Franklin refused to give Granny any more information about the case until Thor arrived after booking the Big Guy at the Big Guy’s own police station.
“What did Thor have to do with all of this?” Granny asked. “And why did he arrest the Big Guy? He’s not a cop.”
“All in good time, Hermiony, all in good time.”
A howl let out, the window door opened and Baskerville and Mr. Bleaty came into the house.
“Have you ever known anyone to have a goat for a pet in the house, Franklin?” Granny asked as Mr. Bleaty came over and nuzzled her hand. Franklin’s look gave Granny her answer. “He doesn’t have a home now.” Baskerville moved next to Mr. Bleaty and nuzzled him. “Baskerville and Mr. Bleaty seem to have a connection.”
The door opened and Thor walked in. He walked over and gave his mother a kiss on the cheek. “What were you thinking?” he said to his mother in an exasperated voice. “What part of stay home, don’t go anywhere, didn’t you understand?”
Franklin started laughing. “We both should know those words are a challenge in Granny’s ears; we should have told her to go out and investigate. Then maybe she would have stayed home.”
“Thor, I don’t understand. What authority do you have that you could arrest the Big Guy?”
“I didn’t move here to keep an eye on you; however, you were the perfect excuse for me to move to town without any suspicion. I’ve always told you that I was a sales rep for a company and that is why I traveled. I work undercover for police departments and other organizations. They call me in to help them on cases. I moved to Fuchsia because I had been following Elena. There was always the suspicion that Cornelius Ephraim Stricknine was involved in some shady dealings at his last position as a police chief but it never could be proven. It was felt that somehow his daughter was also involved.”
It took a lot to shock Granny silent, but this news certainly did. All Granny could do was stare at Thor with an open mouth.
“That’s why you got involved with that hussy?”
Thor gave his mother a huge grin. “Yup and it was so much fun watching you try and stop me.”
“But I don’t understand; why did Mr. Nail die and why the weeds in the yards?”
Franklin took over the explanation. “Mr. Nail found out that Neil was involved and he confronted Neil. Mr. Nail had the lavender tea and the fertilizer tested after he found out about Sally and Esmeralda being poisoned with lavender tea and after he saw their yards. Neil had ordered the fertilizer and it had been Neil’s idea to give them the lavender tea as a bonus. Mr. Nail confronted Neil and Neil told him it was part of the plan because Sally and Mrs. Periwinkle wouldn’t sell their property. It was the Big Guy who sabotaged those shelves leading to Mr. Nail’s death. That was enough to make Neil threaten to quit and blow the whistle on the Big Guy. So the Big Guy took care of Neil and hid him in the tunnel until Neil could be brought to his senses. It seems Elena really was sweet on Neil”
“The Big Guy and Elena and their group wanted the properties to make things easier for them. They planned on putting a door inside the house to the tunnel and using the basements for their business too. It would give them easier access to taking care of the plants,” Thor explained.
“Neil was a long time resident of Fuchsia and Elena is a pretty, sweet young thing, so no one would suspect them. When the women wouldn’t sell, the Big Guy was going to make sure their property looked decrepit so when the women were dead, Neil and Elena could get the property for a song using the condition of the property to drive down the value.” Franklin looked at Granny as he continued. “They weren’t planning on you suspecting anything.”
Thor stood up and walked around the room as he explained more of the plan. “Elena didn’t know who I was except that I was your son, and she was counting on me to keep you away from her since you keep such a good eye on your neighbors. It also didn’t hurt for the community to accept her as my girlfriend.”
Thor held out a piece of paper and gave it to Granny. “For whatever it’s worth, Mom, the Big Guy wrote this and told me to give it to you.”
Granny looked down at the letter and started to read out loud. “Granny, I didn’t want it to end like this. But you are too good at being old and innocent and deceiving. You are too smart for things to get past you and even though I didn’t want to hurt you, because you made my time in Fuchsia interesting, my scare tactics didn’t work to keep you away from trying to solve crimes in Fuchsia. I am sorry about your cars and I am sorry about the poison when you were awarded the key to the city. I didn’t give you enough to kill you but I thought possibly your nosy nose would be distracted and you would give up. I should have known that the Granny I have gotten to know over the years doesn’t give up and when the community of Fuchsia has crimes that need solving, your amateur nose doesn’t quit sniffing. I hadn’t counted on how big your heart is and how much you care about the citizens of Fuchsia. Others may see you as a daffy, old lady but I know that you’re not really that old and I know that you have many years of cunning deceit ahead of you. For what it’s worth, stay safe. The Big Guy, Cornelius Ephraim Stricknine.”
Granny looked at Thor and Franklin after reading the letter. Her eyes, although she would never admit it, had a little tear of sadness for someone who could have had a good future and who she had counted on over the years. The events of the evening also made her wonder about her skills of judging character. She hadn’t guessed. Slowly, she put down the letter.
“I didn’t know; I didn’t guess. All these years and he had me fooled too.”
Thor knelt down by Granny. “He was a model citizen, Mom. He did solve crimes. He was good to people, until it all fell apart. I think he thought he could move to Fuchsia, continue with his business and do some good too. The things he was suspected of being involved in were far worse than what you found today. He did turn his life around, just not all the way.”
