She watched as Miles staggered by, lugging a couple of chairs.
“We played golf sometimes on Saturdays,” said Rowan. “I’m not much of a golfer, but Tallulah was a very forgiving friend. I’d never have laid a hand on her. Whatever I was doing was very boring. I was likely working in my office, doing payroll, budgeting, that type of thing. If it was a long stretch of desk work, I probably was on my treadmill. I have one of those space-saving ones that folds up in a jiffy when you don’t need it out. I love that thing.”
He continued, “You know, I couldn’t really see Martin killing Lillian, either, now that you mention it. Extorting money? Yes. Stealing money? Perhaps. But murdering two people? I just can’t imagine it. I mean, poor Tallulah! And of course I feel badly that Lillian was taken before her time. Her flowers were always lovely and she always did an exceptional job at everything she set out to do. But I didn’t like the way she treated her family or her staff . . . or me.”
Rowan glanced across the room and shuddered. “Heavens! Erma Sherman is heading this way. We should both make haste.” But before he scurried away, he held her arm and said, “Any word on that business profile yet?”
Myrtle said, “Rats. I meant to ask Sloan about it yesterday and then my day got away from me. Don’t worry; I’m writing the story and Sloan always lets me publish whatever I want to.”
Rowan beamed. “Perfect. I just had new headshots done and I’m sure they’d look amazing in the piece! Better run.” He scurried away.
Myrtle scurried away too, catching up with Miles who was now moving a lectern to a different location. He gave her a sour look.
Myrtle walked a bit closer to Tippy, who was frowning at a list she was holding.
“Everything seems to be going like clockwork,” said Myrtle.
Tippy said absently, “Is it? I was going to say exactly the opposite.” She sighed. “At least the food and flowers are basically set up. But then, everything is going quicker without Rowan and Lillian arguing.” Her eyes opened wide and she clapped her hand over her mouth. “What an awful thing to say. Pardon me.”
Myrtle said, “It’s fine, Tippy. I understood the two of them didn’t get along well. Had you seen them arguing lately?”
Tippy removed the hand from her mouth and sighed. “Just last week, not long before Lillian’s death. Those two were like oil and water.”
Myrtle made a show of gaping at the clock on the wall. “Oh, goodness! Is that the time? Tippy, I’m going to have to borrow Miles. I’d forgotten I’d offered to help Elaine with something and I need him to drive me over.”
Tippy pursed her lips. “But you’ll be back in time for the auction?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said Myrtle. She waved over at Miles who hurried to join her as she walked out of the building.
“I hoped to be rescued a little earlier than that,” said Miles.
“Better late than never,” said Myrtle. “I did just hear something interesting from Tippy.”
Miles said, “I hope it was high praise for my ability to move furniture around while wearing a suit.”
“No, although I’m positive she was thinking it, Miles. No, Tippy said Rowan and Lillian had been arguing shortly before her death.”
Miles said, “We’d heard earlier that they didn’t get along. Sounds like more of the same.”
“Except Rowan told us he hadn’t seen Lillian for weeks,” said Myrtle.
Miles looked impressed. “Good point. But then, Rowan seems clever enough to try to cover up the fact he had an argument with someone who soon became a murder victim.”
They reached the car and Miles fumbled in his pocket for the keys. Myrtle said, “Now we need to figure out how to kill the next hour.”
“While all dressed up,” said Miles, looking down at his suit.
“We could go to the diner,” said Myrtle.
Miles said, “It will look as if we’ve escaped from prom.”
Myrtle shrugged. “If anyone asks, we can direct them to the silent auction. We’ll be advertisements for the event.”
“Won’t whatever Rowan’s cooking be a lot better than eating pimento cheese chili dogs at Bo’s Diner?”
Myrtle said, “Who says we can’t have both?”
Miles reached in his pocket and pulled out an antacid. “I had a feeling I should keep these handy.”
A little over an hour later, they returned to the silent auction. Miles raised his eyebrows. “There are actually a lot of people here.”
