Mysterious Death at the Mall

About the Book

Volunteers are highly sought and highly valued by institutions in the Piedmont city Windermere, North Carolina. Central University/Medical Center is no exception. Most of its volunteers give excellent service in a friendly, efficient and positive attitude and help create a congenial environment. Amy Umstead directs a new educational program in a shopping mall for the Medical Center. The program reaches out to people where they are. Healthy Living Center in the mall offers lectures, films and a variety of programs for the community. There is emphasis on the 50 plus age population. Amy – young, energetic and capable – has become a good friend of forty-nine year old volunteer Nola Gilbert, a recently retired school teacher. When Amy’s widowed father, Bruce Braddock, comes to the city, she invites Nola over to dinner. The two are immediately attracted to each other. Amy’s husband, Lou is well established in his work and is ready to start a family. Amy is still intent on shepherding the new health program through a full year. Bruce’s son Robert says Bruce and Nola’s relationship is moving too fast, and his wife Susan disagrees. Bessie Kester, a former volunteer with the Medical Center, goes to mall programs where her numerous questions and querulous ways antagonize other people. After a lecture on a very hot August day, a new young security guard spots a parked car late at night. Shining his flashlight at the car, he sees a woman slumped against the steering wheel. It’s Bessie. Medics and policemen question how she died. The car doors were locked and there were no keys in the car. A man who had also attended the lecture that day had behaved somewhat strangely, nervous. And Nola felt certain that there had been a name of a latecomer on her roster of people attending that program. But the last entry had been erased. And a male, seen several times in the mall, acts skittish when he’s applying for a position with the Medical Center Human Resource Department. The home life of the characters and their close family members is developed, for all that touches them influences their roles at work, in volunteering, and their interpersonal relationships. The mysterious death continues to perturb the people who had been involved with the victim. A touch of guilt or remorse hangs over each one. When Amy is threatened in a violent manner, her family is frightened for her safety. Each plays his part attempting her rescue. Mall security measures are taken. Law enforcement converges on the scene.

About the Author

Peggy Reid Rhodes has three previous novels: Rosemary for Remembrance An Historical Fiction and two of fiction in contemporary times, Charlotte Greystone and The Property of Joseph McBaden Attorney-At-Law. All are set in Piedmont North Carolina. The author was awarded The Distinguished Alumni Award 2003 by the Alumni Association of Greensboro College. She lives in Winston-Salem, NC.