Flipping Houses Is Murder (A Poppy Parker Cozy Mystery Book 1)

By C. D. Ryle

Poppy has chosen to make flipping houses her career instead of following in the footsteps of her mom, who is chief of police of Union, Kentucky. She has chosen to flip a 1950’s ranch house in Florence, Kentucky. On the first day of demo, she learned that the smell inside the house is not rotting food in the fridge, but a murdered body. Poppy soon learns that the body is Mr. Miller, the original owner of the house and she is determined to find who killed him. Mr. Miller has made enemies with all of his neighbors, so sorting out which one killed him is not an easy task. Was he killed for a business deal gone bad? Where is his money? Why does everyone hate him?

• Language: English
• Publisher: C. D. Ryle
• Release date: Feb 8, 2019

Book preview

Flipping Houses Is Murder

(A Poppy Parker Cozy Mystery Book 1)

C.D. Ryle

Poppy

This book takes place in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The locations are from my memory and are real, but the book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. If you think you see yourself in this book, Carly Simon wrote a song about you.

Chapter 1

Poppy eyed the windows of her newly acquired foreclosure auction house in Florence, Kentucky. Just a few short hours ago, she was given access to the house, which like most auctions did not come with keys.

She had spent the morning having water and electric turned on inside the house, and now she was standing in front of her new purchase, growing impatient as she waited for the locksmith. It was hot out, and she didn't want to stand outside for an hour or more waiting for the locksmith. She contemplated drilling out the lock herself, but the last time she drilled out a lock, it went badly, and the entire door had to be replaced.

Still, she was eager to see what she had purchased, and the locksmith was late. She walked around the side of the house, trampling on the weeds that had not been cut in months. After passing several windows that were obviously locked, she found an unlocked window that appeared to be about five feet off the ground.

She reached up and started prying it with her fingers. It was hot, and the mixture of sweat and weeds was making her itch terribly as she tried to wiggle the window.

Poppy was getting nowhere, so she walked to her car, and picked up a paint scraper, a large screwdriver, and a hammer thinking that they would help her pry the window open. She could feel the window was unlocked as she hammered and wiggled at the window using the paint scraper for leverage.

It was slow hot work as Poppy wiggled the window trying to open enough to get her fingers into it so that she could try to slide it open. She needed more leverage to get the window open, so she shimmied up the wall, perching precariously on the small window ledge trying to gain enough leverage to open the window.

She almost had the window jimmied open enough to slide her finger under when someone asked, Why are you breaking into the Miller’s house? Poppy lifted her head from her work and saw a man, holding a shotgun pointed right at her. She slowly edged down from the window with her hands in plain sight, dropping her tools to the patch of weeds below her feet.

I, uh, I she tried to speak, but her voice trembled so much that it was nearly nonexistent. I bought the place at auction. she stammered. I can show you the paperwork from my truck. she offered.

There has not been a for sale sign up. The man stated as he held the gun pointed at Poppy.

Still shaking, Poppy responded, I bought it at the courthouse steps, it was a foreclosure.

The man stared at her, not moving for a few seconds, his gun still pointing at Poppy. Poppy felt like it was an eternity before he slowly lowered his weapon.

Well then, I guess that means we are neighbors. He said, with a friendly disposition that didn’t seem possible to Poppy after hearing his stern voice moments prior.

Yeah, I am waiting for the locksmith, she said, with more control over her voice. I just bought this one, and I am dying to see inside.

I am Cody. He replied Cody Knox. He held out his hand to shake hers, which she reluctantly responded to by shaking his hand.

I’m Poppy.

Cody was very tall with a very muscular build, and Poppy tried not to stare at his arms, which were larger than her thighs. He was wearing a white tee shirt and a jean jacket over top of his tee. He had well worn, expensive looking motorcycle boots. His sandy brown hair was a little too long and looked like it needed to be trimmed, but he had no facial hair. Poppy had noticed all of this while he was carefully leaning his gun against her flip house.

Cody reached down and picked up the screwdriver and the hammer and with one sharp motion, opened the window before turning to Poppy and handing the tools back to her. Poppy noticed that he did not even have to stand on his tip toes to reach the window and she felt awkward watching him perform this action so quickly.

Thanks, she replied.

Without speaking, Cody nodded his head and turned back towards his house. Poppy watched him until he went back inside, still not convinced that he was not going to come back with his gun once she was inside.

Poppy was still thinking about their odd introduction as she scooted through the window and into the house, but the smell snapped her back to reality. The smell of garbage, dog urine, cat poo or a combination of the three was one that Poppy would never get used to.

