Raining Men and Corpses: A Fun Cozy Mystery (A Raina Sun Mystery Book 1) (3 page)

R
aina jerked up
, heart racing and fists clutching the tangled lavender cotton sheets. She flicked on the lamp and looked around her bedroom. As her eyes inventoried her belongings, her heart rate slowed and her chest stopped heaving. The digital alarm clock next to the lamp read 3:30 A.M.

She flopped back onto the queen-sized mattress and stared at the whirling ceiling fan, trying to keep her thoughts away from what had happened a few hours ago. Her sweat-drenched body eventually cooled and Raina padded to the kitchen to get a drink of water. Leaning against the counter, she kept seeing the still body.

She sniffed. How could Holden be dead? He’d spoken to her just yesterday morning. They’d sat next to each other. He’d touched her. A tear leaked out the corner of an eye. Darn allergies. Her conscience chafed at the evening spent laughing with Eden about the pregnancy lie. With shaking hands, she set the glass on the table, grabbed a tissue, and blew her nose. Holden didn’t have any family left, just a few distant cousins. Would anyone plan a memorial service for him?

Placing the cool glass on her forehead, Raina closed her eyes. Her life had morphed into a soap opera in the last forty-eight hours. All this because she’d blurted out that she was pregnant. What was she thinking? She should have told Holden the truth when he cornered her by the vending machines. Then she would have gone home after her shift. Closure was overrated.

And Matthew wouldn’t reappear in her life again. It didn’t matter now. He’d disappear from her life soon enough when the police released Holden's body. She just had to avoid him until then.

Raina dragged her tired body back into the bedroom and drifted off into an uneasy sleep until her cell phone woke her several hours later. She peeled her gummy eyes open and lifted her heavy head to glance at the number on the display. Wincing, she turned off the volume. Her grandma would only add to her stress this morning

Raising her hands, Raina found two pink bumps on her right pinkie finger competing with one bump on her right ring finger. Surprise, surprise. The hives were here. A sure sign she’d reached her stress threshold. What she needed was a spa day, but she’d have to sell something to afford that and not many people were on the market for third-hand furniture.

Raina swung her legs off the bed. Crumpled tissues littered the bed and carpet. She trudged to the kitchen to start the coffeemaker and slathered a thick anti-itch cream on her hands. It’d suffice until she could stop by the Student Health Center to refill her prescription.

Rapid fire taps on her front door dragged Raina’s attention from the aromatic brew squirting from her coffee maker. Her grainy eyes and heavy heart didn’t want company today. The taps came again. But it looked like company wanted her. She shuffled to the living room to peer through the closed drapes above her sofa.

Eden bounced on her toes as she took a long gulp from her large traveler mug. Yellow paint on the mug brazenly declared “No news is not good news.” With a sigh of regret, Raina opened the door. It was bad news to be Eden's friend today.

“I’m on my way to Gail’s. Want to come with?” asked Eden.

“No.” Raina trudged back to her kitchen to pour her coffee and carried it to her sofa. She sat and curled her legs under her. When the first sip of the hazelnut-flavored coffee hit her taste buds, she closed her eyes in bliss. If she didn’t open her eyes, she could almost pretend she was alone. The birds outside her window chirped like they did every morning. Normal. Everything was normal.

Her perfect moment was interrupted when the plush cushion on the sofa shifted beneath her, forcing her to tighten her grip on the cup just in time to stop the coffee from pouring onto her lap. Eden could not sit on a sofa like a normal person. No, she had to throw herself on it like she was playing whack-a-mole with her butt.

“Don’t you want to know how she is doing?” asked Eden.

“My guess—poorly. There's no need to traipse over to her house to verify it, especially with a reporter in tow.”

“I’m not going there as a reporter. I am going there as a concerned friend.”

“No.”

“I’m not doing this for me. Look at you.” Eden waved in her direction. “You’re a mess. You need to talk to someone who was there. This visit is not for me. This visit is for you. I've already sent in my article last night.” She smiled. “Healthy man drops dead in his prime. Isn’t that a wonderful headline?”

Raina took a sip of coffee to hide her frown. She hadn’t thought about how Holden had died. She figured he had some kind of health problem. “Cut the bull. What are you trying to find out?”

