Authors: Shelley Singer
Tags: #Shelley Singer, #Jake Samson, #San Francisco, #mystery, #murder mystery, #mystery series, #cozy mystery, #California, #sperm bank, #private investigator, #PI fiction, #Bay Area mystery
Spit In The Ocean: A Laid-Back Bay Area Mystery (The Jake Samson & Rosie Vicente Detective Series Book 4) (23 page)
The next day she thawed one vial of dead sperm and used it. And sat back and waited for the pregnancy that was going to safeguard her old age.
About her role in the truck crash— that was the one thing no one could pin on her for sure. All we had was her probable presence on the road that day, and the information I’d gotten from Hilda when I’d persuaded her to elaborate on some of the things Fredda, in her poverty, had learned to do for herself. Among them, Hilda had told me, was minor maintenance and repair on her station wagon.
Clement asked Fredda if she’d written the “religious” note that had been left at the bank with her left hand and she just laughed at him.
The good police chief had mixed feelings about the whole thing. His colleagues in law enforcement thought he’d done some pretty hot police work, and that was good. But he said the case had left a bad taste in his mouth, and writing detective stories looked better all the time. He gave me a manila envelope stuffed with neatly typed sheets of paper.
“Angie helped me,” he said with a smile. “She typed it all up.”
I agreed to read it over and talk to “some people.” The truth was, I never intended to read it myself. My friends at
Probe
were a lot better equipped than I was to do that. If it was any good at all, I figured I could slide out of the picture by turning him over to someone who could really help him.
If it wasn’t any good? I’d worry about that when I came to it. Maybe Angie would help me worry about it.
It was no surprise to anyone, least of all to Frank Wooster, when Joanne moved in with Great-aunt Hilda. We didn’t know whether either of them had known or even suspected what Fredda was doing, and Clement said he didn’t want to know. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that Joanne had it all worked out from the beginning.
The day we left town, Rosie and I saw the girl wheeling down Main Street and stopped to talk. I was hoping she wouldn’t hate us for what had happened to Fredda.
“How are you doing, Joanne?” Rosie asked.
“Fine. Are you sure your dog doesn’t bite?”
“Positive. Go ahead, pet her.” The child touched the dog briefly, nervously, on the top of the head, but pulled her hand away when Alice tried to lick it.
“I’m sorry about your mother,” I said.
“We both are,” Rosie told her.
Joanne looked at us suspiciously, saw that we meant it, and laughed. A bitter little snicker.
“I’m not,” she said. “You think I don’t know she never liked me? And I never liked her. I’m glad. Now I get to live with Aunt Hilda. Where I belong.”
Joanne rolled away and we watched her go. I felt a little sick, and Rosie didn’t look too happy, either. I knew we’d talk about it later, at home, but neither one of us felt much like talking right then.
I got into my Chevy. Rollie Hackman’s watercolor of the triangle rocks lay on the back seat, carefully wrapped. For just a second, I thought about detouring out to the spit to say good-bye to Melody, but the thought passed.
Rosie aimed her truck south and I pulled out onto the road behind her. We headed back to the Bay Area, where we belong.
THE END
For Elizabeth Lay
My thanks to Barbara Raboy, for sharing her expertise, and to Paula, for the use of her files.
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Start at the beginning of the series:
Samson’s Deal
Or…
Try another witty PI mystery series set in San Francisco:
The Paul Mcdonald Series
Jake Samson Mysteries
Samson’s Deal
Free Draw
Full House
Suicide King
Spit in the Ocean
Royal Flush
Barrett Lake Mysteries
Following Jane
Picture of David
Searching for Sara
Interview With Mattie
Other novels
Torch Song: The Blackjack Trilogy
The Demeter Flower
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SHELLEY SINGER has had 13 novels, including a Shamus Award nominee, and several short stories published. Most are mysteries, including the six books in the Jake Samson series. Her most recent novel is
Torch Song
, a near-future thriller. She teaches writing online and does manuscript consulting. She has served as a judge in a number of fiction writing contests, including the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction writing competition. She lives in Petaluma, CA with two dogs and the love of her life.