Read Raining Men and Corpses: A Fun Cozy Mystery (A Raina Sun Mystery Book 1) for Free Online

sloshed unnoticed onto her lap. “I didn’t want to touch him. But I had to.” She shuddered and closed her eyes.
    Raina removed Gail’s clinched fingers around the mug, setting it on the table.
    Gail opened her eyes and continued. “Then I called the police and went outside to wait for them.”
    Eden shifted her gaze to Raina. “Did you see the body?”
    Raina recoiled. “Only for a second before the police arrived at the scene.”
    “How did he die?” asked Eden, shifting back to Gail.
    Gail shrugged. “I don’t know. Don’t people die from accidents in the shower all the time?”
    “You think he slipped and fell?” asked Raina, frowning. Holden wasn’t much of a gym rat, but he certainly had more natural grace than her. Even if the floor was wet and she had on high heels and the sink was positioned right next to her head, she couldn’t imagine slipping to her death in a public restroom.
    “Did Holden seem odd that day?” Eden asked.
    Gail shrugged. “No. But he’d asked if I had something for an upset stomach after lunch. I gave him Pepto-Bismol tablets.”
    “Why did he ask you instead of stopping by the Student Health Center?” asked Eden.
    “Probably because he didn’t want to walk across campus in the heat,” said Raina.
    “I was asking Gail,” said Eden, widening her eyes and giving her a pointed look.
    Raina slumped in her chair, holding her mug of tea in front of her. What did it matter whether or not he went to the Student Health Center?
    Gail shook her head. “I don’t know.”
    “Did anything unusual happen recently?” asked Eden.
    “No…”
    “Do you know if Holden had any enemies?”
    “I don’t know.” Gail averted her gaze. “I don’t pay attention to office gossip. I’ve been busy. Classes start in two weeks.”
    Raina choked mid-swallow. She coughed again to dislodge the drop of tea in her throat. “The tea went down the wrong pipe.” She waved for them to continue.
    Eden asked a few more questions that Gail answered halfheartedly, but Raina had stopped paying attention. When did Gail ignore office gossip? In a world where squirrels stop hoarding for the winter? Raina was willing to bet the secret stash of chocolates in her nightstand drawer that Gail knew more than she let on about Holden’s private life.

5
    PEEING ON THE HYDRANT
    R aina dropped Eden off at the newspaper’s office and drove to campus. After parking at the faculty lot with her homemade parking pass, she moseyed over to the bookstore, only to find it closed. Summer hours. She slumped against the shaded bench and flapped the collar of her shirt, hoping for a cool breeze.
    The heat was one of the hardest things for her to get used to about Gold Springs. It was barely ten o’clock and already seventy-six degrees. Another triple-digit day. Raina sniffed her armpits cautiously and her head jerked back. Oh great! She’d forgotten to put on deodorant in her rush to leave with Eden. Hopefully her errands on campus wouldn’t take long and she could run home for a shower. In the meantime, she’d just have to keep her arms close by her sides.
    She pulled a small notebook from her purse and stared at the blank page. Holden had disappeared from her life a month ago without even a simple good-bye. His sudden desire to work things out after she told him about a fake pregnancy was bizarre. And now she was the last person he’d contacted with text messages that could make her a potential suspect if his death wasn’t from natural causes. Her hands flew across the page as she re-created his day.
    10 AM H at fundraiser meeting
    10 AM H at fundraiser meeting ended. lunch?
    12 PM fundraiser meeting ended. Lunch?
    2 PM H asked G for Pepto
    3 PM H texted R to meet
    4 PM H texted R to meet
    5:05 PM G found body
    5:15 PM R at scene
    What happened in five hours to cause a healthy thirty-six-year-old man to drop dead in a public restroom? What did he eat for lunch? Eden had asked about enemies. Did she have good reason