Eden bounced on the sofa as she leaned forward, wiping the expression of faux concern off her face. “All right. I want to know if Gail knows how Holden died. The police are having a hard time finding the next of kin, so they wouldn't release any info.”

Raina lowered her gaze. “I have a lot of stuff to do today. I need to buy my textbooks, get a new cell phone, and get new tires. Sorry. I don't have time to go with you.”

Her credit card would be bloated by the end of the day, but she needed retail therapy. She didn’t want to stop and think. Her thoughts fluttered between Holden and Matthew, swirling in a confused windstorm that she didn’t want to deal with at this moment. But spending money she didn’t have? This she understood.

“We should strike while it’s hot. It’ll take the police another day to announce foul play. I need this exclusive, Raina. I need the promotion.”

Raina stared at the gleam in Eden's eyes. So sensitivity was not one of Eden's strengths. But foul play? Was this hopeful thinking on her friend’s part or did she know something Raina didn’t?

“I’m going with or without you. I probably would inflict less damage if you’re with me.” Eden leaned back, a smile on the corner of her lips.

Raina stared at the mug in her hand. There were no answers in the coffee. It would be wrong to inflict Eden on a friend at a time like this, even though her friendship with Gail was questionable at times. The only way to rein in the intrusive questions was to go with Eden.

“You are just as curious as I am to find out how Holden died,” said Eden.

“No, I’m not. I want to forget the whole thing.”
Pants on fire.
With Matthew in the picture, Raina had to stay off his radar.

“There’s no shame in a little curiosity. It’s not like we’re ambulance chasers.”

Raina pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. Did that really just come out of Eden’s mouth? Couldn’t she just pretend to feel something for Raina’s sake? The lingering emotions from last night must have made her more sensitive than usual. This aspect of Eden’s personality had never bothered her before.

Eden touched her knee. “You okay?”

Raina opened her eyes. “I need to take a shower first.”

Thirty minutes later, Raina pulled her thirteen-year-old faded red Accord out of the driveway. She had inherited the car in high school after her dad passed away from prostate cancer. It still had the dent in the rear bumper where her teenage self had backed into a pole. Her dad’s reaction to that particular incident had been a raised eyebrow and a new bus pass. From that moment on, each time she got behind the wheel, she felt his comforting presence. The new transmission and fuel pump meant the Accord would probably last until Raina was well into her thirties.

“He’s not worth getting upset over,” said Eden.

Raina shrugged, pretending a nonchalance she didn’t feel. “A man I know is dead. I may not have liked him at the time of his death, but I liked him enough at one point to loan him money and let him see me naked.” She clamped her mouth shut as her voice trailed off. Eden wouldn’t understand the confusion she felt.

“You should think about that yummy detective instead. I saw the way he looked at you last night.” Eden wiggled her eyebrows and smacked her lips.

“Eden! Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“You should join me. You’ll have more fun that way.” Eden chuckled and splashed coffee on her shirt. “Damn!” She pulled her shirt away from her body and glanced at the brown spot. “I need to get you a wide cup holder for your birthday.”

“You mean you need to get a cup holder for your extra large traveler mug.” Her friend was trying to help, but thoughts of Matthew only made Raina want to scratch her hands. “When was Matthew watching me?”

“Like that, huh?”

“What?”

“Matthew.” Eden rolled the name off her tongue. Her grin was bigger than a moon pie. “When did Detective Louie become Matthew?”

When Raina punched him up for stealing her sister Cassie’s lollipop at eight. When she saw him naked at sixteen. When he left her tied up in a hotel in Rome at twenty. Or maybe it was when he got their marriage annulled in Vegas when she was twenty-four. She and Matthew went way back and not all the memories were peaches and cream.

She parked in front of a ranch-style house with bright blue curtains. The quiet street had a handful of minivans parked on the driveways. A young mother with an infant on her hip and a large diaper bag on one arm locked her front door, while a strawberry blonde preschooler jumped on the raked pile of leaves on their lawn. Normal. Everything was so normal for the rest of the world.

Raina patted her own unkempt ponytail, tucking a ringlet back into place. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Neither did you.” Eden leapt out of the car and jogged up the driveway.