Granny looked down at her unfinished donut and lifted it to her mouth. With a glint in her eye, she turned to Thor and said, “You won’t tell your sisters, will you? They don’t know what you do either. I won’t tell if you won’t tell.”
After Granny was able to convince Thor and Franklin to leave, she set out another bowl for Mr. Bleaty. Tomorrow she would have to take him to the vet and make sure he had whatever goats were supposed to have for shots and things. She decided she would build a goat barn on the other side of her house near the woods at the same time she rebuilt her garage. She wondered if goats liked bright pink. She had heard somewhere that goats liked tin cans. She would have to check on that. In the meantime, as she looked at Mr. Bleaty and Baskerville snuggled together sleeping on the rug, she decided he could stay in the house over the winter. He seemed to be housetrained, thanks to Baskerville.
With one last glance at the shysters as they were running out the door for their nightly excursions, she turned out the lights, donned her hot pink shorty nightgown and was about to crawl into bed when she decided that it was a miracle she was not in the wrinkle farm or ready to be put into the Fuchsia cemetery. Walking out into the living room, she dug in her footstool and grabbed her bottle of wine, along with a glass and took it to bed with her. She could be tipsy, topsy while she was lying in bed. Tomorrow was another day and who knew what would happen now that the Big Guy was no longer in Fuchsia. Maybe she should take his job. She would drink to that. She chuckled at the thought. Sitting in her cozy bed she held up her wine glass and gave a toast to events of the day.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Granny opened one eye. She could see through the one eye. She squirmed a little and enjoyed the softness of the mattress before opening the other eye. The sun was up. Granny stuck her big toe out of the blankets to see what color it was. It wasn’t red and it wasn’t blue; it was in between. That must mean that it wasn’t too cold out yet for her to need her new winter coat.
She listened to see if there were any sounds coming from her kitchen. Nope, it was safe to get out of bed in her
purple leather pjs although it wouldn’t matter if her kids had invaded her house. These days she always threw on her robe before venturing out into the other rooms since it was fall and there was always a chill in the morning.
It troubled her a little that she hadn’t seen or heard much from her daughters since the Big Guy fiasco a couple of weeks ago. That in itself was a little suspicious. Maybe they were plotting and were waiting to descend on her with bad news. As those thoughts were racing through her head, the phone by the bed rang.
“Yup, I’m up,” Granny said chuckling at her rhyme. She hadn’t had to think about that one, it just happened.’
“Mom?”
Granny held the phone away from her ear and looked at it? Had she conjured up the phone call? Was she now telepathic?
“Yes, Penelope,” Granny answered in a cautious tone.
“It’s Sunday. Starshine and I thought we’d come over and attend church with you.”
“You don’t have to trouble yourself. I’m sure Butch would like you to go to church with him. I’ll go with Mavis,” Granny answered, alarmed at the offer of church with her daughters.
Her daughters didn’t do church in Fuchsia, said they didn’t like not knowing what type of service was going to be said. We Save You Christian Church was the only church in Fuchsia, so it took turns with worship services. Sometimes the services were Lutheran, sometimes Baptist, sometimes Methodist and on occasion, the Catholic Priest would come over and there would be a mass. It was never announced ahead of time. That is why the church pews were always full. People liked the idea of surprise at church.
“We insist. Since you don’t have a car, we will pick you up in an hour. That should give us time to travel from our town to yours and still get a good seat in church.” Penelope hung up the phone before Granny could protest.
Slowly, Granny left the warmth of her bed and shuffled to the bathroom to take a shower and do her hair. She dressed in the clothes that Mavis had given her on the day she was supposed to have gotten spa’d, opting to wear the wide-brimmed red hat that she had gotten from Mavis when she had spa’d Granny.
When Granny got to her kitchen, she made herself a cup of coffee with the Boneyard Coffee & Tea coffee beans that she had bought at Ella’s Enchanted Forest and took out a lemon meringue donut she had saved from her last trip to Ella’s. She would be glad when Delight had her new shop, all those firemen and policemen made it harder for Delight to fill Granny in on the happenings of Fuchsia.
In her reverie and savoring of her coffee and donut, Granny had forgotten about the time until she heard a horn toot outside her window. It was the girls. It looked warm enough to wear her new fall jacket. After skewering the Big Guy, she had finally had some time to herself so she could shop for her own fall and winter coat. She had appreciated borrowing Sally’s coat but it still smelled like that weed, and green wasn’t really her color. The purple fuchsia-lined fall coat with fuchsia buttons fit her personality much better. Granny grabbed her coat and cane and walked out to meet her daughters.
The parking lot at We Save You Christian Church was full. Granny looked for Travis Trawler. He didn’t seem to be in church. She figured he must still be serving time in the hoosegow for pilfering yogurt from Pickle’s Grocery. Starshine walked in to church and sat down halfway to the front. Penelope took her arm and led her to the pew.
