The Mommy Detectives and the Bingo Hall Mystery Read online

  The Mommy Detectives

  and the Bingo Hall Mystery

  By

  Alathia Paris Morgan

  This is a work of fiction and in no way meant to portray actual people, names, places, events, or situations. The ideas were from the author’s own imagination and any resemblance to people living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright: May 2017 Alathia Morgan

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the case of quotations for articles and reviews.

  Acknowledgements: Thanks so much to my editor; I couldn’t have done it without you. Rebel Edit & Design

  Book cover: As always credit for the book cover design goes to Nicole Paris, thank you for all you do!!

  To: My own personal cheering section: Gerald Short. You let me know I could do this and not let failures get in the way. Your encouragement means so much to me that I named a character after you.

  Last, but never least, my amazing, crazy, wonderful mom. I might have based the idea of Carolina from things you do that make me want to scream, but you are truly an inspiration.

  Chapter 1

  “Carrots and Peas!” Sunni Wilson exclaimed as a gold Monte Carlo cut her off by crossing from the left into the right lane, then turning.

  Sunni, as usual, was running late to her MOMs, or Mothers of Munchkins, group again. These days, she never made it to anything on time. At least, not the important things, like meetings or doctor’s appointments, but mention an afternoon sale and she would be the first one there and five minutes early.

  Quickly, Sunni pulled into a parking space, trying to make up the time she had lost.

  Brushing her medium length brown hair behind her ear, she tried to wait patiently for the twins to exit the van.

  “Hurry up, kids. We’re late, and we don’t want to miss the entire meeting.” Motioning them out of the van, Flynn began to search for his missing shoe. Sunni sighed. “Stand here, Lily. Don’t move or you’ll get run over by a car.” Sunni placed a knee on the floor of the van and stuck her head in-between the seats while reaching a hand under the seat to retrieve the missing shoe.

  “Flynn, sweetie, sit here and I’ll put your shoe back on. Next time, let’s leave both of them on until we get to the place we’re going, okay?” She wiggled the shoe onto a foot that refused to stay still. Placing the foot on her thigh to tie it, Sunni only hoped they were not too terribly late now.

  “All right. Stand with your sister, Flynn,” Sunni commanded as she reached for the oversized purse she had tossed to the ground as the shoe searching efforts had begun. Slamming the van door, she reached for the twins’ hands and started for the building with hurried steps.

  “Mom, you didn’t lock the van,” Lily reminded her.

  Pausing to find the key in her purse, she hit the button on the fob and was rewarded with a satisfying beep.

  “Thank you, Lily Bell. What would I do without you?” Sunni smiled at her four-year-old daughter approvingly. She reached for Flynn’s hand again, just as a rock was about to be inserted into his nose.

  “Flynn, don’t put rocks in your nose, okay?” Exasperated, Sunni picked up the pace as they neared the building.

  “Mom, I wasn’t going to put it in my nose. I was just making sure it would be a perfect fit. I have to find the perfect one for my experiment.” Flynn held his fingers a slight bit apart to show what size rock he would need.

  “Well, next time, ask me first and I can help you find one so you don’t have to look as hard.” Sunni was relieved when Flynn brightened at the idea of her helping him in his search.

  She let go of Lily’s hand as she held the door open for them to walk through. Sunni couldn’t help but compare the twins. Lily and Flynn were the same size and had similar facial features, but they couldn’t have been more different.

  Flynn was all boy. He was loud, and always out to discover the world and how it worked. The twin with the biggest imagination, he was always into something, trying to build a tower or fort so that he could be the hero in his made-up world.

  Lily, on the other hand, was quiet and observant for the most part. She had a very girly streak, but could be persuaded by Flynn to join him on an adventure if it suited her mood that day.

  When they combined their efforts, the amount of mischief they could come up with was astronomical compared to what their older brother, Dusty, had been able to accomplish by himself.

  Arriving at the room for the children’s activities, Sunni signed both children in and began walking toward the large meeting room. Taking a few deep breaths as she made her way forward, she tried to relax.

  The children are fine and we made it, so focus on having a good time.

  MOMs were a group of women who had preschool age children who needed a chance to get away, to speak with other adults. It was the mommy version of AA, because there was never any guilt or judgement on what a particular mom was struggling with at home. Well, that was the way it was supposed to work, Sunni corrected herself. Not everyone was able to be objective about what they heard.

  Still, it was a great to know there were many others having the same problems with their preschool aged children.

  She slipped quietly into a seat near the back. Sunni was surprised that she had only missed the opening announcements.

  Perri, one of the group leaders, was introducing the speaker for the evening.

  “Karen is going to tell us a few ways to have patience with our children, and a way for the family to engage in activities together that will build communication.” Perri motioned toward the slim woman of about fifty to begin.

  “Meditation is always a good way to relieve stress, allowing for a more patient frame of mind with which to operate from.” Karen’s voice droned on as Sunni’s mind tried to imagine a way in which she could actually find five minutes, much less thirty of silence to meditate in her very noisy household.

