Fixin' To Die (A Kenni Lowry Mystery Book 1) Read Free

break-ins, I guess,” he joked.
    “Sheriff Lowry.” I peeled my gloves off and stuck my hand out, giving him a nice firm handshake. “I appreciate all your help. First thing you can do is ask for Doc Walton’s appointment book from the receptionist. We need to gather a list of patients and see if he had any appointments this morning. Without a motive or weapon, we need to eliminate each and every patient to narrow down a suspect list.”
    At this point, everyone was a suspect in my book. Including Toots and Sterling.
    “He saw patients here?” Finn asked.
    “Long story, but he had a fender bender a while back and had to retake the road test again because of his age. He didn’t pass, so his license was revoked, but he could have retried in six months. He was still a good doctor and passed the test to keep his medical license, so he just moved his office here.” I kept my eyes on him, studying his reaction.
    “I’ll go find that appointment book.” He stepped outside the door but turned back around. “Would you like me to address the crowd outside first?”
    “Crowd?” I asked.
    “Yeah. It seems like your entire town is out there waiting for someone to come out and talk to them.” He shrugged.
    I followed behind him down the hall and took a look out the window. I shouldn’t have been surprised. News traveled fast in small towns, especially ours.
    “I’ll go do it, Sheriff.”
    Wyatt walked past me and nodded his head toward Finn. They gave each other the good ole boys look.
    “I’ll take care of it, Wyatt. You stay here and continue to look for the weapon.”
    The last thing I wanted was for the town to think I was passing the ball to Wyatt. There had already been talk around town that I wasn’t going to run unopposed in the next election. Plus, it wasn’t a secret that some folks weren’t too keen on having a woman as sheriff, but I’d have to say I’d been doing a fine job so far. I was up for re-election in two years, but politicking in small towns started two years before the actual election. I wasn’t ready to give up my job, so I’d better make sure I was meeting the public’s needs now.
    “Are you ready?” Finn asked, his hand on the front door handle.
    “As I’ll ever be.” My lips formed a thin line, trying to smile the best I could.
    Finn was right. When he opened the door, it looked like the entire town had gathered on Doc’s front lawn. They emitted a collective gasp and watched as I stepped out on the porch.
    The morning was drying off; the rain had stopped. The tree branches bobbed as the wind flew across the yard, sending droplets of rain onto the crowd below.
    “If I can have everyone’s attention.” I put my hands in the air. “I’m sure you’ve all heard that Doctor Ronald Walton was found deceased in his home this morning. I do not have any information on how he died, but we are treating it as a homicide at this time. There is no cause for alarm for the community. I assure you the sheriff’s department has everything under control and I will keep you abreast of any and all information as I learn it. You can all go home.”
    Pretty pleased with my impromptu speech, I turned to go inside when I heard the raspy voice call out to me. I turned back around on instinct.
    “Yoohoo!” Edna Easterly from the Cottonwood Chronicles scurried her way up past the crowd. A walking cliché, her brown fedora with a red polka dot ribbon around the rim sat cockeyed on her head; a big feather on the side had big globs of dried glue from a hot glue gun and a piece of paper with “reporter” written in green Sharpie marker was stuck in the front. “Sheriff Lowry!”
    “Not now, Edna.” My eyes lowered. “When I have more information, I’ll be sure to release it to the public.”
    “How do you plan on handling this since Lonnie Lemar retired? Seems you are short a deputy. Your only deputy.” She put her pen back on her paper ready to document my answer. “If you are here, who is