Immersed in the View

By P.D. Workman

From Award-winning and Bestselling Author, P.D. Workman!
A Wake Up Call
Detective “Parks” Pat is back. Now an established and accepted member of the homicide squad, she unexpectedly brings a new case to the table when she stumbles across a body as Canada Day dawns. While it was initially assumed to be an accidental drowning, the autopsy results say otherwise.
Margie is soon off and running, but the lack of witnesses has her going in circles. Meanwhile, the brass wants the investigation put to bed before the city is flooded with Calgary Stampede tourists and dignitaries.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I also appreciate the imagery of these books – they afford a wonderful armchair travel experience. I understand the author draws on personal encounters when choosing the parks featured in this series so I suppose that is why the descriptions are so vivid and detailed. I find I can easily visualize the scenery, I can almost feel the sun and smell the breeze.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ms. Workman never disappoints! Well developed characters, a tight plot and expert craftsmanship make this one a fast read.
Looking for a police procedural set in picturesque Canada? Let Award-winning and Bestselling Author P.D. Workman take you her favourite Calgary parks, as Métis detective Margie Patenaude investigates a murder in this fast-paced new series.
These short mysteries are just right for those days when you could use a break from your busy life. Take a walk in a Calgary park with Parks Pat.
Wade into this new mystery today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: P.D. Workman
• Release date: Apr 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781774681756

P.D. Workman

P.D. Workman is a USA Today Bestselling author, winner of several awards from Library Services for Youth in Custody and the InD’tale Magazine’s Crowned Heart award. With over 100 published books, Workman is one of Canada’s most prolific authors. Her mystery/suspense/thriller and young adult books, include stand alones and these series: Auntie Clem's Bakery cozy mysteries, Reg Rawlins Psychic Investigator paranormal mysteries, Zachary Goldman Mysteries (PI), Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thrillers, Parks Pat Mysteries (police procedural), and YA series: Medical Kidnap Files, Tamara's Teardrops, Between the Cracks, and Breaking the Pattern.Workman has been praised for her realistic details, deep characterization, and sensitive handling of the serious social issues that appear in all of her stories, from light cozy mysteries through to darker, grittier young adult and mystery/suspense books.

Book preview

Immersed in the View

IMMERSED IN THE VIEW

A PARKS PAT MYSTERY #4

P.D. WORKMAN

ABOUT IMMERSED IN THE VIEW

A PARKS PAT MYSTERY

Well developed characters, a tight plot and expert craftsmanship make this one a fast read. I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to her next one.

SANDY, GOODREADS REVIEWER

I find I can easily visualize the scenery, I can almost feel the sun and smell the breeze. While I will likely never get to see these places in person, I feel I have already visited them. After Margie mentions seeing a group of black-headed Franklin’s gulls, I had to google them to see them for myself – they are quite striking. Perhaps that will provide prospective readers with an idea of how compelling the writing is in this series. I highly recommend these books to anyone who appreciates engrossing mysteries, likeable characters, and clean solid stories.

KIM, GOODREADS REVIEWER

A Wake Up Call

Detective Parks Pat is back. Now an established and accepted member of the homicide squad, she unexpectedly brings a new case to the table when she stumbles across a body as Canada Day dawns. While it was initially assumed to be an accidental drowning, the autopsy results say otherwise.

Margie is soon off and running, but the lack of witnesses has her going in circles. Meanwhile, the brass wants the investigation put to bed before the city is flooded with Calgary Stampede tourists and dignitaries.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️This promises to be a wonderful series with fantastic characters, interesting locations, and fascinating glimpses into different cultures. The story is of novella length and can easily be read in one sitting if so desired, there is no offensive language, no sex, no graphic violence – just a whopping good story everyone can enjoy.

Looking for a police procedural set in picturesque Canada? Let Award-winning and Bestselling Author P.D. Workman take you her favourite Calgary parks, as Métis detective Margie Patenaude investigates a murder in this fast-paced new series. 

These short mysteries are just right for those days when you could use a break from your busy life. Take a walk in a Calgary park with Parks Pat.

Wade into this new mystery today!

Copyright © 2021 by P.D. Workman

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 9781774681770 (KDP Hardcover)

ISBN: 9781774681787 (KDP Large Print)

ISBN: 9781774681732 (KDP Paperback)

ISBN: 9781774681763 (IS Paperback)

ISBN: 9781774681749 (Kindle)

ISBN: 9781774681756 (ePub)

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To the survivors

CONTENTS

Style Note

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Valleyview Park

Preview of Skimming Over the Lake

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Also by P.D. Workman

About the Author

STYLE NOTE

Since my largest readership is in the USA, I have chosen to use US spellings throughout this series. That includes the Americanization of centre to center, even where it is an actual place name, just for consistency’s sake. I apologize to my Canadian readers for this.

