Dead to the World

by Susan Rogers Cooper

  ‘Don’t get all huffy with me!’ Alicia said. ‘I think I can handle it! It’s just that I don’t want to!’

  ‘Then don’t,’ Logan said, standing up. ‘Y’all have been great, and I appreciate the attempt, but there’s nothing that can be done until Harper’s baby is born. I’ll just try to put off marrying her until then.’

  Bess jumped to her feet. ‘No! We can help! I swear we can, Logan!’

  ‘I need to get home—’

  ‘Your face is still a mess,’ Megan said. ‘Your mother will see it for sure.’

  ‘Then I’ll just tell her the same story we told Cam at the restaurant—’

  ‘Oh, for gawd’s sake, give me the damn phone!’ Alicia said.

  I helped Miss Hutchins fix breakfast while Diamond Lovesy sat in the dining room drinking another full pot of coffee. The body had gone, as had Chief Cotton and his entourage. Willis wandered downstairs about a half an hour after they left. I would say he was upstairs staring out the window waiting for them to leave, but that would seem spiteful – true, probably, but still spiteful.

  While I was helping Miss Hutchins with breakfast, I said, ‘I’ve been thinking about who could have done this to Humphrey, and I thought maybe a stranger came in to steal something. Have you noticed if anything’s missing?’

  She flipped over great slabs of ham she had frying in a cast iron skillet and said, ‘Well, I haven’t really looked, of course. Maybe we can do that after breakfast?’

  I continued cutting up a melon. ‘Sounds like a plan,’ I said.

  Willis stuck his head in the kitchen door. ‘Something smells great,’ he said.

  ‘It’s called breakfast,’ I said.

  He came all the way into the kitchen. ‘So what did the chief say? About Humphrey?’

  ‘He’s dead,’ I said.

  ‘The chief?’ he asked, eyebrows raised but a grin tickling his lips.

  I poked him in the gut with the hand that wasn’t wielding the knife. ‘He doesn’t know anything as of this moment. Diamond’s in the dining room and appears grief-stricken, and we know she’s not that good an actress,’ I said, remembering her performance ‘channeling’ Miss Hutchins’ father, ‘so maybe she really is. And as far as I can tell, she didn’t have anything to add about Humphrey’s passing.’

  ‘Should I go in there and question her?’ Willis asked.

  I shrugged. ‘Knock yourself out,’ I said. I went to the coffee machine and handed him the fresh carafe – the fifth one, and it wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning. ‘Take this in and fill up the thermos. Oh, and here’s a mug for you,’ I said, taking one down from the cabinet. He gave a quick nod and was out the door to the dining room.

  Breakfast was a relatively quiet affair. Personally, I was starving and set about stuffing my face as quickly as possible. As usual, the food was amazing: thick ham slices were layered over chunky homemade bread, a poached egg sat on the ham, and Hollandaise sauce covered it all. Not exactly eggs Benedict, but even better with the addition of her hearty homemade bread. There was also my offering of cubes of cantaloupe and honeydew melon. And more coffee, of course. By the time we’d finished I was ready to go back to bed, but knew that wasn’t in my near future.

  ‘So, Diamond,’ I said when I’d finally finished stuffing my pie-hole, ‘what did the chief want when he talked to you earlier?’

  ‘Your husband has already drilled me,’ she said, her face stony. ‘Why don’t you ask him?’

  ‘Willis!’ I said. ‘I’m so sorry, Diamond. You know men. Like bulls in the proverbial china shop.’

  ‘Absolutely no finesse,’ she said.

  ‘The grace of a gorilla,’ I offered.

  ‘The compassion of a brown recluse,’ she said.

  ‘The—’ I started, but Willis interrupted.

  Pointing at me, he said, ‘She made me do it!’

  ‘Did not!’ I said.

  Diamond began to laugh. Unfortunately, it got out of control, the laughter turning into hysterics. I got up quickly and moved to her side. ‘Come on, Diamond, let’s get you upstairs. You need to rest.’

  ‘What I need is to get the hell out of here!’ she said, pulling away from me. ‘Away from you and your crazy husband! And away from this batty old broad! It’s all her fault, you know!’ I couldn’t help looking at Miss Hutchins, who appeared to have shriveled up before my very eyes. ‘If she’d been a better daughter, her father wouldn’t be doing this! You know he killed Humphrey! We all know he did it!’

