by Krista Davis
That was a good word for what had happened to him. Zelda was so pale that I feared she was in shock. I took her arm and helped her to a lawn chair.
“Trixie! Gingersnap! Huey! Come!” I pulled out my cell phone and called 911.
I described Trixie, Gingersnap, and Huey finding Hank’s body and told the dispatcher that I thought he was probably dead given the amount of blood I saw.
That brought on a torrent of tears from Zelda. I hung up the phone and stroked her hair, hoping like crazy that she didn’t have anything to do with it. I hated that the thought even crossed my mind, but they had been married, and he had been a royal nuisance to her.
Dave was the first person on the scene. He strode into Zelda’s backyard, taking in every little detail.
I left Zelda, motioned to Dave, and walked over to the trees where Hank lay.
Dave kept his calm. “When did you get here?”
“Maybe five minutes before I called nine-one-one.”
“You see anyone?”
“No. Only Zelda. She looked like she had just rolled out of bed.”
“What were you doing back here?”
“Trixie jumped off the golf cart, and other dogs followed her. They found him.”
He nodded. “Figures. Can you wait with Zelda, please?” Dave pulled out a camera and photographed Hank’s hand and the grass.
I hadn’t taken two steps when he said, “Holly? I changed my mind.”
I turned back.
“Hold up the branches so I can get some shots of him before he’s moved?”
I lifted the branches and got a much better look at poor Hank. Murder was never pleasant, but someone had whacked him in the worst way. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could have inflicted the bloody wounds on his neck and back. “You don’t think it could have been a bear, do you?”
“Bears are not in the habit of hiding their kill. A bear wouldn’t have pulled him under the tree like this.”
“How do you know that’s what happened?”
“Holly! Look how dense the trees are. If he had rolled under them to protect himself, he might have lived. The tree limbs aren’t hacked up. I’ll bet the autopsy shows that somebody clobbered him from behind and then kept at it when he fell to the ground.”
When the rescue squad arrived, I hustled Zelda and the dogs into her house. Her cats—I counted seven—were appalled and scrambled away, with the notable exception of Leo, who was convinced he was the king of Wagtail. I had never seen him run from a dog.
I put the kettle on for tea and watched the goings-on in the backyard through the window. “You’d better get dressed, Zelda.”
Without a word, she left the kitchen. I could hear the stairs creaking as she walked up them. I used her wall phone to call Ben’s cell phone.
He sounded groggy.
“Are you up yet?”
“No.”
“I think Zelda’s going to need a lawyer.”
“Why?”
“Because I just found her ex-husband dead in her backyard.”
Ben wrote down Zelda’s address and promised he was on his way.
Zelda’s kitchen was as sunny and cheerful as Zelda herself. The cabinets had been painted a soft green. There were no upper cabinets, only shelves that hung over white wallpaper dotted by old-fashioned cream medallions. Neatly arranged dishes, mugs, platters, and spices occupied the shelves. A Victorian-style lamp hung over the country kitchen sink. Herbs grew in little mismatched pots on the windowsill behind the sink.
Watching Dave through the diamond-paned glass made it all seem even more surreal. It was almost as though no one had brutally murdered Hank, and I was watching a film.
I grabbed a mug off a shelf. It said There’s always room for one more cat. Zelda certainly lived by that motto. I searched for black tea to calm her nerves. She had a collection of herbal teas, some which I had never heard of before.
I finally found a box of organic black tea. I was pouring water into the cup when Zelda returned. She had changed into a blue sundress with a cabbage rose print.
“They’re going to think that I murdered Hank. I can’t pay a lawyer. Whoever did it is going to get away scot-free, and I’ll end up in jail. I wish I had never met Hank.”
I poured milk into her tea and added a spoonful of sugar. “We’ll work something out. Don’t you worry about that. Oma and I will stand by you. I called Ben.”
