“And what would you be doing?”
“This fire shook me up so much and everyone’s watching me now. I need some alone time. You know how that is, Mavis. You run over to Allure to Shea Fluffallure and use my name. It’ll be ok. Stop the car right over here by Rack’s. I’ll hang out at Esmeralda’s old house. No one’s there right now. Maybe Neil Nail will come home and I’ll be able to talk to him with no one watching.”
“I’m supposed to be watching you too,” Mavis reminded Granny as she stopped the car.
“Watch,” Granny said as she got out of the car and started walking across the street to Esmeralda Periwinkle’s old house. “Watch me walk all the way to the back so I can get in the house. Pick me back up at 5:00 p.m. sharp. I’ll be here and waiting.”
Granny walked to the back of the house making sure no one else was watching her. Mavis pulled away to go to Granny’s day of beauty. She knew something that Granny’s children didn’t. Once Granny made up her mind to do something, there was no talking her out of it. You might just as well let her loose and let the chips fall where they may and hope those chips weren’t Granny.
Granny tried the door at the back of the house, but it was locked. She tried picking the lock with her bobby pin but it didn’t work and the bobby pin dropped to the ground. As she leaned down to pick it up, she saw that the basement window was now cracked open. Granny wasn’t very big so she thought that maybe she could crawl in the window if there was something for her to stand on, on the other side.
Granny went down to the ground and pushed the window open. She used her pink giant knitting needle cane to push it open farther and then stuck her head inside. There was a chair right underneath the window. Granny turned around and, feet first, hoisted herself through the window and down to the chair. This was better yet. If the doors were locked and anyone checked, they would think no one was here. She closed the window all the way just in case.
Once inside, Granny looked around at the basement. It appeared to be as it was the last time she was here. She would start her snooping upstairs.
Once in the kitchen, Granny remembered she was hungry. She hadn’t taken time to eat anything. She wondered if there was anything to snack on in the fridge. Certainly Neil must have stocked the fridge. He had. It was full of soda, pickles, sandwich meat that had been bought recently and fresh fruit. There were no donuts and no chocolate. Granny grabbed a couple of grapes to keep her going until she could get something more substantial.
Neil hadn’t changed anything in the house but he apparently planned on eating here. Why would he disappear right after he stocked the fridge? Maybe the Big Guy was right and Neil did start the hardware store on fire.
It took Granny a good part of the day to go through the drawers and papers, in the house, but she didn’t find anything that indicated Neil lived here. It was also strange that Esmeralda’s family hadn’t cleaned out the house after she died and before they sold her house. Perhaps she didn’t have any family. Granny decided she needed to check records at the court house to see who her next of kin were. Granny was about to head into the basement when her cell phone rang the Dragnet theme.
Before she picked up the phone to do eye to eye, Granny ran into the bathroom, soaked a towel, ran into the bedroom and lay on the bed and plopped the towel around her face so you could only see her eyes. She then answered her phone.
“Franklin, don’t you know you aren’t supposed to disturb me when I am spa-ing? I’m trying to relax,” Granny shouted through the towel.
“Just checking on you to see if you were having a good time; can’t get Mavis on the phone so I was thinking you two might be in trouble.”
“She was going to a movie, while I got spa tee da’d. Probably has her phone off. Gotta go, my bikini wax is next.” Granny knew she heard that they did those sometimes at the spa although she had no idea what they were.
“Meet me at Rack’s at 5:00. I’ve got news.” Franklin clicked off of eye to eye and hung up. Granny threw the towel to the floor. She was running out of time to find out what happened to Esmeralda and to Neil. Deciding she needed to check the yard and the garage, she tromped back down into the basement to climb out the window. As she was walking in the dark past the cut in the wall, she noticed a little light shining through the cut. Quietly, she walked over to the wall and put her eye to the very slight cut. All she could see was a sliver of light. She could hear no sound. Granny looked around for something to cut more of the wall when she heard a pounding on the outside door. She quickly moved away from the wall and over to the basement window, climbing on the chair so she could see who was there. It was Mavis
Granny pushed the window open and whispered, “Mavis, Mavis, be quiet.” When Mavis kept pounding, Granny took her knitting needle cane that she was holding on to, took the end off and poked it out the window. It was long enough to reach Mavis and poke her in the foot lightly.
