by Teresa Trent
“What’s that you’re saying about three sisters?” The Thatchers had come up behind us, Josiah’s cheeks flushed against his white hair. “We’ve been searching for hours and can’t figure out what this means. Did you come up with a new idea?”
“Not yet.”
“I take it you’ve been to Bunny Donaldson’s house?” Prim asked.
“Yes. I think we were the first to visit her.”
Josiah gave a harrumph and then did a once-over on Leo and me. “And from the absence of bullet holes, I guess you came away unscathed.”
Prim shook her head in disgust. “If I had a nickel for every time that nut job has called the police, I’d be a rich woman today and have no need to be out here in the heat, competing in a treasure hunt.”
“Yes,” Josiah said, “the missus here comes home all the time talking about that crazy woman. Rocky should have thought about the fact that the clue would lead us all to her house. I’m sure the police report will be the most interesting thing to read in the paper tomorrow. Bunny has always been a little crazy, but since the death of her sister, it’s grown worse.”
Could it be that Prim knew something about Poppy Donaldson’s death that I didn’t? Whenever I would ask my father, he remained stoic. “I never did quite understand what happened to her. Something about getting attacked that night when she was out fishing?”
“That’s what I heard too. Strangest thing ever. They found her the next morning in the water under the Pecan Bayou bridge. From what they could tell, she fell from the bridge, hit her head on a rock and landed face down in the water, poor thing. She drowned.”
“What was she doing out fishing in the middle of the night?”
“Let’s just say she and Bunny were not all that different.” Prim fanned herself with a folded clue sheet. “The Donaldsons have been night fishing for years. Strange for most people, but not for the Donaldsons. My guess is they don’t enjoy fishing next to the fine citizens of Pecan Bayou. Belinda, the oldest sister, is the only one that turned out right. She doesn’t seem to have the demons that Bunny and Poppy had. Maybe it’s because her name doesn’t end in a y. Why do women always have to have those cutesy names that end with the ‘e’ sound? Bunny, Poppy?”
Leo cleared his throat. “And then there’s my lovely wife, Betseeeee.”
“Oh, sorry,” Prim said. “Well anyway, Belinda is the best knitter there is around these parts. Showed me a cable stitch I’ve been trying to do for years.”
Josiah took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt. “Yeah, well, Poppy’s death sounds fishy to me, pardon the pun. I fished for years off that bridge and have never even come close to falling off.”
“Did Poppy have a history of any kind of drug abuse or a problem with alcohol?” I asked.
“I heard Poppy made her own beer in the garage, but I never heard anything about her being drunk or anything. Of course, with Bunny in the house, it was probably all natural. Organic. Fit in with their back-to-nature way of thinking,” Josiah said.
“You’re right. It is fishy. Bunny’s sister died by falling off a bridge that nobody falls off of.”
No wonder Bunny was so angry at the world. She’d had a sister who shared her house and her interests, and without her, Bunny had become an angry old woman.
Leo stepped in. “But we are still all stuck at the same clue—the three sisters.”
“Yes, we are, and it doesn’t help we’re trying to work around the crime scene at Maximum Muscle. You can bet there’s stuff going on that we’re missing,” Prim said. “I’m used to being at the pulse of this town. This is one of those days I wish I was at work so I could keep up with the investigation on the police radio.”
“Did you know much about Mr. Valencia?” I asked. I hadn’t thought of Prim as a resource before, but the only difference between her and Ruby was that she was exposed to the heart of the town gossip, but unlike Ruby chose not to talk about it to every cut and curl that came in the door.
Her eyes darted from side to side, as if searching the street to be sure no one caught her in the act of leaking information she normally kept to herself. She absentmindedly pushed up the glasses on her nose, and I noticed the heat and humidity had taken a toll on her beehive hairdo. Tiny tendrils of frizz were poking out around her head. “Let’s just say that some of Mark’s activities were being closely monitored by our local police.”