  I moved away from the banshee act now in full swing from the so-called medium.

  ‘I really think you need to go to your room, Diamond,’ I said, in the same voice I use when chastising my children for various wrong-doings. ‘You know you can’t leave,’ I added. ‘Chief Cotton said we had to stay here until—’

  Diamond jumped to her feet. ‘I can do whatever I want! And I want to get out of here!’ With that she ran for the stairs.

  No one said anything for a moment, then I walked to the phone stand by the staircase, picked up the phone and dialed 911.

  ‘Who are you calling?’ Willis asked.

  ‘The chief,’ I said. ‘He needs to know what Diamond is up to.’

  Miss Hutchins spoke for the first time. ‘Please tell him I’m ready to turn myself in. Miss Lovesy is right. This is all my fault.’

  APRIL, 1942

  Once he started running, he couldn’t really stop. He was now beginning to take the Japanese personally. Talk about loss of creature comforts! The food he’d stashed in his clothing hardly lasted beyond noon. Luckily the forest was impenetrable, and he was pretty sure no one – like the Japanese, or the Marines, for that matter – could see him or hear him. It was also quite noisy, what with all the birds, and got even noisier when he found the spot where he decided to stop at least for the night if not longer. He might have noticed it was a pretty spot, if Edgar had been into such things, but the main reason for stopping was the very noisy waterfall that poured into a pool at the bottom. His thought process was more concerned with fresh water than beauty. He did check out the flora, like the cacti-looking plant with pink bulb-like blooms, wondering if it was edible. This first night he didn’t dare try eating anything. There were beautiful vines hanging off trees with six-petal purple flowers, and a reddish brown flower growing on the bark of a tree, and trumpet-like orange flowers that, when opened, contained fruit, berries and seeds.

  He built a small fire as it got dark and huddled next to it, not so much for warmth as for the security of it. He could hear animals rummaging through the forest and wasn’t keen on meeting one in the dark. He slept fitfully that first night, only to wake up the next morning starving.

  As the days and weeks moved along, Edgar found his rhythm. Early on he’d caught what looked like a rat and had fed it some of the fruit, berries and seeds he’d found. He kept the rat in a bamboo cage he’d made, and watched him for several hours after each trial. The rat lived. So those became a part of Edgar’s diet, as did a creature he found that looked like a pig, with a crest and mane and a snout closer to that of an anteater than a pig. He roasted him whole on a spit he made of the available bamboo and fed off him for almost a week.

  The armaments he’d brought with him had come in handy for killing the pig-like creature, and other creatures of the forest like deer, turkey-like wildfowl, and an animal he shot before realizing he had no idea what it was. It was spotted and striped, with a long nose, teeth like a cat and a bushy tail like a mongoose. He roasted that, too, and other than tasting a little gamy – like everything else he’d shot and cooked – it wasn’t too bad.

  He explored his environs, venturing out a little further week by week. At one point he found a pool that appeared to have steam coming off it. Touching the water, he discovered a hot spring. At least once a week after this discovery he would venture out at night with a torch to soak himself in the warm waters.

  Edgar had been on his own in the forest for three weeks when he spotted hi
s first human – a young woman, clad in native garb, walking into the hot spring fully clothed.

  SEVEN

  BACK HOME

  Before Alicia could dial the phone, it rang. She dropped it like it had just exploded in her hand. Megan picked it up, rolling her eyes at her foster sister. ‘Hello?’ she said.

  She listened for a moment, then covered the mouthpiece and half-whispered, ‘It’s Grandma! Are we going to church or what?’

  The girls looked at each other. Megan said into the phone, ‘Just a minute, Grandma, I’m trying to find Bess.’ She raised her eyebrows at her sister. ‘Well?’

  ‘I don’t think we have time for that,’ Bess said.

  ‘Well, what about lunch?’ Megan said. ‘We were counting on Grandma taking us out—’

  ‘But we didn’t spend any money last night,’ Alicia said. ‘So we’re OK.’

  ‘So what excuse do I give?’ Megan asked.

  Bess coughed dramatically. ‘I’m sick,’ she said in a weak voice.