“Of course! People like to win things,” said Myrtle.
Miles’s eyebrows drew together as he looked over the baskets. “They actually are using Lillian’s donation?” He looked somewhat horrified.
Myrtle studied the basket and said in a hushed voice, “It’s not as if the feeding station is there. Nothing else was touched and obviously the family didn’t want the stuff. I guess Tippy must have asked Martin and Annie what they wanted to do with it. I’m sure they just wanted it out of the way—one less thing they’d have to sort through.”
By the end of the evening, Myrtle was feeling tired and grumpy and ready to go home. She’d had to avoid Erma Sherman five or six times and always by the skin of her teeth. The food had been very good, but she’d been a bit too enthusiastic in her ordering at the diner and was now totally stuffed. Miles was looking drowsy again and she wanted to escape from the auction before her driver was too sleepy to get her home safely. The only good part of the evening was her donation of the downtown Bradley drawing had sold.
She turned and saw Bianca beside her, giving her a shy smile.
“Goodness,” said Myrtle. “I thought you’d be long gone.”
“Oh, I just came back to pick up the arrangements after the auction wraps up. Tippy wanted to donate them to the retirement home, so I’m going to drop them by there.”
Myrtle said, “That’s a good idea.” She paused as Bianca was still standing there and tried to think of something to say. She finally settled on: “The flowers looked lovely.”
Bianca beamed at her. “Thanks! It all went super-well, didn’t it? I think Lillian would have been so pleased. Not just because of all the compliments on the flowers, but because her basket ended up selling so well. I mean, especially considering how part of the basket was used.” Bianca shivered. “Anyway, it all ended up well. I thought Lillian had gone a little crazy picking a dog basket to donate, since she didn’t have pets, but it worked out really well.”
Myrtle snorted. “Well, Erma Sherman put together a sports basket.” They glanced at the decidedly non-athletic Erma. “I’m fairly certain Erma never played a sport in her life unless you count jump rope.”
Bianca said, “I’m sure you’re right. Well, I’d better run.”
“Your son . . . does he have a sitter?” asked Myrtle.
“Oh, I’ve brought Tim here with me. He’s playing on my phone in the office area. So I’m hoping the event wraps up soon so I can take him home.”
Myrtle said, “I’d go ahead and start taking the floral arrangements. Then people may get the hint.”
Myrtle watched thoughtfully as Bianca walked away. Bianca turned and gave Myrtle a wave, a wave that faltered slightly as she saw Myrtle’s narrowed eyes.
Miles sidled up to her. “You do realize you’re giving everyone death glares.”
“Am I? I was just thinking,” said Myrtle absently.
“Well, your thinking process looks decidedly hostile.” He looked closer at her. “What on earth is it, Myrtle?”
“I don’t know. I just have all sorts of things going through my head.” She paused. “Why don’t you come back with me for a while? We can work on crossword puzzles and maybe I’ll figure out what’s on my mind.”
Miles looked glumly at his watch. “I was going to try and sleep.”
“You won’t be sleeping anyway! You’ve had ghastly insomnia for at least a
week. You may as well come over.”
Miles said, “Plus, I’ve worked the crossword puzzle in the paper today already.”
“I have an entire crossword puzzle book that Red and Elaine gave me for my birthday. I’ll tear out one of them for you.”
“All right, I suppose so,” said Miles.
“You don’t have to sound so deflated, Miles. We’ll have fun,” said Myrtle.
Back at Myrtle’s house, Miles said, “I’ll take my car back home and walk over. There’s no need to add to the constant speculation of Bradley, North Carolina that you and I are in some sort of torrid relationship.”
“Good thinking. Erma would call everyone in town, otherwise.”
While Miles was running his car home, Myrtle poured some potato chips in a bowl and put some cookies out on a plate. She poured a couple of glasses of ice water and pulled a crossword puzzle out of the large book.
