3 Granny Snows A Sneak

by Julie Seedorf

  “No, the reception will be at Rack’s Restaurant,” Franklin answered.

  “You are mistaken, Franklin,” Granny informed him. “The reception will be at the Pink Percolator.”

  Pastor Snicks, sensing things might be getting a tad out of control, changed the subject. “Granny, I hear there has been a little excitement in your neighborhood. It must have been devastating for you to find a body wearing your dead husband’s clothes. If you need to talk about it, feel free to call me, day or night.”

  Granny was about to answer when Franklin stood up abruptly with a suspicious look in his eye. “I think we have it all down now, Pastor Snicks. How is your wife, by the way?”

  “Franklin, you’ve been here almost a year now,” said Granny. “Pastor Snicks isn’t married.”

  “Pardon me, Pastor Snicks.” Franklin took Granny’s arm to lead her out the door and, turning to Pastor Snicks, he said, “I will take night duty if needed. We don’t want to interrupt your evenings.”

  “Franklin, that was rude,” Granny chastised him.

  “That coming from a woman who told Father John he would look more like a priest if he shaved his head,” Franklin reminded Granny.

  “Let’s go meet Thor and see if he has any news for us.” Granny hustled into the car for the short drive to Rack’s Restaurant.

  Franklin pulled into the lot at Rack’s, parking under the weird weeping willow tree. It was safe to park under it in the winter. It was only in the summer that the tree would weep at night and darkness descended, trapping anything underneath it until morning.

  Thor and Heather were waiting for Franklin and Granny. They had secured a spot at Granny’s favorite booth in the back of the restaurant. During her undercover days, Granny had claimed this booth as her own so she could keep an eye on the occupants of the restaurant in case there was any hanky-panky going on.

  “We’ve ordered for all of us,” Heather informed the two. “We know what you both love so we took the liberty.”

  Granny sighed. When she wasn’t with her kids, she ordered deep-fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, deep-fried onion rings, and topped it all off with a hot fudge sundae with a chocolate donut on top. Her kids always ordered her a healthy meal––usually broiled walleye, some kind of a vegetable, and some fruit. Some things never changed.

  After Franklin and Granny got comfortable in the booth and were sipping their coffee, Thor pulled out a picture. “Do you know this person, Mom?”

  Granny looked at the picture that Thor had set in front of her. She brought the picture closer to her face and looked at it with squinty eyes. “He looks vaguely familiar. Do you know him, Franklin?”

  Franklin shook his head. “Can’t say that I do. Who is he?”

  “He’s the body under the warming blanket in the cemetery on Dad’s grave,” Thor informed them. “And there’s something else you need to know. Someone was trying to dig up the grave while the ground was warm before we got back to it today. It must have happened this morning––early this morning.”

  “You think this stiff was trying to dig up your dad’s grave? But why?” Granny asked in a puzzled voice.

  “No, we think he surprised someone else who was trying to dig up the grave early this morning right before dawn. That’s when the coroner put the time of death,” Thor explained.

  Before Granny had a chance to respond, a shadow towered over her. She looked up and fainted dead away.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The bright light blinded Granny for a moment. This time she knew she wasn’t at the big concert in the sky; she was in the emergency room again. She looked into the eyes of Dr. Dreamboat, the same doctor who had treated her the day she collapsed when she was awarded the key to the City of Fuchsia.

  “I’m in heaven, aren’t I? And you are the angel sent to kiss me to wake me up,” Hermiony said in her weak Granny voice. She looked into Dr. Dreamboat’s eyes as he was examining her.

  “You appear to be fine, Granny. Can you tell me what happened right before you fainted?” Dr. Dreamboat inquired.

  “I got scared my memory was really failing me this time. I looked up and saw someone who looked like the Big Guy, only younger, like the Big Guy might have looked twenty years ago and he was staring straight at me. That’s all I remember until I looked into your eyes.” Granny looked up even higher to see the eyes of Thor, Heather and Franklin fixed firmly on the ground.

