One She Saw...A Blind Man: Ms Araminta Cozy Mystery Series Book 1

By Deborah Diaz

About the book:
"Once She Saw...A Blind Man" is the first installment of the Ms Araminta Cozy Mystery series written by rising author Deborah Diaz. The story revolves around the protagonist Miss Araminta and the surprising turn of events that take place after she witnessed a theft. Beautifully written, "Once She Saw...A Blind Man" is filled with moments of joy, happiness, sadness and despair. Each character in the book has an interesting back-story that makes them come to life. Sometimes things are not exactly what they seem. Only those who have the heart to dig deeper uncover the truth. And sometimes that one deed saves the lives of many! That is what we come to learn from "Once She Saw...A Blind Man". Order your copy to find out more!

Summary of the book:
"Once She Saw...A Blind Man" opens with the image of a quiet suburb in Nashville, Tennessee. Miss Araminta, the 67 year old retired insurance agent, is one of the residents of the Melrose suburbia. Though it was not the fanciest of neighborhoods, it had everything the people needed within walking distance. After losing her husband— the only man she had ever loved—in the Vietnam War, Ms. Araminta resolved to live alone. She now owns a small business of selling crocheted dish towels, stoles, mufflers, lap robes and so on. As a respected member of the church, she also does a lot of volunteer work and helps out people in need.

One morning while she was on her way to the grocery store, Miss Araminta spotted a seemingly well-to-do woman stealing change from Bill, the blind beggar that the local community knows and loves. Seeing someone steal from this helpless man left Miss Araminta shocked. But she knew she had to help the poor man and seek justice. As she proceeded to find more information about the thief, she discovered something she never guessed. Who is this woman? Why was she stealing from the blind beggar? Will Miss Araminta be able do right by Bill? Order your copy to find out!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Betty Johnson
• Release date: Feb 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310054334

Book preview

Once She Saw…

A Blind Man

Ms Araminta Cozy Mystery Series, Book 1

By: Deborah Diaz

Copyrighted material

Copyright 2015 by Deborah Diaz

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental.

About the Author

Deborah Diaz is a retired insurance adjustor. She is living at Tennessee and enjoys reading mystery novels during her free time.

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Smashwords Edition 2015

Manufactured in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Copyright

About the Author

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Recommended readings

Chapter 1

The little Melrose suburb of Nashville, Tennessee was not the fanciest area in the world. In fact, two interstate overpasses soared over its main street, and the rich folks’ area was just on the other side of the overpasses. Still, Melrose was respectable and entirely proper for a middle class maiden lady who was unencumbered by relatives.

Miss Araminta, who insisted on that title, was proud of the life she had lived. Having lost the only man she had ever loved in the jungles of Vietnam, Araminta had resolved never to marry. She was now 67 years old and retired from her position as an insurance agent, having saved enough money along the way to buy her own condo.

This condo was a new, first floor unit, and she could walk to most places she needed to go. She even had a designated parking space for her nice little Ford, and there was a crosswalk with a pedestrian-activated switch for crossing the busy highway to the area shops.

Though she was retired, Araminta was by no means idle. She volunteered with a battered women’s shelter her church supported. When she was not occupied with that, she crocheted dish cloths and dish towels from cotton yarn, and mufflers, stoles, and lap robes from acrylic yarn.

Everything she made had to be washable, because needy people required things that could be washed, and Araminta made things for needy people. The only time she sold her products was at church sales; the rest she gave away to help the women who had lost everything.

Also, Araminta enjoyed following the example of Queen Mary of England by using the peg looms currently being sold in fashionable craft shops. Nowadays, there were plastic peg looms you could even use to make hats, but Araminta always cherished the idea of the future King George VI of England knitting woolen mufflers for his future subjects under his mother’s critical eye. If a teenaged boy could learn to craft a muffler on pegs, Araminta knew she could also.

Now Miss Araminta got her trolley/hamper out of her hall closet to do some grocery shopping. She checked her change purse to make sure she had enough quarters to put into the hat of Bill, the blind beggar.

Bill had just turned up one day with his seeing-eye dog, and the neighborhood had taken him on as a project. Mr. Hamlin, the neighborhood grocer, let him and his dog sleep in the storage shed behind his store and kept the bathroom next to the stockroom unlocked.

Bill had refused all of Araminta’s efforts to refer him to various social work agencies; he didn’t want to be any trouble to anybody, he said. Outdoor living was just fine for him and Fido, as long as the grocer and his neighbors were willing to look out for them.

Finally, Sergeant Pierce of the local police force had convinced Araminta to let Bill live his life his own way. The Nashville police kept up with their homeless neighbors and understood why they had chosen their vagabond lifestyle.

Now Araminta stood just across the street from the grocery store, waiting for the traffic light to change. She could see Bill and his sweet, shaggy Fido sitting on the sidewalk with Bill’s hat upside down beside him. When it was wet outside, Mr. Hamlin always brought out a bit of old box or packing material for Bill to sit on, and Mack, the record producer who was Araminta’s neighbor, kept the blind man supplied with cheap umbrellas. Fortunately, today was sunny.

Suddenly, Araminta stopped and gasped. A lady had come out of the grocery store, was she bent hurriedly over Bill’s hat, scooping out the coins. This lady was well dressed, too, wearing a lightweight blue wool jumper, with matching purse and shoes.

Why would an obviously well-to-do person stoop to stealing from a blind man? Araminta was so shocked she even forgot to scream. The lady robber straightened up quickly and ran into the local diner before the shocked witness could even cross the highway.

When the light changed, Miss Araminta charged across the road and knelt down beside the blind man. Bill, you’ve just been robbed, she told him, knowing he might not have noticed. I’ll tell Mr. Hamlin about it when I go in to do my shopping, and I’ll be back out with some quarters for you later.

It was a lady, wasn’t it? Bill responded almost wistfully, as though he had had a pleasant experience. I caught a whiff of the perfume on her clothes. He put out a hand and touched Araminta’s. Look, Miss Araminta, don’t you go worrying yourself none. I ain’t been sitting here long enough to make much money, and the folks down at the diner will find me a bit of food this evening, no matter how little I’ve got.

He shook his head. Lord, if that poor woman needs what I’ve got, you’d best be praying for her instead of me.

When Miss Araminta ran into the store office to see Mr. Hamlin, he was friendly but discouraged her outrage. Lord, who’d have thought anybody would stoop to stealing from old Bill? I could put in a call to Sergeant Pierce at the local station, but I can’t see what he could do about it. That woman will be long gone before he could even get here. Don’t worry, I’ll see Bill doesn’t go hungry tonight.

Araminta fumed silently as she pulled her trolley/hamper around the grocery. Mr. Hamlin was probably right, and she already knew Bill would never make any effort to keep from becoming a victim. She had always believed the unfortunate should learn to pull up their socks and help themselves, but now, every time Araminta tried to help someone, she learned more and more about their mental health issues and sheer emotional lassitude that kept these miserable people in the gutter. Well, this time she was at least going to try to find the robber in this case and give this woman a good talking to.

Finished with her shopping, Miss Araminta dropped some quarters into Bill’s hat and pulled her little trolley into the neighborhood diner, where she found only the proprietress standing behind the counter. Billie Sue, she began, you just served a woman wearing a light blue wool dress.

Yes, I did, Billie Sue replied without any surprise. She had seen Miss Araminta’s shocked reaction to the theft from across the street. "I knew that dame was in some kind of trouble. She had mended that wool sheath pretty carefully, but I could tell