I poured a second cup of tea and leaned against the sink sideways so I could keep an eye on what was happening in the yard. “Did you kill him?” I tried to sound ever so casual about it.
“No!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spied Ben in the backyard, speaking with Dave.
Ben walked toward the kitchen door. I opened it for him.
Zelda dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “Thank you for coming, Ben.” She sniffled. “I don’t know why I’m crying. I guess because I loved Hank once.”
Ben sat down at the table, and to my complete surprise, he took her hand and said, “It’s okay to cry. You’ve had a big shock.”
I made tea for Ben and handed the mug to him. He sat with Zelda quietly while she composed herself. What happened to the insensitive, geeky guy I knew?
“Tell me what you did last night,” he said to Zelda.
“I was at Tequila Mockingbird with Axel Turner.”
“What time did you leave?”
“I don’t know. When they closed. Around two, I guess?”
“And then?”
“I walked Axel to the Wagtail Springs Hotel, where he’s staying, and then came home and went to bed.”
“Did you hear or see anything during the night?”
“Nope. We might have had a little too much to drink. I fell asleep and didn’t wake until I heard barking this morning. Then I heard someone yell my name.”
“Who?”
Zelda looked at me. “I guess it was Holly. When I came downstairs, she was in the backyard.”
“Okay. I know I asked this before, but I want you to think back very carefully. Did you hear anything last night? Did you notice anything at all out of the norm?”
Zelda’s forehead crinkled with worry. “No. Nothing. Really.”
“When did you last see Hank?”
“When Holly lured him away last night.”
Ben set his tea down on the table so hard that it splashed out of the mug.
I grabbed a dish towel and wiped it up.
“You want to explain that?” he asked.
“It’s nothing. Hank was lurking around Zelda’s house. He had been a pill the night before when she was out on a date, and then he followed them out on the lake! Zelda asked me to distract him so she could get away and meet her date without being followed. I pretended to be Zelda and left by the front door while she sneaked out the back way. No big deal.”
Ben covered his face with his palms. “So you’re the last one who saw him?”
“Well, I don’t know about that. When I got to Hot Hog, I stepped inside to see if he would walk by, but I never saw him.”
Ben swallowed hard. “And then where did you go?”
“I’m not a suspect. Quit acting like I am. I went to Tequila Mockingbird to see if Zelda had made it there without Hank.”
“Great. Very good. So people saw you there?”
“Sure. I talked with Macon and Nessie . . .” My voice trailed off.
“Who’s Nessie?”
“She’s staying at the inn. Lots of jewelry, has a little dog named Lulu.”
“Oh yeah. I thought she was going to propose to me when she heard I was a lawyer.”
“She was showing us a picture of her daughter, Celeste, and the doctor she met here. But the guy wasn’t a doctor at all. It was Hank.”
“You told her that?” Ben asked.
Zelda finally perked up. “Yes! She brought a picture on her phone over to me to verify that it was Hank. She couldn’t believe he had conned them.”
“And then?” asked Ben.
“Then Nessie and Sky left in a big hurry.”
My phone rang, and all three of us jumped at the sound. Oma wanted to know what was taking me so long with Gustav’s pain meds. I promised to get them right away. “I have to run.”
“You can’t leave,” said Ben.
“Of course I can. You take care of Zelda.” I gave her a hug before Trixie, Gingersnap, and I left via the front door. I had my doubts about leaving Huey with Ben, but Zelda would watch out for him.
I drove the golf cart the remaining blocks to the green. We all hopped out and walked across the grass to Heal! on the other side. Trixie and Gingersnap roamed with their noses to the ground.
When we reached the sidewalk on the other side, Trixie dodged to the right and ran a little farther than she should have. My heart sank when I saw where she went.
Twenty
Trixie wagged in delight and touched noses with Cooper. A few feet away, John was having breakfast with Laura.
