She patted Hannah's arm, looking tearfully at the blood on her clothes and hands. "We'll get it all straightened out. We tried, Hannah. We did all we could."
The black van the police must have summoned came up and had stopped but now it backed toward them. It moved slowly and eased closer like impending doom. They watched, fascinated, still caught in the nightmare as it stopped a couple of feet from where they stood together.
The driver and another of the policemen opened the double doors in the back of the van. The inside of the van was empty except for a couple of benches along the sides and an overhead light.
Nobody spoke. The policeman who was doing the brief report closed his notes and mounted his horse to leave.
Hannah was still staring after the mounted policeman when she heard, "Okay. Up, ladies."
The policeman gestured and the three of them stood together as they were cuffed and helped into the back of the van. It was awkward getting in with their hands behind them.
The doors were closed and the small light above was enough to show they were alone with no policeman with them. They were sitting on the built-in benches, and Elle was there with them.
"Elle!" Gina's tears ran down her face again, leaving little trails on her bloody cheeks.
"I wondered where you were." Hannah spoke through dry lips, her voice shaking.
"I was always here," Elle spoke gently. "You just couldn't see me. And that alligator wrestler is nowhere around. I did a little looking for him from the rooftops as soon as we saw the police coming. None of those policemen even saw him." She took a deep breath. "I can guarantee he's long gone. It looks bad for us."
"If you can't find him, maybe Benjamin can," Hannah suggested hopefully, remembering their fabulous breakfast and the carriage rides. "Isn't there something you can do, Elle?"
Gina bent her head and wiped her eyes on the shoulder of her blouse, struggling with her cuffed hands and looked hopefully at Elle.
"No, there isn't." Elle said sadly, eyeing the blood all over Hannah and their hands cuffed behind them. "I can't. But, maybe I know someone who can."
Chapter 21
Harry looked up from her mystery book. A car had turned into the Larkin's long driveway. Connie was outside pulling weeds and counting buds and blossoms, she would take care of it. She went on with her reading.
In only a few minutes the car backed out. Harry wondered briefly what they were selling or taking up donations for. She couldn't get her mind back on her book and got up to meet Connie as she came in.
"Thought for a minute there we had company."
"No, she's good company but didn't have time for visiting," Connie explained. "That was Mary, Rhodes Cromwell's wife. She's on the way to pick up one of her nieces at school and brought this envelope for Cas."
"Mary? Envelope for Cas? If he's deputizing the neighbors he must be as bad off as I'm always accusing him of being."
Harry looked at the envelope. It was a brown letter size one and Connie was looking at it too. "It's not sealed, just the little tab fastened."
"Well, are you going to open that envelope or not?"
Connie looked at it like it was some kind of lab specimen. "She didn't say not to."
"Did she say what it was about?"
"No, she was in a hurry and I just said I'd give it to him."
"Did Cas tell you he was expecting something from Mary and say not to open it?"
"No." Connie shook her head. She felt the envelope like it was a mysterious Christmas present. "He didn't mention it. Feels like papers, maybe a report of some kind? But it's lumpy. What do you suppose it is?"
"Oh, just give it here. I'll take the blame."
Connie raised it above her head. "No, I'll do it. It surely can't be all that important or he'd have mentioned it, wouldn't he?"
They sat down on the couch. Connie opened the large envelope and carefully drew out a letter and some printed pages.
"It's a note from a friend of Mary's. This is their garden club stationary they had made." She read a little. "It's about mushrooms."
"Mushrooms?" Harry glanced at the envelope, pushed her glasses farther up her nose to admire the stationary and leaned closer to read along with Connie.
"Hmm. Nice friendly little note. It's about mushrooms."
Harry looked, shook her head. "Guess so, I never was brave enough to pick any wild ones, myself. I let the grocery store take care of that for me the few times I used them for a special gravy. There's no problem about finding them if you haves a recipe that calls for them."
