the back of Casper’s neck. A prickly feeling like he should feel scared, but in a different sort of way. He didn’t like it. Not one bit. A hum filled the air and then everything was different. At first, as he zipped himself up, he wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it became apparent quickly.

First off, someone “turned nature up to eleven.” He snickered, as he always loved that joke, but it didn’t last. The air felt strange as he breathed, like it had gotten heavier somehow. Casper shook his head, but that didn’t do any good. He listened to the sounds from the woods, but couldn’t recognize any of them. The crickets and flies and mosquitoes were all gone, replaced by a drone louder than a Mack truck barreling down Highway 65.

He walked slowly back around the Sandy Bar to look up to the highway. Perhaps a convoy was coming or something. A breath caught in his throat and came in as a squeak. The highway was gone. Not just a little gone like he couldn’t see it in the dark or anything like that. It was gone, and filled in with trees. Again he shook his head, as if it would do any good. He hadn’t had that much to drink. He wiped his face and slapped himself. None of it did any good. The highway didn’t come back into view. It had been swallowed up by trees and forest and . . .

Trees? Casper looked closer at the forest. He could easily make out the branches and leaves. The sky had cleared. Not just cleared, but he could see everything. Stars like he’d never seen stars before in his life. Sure, living in the north away from all the light pollution of the city he could make out a massive number of stars, but this was something he’d never seen. He cast around to spot Orion. It had to be there. Didn’t it? It was the one constant in the sky. Even the Egyptians had seen it. It had always been there. Why wasn’t it in the sky? Why were there so many stars?

A baleful howl pierced the night air. If he hadn’t just emptied his bladder, Casper would have just then. He’d hunted; what good old boy from Minnesota hadn’t? He’d heard deer snort that scared the best. A charging deer was nothing to mess with. He’d even been charged by an angry moose. Those animals made noise to announce to you they were coming. This didn’t sound like any hunted, plant-eating animal. This sounded like something starting a hunt.

Casper planted his back up against the wall of the Sandy Bar and tried to hide himself in the shadows. He felt stupid and silly. He’d panicked. Anything that might be after him wouldn’t announce itself. It also wouldn’t care if he hid in the dark. It’d sniff him out. He wouldn’t stand a chance in the open.

Casper, you’re just creeping yourself out. There’s nothing that’s going to come into this trailer park. You’ve walked home from this bar a thousand times. Time to make it a thousand and one.

He tried to sound reassuring, but something about the trees didn’t make him feel at all comfortable. The way they shifted in the breeze. The way he had to struggle for breath like he was under water. The way the stench of a thousand swamps rose up to assail him and make him want to retch.

Casper retched.

The smell hadn’t been there before. It burned his nose and made his eyes water, almost as if he’d been near a peat bog and caught a pocket of gas. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

A rustle came from a nearby bush. Casper’s head snapped up.

“Who’s there? I’ve got a gun.”

He had to assume whoever it was had to be intelligent. Didn’t he? Animals rarely came into the park. Paradise Palms was too well-lit.

Casper, you’ve got too much of your old man in you. You’re letting your imagination get away with you. You’re just sore ‘cuz Julie got mad at you. That’s it. There’s nothing there. Nothing at all.

The howl came again, louder this time, followed by several small creatures racing out of the bushes. The animals looked like little mice or moles, all brown and furry. Casper shrieked and tried to press himself into the wall again. The animals didn’t run at him, though. They ran past him. They ran around the bar and continued on. He heaved a sigh of relief.

Something rattled in front of him. A throaty rattle. A rattle and a clicking noise. It didn’t sound good. Not one little bit.

Casper squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t want to look up. He couldn’t look up. Was it a bear? A cougar? A wolf? What? Where had those mice come from? He’d never seen those running in a pack during the fall. He’d never seen anything like them before, ever. He’d spent a great deal of time in the woods. He’d have seen something like that. He’d also have heard something like the rattle in front of him. He dared not move. It would go away. It would. It would.

Something touched his face making him wince and shake. Reactively, he opened his eyes and looked up. He found himself face to face with an alligator standing on its hind legs, coming up about four feet off the ground. No, it wasn’t an alligator. It was some strange lizard thing. On two legs. With a head as big as his torso. It cocked its head sideways and looked at him curiously. What was it doing? Casper wanted to scream, but couldn’t find his voice.

It flicked its tongue out and hit his chest this time. Casper flinched back.

“What the hell are you?”

The thing snarled and snipped at Casper like a little puppy sizing up a playmate. It even wagged its tail slowly from side to side; a long, skinny tail that jutted out of a small, slender frame. The thing didn’t look so tough.

“You ain’t so bad. I could take you.”

Casper jumped forward and lashed his hands out at the thing. It made a surprised squawk and scurried several steps backwards. That made Casper laugh a little. What was there to be scared of? Some jumpy lizard.

Wait a minute. Suddenly Casper’s brain cleared enough for him to think coherent thoughts. There’re no big lizards in Minnesota.

Three more of the lizards jumped out from the bushes and approached the first. One was fine, but with buddies, this could get ugly. He turned to run away, but the wall got in the way. The next moment happened too fast for him to recollect. All he could tell was he was being dragged backward at a dizzying pace through the woods. He hadn’t even had time to scream when his legs got pulled out from under him by two of the little bastards.

Shrubs and saplings cut into him as he was dragged deeper into the woods. He clawed and reached for anything he could to slow the progress. He cut his hands on small rocks and tore up tiny trees. It seemed nothing would deter the things.

They stopped. Casper took a second to catch his breath. He could still feel the needle-sharp teeth in his legs, but could do nothing about that. He looked back and could see a small drop; likely the reason they’d stopped, but that gave him a small bit of hope. Then he realized, they’re going to eat me! It hit him like a sledgehammer. He kicked and shook one of the things free and started kicking the other. The bites had hurt, but hadn’t been deep at all. If he could get his other leg free, he was sure he could get away. He could run back to his trailer.

His trailer! That was it. He fought his pocket to get his keys out while he continued to kick at the second lizard thing. Two caught his kicking leg and pulled him across the ground on his back. It hurt as they dropped down off the edge, but still he fought them. He grabbed the trunk of a nearby tree and thrashed as best he could. He closed his eyes. If the damn things were going to kill him, he was going to take at least one with him. He wouldn’t go down without a fight.

The beasts stopped fighting him. They actually let go and looked around, as if trying to assess some greater threat. Oh God! Is something bigger coming? Casper Jasper felt the hair on his neck stand up once again. He didn’t like the feeling. Not one little bit. The world had changed the first time, and not for the better.

At first he thought a car had dropped on him. He couldn’t breathe. The wind had been totally knocked out of him. He wanted to cry out in pain, but no air came into his lungs. He felt instantly cold. A cold that hurt his soul. He pushed his body as upright as he could. The drop had disappeared. The lizards were gone. The woods were back. But something else was missing. His legs! His legs and his lower body, gone! He reached down and touched where his crotch should have been. He could only feel wetness. He looked at the blood on his hands. Blood? He’d gotten away? He fought and won. The lizards didn’t eat him. He should be able to get up and go home. Just walk away. Where were his legs? Where had they gotten off to? Why were they missing? It didn’t make any sense. He just needed his keys. Yes, his keys. But his pants were gone too.

The stars looked so pretty peeking through a break in the clouds. He could make out Orion’s belt. Just a little.

Just a little.