Maybe Laura Pisani was the reason John had decided against having dinner with me. If that were the case, Ben and I were both out of luck. It surprised me that I felt disappointed. I barely knew John. But he’d been nice. I sucked in a deep breath of air. It clearly wasn’t meant to be. Holding my chin high, maybe too high in compensation for my hurt feelings, I called Trixie and walked into Heal!
Bob Lane smiled at me. “Morning, Holly.”
I handed Gustav’s prescriptions to the lanky man with the high cheekbones and facial structure worthy of magazine covers.
“This will take a few minutes, if you want to shop around.”
“Thanks. Gustav is in pain, so I’ll wait for it.”
Trixie and Gingersnap had made their way back to the dog and cat treat section. The two of them sniffed all the displays.
I eyed the old-fashioned soda fountain. There wasn’t a single empty seat. In fact, the drugstore was packed. The son of the owner was busy filling breakfast orders.
Pssst.
I looked around.
Pssst. Someone tapped my shoulder, and I turned.
Oh no. My Aunt Birdie. I loved her because she was my aunt, but the woman complained more than anyone I had ever known. She was bossy, opinionated, and demanding. In the old days, they would have called her a handsome woman. Gaunt enough to be bony, she was impeccably dressed in a black wrap-front knit dress. A white border ran up the left side like a stripe. It went around the neckline and was accented with a black button, as though it held the wrapped side in place. “Hello, Aunt Birdie.”
She pecked me on the cheek and slid her cool hand into mine. “We need to talk.”
She pulled me toward the front of the store. I had learned the hard way that there was no point in fighting her.
“Trixie! Gingersnap!” I called.
Birdie pushed the door open and hustled me out onto the sidewalk. I held the door for the dogs.
“Holly, dear, I don’t want you getting any prescriptions filled at Heal! You drive down the mountain and over to a drugstore in Snowball if you need anything.” She frowned at me. “What are you getting a prescription for, anyway? Are you sick?” She felt my forehead. “Does your mother know about this? Honestly, child, I have to do everything for you.”
“The prescriptions are for a guest of the inn.” I wasn’t about to tell her he was a new friend of Oma’s. Aunt Birdie and Oma didn’t care for each other much. Birdie would surely turn information about Gustav into dreadful gossip.
“Thank heaven for that.”
“Does this have anything to do with a rumor about Bob?” I asked.
“So you do know.”
“Actually, I don’t.” But I felt certain that she would tell me.
“You know the man who was murdered over in the Shire?”
“Randall Donovan.”
“Yes, that’s the one. Bob murdered him.”
“And you know this because . . . ?”
“Holly, it’s all over Wagtail. Bob hushed everything up, but you know how small towns are. The truth always comes out. Back about four years ago, Bob filled a prescription written by one Dr. Randall Donovan for a girl with anorexia nervosa. Her parents were vacationing here, so her mother had the prescription filled right here at Heal! Well, don’t you know, it caused that poor girl’s heart to stop, and her parents sued Bob Lane for causing her death.”
“Wouldn’t Randall Donovan have been the one at fault for prescribing the medicine?”
“That’s the point, Holly. But Bob was sued too, and that’s a fact. So I don’t want you letting him fill any prescriptions for you. You hear me?”
But Bob didn’t do anything wrong. In a way it was sweet of her to be so concerned about me. But I feared that she was just repeating a rumor and there was either no truth to it at all or more to the story.
“Don’t you see the connection?” Aunt Birdie scowled at me. “You’re usually much sharper than this. Are you getting enough sleep? Bob blamed Randall for the lawsuit, and murdered him because he was so upset that the girl died from the medicine he dispensed.”
Assuming the story was true, I could see that Bob might have had reason to be very upset with Randall and distressed over the girl’s death. I would have to find out more about it, but from a reliable source. I tried to wrap up the conversation. “Thank you for your concern about my well-being, Aunt Birdie.”