“Ow.” Mavis looked down and grabbed her foot. She saw Granny. “What are you doing?”
“What are you doing raising a ruckus? Remember, no one is supposed to know we’re here.”
“Franklin called. He’s meeting us at 5:00. It’s 4:30.”
“So? Rack’s is right across the street.”
“He’s expecting you to be spa’d. Have you looked at yourself? You don’t look any different than when you left your house this morning.” Mavis peered down at Granny. “Well, I take that back, you look worse.”
“We’ll just tell him the spa treatment failed. I told him I got a bikini wax, whatever that is, but I think it’s something he can’t see, kind of like a hidden tattoo. It’ll keep him wondering.” Granny laughed in glee at the thought.
“Get up here and open this door,” retorted Mavis. “I went shopping after my day at the spa. I got you some clothes that I thought looked like you and some new pins for your hair and some make up! I don’t star in my own imaginary reality shows for nothing.”
Granny trudged up the steps and let Mavis in the back door. They made sure they didn’t turn on any lights. Granny led Mavis to the big pantry that Esmeralda had. There were no windows in there to give off light.
Mavis dumped out the bags she was carrying. “Let’s do the makeup first so we don’t get your clothes messed.” She grabbed foundation, mascara and bright blue eye shadow and started plopping them on Granny’s face.
“Can I look?”
“Not yet. An artist doesn’t let you see the final product until it is done.” Mavis almost poked Granny in the eye with the mascara as she decorated Granny’s eyes.
“Here’s your dress; put it on.”
Granny looked at the bright red silk dress that was straight and form-fitting with a little flare at the bottom. “I thought it would go great with your red sparkly high tops,” Mavis explained, “Now your hair.” Mavis twirled Granny around and put her long hair down and fastened the sides of her hair with the new red rhinestone clips. She then plopped a new red wide brimmed hat on Granny’s head
“Just in case I screwed up the makeup, no one will see your face so they won’t know you haven’t been to the spa. And when you are asked, just say that it was delightful, You can’t find the words to describe it.”
Granny turned and looked at Mavis with new respect. “Why, Mavis, this is a side of you I haven’t seen before. I think I like it. Deception becomes you.”
“We have to go; no time to look in the mirror. Let me out, go back down and come out the basement window and no one will be the wiser that we were here.”
With the door locked after Mavis’ departure to the outside, Granny made her way down the steps, noticing on her way to the window that there was no longer light shining through the crack in the wall. That was something she was going to have to investigate later.
Mavis was waiting at the window and as Granny put the chair back under the window; Mavis lifted the window out as wide as it would open so Granny could crawl through the window. She helped Granny through the window, trying to keep Granny f
rom getting her dress caught or her hair mussed. Once Granny made it through the window and was back up on her feet, the two women carefully made their way around the side of house making sure no one was watching. After seeing that the coast was clear, they hustled their way across the street to Rack’s restaurant’s parking lot. They hadn’t counted on the fact that Franklin would be sitting in Granny’s booth by the window. Both women stopped on a dime when they realized Franklin was staring out of the window at them. He said something to someone across the table in the booth. Mavis paled a little under her makeup when she realized George had accompanied Franklin to Rack’s.
“What do we do now, Granny? They saw us?”
Granny patted Mavis’ hand and took her by the arm and proceeded to enter the door to Rack’s restaurant. “Follow my lead, Mavis.”
As they approached the booth, Granny turned to Mavis. “Yes, Mrs. Periwinkle’s house might be the perfect house for your friend from Allure. It is very quaint and cute. Hi, Franklin. George, I didn’t know that you were going to join us,” Granny said innocently.
“What were you doing at Neil Nail’s house?” Franklin asked Granny in a suspicious voice.
