Read Online Stump Speech Murder by Patricia Rockwell - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Patricia Rockwell
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you know all about my suspicions, don’t you, Detective?” She gave him a sudden smile, complete with fluttering eye lashes, grabbed Rocky’s arm, and strolled past Shoop on up the hill towards the parking lot.
“Home?” Rocky asked his wife.
“Yes,” agreed Pamela, “I believe this has been a very productive funeral.”
Chapter Nine
Pamela was so glad that the next day was Saturday and she was able to sleep in late. The past few days filled with the drama of the political campaign, the murder, the arrest of James Grant, and then just yesterday, Stacy Grant’s funeral, had left her feeling saturated with intrigue and conspiracy. At one point, she felt she was living in the middle of a Tom Clancy thriller. And she was just a bystander. She never intended to get mixed up in any of this when she had agreed to join Joan in working on James Grant’s mayoral campaign. It had seemed totally innocuous then. And now, just days later, how things had changed.
She pulled her flowered comforter up around her shoulders because the air conditioning in their house appeared to be running on all cylinders. She was freezing. Of course, not freezing enough to get up and change the thermostat. Just enough to wrap herself in as many covers as possible.
“Hey!” cried her husband softly with annoyance, “you’re taking all my covers!”
“I’m cold!” she retorted. Grumble, grumble, she heard, as Rocky rolled out of his side of the bed and lumbered out to the living room and lowered (or raised, she was never certain how to describe what one did to get a thermostat to work) the cooler. She drifted off and hadn’t realized where he’d gone, when he arrived back with a tray of scones and coffee just the way she liked it—with lots of cream and no sugar. Rocky flipped on the television and joined her back in bed while they nibbled and sipped and watched the morning news.
First stop was local station WSTA which was airing a filmed mini-documentary of the life and times of James Grant and his wife. How television stations managed to produce these lengthy, well-researched, thoroughly documented videos so quickly after a major event never ceased to amaze Pamela. It was as if the studio expected James Grant to kill his wife and they had his life story on film and ready to air. Of course, she reasoned, James was a public figure—and a popular one, given his challenge of Hap Brewster. Even his wife, Stacy Grant, had received a fair amount of press in her short, young life as an assistant district attorney.
“James Grant and Stacy Rollins met in college. Both were from out of state and James’s parents are now deceased. James is an only child.” Thank heaven for small favors, thought Pamela. It was agony enough for parents to experience the death of a child, but having a child arrested for murder, somehow seemed worse.
The narrator continued, “While in college, both James and Stacy were exemplary students. Both received academic scholarships throughout their undergraduate years. James was the recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Scholarship which funded his entire three years of law school. Stacy, likewise, won the Marymount Law Prize For Women which paid for her entire legal education. Both graduated in the top five percent of their classes.”
”The couple married several years after their graduation from Grace University’s College of Law in 2008,” intoned the voice-over announcer as the screen showed stock footage of graduation portraits and wedding photos. “Both were 28. James immediately opened his own firm with his long-time college friend Martin Dobbs. Stacy Grant went to work for the local District Attorney’s office, rising rapidly to become an Assistant District Attorney just last year. The couple had no children.”
WSTA’s filmed history of the life and times of James and Stacy Grant concluded with the announcer’s statement that James
“Home?” Rocky asked his wife.
“Yes,” agreed Pamela, “I believe this has been a very productive funeral.”
Chapter Nine
Pamela was so glad that the next day was Saturday and she was able to sleep in late. The past few days filled with the drama of the political campaign, the murder, the arrest of James Grant, and then just yesterday, Stacy Grant’s funeral, had left her feeling saturated with intrigue and conspiracy. At one point, she felt she was living in the middle of a Tom Clancy thriller. And she was just a bystander. She never intended to get mixed up in any of this when she had agreed to join Joan in working on James Grant’s mayoral campaign. It had seemed totally innocuous then. And now, just days later, how things had changed.
She pulled her flowered comforter up around her shoulders because the air conditioning in their house appeared to be running on all cylinders. She was freezing. Of course, not freezing enough to get up and change the thermostat. Just enough to wrap herself in as many covers as possible.
“Hey!” cried her husband softly with annoyance, “you’re taking all my covers!”
“I’m cold!” she retorted. Grumble, grumble, she heard, as Rocky rolled out of his side of the bed and lumbered out to the living room and lowered (or raised, she was never certain how to describe what one did to get a thermostat to work) the cooler. She drifted off and hadn’t realized where he’d gone, when he arrived back with a tray of scones and coffee just the way she liked it—with lots of cream and no sugar. Rocky flipped on the television and joined her back in bed while they nibbled and sipped and watched the morning news.
First stop was local station WSTA which was airing a filmed mini-documentary of the life and times of James Grant and his wife. How television stations managed to produce these lengthy, well-researched, thoroughly documented videos so quickly after a major event never ceased to amaze Pamela. It was as if the studio expected James Grant to kill his wife and they had his life story on film and ready to air. Of course, she reasoned, James was a public figure—and a popular one, given his challenge of Hap Brewster. Even his wife, Stacy Grant, had received a fair amount of press in her short, young life as an assistant district attorney.
“James Grant and Stacy Rollins met in college. Both were from out of state and James’s parents are now deceased. James is an only child.” Thank heaven for small favors, thought Pamela. It was agony enough for parents to experience the death of a child, but having a child arrested for murder, somehow seemed worse.
The narrator continued, “While in college, both James and Stacy were exemplary students. Both received academic scholarships throughout their undergraduate years. James was the recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Scholarship which funded his entire three years of law school. Stacy, likewise, won the Marymount Law Prize For Women which paid for her entire legal education. Both graduated in the top five percent of their classes.”
”The couple married several years after their graduation from Grace University’s College of Law in 2008,” intoned the voice-over announcer as the screen showed stock footage of graduation portraits and wedding photos. “Both were 28. James immediately opened his own firm with his long-time college friend Martin Dobbs. Stacy Grant went to work for the local District Attorney’s office, rising rapidly to become an Assistant District Attorney just last year. The couple had no children.”
WSTA’s filmed history of the life and times of James and Stacy Grant concluded with the announcer’s statement that James
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