Page 7
W aking up the next morning, Doreen hopped out of bed and was soon downstairs, with a cup of coffee in hand, sitting down at her laptop. She was determined to sort out what had happened with that trucking accident. If people needed mistletoe around here, surely there would be other sources to get it. She noted some shipping issues, and things were not coming due to highway transport on wintry roads. That could affect planes as well. With bad weather, sometimes people had to do without for a while.
Still, the truck had been on its way to Kelowna, but all its goods had been stolen or frozen, which was really too bad. Although she wasn’t so sure that mistletoe could freeze. Could it? A quick internet search confirmed that frozen mistletoe was damaged, and its blossoms would soon fall off. Even if frozen and then thawed, the branches themselves would stay firm and strong, but the rest of it could get pretty nasty.
Frowning at that, she made a few phone calls. It didn’t take long to confirm that the local florists were all out of any mistletoe and had no hopes of deliveries before Christmas. Just as she was pondering what else she could do, Nan called her. “I can’t find mistletoe anywhere,” she told her grandmother fretfully. “Between the accident last week and now with the highways closed due to the bad weather, it will quite likely be in short supply.”
“Not just quite likely , it definitely will be,” Nan snapped, and then she sighed. “It’s not your fault, child. I just really wanted it for Christmas.”
“What about fake mistletoe?” A shocked silence came from the other end. “Okay, so not fake then.”
“No, not fake,” Nan declared. “However, you’re right, child.… There must be some other alternatives.”
“Did you check out of town to see if anyone had any?” Doreen asked.
“No, I haven’t, but are you prepared to make a trip on these roads to go get it, if I found some?”
“No, not really,” Doreen confessed. “If the roads were fine, then sure. Yet, if the roads aren’t any good,… you and I both know I shouldn’t be out and about driving any more than you should be.”
“Okay,” Nan replied. “Let me put on my thinking cap and see what I can come up with.” She ended the call soon after that.
Doreen wondered just what thinking cap her grandmother had. Yet Doreen didn’t have time to worry about it, as she was curious as to what had caused the trucking accident in the first place. She quickly phoned Mack, and, when he answered, sounding distracted, she asked, “So, was that semi-truck accident with the mistletoe and all the greenery an accident, due to bad road conditions?”
“No, it wasn’t an accident,” he replied, with a heavy sigh. “We’re waiting for forensics, and they’re taking their time with lots of people away on holiday.”
She thought about that. “That’s not very good, but, if you’re talking about the accident not being an accident, was it driver error, or did he have a heart attack, or was he poisoned or something? Or maybe the truck had some mechanical failure which caused the accident, or was it something else entirely?”
“Something else entirely,” he replied, “and remember that you’re not allowed on this case.”
“I know, but you can’t fault a gal for being curious.”
“Maybe not, but that curiosity of yours tends to go in the wrong direction.”
She snorted at that. “Apparently there’s no wrong direction when it comes to this stuff. You should know that by now.”
“There absolutely is a wrong direction where you are concerned, so don’t you worry about it. We’ll handle it.”
“I know, but what a terrible time of the year for a family to lose somebody.”
“Yes, it absolutely is. The good news in this case, if there is anything good, is he appeared to be single.”
“Sure, but he has to have a mom, a dad, or somebody somewhere.”
“Maybe, but we haven’t found next of kin yet. Therefore, we haven’t released the name of the deceased.”
“Oh, that’s even worse. How sad.”
“It can happen, more often than not it seems.”
Doreen groaned. “Nan’s still fretting because there’s no mistletoe. I don’t understand why. It’s not as if Christmas or her party will be canceled due to lack of mistletoe. And, if it is for her personal use, I don’t even want to hear about it.”
He snorted. “Nan will just have to deal with it. I have much bigger problems to worry about than a mistletoe shortage.”
“I know, but she’s asked me to get on it.”
“In that case,” he replied, with a smile in his tone, “you better get on it.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“But for you, who has solved so many cold cases,” he noted, with a chuckle, “the case of missing mistletoe surely can’t be that big of a deal.” And, with that, he ended the call.
