The Diva Digs Up the Dirt

by Krista Davis

  “Who killed Heath?” blurted Nina.

  “How should I know?” Violet leaned toward me. “Is she your ward? Must be difficult for you.”

  I had to bite my upper lip to keep from cracking up. I nearly keeled over on my bottom. Fortunately, my legs were stiff from crouching, and my groan when I stood up disguised a chuckle. “Violet, we know you covered up Heath’s hand. Why did you do that? Who were you protecting?”

  Her eyes darted around frantically. “I don’t know! I’m so afraid it’s someone in the family.”

  “It might have been Mindy who murdered Heath,” said Nina.

  Violet focused on Nina. “That woman wouldn’t touch mulch unless jewelry was hidden in it. Did you find the shoe collection upstairs? She hides them there so Roscoe won’t know about them.”

  “Someone else might have covered him with the mulch to help her.”

  “The Greenes are a respectable family. They’re the salt of the earth. Good people. Always have been. I won’t see Mindy sully the Greene name, even if she does throw me out of the house.”

  Violet rose and seized the mop, her mouth pinched. “Catch that cat and leave.”

  We flew out the door.

  “Sheesh,” said Nina. “I’m feeling sorry for Mindy. I’d want to kick Violet out, too.”

  At that moment, Cricket stepped out of the door to Roscoe’s den onto the patio, carrying a trendy designer duffle bag. “There you are! I wondered why the door wasn’t locked. Did you catch the cat?”

  “Not yet,” said Nina. “You do know about Mindy’s, er, accident?”

  “Isn’t it awful? I warned her about those five-inch heels. They make your legs look terrific, but they’re like walking on stilts.”

  I glanced at Cricket’s feet. She wore running shoes and was using the top of one foot to rub the other calf.

  “I couldn’t wear them. I would fall for sure,” said Nina. “Everyone else is at the hospital. The only one left here is Mrs.… Violet.”

  “Poor thing. I’m sure she’s distressed.” Cricket swung the bag off her shoulder and set it on the patio. “I just stopped by to see if she wants a ride to the hospital.”

  We told her we would let ourselves out and hurried through the house to the driveway.

  Moments later, Nina clenched the steering wheel with both hands and glanced back at. “I hope Mrs. Danvers goes to the hospital with Cricket. I’m so afraid that she’ll poison the cat.” We turned the corner and merged into heavier traffic heading toward Old Town. “I’m starved. Do you mind stopping for lunch, Sophie?”

  “Not at all.” While Nina drove and talked about the cat, my mind was on Heath. According to Troy, Heath had wanted to return to Old Town. Why would an embezzler be eager to return to the scene of the crime? For money.

  Roscoe said he’d gotten every penny back. Had Heath intended to burglarize Roscoe’s home? Maybe he’d found the mallard print in the guest house and stolen it. Would he have known how valuable it was?

  Or had he come to blackmail someone? Anne was dead, so he couldn’t have been after her. Did he think he could blackmail Roscoe? Roscoe wasn’t the type to go along with a scheme like that. Did he want to see Cricket? She caught him in the act of embezzling. According to Troy, Heath had spoken of her in lecherous terms. He certainly remembered Cricket; maybe he wanted revenge.

  Even if he had come to Old Town for some completely different reason, he’d made a point of paying the Greenes a visit. Why?

  Nina parked near the river. “The Dancing Crab across the street has an outdoor patio where dogs are permitted. And I’m craving their clam pasta. No, I’d rather eat the spiced shrimp. No, the pasta. Too bad I can’t have both.”

  My phone rang as I opened the back hatch so Daisy could leap from the car. I glanced at the caller. “It’s Olive!” I answered and said, “Hello?”

  Mars’s voice responded. “Where are you?”

  “We’re having lunch. Why are you using Olive’s phone?”

  “Kenner still has mine.”

  I told him where we were and hung up just as Daisy, who had been standing quietly by my legs, backed up and snarled. “What are you upset about, Daisy? It’s okay…”

  “That dog is going to bite somebody one of these days.”

  I swung around. Kenner approached us on the sidewalk.

