Wynn in the Willows

by Robin Shope

  “Pretty soon Roxie O’Malley will be getting the first ransom notice for you. I want the ring.”

  “You and Doug murdered Boone, and then hid him on Doug’s schooner to later drop at sea. But who sent the note to the police? And the threatening notes to Jackie? Doug? Or was it Agatha? Were they in on this with you?”

  “What makes you think either one of those jokers helped me? I’m smarter than they.”

  Wynn sat up straighter with a jolt. “They didn’t have anything to do with Boone’s death?”

  “Not at all. It was all me.” Frank seemed quite proud. “I fed the polar bear liver to Boone and locked him in this room. It’s pretty sound proof. He was way too sick to make a noise, anyway. He lay right there in that bed clawing at the wallpaper, until he passed. Late at night, I took him to the schooner and hid him. I also wrote the notes. All of them; to the police, to Jackie. For good measure I put Agatha’s pin thingie she always wears on Doug’s ship.”

  “You mean, this pin?” Wynn jumped up and lunged at Frank, stabbing him in the groin where the clasp went in three inches.

  Frank started screaming.

  Voices came from the hallway. Someone started pounding on the wall and was trying to get in the door. Wynn did her best to unlock the door but it wouldn’t budge.

  In one loud scream, Frank pulled the brooch from his groin and hit Wynn with a giant right hook. She fell flat on her back and he hung above. He booted her several times, before the door was kicked in.

  ****

  Wynn lay on her side on the duvet in her aunt’s porch. Her knuckles were still so swollen that she could hardly hold the tea cup without pain. She had a bandage wrapped around her chest and cuts and bruises all over her body. Surgical tape covered four stitches on her forehead. Her right foot was in a brace.

  “You look like you’ve been in a bad accident.” Doug laughed a little.

  “What’s so funny about that?”

  “You won. The idiot tried to kill you, but you won, and he’s behind bars.”

  “It surely would have evolved into another island mystery, ‘whatever happened to Wynn Baxter?’ I’m sure Sheri is disappointed.”

  “That’s right. Your mummified body could have turned up in another three hundred years.”

  “Just think of all the knick-knacks that could be sold between now and then,” Roxie said, carrying in a tray of lemonade and butter cookies fresh from the oven.

  Doug bent forward and put his hand on Wynn’s face. “I was so scared when I heard someone had put that skeleton key in your mailbox and you were on your way to the Inn without me.”

  “But you saved me.”

  “Come with me. I want to show you something.”

  Precariously Wynn stood. It hurt, but she would do anything for Doug.

  “Lean on me,” he assured her.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

  He helped her through the cottage to the outside. “My truck is right here.” Carefully he lifted her onto the seat. He drove and stopped just before the turn of her Tree House. “This is where you get out.”

  “Get out? Aren’t you heartless?” She chided him as he pulled her into his side tighter and kissed her forehead.

  “It’s something you have to see on foot.”

  “As in my twisted foot?”

  He laughed, picked her up and carried her. As they turned the corner, she caught sight of the most gorgeous lilies in every color, she had ever seen. Tears enveloped her eyes.

  “Doug? You did this?”

  He set her on a bench and removed his cap. Apologetically he said, “I know they aren’t Calypso orchids, but they sure are pretty.”

  “Pretty? They are the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. I see the colors of sunset in those, and look, the colors of sunrise over there, and I also see the moon, but where is the sea?”

  “The colors of the sea are in your eyes, Wynn, and try as the hybridist may, they can never duplicate the beauty of those.”

  She looked at Doug and wondered how her dreams could be coming true. The wind blew her hair and flooded her with thoughts of the possible. “The lilies look like the sky in the ground.”

  “I was hoping you’d stay at least one winter to see them again in the spring.”

  Bees began introducing themselves to the treasured soft petals. “Look, they are already pollinating.”

  “It’s the end of the season for them, but they will be back again next spring with new friends. Your garden will be fuller with every summer.”

  Her gaze slid away as she nodded.

