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  All’s Well that Ends Well

  Family Affair Series - Book Two

  Roseanne Dowell

  Digital ISBNs:

  Kindle 978-0-2286-0968-1

  Amazon Print 978-0-2286-0969-8

  2nd Ed. Copyright 2019 by Roseanne Dowell

  Cover art by Michelle Lee

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book

  Acknowledgements

  Special thanks to my granddaughter, Sarah Valoven, for coming up with the names Beatrice Lulu and several others. To my grandson, Nicholas Biro, for his comments about comparing cars to age. To my granddaughter, Allison Wolferd for sharing different comments and descriptions with me. To my daughter, Angella Biro for allowing me to use one of her quotes. To all my family, some of you may recognize different incidents, although they have been embellished. To Jane Horst Kautzman for her contribution and authority on TBI – Traumatic Brain Injury. To Kathy Benedict for allowing me to use some of her experience on vacation and last but not least to Gloria Klubnik for sharing one of her experiences. Aunt Beatrice Lulu wouldn’t be the same without your help.

  Chapter One

  I’ve always been fond of telling everyone Beatrice Lulu is the name I was born with, the name I’ll depart this life with, and the name I expect to be addressed as. Well, everyone except my husband, Edgar Leroy Eberhart. Not that I call him that. No one does. We call him Ed and he calls me Bea – among other affectionate names.

  Never thought I’d find a husband. Wasn’t even looking. Being single and an old maid – that’s what people call women my age who aren’t married – didn’t bother me a bit. Didn’t need a man in my life. Course, now that I’ve met Ed, well, that’s a different story. Don’t know what I’d do without him. The love of my life for sure.

  Never will forget the day we met. Was at some kind of family gathering. The occasion escapes me now. Our family has a lot of get-togethers, don’t need a reason. What Ed was doing there or who invited him, I’ve no idea. But there he was, big and handsome as ever, standing and looking like he wanted to devour me. He called me pretty. Never had a man call me pretty before. Hell, no one ever called me pretty. I wasn’t fool enough to think I was cute, let alone pretty. Oh no, the mirror don’t lie. My nose is too big, my eyes too beady and good Lord above, my shape… well, let’s just say I have a wide girth. Never was slender, not even as a kid.

  So I was quite taken aback when he asked my name. Needless to say, I was a bit tongue tied, too. For me that’s saying a lot. Never been tongue tied a day in my life. Always spoke my mind. Got me into trouble a time or two, but that was me. Take it or leave it.

  But Ed, and the way he stood staring at me with the darkest blue eyes I’d ever seen, calling me pretty in that big bellowing voice, well, hells bells, I couldn’t think of a thing to say. Ain’t never had a man look at me that way before. Rattled me good, it did. Still does when I think about it. Not a scene I’m likely to forget.

  When he called me sweetheart, that did me in. Never liked people going around calling me honey or sweetheart. Course Ed, well, he didn’t pay my rudeness no mind. Oh no, he got right in my face and demanded to know my name. So I told him.

  And he laughed. Said I was silly expecting people to call me by my full name. Then he did something that took my breath away. He kissed me, right on the lips in front of everyone. Been kissed a few times in my life. You don’t live to be my age and never get kissed, no matter how bad you look. Used to date a bit back in the day. But ain’t no one ever kissed me like that before. Lordy, I not only lost my breath. I almost crumpled to my knees. That man can kiss. The rest, as they say is history. We’ve been inseparable ever since.

  Well, almost inseparable. I do have an existence away from Ed, a few friends, and my three sisters of course. They’re my best friends. So, yes, I do partake of life without Ed, and I ain’t about to give it up for anyone. Not even Ed. My sisters, Lottie, Ethel, and Lillian are a big part of my life. We’ve always done things together. And of course, there’s my brother Clyde, but he’s never been part of our mischief. Not that he hasn’t reciprocated a time or two, but usually it’s my sisters and me who play the tricks. Clyde’s been the beneficiary several times of our entertaining activities.