"Yes. I'm not going to read the rest of this printed matter. I'll just put it back in the envelope and give him a call. See if he wants us to bring it to him."
"And see if he wants to tell us about it," Harry laughed.
"Yeah, that too," Connie admitted. She was already on her way to the wall phone in the kitchen.
Harry went back to finish the page she was on in her book and find a bookmark. She put her book down again when Connie came back from talking to Cas and waited for a report.
"Guess what?" Connie rolled her eyes. "He said yes, to bring it to him. You want to go?"
"Sure. You think I can get my mind back on these printed clues when we've got plots right here to unravel? Say, by the way, is Muriel a member of the garden club? Maybe this has got something to do with her disappearance."
"No. At least I don't think she is. And it would be just like him not to tell us about it if she is."
Harry thought that over. "Maybe he will. He said once he'd rather just tell us things than let our imaginations loose to conjure up worse things."
Connie laughed and drove faster.
They were treated royally at the Pine County Sheriff's Office. Gladys had just made a fresh pot of coffee and said Rhodes was on his way in with a bakery box.
"Wonderful." Connie gave Cas a kiss on the cheek. "This envelope I have is from his wife, Mary. It's about mushrooms." She raised her eyebrows, eyes asking questions.
"Mushrooms?" Gladys asked too, pausing on the way back to her desk. She glanced at Cas who had slid the printed pages part way out of the envelope and read a bit before replacing them.
"What's it about?" Harry shattered the silence bluntly.
"About four pages," Cas told her just as bluntly.
After that verbal stop sign they had coffee, doughnuts, and a good visit and that was all. No more information of any kind was forthcoming.
Cas walked out to the car with Connie and Harry, leaving the mysterious envelope on the desk in his office.
Back inside, he beckoned to Rhodes and closed the door after him.
"Your wife, Mary, must have thought it was convenient to just take her friend's note about mushrooms by our house while she was out." He chuckled. "No doubt Connie and Harry are eaten up with curiosity to know what this is about. They're probably trying to figure out if it has something to do with the drowning victim or Muriel's disappearance."
"Yep, their antennaes were up." Rhodes grinned. "That wasn't hard to tell, was it? Here's their justification for peeping on top, Cas. This note is on the garden club's note paper they had made for Christmas."
"Yeah, I see. Pretty." Cas took it and read the note from Mary's friend.
"The true morel is a much-prized mushroom found in southern Indiana and much of the Midwest, so I'd expect Tennessee to have morels as well. But the false morel can make you sick. They look a lot alike. As I remember, the false one is solid in the middle. And it doesn't always stand as straight as the true one."
Rhodes nodded. "Back in the ice age when I wasn't safely married and didn't know better, I ate one on a hiking trip and was so sick I was miserable. I don't remember disorientation but I don't know what all else it might do to your insides."
"If you combine the mushroom's effect with mild dehydration, you're almost certain to get disorientation," Cas read on. "The worse the dehydration, from weather conditions or from vomiting or diarrhea or both, the worse the disorientation. Hope
this and the printed pages from the Web Page helps."
"She signed it Sharon Williams, she's a nurse." Cas carefully pulled out the printed pages. "This is part of the web page she printed out for us. It's from On the Trail of the Elusive Morel. You want to read it?"
"No, you go ahead. The nurse's opinion is good enough for me."
"Yes," Cas finished the neat pages and laid them on the desk. "Me too, the note sums it up well. But I'm glad to have this printed material for our files. This confirms what I've been wondering about ever since we found those mushrooms, I mean, the look alike mushrooms."
"Me, too. And it's a relief," Rhodes sat back in his chair. "It's always bad, the death of someone like Julia, so young. But at least it looks like now we don't have a murderer to catch. This explains the slight bruise a little above the waistline too, don't you think?"
"Yes. She must have been bent over the side, throwing up and the canoe tipped. Probably how she lost the oar or oars too if she hadn't already. I'll get everything together and go talk to Clint. See what we've got, what he thinks."
