“Lars, did you forget to tell me something?” Starshine asked gently.
Lifting a spoonful of ice cream and strawberries to her mouth, Granny paused the spoon halfway to her mouth “It’s all straightened out, Starshine. You can marry him. We understand one another.”
Looking confused, Franklin spoke up, “What does that mean?”
“It means you’re all on a need to know basis and none of you need to know!” said Granny.
Lars looked Starshine in the eyes after looking to Granny and seeing her nod, he said, “Yes, Starshine, you don’t need to know what was said outside, but your mother and I have come to an understanding. I am Amelia’s stepson and it’s a long story. When the time is right, I’ll tell you the story. Can you trust me?”
Starshine sat perfectly still, moving only her eyes back and forth from Lars to Granny, trying to figure out what was going on.
Franklin, on the other hand, was not so accepting, “Hermiony, what are you up to now? What did you say to Lars? What do we only need to know on a need to know basis?”
Ignoring Franklin, Granny stood up. “Angel, we have to get you home. Good luck on your house hunt, Starshine!” Turning to Franklin, she indicated that it was time to leave. “That’s why they’re in town; they’re house hunting. Maybe you should sell them your Victorian, Franklin, so you can move into my house when we get married!”
Granny was out the door with Angel before Franklin could mutter a retort. He’d bought that Victorian house for him and Granny. And by George! They were going to live in it!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Franklin and Granny dropped Angel off at her home, and stopped to visit for a few minutes with Heather and Thor. It was late afternoon. Heather invited Granny and Franklin to stay for supper, but they declined, noting the tired lines around Heather’s eyes from the discomforts of her pregnancy. Both Granny and Franklin were excited about welcoming a new grandchild into the world.
Granny didn’t have a chance to ask Thor more about the murders and Robert Blackford because she didn’t want to upset Angel. However, it appeared Angel had other ideas.
“Daddy, Grandpa found a red wig out at Grandma’s farm and Grandma freaked out. Grandpa told her she was par-a-par-a––paranoid. What does that mean?”
Thor looked at his soon-to-be father-in-law and shook his head. “It means, my sweet girl, that sometimes Granny sees something that isn’t there.”
Angel’s eyes widened. She moved next to Granny on the couch. “Did you see a ghost on your farm?”
Granny gave Thor a whose-got-the-imagination-now look. “You could say that, Angel.”
“Can we go ghost hunting the next time we go to your farm, Granny?” Angel popped up off the couch, jumping up and down in excitement.
“I think it’s time for us to go home,” Franklin announced, gently grabbing Granny’s arm and hustling her out of the house. “Let us know if Heather goes into labor, Thor,” he said at the door.
Back in the car, Franklin was silent.
“Well, since I’m so paranoid, you’d better take me home. Angel’s ghosts might get you,” Granny said sarcastically.
Franklin drove the couple of blocks to Granny’s house while remarking on the new color the Fuchsia Street Department had painted on all the city street curbs. “I wasn’t sure painting the curbs lining the streets a bright fuchsia was going to work, but I guess since they lined the curb where it meets the street with white, it really pops. That’s scary; I’m getting used to the way this community does things. It has almost knocked the New Yorker out of me,” he said.
“Well, I see someone who’s going to get the Alaska knocked out of him. What is Silas Crickett doing on my lawn? It looks like he’s putting stakes in the ground. Is he some sort of vampire?”
Granny quickly exited the car, almost before it had come to a complete stop, not allowing Franklin time to answer her comment.
“Silas Crickett, what are you doing to my yard?”
“I’m staking my claim, Granny.”
Franklin, hearing Silas’s words as he caught up to Granny, reached over and took the stake from Silas hands. “You lost your stake a long time ago, Crickett. This isn’t Alaska, and Granny isn’t your property!”
With a shrewd glint in his eye, Silas explained, “I was staking out Granny’s new addition. Woodly Spackle told me about Granny’s plans for her addition and showed me the plans Granny had drawn. I had an idea that I thought might work better for the shysters and the cohorts and Mr. Pigster.”
