Murder in Gatlinburg

Murder in Gatlinburg

Steve

Demaree

This book is dedicated to my wife, Nell, to
all of you who have fallen in love with Lt. Dekker and Sgt. Murdock over the
years, and those of you who can't wait to get back to Gatlinburg.

Bought by Maraya21

Kickass.so/1337x.org/h33t.to/thepiratebay.se

Books by Steve Demaree

Dekker Cozy
Mystery Series

52 Steps to Murder

Murder in the Winter

Murder In The Library

Murder at Breakfast?

Murder at the High
School Reunion

Murder at the Art
& Craft Fair

Murder in Gatlinburg

Off The Beaten
Path Mystery

Series

Murder in the Dark

Murder Among Friends

A Bridge to Murder

Aylesford
Place
Series

Pink Flamingoed

Neighborhood Hi Jinx

Croquet, Anyone?

Nonfiction

Lexington
& Me

Reflecting Upon God’s
Word

Other
Mysteries

A Smoky Mountain
Mystery

Table of Contents

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45

Geoffrey Chaucer said
that all good things must come to an end. Actually he said "things"
and someone added the "good" later. Well, that's the way it turned
out for Lou and me. No, I didn't shoot him, and he didn't shoot me. But both of
us decided to retire, completely retire, from the Hilldale Police Department. I
would no longer be Lt. Dekker and he wouldn't be Sgt. Murdock. Instead we would
be Cy and Lou, retired guys extraordinaire.

It was something the two
of us had talked about doing for a year or more. We went back and forth from
one week to the next. We, the two members of Hilldale's Homicide Department,
had solved every murder that had happened in Hilldale during all those years we
were the entire homicide department. I wondered if someone else could do the
same. I worried that we couldn't  find something to do to occupy our time and
our minds, but finally we bit the bullet and agreed to retire. Lou and I made
our decision and set our retirement date. We notified the Chief six months in
advance, so we could train someone to step into our shoes. We even recommended
the two people who we wanted to take our places, and the Chief agreed with our
suggestion. But just as soon as Lou and I made it official, once again I began
to have doubts. I had no family. I had no hobbies, other than reading, and as
much I liked reading I didn't think I wanted to do that all day, everyday, for
the rest of my life. I had no desire to work for anyone else, so getting a
part-time job didn't appeal to me. And I didn't need the money anyway. Both Lou
and I had done a good job of investing our money over the years, and barring
anything unforeseen it would be enough to tide us over until we no longer had
any need for money. But I still needed something to do each day. Something other
than reading, and spending time with Lou, and my girlfriend Jennifer. I had no
idea at that time that the department would give me an idea that could occupy
some of my time. So I continued to fluctuate back and forth between being
exciting about retirement and having second thoughts.

As the months passed, it
was as if every possible murderer in Hilldale had received a memo (or more
likely an e-mail or a text)) that we were retiring. Either that or those who
had considered murder had mellowed in the last few months. I didn't bother to
look it up, but I was sure that it was the longest our little burg had gone
without a murder. Maybe the Gideons were handing out more Bibles, and people
were reading them and had grown fearful after reading Exodus 20.

Whatever the case, the
months passed. In a way it reminded me of that time many years ago when I was
about to graduate from high school. I had already decided that college and I
weren't for each other, so I knew that when June approached I wouldn't have to
go to school anymore. My feeling about retirement was similar. Only our retirement
would come in early May, not June.

I started my countdown
at thirty days. Each morning I woke up, added another X to my calendar, and
prayed that no one in Hilldale got murdered until after Lou and I were sent out
to pasture. And each day that we didn't hear of a murder in town I wondered if
all the murderers were waiting until the last day or so until Lou and I retired
to rid our population of another hearty soul. I hoped that even a murderer
wouldn't be that cruel. I know that sounds irrational, but I never think
clearly just after waking up.  I did wonder if murderers were going out of town
to do their dastardly deeds. Instead of collecting the daily and weekly
newspapers from surrounding counties, I quickly dismissed that thought, and
tried to think happy thoughts about retirement.