Rhodes left and Cas called the coroners office to tell Clint he was coming.
Chapter 22
At the New Orleans police station Hannah, Gina, and Flora huddled in a miserable little knot as all the information was taken down.
Hannah was first, the personnel person looking at her like she was a suicide bomber with a chest full of explosives strapped to her. She ground her teeth together to keep them from chattering. Flora was closest to her and held out her hand, gripping her arm. Hannah looked like she was going to faint.
Warmth seemed to flow from Flora's hand. Hannah's teeth stopped chattering when she felt the warmth from Flora's hand. She found it hard to believe she was accused of murder, that her own hand had actually been on the bloody murder weapon.
She gave Flora a shaky smile and crossed her arms across her breast. Her teeth started chattering again as the personnel person left and someone else took over.
There wasn't any conversation except questions and no one looked on them as anything but criminals entering the system set up to deal with them. They were herded along without time to think. All of them were stripped of their personal possessions, showered, questioned about their identity, origin, and other things Hannah had trouble recalling later. Those were things Hannah knew were important but she couldn't even recall what all was asked or what she had told them by the time she was put in a tiny cell. She still had her arms crossed across her breast as if a self hug would protect her or do her any good or keep her warm. She was dressed in some kind of one-size-fits-nobody jump suit.
There were other small cells beside and across from the one Hannah was in but they were empty and she couldn't see Flora, Gina, or Elle.
Miserable, Hannah simply stood there just inside the cell with her wet hair dripping on the jump suit, until Elle appeared beside her and put her arms around her.
Hannah burst into tears and hugged back.
"There, there, hang on. We'll get this figured out." Elle kissed her forehead and put her warm cheek against Hannah's cold one. She led her to the narrow bunk to sit down.
"Where are Gina and Flora? If they're going to accuse me of murder, why don't they let the rest of you go?"
"They've got Gina and Flora listed as accomplices, and they don't seem to know about me. And they can't see me," she added.
"Oh," Hope lit Hannah's face. "Maybe you can fix it so they don't see Gina and Flora too?"
"You're not thinking straight, Hannah," Elle patted her hand. "It's too late for that. But we all saw that man named Jack. There are three witnesses to the fact that he slashed that woman with that sugar cane machete and killed her."
"I remember the mounted policeman saying the victim was stabbed, slashed with the knife, and there were three attackers involved. Three attackers. He thinks that's us, Elle! I heard one of them tell one of the others the motive was probably robbery. If they're going to keep all of us, are they going to keep us separated?"
"They think so. Soon as that policeman we saw in the passageway goes back through that door at the end of the hall, I'll bring Gina and Flora to us so we can talk. There he goes now."
A uniformed policeman passed by closing a heavy metal door behind him.
Elle waved her arm as if inviting someone in. Suddenly they, Gina and flora were together in another place.
Gina quickly threw her arms around Hannah.
All of them reached out to touch each other as if it would help them stay together as they had held onto each other in the parade crowd.
"I guess they're going to keep us apart to question us separately," Flora guessed.
"That's no problem," Gina held Hannah's arm. "We all saw Jack and we saw what happened. There are three of us who know what happened and who killed that poor woman."
"But I picked up the machete." Hannah shook her head. "I know that's bad, I don't know why I did it. But, surely, Jack's prints will be on it too?"
"That's right," Elle nodded vigorously. "Bound to be. And those prints of his and three witnesses, are strong testimony. We've just got to be strong and tell the truth when we get a chance."
Hannah simply stood listening, tears running down her face.
"I told you I might know someone who can help us. I want you to meet my mother." All of them looked at her.
"Your mother?" Gina looked puzzled.
"Yes." Elle looked at the door and there was a click as if it locked itself. There were no noises outside the door to indicate anyone approaching to come in but locking it made them feel safer for some reason.
