Read Online Murder is the Pits by Mary Clay - Free Book Online

“I’d better call a
plumber. I know one that Daddy helped with a legal crisis. If he’s
still in business, I’m sure he’ll come. ”
    I glanced over my shoulder at Ruthie. She
was staring straight ahead with her arms wrapped around her body.
“What do you make of this?” I asked.
    “Evil. Evil all around us.”

    * * *

Chapter 5

    August 14, New Smyrna Beach, FL

    “ I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Sonny Mallard was a prince of a guy who had left his own damaged
house to help us with Mrs. King’s plumbing. He quickly found the
main cut-off, solving our water problem, and had moved on to fixing
the busted pipe.
    Penny Sue knelt in the doorway to the
underbelly of Mrs. King’s house and watched. I peered over her
shoulder.
    “This is a new plastic/aluminum composite
pipe. I’ve heard about these, but never seen one before,” Sonny
said. “Basically, it’s three layers. The inner and outer parts are
plastic, while the middle is aluminum. Somebody stripped the
outside plastic layer. Best I can tell, the aluminum disintegrated.
The plastic tube in the middle couldn’t take the water pressure and
popped like a balloon.”
    “The aluminum disintegrated?” Penny Sue
asked.
    He peeled back an inch of the outer plastic
and peered inside. “Damnest thing I’ve ever seen. I guess this was
once aluminum, now it looks like rust.”
    “I didn’t think aluminum rusted,” I
said.
    “It doesn’t.”
    “Can you fix it? I’ll pay,” Penny Sue
offered. “Mrs. King’s in the hospital with a heart attack—she
doesn’t need to be bothered with this.”
    “No time soon. I wouldn’t know where to buy
this stuff. Best I can do is leave the water main turned off and
make a few phone calls. A permit should have been filed with the
city and that will give me the contractor’s name. I can’t find out
anything until Monday, at the earliest, though.”
    Penny Sue turned to me. “Good thing Mrs.
King’s still at Bert Fish. We should check on her. If we find her
contractor, maybe we can have it fixed before she gets home.”
    Good ole Penny Sue. She didn’t even know
Mrs. King. ’Course, Penny Sue also had money to burn.
    “I’ll call you on Monday,” Sonny said,
gathering his tools. He stood, tugged up his pants, and headed for
his truck. “Right now I need to deal with a big, old live oak that
smashed my garage.”
    Penny Sue followed him to the truck and
slipped him a couple of hundred dollar bills. “I can’t tell you how
much I appreciate your coming.”
    He tried to give the cash back, but she
stepped away. “You’ll need that for your garage.”
    He nodded his thanks and left.
    Penny Sue was such a generous—and
complicated—person, the exchange brought a tear to my eye.
Thankfully, Ruthie came from the side of our condo before I tuned-up , as Grammy Martin called crying. “I guess we’d
better check on the rest of the damage,” I said.
    “The judge lost some shingles on the roof
facing the beach, and the metal chimney blew off,” Ruthie reported.
“The condo’s coated in sand, otherwise in good shape. Your
neighbors didn’t fare as well. He lost all the outside light
fixtures and most of the shingles facing the ocean. The tarpaper
even ripped off, exposing a lot of wood. I’ll bet the wallboard
inside is soaked.”
    “Did you check on Guthrie?”
    “Sound asleep on the sofa.”
    “We’d better take a look at his place.”
Penny Sue pointed to the broken window. “Ruthie, would you get his
key? I want to know what’s what before we drag him up this
hill.”
    I stooped to examine Guthrie’s hurricane
shutters that had fallen. Roll down shutters, they were constructed
of horizontal aluminum slats. Aside from a few chips in the paint,
the window covers seemed sturdy, yet both had sheared off in
approximately the same place. I studied the sheared edge. It was
wavy, but smooth. No jagged edges or creases for that matter.
“Penny Sue, take at look at this.”
    She dropped to her