The Morning Dove

By D.H. Coop

The Morning Dove is a madcap satire set in a small beach town. When an early morning small fire breaks out in a vacant theater, Mabel, the town gossip, starts a chain of events that has local, state, and federal governments in a state of panic. The fire is a catalyst for Mabel’s colorful imagination. As the hysteria spreads, some of the politicians use the news reporters to promote their personal agendas. Not one to shy from the spotlight, Mabel seems to be everywhere the cameras are.

The fire inspector, C. E. Hall, arrives upon the chaotic scene to investigate and separate fact from fiction. During his investigation, C. E. learns more about the residents’ characteristics and often odd behaviors that make for a hilarious story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646549238

Book preview

Chapter One

Morning Dove

The sunrise was peeking through the dark sky that was turning gray when Amy Stewart parked and walked across the parking lot and unlocked the door to the City Sip coffee shop. Just as she turned on the lights, someone followed her in the store. Amy turned and said, I am sorry. We are not open yet.

Oh, I am not a customer. I am a transfer employee, and I am scheduled to start here today. My name is Marsha. I should not have startled you like that. I am so sorry.

No, it was my fault. I was not paying attention, and my head was someplace else. I knew you were starting today, so if you help with the umbrellas, chairs, and tables, I’ll show you the setup of the shop.

The City Sip coffee shop is located on the corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in the quaint beach community of Cliffside. Across from the shop on Main Street is a vacant lot that is under construction. Adjacent to the lot is a vacant movie theater that had closed its doors several years before. The coffee shop has large windows with a view overlooking Main Street. The sidewalk outside the shop is set up with tables and blue umbrellas.

A bus stop is located right in front of the windows of the shop. Three blocks south is a wooden pier that jets out into the ocean. It was a destination for tourists and locals.

The regular customers of the coffee shop started to come in as soon as the shop opened at 5:30 a.m., and then around 9:00 a.m., tourists started to show up. It is the first coffee shop off the highway, so the little strip mall’s parking lot is always filled with cars.

One of the regulars is a young lady who arrives by bicycle every day at 5:45 a.m., locks her bike to the handrail, and strolls inside. She is strikingly tall and thin with long blond hair. She is always comfortably dressed in shorts, blouse, lightweight jacket, and carrying a backpack. This morning was no different.

Hi, Sarah, are you having the same today? asked Amy.

Yes, thanks, Amy. Is this a new barista today, or is she just a fill-in for someone?

This is Marsha. She just transferred to this shop yesterday, and today is her first day, replied Amy.

Hi, Marsha. I am Sarah. it’s good to meet you. Sarah held out her hand to Marsha.

Marsha took her hand and responded with It’s nice to meet you too.

Sarah paid for her coffee and walked over to her usual table inside by the door and window, placed her backpack on the floor, and sat down with a view of the theater across the street. She took a book from her backpack and planned to read until 6:45 a.m., as she always did, then she would pick up her things and be on her way.

Looking into the shop from the outside, the young woman in the window in the early morning gray light made it look like a morning image from Edward Hopper’s painting the Nighthawks that was seen by some as a study in loneliness.

That image of Sarah sitting in the window was one of a tall woman with long legs in tan shorts with her blond hair braided in a French weave, sitting alone reading a book. One could almost see it as a study of loneliness of a beautiful woman reading her book alone, looking like a Morning Dove, which could be a continuation or a response to Hopper’s painting.

The Main Street was empty since no overnight parking was allowed until 6:00 a.m. The view from the window was uninterrupted, except when the buses stopped to let passengers off and on or for the driver to come in for coffee and a break.

Every day was the same. It was quiet in the early morning with regular customers, then business would pick up during the day and night with tourists. The baristas had their favorite customers and took great pride in having their order ready when they arrived. The cups would often have a happy face or note on the side. Small towns are made smaller in a coffee shop. Customers would come in and place their orders and look at the young lady reading a book by herself. A few would say good morning or nod to her, but most did not interrupt her reading, and they started a conversation with others in the shop. That was Sarah’s typical morning except today, when apparently someone tried to burn down the movie theater.

Sarah was reading her book when the bus pulled up to the stop, and she noticed some movement by the theater. She did not think too much about it since the homeless sometimes used the alcove for sleeping. It was about five minutes after she sat down that she noticed a haze coming from the deserted cashier’s booth and asked the baristas if they saw it. Could it be fog or smoke?

I think that is smoke, said Amy and immediately called 911.