  Again Megan rolled her eyes. Into the phone she said, ‘Grandma, I found Bess but she’s sick—’ Grandma obviously said something, because Megan’s next line was ‘Oh, no! It’s OK. She’ll be fine. I think it’s just a headache. She just needs to rest. But I don’t want to leave her alone, ya know?’ She listened for a moment, then said: ‘That’s OK, Alicia and I will fix her some lunch, but thanks, Grandma. Really. ’Bye.’ And she hung up the phone and handed it back to Alicia. ‘Now call!’ she said.

  Sighing, Alicia dialed the number Logan had given her. A youngish male voice answered the phone and she panicked, immediately hanging up.

  ‘Gawd, Alicia! What did you go and do that for?’ Megan demanded.

  ‘It was her brother!’ Alicia said.

  ‘Yeah, like maybe he lives there?’ Megan said, sarcasm dripping off her tongue.

  ‘So now what?’ Bess said, throwing herself back on the sofa where she sat next to Logan, her arms tightly crossed over her chest.

  ‘So now we do it again! Alicia?’ Megan looked at her foster sister, one eyebrow raised.

  ‘But—’ Alicia started, until Logan interrupted.

  ‘This isn’t going to work,’ he said, starting to get to his feet.

  ‘OK, OK!’ Alicia said. She picked up the phone once again, and dialed the number Logan had given her earlier, putting it on speakerphone.

  An older woman answered the phone. ‘Hello?’

  Alicia took a deep breath and said, ‘May I speak to Harper, please?’

  ‘May I say who’s calling?’ the woman, presumably Harper’s mother, asked.

  ‘My name is Alicia. From school?’

  ‘Codderville High?’ the woman asked.

  All four looked at each other. Then Megan waved her hand for Alicia to continue. ‘No, Black Cat Ridge High. We were on the same volleyball team last semester?’

  ‘Ah, maybe she can call you ba—’ Her voice faded as she said, ‘Harper! No!’

  Then the kids could hear Harper’s voice. ‘Who is this?’ she demanded.

  ‘Ah, hi, Harper,’ Alicia said. ‘It’s Alicia, from volleyball? I just wondered if you needed me to bring you some schoolwork over, but your mom says you’re going to Codderville?’

  ‘That’s right,’ she said.

  ‘Gosh, I didn’t realize you’d changed schools. Did y’all move?’

  ‘No,’ Harper said, the word clipped.

  ‘Well, OK, then. Well, maybe we could get together—’ Alicia started.

  ‘Why?’ Harper demanded.

  ‘Ah, well, no real reason, I guess. I just thought we got along OK as teammates, and, well—’

  ‘You’re living with the Pughes, right? Like in Megan and Bess?’

  ‘Ah, yes,’ Alicia said.

  ‘So they put you up to this, right? Megan’s one of the biggest gossips at BCR and I’m sure she wants to know everything, right? Well, tell her to go play with herself!’ Harper said and hung up.

  ‘Well!’ Megan said, crossing her arms over her ample chest. ‘I am not a gossip! I tell the twins and I can’t help it if they spread it everywhere!’

  ‘So maybe you should stop telling the twins things?’ Alicia suggested.

  ‘They’re my best friends!’ Megan said.

  Logan rose to his feet. ‘Well, thanks, ladies, but that got us nowhere. And, really, she was pretty rude. Sorry about that, Alicia.’

  ‘No way was it your fault,’ Alicia said. She looked a little crestfallen. ‘I thought we got along great on the team.’ She shrugged. ‘I guess I was wrong.’

  ‘Maybe she did recognize us from last night,’ Bess said.

  Looking at his watch, Logan said, ‘I need to get to work. We start prep in half an hour for the after church crowd. Both of them,’ he said, and sighed.

  ‘Yeah, y’all didn’t look all that busy last night, and Saturday night is date night! What’s up with that?’ Megan demanded.

  Logan shrugged. ‘I think we need to do more advertising, but Cam said he can’t afford it.’

  ‘Wow, a real Catch-22 situation, huh?’ Bess said.

  ‘Huh?’ Logan looked at her, his eyes big.

  ‘Never mind,’ she said, standing up. ‘Let me get my purse and I’ll drive you.’

  Logan smiled at her. ‘That would be great,’ he said.

  Alicia jumped up. ‘I’ll go with you!’ she said, a big smile plastered on her face.

  Walking past her foster sister to get to her purse, Bess patted Alicia on the arm. ‘That’s OK, I’ve got this covered.’