She frowned at her phone, but, in a way, it was a good thing. He put Nan’s request into the light of a case, and, if nothing else, that was an angle she could work with. It made her smile to even think that something could be fun about the missing mistletoe. Talk about a caper. She laughed out loud at that. Maybe not a caper, but at least something she could focus on, and she would take almost anything right now.
But first she had to deal with Mugs, who was barking to be let out into the backyard. He was the spokesman for the cat and the bird this time. She grabbed a heavy coat and joined all her animals, as they puttered around her garden, sniffing at everything. With it so cold outside, they were all soon back inside, warming up again.
Back to the mistletoe shortage issue, Doreen pondered what to do about it as she wandered through her two-story home, which was Nan’s former home, in which were tons of things left behind as a result of downsizing to fit her most important items into her small apartment at Rosemoor. Nan had deliberately left behind expensive antiques as part of her household bequest to her granddaughter. Doreen had auctioned off all the antiques, which included furniture, artwork, and books. In that process, Doreen had also gone through the other things left behind, including Nan’s clothing, kitchenware, even paperwork, especially when looking for the provenance regarding some of the items.
Yet Doreen didn’t remember running across any Christmas decorations at all, including a full search of the basement as well. She didn’t find any Valentine’s Day or Halloween stuff either. Maybe Nan didn’t go to the trouble decorating just for herself, but now, with Doreen here, Nan was going all out. Shaking her head, Doreen didn’t understand this year’s focus on Christmas, yet didn’t want to disappoint Nan either. At least Doreen didn’t have a cold case right now, or she really would have begrudged frittering away her time looking for some nonexistent mistletoe.
She wondered just what she could do, about finding some live mistletoe. Nan was adamant that they needed mistletoe for the Rosemoor party, and Nan couldn’t possibly do without it. While Doreen wasn’t particularly bothered by this, Nan apparently was horrified at the concept. Doreen sighed, deciding to dig in, anything to keep Nan happy.
Yet she kept going back to Mack’s current case. He refused to discuss the fatal vehicular accident that helped to cause this mistletoe shortage. Mack couldn’t release the name of the victim because next of kin hadn’t been notified and wouldn’t tell her what had caused the accident. Doreen understood the truck driver died, and she knew which trucking company had been involved, so maybe the employer had some information. She went onto their website, and, while it was lacking in detailed information as to the recent accident, Doreen found the staff listing.
As she reviewed the employee list, she didn’t know how up to date this online list was, plus any seasonal workers weren’t listed as such. Her heart went out to the driver’s family, knowing that finding out via a proper notice would be so sad and heartbreaking. Yet finding out on the news prior to any private notification would be horrifying.
Doreen sighed and called the company to get further information. When she reached the receptionist, Doreen blindly pulled one of the employee names off the website listing and began, “I heard about Edgar’s accident.”
“Sorry,” the woman said, “I think you meant Brandon.”
“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry,” Doreen replied, her tone taking a slightly higher octave. “I was reading the wrong name here.”
“No, that’s okay. We’re all pretty shocked. It’s one thing to have an accident, and we have great truckers here with excellent safe driving records, but to think that he was shot while driving, that’s something we’re all still adjusting to.”
“Of course,” Doreen murmured, struggling to hear about that herself. “Is there anything at all we can do for his family?”
“He doesn’t have family,” the woman replied.
“Oh my, that’s all the sadder.”
“It is, isn’t it?” she murmured. “I mean, we’ve talked a lot. He’s worked for us for a good ten years or more. He was just set to retire at the end of this year. Poor Brandon. He had a new adventure he was all excited about, and somehow that makes it worse,” the woman muttered. “I mean, just when you’ve decided you are ready to go off and do something different, you don’t want it all to come crashing down around you before you even get a chance to start.”
“Did he say what it was? Maybe we could write his eulogy to that effect, to honor his memory.”
“Something to do with importing and exporting, and he would start doing a few trips across the border. Not many, just enough to keep himself from going stir-crazy.”
“Right. I guess crossing the border is a normal trip for these guys.”