I have chosen, however, to use Canadian grammar, particularly for Canadian voices. If you see what you think is a grammar error, it may just be Canadian, eh?

CHAPTER ONE

Margie was puffing by the time she got to the park. She was getting into better shape. She could go farther than she had been able to when she started, but she was still in pretty sad shape compared to what she had been as a beat cop, getting plenty of exercise walking the streets. Sitting at a desk was not good for her, and she had not been getting as much exercise as she had thought she would once she arrived in Calgary.

She still hadn’t started cycling in to work, using the new pathway over Deerfoot and under Blackfoot, then through Pearce Estate Park and continuing downtown. She had followed it a couple of times on Google Maps to make sure she knew the way, but hadn’t yet tried it in real life. She was working her way up to it and wanted to make sure she knew the route really well before she tried it, not wanting to get turned around and lost.

She had promised herself that once she reached Valleyview Park, she would give herself a break. Walk around the pond, have a drink of water, take a few pictures, and get her breath back before returning home. The whole route was only about three kilometers and, once she was comfortable with that, she intended to increase the distance by adding a loop through the pathways by the Max Bell Arena. Calgary had a lot of green space and pathways; she might as well make use of them.

Margie slowed to a walk. It was a clear morning, the sun shining brightly and the greens of the trees and blue of the pond looked like a painted picture. Despite the early hour, it was already 18 degrees Celsius. Actually, it hadn’t gotten below 18 the night before. The last few days had had 36-38 degree highs, almost unheard of in Calgary. Most homes—the ones in Margie’s neighborhood, anyway—did not have central air conditioning. She had been lucky enough to find a window AC unit a month before when the first heat wave had hit at the beginning of June. It was never 30 above the first week in June, she was told. There had been a few flakes of snow on Victoria Day, just a week before that. Calgary didn’t normally hit 30 until August.

With the AC unit in Margie’s bedroom, they could at least sleep. Christina had said at first that she would be fine in her own room, she didn’t need to come sleep with Margie like a little kid who’d had a bad dream. But that didn’t even last a full night. With the house heating up and holding on to the heat, Margie’s bedroom and the unfinished basement were the only tolerable spaces.

Now it was already Canada Day. July first. Margie didn’t have to go in to work, and Christina was out of school, so they had stayed up a bit late the night before to watch a movie while they waited for the house to cool. But Margie had promised herself she would still go for a run, and knew that she would need to head out by six if she wanted to beat the heat. She was glad that she had.

She nodded and said good morning to an elderly man walking around the pond with a cane. She had seen him there before. And she could see a couple with a pair of dogs approaching that she recognized as well. A lot of people wanted to get out and enjoy a bit of fresh air before it got too hot.

Margie sipped her water, then put it back into the holder on her running belt and took out her phone for a few pictures. She walked by the little waterfall, bubbling happily away. Even just this little slice of nature, listening to the trickle of the water and the whistles of the red-winged blackbirds, helped to restore her peace and serenity after all the recent news. Down below that, there was a marshy area with cattails and some scum and plant matter floating on top of the water.

There was something in there. She had seen a muskrat a couple of times in the pond and figured that was probably what it was. He was remarkably brave about all the people and dogs who walked around the pond. Most of the time, he just ignored them unless they got right to the edge of the water, and then he would dive, disappearing below the surface.

But as she got closer, she could see that whatever was in the water was much larger than that. It was obscured by the weeds, but it looked as though someone had dumped a dark blue suitcase into the water. A short distance away, she could see the bottom of a shoe floating on the surface of the pond, which confirmed to her that it must be luggage. Why would somebody throw that into the water?

Margie left the pathway to get close to the water’s edge where she would be able to see better. The closer she got, the more clearly she could see that it was not a suitcase and random assortment of clothing that had been dumped into the water.

What she had initially taken for the fabric side of a suitcase was the broad back of a man in a denim shirt. The shoe she could see floating a few feet away was still on the foot of its owner.

CHAPTER TWO

Hey! Some help over here!" Margie shouted to the man and the woman walking their dogs.

She scrambled out onto the large sandstone rocks at the edge of the pond and tried to reach the man. Facedown in the water. Not a good sign. Floating just a little too far away for her to grab his shoulder or shirt. She shuffled toward his feet, her knees protesting at the hardness of the rocks. She would end up with bruises just from kneeling there. Margie reached out again, overbalanced, and nearly toppled into the water.

She drew back, breathing hard, her heart racing. She hated the water.