"Just stand still a minute." Elle raised both hands, palms facing out and spoke aloud.
"Mother, Mother, come to me, your face I long to see!"
They waited only a few seconds in what felt like a silent vacuum. Then on a breath of flowery scent, a woman appeared. She looked like Elle except for her elegant clothes and her perfect upswept hairdo.
"This is my Mother, Elfrieda Major. Hannah—Gina."
They nodded and Elfrieda Major acknowledged them. "Hannah. Gina." She looked at Flora who had stepped back. "Flora."
"Elfrieda." Flora acknowledged formally without expression.
Elfrieda turned her attention to her daughter. "I gather by your summons, you need a little more help than Benjamin can give you," Elfrieda Major prompted, looking disdainfully around.
"Why are you in this—this place?"
"We witnessed a murder, Mother, and the police think we did it."
"Did you?"
Chapter 23
The first person Cas saw when he got to the coroner's office was Clint. He was standing in the hall with a mask on and beckoned him back.
"Give me just a second," Clint said through his mask.
Cas nodded, sneaking a look at the body on the table.
Clint finished putting something from the body's lungs in a dish and covered the body. He nodded his head toward the door, tossing the mask on a cabinet.
Cas followed him to the small break-room, wondering if his stomach could handle coffee yet. "Floater?" he asked.
"Yes. One of the professional fishermen found him. Looks like just an accidental drowning at the moment. Is it our not-so-accidental drowning you wanted to talk about?"
"It is. We're going to have to reclassify it."
Clint sat down, a dubious look on his face as Cas put the envelope on the table.
It didn't take long for Cas to give him all the information and lay out what the known facts now indicated to him.
After looking at the papers for himself and listening, Clint let out a breath and nodded. "I'm glad you got both the local and the official thoughts and facts on the mushrooms. This would explain the very slight bruise, too. She was bent over the side, sick as a horse. Maybe she tried to grab at an oar is how she fell in?"
Cas nodded. "Canoes are notoriously easy to tip over. Here's what I think happened. Gretchen brought Julia to the cabin and got her settled the
n went back to Rainbow Cove. She was to join her soon as she took care of some personal business in Rainbow Cove. After she left, Julia enjoyed looking around, feeding the birds, and discovered the boathouse. She also walked around the wooded area and found the mushrooms, or what she thought was mushrooms. She made herself a casserole and ate some if it then decided to take that canoe out on the lake. By the time the mushrooms or look alike mushrooms began making her sick, it was late, which would explain no one being around to see her. Maybe she didn't start back immediately, not until she began to throw up, I don't know. But on her way back she was sick in her stomach,vomiting and disoriented. She hung over the side, which would explain the slight bruising on the mid-section, and the canoe tipped over. That's when she lost the oars if she still had them. Sick and disoriented she must have just struck out swimming for the shore and came up under the pier. Knowing she was almost to shore she tried desperately to surface and breathe but couldn't get out from under the pier. My guess is it had been dark long enough that there was nobody around to see her or hear her if she had the strength to call out. Nearly back safely, she didn't know she was under the pier. When her head hit the underside of the pier she panicked, tried desperately to surface to breathe. She fought the water and bruised her head on the underside of the pier as the slivers of wood proved. But as you saw when you looked at her lungs, she didn't make it. Then the long sleeved blouse she had put on snagged on the piling under the pier as her body sank, and no one found her till the next morning."
Clint nodded. "Yes, that's what I thought, too, when you showed me this report on the mushrooms. She panicked when she hit the underside of the pier. The slivers told us that was where she died. The oars probably were lost when the canoe tipped. The current and probably some boat traffic too, took them away and the canoe ended up at a neighbor's place. That about it?"
Cas nodded. "What was pointing me to foul play is this was a smart girl and a strong swimmer. But she was strangled, disoriented, and couldn't get out from under the pier to get a breath."
The Mardi Gras Murder Page 13