  There were meetings when Sunni was certain that the expert had never had children at all, or had simply forgotten the days when their children were small and all-consuming in their needs.

  Sunni brought her focus back to what Karen was saying. “Yoga is a great family activity for the entire family to engage in together. While your young or smaller children won’t be able to follow all the positions, it can be a wonderful way in which to laugh and have a good time together. Don’t take yourself too seriously. While Yoga is meant as a form of exercise, just remember, doing something together is what builds communication.” The moms all clapped as Perri stepped back up to thank their speaker.

  “Let’s try to discuss these ideas as we break into our smaller groups for crafts and refreshments.” Perri nodded toward the tables setup in three different areas so the moms could have a little more one-on-one interaction with each other.

  Sunni’s group consisted of Kristi, a single mom of two girls. Vicki, who homeschooled her five children—three boys and two girls. Then Olive, the career mom who was a real estate agent, mom of a three-year-old girl, and was expecting another in six months. Not that you could tell from the size of her small waist, though. Cheri was the only grandmother who was raising her grandchildren, a tween-ager and two toddlers, ages two and one. She was the newest addition to their small group since parenting had changed so much since she’d had her daughter twenty plus years ago. Last, but never least in Sunni’s mind was Miles, the only stay at home dad in the whole MOMs group. He had two teenagers and a five-year-old with autism.

  Olive was the one in charge, and she had their activity ready to start as they reached their table.
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  “I know it’s early to start working on Thanksgiving, but since we only meet every other week, I thought the sooner the better. I found this on Pinterest and thought of how wonderful they would be for a fall centerpiece.” She gestured toward the table and supplies in each spot.

  Each member had a pumpkin, empty can, knife, and candle sitting in front of their spots.

  “Take your knives and cut a hole large enough for the can to fit inside of. It’ll help hold the shape of the pumpkin. Place all the extras in the container so you can use them later.” Olive demonstrated with her own knife in a quick and efficient manner. “Now that the centers are held in place, you can place the stones in the can and either put a candle or flower arrangement in the center, creating an amazing design in seconds that will look amazing on your table for Thanksgiving.

  “Just remember, the pumpkins will only stay fresh for about two weeks, so make sure you don’t begin too early or it won’t last until the day you need it.” Impatience filled Olive’s voice. Sunni watched as Olive grew more frustrated when the adults started to play around with the knives and pumpkins. “Let’s remember that we’re all adults.”

  Miles piped in. “I don’t see any adults here, just a few overgrown kids having some fun with this pumpkin mash.” In a singsong voice, he continued. “It was the pumpkin mash, a thanksgiving smash, it caught on in a flash of turkey bones…” He paused to look at the blank faces around him. “What? Don’t tell me you’ve never changed the words to a song before.”

  Kristi burst out laughing. “I try to sing the children’s songs to different lyrics every day. I can’t handle the amount of times I hear the same song over and over. That was a great remake, Miles.”

  The only reason the group wasn’t blessed with an outburst from Olive was because Perri moved in smoothly to handle the situation.

  Sunni appreciated the mediating skills Perri showed to keep the situation from going nuclear. “Why don’t we finish up and head over to the dessert table for our refreshments, and get into small group time?”

  She caught the grateful look Olive flashed to Perri as she focused back on what Olive was saying. “Take your pumpkin seeds home and you can bake them for a snack with spices sprinkled over them.”

  Sunni never wanted to be the one in charge, so she didn’t mind whenever Olive took over or got a little bossy. She knew it got on some of the other’s nerves occasionally, but no one wanted to hurt Olive’s feelings.

  After Sunni and the others hit the dessert table, Perri, a seasoned mom of eight, started the sharing session time. She was the perfect match for group leader as the mom of a blended family, and the counselor at the high school due to her vast experience. She took over the sharing session with a time for discussing problems and the good things that had happened that week.

  “So, guys and gals, how are things going this week?” Perri hoped from all the smiles that things were going well.

  “Let’s start with you, Kristi.”

  Sunni could barely concentrate on what the others were saying because she had a question, but was the last to share since her topic was not about children. It was more about the senior citizen problem, really, now that she thought about it.

  When her turn arrived, Sunni was hesitant about broaching the subject. “If this is not okay, then just let me know. I don’t want to bring up a taboo topic. I just really need some help.”

  “Oh, Sunni, it can’t be that bad. Go ahead and tell us.” Perri invited.

  “Yes, now you have us all curious, and I don’t plan on my cat dying today, so spill,” Miles persuaded with only a slight grin around the corners of his mouth.

  “I think there might be drugs being sold to the senior citizens at the bingo hall where I take my Aunt Marie.” She waved a hand dismissively. “I probably imagined it, and it was really something simple. I mean, why would someone sell drugs to the senior citizens, right?”

  Perri took her concern seriously. “Something made you feel uncomfortable about what you saw, so tell us what happened so we can give you some advice.”

