"No, but we want to stop by the library." She looked at the plate on the desk. "Oh, I see you've got the Cinnamon Grahams. I like these." Connie helped herself to the plate of crackers.
"Oh, I guess they're all right," Miss Mayme admitted grudgingly. "But I'd really rather have something chocolate, or just sinfully gooey."
"You'll live." The statement came out flat with no sympathy. Miss Minnie looked on Miss Mayme's goo and chocolate cravings as an unhealthy addiction. She was as thin as her sister was wide. "And you'll be glad to have a few calories left to splurge on at dinner."
All of them enjoyed catching up on each other's news along with all the city of Maryvale news and rumors. Connie and Harry felt rested after their coffee break and walked to the library without moving their car, enjoying the warm-spring-early-summer weather. They paused to admire the abundance of azalea buds bursting through the wrought iron fencing as they approached the ante-bellum two story library building.
As they entered the cool quiet of the library, they nearly ran into Margaret Avery, Muriel Davis's sister, coming out. Margaret was at five feet five inches, a bit taller than Muriel, her younger sister, and a bit thin. She looked intelligent, well groomed, and glad to see them.
"Margaret! Teachers still love to read, I see," Connie greeted her and glanced at the books Margaret held. Her books were mystery novels.
Margaret smiled back, looking pleased. "Yes, I've been amazed ever since I was old enough to join a library, that there are enough books to satisfy all of us plot-hungry readers."
She balanced her books and held out her hand to Harry. "Nice to see you, Harietta."
Harry winced at her name. "Thank you," Harry smiled. "I'm enjoying my visit. I hope your sister, Muriel is feeling better?"
Silence was instant and Margaret looked stricken for a fraction of a second. "Yes." Margaret said hurriedly. "Yes, thank you, she is."
Margaret clutched her books to her chest as if afraid Harry might grab one and hurried out.
"Well! Did I cause that?" Harry looked after the hurrying woman.
"I don't think so. I don't know what was wrong." Connie shrugged. "Maybe she remembered something she had to do, or something she had to get on her lunch hour. I don't think they have very long for lunch."
She touched Harry's shoulder. "Come on, let's find us a couple of good mysteries."
Harry stood looking after Margaret a moment before following Connie to the mystery section.
Chapter 4
When Cas got home that evening, he kissed Connie as he came into the kitchen and glanced through the door at Harry.
"You girls have a good day out? I saw you going toward the flower shop with that Hunting For a Sale gleam in your eyes."
"Yes, we managed to get a couple of bargains and some books from the library."
"Sure did. I needed some books to read." Harry added as she joined them. "Mysteries, of course."
She tilted her head, giving Cas a look. "But we may have a better plot than fiction to unravel right here at home."
"You mean our Lady in the Lake?" Cas shook his head. "We don't even know who she is yet. Or if there's a plot to unravel. But we're still asking around. We'll find out about her. And of course, Clint hasn't gotten to do the autopsy yet."
Harry looked at him over the top of her reading glasses before slowly taking them off. She looked serious. "No, I mean, a plot about people we do know."
Cas looked at her, also looking serious. She had his attention and continued. "As in the mystery of where is Muriel Davis?"
Cas and Connie's eyes met in surprise before he turned back to Harry. "Mystery? Do you know something I don't?" Cas teased his favorite aunt.
"No, that's just it. I don't know anything, Cas. I think you said Tim doesn't know what Muriel's problem is either, and she's his employee. I also heard you say he hasn't been able to contact her by phone."
Cas held up his hand, "Time out. I need to get out of these boots."
Connie took up their food and finished putting everything on the table with Harry's help.
"Now." Cas unfolded his napkin as he sat down at the head of the table. "I don't believe we need to worry about Muriel, Harry."
"Maybe not. I hope not." Harry laughed. "Maybe I'm just one of those people who go around thinking by the pricking of my thumbs, something evil this way comes. They always think the worst." She shrugged. "But it seems darned strange to me."