  Our latest thing is helping Callie, my niece and the new police chief of our little town. People think just because we live in a small town everyone knows everyone. Seriously! How can you possibly know two thousand people? Granted, we know a good many, but those are the ones who live in the town proper, run a business, or attend our church. But that’s neither here nor there.

  Callie’s a pretty little thing. Can’t imagine how or why she became a police woman and then the chief of our town. You’d think she’d want to get married and have kids. She’s Lillian’s daughter, and Lillian’s not always part of our expeditions. Like when our mother got kidnapped. Ethel, Lottie, and I knew if we told Lillian, she’d put a stop to our plan. Good thing we didn’t too, because if it weren’t for us, they’d probably still be looking for Mama. Or if they found her, Lord knows what condition she’d of been in. I shudder to think. So, for the most part, it’s just the three of us – Lottie, Ethel, and me.

  Lillian’s probably the most somber and sagacious of us. Not that we’re not all sensible, we’re all pretty intelligent, but Lillian’s always been the one to put a kibosh on our plans. She’s always been apprehensive about getting into trouble and such. Big spoilsport, that’s what she is. Even as a kid she was a goody two shoes. She’s the one Mama always said why couldn’t we be more like. Boring. Lottie, Ethel and I like adventure. Lillian was content to sit with her nose in a book. Never was one for book reading. Why read when we could experience it on our own?

  So mostly, we just leave her out. Besides, she has other fish to fry. She still works and doesn’t have time for “our nonsense” as she puts it. She must take after our father, because our mother is just like us. Mama’s the biggest practical joker around. Loves to play tricks on people. Our father was a bit more solemn. I guess opposites do attract. Mr. Sensible that was Daddy. Not that he didn’t get a kick out of Mama’s shenanigans. I think that’s what attracted him in the first place. Mama’s a judge, by the way, so she does have a serious side. Maybe that’s why she loves to play jokes and tricks, she sees too much gloomy stuff in the courtroom. I have a feeling she was like that even before she became a judge. Got it from her mother if memory of Gram serves me. Always laughing and singing. Wonderful sense of humor. Never could sit still either. Always on the go.

  But I digress. As I started to say, Callie’s the new Chief of Police for our little town of Symtheville. She went off and lived in the big city for a time like so many youngsters do now days. And like so many of them found out the grass isn’t always greener. So now she’s back. Finally married, too, thank goodness. Was no easy feat getting her together with someone. My goodness, I introduced her to so many eligible bachelors to no avail. Pickiest little thing I ever saw. Again, I digress.

  So Callie came back and took over Chief Landry’s job, although he works a couple days a week and if she has a big case, he helps her out. Not that there’s many big cases in this small town, but it has a few. Mama helped break up a drug ring, and Callie solved a missing persons, kidnapping, and a murder. Not many murders around here, though. Mostly it’s drunk and disorderly or people creating disturbances.

  I remember this one time, Ed and I bought
a cabin. Sure was a mess. Needed a ton of work. But Ed assured me he could do it, and I never doubt Ed. Wasn’t like it was far from here, only a half hour drive. But it was set on a pretty lake and Ed loves to fish. Besides, we thought it’d be nice to have a place to escape my crazy family. Not that we escaped often because we usually ended up inviting the family along. Anyways, Ed and I went up there right after we got the keys. I needed to start cleaning, and Ed took stock of what work needed done and what supplies he needed to order.

  So there we were looking around and it was kind of chilly.

  “What do you think, Bea, feel like a fire?”

  “Only if we’re going to be here for a while and from the looks of this place, it’s going to be quite a while. Do you think that fireplace is safe?” I didn’t want to chance burning the place down now that we bought it.

  So Ed opened the flu and stuck a wire brush inside to make sure nothing was jammed.

  “What the hell?” Ed jumped back. I turned around in time to see something fall.

  “What’s that?” Whatever it was shook Ed up. He pushed me across the room.

  “You don’t want to see that. Come on, let’s go in the kitchen.”