The first fire engine showed up in three minutes, followed by a second engine a minute later. The first company laid a four-inch fire hose from a fire hydrant at the corner and then moved down the street and stopped in the middle in the front of the theater. One of the firefighters broke out the cashier’s window with an ax while another shot water into the room with a 1 1/2-inch fire hose. The second company that arrived broke into the door farthest away from the cashier’s window that had black smoke pouring out. Two fighters took a 2 1/2-inch hose inside. The fire was out in a matter of minutes. Then Main Street became a buzz of activity when an ambulance arrived a few minutes after the fire vehicles. The police showed up and blocked the street with yellow tape. As time went by, TV crews were all over the place with reporters asking questions of anyone they could get on cameras. By that time, Sarah had left the shop and ridden off on her bike well before the coroner’s vehicle had arrived after the firemen had discovered a body inside.

Inside the fire, the first firefighter in the room where the fire started noticed a pair of boots off a pile of rags. Looking a little closer, he noticed the body was curled up. The fire site had become a death and an arson investigation. Police officers and detectives walked up and down the street looking for witnesses. At that early hour, the City Sip was the only place open for business. A police officer went into the coffee shop and asked for the manager.

I am the manager, Amy Stewart, Officer.

I am Officer Bonnet, and I would like to ask you and your employees a few questions about the fire at the theater.

Sure. I was the one who called 911 as soon as we saw the haze of fog or smoke coming out from under the marquee, said Amy.

What time was that?

I think it was before six o’clock. I’m not sure exactly. Sarah was the one who pointed to the smoke or fog by the theater. We rushed over to look, and by that time, we could see it was smoke.

Who is Sarah? asked Officer Bonnet.

She is a regular customer. She comes in every weekday at about 5:45.

Do you know Sarah’s last name?

No. I really don’t know much about her, now that you ask, Amy answered.

Do you know where I can find her?

Not really, although she comes in here every weekday. You can’t miss her. She’s tall and thin with blond hair in a ponytail or braid most days, and she rides a bike.

She is a cyclist?

No, the way she dresses, I don’t think she rides that far, said Amy.

Why is that?

The bikers that come in that ride down the coast always have on all the gear that cyclists wear. Sarah always dresses casually.

Were there any other customers in at the time?

No, there were just the three of us.

Is there anything else you can tell me other than the smoke you saw?

Sorry, we did not see that much. Just the smoke.

Okay, thanks. However, a detective may come around to ask more questions, and if you see Sarah, tell her the police would like to ask her some questions about what she saw this morning. Then the officer turned and asked a few questions of other customers who had come into the shop. He wrote down names and phone numbers and said that someone would be in contact. He walked back across the street to his sergeant.

Sergeant, I may have one lead from the coffee shop. I think she was the first person to notice the fire as she was sitting in the window in the City Sip.

Is she there?

No, all I have is her first name, which is Sarah. Do you want me to follow it up? The manager said she is at the shop every weekday morning about 5:45.

No, you don’t need to follow up. Just give the information to Detective Loft. He can hunt down our missing witness.

Okay.

The sergeant walked over to Fire Chief Franklin. Well, Chief, we have a body, and it’s probably a homeless person. We cannot tell if its male or female since the body is on top of the origin of the fire. So my guess is that it was someone who broke in and went to sleep smoking. If it was a break-in, are there any doors or windows broken?

Not that we can tell. They were all locked when the first unit arrived, and the only the ones broken, we broke to get inside. It’s strange. I will have a fire investigator here later today to go through the site and see what he can tell us about the fire. This theater has been vacant a long time with no break-ins. It’s hard to believe that a vagrant broke into a building without any sign of a break-in and then fell asleep burning to death.

I’ll have our police report sent over to you, Chief Franklin, as soon as it is written.

Did the coroner give you any sign of cause of death?

She said it was hard to tell with the body in such condition. She believed it to be a male, but she cannot be sure until she gets it to the lab, answered the sergeant.

All right, I’ll have my investigator stop by there to see what he thinks. He will most likely stop by the coroner’s office anyway. I think he likes the new coroner.

So, C. E. wants to get to know our new coroner? asked the police chief as he walked up.

Just a feeling, that’s all, said Chief Franklin.

Well, C. E. has been through a lot these last few years with that injury at the fire that took him off the job. Then losing his wife to cancer at the same time. It has been good that he was able to build a private fire inspection investigation practice, but that seems to be his only focus in life anymore, said the police chief.

