Across the Yard with Annie and the Coroner: A Tale of Loneliness, Longing and Provision, in tune with Gracie and Chester

By Doris Theis Anderson

Thrown together to solve a crime in their own backyards, Annie Chesterfield and Dr. Carlton Keen face their mistakes of youth together. It’s a sweet romance of two aged detectives sleuthing it out in the shadow of God’s help. Is their meeting providential or coincidental? That’s the rub! Spiritual journey or not, it’s a story that challenges the reader to think seriously about how they answer the call of God or mute His loving voice. As the couple delight in each other's musical talents, you might even sing along, encouraged by Annie's canary as it tweets and her cat as it purrs to join the sleuthing activities in this cozy novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hawes & Jenkins Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781637840252

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Across the Yard with Annie and the Coroner

A Tale of Loneliness, Longing and Provision, in tune with Gracie and Chester

Doris Theis Anderson

ISBN 978-1-63784-024-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63784-025-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Doris Theis Anderson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Hawes & Jenkins Publishing

16427 N Scottsdale Road Suite 410

Scottsdale, AZ 85254

www.hawesjenkins.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Canary Strikes a Match

Startling Notes

The Mysterious Thief

Hosting and Coaxing

Spiritual Journey

Cases in Question

The Crime Unravels

Piano Forte

The Air to Breathe

Opportune Moments

Family Fears

Organic Delusions

Crying Out Loud

Rhoda's Red Eye

Epilogue

About the Author

Preface

The following story was at first meant to be a cozy mystery void of hard violence and perhaps even a spoof on crime. I wasn't sure how it would play out or if I even had the skill to write anything with a hint of satire. After all, I was a journalist, trained to be a fact finder and a truth seeker. But this is a decade that calls for humor, and even though crime in general is not funny, I would give fiction a try and still tell some truth. Journalism, after all, has many facets: features, human interest, opinions, analysis, and a comic strip.

Crime itself includes such facets. Practical jokes may have untoward consequences and teach fair warning (human interest). Or what was meant for evil can also turn out for good, especially when a hero comes on the scene…and that hero is philosophy driven (analysis). Out of the depths of his soul, he invites courage to act, saving himself and others to win the day; and as always, every story is about who, what, when, where, how, and why.

For instance, philosophy was no stranger to Louis L'Amour, a great writer of Western fiction. Intentionally he made his stories magnetic without even having kissing, swear words, or vivid sexual encounters to heat up the adventures. His character descriptions, along with their journeys through virgin territories, help the reader ride along as if we were there. You can almost smell the bacon sizzling over the campfires, feel the hard ground under which those hombres slept, and thirst with them in the desert. But more than that, he filled his books with page after page of philosophy like when not to kill or how to separate the evilhearted from those who may do well with a second chance. Many of his heroes had the same flaw. They were shy with women but proved their manhood with marvelous grit, honesty, and compassion under a hard exterior wrought out of difficult childhood circumstances.

Underneath all of that, one philosophy of his heroes most often prevails. Here are the tell-tale words of his character Owen Chantry talking in Over on the Dry Side.

There is no special sun that shines on any man, regardless of race, religion, philosophy or the color of his skin. There is no reason why any man should expect a special dispensation from pope or president. You are not going to be treated like something special until you are.

And yet most often in the desperate moments of our lives, help shows up to save the day. Is not there always for everyone a ready help in times of need: rain to cover our tracks, clouds rolling back to show us the way, a bed kindly offered, fresh lemonade on a hot day, or words of wisdom well-spoken when all seems lost? Who is the hero after all? Finding the answer is the truth of this story.

Acknowledgments

Without the songs in this book, there would be no story. What joy it has given me to include them! For what would the babe be without the lullaby? What would the soldier be without the march? What would the lover be without the serenade? What would our souls be without praise to the one God from whom all blessings flow?

First of all, it is difficult to acknowledge anyone for the lyrics to How Great Thou Art. Although first written by a Swedish editor/poet, Carl Boberg, in 1885, it was carried around the world in various subtle manners until its crescendo through the voice of George Beverly Shea who, with the Billy Graham crusades, took it around the world again and again.

A song can say more in a few words than a tome that labors relentlessly. Those who sing the words and play the melodies do us a great service because music assists memorization. Those who pass songs on do so out of hearts bursting with their passions, whether love for man or God. Even God expresses His passion for us with song. Zephaniah 3:17 says, He will joy over us with singing.