Franklin looked at Granny. “We need to discuss this. Is it really worth adding on when you’ll be moving soon?”
“Do you have a wedding date set?” Silas smirked.
“Instead of you two arguing about my life, maybe you’d better help the Fuchsia Police Department and your son and son-in-law solve these murders so I can sleep at night. Since you both used to be such hot shot detectives, you should be able to read the clues. I’m going to snooze. Good night!”
Granny didn’t glance back as she climbed the porch steps and entered her house. All was quiet with the shysters and the cohorts, home from their day’s snooping, covering the carpet with their bodies, their gentle snoring making background music in the room.
Granny decided that although it was early, she needed her sleep. She’d lost a lot of sleep the last couple of days, and she missed her dreams. Maybe she’d dream about getting another key to the city.
Once in her bedroom, she pulled out her latest purchase from Red Hot Momma’s Boutique. It was a red silk chemise gown with see-through webbing on the side and trimmed in pink sequins. Embroidered on the front of the silky gown were the words Hot Diva.
Opening the secret door of her closet, she pulled out her red, silk flip-flops trimmed in fur. Her kids didn’t want her to flip or flop so they forbid her from wearing flip-flops. Because of their disapproval, Granny reserved a special place in her secret closet to stash all her different versions of flip-flops. Digging toward the back of the secret closet, she came out with a box of chocolates and a bottle of wine. She usually kept her wine in the false bottom of the footstool, but the special wine that she saved for bedtime was stashed in the back of her closet. Looking at the bottle of Sizzle from the Fuchsia winery, she sighed. Chocolates and wine and a good book. What more could a woman ask for?
Crawling into bed, she pulled out the book she’d been reading, The History of Fuchsia Minnesota. She was so young when Robert Blackford lived in Fuchsia. A teenager didn’t care about a boy’s parents or his background. All she’d seen were his beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous copper-colored hair. All he had to do was look at Hermiony and her heart melted. She wondered what the police had found out about his background and that of this Dickey Lee Hatchet. She didn’t remember that name as one from her past. Maybe this history book would shed light on some of his ancestors and other Fuchsotans.
After a few minutes of reading, Granny’s eyes began to close. It didn’t seem to matter that it was only 8:00 p.m. and still daylight out. Putting her book down, she fell into a dream-filled sleep.
In her dream, there was horrible pounding. The pounding got louder. Mayor Horatio Helecourt pounded his gavel on the podium. Chaos erupted as he announced that Silas Crickett would be the new Mayor of Fuchsia. Silas was closing the underground streets so he could use them for his own private corporation, The Alaskan Radish Group.
Granny’s dream ended as the pounding doubled and finally woke her up. Opening her eyes, she realized someone was again pounding on the door to the underground streets. Swinging her feet to the ground and holding the bedpost so she didn’t sway when she first stood up, she grabbed her cell phone by the bed and looked at the time. Midnight, again! Good thing she’d gone to bed early. Stomping down her hallway, she didn’t grab any of her weapons, since this midnight pounding thing was getting old. Once she got to the basement, she entered the underground room through the fireplace door, walked over to the door leading to the underground streets, and
threw the door open.
Mavis, Lulu, and Delight giggled when they saw Granny in her sexy nightie.
“We didn’t know Franklin was was with you!” Delight said, blushing.
“We wouldn’t have disturbed you if we did,” Lulu blurted out.
Granny, with a confused look on her face said, “Franklin’s not here!”
Mavis, Lulu and Delight all dropped their jaws and their eyes became the eyes of hoot owls.
Delight stammered, “Ah, we didn’t mean to disturb you and ah, ah, Silas?”
“We won’t tell Franklin,” Mavis promised.
“Our lips are sealed,” Lulu echoed Mavis’s promise by making a zipping gesture with hands across her lips.
“Silas isn’t here and neither is Franklin. Why would you think that? More importantly, why are you here?” Granny asked.
All three of them stared at Granny’s nightgown. Granny followed their eyes. “What’s the matter with you three? Can’t a girl wear what she wants to to bed? Again, why are you here?”
