Berried Truth: Juno Patchen Cozy Mystery, #1

By Ed Lynskey

Bestselling and award-winning mystery author Ed Lynskey introduces a new cozy mystery series set in the small town of Cat's Paw, Virginia. Plucky and resourceful, Juno Patchen operates her family truck farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains and sells her produce at the weekly Farmers' Market. Her athletic cousin and godmother Fern McPhee and outspoken mother Rhoda McPhee help Juno while her seven-year-old son Chip pitches in whenever he can. The lurid murder of local resident Liz Kershaw throws everybody into a tizzy, none moreso than the befuddled Sheriff Goose Dixon who's also sweet on Juno. He persuades her to lend him a hand with investigating Liz's homicide. Juno's ex Holt Patchen, a struggling country music singer who frequently requests "loans" from her, further complicates her life. Told with verve and humor, BERRIED TRUTH offers readers a picturesque mountain setting, a vibrant cast of characters, and a satisfying whodunit.       

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ed Lynskey
• Release date: Aug 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393032939

Book preview

Berried Truth

A Juno Patchen Cozy Mystery

Ed Lynskey

LICENSE STATEMENT

Copyright © 2019 by Ed Lynskey and ECL Press. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author.

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-Book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the vendor of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Front cover attribution: Assorted color plants by Zane Lee (@zane4004) on Unsplash per CC 2.0. URL: https://unsplash.com/photos/8mLc5-voTIc.

Other Books by Ed Lynskey

Isabel and Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series

Quiet Anchorage

The Cashmere Shroud

The Ladybug Song

The Amber Top Hat

Sweet Betsy

Murder in a One-Hearse Town

Vi’s Ring

Heirloom

A Big Dill

Eve’s Win

Piper and Bill Robins Cozy Mystery Series

The Corpse Wore Gingham

Fur the Win

Ginny Jones Cozy Mystery Series (as Lyn Key)

Nozy Cat 1

Nozy Cat 2

Nozy Cat 3

Juno Patchen Cozy Mystery Series

Berried Truth

Private Investigator Frank Johnson Mystery Series

Pelham Fell Here

The Dirt-Brown Derby

The Blue Cheer

Troglodytes

The Zinc Zoo

After the Big Noise

Other Novels

Lake Charles

The Quetzal Motel

Ask the Dice

Blood Diamonds

Topaz Moon

Other Short Story Collection

Smoking on Mount Rushmore

Chapter 1

The murder was the talk of the town. Juno Patchen first learned of it while she was arranging the rutabagas, apples, and curly leaf kale on the display tables. The season for the farmers’ market located behind the hardware store and antique shop was drawing near the end. The last thing she expected to hear about was a local woman’s homicide.

I have some big news to share with you. The athletic Fern McPhee had attractive dimples, slate gray eyes, and long auburn hair she wore in a paisley scrunchie. Guess what happened to Liz Kershaw.

Our customers are parking their cars. Tell me before we get busy, and you forget it. Tall and sinewy, the hazel-eyed Juno dressed in khaki pants and a gimme hat. She was a tireless worker, an asset when running a profitable family farm.

Dawn Austin returned from her night shift job and found her roommate Liz murdered in their apartment at the Hampton Arms.

Juno felt her jaw drop like a quarter fed into a jukebox’s coin slot. That’s horrible. Who did it?

Fern shrugged. Just like that, Cat’s Paw, Virginia, has its first murder mystery in decades.

Goose will solve it before you can say Jack Robinson.

He’s not experienced enough to deal with something as big as a murder.

He’s getting his bearings since it’s his first one. I’m sure he’ll make snappy progress once he does.

Fern shook her head. I know he’s your sweetie pie, but he’s in over his head and needs all the help he can get. She lowered her meaningful look on Juno.

Who? Me? Help Goose? Juno laughed. Stop yanking my chain. I grow and sell berries, fruit, and vegetables. My investigating a murder mystery is like my speaking in Latin or Greek.

Why can’t you peek over Goose’s shoulder and nudge him in the right direction?

You are serious, aren’t you?