  Never would I have expected to be glad to see him. “Hi! If I buy you some spiced—”

  “Save your breath, Sophie. I can’t tell you anything.”

  “Aw, come on. Nina and I are going to have lunch. Five minutes?”

  He accompanied Nina, Daisy, and me across the street to an outdoor table in the shade but with a great view of King Street, Old Town’s main drag.

  We ordered three iced teas, their fabulous sweet Vidalia onion hush puppies and spiced shrimp for the table, and clam pasta for Nina. The waitress brought our tea immediately, along with a bowl of cold water for Daisy.

  Kenner gulped half his tea. “Thanks. That hits the spot, but I still can’t tell you anything.”

  “How do you know what I want to ask you?”

  He groaned. “What was on the knife we found, and how did Heath die.”

  I made a buzzer sound, as though he had gotten the question wrong on a game show, even though I would have loved to hear the answers to those questions. “You seem to know Cricket pretty well. Is it possible she had an affair with Heath?”

  He studied me for a moment, then burst out laughing. “You never stop surprising me. Cricket? Not a chance.” Kenner shook his head. “Poor Cricket, she’s had this problem her whole life.”

  “What problem?

  “You’ve seen her. Men claim she’s dating them when she’s not. It’s the curse of being so attractive. Guys lie about her, and it makes her sound like a loose woman.”

  “Did you date her?”

  “No.” He spoke softly. “We went through a lot together, Cricket and I. Eventually we lost touch. For a while there, we were the only ones who understood what the other one was going through. But we never dated. Listen, Sophie”—he scratched the back of his right hand—“you’d be doing everybody a big favor if you could get Wolf to tell you where Anne’s body is. The stress of not knowing is about to do Mona in.”

  Now I was sorry I’d bought him iced tea! “Kenner, hasn’t it ever crossed your mind that someone else might have killed her?”

  “You don’t know Wolf like I do.”

  “So tell me.”

  The waitress arrived with Chesapeake Bay spiced shrimp, warm hush puppies, and little tubs of creamy, unsalted butter. A cool breeze blew off the river, and it felt like the heavenly days of summer.

  “A long time ago,” said Kenner, “Wolf and I went through the police academy together. We were friends. Back then, Wolf dated a knockout. A copper-haired woman with a body that never stopped.”

  “Cricket?” No wonder Wolf had looked at her that way when we saw her on the street.

  “Exactly. Cricket had a friend, Anne. The four of us hung out together. I would have done anything for Anne. She was sweet… gentle… kind. I thought I would spend the rest of my life with her. I even bought the ring. Still have it.”

  “Let me get this straight,” said Nina. “You dated Anne, and Wolf dated Cricket?”

  “That’s right. But I guess sparks were flying between Wolf and Anne, and before we knew it, she was wearing a ring on her finger, and it wasn’t the one I had bought for her.”

  My head was reeling. “No wonder you hate Wolf.”

  “Let’s just say that I don’t trust him. Then, when Anne vanished overnight, I knew it had to be because of him.” Kenner’s hands had curled into angry fists. “I’ll never forgive him for that. Wolf stole her from me twice. Once when he married her, and once when he killed her. I’m going to nail him for it, Sophie. This time I’m going to get him.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me all this before?”

  “Dirty laundry. I tried to warn you about Wolf.” He shrugged. �
�The rest really didn’t matter. I wish I had seen through him sooner. I could have warned Anne.”

  “Olive said Anne was having an affair with Heath. Do you know anything about that?”

  A twisted grin spread across his face. “I hope she did. Wolf deserved to have her cheat on him.”

  Had he always been so bitter, or had his experience with Anne turned him into a morose and churlish man? “I’m sorry, Kenner. I truly am.” His revelation stunned me, but it explained a lot about him and his behavior toward Wolf. And toward me, for that matter. His strange conduct had been an attempt to steal a woman, any woman, away from Wolf. Maybe he didn’t have some peculiar attraction to me after all.

  “I’d better get back to work.” He rose from his chair.

  “You’re through looking for Anne at Wolf’s?”

