Pleasant Dreams: A Senior Moment Mystery Book 2

By Carla Kulka

Cassandra Cooper (Cassie) gets herself involved in another murder mystery when she finds something in the Martinsville town wishing well. When she calls 911, the police confirm her suspicions that it is a body. As Sergeant John Monroe, with Cassies help, of course, seek to solve this mystery, they may even find a bit of romance and a touch of humor along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504959025

Carla Kulka

Carla Kulka, author of A Senior Moment Mystery series, has come out with another series called A Senior Moment Soap Opera. Her first series was a healing process after the loss of her husband, Gary. She thought of all the good memories she had and made them into a tender senior love story. Now, she is bringing a series to those that love to read and love soap operas. In this series you may even find a little laughter along the way.

Book preview

Prologue

As I walked along the road, I heard a car coming. I moved to the right as far as I could. The driver came up behind me and nudged me just enough to make me fall to my knees. I looked down at my knees and saw them bloody, with pieces of gravel embedded in them. I got up and turned my head, wondering how the car did not see me. Suddenly the car backed up a few feet, as if whoever was driving the car realized they had hit something. To my surprise, the car started moving toward me again, moving a little faster than before, and then stopping for a split second.

What is that idiot doing? Oh my God! I said through tears of pain and fear. The driver revved the engine and started coming straight at me. I tried desperately to run out of his path. Down I went again. Two more times he came back, with more force than the last, battering my body. Each time I was knocked to the ground. The last time the car rammed me was excruciating. I grabbed my right leg and could feel the bone sticking through the skin. My tears turned into uncontrollable sobs.

The man had won. I was down and unable to get up. He stopped, got out of his vehicle, and started walking toward me. I attempted to get up once more, but I couldn’t.

What do you want? I cried out. Why are you doing this to me? Stop, please!

I could not see who the man was because the hood on his jacket was up and drawn. I could only see his eyes. He grabbed me by my leg, dragging me to the car trunk. The gravel road tore into the pale skin on my back.

Pleasant dreams! the attacker stated.

The pain was so fierce I finally passed out. He threw my unconscious body into the trunk. When I awoke, I was gagged, and my limbs were bound. I could neither scream nor try to escape. I was left there for two days. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I prayed that someone would help me.

The last time I awoke, I felt the car moving. The motion of the vehicle jerking and going over dips made me nauseated. I was going to get sick to my stomach. If that happened, I would surely choke to death on my own vomit. I didn’t want to die like this.

My last thought was Jennifer Thatcher, dead at sixteen.

Celebrate by enjoying the gift of each day!

Chapter 1

Today was the fifteenth day in a row it had rained. This was enough to dampen most people’s spirits. However, I always try to look at the positive side. Ask anyone, and they would tell you my favorite saying: Your day is only what you make it.

I’m Cassandra Jo Cooper—Cassie. I’d been a widow for over eleven years. I’d been married to my childhood sweetheart for almost thirty-three years when he passed away. It is not easy losing a spouse, and although life never is the same as it was, it does continue. You can either continue to think about the loss or think about the happy times and the special love the two of you shared. I was lucky enough to have many good memories.

When you least expect it, love sometimes happens more than once. Sergeant John Monroe of the local police department and I had become very close friends—maybe a little more than friends. John, who was also widowed, was six feet, two inches tall. He had beautiful salt-and-pepper hair and striking, deep, blue eyes. I was just shy of five feet tall with hazel eyes. My hair color? I’ll never tell.

Both John and I were fortunate to have had wonderful first marriages. Because of this, we left our hearts open to finding love again with someone with whom we could share the rest of our lives. When we were together, life was even better. Although we hadn’t actually said the words, I had fallen in love with him, and I was sure he felt the same way about me.

My friend Margo and I had known each other for a long time. We liked getting together to shop, to have lunch, or just to talk. When we didn’t get together, we checked on each other often. Margo loved teasing me about John. She says the two of us are like a couple of love struck kids and more exciting than a soap opera. After John kissed me, and I said, Tasty, Margo nicknamed him Mr. Tasty. I did hunger for his kisses because they were so passionate.

It looked as though we were getting a little break in the early morning rain, so I thought I’d take advantage of the situation by taking a stroll up to the square. I needed the exercise and maybe even a cup of coffee. I enjoyed walking in the morning when everything was quiet, before the hustle and bustle of everyday activity would start.

It sure was peaceful. There were lights on in some of the houses, with folks probably getting ready for work or getting children up for school. I lived not too far from the center of town. The walk to the town square was probably a little over a half-mile.

There was a little coffee shop on the square called The Bean Stop. The owners were Bo and Sally Bean. With that last name, it was an appropriate shop for them to own. They were a delightful couple. When I was out walking, I liked to stop by and get their delicious flavored coffee of the day.

The Bean Stop was only one of many lovely shops surrounding the square in Martinsville, which was named for Samuel Martin, the first mayor of our town. When he passed away, the town wanted to build a wishing well in his memory.

Mayor Martin’s campaign promise was to make this town a place that everyone would want to live in or visit. He promised that Martinsville would be known as one of the friendliest and most prosperous towns people had ever visited. He said these were his wishes for the town. He added that if you worked hard, wishes came true.

When I was a young child, my father built a wishing well in our backyard. I still remember it. The bottom portion was made of cement poured around different shades of beige, gray, and brown rocks. The angled roof was shingled, and under the roof hung a wooden bucket held by a rope that you could actually crank. I used to pretend to throw a penny in the wishing well and make a wish.

Every time I walked to the square, I would stop by the wishing well to throw a bright new penny in. I would then close my eyes and make a wish.

Here I was at the wishing well. Here was my penny. That was odd! Usually you could hear it hit the bottom. What did it hit? What was that at the bottom of the well? It looked like fabric. Oh my heavens—I think it’s a body!

Life is better when you fill it with good memories!

Chapter 2

I grabbed my cell out of my coat pocket and dialed 911. It