“You have to come with us, Granny. There’s a break in the case and we need to figure out what to do with it,” Mavis answered.
“Yes, a break.” Lulu and Delight nodded.
“It’s midnight. You couldn’t have told me earlier?” Granny asked.
“We all decided we liked midnight sleuthing,” Mavis said as the other two nodded their heads.
“Where’s the pastor? Did she chicken out after our last adventure?” Granny asked.
The other three women looked back and forth, giving each other a secret look that Granny missed. “She might join us later,” Delight answered.
“Fine. Wait a minute and I’ll go and get dressed. But….George and Silas better not be in on this and better not interrupt us this time. Hopefully, you came up with a better cover than last time,” Granny warned as she went back into her house to change.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The only person they saw in the underground streets on their way to their destination was Jack Puffleman, manager of AbStract. He was exiting AbStract through the underground door. He didn’t see the women and they were very quiet, making sure they didn’t alert him to their presence.
“I wonder what he’s doing at AbStract at midnight,” Lulu whispered.
“I’m glad he didn’t see us,” Delight added. “He might have told Franklin we were out and about again. Then you’d be in trouble, Granny.”
“This was your idea, not mine. Let’s get to the Pink Percolator. I didn’t have my donut today and I’m sure you have one for me,” Granny remarked.
All three women kept walking, glancing at each other with guilty looks on their faces. They finally stopped at the lift to Graves’ Funeral Home.
“Why are we stopping?” Granny asked, “Remember the street is open to your place, Delight.”
“We don’t want to be disturbed. Delight charmed Gravy into giving us the code to the lift, although he didn’t know he was doing it.” Lulu shook her head in wonder at how Delight had gotten the information.
Delight giggled at the thought. “I begged him for a ride on the lift. I told him it was like riding the elevator and that I missed elevator rides and this was the only elevator in Fuchsia––well, the riding kind anyway. He took pity on me and took me down the lift. I watched as he punched in the code.”
“And George would never think of looking for me in the mortuary,” Mavis explained, “He knows I have an aversion to dead bodies, although we seem to have uncovered a few lately. So, we figured we were safe to meet here.”
Delight punched the code as they got on the lift. The lift moved up, the floor parted to make room for the lift, and the ladies entered the funeral home. All was dark and quiet.
“I have it on good authority that there are no bodies here at the moment, so we’re alone,” Delight whispered.
“If we’re alone, why are you whispering?” Mavis asked. “There’s a table in the back room where we can meet. We can turn the light on and no one will see us.”
Mavis led the way through the darkness to the back room where they closed the door and turned on the light.
“Now what?” Granny asked.
“We wait,” Mavis answered.
“For what?” Granny asked suspiciously.
A noise could be heard coming from the outside room. It was the lift.
Granny jumped up. “I didn’t bring my weapons; my pitchfork is still in the trunk of my car.”
No one else seemed alarmed at the sound of the lift.
“What’s the matter with you? You can’t just sit there. Someone’s going to find us and we’ll be back at the police station and they’ll throw the book at us!” Granny warned.
The others sat quietly and didn’t answer Granny.
“Are you daft? We need to hide before Gravy finds us!” Granny cried.
There was a rap on the door and Granny heard a “Are you there? We’re here.”
Granny gave the others a scathing look and since she was already up, she opened the door. Pastor Henrietta and Amelia entered the room.
“Quick, close the door, Granny! We don’t want to be found out,” Mavis instructed, getting up herself to close the door.
“What is this, an audition for a sister act?” Granny sarcastically asked her friends.
Pastor Henrietta decided to take the lead. Walking over to Granny, she put her hand on Granny’s shoulder and shoved her into the nearest chair. “Sit!”
Turning to Amelia, Pastor Henrietta gently asked, “Amelia, would you please take your place at the table?”
Pastor Henrietta took a seat in between the two sisters. The others sat back quietly, eyeing Granny and Amelia with scared expressions, not sure the room wasn’t going to explode with all the tension emanating from Granny and Amelia.