Their discussion continued through dinner and they went to have coffee in the living room. Harry placed her library book by Connie's on a bookshelf before sitting down.
Cas and Connie both listened as Harry pointed out what looked like clues to her.
"Tim's not knowing in the first place what's wrong with Muriel and not being able to contact her, that's two things right there. Then there's the fact she's never absent from work and has always been healthy. So, why doesn't anybody who should know where she is, or how she is, or what's wrong with her, know what's wrong or when she will be back to work, or face it, Cas, anything else?" Harry put her glasses back on. "What did she say when she left work?"
"I asked Tim. He wasn't there when she left." Cas tried to explain.
"Aha! Left in a hurry, did she?" Harry was getting excited, making her point that this needed investigation. Cas seemed to be just as determined not to see anything wrong.
Connie stifled her laughter, watching Harry interrogate the Pine County Sheriff. It was better than television, at least the summer re-runs.
Cas squirmed, humoring his favorite aunt, who had as liberal a supply of nosy genes as he did.
"That doesn't give us a plot to unravel," Cas insisted. "Muriel is just off work, not missing."
"Maybe not officially—yet." Harry took off her glasses again, still not satisfied. "But we saw her sister, Margaret, when we went by the library today and when I asked her about Muriel she looked funny and didn't answer. She just clutched her books and turned and left in a hurry. She practically ran out of the library."
"She was probably in a hurry to get back to the school. And Margaret's her sister," Cas patiently pointed out.
"That's my point here, Cas. If there was any reason to worry about Muriel being gone, Margaret would know about it." Harry reasoned. "And why would she run away from talking about it? About what's wrong with Muriel, I mean, if there is something wrong?"
When Cas hesitated, Connie came to his rescue and pointed out, "But if there's nothing to be concerned about, Margaret's not concerned and was just going on about her business. We don't know she was upset about anything, just because she was in a hurry. Schoolteachers have so many things to do now, she was probably pressed for time. And as you pointed out, Harry," Connie stressed. "Margaret would know if there was something wrong."
"I don't doubt that she'd know." Harry insisted. "But that doesn't mean she'd tell us. And if not, why not?"
Cas laughed. "You've got me there." He made a comical face like he smelled a bad odor. "Maybe Muriel's got something embarrassing like the Seven Year Itch or got a ringworm from the cat?"
"Cas Larkin," Harry scowled. "Do you mean all this doesn't seem strange to you?"
"No." The Larkins had almost as many stubborn genes as they had nosy genes and it came out flat. He did temper it with an opinion.
"Absenteeism runs rampant in any business. And even healthy people get sick sometimes. Why should it seem so strange to you?"
"Muriel is there at work more often than any county employee except her conscientious boss, Tim, that's why. She's healthy as a horse, and I do believe she'd report to work with a broken arm." Harry's eyes met his. "You did once, remember?"
Cas nodded with a glance at Connie. Both of them remembered what a miserable patient he'd been with that broken arm and a knot on his hard head. Connie smiled, remembering he'd also refused to wear a neck brace.
"Not only that," Harry continued. "Muriel is friendly, even friendlier than Margaret. Of course, I always put that down to Margaret being a sc
hoolteacher. So, why can't Tim get her on the phone?"
Not getting any answers or guesses, Harry shook her head, thinking hard, eyes on the carpet at her feet. "No," she shook her head, unconvinced. "There's definitely something wrong there."
She looked up. "All that good health, her leaving suddenly, Tim not being able to make contact, that's bad enough. But what really makes me wonder is Margaret's reaction when I asked about Muriel. She didn't really say anything. Just looked funny and left abruptly. That's not like Margaret, either. These were strange actions from both of them. Completely out of character. Something about this just doesn't feel right to me."
"Harry, remember that time you referred to when I got run off the road? Everybody that knows us seems to remember that." He looked at Connie. "I'm still trying to live down what a miserable patient I was."
Harry rolled her eyes, "How could any of us forget?"
