Vacations Can Be Murder: The Second Charlie Parker Mystery by Connie Shelton

red light led me to the offensive instrument.
    "Hello?" My throat was thick with sleep, and
only the last part of the word came out.
    "Charlie, it's Drake."
    "Drake, what is it?" My fingers reached for
the lamp, almost knocking its oversized shade off. The sudden light
made my eyes slam back shut. My fingers groped around on the
nightstand for my travel alarm. Three o'clock. Ugh.
    "...been arrested on suspicion of
murder."
    I dragged myself back to the voice inside the
receiver. "Wait, Drake, what?"
    "Mack! Mack has been arrested for the
murder."

    Chapter 5

    "When did this happen?" My brain cells were
finally beginning minimal function.
    "Around midnight, I guess."
    At midnight, he had been kissing me at my
door.
    "Mack said the police came to his house late,
and took him downtown. They just now let him use the phone. Like he
was a menace to society, or something. Charlie, this is ridiculous.
I've got to help him."
    I struggled to think. There wasn't much we
could do in the middle of the night, and I told him so. I suggested
that he meet me here at the hotel at six, and we'd go to the
station together. Surely, someone would be there so we could post
bond by seven or so. I could tell he was anxious to do something
right away, but he grudgingly agreed.
    I set the travel alarm for five-thirty, and
fell back on my pillow, wondering how I manage to get so entangled
in other people's problems. I only wanted a vacation...
    The alarm rang so quickly, I thought I had
mistakenly set the time wrong. But, no. It really was five-thirty.
I toyed with the idea of pretending I didn't live here anymore, but
gave it up.
    Whether or not I got involved in Mack
Garvey's problems, I did want to see Drake again. As irritating as
it was to think of Akito and Mack and their little squabble, I
could appreciate Drake's loyalty to his friend.
    He was waiting for me in the lobby, and I
suggested that we find some coffee before we tackled the forces in
blue. I reasonably pointed out that it was unlikely that we'd get
much action at the station before seven, and I don't function at
all well in the mornings without fuel. Besides, having breakfast
would give him a chance to fill me in on whatever I better know
before going up against Akito again.
    Outside, the sky was pearl gray, the sun not
fully up yet. Banks of low dark clouds squatted on the horizon. It
was impossible to tell whether they would later move toward us, or
away. Rust colored mud puddles lined the uncurbed streets, the
remains of showers that had moved through sometime during the
night. The streets were quiet, traffic at a minimum in the
pre-dawn. The street lights began to shut off, one by one, as we
left the main drag and wound our way among the side streets.
    A round woman in a purple flowered mumu stood
in her front yard an called to a little dog who was paying not the
slightest attention as he trotted away from her.
    At the next house, a sleepy-looking man with
tousled hair padded out to the sidewalk in his rubber flip-flops.
He gazed around, perhaps searching for his morning paper. We passed
before he found it.
    Drake took me to a tan cinderblock structure
called the Tip Top Bakery and Café. Paint flaked from the 50s style
building, leaving chips on the sidewalk and surrounding shrubbery
like dirty snow. Drake turned into the parking lot slowly, guiding
the truck between potholes. He assured me that it was much less
scary than it looked. I had to take his word for it—nothing else
was open.
    There were only three cars in the lot at this
hour. Drake pulled his mini-pickup in beside them. They were
obviously all locals, not a red tourist convertible in sight.
    There was a hulking old Plymouth Barracuda
beside me. Its door frame was intact, but not much else was. Ragged
bands of rust outlined the doors and the car's top. In its advanced
stage of leprosy, parts could begin falling off at any time. I
opened my door carefully to avoid touching it. It was probably
contagious, and I didn't