I waited for her to say more, but she stopped. There was a reason why my father liked working with her, and this was one of them. Rocky had been trying to get information out of her for years, but she could keep a secret quite well. Her loyalty to the department was legendary. Maybe it was the heat, or because I was Judd’s daughter, but Primrose Thatcher was ready to talk.
Not wanting to give her time to change her mind, I asked, “What kind of activities?”
She waved her hand at me as if to assume a nonchalant air. “Oh, you know. Muscle stuff.”
I wondered if she had heard anything about Mark selling something that was not legal. “I heard he was investing in steroids,” I said. “I also think that Bosco Brown might have been the person who was selling it to him. What do you know about Bosco?”
“I can tell you about old Bosco,” Josiah spoke up. “Went upstate to prison about ten years ago. Heard it was car theft of some type. Earl was talking about it one day in the coffee shop. You know they’re not from around here. Earl said when they were kids, Bosco was always in trouble. When Bosco went to prison, Earl decided to relocate and start a life for himself here in Pecan Bayou. Sometimes the best way to get away from temptation is to start your life somewhere the devil hasn’t found yet, and that’s what I think Earl did. Too bad that no matter how far you run, your relatives can find you.”
“I hate to interrupt this discussion of our town’s unsavory characters, but let’s talk about three sisters,” Leo said, his frustration building.
“Let’s,” Prim echoed.
Now that we were getting back on track, Leo smiled. “We can definitely say it’s not Bunny and her sisters, so who could it be?”
Josiah nodded. “I’ve lived in this town for sixty-five years, and the Donaldsons are the only family I can think of that had three girls. Could it be we’re supposed to go out of town?”
“No,” Leo said, “All of the clues have to be reachable on foot within the city limits. That’s the rule.”
We stood in silence for a moment as the sun burned down the back of my neck. I wished I had some of Aunt Maggie’s aloe plant juice to put on it. Ruby had sworn by it for years. Ruby. Maggie. “I know this sounds crazy, but could it be three women who are not related? Women who think of themselves as sisters?”
Prim tapped her chin. “Now, that is an interesting idea. Where do we know three women who are close as sisters?”
The idea was becoming clearer to me, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share it with the Thatchers. I suppose we could outrun them in a foot race, but the question was whether we would choose the correct location first. Three sisters. Why hadn’t I thought of it before? What three women in this town were like sisters? Maggie, Ruby, and Libby Loper. But whose house would the clue be at? Libby’s ranch was considered out-of-town, but she used to live in a house at the edge of the park. As far as I knew, she still owned the property. It could also be at Ruby’s salon, The Best Little Hair House in Texas. As far as Maggie’s house, I think she would have found Rocky snooping around her yard, trying to put up a yellow clue box. Besides that, the last time there was somebody snooping around her yard in the middle of the night, she shot at them. Rocky would think twice before rustling the bushes outside of her house without telling her first. In my moment of sorting out possible locations, I had grown quiet and had not noticed the rest of the group staring at me.
“You figured something out, didn’t you?” Leo asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
“Maybe, but I’m not sure. Leo, let’s go.”
“Fine,” Pr
im said. “We’ll give you a ten-minute head start, but if we pick up your trail after that, it can’t be helped.”
Leo tipped his baseball cap. “Good enough. Thanks, Prim.”
“You won’t be thanking me in a little while when we get to that prize before you. We might be old, but we’re speedier than we look and have experience and wisdom to throw into the race.”
Once we got away from the Thatchers, I explained my theory to Leo about three sisters being Maggie Ruby and Libby. Leo nodded.
“So that means we need to check all three of their places,” I said.
“The Best Little Hairhouse is on the way, so let’s go there first,” Leo said.
“But it’ll be closed. She closed it for the treasure hunt.”
“That doesn’t mean they clue might not be outside somewhere. After that, we’ll go to Maggie’s house.”