  “What? What?” she said.

  “Let’s get you home,” Franklin informed Granny, “and then Thor will explain. It’s getting late. Rack’s is going to send our meals to your house. Mavis said she would go over and put them in the oven to keep them warm. Thor told her where to find a key.”

  “I left Angel with Mavis. I’ll pick her up and take her home while all of you chat,” Heather said, picking up Granny’s coat and helping her put it on. “Thor and I will meet you there.”

  As they came out of the Fuchsia hospital, Granny noticed that all the Christmas lights were lit. The trees on the tops of the buildings were taking their turns playing Christmas songs. The reindeer and snowmen glided along on their wires from post to post and up and down the posts. The manger scene in the center of town glowed with warmth, giving off a radiance into the cold winter night.

  “Look Franklin, isn’t it beautiful? How can all these things be happening in our little town during the best holiday of the year?”

  Franklin gave Granny a skeptical look. It wasn’t like her to be so mellow, especially with all that was happening. Maybe the Christmas season truly had the effect of peace and calm on even the most skeptical people.

  His thoughts about Hermiony mellowing out lasted until they drove down the street to her house. He had barely stopped the car when Granny’s feet hit the ground, and she hurried up the walk to her house. Grabbing the ladder that was perched against her house, she started to rattle it. The man at the top of the ladder grabbed hold of the roof and the eaves to steady himself to keep from falling.

  Franklin caught up to Granny just as she was going to shake the ladder again and moved her away from the ladder, keeping a firm arm around her. The man on the ladder climbed down to confront Granny.

  Granny pulled herself out of Franklins grasp. “Find Thor, Franklin; have him arrest this man.”

  “Arrest me for what?” Silas Crickett raged back at Granny.

  “For trying to knock down my house with a hammer.”

  “I was putting up Christmas decorations,” Silas sputtered.

  “On my house?” Granny sputtered back.

  “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you have any Christmas spirit? Don’t you even have a tree? Well, Ms. Bah Humbug, your neighbors were just trying to do you a favor. I told ‘em that doing anything nice for someone as cantankerous as you was a waste of time.” Silas threw the hammer on the ground and stomped off, just as Franklin stepped forward with a threatening look on his face ready to stop the tirade.

  Mavis came running out of Granny’s house, followed by George and Angel. “Granny, Franklin, stop! Silas is in my reality show and we’re taping.”

  Granny was ready to let out another yell to Silas, but seeing Angel out of the corner of her eye, she stepped back and took a breath.

  “Hi, Granny. We put your tree up. I got to put on all the glass bulbs. I was really careful. Little White Poodle tried to eat the ornament that looks like a bone. Do you think Santa will stop here?”

  Silas heard Angel’s question from out in the street and yelled back, answering Angel before Granny could, “Not if he knows what’s good for him!”

  Angel asked in concern, “You wouldn’t do anything bad to Santa would you, Granny?”

  Granny bent down to Angel’s height and looked in her eyes. “No, Angel, we wouldn’t do anything to Santa.

  Heather arrived with Thor and stepped forward. Sizing up the situation, she held out her hand to Angel. “It’s time to go home, Angel; it’s almost your bedtime. I’ll run in the house and pick up my dinne
r out of the oven and take it home with me.”

  “We’ll help you,” Mavis offered, anxious that she and George be able to stay and hear what was going on. If they were already in the house, maybe they could scoop the action for their pretend reality television show.

  Granny watched as the four of them stepped into the house. She turned to Thor. “Aren’t you going home with Heather? Franklin can fill me in on my scare at the restaurant.”

  “No, I’ll stay and fill you in, and give you the latest update. We can eat together. You might need to get out your wine for us for this one,” Thor informed his mother.

  As they were talking, Franklin was staring thoughtfully across the street at Silas Crickett’s house. “What do you know about him, Thor? He seems to have taken a dislike to your mother.”

  “And I to him,” Granny countered back.

  “That’s all part of what I have to tell you,” Thor said and walked over, kissed Heather, and hugged Angel as they came out of Granny’s house.