“We don’t do any of the cross-border deliveries,” the receptionist stated, “but he had some personal history with it. He wanted to start going back and forth with some friends again.”
“It’s nice to think he had friends. It’s bad enough to think he had no family, and nobody for him at Christmastime.”
“No family left,” she repeated.
“Any idea on who these friends are who he was going into business with?” Doreen asked curiously.
“Give me a moment.… I think he mentioned Jimmy.”
“If you know Brandon, then maybe you know Jimmy too,” Doreen noted curiously.
“I know a couple Jimmys, but I’m not sure about this one. But then again…”
“Is he the one who’s… really tall and skinny?” Doreen guessed.
“No, the short one. As if maybe five foot four or so, and he comes by every once in a while. He used to work for us a while back but then left. He’s always been friendly, flirty. He’s not terribly attractive, but he’s got that charming personality. Oh now I remember. His name is Jimmy Cooper.”
“Most of the guys with that kind of personality tend to do very well regardless.”
“Right, he’s friendly. Too many guys think women want all this other stuff, but really they just want somebody who’ll treat them well.”
“Oh, I’m right there with you, sister,” Doreen agreed, with a bright smile. “I think that’s what’s missing in so many relationships. People just want to know that somebody cares.”
“Exactly,” she confirmed. Doreen heard another phone line buzzing in the background, and the receptionist said, “Oops, I’ve got to go.”
“That’s all right. Thank you for your time, hon,” Doreen called out cheerfully, but she already had warning lights going off in her brain.
As soon as she got off the phone, she wondered if she should call Mack. A little research on Brandon allowed her to find an acquaintance, Jimmy Cooper. She needed to talk to Mack. He might get quite angry over it all, yet she had to consider whether this info would help their investigation or hurt it. She didn’t even get a chance to call him when her phone rang.
“Hey,” Mack greeted her, but his tone was distracted. “I have to go to Rosemoor. Will you be there yourself anytime soon?”
“I told Nan that I would be there to help her later this afternoon. Right now I’m working on my new case.”
Immediately his tone sharpened. “What new case?” he asked.
Sure enough, worry filled his tone. She snorted. “You’re the one who gave me the idea.”
“God help me,” he muttered. “What are you talking about?”
“The case of the missing mistletoe.”
After some dead silence, he laughed. “Okay, fine. You work on that.”
“By the way, you know that driver of yours who was shot?”
Another silence came. “What about him?”
“I just had a talk with the trucking company’s receptionist. It was apparently his last run, and he would go into business with a friend of his, maybe Jimmy Cooper, to export and import across the border. Jimmy is a short guy, really friendly, not necessarily terribly attractive but a charmer. The receptionist mentioned how Jimmy used to work there, and he was always friendly or a little flirty at times.”
With a big sigh, Mack replied, “I talked to the trucking company’s crew. What did you do?”
He knew her so well. “I just phoned to see if there was anything I could do for the family. The receptionist told me that he had no family and that it was such a shame, since he was just about to retire from the company and to start a new endeavor.”
“I see,” he noted, his tone neutral. “So, what has this got to do with mistletoe?”
“He was driving the semi-truck with the mistletoe,” she stated. “So, if we’ve got missing mistletoe, I had to follow the source. You know, to figure out why the mistletoe is missing.”
“Oh, good Lord.” He gave a hard groan.
“Are you okay?” she asked, a smile in her tone.
“You’ll be the death of me,” he muttered.
“I hope not,” she declared. “I would hate to think that being around me would lead to more stress for you.”
“Yeah, it would,” he snapped. “Stay out of my case.”
“Absolutely I’ll stay out of your case,” she replied in complete and utter innocence. “Though, in all honesty, I think it would be better if we worked together on this one.”
He snorted. “I mean it, Doreen. Stay out of it, please.”
“I just gave you some information that I thought might help.”
“I would have gotten there on my own,” he said.
“Now you know you can talk to the receptionist and can ask her those kinds of questions and get more information about it. Have a nice day.” And, with that, she quickly ended the call.