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No Accounting for Murder

By Leeann Betts

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Bear Cove, Maine, population three hundred and twelve souls at the height of the lobster season, was normally a sleepy little town, just the way Carly Turnquist liked it.
But not this morning.
Faintly at first, building in volume, came sounds not normally heard in quiet Bear Cove. Horns blared, voices shouted, and bass music boomed, rattling the pictures on the walls. Carly pressed her face closer to the windowpane, tipping her head first right, then left, determining the direction of the commotion.
“Sounds like it’s coming from downtown,” she muttered to no one in particular. “I hope it’s not one of those Watkins boys joyriding again.”
Not wanting to be left out of the loop, she took the stairs two at a time up to the bedroom she shared with her husband Mike, arriving at the top landing slightly out of breath. Deciding what to wear to check out the blaring horns and loud voices wasn’t difficult. As a forensics accountant who worked out of her home, Carly had a handy wardrobe replete with sweats, jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies.
Sitting on the edge of the bed to tie her sneakers, Carly checked her reflection in the mirror over the dresser. She brushed her shoulder length brown hair back behind her ears and fluffed her bangs. Tugging at the hem of her sweatshirt, she pivoted slightly. Not bad for fifty. She needed to walk more. She patted her derriere, smiling at her mock vanity.
Grabbing her keys from the end of the kitchen counter, she headed for the front door. On the way, she snatched a box of files ready for mailing to a client. ‘Make every trip a business trip’ was her motto.
After locking the front door, she hurried to her car and set the box on the back seat. Starting the engine, she drove toward the downtown section, drawing ever closer to the continuing commotion. Carly rounded the corner to Main Street then parked. The town’s two police officers stood in the middle of the street, their vain attempts to control traffic not meeting with much success. A large parade-style float sat in the middle of the street, surrounded by people and cars.
Music blared from a display. Getting out of her car to get a better look at the float, her jaw dropped. Amidst the trees and oversize flowers dotting the platform of the flatbed truck, nearly-naked men and women danced on the float. A large banner read “Bare yourself in Bear Cove”. A tinny-sounding recording played a looped message, and Carly strained to make out snatches of the words: adult entertainment community, first of its kind in the state, express your individuality, and get an employment application here.
She crossed the street, dodging an oncoming vehicle. Standing on the corner of the intersection, she waved to the town’s only female officer who waved white-gloved hands to oncoming motorists. “What’s going on?”
Maria shrugged. “Promoting some kind of new development on the outskirts of town.”
“Don’t you need a permit for a parade or demonstration?”
“The chief checked on that already. One was issued first thing this morning.” Maria waved at a mini-van loaded with kids and bicycles, directing it through the intersection.
“It’s not even nine o’clock. Who issued the permit?”
“Personally hand-written out by the mayor is what I heard.”
“Since when does the mayor bother with a parade permit? Or much of anything else, for that matter? Particularly before nine a.m.?” Carly kicked at a pebble near her foot, skittering the small rock across the street.
Maria nodded. “I know what you’re saying. Still, the paperwork is in order.”
“The signs say something about an entertainment facility.”
Maria leaned in and lowered her voice. “Sounds like they don’t really want us to know what they’re doing.”
“Why would the mayor think Bear Cove would want such a business here?”
Maria waved another car through. “He probably doesn’t have final say. All he did was approve the parade permit.”
Carly craned her neck to get a better look at the float. “Why would he even do that?”
Maria shrugged and returned to directing the traffic. Carly piled into her car and headed for the post office. She didn’t have answers to her question, but she knew one thing for sure: If a nudist colony was coming to Bear Cove, it would be over her dead body.
* * *

Back home twenty minutes later, Carly tripped over a shoe in the entry in her haste to answer the telephone. Catching herself on the wall, she grabbed the handset on the fifth ring before it went to the answering machine. “Hello.”
Her stepdaughter, but daughter of her heart, Denise replied. “Hi Carly. Do you have a few minutes?”
“A few. What’s up?” Carly checked her chair for a sleeping cat before sitting.
Denise sniffed. “I’ve gotten into a situation here at the school.”
“You have all the skills you need to be their volunteer treasurer. Is there something specific you need advice on? How to handle a particular entry?”
“It’s more than that. This is serious. The bank called today and said fifty thousand dollars is missing. We can’t pay the teacher’s payroll this month without that money, and we don’t know where it went, or who took it.”
“The money has to be somewhere. It didn’t just disappear. Did you miss making a deposit? Maybe some checks bounced.”
Denise sniffed again. “You don’t understand. The board of directors thinks that maybe I took the money. They’ve called a board meeting for Friday and if the money isn’t there, or a really good explanation of where it is, they’re going to bring me up on charges.”
“Want some help tracking it down?”
“Do you have some time today or tomorrow? If you could help me go through the paperwork and bank statements, I’d really appreciate it. I don’t know where else to turn.”
Panic picked at the edge of Denise’s voice. She thought quickly. Her last project was done, Mike was out of town until Friday, and Riverdale was just over an hour’s drive. Even if she left this evening, she still had time to find out what was going on with this new entertainment facility. “I have a few things I need to take care of first. I could drive there this evening and stay a few days. We’ll be able to get all this figured out in no time, I’m sure.”
“Thanks, Carly. I really appreciate that.”
After offering a few more encouraging words, Carly disconnected and checked the clock. Ten-thirty already. So long as she left before dusk, she’d make it the seventy miles to Riverdale by full dark. She had six hours to find out what was going on before leaving town for the week.
She was a woman on two missions. First, she had to find out what was going on with some kind of nudist colony showing their faces—and other parts—in Bear Cove. Second, she needed to find a large sum of missing money before her daughter got carted off to jail.
When it came to her home and family, no one was going to worm their way in and mess it up.
No one.

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