Murder in the Pachysandra

by Linda A. Lavid

  As he traipsed across the living room, Hattie was struck by his rubber boots. They were the same as Ralph’s, the old-fashioned kind worn over shoes, black with metal buckles.

  “Can I take your coat?”

  With little regard to his damp clothes, he sat on the couch. “I won’t be staying long.”

  Hattie could take the opportunity to question Scott. After all, no neighbor was out of consideration. But something felt off. Yes. Of course. He had never been in her house when it was dark. “What can I do for you?”

  “I wanted to stop by earlier, but Julia was here. This place is getting crazy, huh?”

  “A lot has happened.”

  “Sorry to hear about Muriel. How’s she doing?”

  “Her condition is critical.”

  “She needs to take better care of herself.”

  In defensive mode, Hattie’s motherly instinct took over. “Muriel is well-aware of how to take care of herself.”

  “I’m sure she is.” he said flatly.

  “Scott, we never know what people go through. How they have to deal with health issues.”

  “Laying off the pies would help.”

  For the first time, Hattie realized how judgmental Scott could be. She glanced at the clock. It was getting late. She needed to speak with Howie. “What can I do for you this evening? I’m afraid I fell asleep and have to call Howie.”

  He nodded. “About the lawyer, right?”

  How did he know? “Excuse me?”

  “For Julia.”

  Did Julia speak with Scott? “She told you?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  Hattie reared back.

  “You look surprised.”

  “I—”

  “I honestly don’t think a lawyer’s going to help. She and her husband are over their heads. Deeply in debt from what I hear.”

  “Scott, one must be careful about spreading rumors.”

  “Rumors? Don’t think so. We hear a lot on our routes.” He shrugged. “Anyway, I listen. Seems to make people happy.”

  “When did Julia speak with you?”

  “Many times.”

  Hattie tried to make sense of what Scott was saying. Was Julia telling her story to everyone? But why? And to Scott of all people. He wasn’t exactly the most discreet person when it came to minding his own business.

  “Are you surprised she let me in on her secret?”

  “I guess so. Nothing to be proud of.”

  “Yeah. For sure.”

  Hattie wondered if they were talking about the same thing. “What exactly did she tell you?”

  “Everything. Well, only what she knows.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “That pretty boy husband of hers is having an affair with Roxanne. Julia doesn’t have a clue. Not the brightest bulb.”

  Hattie didn’t like Scott’s tone. “You’re being awfully disapproving this evening.”

  “I call it like it is.”

  “Yes. I see. Scott, I really must call Howie. Thanks for stopping by.”

  “Oh. I’m not leaving.”

  Had she heard correctly? “Excuse me?”

  “And I think you know why.”

  Hattie glanced over to Orin. Something was very wrong. How stupid and naïve she had become. She had to think fast. “Can’t say I do understand, but if you insist on staying, I must turn off the kettle.” Hattie stood. “Excuse me, won’t you?”

  He looked at her with a silly grin.

  Before she had a chance to walk away, he yelled, “Sit down you old fool.”

  Her heart beat wildly.

  “Do you think I’m stupid? You don’t have the kettle on. It’s something else you want.”

  She blinked hard.

  He reached inside his pocket and dangled the necklace in front of her. “Looking for this?”

  It swung like a pendulum. “I stopped by earlier. Tsk, tsk. You should have listened to Howie.” He put it on the table next to him, far from her reach.

  Hattie blurted out, “Did you hurt Jason?”

  He smiled. “Now why would I have done such a thing?”

  But Hattie had her answer. It was his sickening smile that gave him away. Her heart revved. Trapped in her own home, her mind went into overdrive. Keep him talking Hattie, an inside voice came. “So why did you do it?”

  “Jason? You’re the smarty pants. You tell me.”

  “No Scott. You’re the smart one.”

  “Smart? Or diabolical?”

  Hattie recoiled. How did he know she had used the word ‘diabolical’? Did it matter? She decided to appeal to his ego. “No Scott, smart. Very smart.”