Typically people leaving the house left a fridge full of food that rotted and smelled horrific and because she now owned the house, removing it was her job.

She had phoned for a dumpster delivery earlier, and she was glad it would be delivered later that day so that she could quickly rid the house of the horrible stench. She reminded herself that she would need to call Bo, her demo guy to get rid of the stinky carpet and refrigerator as fast as possible, but right now she wanted to see what she had purchased.

She pulled her shirt over her nose as she headed towards the front door, to open it for ventilation, but even that did not offer any relief. This house smelled. Poppy walked through the house quickly, eyeing each room.

It was a pretty typical four-bedroom ranch with a basement laundry area and a two car garage. The house contained three larger bedrooms plus a smaller one and lucky for her, two full bathrooms. She walked to what she figured should be the master and opened the closet, which was still full of clothing. Unfortunately, 1950's ranch homes didn't have walk-in closets, so she walked the house trying to figure out how to lose one bedroom and gain a walk-in closet for the master bedroom.

Very quickly the smell overwhelmed her, so Poppy left the house for some fresh air. As she was heading to her car to sketch out her design, her phone rang. It was her boyfriend, James, and he was calling just as the locksmith pulled in to change the locks on the front door.

Poppy had dealt with this locksmith so often that he knew her by name. He greeted her with a salute and walked past her, with his tools in hand. Without a word, he started to work on drilling out the lock.

Poppy answered her phone and immediately heard James sweet, soothing voice on the other end. James had been gone on a business trip over the weekend, and Poppy had missed him so much. She had been busy going to her grandma's 90th birthday party, and while that took most of Saturday and had kept her busy, she had missed James and longed to see him.

Hey babe, James said, I want to see you early today because I have to take a client to dinner tonight so I won't be able to see you tonight, but do you want to come over now and grab a bite to eat?

You are home now, but you have to go back to work? Poppy asked.

I took a few hours of comp time, and I wanted to draw up a proposal for the client anyway. I came home to prepare and practice what I was going to say. He responded.

Poppy was immediately disappointed. She had wanted to spend a nice long evening with James, but his job was demanding, and he had to take clients out to dinner when they were in town.

James had a military career, and most of his job was top secret, so Poppy had grown accustomed to James not being able to provide much information about his work. The only thing that Poppy knew about James' job was that when military people were in town, it was his job to entertain them and try to sell them something, although she wasn't even sure what he was trying to sell them on.

She didn't even know if he was selling a product or an idea, but Poppy was used to that now. She knew there were things that James could not talk about, and she was okay with it. It also made him work some strange hours and Poppy was used to that too. The good thing was that Poppy's job allowed her to work at any hour.

She told James that she wanted to run an errand to the hardware store, but she could come over after. In reality, she wanted to shower, but she figured James did not want to hear that she feared she smelled just like this house. James said he looked forward to seeing her, and they hung up.

When the locksmith saw that Poppy was off the phone, he asked her if she wanted the front door, or both the front and back door locks replaced.

I want to change out that slider in the back for French doors, so no need to change the locks back there. She responded.

The locksmith went back to work while Poppy placed a quick call to her demo guy, Bo, and told him about the scent. He said he had planned on coming there before noon anyway. What a pleasant surprise!

He also said he wanted to come by and check the place out himself, so he would stick around and wait for the dumpster to be delivered. Poppy laughed and commented that she loved how he volunteered to stick around when he was paid hourly.

In reality, she was happy to have Bo and his crew. It was not easy to find someone who could come do hard work on short notice and was pleased to do it.

Bo, this reminds me of an estate sale. The house is fully furnished and has clothing hanging in the closets. When you are cleaning it out, store the paperwork in the garage so I can see if I can find a relative, and put everything else into my warehouse until we can confirm that no one wants it.

Sure thing, Bo answered her.

This was not the first house that Poppy bought that was full of furniture. She had purchased a warehouse with two loading bays that came in useful for holding furniture that was left behind. She used one bay for her items for her staging company, and in the other bay, she stored things that were left in a house she was flipping.

She was pretty sure that the law stated that she only needed to keep them for 30 days past when they were evicted, but Poppy preferred to give back whatever anyone wanted even if it took her awhile to find the rightful owners.

Bo would put any paperwork he could find in the garage, and Poppy typically had good luck finding someone who wanted the items left behind. When the house was finished, she could donate anything left behind, and it didn't cost her anything to store it in her own warehouse.

Any idea what time the dumpster will be delivered? Bo asked.

That reminded Poppy to call to confirm since it was not here yet.