As Miles was walking into the house, Myrtle’s phone rang. She looked at it. “It’s that Puddin. What on earth could she want?”
Puddin said, “Miz Myrtle, I need to come over. Think I lost somethin’ at yer place.”
“You couldn’t possibly have. You weren’t here long enough to lose anything and you haven’t come back here, despite your promises to the contrary. Besides, you never even arrive with anything. You use all of my cleaning supplies and equipment.”
Puddin said, “Jest the same, I think I did. My watch.”
“A watch? You don’t even try to keep track of time. You operate in your own Puddin time zone.”
“Think I left it there,” said Puddin stubbornly. “Ain’t nowhere else.”
Myrtle blew out a sigh. “All right then. I guess you can come by and look for it.”
There was a pause on the other end. “You could look for it.”
“I couldn’t. I don’t see it anywhere, which means if you did indeed leave it here, you put it in a weird place. I’m visiting with Miles now and don’t feel like combing my house for an errant watch.”
Puddin blew a gusty sigh. “Guess I’ll take Dusty’s truck,” she said resentfully.
“I guess so,” said Myrtle, hanging up the phone. “That Puddin,” she growled.
Miles said, “Well, I guess it really will be a party. Maybe you should put out some more chips and cookies.”
“Puddin isn’t having a bit of my food until she actually cleans my house. And Dusty isn’t much better; he needs to mow again, just like Red was telling me. Honestly, it’s a constant trial with those two. Come on, let’s start in on our puzzles since our concentration will be blown to smithereens as soon as Puddin comes in.”
Chapter Nineteen
They started working on the puzzles, Miles more cautiously with a pencil and Myrtle more boldly with a pen. Myrtle’s brow furrowed in concentration. She wanted to finish hers before Miles did, but she was getting more and more distracted. She badly wanted to blame Puddin for this lack of focus, but she had the feeling it was related to something else.
“Miles.”
“Mmm?” asked Miles, frowning at his puzzle.
“Do you remember when we first spoke with Bianca at the flower shop?”
Miles said absently, “Sure.”
“Do you remember when she said she’d never been over to Lillian’s house?”
“I guess. She said Lillian didn’t like combining her professional and personal lives,” said Miles. He tapped his pencil on the puzzle.
“Then we spoke with Carolyn at the library.” Myrtle frowned up at the ceiling.
“The book she recommended is very good.”
“Yes, I’m sure it is. But she also mentioned something. She said Lillian was hard on Bianca. Carolyn knew this because she lived next-door to Lillian and heard her speak to Bianca. At Lillian’s house.”
Miles shrugged. “So Bianca was wrong. She was sort of distracted when we spoke to her with her son being in the back room.”
A chill went up Myrtle’s spine. “Yes. But then she said something else to me tonight. She said she was glad Lillian’s basket sold so well at the auction, despite the fact the feeder was used as a weapon.”
“A surprising fact,” said Miles.
“But Miles, no one knew the dog feeding station was the weapon. Red told you not to mention it to anybody. And neither he nor Perkins would have said a word.”
Myrtle and Miles stared at each other. Miles put his pencil down.
The doorbell rang.
Myrtle sighed. “Puddin must have been lurking in the neighborhood to get here this quickly.”
She opened the door a crack and saw Bianca there.
Myrtle carefully modulated her voice. “Hi, Bianca. Listen, I’m absolutely worn out after tonight. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, all right?”
“I don’t think so,” said Bianca in a hollow voice. She pointed a gun at Myrtle. “I’d like to come inside now.”
Myrtle backed away from the door and Bianca pushed her way in. Bianca gave a startled cry as she saw Miles frozen at the table. She waved her gun at both of them. “Sit next to each other,” she hissed. “And no funny business! I don’t have a lot of time.”
Myrtle walked over to plop down heavily next to Miles. “Is that because your son is by himself? You don’t like to leave him in the house long, do you? That’s why these murders happened at night, isn’t it? You put your son to bed and then you run out really quickly to take someone’s life. You don’t even have to pay for a sitter that way, do you?”