  He grinned. “Flattery will get you nowhere. Anyway, before I leave there are a few housekeeping chores I have to take care of. Do you mind?”

  Hattie sat stock still. Whatever was going to happen, she’d maintain her dignity.

  He reached beneath the end table and pulled out, what appeared to be a button. “You’ve been a wonderful source of information. But you really should have listened to that mutant detective and minded your own business.”

  Hattie understood. “You’ve been listening in?”

  He laughed and tucked the button into his shirt pocket.

  Suddenly, Hattie had an epiphany. “Now I know where that twenty dollars went.”

  “Excuse me?”

  The incident was crystal clear. Howie had placed twenty dollars on the coffee table and while she was making Scott’s hot chocolate, he must have taken it and dropped it into his shirt pocket. It was only after she asked for a donation, that he reached back into his shirt and pulled out a twenty. Howie’s twenty. “You took it.”

  “Did you actually think I wanted to donate to that kid’s funeral expenses? That would be absurd.”

  “Scott, why did you hurt Jason?”

  “No one gets in my way. No one.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You can blame that tub-of-lard friend of yours.”

  Muriel?

  He sneered. “It was all perfectly planned until that precious paperboy of yours came along. Everything would have been fine. End of story. But no, he found her and called the ambulance. I wasn’t going to let that happen again. Fool me once. Only once.”

  Hattie blinked. He had tried killing Muriel earlier? Yes, of course. The previous week. And poor Jason. He indeed had seen something. He had found Muriel. “But why hurt Muriel?”

  “She’s fat and...” Scott lunged into Hattie’s face and screamed, “UGLY.”

  His breath was foul. His eyes dead. Hattie reared back. She had to keep talking. Talking for a miracle. She thought fast. Whatever theories she had contrived, it was now time to learn the truth. “I know why you wanted Muriel dead.”

  “Do you?”

  “It’s obvious. But your plan failed, didn’t it?”

  “My plans never fail. They just get…adjusted.”

  “Not exactly. You had stolen the five thousand dollars. You had hoped she would have died before realizing the money was taken out of her account. After all, if she were dead, no one would have any idea.”

  He clapped his hands. “Bravo.”

  “But that didn’t happen. Muriel did find out about the money and they’re hot on your trail. Now you have to clean up your own mess and it’s a doozy.”

  He laughed. “You don’t know anything, you old bat.”

  “The friendly mailman with unbridled access to information, property, people’s lives. What will they find at your house? I expect a lot. How many other people on your route have had their drawers rifled through and their information stolen? How many others have you murdered?”

  “Listen you piece of shit. The difference between—”

  Hattie interrupted. She had nothing to lose. “You overreached with Jason. All because of spite. Big mistake.”

  “Overreached? It was the perfect crime because it wasn’t a crime. It was an accident. Just ask anyone. Neighbors. Police. They’ll tell you.�
��

  “You manipulate by masterminding the stories, spreading rumors wherever you go. Rumors about Jason, Bailey, and whoever else you want to implicate.”

  He sneered. “Can I help it if I have a gift?”

  Hattie felt a chill in her bones. The man had no conscience.

  “For an old woman, you have been a source of amusement, and I must say, for all your fumbling, you came inordinately close today. Making those connections. Seeing the pattern. But as you are now aware, I can’t tolerate people getting in my way. I now must make an adjustment.”

  Hattie knew her time was near. At this point she had two choices, go down easily or go down rough. Without emotion, she said, “You won’t get away with it.”

  He smiled. “Get away with what?”

  “Everything.”

  “But I always have and always will. Anyway, I’m not going to hurt you. You’re an old, frail woman, bereft over your friend. Why even yesterday you were in the hospital...” Then he smiled that sinister smile. “Besides, no one will remotely care.”

  Hattie shook her head. “Howie won’t believe it for a minute. Your plan won’t work.”

