The Trailer Park Detective

By Gerald Goble

Eric Hunter a modern private detective lives in a trailer in a trailer park and handles small cases that keep him busy and provides a small income. The owner of the park Grace Baker acts as his girl Friday directing his clients to him. Here he becomes caught up in recovering a painting from a painter that was murdered for a beautiful but mysterious young woman. This investigation goes on in between angry Ex-wives getting him to correct the behavior of their Ex-husbands. But now there is a wealthy Arabic man and a wealthy African after something the dead painter was supposed to have done.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Goble
• Release date: Oct 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370957521

Gerald Goble

Gerald Goble has PhD in Theoretical Physics and has been a research scientist, teacher, federal employee, businessman, manager, and martial arts instructor. He is author of several scientific publications, U.S. Army Publications on Ammunition and Explosives, non fiction books "The Way of Two as One“, "The Bear Slayer – Women’s Self-Defense“; the fiction books, the Bunko Club Murder series, and the Jack Wellington UN Attaché Series, Westerns “Jacob’s Coat”, "Strays" and "Warrior Woman" and Science Fiction, "The Majestic Committee."

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The Trailer Park Detective

By

Gerald Goble

The Trailer Park Detective

By

Gerald Goble

The Trailer Park Detective

By

Gerald Goble

Copyright © 2016 Gerald Goble

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including, photocopying, recording, taping by or by an information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author with the exception of brief quotations. This is a work of fiction.

For Joan my friend my love.

Chapter 1

The trailer park was small with only eight spaces. There were large trees on all sides with a green space of about twenty feet with a fence with the only opening a gate at the front. There were bushes and in some cases picnic tables under the trees. All of the trailers had older residents and the only children that appeared there were visiting grand parents. On the roads outside you had to look carefully to see that it was a trailer park. There was a small wooden house at the front where the owner of the park, Grace Baker lived.

Eric Hunter’s trailer was the first trailer on the left of the park when you came into the park. It was morning when Eric came out of his bedroom in a tee shirt, shorts and flip-flops squinting at the bright sunlight coming from the far window. The small trailer consisted of a bedroom on one end followed by a bathroom with a hallway leading to a dining room, office and kitchen in one large room. Eric closed the bathroom door as he passed it in the narrow hallway. There was a second knock on the outside door of the dining room and office. He said in a loud voice, Yeah, yeah, just a minute. He looked at the clock on the wall above the kitchen counter. It read 8:30 in the morning. He looked out the narrow window on the door at a blonde twenty-something woman in a black skirt and white blouse. The buttons of the blouse were pulled by the size of her upper body. He cracked the door an inch then said, Just a second, let me get something on. He turned and went to his bedroom and returned pulling on a wrinkled pair of gray slacks, he dumped on the floor last night before falling in bed.

He returned and opened the door, and the young woman stepped up the wooden steps and in. He thought, Where were you last night?

The young woman asked, You are Eric Hunter the detective?

Eric nodded and said, Yes, as he motioned her toward a chair at the dining room table. As she took a seat, he hurriedly picked up a saucer, plate, cup and silverware from last night’s supper and placed them in the sink. He turned back to her leaning against the counter, How can I help you, he paused looking at her hand and said, Miss... As he talked, he glanced down at her blouse, which had pulled open slightly at a button showing a pink bra underneath. Eric had the momentary thought, Looks a little tawdry.

She saw the glance and placed her palms together on the table. The side pressure caused the blouse to close. She crossed her legs and said, I’m Betty Lou Waggoner, and I was told about you by Wanda Barting at the beauty parlor, and Grace at the park office pointed out your trailer. Oh yes, Grace says she has some messages for you.

Eric said, OK, then how can I help you? He turned to the coffee maker on the counter removed the plastic basket, stepped on a foot paddle of a white metal trash can to open the lid, dumped the old coffee and filter in the trash and released his foot causing the lit to close.

She watched as he opened a cabinet door and extracted a filter and a plastic container of coffee. She said, I need someone to find my Ex. The son-of-a-bitch got three grand out of my bank account and took off.

He stopped scooping coffee into the new filter long enough to get a printed three by five card and a pad of paper from the counter and put it on the table with a pen. He said, I am going to need some information. Your address, bank account number, his name and last address, and where does he work? He paused to empty and refill the pitcher for the coffee maker with water and pour it in the coffee maker then continued, Give me a description of him, and where he likes to hangout? He leaned against the counter watching her as the coffee maker began hissing and bubbling.

As she was writing she looked about the room. The cabinet that he kept the coffee in was filled with small tin cans of vegetables, fruit, cans of Spam and other things indicating that he mostly fixed meals for one. Next to the cabinet on the left was a shelf with laptop computer, printer and a small metal box containing cards. Below the shelf was a gray metal filing cabinet. On the wall above the shelf were several certificates on the wall, a tax certificate, an award from the US Post Office, a letter from the US Department of Agriculture and a certificate of completion from the FBI Training Course at Quantico. She asked, Did you use to work for the FBI?

Eric smirked and said, No, I took their course, but I worked for several other government agencies as an investigator. I’m forty-five and no, I don’t do strong-arm work, there are usually other ways to get what you want. Sorry I didn’t step out of a Raymond Chandler novel.

She fished in her purse for several things and wrote on the pad as he watched. She paused writing and looked him up and down. She said,So now you work out of a trailer.

He said, Well it keeps my expenses down and my rates low. By the way, my fees are ten dollars an hour for research, twenty dollars an hour for face-to-face interviews, travel expenses if I have to go out of town and twenty dollar an hour if I have to go to court. You will get a detailed expense sheet. He paused to pour himself a cup of coffee and dump sugar from a dispenser in it then said, I expect Wanda told you that. He picked up a business card next to the laptop and handed it to her and said, The general expenses are on the back.

She said, She only said you were reasonable, but you got her husband Jake to fork over the money she was supposed to get. I’ve seen Bubba. He’s big and doesn’t look like he would do anything he doesn’t want to do. My Ex Gary isn’t nearly his size.

Eric smirked again and said, Well there are ways other than muscle. He took sip of coffee and asked, Would you like a cup of coffee?

Betty said, It looks a little strong for me. I wouldn’t mind some cold water.

He turned to a cabinet removed a crystal glass, pushed it into the side of the refrigerator for two ice cubes and then ran water into the glass from the sink. He placed the glass on the table and retrieved the pad she had written on.

Eric asked, How did he get access to the funds?

Betty said, I think he slipped into my house took my bank card, extracted the funds from several ATMs then put it back. The card one day was upside down in my wallet that was in my purse. I always have it right-side up to distinguish it from another card from the bank. I thought I had changed all the locks. I don’t know how he got in.

Eric asked, "Does he have any experience in burglary, or does he know anyone that does?

Betty said, He can barely walk without tripping over his own feet. I can’t even imagine him slipping into my house at night leaving then slipping back in and out. As far as his knowing someone that could do it, he hangs out at Grover’s Bar and Grill on the east side and there are a lot of bums like him there.

Eric said, I know the place, is that where you think I’ll find him?

Betty said, Probably, he’s usually there, and he wasn’t at his apartment. They know me over at Grover’s and would probably shove him in some back room or something when they saw me enter. Gary probably won’t have much of what he took, cause he would have to pay his helper whoever he is and Gary probably spent most of it, because it was quick and easy money. She paused then said, But he needs to know not to try it again.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a small picture and handed it to him, This is a picture of him at a party about six months ago.

Eric took the picture and said, I will copy and return the picture. You may want to have a security firm place automatic alarms in your house to discourage another incident like this.

She smiled and said, "I have my father