The Hayloft. A 1950s Mystery

THE HAYLOFT

    by

    Alan Cook

    SMASHWORDS EDITION

    “The Hayloft,” a mystery set in the 1950s, is a wonderful way to spend some time.”
    —Cathy Yanda for Reader Views

    “Cook has the details in this book just right. Having grown up in that era, in a small Midwestern town I felt like I had been transported back to my childhood. I knew people with bomb shelters and haylofts and spent time playing in both. The bomb shelters are every bit as creepy feeling as described in the book and the haylofts every bit as fun, complete with forts, slides and tunnels built out of the hay bales.”
    —Caryn St.Clair for Mystery Morgue

    “Alan Cook not only recreated the feeling of the fifties with his words but also the tone of the time. Excellent!”
    — Cynthia Lea Clark

    PUBLISHED BY:
    Alan Cook on Smashwords
    The Hayloft
    Copyright © 2006 by Alan L. Cook.

    All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

    Smashwords Edition License Notes

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

    BOOKS BY ALAN COOK

    Run into Trouble
    Gary Blanchard Mysteries:
    Honeymoon for Three
    The Hayloft: a 1950s mystery
    California Mystery:
    Hotline to Murder
    Lillian Morgan mysteries:
    Catch a Falling Knife
    Thirteen Diamonds
    Other fiction:
    Walking to Denver
    Nonfiction:
    Walking the World: Memories and Adventures
    History:
    Freedom’s Light: Quotations from History’s Champions of Freedom
    Poetry:
    The Saga of Bill the Hermit

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    Many thanks to Dawn Dowdle and my wife, Bonny, for helping to make this book readable.

    DEDICATION

    To Matthew and Mason, who will also be going to high school

    CHAPTER 1
    Some people must like to be the bearers of bad news. One of these is my younger brother, Archie. I had been practicing some preseason tennis on the indoor courts at Atherton High School and then ridden home on my bike, bucking the March winds. I had just barely entered our suburban house when he raced up to me.
    “Gary, Ralph’s dead,” he said, his voice trembling with emotion.
    “What?” I asked, unable to believe my ears. Was this some kind of a joke?
    “Ralph’s dead,” he said again. “He fell off the balcony in the Carter High School auditorium and killed himself."
    This couldn’t be true. Nobody fell off a balcony in real life. That sort of thing only happened in movies. Especially not my first cousin, Ralph, who was an all-star athlete and in complete control of his body at all times. But Archie, who liked practical jokes, looked pale and deadly serious. He obviously wasn’t kidding.
    I raced into the kitchen where my mother and my other brother, Tom, were sitting at the table in our breakfast nook, looking stunned. Nobody sat here at this time of day. Tears rolled freely down my mother’s cheeks while she dabbed at them ineffectually with a tissue and sniffed as if she had a cold. Happy-go-lucky Tom looked as if he had lost his last friend.
    “Is it true?” I asked them.
    My mother nodded and then said, the words choking her, “We just got a phone call from Aunt Dorothy. It happened after an assembly in the auditorium. Apparently Ralph stayed behind and was there all alone.”
    None of this made any sense. “Does Dad know?” I asked.
    “I just called him,” Mother said. “He’s on his way home.”
    My father was the