Minnie Crockwell - Will Travel for Trouble 01 - Trouble at Happy Trails by Minnie Crockwell Page B

we first ‘met.’”
    And it remains visible to you?
    “I keep it on my screen and look at it once in a while to remind me of what you look like. It’s pretty weird talking to air sometimes.”
    I can imagine.  
    Of course, it was probably weirder still being a ghost. My heart went out to him.
    “You were… are a handsome man, Ben.”
    Ben coughed, the kind of cough that people make when they’re embarrassed. I smiled. I loved ruffling his feathers.
    Thank you, Minerva. You are a lovely woman yourself.
    Now, I was blushing.  
    “Oh, pshaw!” I jumped up from the computer table. “Let’s go see what’s going on outside. I can’t believe we have a suicide one day and then nothing happens the next day. It feels like kind of a letdown. My adrenaline wants more, more, more action!”
    More death, Minerva? You frighten me.
    “No, I don’t want anyone to die. Gosh, no! I just want something to happen.”
    I opened my door and stepped outside. Twilight was still an hour or so away. I rounded the back of my RV to look at Sally’s trailer. It was still there. I couldn’t see the yellow tape anymore since Bob had pulled it down.  
    “I wish they’d get that thing out of here though,” I said.
    Yes, it feels quite ghoulish, does it not?
    “And this, coming from a ghost?”  
    Ghosts have feelings, too , Ben said with a laugh. I heard a similar statement on that machine you call a television.  
    I laughed over my shoulder…or wherever Ben was.
    “Funny!”  
    I turned back to see a police cruiser entering the park.
    “Heads up, Ben! Something’s happening!”
    I thought about ducking back into my trailer and peeking out of the windows, but I suspected I wouldn’t be able to see anything, so I stuck to the landing and waited for them to pass me. I had no doubt they were headed to Sally’s trailer.  
    To my surprise…and discomfort, they stopped in front of me.  
    “Minnie Crockwell?”
    The officer who addressed me was the passenger, a dark-haired Hispanic female. I thought I saw Officer Wilson driving the car, but couldn’t see his face from where I stood. I was hardly about to lean down and look into the cruiser.
    “Yes?” I said in a nauseatingly timid voice. Give me a figure of authority, and I caved! I imagined myself spread eagle on the grass moaning repeatedly, “I didn’t do it!”
    “Could we speak with you for a moment?”
    “Yes,” I said with a quivering chin.
    They both stepped out of the car. Officer Martinez, black hair wrapped in a shiny bun with a spectacular figure in a tight uniform, addressed me.
    “Could we speak inside?”
    Ben! Am I being arrested? Am I suspect or something?
    I do not know, Minerva. I am here with you. Have courage.
    “Sure,” I said with a confidence I wasn’t feeling. I led the way to the RV. They insisted I precede them inside. I climbed in and turned around to wait for them.
    Upon entering, both officers scanned the interior of my RV, although Officer Wilson had seen it the night before.  
    “Let’s take a seat,” Officer Martinez said. “We’d like to ask you a few more questions about the events of last night, and anything you might have seen subsequent to that.”
    A single cell in my brain wondered if having a Chief of Police as an ex-husband could help get me out of an arrest. I imagined not.
    I sat down on one side of my dinette set. Officer Martinez took the other bench, and Officer Wilson elected to sit in the driver’s seat which was pivoted toward the living area.
    My hands were cold, and my forehead felt wet from sweat. I rubbed at it and passed a hand across my upper lip.
    Officer Martinez pulled out a pad of paper and began to speak.
    “Now, you didn’t know the deceased or his wife until yesterday, is that correct?”
    I nodded. “That’s right. I bumped into Carl on the way out of the office when I first pulled in. He seemed angry. And I met Sally when she checked me in.”
    “Do you know what Mr. Richardson was angry