  “Have I lost you? What are you thinking?”

  “After all these months, I’m grateful to be here right now. And I’m thinking about Joseph Reed interred in that room for all this time, while people have dug and dug for him.”

  “I wonder if we will ever know why Anna Reed never told anyone she had found his body?”

  “Well, I already know.”

  “Tell me.” He played with her hair.

  “Anna wanted to keep him all to herself where no one else would ever find him. Yet, she wanted someone to eventually find the room and perhaps put him in his final resting place beside her in the cemetery. That’s why she had the key as a bracelet and painted ‘Looking Through the Key Hole.”

  “So that is the name to that piece.”

  “That’s the name. Ah, just look at this garden you have given to me.”

  His hand squeezed hers as she looked at the myriad of colors surrounding them. She laughed, and then covered her mouth. “I can’t get over that you did this for me.”

  He knelt in front of her. “Yes. For you.” Then he moved next to her as the lilies glowed all around them, the background music of the sea singing. His face was turned towards her and she could see his gray eyes in the drops of filtered sunshine through the leaves.

  32

  The women of the Bridge Over Troubled Waters Bible study had come to order. After reading scriptures and praying together, Faith served box cookies from the grocery store. “Sorry, ladies, but it seems my brother will be in prison for a long, long time. This is the best I could do for dessert, since I don’t bake or cook.”

  “Faith, we are so sorry about Frank,” Jackie stared at her friend.

  “It’s I who am sorry, Jackie. I never thought Frank had it in him to murder. I considered making this my last Bible study meeting.”

  “Why, Faith?” Wynn asked.

  “Because of Frank.” Faith held back her tears.

  “Nonsense! We all love you, don’t we ladies?” Sheri asked.

  All the women bobbed their heads.

  “You are one of us,” Roxie said.

  “And these are wonderful cookies too, Faith!” Owl murmured. “I am sure I can get used to them.”

  “We are here for you, Faith, just as everyone was here for me when Boone passed.” Jackie smoothed her hair.

  “Will you be staying with Jackie, Agatha?” Wynn asked.

  “Yes, I am. Mother is busy doing court assigned charity work because she lied to the police and obstructed justice, and did a mess of other things, like stealing wallets. She’s just lucky, I mean blessed, that she didn’t get prison time,” Agatha explained.

  “Wynn, will you be staying on the island and be part of us, too?” Owl asked.

  “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

  “Oh please do, Wynn,” Faith begged.

  “Well since my best friend asked, I just might.”

  “I am sure you want to learn the details of Boone’s death,” Jackie said. “I’m ready now to tell them. Boone’s business was going bankrupt. He never told me his problems. Never confided in me. Yes, that hurts me, now. I thought we were so close.”

  “But you were close,” Roxie insisted.

  “Not really. He knew his mother had the ring which would take us out of debt, plus allow him to buy the Willow Inn. Frank somehow thought they were buying it together. Frank met Boone at the dock where he was tol
d they were not going into business and his mother refused to give him the ring.”

  “Why did Frank write the ransom notes to you, Jackie, and not to Marilyn?” Wynn asked.

  “Location, location, location,” Faith answered for her. “Jackie lived right here, whereas Marilyn was on the mainland. It was less conspicuous.”

  “Frank fed Boone polar bear liver, which is poisonous, as we know, thanks to Wynn. He ate such a huge amount that he quickly died. Then he hauled the body to Doug’s schooner to hide in order to point the finger at him. Oh by the way, here is your brooch, Agatha.” Wynn raked through her backpack. “I found it on Doug’s schooner.”

  “I have no idea how it got there, but it fell off my blouse, sometime. Maybe Frank found it.”

  “He did tell me that it was planted on the schooner.”

  “I hear Frank held you in the room where Boone died, Wynn. It must have been terrible for you.” Faith tore open another package of cookies and handed them out, three at a time.

  “Well, it wasn’t easy.” Wynn admitted. “That room also had a glass coffin in it.”