  He laughed. “You old fool. I always have a plan inside of a plan. Just in case. Anyway, Howie’s been waiting for you to kick the bucket for years. Now why would you think he’d prefer going food shopping with his mother every weekend when he could be getting laid.”

  He sat smugly, waiting for a reaction.

  Hattie looked over at Orin. Was that a smile on his face? a twinkle in his eye?

  “Scott, I can only hope that Howie won’t miss me. That he’ll go on with his life and be happy. It’s what we all want for our children.”

  His face turned to stone. This was what unloved, uncared for, looked like. He reached into his pocket.

  There was nothing more to say. Her time was near.

  She closed her eyes. Suddenly, a vivid memory came to mind. She was with Orin on a train platform, the day of his deployment. They were holding onto each other for dear life. As the train began to inch forward, he let go, and jumped onto the steps. The train picked up speed while Hattie walked, then ran, staying with the moving train, reaching out for one last touch. Hanging from the side, Orin stretched, until, with yeoman strength, he grabbed her wrist and heaved her onto the train. Two days later she became Mrs. Orin Moon.

  At this moment, now so many years later, she imagined another train. The steps slowly moving away. As an excruciating electrical current passed through her body, she jumped on board.

  Hattie felt heavy, numb. She tried to open her eyes but couldn’t.

  Still, she sensed where she was––on a precipice at the top of a mountain where the foggy ground below her swirled. There was no place to go except down, down into oblivion. She stepped off the cliff.

  The drop was monumental. She spun at velocities that defied imagination. Her breath was taken away. Was she breathing?

  Certainly, the end would come quick, that her extinguished self would soon rest and be forgotten. Nothing but a fallen leaf, like so many leaves.

  But after untold moments, there was no crash landing and the fall wasn’t a fall. It was weightlessness.

  There was no gravity in this place.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Light and airy, she floated at random speeds. Sometimes, so quickly the landscapes blurred her vision. But when something caught her eye, the propulsion slowed and she was able, like a focusing lens, to witness the complete cycle of odd and breathtaking sequences that could be played forward or back.

  While watching two vivid globes of violet light merge and unmerge into an oak tree, she heard a voice. “Welcome.”

  It was Orin.

  He stood in front of her, a younger man with his crooked smile and bright eyes. Her hands shook as she reached out to touch his face. Suddenly, she was surrounded by honey-colored light and his loving touch. She melted into him. Home. She was finally home.

  Time in this place was strange. They walked for hours. He held her hand. She kissed him like a teenager.

  It was on the park bench during a starry night, he whispered in her ear. “You have a decision to make.”

  “What decision?”

  He looked off to the side. Her glance followed. She wanted to turn away from what she saw.

  “Just listen,” he said.

  Hattie was in a hospital bed. Howie was by her side, holding her hand. “You’ll be alright, Ma.”

  Hattie’s heart ached. She had to let Howie know she was fine.

  “It doesn’t work that way,” Orin said.

  “But it does. You’ve been with me ever since you died.”

  “I did nothing. You wanted to believe I was there and made it happen.”

  Howie continued talking. “You’re the bravest person I know. And we’re not going to let you down. We got him, Ma. He’s not going to hurt anyone anymore.”

  Relief swept through Hattie. It was all worth it.

  “Ted went to his house and found the vial of Fentanyl and a stockpile of keys to everyone’s house.”

  Hattie beamed at Orin.

  He responded with a worried look.

  She reached for his hand. “What’s wrong?”

  He gave a weak smile.

  “Where’s Muriel?” asked Hattie.

  “She’s not here.”

  “But she’ll be coming.”

  “I don’t know. It’s her decision.”

  “I didn’t want her to die. What would I have done without her? But now it seems like it may all work out.”

  “Possibly.”

  “Orin, you seem down in the dumps. Have I done something wrong?”

  He shook his head. “You’ve done everything right. It’s just that…” His words got caught in his throat.

  “Just what?”

  He looked back into the hospital room. “You need to listen some more.”