Raina trudged after her friend, scratching her pinkie. Right now the last person she wanted to think about was Matthew. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. The visit with Gail wouldn’t be a pleasant one.

R
aina might have looked
as if she’d spent the night dragged through an alley by a stray cat, but the bruises below Gail’s eyes and the sagging jawline were prime examples that age didn’t like loveless nights with Mr. Sandman.

The brick-red accent wall of the kitchen and festive dinnerware behind the frosted glass cabinet doors made Raina feel even worse to be sitting across from the distressed woman. After the required small talk such an occasion warranted, Eden dove in for the kill.

“What made you decide to go into the men’s restroom?” asked Eden.

“If you rather not talk about it, that’s okay,” said Raina, earning a dirty look from her friend.

Gail bit her lip, her finger tracing the rim of her mug. “The women’s restroom ran out of toilet paper. I found a dead body because of toilet paper.” She gave a mirthless laugh that dissolved into a cackle, which thankfully ended when she jammed her mug to her mouth.

Raina shifted in her seat as the hair on the back of her neck stiffened. Did she want to hear the rest of the interview?

Gail's hands trembled as she placed the mug on the table.

No. Raina couldn’t wait outside. Gail might need her to intervene when the questioning became too intrusive.

Eden waited while Gail took several more calming sips of tea, but the gleam in her eye and straight posture belied her show of kindness. “What was the first thing you saw?”

“I’m not supposed to talk about this,” said Gail.

“Don’t worry. I could say you’re an anonymous witness. I protect my sources.”

Gail dipped her chin. “Anonymous sounds good. I don’t want to lose my job.”

Raina opened her mouth but promptly shut it when she caught Eden’s eye. There were only two eyewitnesses at the scene. It wouldn’t be hard for anyone to guess who talked to the press. Even if she flashed a red stop sign, she doubted Gail could stop the stream of words from coming out of her mouth.

Besides, who was Raina to second-guess Gail’s desire to talk to Eden? Gail had fifteen more years of life experience than she did. Raina had to admit a small part of her did want to know how Holden had died. It was humbling to find that she’d become one of those drivers who would slow to see an accident on the side of the road.

“What did you see?” Eden leaned forward on her seat. Her granite brown eyes focused on Gail. If a naked fraternity guy fell on her lap at this moment, Eden would shove him aside for blocking her read on the witness.

Gail stared out the sliding glass patio door. The silence stretched until Raina cleared her throat, which earned another dirty look from Eden.

Gail frowned. “Something was behind the door. I had to push to open it. That should’ve been my first clue that something was wrong. I should’ve stopped then.”

Raina nodded in agreement. “I should’ve gone home after my shift.” She shared a look with Gail, a moment of regret for not making a different choice.

“So you pushed open the door…” prompted Eden.

“The first thing I noticed was the smell. Pine-Sol, vomit, and feces. And Holden on the floor.” Gail’s chest heaved and tea sloshed unnoticed onto her lap. “I didn’t want to touch him. But I had to.” She shuddered and closed her eyes.

Raina removed Gail’s clinched fingers around the mug, setting it on the table.

Gail opened her eyes and continued. “Then I called the police and went outside to wait for them.”

Eden shifted her gaze to Raina. “Did you see the body?”

Raina recoiled. “Only for a second before the police arrived at the scene.”

“How did he die?” asked Eden, shifting back to Gail.

Gail shrugged. “I don’t know. Don’t people die from accidents in the shower all the time?”

“You think he slipped and fell?” asked Raina, frowning. Holden wasn’t much of a gym rat, but he certainly had more natural grace than her. Even if the floor was wet and she had on high heels and the sink was positioned right next to her head, she couldn’t imagine slipping to her death in a public restroom.

“Did Holden seem odd that day?” Eden asked.

Gail shrugged. “No. But he’d asked if I had something for an upset stomach after lunch. I gave him Pepto-Bismol tablets.”

“Why did he ask you instead of stopping by the Student Health Center?” asked Eden.

“Probably because he didn’t want to walk across campus in the heat,” said Raina.

“I was asking Gail,” said Eden, widening her eyes and giving her a pointed look.