  “I heard that!” Owl gasped. “The story now is Anna did find her husband and put him in the coffin in that room so she could visit him. He was there all this time, until Frank took him down to the ocean.”

  “And I feel so bad that Wynn got hurt because I had the ring,” Roxie said.

  “But I’m all right now, Aunt Roxie. No more worries.”

  “Wynn, I have something for you.” Sheri timidly approached the two women with an envelope. “Wynn, I know you were looking for old greeting cards and I did look for them, but they were all gone. Sorry, I think your mom cleaned the place of them when she left—but what’s in here is just as good—maybe better. I found them in the attic of the store; old postcards of the town and the Sea Walk from twenty to thirty years ago. I thought you’d like to see it how it was back when you lived here.”

  “Thank you so much, Sheri.” Wynn studied each postcard before moving onto the next. “You are right, these are better.”

  “And here is how your dad’s shop once looked.” Sheri pointed to a particular colorized postcard.

  Owl walked up to Wynn with a paper bag in her hand. “When I told you that I walk the island at night and I pray,. that’s the truth, but not the entire truth.”

  “I knew it!” Roxie clapped her hands once.

  “I especially prayed for you, Wynn, because you didn’t know the Lord, so that needed special prayer attention. However, I also pick up trash from the tourists and while I pick up trash, I might as well go through the garbage. You wouldn’t believe all the valuable things I’ve pulled out to keep. Your mom knew of this little habit of mine. She asked me to dispose of the boxes she filled with your dad’s belongings to give to the charity shop. Of course, old habits die hard. She said I could go through them and take what I wanted. So I did. Until that time the best item I ever found was a pair of brand new shoes my size. But that day I found the best thing of all. It’s something your dad wore all the time. It reminded me of him so I kept it. Now it goes to you.”

  Wynn accepted the bag from Owl and pulled out the same sweater she had begged her mom to keep. Wynn held it up to her face and cried into it.

  The women sat silently and allowed Wynn this moment.

  Finally she looked up. “You will never know how much it means to me.” Wynn slid her arms through the sleeves and buttoned the front.

  “Last week we planned this little party for you and what we were going to give to you,” Roxie explained. “I felt so badly when I saw you come towards the cottage, and then turn away back up the drive. I feared you would think we left you out.”

  “We would never leave you out,” Faith said.

  “I see that now.”

  “I bought you a cake from the bakery this morning.” Roxie went to the kitchen and rolled out her tea cart. In the center of the chocolate cake with white buttercream frosting were the words ‘Congrats Wynn!’

  “Not that Faith’s offerings of bagged cookies weren’t delightful; I wanted something very special for you. We are celebrating the completion of your grant.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Before we cut the cake, I have a happy note I wish to address with you ladies.” Jackie clasped her hands together. “It’s been a hard summer on us all, starting with Wynn’s and Roxie’s rocky relationship, which seems to have smoothed out nicely. Boone’s death, God rest his soul. Things became more complicated when Doug was arrested for the murder. Then there’s Marilyn and Agatha—need I say more on that subject? Thankfully, Doug was innocent, but it only hurt another family, especially Faith, to learn it was Frank who murdered my husband. All of us here in this room were affected in some awful manner. But now, with the Lord’s help, we are moving forward, still bonded together in friendship and love.”

  “Please Faith, don’t make us sing again,” Sheri whispered a soft prayer.

  “And now the season of fall is soon to be upon us. I finally have some happy news. In the last few weeks I discovered that life is a series of journeys; not just one long one. When I married Boone twenty years ago, I thought that was it for me. I would be his wife forever. That we would grow old together. It wasn’t to be. And now my feet are on a new path. I have a new destiny. God is not done with me, and my future certainly isn’t over. In fact, it’s just beginning. With Boone’s insurance money, I bought the Inn. I am the new owner of the Willow Inn!”

  33

  “The sea is the same sea, but it’s me who has changed.” Wynn ran her hands through her hair, marveling at how much had changed in such a short summer. She was a stronger woman, a dutiful friend. She began to fall for Doug. She had learned how to make her own happiness.