"Was I my usual good-natured self? I gimped around, had to, after all those dope runners, regardless of my condition, and try to solve the case too. I'll have to admit I was not the most pleasant person on the planet to live with." He ignored Connie's stifled laugh. "Maybe Muriel or whatever Muriel's got is affecting Margaret too."
"It just seemed odd to me, the way Margaret acted when I asked about Muriel."
Cas shrugged. "Muriel is just as you said, healthy as a horse. So think about that. Us healthy horses aren't used to being under the weather. We don't make good patients because we haven't had any practice. As far as Margaret's hasty departure from the library today, she was probably just in a hurry to get her books and get back to school before her lunch hour or study hall, or whatever it was, was up."
"Well, I guess you could be right and there isn't anything to worry about." Harry conceded. "You're the professional here. It's only that putting all that together, there's just so much of it to consider. It seems to me that people around Muriel and the closest to her are acting mighty out of character right now for some reason."
Harry sighed. She sat back and relaxed. "But I guess if there really is something wrong we'll hear about it somehow, or Muriel will be back to work soon. Then we'll know for sure."
"Don't make any investigation plans till I get back." Connie said as she got up. "The sink is calling me."
"Goodness, I forgot all about the dishes. I'll help you." Harry followed Connie to the kitchen, Cas left the women to the dishes and went up to his bedroom to get comfortable. He closed the door softly and picked up the phone to call his office.
Rhodes Cromwell was on duty and answered promptly. With an eye on the door, Cas spoke softly.
"Rhodes, when was the last time you saw Muriel Davis?"
By the time they finished their brief conversation, Rhodes had confidential instructions to look up Muriel's motor vehicle record and keep an eye out for both Muriel and her car.
The next day, Cas stopped in to talk to Judge Tim Carpenter at his office.
It was obvious Muriel wasn't there before he looked over at her empty desk chair. Tim was sitting in a paper valley of work and writing out the correspondence he needed by priority.
Cas looked around. The help Tim had at the moment didn't look too helpful to him. Two high school students were casting furtive looks at him as they tried to look busy and didn't seem to be accomplishing much.
Tim didn't even look glad to see him, but he motioned Cas to a chair. That was out of character for Tim, too, Cas admitted to himself as he sat down. He pictured Harry's worried face and started framing questions to ask.
He eyed all the work and the things Tim had already written out. "Your secretary still among the missing?"
Cas was about as subtle as a kick in the teeth. Friends had gotten used to it. It saved a lot of time.
"Can't you tell?"
Sarcasm too was a symptom of something wrong in a personality as friendly as Tim Carpenter's and was duly noted by Cas as he got comfortable. He took a deep breath.
"You'd think there was an anti-friendly virus of some kind going around." Cas made a mental note. If Harry were here, she would have spotted it instantly in Tim and stifled a grin.
"Don't guess you ever got up the nerve to ask Muriel what's wrong with her or when she's coming back?"
"Yes!" Tim was emphatic, also out of character.
"As a matter of fact, I did. But I didn't get anywhere. I finally got to talk to Margaret. She mumbled something about laryngitis and said she'd have Muriel call me when it was better."
Cas gestured toward the office door and the two girls. "Which one of these Rhodes Scholars were here when Muriel went home?"
Cas openly eyed the two students, who were keeping a nervous eye on him already. Both of them looked braced for him to ask for something they weren't trained to do or didn't know how to look up.
"Millie. It was Millie who told me Muriel had to leave."
"Had to leave," Cas noted. "Not that she didn't feel good or had broken a nail or anything? Just, that she had to leave?"
Tim sighed, looking at his stack of work. "You want to talk to Millie?"
"Yes. But let's not scare her, just ask her to step in a few minutes."
"Okay." Tim raised his voice. "Millie?" Tim motioned for her and Millie came, looking worried.
"This is Millie Johnson, Cas." Cas nodded. "Sheriff Larkin would like to speak to you, please?"
Millie nodded, "Yes, sir?"
Tim motioned her to a chair. Millie was neat, pretty, polite to her elders, and new enough to the work force to be about an eyelash under useless unless constantly supervised. She pulled a desk chair up and sat on the edge of it, waiting.