She bestowed a smile upon me and reached out to touch my hair. “But there isn’t a reason in the world you can’t get a trim of this beautiful long hair of yours. Stop by the beauty parlor. A decent manicure with a nice ladylike pink polish is in order, too. I don’t want your mother to think I’m not looking after you.”
Thank heaven from inside Heal! Bob knocked on a window and waved a white bag at me.
“I need to dash back with that, Aunt Birdie. Excuse me.”
I left her standing on the sidewalk while I paid for Gustav’s prescriptions.
“Did Birdie tell you I murdered Randall?” asked Bob.
He’d caught me completely off guard. How do you answer a question like that? Or was it a statement of guilt? “You know the rumor mill in Wagtail.”
Bob looked me straight in the eyes. “I didn’t kill him. But I sure would have liked to. I slugged him pretty good, though. When Dave figures out who ended the life of that miserable scum, I’m going to shake his hand.”
He was usually so even-tempered and friendly! I hoped he hadn’t said that to Dave. Feeling just a little bit shaken by his anger, I abruptly turned to leave, and hurried out of the store with the dogs.
Thankfully, I didn’t see Birdie anywhere. But John and Laura were still gabbing and laughing.
No matter, I told myself. I barely knew the guy. Maybe he had nice eyes and seemed sincere, and his dog, Cooper, was a sweetheart, but I would manage just fine without them.
Trixie and Gingersnap ran ahead across the green, and I followed. We hopped into the golf cart and rolled by Zelda’s home. I slowed down and observed police busily coming and going through her side yard. I hoped she was holding up okay.
In a matter of minutes I parked at the inn and jogged to the sliding glass doors of the reception lobby. I heard voices in the office, and Huey bounded out to meet us.
I skirted behind the reception desk and held up the medicine bag as I entered the office. “I’m sorry it took so long. I was . . . detained.”
Oma and Zelda sat on the sofa with coffee and pastries on the coffee table in front of them. Gingersnap trotted straight to them and laid her head in Zelda’s lap. Not to be left out, Trixie jumped on the sofa, barely wedging in next to Zelda. It was as though they knew instantly that Zelda was in crisi
s.
Gustav held a coffee cup and saucer on his lap. At the sight of me, he placed them on the table. He gladly took the bag, tore it open, and immediately swallowed two capsules. I could see that he moved with stiffness. “Thank you, Holly.”
“I’m sorry for the delay.” I handed him his change.
“One can never anticipate murder.”
“The Ben brought Zelda to be with us.” Oma patted Zelda’s hand.
Zelda’s eyes were huge with terror. “They already have a search warrant for my house! Ben’s there taking care of everything. He thought dogs would be in the way, so he left Huey here. I’m sorry, Holly. I never was very fond of Ben, but I’m so glad that he’s helping me now.”
“Me, too. Has anyone seen Nessie?”
Oma gasped. “Holly! I do not believe that Nessie murdered Hank. She is a lovely woman.”
“Then who?” I asked.
Zelda gazed around at us. “Half of Wagtail! He probably owed money that I didn’t even know about. There’s no telling what underhanded things he did to people.”
“That casts a rather broad net.” Gustav helped himself to a cinnamon bun. “Do they know how he was killed?”
“He was so bloody!” Zelda buried her face in her hands.
I nodded in confirmation.
“I don’t know why I can’t stop crying. I hated him,” Zelda blurted. “Hated! He could be so sweet, but he left me with mounds of debt that I haven’t been able to pay off yet. Maybe I never will! I’ve been furious with him for a long time, and now I’m crying because he’s dead!”
In a very gentle tone, Oma said, “Perhaps you never wished him such a terrible end.”
Zelda sniffled. “Don’t be so sure about that. When I was struggling and angry I wished some pretty awful things on him.” Her face contorted with sorrow. “But you’re right, Oma. No matter what ugly things I said about Hank, I never would have wanted this.”
Gustav watched Zelda, showing no emotion. “What about the young man with whom you went out yesterday evening? Maybe he encountered your Hank and a fight ensued.”