“Well, you see Mavis met an old friend in Allure and she is thinking about moving to Fuchsia, so we thought we would walk around Esmeralda’s house. Neil didn’t live there long enough for it to be called his house. We thought we would walk around it, look at it and see if it would work for her.”
Mavis stammered, “Ah, and it would. It would.”
“Mavis, you look like you have been at a movie star premiere reality show. You look beautiful,” George said adoringly, while gazing at Mavis.
“Don’t I look good too, Franklin? Mavis decided to spend some time at the spa too?” Granny made a pirouette around her cane.
Franklin peered at Granny giving her a close look. “You look pretty good too, I must admit. I was suspicious whether you would make it to the spa. That is why we sent Mavis to keep an eye on you. Mavis, good job, you kept her out of trouble.”
Mavis started squirming in her seat, never being very good at subterfuge. Just in time, the waitress brought their drinks to their table, saving Mavis from answering. After they had ordered, Franklin cleared his throat.
“I have news. Neil Nail has disappeared. The APB has garnered no leads. The Big Guy has checked out Neil’s father’s death a little further. It appears that Neil is the one behind the poisoning and murder of Sally and Esmeralda Periwinkle. His father became suspicious so Neil had to see that his father wouldn’t talk to the police.”
“I was there when Mr. Nail died. I was the one to find him. Neil didn’t have anything to do with it,” Granny reminded them.
“The shelves had been tampered with, Granny. All Mr. Nail had to do was to get a bag off the shelf and that would have triggered the weakness in the shelf to bring down all the shelves and fertilizer on top of whoever tried to take the bag down, and since Mr. Nail was the only one who sold the fertilizer that would make him the target.”
“Couldn’t it have been someone else?” Mavis asked.
“We tested the bags. The bags on the right on the shelves were tainted with a little known fast growing weed seed. And then there is the lavender tea that Mr. Nail gave to the women when they bought the fertilizer. There is also the fact that Neil was very nervous and set those fires before he disappeared. He was trying to get rid of evidence.”
“But why start my garage on fire? It doesn’t make sense,” Granny interjected.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you are a snoop and something you must have found must have worried him,” Franklin answered.
Mavis and George both eyed Granny, wondering how she was going to take being called a snoop by Franklin, but it appeared that Granny had other things on her mind. Her gaze was focused on the front of the restaurant. Thor and Elena had just arrived.
“What does he see in that woman? I don’t trust her.”
“Hermiony, she’s a beautiful young woman. Any man Thor’s age or older would give her a second look,” Franklin suggested as he too watched as Thor and Elena were seated at a table towards the front of the restaurant.”
“He’s right, Granny; she is a looker,” George interjected.
“I think it’s time we go home, George,” Mavis said as she started pushing him out of the booth.
“We haven’t eaten yet. We just ordered,” George protested. “
I think I’ll go with you. This spa-ing adventure has been a tiring day and, besides, I want to make sure my kids left my house in one piece. Since Thor’s here that must mean the girls are done or he left them to their own devices to finish my house and that’s an even scarier thought than Thor being here with that hussy. Perhaps, since you are an older man, emphasis on older, Franklin, and you think she deserves a second look, perhaps you should give her one,” Granny advised in a huffy tone. She gave Franklin a nudge so he would let her out of the booth.
“On second thought, George, perhaps you should sit back down.” Mavis gave George a push back into the booth. He lost his balance and sat down. Since she’s such a looker, perhaps you should look. I’ll give Granny a ride home. You two enjoy your meal.” Mavis winked at Granny and the two of them ambled toward the door, walking past the booth with Thor and Elena. Granny couldn’t resist giving Thor a little tap on the leg with her cane as she walked by.
As they were getting into Mavis’ car, Mavis turned to Granny, “Now what?”
“We’re going home,” Granny said innocently.
“That’s it, straight home? Are you sure? I’m having fun helping you with your snooping.”
“Now, Mavis, I do not snoop. I care, that is all. I care. I am going home to see the shysters and Baskerville. I am going to grab my wine, chocolate and settle into bed with a good book and make sure my house is all in one piece.”