Bianca glared at her. “This is all your fault.”
Myrtle raised her eyebrows. “Is it? I think that statement shows a startling lack of imagination.”
Miles muttered, “Myrtle. She has a gun.”
“I’m well aware of that, Miles. It’s pointed directly at us. I’m simply pointing out what happened here. I need to talk through the narrative so it makes some sort of sense.” She paused. “You have to understand, Bianca, I don’t ordinarily have guns held on me very often. I suppose my conversation with you tonight made you realize you’d made a mistake.”
Bianca’s hand shook as she trained the gun on them. “I saw you looking at me like you knew something.”
“Sure. But I didn’t know what I knew then. I only just figured it out.”
“Yes, but you were figuring it out. You’re not stupid,” said Bianca with clear regret. “I heard you talking with Rowan. About evidence being faked.”
Myrtle said, “One thing I noticed when Miles and I were visiting Martin at his house was Martin was a fidgety sort. You don’t really think of serious readers as being fidgety, but maybe he also fidgeted with stuff while he read.”
“Maybe you should get to the point,” said Bianca, shaking a little more.
“The point is that the object Martin was playing with during our visit was a sterling silver business card case. Monogrammed. And I do remember he was gloating about his upcoming inheritance and becoming the owner of the flower shop. He was planning on going right over to the shop directly after we left.”
Bianca shrugged, but her eyes were watchful.
Miles said slowly, “The way Martin was twirling that case and catching it, he probably did the same at the shop. Maybe he also laid it down while he was looking around. You had the chance to take it and use it as planted evidence at Tallulah’s house.”
“Tallulah must have seen you at the house. Maybe she told herself it was business-related. Maybe she only remembered seeing you later on. But it started bothering her and she decided to speak with Red about it,” said Myrtle.
“How do you know that?” asked Bianca in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
“Because it was completely obvious at the funeral. Tallulah’s eyes were trained on Red and she was clearly trying to find a private moment to talk with him. If it was obvious to me, it must have been obvious to you, too,” said Myrtle.
Bia
nca shrugged. “All I know is, I went up to talk to her and she turned bright red and started stammering. Seemed like she knew something.”
“And you went over to see her and killed her with the closest object to hand . . . one of her golf clubs,” said Myrtle. She gave Bianca a reproving look. “It was your same modus operandi with Lillian’s death. Why did you go over to Lillian’s that night? Did you go over expressly to murder her, or were you trying to have a conversation with her?”
“I was just trying to reason with her,” whispered Bianca. The hand holding the gun shook. “That’s all. She was talking about firing me because of something she said I messed up at a graduation party. But the flowers looked great! Everybody said so. There are no jobs here in Bradley and I can’t move Tim to another town and another school. He’s already had so many changes in his life already.”
Miles frowned. “But killing Lillian wasn’t going to keep you employed.”
Bianca blinked at him. “I was just mad. She wouldn’t listen to me. She never listened to me. I went there to reason with her and explain how much I needed the job. Lillian just laughed in my face and told me how bad I was. I saw red. That’s all. And Martin had always been nice to me. As the new owner, I figured maybe I’d get a better deal.”
“Then it was strange you decided to set him up for murdering his mother and Tallulah,” said Myrtle coolly. “Although I suppose that was simply out of convenience since you had his business card holder he’d left at the shop. Still, it seems as though there might have been better candidates.”
Bianca snapped, “Look, I don’t have time for this. I have to get back to my son. It’s not safe to leave him by himself.”
“With a killer running around?” asked Myrtle laconically.
Miles gave her a look intended to make her hold her tongue.
Myrtle said, “You’re not even thinking straight, Bianca. The gun you’re holding on us doesn’t even have a silencer. The police chief lives directly across the street.”
“Well, I’m pretty close to the door,” snarled Bianca. “Besides, I didn’t see his car over there. I just need to hurry up, that’s all.”
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