I thought about it on my way over. You’d make a sturdy, shrewd detective, just the kind of assistant Goose needs right now.

How do you think I can be a detective?

Consider me as your wise elder if you like.

Then you’re my delusional elder because I’m in no fashion a detective.

You’re a diamond in the rough waiting for your chance to polish up your talent and shine. The time for doing it is now.

You sure are hung up on this.

Look, the town folks are agitated. They expect Goose to keep them safe. If he can’t get the job done this week, they’ll start a petition drive to oust him from office.

Wrapping up a murder case takes longer than a week even in a small town like ours.

It sounds like you’re already taking an interest in solving Liz’s murder.

Okay, you made your point, Fern.

Things have slowed down, and you’ll have more free time to spend on it.

I should spend my free time decompressing from the hectic work schedule we’ve been keeping.

Detective work presents you with a new challenge.

My life is challenging enough as it is.

Rhoda will pitch in along with Chip and me to support you.

They know little or nothing about detective work, and I know even less.

I’ll watch the vendor stall this morning. Rhoda said she’d help me while Chip plays his video games. You can join Goose and get him started off on the right foot.

Juno was annoyed that her mother Rhoda and cousin Fern would assume that she’d just abandon the farmers’ market. She was particular about how to sell their produce, using the right folksy approach. On the other hand, Juno didn’t want Sheriff Luther Goose Dixon spinning his wheels on Liz’s murder case while the public outcry for his resignation grew to a deafening level. The small town folks clung to their low-keyed, predictable lifestyle and went to great lengths to protect it. Besides, the dishonor and shame of losing his sheriff’s job would crush Goose.

Fern wasn’t finished. What are you waiting around for? Goose needs you now more than ever.

Are you sure you can hold down the fort?

It’s a piece of cake, Juno.

Just as a reminder, the sweet potatoes and spaghetti squash prices are the same as last Saturday. Don’t forget to push the new curly leaf kale and slice up the different apple samples to put out on the paper plates. What else? I put a stack of small bills in the cash box to make change. Don’t forget to set up the credit card reader. Got all that?

I was peddling produce before you were a twinkle in Rhoda’s eye.

Juno tried to smile. Sorry, but I’m feeling a little rattled.

Murder upsets everybody. Just keep Goose’s feet planted on the ground, and everything will be fine.

Juno knitted her eyebrows in concentration. Who recently quarreled with Liz? Who didn’t like her? Did anybody see or hear anything suspicious? Who last saw her alive? Who last spoke to her? Was her purse or smartphone stolen? Are there any signs of a struggle?

Whoa, Nellie. Fern pulled back on the imaginary reins. You’re asking the right questions but to the wrong person. Goose is expecting you.

Don’t tell me you’ve already set it up with him.

Somebody had to grease the skids.

I wouldn’t do something so crazy and dangerous if I didn’t love him. Even if, I have my doubts I can be of much help to him.

Chin up and be more positive, Juno. You can do this. I know you can.

I don’t know what our first step should be. Maybe Goose has worked out an approach.

You won’t know until you join forces with him, Fern said. Stop wasting time and off you go.

Be listening up for my phone call later, Juno said.

***

The Hampton Arms was a garden apartments complex with patios and balconies on the outskirts of Cat’s Paw. Juno and Goose met in Dawn and Liz’s living room where she’d lain dead. A slender six-foot bachelor with broad shoulders, Goose dressed in civilian clothes instead of a law enforcement uniform. Folks meeting him for the first time were struck by his movie star looks, but Juno thought he was even more handsome. His daddy had named him after Goose Gossage, the scrappy, old-school Baseball Hall of Fame relief pitcher.

Where is Dawn? Juno asked, gazing about. Didn’t she stick around?

She packed a few things in an overnight bag and left to stay with her mother Pattie, Goose replied. Dawn said being in here creeps her out.

She’d better find a little fortitude and get over that nonsense. She signed a lease. Where is Liz?

Goose glanced at the sofa. The coroner transported her to the morgue. He said the autopsy results will be coming in about a week.

How did she die?

Strangled. The coroner inspected the ligature marks on her neck and said the killer used something stout and thin. Like a piano wire, she said.

