Death at the Country Club

By Dave Helmreich

Maggie and Jersey get involved in a case at the Country Club. Where the personalities are wide and the people are not so nice

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave Helmreich
• Release date: Jun 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458019264

Dave Helmreich

My background is varied. Degrees in chemistry and math. Taught in public high school. Coached and fathered four children and married for forty some years. Most of my adult life spent as a manager and VP of a small distrbuter of specialty piping tools.

Book preview

Prologue

Jersey Walcott and Maggie have returned from a relaxing cruise. Jersey is starting a new job at Columbus Country Club as assistant manager. He has been a member there for several years.

Just before he gets started, a crime is committed and of course, Jersey can’t help but get involved. He and Maggie gather clues in hopes of solving the crime. This is the third novel in a series.

Death at the Country Club

Maggie and I returned from the cruise well rested and well tanned. We had a wonderful time cruising the beautiful waters of the Caribbean. The ports we visited were fascinating and each was unique in its own way. We did a little shopping, a little gambling, and a lot of eating and drinking. In addition to all of this, we even solved a crime to rid the world of some more bad guys. Maggie was looking forward to getting back into her work. She once said, I can’t believe they pay me to do what I do. This is an indication of how much she enjoyed her job at the legal defense company. She liked it because every day was different, and every case was different. Also, the thought that she would be entering law school at Ohio State made her job much more meaningful.

I had thrown in the towel on my crime writing gigs and was going into a job with more structure than I have had since I was in the Army. I was going to work at the Columbus Country Club where I had a wealth of friends and a certain level of comfort. I liked Roger Peterson, for whom I was going to work, and in my own mind, I thought I could do some good there. But, still, I was walking somewhat blindfolded into a position I knew nothing about. You know what they say, Nothing like on-the-job training.

Once home, I busied myself, catching up on some once-started projects that never got finished. I needed to check in with Roger and get up to speed for my job in January. I was procrastinating about doing that; it was somewhat like stepping into a black hole, and who would want to do that?

I had been spending a lot of time cleaning up my garage. Men like to do that. I was thinking of getting a new or newer car. I’ve been driving a ten year old Buick and was tired of it. I wanted something that fit my image but I couldn’t define it yet.

Maggie and I had been getting along great. She had asked me several times about my new job, then, stopped asking. Basically, I didn’t know a lot about it. She sensed I was not as enthusiastic about it as I was initially. Maybe I was concerned about going to an office every day, or maybe it was about having somewhat regular hours. I think it was all of that and maybe more.

We planned to travel to her mother’s for Thanksgiving and I was really not looking forward to it. I’m not sure Maggie was either. We would spend the day in a house that was too hot with the television on too loud. Her mother was cooking a turkey, and we were taking the side dishes. I had met her mother twice before and somehow got the impression that I was robbing the cradle and taking her daughter away from her. Oh well, it was time to pull up our big boy pants and just grin and bear it.

Maggie was still one of the best things to happen to me. She was smart and logical, well organized, and generally a good person. Her red hair and freckles were one of her great assets along with her perfect white teeth and great smile. We enjoyed each other’s company and nagged at each other just a little bit, just enough to keep it interesting.

In another week, it would be December and I needed to check in with Roger at the club. Down deep, I was sure I would enjoy the work once I got into it. There were issues that needed to be addressed, and I think that Roger was counting on me to work them out. Roger is a good guy who has a lot of respect among the members. His golf history is not atypical of course managers. He was a phenomenal golfer as a young man, winning the Ohio amateur championship at the age of eighteen and many other honors before he was twenty. His goal was to be golf professional, and he turned pro on his twenty first birthday. With a few local backers from the Cincinnati area, he went to qualifying golf school; once there he realized his golf was very good, but so were the other hundred golfers he was competing with for spots on the pro tour. After two years, he realized his dream was disappearing. He returned to Cincinnati and became an assistance golf professional at a private club. There, he taught golf, ran the pro shop and learned about golf course administration. He was there for five years, and then he was offered his current job as General Manager of Columbus Country Club. He is a few years older than I, probably thirty-five, I think.

I called Maggie to see what her dinner plans were. She didn’t have any, so I suggested I pick up some Chinese and meet her at her apartment at six o’clock. She liked that idea. I patted myself on the back for being so thoughtful. I called Elite Oriental Dining and ordered Hunan chicken and spicy shrimp with cashews for pickup.

I got to her apartment, she buzzed me in, and I went up to her place. I was greeted with open arms, but remember, I was bringing food, so that made me a little more attractive.

She asked between bites of chicken and vegetables, What did you do today?

I had to think a minute as my days ran together.

I said, "Oh, not