The Red Coat: Sophie Collins Mystery, #1

By Madge Gressley

Sophie Collins is not just another sappy, teenage sleuth. Raw and gutsy, this street-wise, self-determined gal depends on no one. Left to her own devices at fourteen when her mother disappears and believing she has no family, she tries to make things work. But her math teacher, nosey old lady Crabtree, at her school, turns Sophie’s life upside down when she reports her to Family Services. Escaping the foster home in Trenton, Sophie takes out on her own, and slowly makes her way to her mother’s hometown of Tuck Point Falls, Minnesota.

After months on the road, Sophie finally arrives in Tuck Point Falls where she is befriended by old man Johnson of Johnson’s Department Store when she sets up house in a discarded, cardboard refrigerator box behind his store. Sophie finds a red coat in Johnson’s dumpster and soon finds herself drawn into a murder investigation. Can she solve the murder and the mystery of her past before it’s too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Madge Gressley
• Release date: Apr 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781516825097

Book preview

The Red Coat

second edition

A Sophie Collins Mystery

By

Madge H. Gressley

This book is a work of fiction. It is a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, Organizations, or events is coincidental.

A Sophie Collins Mystery Book 1- The Red Coat

Copyright © 2015 by Madge H. Gressley

This is copyrighted material. All rights are reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced without the author’s permission, with the exception of reviews.

Introduction

Sophie Collins is not just another sappy, teenage sleuth. Raw and gutsy, this street-wise, self-determined gal, depends on no one. Left to her own devices at fourteen when her mother disappears and believing she has no family, she tries to make things work. But her math teacher, nosey old lady Crabtree, at her school, turns Sophie’s life upside down when she reports her to Family Services. Escaping the foster home in Trenton, Sophie takes out on her own, and slowly makes her way to her mother’s hometown of Tuck Point Falls, Minnesota.

After eighteen months on the road, Sophie finally arrives in Tuck Point Falls where she is befriended by old man Johnson of Johnson’s Department Store when she sets up house in a discarded, cardboard refrigerator box behind his store. Sophie finds a red coat in Johnson’s dumpster and soon finds herself drawn into a murder investigation. Can she solve the murder and the mystery of her past before it’s too late?

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 1

The cold set in earlier than usual and it had started to snow again. When that happened, old man Johnson, owner of Johnson’s Department Store would toss out returned or slightly damaged clothes for some cold soul to find, and lately, most of the clothes had been in Sophie’s size.

Old man Johnson had taken a special interest in Sophie ever since he noticed she had taken up residence in a cardboard refrigerator box behind the row of dumpsters in the back of his store. He worried about her. Nobody, especially a child, should have to live in a cardboard box. So he kept an eye on her and every other day or so he would invite her into his office for a doughnut or soda, and if he could, get her to eat, a sandwich.

He didn’t pump her for personal information. But. from the little tidbits he’d garnered here and there, he guessed she was a runaway. He figured if he started asking she’d just clam up and not come in at all or maybe move on, and he didn’t want that to happen. He didn’t know why, but he felt responsible for her safety.

Sophie enjoyed talking to old man Johnson. He was funny and always had a funny story for her. What she liked best about old man Johnson was that he didn’t try to invade her space by asking too many nosey questions. She enjoyed her privacy ... nobody needed to know her business. She didn’t need another freakin’ old lady Crabtree messin’ in her affairs. She’d still be back in Trenton in her cozy little cottage if old lady Crabtree hadn’t turned her into those darn Family people.

Now, here I am in this box. It ain’t all that bad, she thought surveying the inside of the box. It’s big and strong, except for that corner where the packing tape had come come loose. Yes, sir, I’m doing just fine by myself, she thought with satisfaction sitting back on her haunches.

It had taken her months to get to Tuck Point Falls and now that the snow had started in earnest, she had decided to stay ... for now.

For the last two days, Sophie had been watching and hoping old man Johnson would toss out some discarded pieces of clothing. She sure could use a new coat and another sweater. Her old coat had lost all but one of its buttons and her sweater had begun to unravel across the bottom.

Considering the fact that maybe she had missed him when she went to the mission to eat or when she had gone over to Bennie’s Coffee Shop for one of Bennie’s ‘Sophie Specials’ as he calls them, she decided to rummage through the dumpster just in case she had missed him.

As she dug through the discards from the store, she hoped that someone hadn’t already snatched up the good stuff.

Standing in the middle of the dumpster, she looked up at the big fluffy flakes falling. She felt the cold wetness as they drifted on her face and clung to her blonde curls.

It was snowing harder now. She needed to hurry. Pushing aside a box full of rattling plastic hangers, hardened from the cold, she saw a piece of bright red cloth buried under a stack of boxes. She pulled on the cloth, dislodging the boxes, barely missing her head as they tumbled down. The piece of cloth was the sleeve of an almost new, full-length, winter coat.

Sophie caressed the soft fabric with her cold fingers and wondered who would have thrown out such a wonderful coat. Quickly she stuffed her cold hands into the pockets feeling for anything that might have been forgotten by the previous owner.

You never know what goodies you might find, she told herself, excited at the thought of hidden treasures in the depths of the pockets.

In the right pocket, she found a wad of store receipts, and as she pushed her cold fingers farther into the left pocket, she found a theater ticket that had slipped halfway through a hole in the lining. Stuffing the theater ticket and receipts in the pocket of her old coat, she climbed out of the dumpster. Clutching the coat to her chest, she scurried back to the cardboard box she had called home since arriving in Tuck Point Falls.

Behind Martin’s Furniture Store, Sophie had found the box. It had held a double-door refrigerator. She had carefully checked it over noticing that the packing tape was still good, and to her delight it had only been opened at one end. There was a weak corner, but she would get that patched up when she found some duct tape.

Sophie was particularly proud that she had managed to fit the box behind the row of dumpsters where it had some protection from the elements and would not be damaged by the trash trucks when they emptied the dumpsters.

She had worked especially hard to get the box in just the right position so it was right in front of the dryer exhaust vent from Klein’s Laundry. It was the perfect spot so she had to be careful no one tried to lay claim to it when she was gone.

Before leaving on her daily rounds, she always pulled a couple bags of trash from one of the dumpsters and stacked them in front of the box, camouflaging it from would-be-thieves and squatters. 

Spreading the coat out, Sophie ran her fingers over the luxurious surface, wondering