One morning I woke up
and realized that working was almost over for Lou and me. Less than a week
left. I lay there, got an idea, and sprang from the bed, much easier than I
could have done it mere months before. I hurried to the computer, Googled
My
Way,
and sang along with Frank Sinatra. "And now the end is near and
so I face the final curtain." Yes, in one way it was our final curtain. Oh,
it will seem strange that I'll no longer be Lt. Dekker and Lou will no longer be
Sgt. Murdock of the homicide division of the Hilldale Police Department. I'll
merely be Cy, with no title, just like most people, and Lou will be Lou no
matter where we go. It helped that Lou and I were able to ease into retirement,
having semi-retired a couple of years ago, and only working when there was a murder
to solve in Hilldale. And now that we know that we'll have a lot more time on
our hands, we'll have to think of something to occupy that time. And as I said
before, as much as both of us love to read, neither of us can envision reading
all the time. We need to get our heads together and think of what we plan to do
with the next segment of our lives. But first things first.

And now that the time
has come, we are able to pass the baton to Heather Ambrose, who along with her
fiancé Dan Davis, will be taking over the homicide duties from Lou and me. The
last few months, Lou and I have spent time training them, and each time we saw
one of them get a little discouraged we let both of them know that we will be
available if they need help. Only a few days earlier both Dan and Heather were
promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and Lou and I were excited to be there when
they heard the good news. And Dan and Heather will do it their way, not our
way, and Lou and I are okay with that. Since we spent most of three months
training them, I expected someone, in a weak moment, would have flown off the
handle and murdered someone, but it didn't happen. While neither Lou nor I are
close to the age where many people retire, we could see ourselves getting older
and a little slower, and so, after talking it over one day and thinking and
praying about it for a few more days, we decided to bite the bullet, instead of
continuing to shoot it. Actually, in all of our years in homicide I'd never had
to draw my gun. I almost did the time Lou threatened to fix me up with a woman
some people called the ugliest woman in six counties, but I let him off the
hook when I remembered he had done some good things for me over the years, too.

All fifty plus years of
our lives, Lou and I have done it our way. We grew up differently than other
boys, never played sports, or took an interest in anything other than reading,
watching TV, solving fictitious problems that we found in books, and spending
time in our tree house. And when we became cops, we weren't like most of the
guys. We drove different kinds of cars and shied away from most modern forms of
communication, and yet we had a lot of friends in the department.  And because
we weren't like everyone else, we received a lot of kidding from our friends
over the years. But that was okay.

+++

But the end was near. After
being a cop for over thirty years, most of that time in homicide, it really
didn't hit me that we were going to officially retire until they threw a
surprise retirement party/roast for us.

Neither of us saw it
coming. No one told us they would be sorry to see us go or made any comment
about the two of us retiring. The night of the roast someone came to my house while
someone else went to Lou's apartment. I remember hearing the siren, which
seemed to be getting closer and closer each second. I ran to the door, opened
it and saw a cruiser approaching with its siren blasting and its lights flashing.
I wondered if something had happened to my next-door neighbor, but discarded
that thought when the officer stopped in front of my house and came rushing up
to my door. It was a guy I knew, but seldom saw. He approached me straight
faced and told me to cooperate. I knew then it must have been someone's idea of
a retirement celebration, or a joke instigated by my good friend Lt. George
Michaelson, maybe in conjunction with another friend, Frank Harris, the medical
examiner. I was sure that at the same time I was being accosted another officer
had descended upon Lou's apartment. I knew that  the older ladies who lived in
Lou's building wondered what he had done to be arrested. They took us in
separately, each in the back of a police car, blindfolded, and in handcuffs. While
we were still blindfolded, they escorted us inside of a building and helped us
into a couple of seats. They removed our handcuffs, but told us under no
circumstances were we to remove our blindfold until we were told to do so. The
laughter as we entered the room told me that a lot of people were having fun at
our expense, and I was sure I knew who most of them were. They even brought in a
couple of women to sit on our laps and kiss us. I didn't know what to think
when someone I was sure was a woman sat down on my lap, put her hand around my
neck, pulled me toward her, and planted a lingering kiss on my lips. I had to
say that I enjoyed it, even though I didn't recognize the lips. From what I
could tell from the continuing laughter in the room, whoever kissed me then got
up and did the same to Lou. There was a pause for a couple of minutes, and then
a second woman sat down in my lap. This one appeared to be on a mission, that
of besting my first kisser. She even ran her fingers through my hair. This time
I was sure that Lou had a lap sitter at the same time I did. Luckily, both of
us recognized our second kisser. Our girlfriends. We found out later that the
first kisser for both of us was the other woman in our lives, Heather. And when
that night was over, neither Lou nor I told Thelma Lou or Jennifer that Heather
was a good kisser, too.