You forget his passion for stamps? said the sergeant.

Who could forget? I remember one day we did a fire prevention inspection together at a stamp store, and he started talking about stamps. It was the first time I ever saw him on an inspection that he did not stay on the topic of fire codes. He made an appointment to return the next day to look at some stamps after he issued a code violation for an expired fire extinguisher. When we got back to the rig, all he talked about were the stamps he was looking for and how hard it was to find.

Why was that?

He said they were forgeries by a Frenchman that did his job so great that the forgeries were better than the originals and had become more valuable. That he had started to collect forgeries and propaganda stamps a month or two before. At the station, he showed me some of them, and they were creative. Some were very humorous. Many of the stamps he had in his collection were stamps printed during the Second World War as propaganda. Some of the stamps actually made it through the mail service. He told me that the Germans were delivering new stamps to post offices while the Russians were entering Berlin.

Well, I have to get back to work. My morning is going to be a lot of paperwork. I will send the report over to the fire department as soon as it is done.

Thanks, C. E. should be here this afternoon, and I’ll get you our report as soon as he is finished.

Chapter Two

Fire

When C. E. walked up to the theater later that afternoon, he found the building had been secured with police tape, and the cashier’s window had plywood in place of the glass. Police tape was stretched across the theater’s entryway. C. E. walked around the outside the best he could since the buildings on one side were connected. He did this before he called the fire chief to come over to the fire site.

C. E. took out his phone and punched in the fire station’s number. The phone was picked up on the third ring. Fire station, Firefighter Wallace speaking. How may I help you?

Well, Firefighter Wallace, this is Investigator C. E. Hall. Is Chief Franklin at the station?

Yes, he’s walking toward me as we speak. Let me give the phone to him, C. E.

C. E. heard muffled voices on the other end of the phone. Who is it? asked a familiar voice and was responded with It’s C. E.

Where are you, C. E.? Don’t you answer your phone?

Hello to you too, Chief. I was driving, and my phone battery was low, so I turned it off until I could recharge it. I am over at the theater, and there is nobody here! I would like to get inside.

I’ll be right over, C. E. Give me ten.

C. E. looked up and down the street, which was filled with pedestrians and cars. He turned around to study the front of the theater some more. The outside did not show any real damage except where smoke had discolored the wall and ceiling as it poured out of the cashier’s window and the doors. The pattern had no definite shape since the marquee ceiling held the smoke down. The chief pulled up and walked over to C. E.

How you are doing, C. E.?

"Not too bad. It’s been a little slow locally, but the insurance companies keep me busy far and wide. I was just up North tracking down the cause of a brush fire that turned into a major forest fire. Turned out that it was an old couple in an RV pulling a car. Several people kept waving at them to pull over. Their towing chain was making a huge amount of sparks. They never did pull over, and the sparks caught the roadside brush on fire. Several people behind the RV saw the fire and called 911 and reported the fire. Nobody reported the license number of the RV. It was mentioned in the police report that the vehicle was a possible cause of the fire.

I was asked by one of the homeowners in the area to find the guy since his homeowner’s insurance company refused to pay for a natural disaster. He hadn’t lost his home, but he did lose his barn and some of his livestock. The insurance company said the homeowner’s policy did not cover natural disasters. So I was hired to prove that the fire did not start by natural events. Do you know how hard it is to find a traveling ignition source?

No, I don’t, but if anyone does, you’re the man!

I started my investigation by stopping at rest stops and gas locations on the highway. My luck showed up at the third gas stop. The guy on duty said he remembered people coming in to fill up their tanks and were talking about the old couple ignoring their warnings about the sparks they were making. Then the clerk said one of his neighbors had driven by the RV and took a video of it and showed it to the clerk that night. I asked him where the neighbor lived and was told he was out of town. But then things got better.

How? the chief asked.

They told me his friend uploaded it on YouTube. Sure enough, I pulled it up. There was the car and trailer with the tow chain putting out a shower of sparks. It looked like the Fourth of July behind the car. There were so many sparks that it was hard to read the license plate number on the towed vehicle.

I am guessing you did.

Yeah, he lived in Oregon. Claimed he did not start the fire, that someone had passed him and emptied an ashtray out the window. That must be when the fire started. They were in a hurry to make their next stop for the night, and he said they called 911 and reported the fire as they saw the smoke behind them.

So what did you do?

"I showed him the video. He still claimed he