  “It was more of a feeling,” Sunni began. “There was a man in a vest and bow tie handing out grocery sacks of something. He didn’t hand one to every person that walked out. In fact, it was only about five or six people out of the thirty plus that left, but it just seemed odd.”

  “It does sound a bit fishy. Why was he so dressed up?” Kristi wondered.

  “He could’ve been handing out lunches. There are some groups that do that kind of thing,” Cheri commented.

  “He just seemed so…oh, what’s the word…polished?” Sunni frowned in frustration as her thoughts eluded her.

  “Suave! He was probably smiling too much and being too charming. They used to call them con men. I’m sure that these days there’s a politically correct term for it,” Olive provided happily.

  “Exactly. He just seemed to be going overboard with his charm toward the seniors, and it was both women and men that he was talking with.” Sunni felt relieved to have summed it up for everyone.

  “I don’t like to get into other people’s business because, well, it’s their business, but this just sort of hit me wrong and I wanted to know if I should tell someone. Only, I don’t know what exactly is going on, so…” Sunni trailed off.

  “I always call the cops when I see something that’s suspicious,” Cheri chimed in. “Simply because you never know what some of these young hoodlums are really up to, and I want to sleep well knowing I informed the authorities.”

  “I don’t ever call the cops unless there are bullets being fired. With my neighbor, I can’t take a chance that she’s just doing her gardening at midnight instead of it being a prowler. I don’t want her getting shot by mistake.” Kristi shook her head, grinning at some of the things Ms. Carolina did next door.

  “Seriously, I would call the police more often because of the things your neighbor does, not less.” Olive grimaced whenever Kristi’s kooky neighbor was mentioned.

  “It’s off topic, I know, but I heard something last night. When I looked outside, I could see her dancing in a bikini in the back yard with a circle of candles lit so we could see everything that the bikini didn’t cover.” Kristi giggled as she told the story.

  “I asked her this morning what was going on and she said, “If you do a moonlight dance on the first night of the full moon, then you’ll ward off evil through the winter.” Kristi took a deep breath. “I was trying so hard not to laugh, but I needed to know what the bikini was about so I asked her why the bikini?

  “Carolina just looked at me and whispered, “If you do the dance naked, the winter gods will be appeased and no evil will befall you. Not that I believe in those old tales, but I couldn’t just put all this out there for everyone to see. I mean, it doesn’t really change the dance if you have something covering your important parts, right?” As she said this, she motioned to her plump figure in her housecoat,” Kristi said with laughter.

  “Honestly, I was just so thankful that she covered the important parts. I did agree with her that it wouldn’t change the intention of the dance. I think seeing her dance like that was more than enough to ward off evil through the spring at least.” Kristi laughed again.

  “Oh, my. Is she stable? I mean, is she safe to have roaming around like that?” Vicki spoke, concerned that Ms. Carolina could be dangerous.

  “She’s actually a sweetheart, but completely gullible. I think one of the neighborhood men put her up to it just so they could get her naked. Not quite what they were planning on, though, I would suspect.”

  “Sounds like something my granddad might do to convince a pretty girl to try.” Miles shook his head, grinning.

  “Humorous, but I don’t think that really helped with Sunni’s problem. I think we can safely say that bikini dancing is not what we’re looking for, or is calling the authorities. Any thoughts?”

  Sunni watched in admiration as Perri redirected the group back onto the topic at hand.

 
“Why don’t you take some pictures of this man and see if you can find out who he is. Then, if you feel that you need to go to the authorities, you’ll have the proof you need to show them,” Vicki cautiously suggested.

  “You mean, like, go undercover?” Sunni wasn’t sure she could be that covert.

  “Just information gathering. He could see you picking up your aunt and not suspect anything, but this way, there would be no danger to you if he’s involved in something shady,” Kristi added. “Pictures and descriptions of what he’s doing and when would be helpful to the police. They don’t have extra time to investigate possibilities.”

  “True, they’re more interested about catching the culprit afterward than prevention in most cases. Okay, I think I can do a little reconnaissance work and let you know what happens next time.” Smiling, Sunni was relieved to have a game plan that didn’t involve her getting shot by some drug dealer.

  “Wonderful, Sunni! Now we can be your detective support group as well. If you need us to help out, I’m sure that most of us would be willing to take a shift watching him if we really need to,” Perri suggested.

  “Any last questions before we dismiss?” Sunni was always glad that Perri made sure there weren’t any unspoken issues left in the group.

  “Great, we’ll see you next time. Have a wonderful week.”

  Sunni glanced at the clock and hurried to pick up her two children from their class so she wouldn’t be late to pick up Dusty from his friend’s house.

  Trying to balance the pumpkin and hold both the twins’ hands proved impossible, so she improvised as she made her way to the van.

  I’m so glad they didn’t think I was crazy. Now I have a game plan and a way to find out if I was right in my suspicions. She took a deep breath, feeling relieved, and herded her children into the van, putting it out of her mind until she went to pick up Aunt Marie a week later.