  “Good luck,” Heather said to Thor, giving him an anxious look.

  Granny saw that Mavis had set the table for all of them––herself and George included. It’s good Mavis is here, thought Granny. Mavis had helped Granny out in the past, and she had turned out to be a pretty good sidekick when Granny needed a little help throwing her family off the track of her investigations.

  Granny opened her mouth to ask a question, but both Thor and Franklin held up their hands at the same time. “We eat first, then we talk,” Thor instructed his mother, “We don’t need another distraction.”

  Granny sat back in her chair. “Well, I was going to ask if anyone had seen the shysters, Baskerville, and Mrs. Bleaty.”

  “Mrs. Bleaty is on your bed resting,” Mavis informed Granny. “Don’t know where the others are. Mrs. Bleaty seems to have a thing for that Radish creature across the street so she doesn’t go far.”

  “I am concerned,” Franklin added to the conversation. “They haven’t been on their usual schedule lately. They’re here when they’re usually supposed to be at my house; they’re at my house when they’re supposed to be at your house, and they don’t seem to be seen at their usual haunts around town.”

  The conversation continued until Thor put his fork down and wiped his mouth with his napkin. He checked to see if everyone was done eating. When he saw that they were, he decided it was as good a time as any to bring up the subject of what had made his mom faint at Rack’s Restaurant.

  Granny watched Thor closely. When she saw the fork go down and the napkin touch his mouth, she started in, “Was I seeing things? That man looked just like the Big Guy,” referring to the former Chief of Police and Chief Detective in the Fuchsia Police Department. “Come to think of it, the apparition was a little bit different––he was skinnier and younger, but the face was almost the same. Was I seeing things?”

  Mavis and George seemed to hold their breath waiting for Thor to answer.

  “Maybe I should get you a glass of wine,” Thor said to his mother, getting up from the table.

  “Dining and wining me is not going to get you off the hook. Spill it,” Granny said, standing up and walking around the table to confront Thor.

  “He’s the new detective I brought in on the case to help solve this ghoulish crime. He’s uh,” Thor gave a little cough looking to Franklin for support, “he’s, uh––the Big Guy’s younger brother.” Thor stepped back waiting for Granny’s reaction.

  Mavis jumped up so fast that her chair tipped over as she anticipated Granny’s reaction. “One Stricknine wasn’t enough? He has a brother?”

  “His name is Ephraim Cornelius Stricknine, and there’s more you’re not going to like,” Thor warned, looking at his mother.

  “So Cornelius Ephraim Stricknine has a brother named Ephraim Cornelius Stricknine?” Franklin asked, thinking he hadn’t heard correctly.

  “Right; apparently their mother liked the name so much she just switched the first name and the middle name when she had her last son.”

  “And you hired him to help you? How do you know you can trust him?” Granny barked at Thor.

  “He comes highly recommended; there’s nothing in his background to indicate he might have the same problems as his brother did, and he was coming to town anyway to visit his father. Both boys followed in their father’s footsteps by becoming detectives.”

  By now, everyone was up from the table. Granny moved into the living room and walked over to her footstool, removed the fake bottom and pulled out her bottle of wine. “Since you all know about my wine stash, do you want some?” Turning to Thor she asked, “Am I going to need this?”

  Thor walked over and took the bottle of wine away from Granny. He handed the bottle to Mavis. “Why don’t you pour her a glass?”

  “Oh,” Granny said, sitting down on the couch. “Get on with it. Since you’re trying to get me drunk with wine, this must be really bad. Will I need another weapon when I go out?”

  Franklin laughed; he’d been getting worried that Granny’s fainting had knocked the stuffing out of her, but now her feistiness was coming back. He looked closely at Hermiony. Or––was she was putting on her helpless act? He really would have to pay more attention so he could read her better after they were married to keep her out of trouble.

  “Let’s start with Ephraim Cornelius’s father,” Granny suggested. “What’s his name? What’s his name? Do I know him?”