"Just so you'll know, I don't suspect you of any heinous crime or anything, Millie." Cas smiled at the nervous teenager.
Millie giggled, relaxing a bit.
"I'm just curious about the day Muriel Davis went home sick. I guess she was sick, did she say she was?"
"No, sir." That was definite. Nothing else was forthcoming.
"Didn't say she was sick. Okay. Did she say why she had to leave? Had to pick up someone? Left the crockpot on high? Anything?"
Millie relaxed a little more and smiled at that. Progress with Millie was like progress on a road full of potholes. Slow and uncomfortable.
Cas pressed, "Do you have any idea why she did leave?"
Millie hesitated only a little this time. "I thought she just might be a little upset or something."
"Upset or something. Did someone come in and threaten her? That's the adventure in living in a small town, Millie. Lots of excitement and help with running the government and government offices too, from the local population. Did somebody give her unwanted advice?"
Millie giggled again. She shook her head.
"So, what do you think might have upset her?" Cas pressed for answers, crossing his legs. He sat silent and comfortable, as if he'd stay till he got some answers.
Finally, Millie volunteered, "I think it was the phone call."
"Someone called her?"
Millie shook her head. "No, sir. I think she was the one who called."
"Who was it she called?"
"I don't know. But, I know she was upset because she never raises her voice."
Cas pricked up his ears. "She raised her voice?"
Millie nodded, positive. "She was upset."
"Did she mention any names?"
"No."
"Did you hear what she was talking about?"
Millie looked uncomfortable. "I was filing, but I tried not to listen."
"No one's going to blame you for what you overheard. Tell me everything you heard, the best you can remember."
"I heard her say something about bodies, that got my attention." Millie blushed, "I like cozy mysteries, I guess is why I noticed when she said that."
Cas nodded encouragement. "She lowered her voice and she said something about conflict, so I wondered if there had been a fight or something," Millie continued. "You know, maybe in one of Miss Margaret's classes or something."
Cas nodded. "Did she mention her sister, Margaret, or any names at all?"
"No, sir. But she was talking fast and keeping her voice low, and I was looking at my file drawer and trying not to listen. The only other thing I heard was just before she hung up. A little louder, she said, 'You'd better not, I won't have it!' and then she said something about bodies and something else too low for me to hear and hung up. I didn't turn around or act like I noticed. It wasn't long after that she looked in Judge Carpenter's office, and he wasn't there. Then she came to me and told me she had to leave."
"You sure she said bodies, it wasn't just a word that might have sounded like body or bodies?"
"No, because somewhere in there I heard buried, too."
"Buried, as in buried bodies?"
"Yes, sir."
"When she left, did she look like she was still upset, or maybe frightened?"
Millie thought about it. "I think, upset, more than frightened."
"All right. Thank you, Millie. This is not official or anything, so don't say anything about it."
"No, sir. I won't."
Millie went back to work. Tim looked up from what he was writing and raised his eyebrows.
Cas shrugged and didn't make any guesses. He stood up to leave. "Try not to get writers' cramp, you'll live. I've got to go back and see what's ready to spring on me from my own desk."
As he came into the Pine County Sheriff's office, Gladys handed him a call memo.
It was from Clint. He sat down at his desk and had started to return the call when he heard Rhodes come in. He put the phone down and waited.
Rhodes pushed the office door closed behind him and sat down in the chair closest to the desk. "About that little unofficial project," he glanced at the door.
Cas nodded, "Any sign of the vehicle? Or Muriel?"
"No. Went by the house too, no vehicle in the two car garage. Of course Margaret Avery was at school." He frowned." Checking as I was, after that I noticed she has taken to shutting the overhead door on the two-car garage, too."
"Let's not panic yet. Give it a couple more days for the car or Muriel to show up somewhere before we really get nosy. Somehow, I can't see Muriel in any sort of business involving a fight and bodies."
The Mardi Gras Murder Page 3