Mercy. Juno’s shudder triggered Goose to do likewise. How are you holding up so far?

I’ve seen dead people before while I was a firefighter. Murder is in a different league. I keep telling myself it’s my job. Fern called and said you’re lending me a bit more than moral support.

Fern fancies me as a detective although I’ve never proven myself as one. Nevertheless, I’m willing to give you my opinion if you care to hear it, and I’m never shy about voicing my thoughts.

Goose smiled. I’ve been meaning to hire a deputy sheriff. The position is yours if you’d like it.

Thanks just the same, but I’ll pass on your offer. Besides the conflict of interest between us, I’m not a cop. I’m a farmer, and that’s all I aspire to be.

How do you see your collaboration with me?

We’ll say I’m a citizen with an agile mind and dogged nature for tracking down the answers to my nosy questions.

Where do we search for our first lead?

You already spoke to our first murder suspect, Dawn Austin.

Nodding, Goose looked impressed. If you have the time, we’ll go straight from here and interview her together.

Dawn might be asleep after working last night. She won’t take too kindly to our bothering her.

If you’d just reported your roommate was murdered, would you be able to fall asleep?

The adrenaline rush would keep me wide awake for hours before I could shut my eyes.

Of course it would. Dawn is too keyed up to sleep.

Then let’s go hear what she has to say.

Figuring out the whodunit is kind of exciting, isn’t it?

I admit the mystery element intrigues me. At the same time, I’m also leery of the violence and danger it involves. Somebody who killed once won’t mind taking another human life like yours or mine.

It goes without saying we should be careful, Goose said.

Even so, I like saying it a lot, Juno said. Careful is our new watchword.

Chapter 2

Dawn Austin sat, legs crossed, on the porch swing at her mother Pattie’s house, a bisque stucco bungalow. Dawn’s cup of coffee on the Parsons table sat untouched. She had long, wavy red hair to complement a generous sprinkle of freckles. She wore a seersucker housecoat, probably borrowed from her mother. Goose and Juno sat on the edges of the wicker chairs.

Had you and Liz been getting along? Goose asked.

Liz and I were seldom together at the apartment, Dawn replied. Our different work schedules made it easier for us to be roommates.

Where are you presently employed? Goose asked.

The plastic bag plant hired me to work a six-day week, Dawn replied. The hours are grueling, but who can argue with getting a steady paycheck?

What time did you punch the time clock and go home this morning? Goose asked.

I left the plant a little after eight o’clock, Dawn replied.

When did you arrive at your apartment? Goose asked.

I stepped through the door at quarter after eight or thereabouts, Dawn replied.

Was Liz’s car parked in the lot? Goose asked.

I didn’t notice her teal hybrid as I pulled in, but then I wasn’t looking for it, Dawn replied.

Does the two-tone compact hatchback parked at the curb out front belong to you? Goose asked.

I’m still making the monthly payments on it, Dawn replied.

What happened after you arrived home? Goose asked.

I checked in the mailbox before I unlocked the door and headed into the kitchen, Dawn replied. I poured myself a glass of milk and drank it. Then I moseyed into the living room, glanced down, and had the shock of my life. Poor Liz was lying dead on the carpet next to the sofa.

Did you notice anything missing or out of place? Goose asked.

The only thing I noticed was Liz, Dawn replied.

Juno, have you any questions? Goose asked. Dawn won’t mind answering them.

Dawn gave a shrug. We may as well cover everything at once.

Why did you come here to stay at your mom’s place? Juno asked.

I’m in no emotional shape to get any sleep while I’m at home, Dawn replied. Mom’s practical suggestion appealed to me, so I heeded her advice, and here I sit with you. She’s at work right now.

Are you working on the graveyard shift? Juno asked.

That’s right, but I call it the night shift, Dawn replied. I don’t work in a graveyard haunted by zombies, vampires, or ghouls.

Does it run from midnight to eight a.m.? Juno asked.

I leave around eleven p.m. and stop at Big Ed’s Truck Stop for a cup of coffee, Dawn replied. "They know how to brew the high-octane stuff. By the time I get to the