Mavis let Granny out in front of Granny’s house. Granny looked to where the garage had been. The garage was gone, torn down and all that was left in its place was the cement floor that used to support Granny’s garage. Granny gave a sigh, mourning her cars and wondering what she was going to do without a car. Perhaps she could rent one until she could buy a new one. Waving to Mavis, she let herself in her house.
A circus greeted Granny when she opened the door to the house. Mr. Bleaty was back and the shysters weren’t happy as Mr. Bleaty was trying to keep them from their food. Baskerville was guarding Mr. Bleaty. The situation appeared to be out of hand. Granny reached into the corner and grabbed her umbrella. With one slip of the crook, she managed to capture the collar on Mr. Bleaty. Leading him by her umbrella and ignoring Baskerville’s loud howl of protest, she led Mr. Bleaty outside and over to Sally’s old house. Baskerville was still howling and following the two of them. The shysters didn’t follow, too busy eating after being kept from their food by Mr. Bleaty.
Granny led Mr. Bleaty to the garage. The door was standing wide open and so was the gate to his pen. Granny led him inside of the garage and put him in the pen and slammed it shut, making sure the latch was securely latched. She turned to Baskerville. “Home,” she said sternly as she pointed in the direction of her house. Baskerville looked at Granny and walked over to Mr. Bleaty’s pen, reached his nose across the fence and gave Mr. Bleaty a nudge before turning around and walking out the door. Granny followed Baskerville and shut the door to the garage hearing the lock click as the door closed.
Granny watched as Baskerville trotted home, heard his howl so the door would open and he could get in the house. She then took time to survey the yard. The hussy was with Thor at Rack’s and it looked like Mavis had already turned in for the night. Granny pulled out her Itphone and activated the flashlight feature. She trained the flashlight on the cistern that was still hidden by the dying weeds.
Walking over to the cistern, she shone the flashlight around the edges of the cover. All of a sudden her nose started twitching and she started sneezing. What was that smell? Whatever it was, it was co
ming from the cistern and it was a smell Granny hadn’t encountered before. She tried to move the lid off of the cistern but it wouldn’t budge.
Granny started walking toward the house to go back home when she looked overhead and saw the stars twinkling brightly in the night. The cool frosty air seemed to make the stars pop out like diamonds in the sky. It was dark all around her.
Granny started thinking about Sally and took a few minutes to sit down in the middle of the yard on the cool earth of fall. Thoughts of Sally ran through her head, remembering their times together, although they were quirky moments. Granny remembered them fondly. On a whim, she lay down on the ground remembering Sally on the ground with her ear to the ground saying, “The grass is a living thing. The grass talks to me.” Granny lay down on the ground in the darkness and looked up at the sky. She closed her eyes for a minute when she heard what sounded like whispering or talking coming from the ground. Granny sat up and looked around. There was no one around her. She put her ear to the ground and again she heard what she thought was talking. Was Sally right? Did she have magical grass that talked? But there was no grass now, just weeds. Granny lay back down and listened but everything was silent. Maybe she had imagined it because she was thinking of Sally. It was time to go home and visit with the shysters and head to bed. Granny tapped on George and Mavis’ bedroom window as she walked by their house. They may not be wed but at least they’re not dead. Granny thought and then she chuckled at her rhyme.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The thunder was crashing over Granny’s head as the lightning split a tree next to her garage and flames erupted, shooting tentacles of fire at her garage. Standing in the pouring rain, Granny watched as the lightning also shot through the window of the garage and hit both gas tanks of her two red ‘57 Chevy Corvettes simultaneously. They exploded, erupting into words shooting up into the sky. The words scrolled above her head as the rain parted letting the words form into perfect letters of fire. Granny could see what the fire was trying to tell her. The words swarmed in flame over her head. “The grass quit talking to me, the grass quit talking to me, the grass quit talking to me.” Granny yelled at the flames, “You killed her! You killed her!” The flames turned into blades of grass, which quickly turned into weeds, and the weeds started swirling to the ground.
Julie Seedorf - Fuchsia Minnesota 02 - Granny Skewers a Scoundrel Page 13