Pastor Henrietta looked pointedly at Granny. “You have a crime to solve, Granny. Between you two sisters, you have the answers. You can’t do it separately because you have to put the entire story together so we can follow the clues. The police can’t solve the crime unless they know the story. The four of us have decided that it’s time that you, Granny, get over your stubbornness, talk to Amelia and let us in on the story so we can help you. We aren’t leaving this room until we do so. Right, ladies?”
Lulu and Mavis shook their heads, agreeing with her.
Granny gave Pastor Henrietta a skeptical look. “Who are you and what did you do with sweet Pastor Henrietta?”
Pastor Henrietta gave a small giggle. “I did that well, didn’t I? Did I sound stern enough? Granny, my dear,” she said, patting Granny’s hand. Then, turning to Amelia, she said, “Amelia, my dear,” and patted Amelia’s hand with her opposite hand. She picked up both their hands and joined them together. “May you join hands in harmony and love for the rest of your lives.”
Granny and Amelia glanced at each other, remembering their earlier days. They nodded and at the same time stood up, pulled Pastor Henrietta with them, and brought both arms to her middle. Granny lifted Henrietta’s feet up while Amelia pushed her head down, and they flipped her over their arms making her turn a summersault.
“Well, I guess that went well,” Pastor Henrietta remarked, steadying herself by leaning on her chair.
The others stood up when the twirling began, not sure whether to rescue Henrietta from Granny and Amelia’s clutches, or to run, in case they were next.
“We still have it!” Amelia laughed.
“Yup, used to do that for fun to unsuspecting people, although we almost dropped you, Henrietta,” Granny admitted.
Sitting down at the table, the friends waited for Granny and Amelia to tell their story.
“I’m not sure I know the story. All I know is Amelia married my Robert and I was forced to marry her Ferdinand,” said Granny.
“Ferdinand was engaged to Amelia?” Delight asked.
“Yes, he was. My parents had decided that he was a good fit for me. He was solid, dependable, and reliable and would provide
for me, they said,” Amelia explained.
Granny picked up the story. “And I was in love with Robert Blackford. My parents weren’t happy about it. They thought he was too spur-of-the-moment. He had no plans for the future. He always used to say, ‘The future will take care of itself and it’s ours for the taking.’ He wanted to take me away on a wild adventure. And I was ready. I was tired of always having to behave a certain way and when I didn’t, my parents would look at me with disappointment in their eyes. But behaving was boring.”
Amelia nodded, “I was quiet and didn’t have the courage that Hermiony did. I secretly admired Hermiony’s courage and her sense of adventure. I saw her having an exciting and wild adventure with Robert. Ferdinand was a good man, but there was no place for dreams in Ferdinand’s life. Our mother and father were like that too.
“So you stole him, Amelia! You stole him and broke my heart.” Granny pounded her hand on the table, making the others jump at the gesture.
“Well, actually, I saved you. And…you should thank me,” Amelia said haughtily.
Pastor Henrietta jumped in to soothe the waters. “Now, let’s work on feeling peace and love as we all continue this journey into your past.”
“Yes, remember, we need to get to the bottom of these murders and you two know more than you know,” Delight added.
Amelia looked at Granny, “What did she just say?”
Granny shrugged her shoulders, “Once you get to know her, you’ll understand Delight speak.”
“Back to the story, I’m taking notes for my new reality show, Milk Toast Versus Wild Child. Maybe there’s a better name for it. I’m afraid everyone might think it’s a wrestling match.” Mavis was going to go on about her reality show, but Pastor Henrietta held up her hand for everyone else to be silent, nodding to Amelia to continue.
“Hermiony and I always used to change places to tease our boyfriends and our parents. It always worked. She was able to be meek and mild for a short time, and I was able to act the wild child for a short time. It always worked, but we never did it for very long. Knowing what I know now, it would have been too hard for us to take on each other’s characteristics for too long a time.” Amelia stopped speaking, her thoughts lost in the past.
Granny Forks A Fugitive (Fuchsia Minnesota Book 4) Page 9