  I slammed the phone down before anyone answered. ‘This is not your fault!’ I said with some heat. ‘And stop taking it on! You haven’t done anything – things are being done to you! You’re the victim here, but you need to stop acting like one and start fighting back! Diamond is a complete and total bitch and she had no right to talk to you like that! And – I know I’m going out on a limb here – but it is my semi-professional opinion that none of these things have been done by the ghost of your father! Someone very much alive is doing this and we’re going to find out who it is!’

  I finally paused for breath and Willis stepped in. ‘She gets worked up,’ he said, patting Miss Hutchins on the hand. ‘But she’s right. This isn’t your fault. This is the fault of whoever killed Humphrey and whoever killed your mother. I doubt it could be the same person, and I doubt in either case it was your father. Even if you believe in ghosts, from everything I’ve read and seen on TV—’

  ‘You really need to stop watching those ghost hunter shows,’ I interjected.

  ‘—they can’t do physical damage. They can’t touch or anything, so how could this be your dad? Unless he’s talking people into killing themselves – and I’m not even sure how one would break one’s own neck,’ he finished up.

  Miss Hutchins sighed and wiped a leaky tear from her eye. ‘I suppose you’re right. But, E.J., dear, what are we going to do about Diamond leaving?’

  ‘I’m going to finish my call, then you and I are going to search the house for any missing treasures. Sound good?’

  Miss Hutchins nodded her head and gave me a small smile, and I went back to the phone and called Chief Cotton. When I told him what Diamond had said about leaving, he said, ‘Not on my watch. I’m sending Mary over there now to stop her. I’d say she could move to another B&B or motel or something if she’s uncomfortable there, but that bike ride has got every place in town booked solid.’

  So Willis and I cleaned up the breakfast dishes and the three of us waited for Officer Mays to show up. It took less than half an hour for the knock on the door. Luckily we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Diamond Lovesy. As far as I could tell, she was still upstairs being a bitch.

  ‘Where is she?’ Officer Mays asked as she entered the foyer.

  ‘Upstairs,’ I said, as I’d been the one to open the door.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said and headed for the staircase, one hand resting on her Sam Brown belt while the other worked the banister.

/>   Miss Hutchins, Willis and I ended up at the foot of the staircase, our heads raised toward the second floor. We were rewarded with a bellow of ‘You can’t stop me!’

  We heard Officer Mays saying something, but couldn’t make out the words.

  ‘Yeah? You and what army?’ Diamond demanded loudly.

  There was another unintelligible response from the officer, then, ‘You can’t do that! I have rights!’

  Then we heard Diamond’s heavy tread on the upper landing. All three of us scooted back into the dining room, still standing and staring at the staircase, but not quite as obvious as being right there in the foyer.

  Diamond rounded the landing and we could see her, dressed in the same clothes she’d worn on her first night here and carrying a suitcase. Officer Mary Mays wasn’t far behind. Officer Mays jumped down two steps and caught Diamond by her long-fringed poncho, stopping her in her tracks.

  Officer Mays grabbed one of Diamond’s wrists and said, ‘Ma’am, you have the right to remain silent—’

  Diamond tugged at her bound wrist but the younger woman seemed to have more upper body strength than one would imagine by her size. She grabbed Diamond’s other wrist and threw on cuffs.

  ‘If you don’t, anything you say may be used against—’

  ‘OK, OK!’ Diamond said. ‘I surrender! I’ll go back upstairs! I’ll stay, I’ll stay!’

  ‘Only if you give me your car keys,’ Officer Mays said.

  ‘Shit!’ Diamond said, tearing up. ‘I don’t even have them! I don’t know what I was thinking! It’s Humphrey’s car. Maybe they’re in his pocket or something?’ she said, turning her head to see the officer.

  Mary Mays pushed Diamond into the dining room and pulled out a chair. ‘Sit!’ she commanded. Diamond sat and Mary went to the telephone, dialed a number and asked, ‘Did you find car keys with the remains?’

  A voice answered and she said, ‘OK,’ and hung up. Coming back into the dining room, she moved to Diamond’s back and unfastened the handcuffs. ‘They were with Mr Hammerschultz’s body. I’ll go get them from the funeral home and keep them in custody until the chief decides to let you people go.’ She glared at Willis and me. ‘How about you two?’ she said. ‘Any ideas about skipping town?’