“Are you kidding me? The last time anybody crept around Maggie’s house—”
“I know, the Christmas creeper.”
I thought of when Maggie shot who she thought was the Christmas creeper. Someone had been peeking into ladies’ windows at night, and Maggie, deciding not to be a victim, shot out in the dark. That was a decision she came to regret.
“Don’t worry. After visiting Bunny, I think I’ve got the duck-and-dodge move down.” Leo moved like facing off Olympian dodgeball athletes.
Chapter 10
As we made our way to the town square and Main Street, I glanced over at the Pecan Bayou bridge and thought of Poppy Donaldson’s suspicious death. The metal bridge crossed the bayou, separating our downtown area from the school complex, which contained our elementary, junior high, and high school buildings as well as the football field where we had found our last clue. The bridge, built almost 100 years ago, had metal slats on the top and concrete on the bottom. The metal had turned to rust in many places, making it look more red than gray. The distance to the water was enough to throw out a line to fish and a person would probably break a bone if they decided to jump. I never thought it would kill a person. But freaky accidents happen all the time, right? I visualized Poppy Donaldson going off the bridge. Did she really hit her head, or did someone else cause her death? Maybe the reason Bunny was so angry all the time was because she thought her sister had been murdered. Even so, you would think she would be spending more time harassing my father and the Pecan Bayou Police Department and not Sarah Butler.
Perhaps if I discussed Sarah’s recruitment of my teenage son with Bunny, I would find out what the bad blood was between the two women. As we turned the corner onto Main Street, Vic drew closer and gave us a handout.
“It’s a scorcher today, so we just wanted to let you know that we have set up refreshments in the high school gym along with various stops around town. We wouldn’t want anybody to be suffering from heatstroke. We still have a few more hours of the high sun, so please be safe.”
The sun was beating down on us. There was nothing like the angry heat of a summer Texas day.
“Betsy mentioned that Sarah asked Tyler for some help,” Leo said.
Vic drew closer. “We are so grateful for his help and for the kindness your family has shown. She told me you had a nice conversation at Benny’s. Sarah’s always had problems making friends when she’s not in a beauty pageant, and this treasure hunt has been difficult for her.”
This was confusing to me. You would think anyone who was as pretty as she was would find making friends easy. “Why would this be difficult for her?”
“Social anxiety, you know, and she also suffers from somnambulism and night terrors.”
“Wow,” I said. “I had no idea she had all that going on.”
“Yes, it’s been very difficult. And, well, in light of the day’s stress, I decided that Sarah should go back on her medication even though it sedates her. I’m afraid it’s rather heavy, but because of the night terrors, I’m hoping it will help her sort out things in the end. This murder of Mark Valencia really upset her, as it would anyone. What a gruesome death.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Leo said. “But it sounds like you’re on top of the problem.”
The smile returned to Vic Butler’s face. “When it comes to Sarah, I try hard to do the right things. She is precious to me. Whoever would have thought a woman that beautiful would be interested in a man like me.” He stopped, maybe feeling he had said too much and took up a more businesslike tone. “Thank you so much, and please stay hydrated.”
As he walked away, Leo said, “Well, I guess that’s that. A beautiful woman has to be sedated in order to control herself. That seems strange to me.”
“And night terrors. He didn’t mention that part before.”
When we walked up to The Best Little Hairhouse in Texas, the door was firmly locked and the shades were drawn. We made a trek around the entire building, including the alley, but found that there were no clue boxes. I was beginning to think that my three-sisters theory was wrong.
I grabbed Leo’s hand. “Let’s go to Libby’s. We can’t go outside of the city limits, but we can hit the gift shop.”
Libby was behind the counter when we entered, restocking a lovely assortment of turquoise earrings. The minute she spotted me, she held up a pair. “These would look good on you, Betsy. Of course, everything looks good on you.”
The store was empty except for us. Rocky’s plan to raise sales in the downtown area did not seem to be working for Libby.