  They all looked at Thor eagerly. Thor turned to examine a spot on the wall near the door. They heard him answer but couldn’t quite make out what he said.

  “We can’t hear you!” Granny yelled, trying to get the point across.

  Thor turned and cleared his throat. “The brothers’ father’s name is Silas Crickett.”

  Granny jumped up. “Silas Crickett? My Silas Crickett? The cantankerous, old coot across the street?”

  Franklin gave Granny a strange look when he heard the words my Silas Crickett come out of her mouth.

  “Granny, don’t say that ‘bout Silas; he’s so nice and such a gentleman.” Mavis sighed.

  George gave Mavis a hard look, and then lifted his eyebrows and caught Franklin’s eye.

  “How can that be?” Granny railed. “He has a different last name. You told me he owned his own snowmobile shop in Alaska, that he was working for Runner’s Skids and Ski’s.”

  “Silas explained it to me earlier today when I visited with him and Ephraim,” Thor answered. “Silas was a high level detective up in Alaska. Things in Alaska when he worked the streets were pretty raw, and he wanted to protect his wife and children. So his wife kept her last name, and when their kids were born, they took her last name. It was their way of protecting their children and their family––which were kept very separate from Silas’s professional life. Even his co-workers had no idea he was married and had kids. Unfortunately, Silas got shot one night while working a case and was held hostage. Before he was rescued, and while still with his kidnappers, he became delirious and started talking about his family. The kidnappers got away during the police rescue, but not before they got the names of Silas’s wife and kids.”

  Thor paused and the others were silent waiting for him to finish his story. “Unfortunately, when Silas was rescued by the police, he was unconscious, and the police had no idea he had a family. By the time Silas came to in the hospital and vaguely remembered his delirium, it was too late for his wife. They found her the next day in their home. She had been shot. Luckily, the kids were out of state visiting her parents at the time or they would have been killed, too. To make this long story short, Silas vowed he would bring this case to an end and he did. He found his kidnappers and his wife’s murderer. He left his kids to live with his wife’s parents for their safety and went back into his life as a detective with very few people knowing he still had a family somewhere. When the kids were of age, they reconnected and the boys took on the same career as their father in law enforcement. Apparently, Silas did own his own business,
but it was a business he used as an undercover front, and he still works at Runner’s Skids and Ski’s, helping them out when needed.”

  The silence in the room was deafening. Even Granny couldn’t think of anything to say. She took her glass of wine and downed it in one gulp. The others, still in shock at the story, retrieved more wine glasses and poured themselves glasses of wine, giving them all a moment to digest what they had just heard.

  “I’m afraid there’s even more we have to deal with tonight,” Thor informed the group.

  “More? More? What could possibly top that?” Granny said in an exasperated tone.

  “Why don’t we all sit down, take a powder, and calm down,” Franklin suggested, leading Mavis and George over to the sofa in hopes that Granny would follow and plop down in her chair.

  Granny remained standing.

  “We need to talk about the reason I had to bring in another detective,” Thor explained.

  “You already told us,” Granny reminded him, “You’re too close to the case of the stiff that landed in my back yard dead in your father’s clothes. You would have thought the ghost wearing Ferdinand’s clothes would have warned me since it’s Christmas. Do you suppose he’s trying to be the ghost of Christmas past?”

  Thor felt better continuing with what he had to say as Granny started getting back to her crabby old self.

  “Well, the tests came back on the body in your back yard. It was Delbert Delure––Delight Delure’s husband.”

  Granny’s eyes got wide and she sat down with a plop in her easy chair. Mavis had a look of horror on her face while George gulped down his wine at the news.

  “Have you talked to Delight about the days surrounding Delbert’s death?” Franklin asked Thor, his detective personality kicking in––retired or not.

  “We have and we’re going to talk to her again,” Thor answered.

  “How did he get Ferdinand’s clothes? I didn’t know Delight back then. I still lived on the farm and I didn’t get to town much. When did Delbert die?” Still in shock over the news, Granny rattled off her questions.