Jump Into...: JumpRope Chronicles

By Ivy C. Leigh

A collection of three short JumpRope mysteries: 

House of Worst Fears deals with the death of a postal worker,

Leftover Crime Caper in Seven Parts is about a deadly dinner in a restaurant.

Count The Days concerns whether a death was a simple accident or a preplanned homicide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jersey Pines Ink
• Release date: Mar 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781948899048

Book preview

Three Short JumpRope Mysteries

Ivy C. Leigh

Copyright page

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Copyright © 2019 Jersey Pines Ink, LLC

All rights reserved. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Cover art by River Cove Productions, LLC

For information, address the publisher at:

JerseyPinesInk.com

ISBN: 978-1-948899-04-8

What is JumpRope?

JumpRope is a fictional New Jersey community, a small American town everyone imagines remembering. JumpRope is filled with romance, gossip, small town intrigues and of course, murder. There are plenty of amateur detectives and warm-hearted but nosey busy bodies to complicate and solve any mystery.

The personal loves, lives and dreams of the characters of JumpRope continue on into the next books of the series although each can be read as a stand-alone.

Table of Contents

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Page 6  House of Worst Fears

Page 12  Leftover Crime Caper in Seven Parts

Page 20  Count the Days

HOUSE OF WORST FEARS

Acer Wolfgang, a handsome, self-made millionaire who had recently celebrated his fiftieth birthday, was attracted to the long deserted DeGroot mansion as an investment. Already planning a project in the central New Jersey community of JumpRope, he knew that the small town had nearly everything except a hotel. He felt that the DeGroot mansion could be transformed into a uniquely charming inn. He had only seen it from the outside, but that morning he had come from Manhattan to tour the inside. He had the lock box combination, but the realtor thought the police might have sealed the place off because of a recent murder on the property. To find out what was allowed, Acer had come to the police station and was now seated in the office of Chief Slim Parkerson.

Sure you can go inside the house, but stay away from the police tape in the yard, Slim said. Tall and lean-limbed, the thirty-five-year old chief was polite but cool, distrustful of wealthy outsiders who came to make a buck out of his town.

What actually happened in regard to the crime? Acer said with lift of his dark eyebrows. Once something caught his interest, he wanted to know everything connected with it.

It was reported in the news, but sure. Slim said. Mail carrier Vernon Alton was found dead beside his mail truck at the mansion, his head bashed in. Vern’s custom was to eat his bag lunch when the mood struck, breaking off from his route to find a secluded spot for his meal. He was last seen alive delivering mail in the Pullen Farm development. He then went to have lunch on the DeGroot property. The county medical examiner determined he’d had died shortly after eating. Putting that together with when Vern was last seen, established the time of death as between one and two o’clock that afternoon.

Are there suspects? Acer asked.

Slim made a disgusted face. "A prime one, only he has an alibi. Russell Phelps used to be friends with Vern—they even worked at our local post office until they fell for the same