“We were wondering if we could check your store for a clue box,” I said.
Libby looked confused for a moment. “My store? You can certainly look around and even purchase a few things, but Rocky wouldn’t have a clue here. I’m too much a part of the contest. It wouldn’t look good if someone I knew, which is everybody, came up with the golden pecan because of me. That goes for my house in town as well.”
I sighed. “I guess you’re right. We have a clue about three sisters and thought maybe the sisterhood of you, Maggie, and Ruby might be what the clue refers to.”
Libby closed the glass case behind the counter. “Well, isn’t that nice. You know I never had any sisters, being an only child and all. I think having Maggie and Ruby as sisters would be right lovely.”
When we reached Maggie’s house, instead of finding a clue box, we found Danny sitting on the front porch, his elbows on his knees.
“What are you doing out here, Danny?” I asked. The last I had heard Danny was looking after Coco. Did Maggie know he was here sitting on the front porch?
“I got tired of watching Coco sleep, and I know my way home. It is five blocks. I count them as I go. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Do you have a key to my house?”
Aunt Maggie would be livid when she found out what Danny had just done. I scrambled in my purse for an extra key Maggie had given me years ago. “Did you tell your mom you were leaving our house?”
“No.” He looked down at his red, scuffed, Converse All-Star sneakers. “Mama is going to be mad, but I just wanted to go home, and she is so busy with the big gold nut. Miss Ruby says they are going on a trip on the ocean. If she goes on a trip, I will be here at the house alone. I’ve been in the house all by myself before, but sometimes I get scared. I thought if I went home, I could get used to it. For the big trip on the boat.”
He stood as I unlocked the door. “Will you tell Mama? Am I in trouble? I was being the man of the house.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Yes, I will tell your mother, but I’ll also tell her why you did it. I think she’ll be upset about it at first, but in the end, she’ll understand. You need to know that if your mom is not around that we’ll take care of you. Do you understand that? You won’t have to be in your house alone. You’re a part of our family, as well as your mom’s.”
“Yes, Betsy, but I miss my mom when she goes away.”
“Well, who knows. She may not find the golden pecan. Lots of people are looking for it, even me and Leo.”
Danny smiled. “Yes. You could go on the trip. Th
at would be good, and then Mama would stay here with me.”
“It could happen, and if I have anything to do with it, it will,” Leo said with a sparkle in his eye.
“I think this will go over better with your mom if we just take you back to our house. That way, she won’t be angry with you. Is that okay?”
“I guess so. Can I wake up Coco, so we can play?”
“No,” Leo and I chorused.
Before we could walk the five blocks home, Prim and her husband drove up and parked in Aunt Maggie’s driveway.
“Thank goodness we found you. Judd asked me to find you. Your Aunt Maggie has been attacked. She’s in the hospital. It seems Ruby was off talking to somebody, and when she found Maggie, she was knocked over, and the notebook she was keeping was gone.”
“Mama?”
I wished Prim had thought about Danny before blurting out her news. I took hold of his hand. “I’ll go check on her, and I’ll let you know.”
“I want to go with you.”
“Just let me check on her first, okay?”
“Okay.”
Leo gently touched my cheek. “I’ll stay here with Danny. You go to your aunt.” I scrambled to the Thatcher’s car, and Josiah hit the gas. This couldn’t be happening.
Chapter 11
When I got to the hospital, I began preparing myself for the worst. I imagined my aunt in the ICU awaiting brain surgery. Did they even have a brain surgeon in a town as small as Pecan Bayou? Instead of a room full of monitors and stone-faced nurses, I found her in the triage section of the emergency room sitting at the end of a hospital bed. Her feet dangled over the edge, and she was holding an ice pack to her head. The expression on her face was more impatience than clinging to the mortal coil. She gave me a grateful smile as I entered through the curtain that separated her from the other emergency room occupants.
“Come to spring me out of here?” She clutched her pocketbook to her chest with her free hand.