Four

 

“Hang on, Chief. I’m not so sure this is a crime after all. At least not a murder.”

Pilgrim turned and headed back for the limo with Chief Benson right behind him.

Inside the cool interior, the Chief sighed as he closed the door. “I sure wish the city would spring for one of these for me.”

“More than the city budget for a year,” Carrie said, not looking up from the computer screen in front of her.

“Carrie,” Pilgrim said, “can you do a search of death notices in the last year. Pictures of woman the age of the statue out there.”

“Sure,” Carrie said, frowning.

While she was doing that, Pilgrim looked up the occupations of all the tenants in the building, including the landlord.

He found exactly as he figured he would find. Steven Frome, the owner of the building, owned three of the area funeral homes.

“Look for a death notice for Sue Frome,” Pilgrim said to Carrie.

“Already found her,” Carrie said, swinging around he computer screen showing a picture of Sue Frome. “Maiden name Smallwood.”

There was no doubt it was the woman in the statue.

“She died three months ago of terminal brain cancer,” Carrie said. “She went very quickly. In fact, this park is named after her since her husband donated a ton of money in her memory to upgrade it and put in new kid’s swings and such.”

“He made her into a statue and stuck her here?” Benson asked. “Creepy.”

“Death makes people do strange things at times,” Pilgrim said.

“She liked to spend time in the park her last weeks,” Carrie said. “And she was a top shot and loved to ride horses. All in the obituary.”

“That explains the gun and the hat,” Pilgrim said, nodding.

‘Oh, shit, now what am I supposed to do?” Benson asked. “I’m fairly certain there’s a rule against this somewhere.”

“I’d go talk to Steve Frome, get him to remove her to a more appropriate place and then put a real statue in her place.”

“Yeah, makes sense,” Benson said. “Better than the press getting wind of this. Can you imagine the news?”

“Ask him what he did with her goodies,” Carrie said as the Chief started to climb out.

“Her what?”

Pilgrim shook his head. “Never mind. Just Carrie’s name for this case is all.”

“You two are weird,” Benson said, smiling. “But thanks.”

After Benson got out and the computers were back into their hiding places, Carrie said, “Don’t you want to know what happened to the woman’s goodies?”

“Not even in the slightest,” Pilgrim said, shaking his head. “Curiosity about another man’s wife’s private parts can only lead to problems.”

“And you know this how?” Carrie asked, smiling.

Pilgrim dug out a Diet Coke for himself and handed Carrie a regular Coke. “How about we just let your imagination and memory work on that one while you drive us back to the office.”

“You are no fun at all, boss,” Carrie said, smiling as she took the offered can and started to climb out of the limo to move up to the front seat.

“That’s not what she said,” Pilgrim said, smiling.

All Carrie did was groan and then slam the door.