  Well, dog gone it, no one tells me what to do, not even Ed. Leastways not all the time. I pushed him aside, went to the fireplace. “What the hell is that?” I bent down for a closer look.

  An arm, in tattered red flannel soiled with soot, lay on the grate. I reached out to pick it up, and a finger fell off. I jumped back. “What the hell is an arm doing in our fireplace?”

  I wondered if it was fake. Sure looked real. I reached over to pick it up again to make sure. Another arm fell, brushing my elbow. I fell back, screamed, and brushed ashes off my shirt. Far be it for me to be afraid of anything, but that spooked me. Gave me the willy-nillys for sure. I couldn’t help it, the scream just came out. I turned away, covered my mouth and gagged. I could hardly catch my breath. Ed helped me up and led me to a chair in the kitchen.

  “Get that thing out of here, Ed. Take it away.” Barely able to look, I pointed toward the other room. God, I’d never get that vision out of my mind.

  “Well now, I’d like to do that, Bea, but I’m afraid I have to call Callie.” Ed handed me a glass of water.

  “Callie? What you need to call her for? Just get rid of it. Get those bones out of my house.”

  “It pains me to say this, but he might be a murder victim.”

  “A murder victim. Bushwa. Who stashes a body in a chimney? Murder victim, that’s the craziest damn thing I ever heard. I don’t want that thing in my house.”

  “Be that as it may, darlin’, those arms belonged to someone.”

  Before I could reply, a clattering noise came from the living room. I jumped. “What the hell was that?”

  Half afraid to look, but having a curious nature – some called it nosy –I hurried to see what the racket was about. Body parts slid out of the fire place, landing on the hearth. A strange sound came from my mouth. I must have passed out because next thing I knew, I was on the floor, and Ed was leaning over me.

  “That a girl, Bea, open those pretty eyes.”

  I sat up and of course the first thing I saw was a skull, and those empty dark sockets. “Call Callie, Ed, and tell her to get over here right quick.”

  Ed pulled his cell phone from his pocket and punched in Callie’s number.

  I couldn’t stay in the house, not with that thing in there. Oh, I know they used to be a human being, but now they were nothing but a pile of bones. And that skull. That was the worst part. I’ve seen skulls before, but they were Halloween skulls, not the remains of God knew who. Oh no, I wasn’t staying there, and no way Ed was gonna make me. Not that he tried. Ed knew me well enough to know when I make up my mind about something, there’s no changing it. So I went outside. Figured I may as well explore the grounds until Callie arrived and got rid of that thing.

  Fortunately, I didn’t have long to wait. Callie pulled up, got out of her car, and kissed me hello. She didn’t much like me, but always minded her manners. Oh yeah, I knew. She couldn’t fool me. That was okay, we’d come to terms since she married that nice young man. Now if she’d just start a family. Since I was too old to have my own children, I sort of adopted my sisters’ kids and their grandchildren. Callie didn’t know it, but she was my favorite. God only knew why. That girl rebelled against everything. Poor Lillian had her hands full with that child. From the minute Callie could walk and talk, she was insolent, rebellious, and stubborn as all get out. Lillian managed to instill some manners in her, and Callie knew better than to disrespect me. Not that she disrespected any of her aunts, but she didn’t obey them either. Now I, on the other hand, never had a problem with her. Maybe I scared her. But lately, she’d become persnickety. Probably had something to do with her job. I didn’t much care for the attitude.

  But I digress again. Callie went in the house and I, being the inquisitive person I am, followed. I wanted to hear what she had to say. I stayed back, not wanting to get in the way, but mostly because I didn’t want to look at that thing again.

  Callie knelt next to the fireplace, pulled on a pair of gloves, and moved its hand. “It’s a body all right.”

  Well of course the skeleton was a body, did she think Ed and I were dim-witted? Even a kid would recognize it as a body. Sometimes Callie just didn’t think. “What I want to know is what you’re going to do about it? Get the thing out of here, I hope.”