  Howie spoke up. “The doctor said you might be able to hear me and that I should keep talking. So, I’ll just keep going… We found you pretty quickly. When you let him in, Lucy ran outside. Julia found her and brought her back. The front door was unlocked. Luckily, being a nurse, she knew just what to do. Thank God. She then called 911. After I was contacted, I called Ted. Too many people were dying. He took one look at the house and got a search warrant that same night.

  “Anyway, I talked with Julia in the hospital and she mentioned she needed a lawyer. I gave her Jack Freeman’s number. She went to speak with him this morning and it looks like everything’s going to work out.”

  Hattie smiled. So many happy endings.

  “Of course, Ted Blansky’s not too happy. He missed the boat on this one. He was really sorry about everything. Who would have thought that Ralph would do such a thing? He had me fooled.”

  Hattie blinked. She must have misunderstood. She looked at Orin. He shook his head.

  “Anyway, Ma we can handle everything, but it would be good if you joined us to put this guy away. While there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence, there’s nothing like an eye witness to seal the deal.”

  Lost for words, Hattie recalled what Scott had said…a plan inside of a plan.

  “Of course, Ralph says he’s innocent, but there’s no doubt about it. His boot prints were all over the house. And his shed. Holy moley. We found the taser he had probably used. But that wasn’t all. He had guns, Ma. Semi-automatic weapons. Grenade launchers. What the hell was he thinking?” Howie squeezed Hattie’s hand. “And there was one other thing…Jason’s baseball cap. Anyway, it’s over now. Thanks to you.”

  Desperate, Hattie looked at Orin. “This can’t be happening. What are we going to do?”

  “Hattie, I can’t do anything. I knew you were going to be upset. I’m so sorry.”

  “There must be a way to get Howie to understand. What do I have to do? Please. Tell me.”

  With sad eyes, Orin shook his head. “There’s only one option.”

  “What is it?” Hattie said with
excitement. “I’ll do it.”

  His smile was weak. His words came out in a hoarse whisper. “You could go back.”

  “I can do that? But I’m here now.”

  “Not yet. That person in the bed is fighting for her life. You have the option to stay here or go back.”

  Hattie observed the old woman next to Howie. She looked so frail and vulnerable. A wisp of a woman, pale, thin. Hooked up to monitors and drips, the poor thing could not be doing well. Hattie watched the readouts on the screen. Wavy, irregular lines went up and down.

  “Hattie, you have to choose soon or the decision will be made for you. Your body is holding on, but your heart can’t keep beating indefinitely.”

  “Is this why you’ve been looking so glum?”

  Orin nodded. “I knew you had to make a decision. I also know you.”

  “But I don’t want to go back. It’s so constricting.”

  He laughed. “To say the least.”

  “But if Scott isn’t caught, what else will he do? How many more innocent people will he kill?”

  “I know you’ll do the right thing.”

  “And let’s face it, I’m old, how much longer could I have. Five minutes? Five years?” Hattie then thought of a complication. “You’ll wait for me, right?

  “Always have and always will.”

  “Now don’t be sad. I’ll still talk to you.” Hattie looked around, then whispered. “Answer me back. How ever you can. Maybe we could work out some kind of signaling.”

  “Like I’m a ghost?”

  “Yes! Exactly. Rattle some chains. Slam doors. Climb stairs.”

  “I already tried. I’m rotten at it.”

  Suddenly, an alarm went off in Hattie’s hospital room.

  Fearful, Howie jumped to the door and yelled. “Something’s wrong. Please help.”

  Orin looked at Hattie. “It’s time. What are you going to do?”

  “How do I get back?”

  The same way you came. “Close your eyes and jump.”

  Hattie reached for Orin. Just one more hug.

  But when she closed her eyes, she went down a dark chute. A weight she had never known pressed against her chest. She gasped for air. But there was none to breathe.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  It wasn’t a soft landing. Every inch of her body was wracked with pins-and-needles pain.