No, but I will phone them right now. She answered him.

While she was on the phone, another call was coming in. Poppy saw it was her best friend Tammy, so she let it go to voicemail. Tammy would understand.

Tammy and Poppy had been best friends since the day they met, and they were very close. Tammy was born in England, went to school in France and then moved back to England when she was in her twenties. Poppy found her accent to be very French and even after living in the States for ten years; she still had more of a French accent than an English one.

She had moved to the United States ten years ago when she got married to Don, her husband. Poppy had met Tammy at a fundraiser two years earlier, and they had become best friends within hours of meeting.

The dumpster company said they would drop the dumpster off within an hour, and Poppy called Bo to let him know before she returned Tammy’s call. Tammy answered on the first ring and Poppy apologized for not taking her call.

I figured you were busy and would get back to me. I just wanted to know how the house looks. Tammy answered.

Poppy was excited about her new house and told Tammy the details.

Oh, it sounds tres bon, Tammy responded, Can I come to see it?

Poppy looked at her watch and responded to Tammy, We can meet this evening if you are available.

I'm free all day, just drop me a text when you are leaving to come to pick me up, Tammy stated.

I wanted James to come to see it, but he has to work tonight, I really wanted to just spend some time with him tonight too, but since he has to work, we can't. Poppy explained.

It is sad that your boyfriend has such a demanding job, but I enjoyed spending more time with you because he works so much. I'm glad that he is busy with work today. Tammy teased. She did not really care for James. Tammy said James had changed recently and although he was talking marriage, she felt that his words and actions didn't match up. Poppy didn't agree.

She and James had been dating for over two years now, and things were just a little busy for both of them. She did long for the times when she and James had much more time to spend together, but she knew that his job was not always this demanding and that soon he would be more available.

Don't forget that in just a few short days we are having a ladies night out. Tammy reminded Poppy. Poppy loved their monthly ladies night out. There were four women including Poppy that attended, and Poppy considered this group her besties.

Besides Tammy and Poppy, Helen and Deb always attended. Helen was a strong-willed woman who called herself forever single. She had a son from a marriage that had ended years ago, and she had never even considered remarrying. Like Poppy, she was focused on her career. Deb was the oldest of the ladies, and she had been married to Bret for fifteen years. They were childless. Poppy felt it was too personal to ask Deb why they were childless and she figured that when Deb wanted to talk about it, she would bring it up.

Poppy was afraid that if she asked Deb why she had chosen not to have children that Deb might break into tears and tell her that they couldn't have children. Poppy always stayed away from the topic of childlessness unless the other party brought it up, and Deb had never once mentioned it. Poppy felt lucky to have this group of friends, and she was looking forward to spending time with them.

Poppy was on the phone the entire time the locksmith worked. Just as she was hanging up the phone with Tammy, the locksmith handed her the new set of keys for the front door.

She quickly grabbed a lockbox out of her car and inserted a key for Bo, her demo guy. She placed the key in the lockbox and turned to leave just as Bo was pulling up. She waved to him and unlocked the lockbox herself so that she could hand him the key in person.

The rest of my crew will be here shortly, Bo explained as he took the key from Poppy. I wanted to come early and get a look at your new flip. Did you order appliances? There is a delivery truck sitting three houses down looking lost.

No, I haven’t ordered anything like that yet. Poppy responded.

Must be for someone else then, let’s see this house! Bo replied.

Poppy looked down the street at the appliance shop truck. It sat parked in the shade and two people inside the truck were eating.

They are just taking a break. Poppy stated, But I didn’t order anything, it’s too soon.

Are you sticking around? Bo asked.

Poppy smiled at Bo and explained, I have someplace I need to go, but let yourself in and have a look around. I think you will like this one except for the smell.

Bo waved goodbye to Poppy as she got into her car.

Poppy was excited with anticipation of seeing James as she drove home and showered.

Chapter 2

Poppy finished her shower and put on a white and yellow dress she had purchased at the mall. The dress was casual, made of cotton and had yellow leaves on it. She slid into the dress and admired herself in the mirror. She hoped James would like it. She ran to her closet and chose a pair of low heeled sandals to complete her outfit.

Poppy put her shoes on, and then stood and looked at herself in the mirror again. Her skin was fair, and her eyes a snappy green in this dress. Poppy's eyes changed color from gray to green to blue depending on what color she was wearing.

She liked her eyes to be green the most because she felt that it was a nice contrast to her fair skin and her dark hair. Her hair was dark brown, cut in a bob that ended just past her chin. Her hair was slightly wavy, and no amount of straightening would get rid of