  Jackie was in her thoughts a lot these days. A woman who had been dependent on her husband now roared forth with strength since Boone’s death, deciding Willow Inn was her next journey.

  Wynn knew the time was here for her to make up her mind about the Biology position at the local high school. If she left, she knew she’d be back someday. If she stayed, Roxie insisted she and Sailor move into the main cottage for the winter due to the fact there wasn’t any heat in the Tree House.

  The following week, Wynn boxed her belongings, not sure how long most of it would be in storage. She was tired and her back hurt, but she was satisfied with her life. Wynn shut down her computer and stretched. The tin container with the music box caught her eye. She took it out and again listened to Faith of Our Fathers. Maybe she’d ask Roxie about it. Since she found it in her car, perhaps there was a new memory just waiting to spring out.

  Wynn loaded her car once again with boxes, but this time they contained her clothes and equipment. Sailor was coaxed into a carrier to ride next to her in the passenger seat. By that evening, she had settled into her new place enough to feel comfortable.

  Wynn leaned against the pillows reading her Bible. If the Bible ladies had taught her anything it was about forgiveness and new beginnings. And tomorrow would be her new beginnings. Meanwhile, Sailor was somewhere under the bed still unsure of both Wynn—and Roxie’s cottage.

  There was a knock on her bedroom door. “Come in!”

  Roxie walked into the room, handing Wynn a wrapped gift, and then sat on the slipper chair. Before Wynn could get the wrapping off, Sailor sprang up into Roxie’s lap and curled up.

  Wynn’s mouth dropped open. “He never has curled into me or let me pet him!”

  “He likes me. What can I say?” Roxie stroked his head and ears with a smug look on her face.

  Wynn lifted the lid. Inside was a faded blue jean school bag with appliquéd A, B, Cs and 1, 2 ,3s and smiling children, a schoolhouse and a bright sun. It made her cringe.

  “I used that to carry my papers when I taught elementary school.” Roxie gushed. “And now it’s yours to carry your sophomore class papers in.”

  “How nice.” Wynn mustered up her best fake smile. “Thank you. I shall think of you each tim
e I carry it. I have a question for you before I turn out the light.”

  “All right.”

  Wynn picked up the small music box and turned it on. “I found this in a tin in my jeep weeks ago. Do you happen to know anything about it?”

  “I might.” Roxie stood and placed Sailor on the coverlet. He jumped off and slid under the bed again. In a minute Roxie returned with a wooden box.

  “I remember seeing that on your dresser.” Wynn pushed up in bed.

  Roxie placed the small music box inside the larger wooden box. Then she wound it up. Faith of Our Fathers played. Wynn’s eyes grew large. “Why was it removed?”

  “Because I wanted you to remember what it was like between us. I wanted you to listen to the tune, the words, and regain your childhood faith.” Roxie laid it on the nightstand. “It’s yours, now. It’s done its job.” Roxie kissed her goodnight.

  Wynn turned out the light.

  ****

  Wynn walked down the hall with a new purse she wasn’t so sure she liked in one hand, and the school bag in the other.

  In the kitchen, Wynn heard the familiar singing voice, soft and melodious, although older now and filled with cracks. Roxie was singing ‘Faith of Our Fathers’.

  A sense of the past returned—a dizzying flash of uncontrollable memories. Wynn remembered everything perfectly. Aunt Roxie’s eyes, her voice when she sang. It hadn’t been Ruth who sang to her whenever she needed comforting, it had been Aunt Roxie.

  Wynn had it all wrong; it was mixed-up in the mind of a child. It was Roxie’s tenderness that stayed with her and kept her all those years, calling her back until she returned.

  “Wow, you really look nice in that suit.” Roxie tugged at Wynn’s sleeves and pulled the material up at the shoulders.

  “I feel odd.”

  “You only look odd because you are showing that you feel odd. Loosen up!”

  “It’s a skirt. I have on a skirt and nylons.”