  “Pretty much.” He gazed out toward the river. “Unless the tests on that knife come back showing there’s blood on it, we’ll be back to square one. Sophie, call me any time. The smallest detail could lead us to Anne’s body and bring closure for a lot of hurting people.”

  I nodded. What else could I do? “Wait!” He hadn’t said a word about the embezzlement.

  He stopped and looked down at me.

  “When Anne disappeared, did you hear anything about money problems?”

  “Like she forgot to pay the electric bill? Anne and Wolf weren’t wealthy by a long shot, but I never heard them complain about their finances.”

  He strode away, leaving us to contemplate the bombshell about his love for Anne.

  “Quite a story!” Nina applied a dab of butter to a hush puppy. “Don’t look now. There’s Audie! I thought he’d be at the hospital with the rest of his family.”

  I turned around in time to see him enter a store farther up the block.

  Nina jumped to her feet. “We should follow him.”

  “We have Daisy with us. We can’t go in there.”

  “I’ll snoop and report back.”

  She popped the hush puppy into her mouth and jaywalked across the street, passing Mars.

  He spied me and hurried over. “Finally, food that isn’t poisoned!” He helped himself to spiced shrimp and signaled the waitress for more. “From now on, I’m not eating or drinking anything without a taste tester.”

  He chowed down on a hush puppy like he was starved and stole my iced tea. “The cops are questioning Roscoe. There’s a real possibility that he’ll be arrested for attempting to murder Mindy.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Dear Sophie,

  My neighbor is excited because the circus is coming to town. He’s taking his truck to get a load of elephant manure! He says it makes plants grow like nothing else. I can only imagine what it will smell like around here. How can I discourage him?

  —Sensitive Sniffer in Lilac Park, California

  Dear Sensitive Sniffer,

  You’re in for a treat. Oddly enough, elephant manure does not have a strong odor. But it’s great for plants. Maybe you should get some, too!

  —Sophie

  “What? That’s turning the tables!”

  “No kidding. You won’t believe this. They found digoxin in her blood. She’s not on any meds, and Roscoe has a prescription for it, so they put two and two together…”

  “But they know he was sick yesterday. They have the records!”

  “I’m not a cop, Soph. All I know is that they’re questioning him.”

  “I guess he can’t prove that he flushed his digitalis. Did you tell him about Mindy and Audie’s relationship this morning?”

  “He… was… furious. I thought he might implode right then and there. His heart can’t take much more of this. Mindy and Audie are everything to him. That was a colossal blow.”

  The waitress replenished the shrimp and brought Mars an iced tea, which I snagged, since he’d taken mine.

  “Correction. Mindy and Audie are almost everything to Roscoe. Did you notice that it was Olive he wanted by his side this morning?”

  “That was interesting! He called Olive the second we were in the car. It was as though he didn’t know what to do without her.”

  “Yesterday, Roscoe said he was going to set a trap for his poisoner. Do you think he’s just a horrible, vengeful man who suspected Mindy and tried to kill her?”

  “And he lied about getting rid of the digitalis? Here’s how I see it.” Mars leaned his elbows against the table and spoke softly. “Roscoe could have tried to poison Mindy with his digitalis. Or Olive could have done it for revenge. I understand she was not happy about the divorce and placed all the blame on Mindy.”

  “There’s foxglove growing in the garden,” I said. “That’s where digitalis comes from. Olive must have planted it. She tinkers around making her own herb teas and home remedies. She would know how to use foxglove to poison someone. It would have looked like a digitalis overdose. Maybe she tried to kill both of them!”

  “Don’t forget that Violet is a little bit off her rocker. We can’t eliminate her. And although I hate to suggest this, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Audie is behind the poisoning. He’s eager to take over the helm of the company.”

  I took a deep breath. “At least two good things came out of this mess. The police can test food in the house for digitalis and figure out who’s behind it. And Roscoe’s family will all be on notice to be careful about what they eat and drink.”

  “Is that Audie?” Mars squinted.

  “Yeah. Nina is spying on him.”

  “He looks terrible.”

  Audie waited to cross the street at the light.

  I lowered my sunglasses. “Don’t tell me he’s sick, too.”