So thanks to John Newton, English clergyman, hymn writer, and poet who wrote the lyrics for Amazing Grace, in 1772, birthed from his own repentant heart for his early years as a slave trader.

Thanks to Martin Luther for the profoundly doctrinal hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, that helped usher in the protestant reformation around 1527.

Thanks to Pat Barrett, Doe Jones, Jonathan McReynolds, and Chandler Moore for the modern Christian song, Breathe, that so beautifully honors the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life.

And thanks to Gioachino Rossini for the William Tell Overture, published in 1829, and to those who have used it extensively over the years. I first learned this song on the radio while listening to The Lone Ranger stories and later played it with my high school orchestra.

Thanks to Oscar Hammerstein II for giving us Make Believe, produced in the musical, Showboat in 1927 when it was sung by Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel.

Thanks to Harvey Oliver Brooks who published A Little Bird Told Me, in 1947, a whimsical declaration of love and plans to marry.

Thanks to Bob Merrill for the lyrics in People, who need people, written for the Broadway musical, Funny Girl, made famous by Barbara Streisand in 1964.

And next to last, thanks to those who encouraged me by reading my manuscript in its early stages and making useful comments: Marsha Anderson, Julie Lorentzen, and Holly Anderson, a reading group from The Ranch Condo neighborhood; and my faithful husband, Lloyd Anderson, for troubleshooting my computer and holding his comments to, It's a yarn, while writing his tome, appropriate for the subject of Hebrew genealogies.

Last of all, thanks to William Shakespeare for complying with the shortness of this book when he said, Brevity is the soul of wit.

Chapter 1

Canary Strikes a Match

Dr. Carlton Keen was a man among men in his profession. Now reaching retirement age, he had been the coroner of Preston County for twenty years and solved a number of murders that had been mysteries and worries for the police department. Dealing with death on a daily basis, he was yet enthusiastic about life and never backed away from a crisis. He worked tirelessly, probing every clue with the uncanny ability to trail causes and effects and find answers.

Sheriff O'Brian was sorry to see him leaving soon. He enjoyed the man's humor, which centered on word plays, irony, and the kind of puns that made people groan. He seemed to enjoy the groans and liked to laugh at his own jokes. O'Brian believed it was how this doc dealt with the sadness he encountered; it was an outlet for having to dissect human bodies and face the friends and families of those who died under mysterious circumstances or a failed diagnosis. Over the last year, Dr. Keen's wife had suffered and died of a brain tumor. His friends and coworkers watched to see how he might adjust to this death on his own doorstep. They also wondered how he would face retirement so soon after losing Judy.

Then he met Annie.

Annie had just finished tatting the edges of the last of ten dresser scarves she had been making for the church bazaar. The number of yards I have tatted in my lifetime must equal a mile by now, she thought. I simply must find a better craft. Tatting has seen its era after all. Besides, crafting is not a substitute for loneliness. Even Kitty Grace feels this.

Annie's cat was a wonder of her kind. She seemed to understand that Annie could not hear well. She gave a loud meow when the dryer beeped, when the cell phone rang, and when the doorbell dinged. Perhaps she just did not like loud noises herself. For one thing, she delighted in hearing the canary sing so much that she rewarded Chester by letting him ride on her back as she sped around the house, stopping briefly by the birdie treats left by Annie on the coffee table for such occasions.

But alas, Chester was gone, having left through a partially opened window when Annie was airing the house. It was one of the first days of spring when luscious green blades of grass appeared from under Wisconsin's winter snow. How the cage door came unlatched was a mystery. The cat had been depressed ever since. It had happened once before, and Kitty Grace tracked him to some bushes in the garden and teased him to a ride home with some loud purring. But this time, all her bird sleuthing had failed. Annie had been thinking about this—the loneliness of hearing loss, the isolation she felt, and the fun it would be to flee from this caged-in life that old age was bringing upon her.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and—oh my—trying to get up and get there was not going to be easy. Good thing Kitty Grace paved the way with a loud meow and jumped at the doorknob to make it appear that someone was unlocking it until she could get there with her arthritic knee.

Carlton took the clue and waited until Annie opened the door. Remembering a sign she had seen down South that always made her laugh, she said, Who Dat?

Hello, Annie, I'm your new neighbor, Carlton. I just moved in next door, and look what I found. Could this be your bird? Before her was a small box with holes in