  Callie stood. “I’m going to call the medical examiner. I’m afraid you both have to leave. This is a potential crime scene now.”

  “A crime scene!” Was she nuts?

  “Well, we don’t know the manner of death. He could have been murdered.”

  “Murdered? Come on, Callie, you don’t really believe that? Who in their right mind would murder someone and hide the body in a chimney? He was probably on the roof and fell in.”

  “Well, until we know for sure, Aunt Beatrice Lulu, you and Uncle Ed are going to have to leave.” Callie pulled out her phone and made a call. I tried to listen, but she walked away and spoke too softly.

  “When can we come back?” I asked when she hung up.

  “Three, maybe four days. Depends what we find.”

  “Three days! That’s intolerable. We need to get busy cleaning and fixing this place up before winter.”

  “Sorry, we have to check the place out, see if we find any clues and figure out what happened. You’ll have to leave now.”

  “Well I never. You’re being audacious.”

  “Now come on, Bea. Let Callie do her job.” Ed took my arm and led me to the door. “She’ll let us know when we can come back, right, Callie?”

  “Right, Uncle Ed. I’ll call you as soon as we’re done with our investigation. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

  “Inconvenience! Inconvenience isn’t the word for it. It’s ill-timed and… ”

  “Now, Bea, it’s not Callie’s fault. Come on.” He opened the door and led me through.

  I pulled away. “At least let me get my purse and jacket. My goodness, Ed, what’s your big hurry?” I went back and grabbed my things, throwing a disapproving look at Callie and caught sight of that thing out of the corner of my eye. Shivering, I hurried to the door. Hopefully, they’d finish their investigation quickly.

  The Medical Examiner pulled up just as I got into the car.

  I wondered who that guy was and what he was doing up on the roof. For the first time, I thought of that bundle of bones as a person. Wasn’t that I’m cold or unfeeling. Just the whole thing spooked me and I wasn’t thinking rationally. Of course, Callie had to investigate. I knew that. Sometimes I reacted before I took time to think.

  “How about we stop someplace for dinner?” Ed took my hand across the car seat.

  “I’m not very hungry. What do you suppose that man was doing up on the roof?”

  Ed shrugged. “Hard to say, Bea.”

  “You don’t really think he was murdered,
do you?” I shivered. The thought of someone killed in our house didn’t sit too good with me. Although I doubted that was the case, these days you just never knew.

  “I’m not sure what to believe. Let’s stop thinking about him, okay? Do you want to visit your mother or one of your sisters?”

  “Yeah, let’s go see Ethel. She’s always good for a laugh.” If ever I needed a laugh this was it. Nothing ever bothered me this way before, and I didn’t much care for the feeling. Course, a dead body never fell out of a chimney before either. I couldn’t wait to tell Ethel.

  Chapter Two

  No more had Ed pulled in the drive, I jumped out of the car and raced to tell Ethel what happened. “Oh boy, something smells good. What’s for lunch?” Suddenly I was starving.

  “Well, if I’da known you were coming I would have fixed lunch. The stuffed peppers are for dinner. I can fix you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I thought you were up at the cabin.”

  “No thanks. Ed will take me to Julienne’s Restaurant later. We were up there.” I waved her off and told her my story. “You should have seen it, Eth, there I was kneeling down just ready to pick the arm up and the finger fell off. As if that wasn’t bad enough, another damn arm fell. Scared the daylights out of me.”

  Ethel almost fell off her chair laughing. “I can just picture you.”

  “It wasn’t funny. Tell her, Ed. It wasn’t funny.” I looked at my husband and damn if he couldn’t contain his laughter either. “Edgar Leroy Eberhardt!” Now didn’t that just take the cake, Ed laughing at me?

  “Awe, honeybunch, the whole thing wasn’t funny at the time, but sure is now. You should have seen the look on your face. I thought you was gonna jump right out of your skin.”

  “Harrumph.” Funny, I’d show him funny later. Although now I thought about it, I guess it was funny. Try as I might, I couldn’t help laughing. “Okay, it was funny.”