Eye Sleuth's Ghostly Vacations, A Dr. Yoko Mystery: Dr. Yoko Mysteries, #3

By Hazel Dawkins

Does Dr. Yoko, the optometrist turned detective, see a ghost at the Deerfield Inn in Massachusetts? "It's a dream," scoffs Detective Dan but what does he know? He wasn't in the bedroom, he was called back to New York. Months later, at Pemaquid Point in Maine, Yoko & Dan come face to face with murder and...the ethereal Lavender Lady. Photos of Old Deerfield, Massachusetts, Pemaquid Point, Maine, and downright spooky astral entities add to the mayhem that's chillingly mysterious.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hazel Dawkins
• Release date: Jun 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781513050065

Hazel Dawkins

Hazel Dawkins, an editor-writer who started out in London's newspaper world, has worked in Paris and New York and is now based in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Her factual books on behavioral optometry, a valuable health care that is available in forty countries, are published by the OEP Foundation, the professional organization for optometrists (http://www.oepf.org). Titles such as The Suddenly Successful Student & Friends are also in e-books with lots of photos.

Book preview

Cover, Eye Sleuth’s Ghostly Vacations

Contents

The Deerfield Inn,

Old Deerfield, Massachusetts

Panic at Pemaquid point, Maine

Gallery of Photographs

A Note to the Reader

About the Author

Eye Sleuth’s Ghostly Vacations

A Dr. Yoko Mystery

Hazel Dawkins

Copyright © 2015 by Hazel R. Dawkins

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:

Dawkins, Hazel.

Eye Sleuth’s Ghostly Vacations, A Dr. Yoko Mystery

1. Old Deerfield, Massachusetts; 2. The Deerfield Inn, Deerfield, Massachusetts; 3. Pemaquid Point, Maine; 4. Hotel Pemaquid, Maine; 5. Optometric Vision Therapy; 6. The OEP Foundation, www.oepf.org; 7. The College of Optometry, State University of New York, New York City.

Photographs throughout are by F. D. Kindness (for copies, contact fdk17@gmail com). Photos of the Deerfield Inn and the Wells-Thorn House are Courtesy of Historic Deerfield.

The Hardy Ferry photo is Courtesy of the Hardy Ferry Co.

MurderProse logo by Mark Aller, markaller.com.

e-Design by QA Productions.

E-cover & photos of the astral entities of Cora Carlisle, the Floating Pirate's Head, and the Lavender Lady are the creations of Gilles de Vericourt

www.murderprose.com

Eye Sleuth’s Ghostly Vacations

A Dr. Yoko Mystery

eye

Hazel Dawkins

Murder Prose logo

The Deerfield Inn

Old Deerfield, Massachusetts

The Deerfield Inn

Yoko’s romantic ideas fizzled when Dan had to leave the Deerfield Inn.

Was that a rustling? The slight sound jerked Yoko awake instantly. A light sleeper, chronically so, it took her a few seconds to know where she was. Ah, I’m at the Deerfield Inn in Massachusetts. The bed was spacious and deliciously luxurious, definitely not like the one at Dan Riley’s place or the one in her apartment. The Police Chiefs conference at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst—or as pedantic Zoran Zeissing would insist, the International Association of Chiefs of Police—was over. Annoyingly, the spring weekend of R&R she and Dan Riley planned had never begun.

Less than an hour after the conference ended on Friday evening, the senior half of the quartet from NYPD’s 13th Precinct, Chief Sanders and Dan, were called back to New York. Promptly renting a car, the chief and Dan took off for Manhattan but Yoko stubbornly kept the reservation at the Deerfield Inn. Damned if she was going to lose a weekend of escape from work, a chance at some relaxation.

Now Yoko lay, body rigid, listening tensely, the polar opposite of relaxed. What was that noise? Did someone clear his or her throat? Was someone in the room? Who the hell could it be? A New Yorker born and bred, images of a brawny country mouse skittered across her mind’s eye. She squashed visions of bold cockroaches even bigger than the Manhattan tribes. Silence stretched for a shivering second and then there was the disturbing noise of a cough. Muffled, discreet, but definitely a cough. The sound set Yoko’s heart thudding and adrenaline flooded her body.

Wait, had Dan returned? He was unpredictable and loved practical jokes, oozing Irish charm after he scared her witless or arrived hours late for a date.

Cell phone not working? Yoko didn’t hesitate to go heavy on sarcasm.

Last minute tech work, Dan inevitably was sheepish. Wisely, he’d carry flowers.

Tech work was official cop speak for anything to do with Homeland Security.

Reluctantly, knowing that when they were called in, police in the special security details were forbidden to use their cell phones, Yoko mostly forgave him and took the flowers.

Yes, must be Dan in her room. Please. In the next moment, Yoko thought, I’ll throttle him, this isn’t funny. She took a tentative breath and risked a short syllable. Dan?

No answer.

Yoko’s heart was galloping so hard it felt it might rip through her ribs and burst out of her body. Raising her head a cautious inch off the pillow, Yoko scanned the room. Good grief, someone’s standing by the