As Granny was looking through the pages of hymns in the hymnal, Granny felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Thor and Franklin sitting behind them. A few rows up she saw Heather, Angel and Delight and Ella whispering in their pew. Granny looked across the aisle and met the gaze of Mavis. George was sitting next to her.
Pastor Hester Snicks started to speak so all whispering in the church ceased. The entire service seemed to fly by. The only hitch in the service was when Pastor Snicks started singing one hymn and the organ started playing another. Half of the congregation followed Pastor Snicks and the other half followed the organist. It was no wonder a dog started howling outside of church, a dog that sounded amazingly like Baskerville.
After the service, Granny was ready to jump up and blow the joint, but Pastor Snicks stopped her to talk. Everyone else seemed to hurry out of church away from their conversation. “Granny, how nice of you to join us again.”
“Um, I’m here every week.”
“Why yes, yes you are, I guess.” He jumped in glee. “I rhymed just like you.”
“You did. Got to go and catch my family.” Granny started down the aisle.
Pastor Snicks grabbed her arm so fast she did a spin around on one leg.”
Granny looked at him, raised her hands as if to say, “What?” and gave him a look of disbelief.
Pastor Snicks looked toward the doors at the back of the church. “You have to go now, Granny.”
Again, Granny raised her hands in a questioning way. “Wasn’t I trying to do that?” She stomped her cane on the floor of the church and turned and walked toward the outside double doors. She opened the doors and silence greeted her. The parking lot was entirely empty except for a 1957 red Chevy convertible that was sitting next to a 1957 black Chevy convertible. Since it was such a nice fall day, the tops were down. Standing next to the red Convertible was Franklin. The entire congregation, including her children, were gathered around the outside of the parking lot watching.
Granny was speechless until Thor came and took her arm and led her over to Franklin.
“What is this, Franklin?” Granny said in a crusty tone.
Franklin turned to Granny and opened a tiny box that he held in his hand. “Hermiony Vidalia Criony Fiddlestadt, you are the most maddening, stubborn, funny, exasperating person I have ever met even more than my mother. Will you marry me?”
Granny, looked at Franklin, speechless, a small tear uncharacteristic of Granny started in her eye. It took her a moment before she could find her voice. “Franklin, are you telling me that your black ‘57 Chevy convertible wants to share my garage with what I take it is my new red ‘57 Chevy convertible? Are you asking for Itsy and Bitsy to become Furball and Tank and team up forever with Fish and Little White Poodle? Are you asking for me to become Angel’s grandma for real?”
Franklin answered seriously, “I am and I am willing to adopt Baskerville and Mr. Gottlieb. Does that mean yes?”
“Franklin, I need to tell you one thing before I say yes. I need to confess.”
“Confess?”
“Yes, Mr. Gottlieb is a Mrs.,” Granny said mischievously.
Franklin threw back his head and let out a loud laugh, grabbing Granny in a big bear hug, swinging her around in a circle, as the crowd started cheering and clapping.
Granny felt a tug at her dress when Franklin put her down. She and Franklin looked down to his granddaughter Angel tugging on her skirt.
Franklin leaned down and lifted Angel in his arms. “Did you have something you wanted to say, Angel?”
“Yes, Mommy and Thor said I can tell you our secret now. Granny is really going to be my Granny and Thor is going to be my Daddy.”
Franklin and Granny looked over to where Heather and Thor had been standing. They were both grinning and holding hands. “What do you think, Mom?” Thor said with a teasing look in his eyes, “A double wedding at Christmas time?”
THE END
About the Author
Julie Seedorf believes that if you believe it, you can do it. Julie retired from her computer business in 2014 to journey into writing full time. Putting her creativity to work, she is the author of the fictional Fuchsia, Minnesota Mystery series. Her first book Granny Hooks A Crook weaves a story about a fictional town in Minnesota that doesn’t conform to the conventional rules and regulations of the communities that we live in today. Granny herself is unconventional and many say unbelievable. Perhaps she is only unbelievable because we have stereotypes of the way older people are supposed to age. Julie’s books in the Fuchsia, Minnesota series are meant to poke fun at those ideas.
Adding to h
er career as an author, Julie also writes freelance human interest stories for Minnesota area newspapers, the Albert Lea Tribune and the Courier Sentinel. She hopes to expand her freelance career in the future. Seven years ago Julie started her career as a columnist. Her column Something About Nothing can be found in the Albert Lea Tribune, the Courier Sentinel and online at her blog http://www.sprinklednotes.com.
Having lived in small communities all her life Julie knows the richness that a small community can have in bringing up a family. Julie raised her children in small communities and takes the time to make sure her grandchildren learn the importance of the saying, it takes a village to raise a child.
The experiences of grandchildren learning who a grandparent was when they were young, is the subject of the Granny’s In Trouble series that Julie writes with her grandchildren. The first book in the Granny’s in Trouble series, “Whatchamacallit? Thingamajig?” was published in 2012. The next book in the series will be out soon.
You can find Julie on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sprinklednotes, on her blog sprinklednotes, on twitter at @julieseedorf or on her website at julieseedorf.com. Her books are available on Amazon, Createspace, Barnes and Noble and other independent bookstores.
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