  Nina weaved through traffic to join us. “Audie bought antacids, gingersnap cookies, and ginger tea.”

  Oh no. Ginger settles the stomach. “That man has a serious tummy ache.”

  Mars ate a shrimp. “I’m trying to remember the symptoms Roscoe complained about. Slow heart rate, seeing halos, trouble with yellow and green perception. I don’t recall anything about a stomach ache. Maybe Audie just ate too much spicy food or something.”

  “Anybody else think it’s interesting that he’s not over at the hospital?” asked Nina. “What could that mean? I would go if a stepparent was admitted to the hospital.”

  Audie walked straight toward us. “Mars, I’m glad I saw you. I want to thank you for being so good to Dad. This has been a rough time for him.”

  “My pleasure, Audie. Have a seat.”

  “I suppose you heard about Mindy?” asked Nina.

  The waitress refilled our glasses and brought another iced tea for Audie.

  Audie closed his eyes briefly and massaged his forehead, as though tired of all the drama. “I would never want to deny either of my parents any happiness, but it seems like everything has gone haywire since Dad married Mindy. It’s all I can do to keep crazy rumors from flying all over the office.” He opened the bag, took out a gigantic bottle of antacids, and unscrewed the top. “Can you imagine—Dad called me early this morning and accused me of having an affair with Mindy. Of all the crazy notions! No wonder I’m eating these things like candy.” He wolfed two tablets and washed them down with tea.

  Mars and Nina glared at me.

  “You’re not having an affair with Mindy?” asked Mars.

  “I don’t even like the woman. The mere notion is distasteful on so many levels. Ugh.”

  Mars and Nina raised their eyebrows at me like I had lied about Audie.

  Fortunately, Audie didn’t seem to notice. “It’s such a peculiar sequence of events.” He ticked them off on his fingers as he spoke. “First the mallard print went missing. Then Heath, who left our company under unpleasant circumstances, showed up dead under a mulch pile—of all the bizarre places. It’s no wonder Dad’s heart couldn’t take it, especially with this heat we’ve been having. And now someone has poisoned Mindy? I feel like there has to be a connection, but nothing makes sense.”

  “You fo
rgot the manure,” said Nina.

  Audie laughed. “That I know about. It was Mom’s little joke on Mindy. My mom’s a pistol. Pretty outrageous. I mean, really, manure?” He laughed heartily. “How many people could have come up with that? And placing the order in Mindy’s name was a stroke of genius, because Dad wound up paying for it. Gotta love Mom!”

  Audie’s phone jingled. “Excuse me. With Dad’s heart problems, I’m afraid to skip calls.” He clicked it on and said, “Hi, babe.” After a short silence, he added, “Send them to the house. I don’t want them parading into the office, creating a stir and more speculation. Okay?”

  He hung up. “The cops want to talk with me. I’d better get going. Good seeing everybody.”

  He tickled the top of Daisy’s head and walked away, but not as fast as a man his age ought to.

  “He doesn’t appear to realize that Roscoe was poisoned,” I observed.

  “I wonder when Roscoe will admit it to his family,” said Mars. “But I don’t know about the thing between him and Mindy. I thought he was very convincing.”

  “Me, too!” Nina picked up a shrimp and peeled it.

  “All I know is what I saw. Would you admit it if you were having an affair with your new stepmother?”

  Mars and Nina were busy eating pasta but looked appropriately appalled by the thought.

  I plucked a shrimp out of the bowl. “You know, when Audie was running through their recent disasters, all I could think was that Roscoe must have flipped out when he saw Heath. Can you imagine Roscoe’s reaction if Heath tried to blackmail him? Then, when he learned Mindy was seeing Audie, he probably concluded she was poisoning him, and he pulled a fast one by putting digitalis in her food.”

  Mars put his fork down. “That’s funny, because I was thinking the same thing—about Olive. If she sent the manure, how do we know she didn’t murder Heath and poison Mindy?”

  “I don’t know,” said Nina. “Playing a prank—and a very clever one at that, since everyone will always associate the manure with Mindy—is a far cry from killing.”