Miss Dimple Suspects: A Mystery

by Mignon F. Ballard

  Few houses dappled the landscape once they left the town behind and fields that had been picked clean of cotton were now plowed over. Only brown stubble remained where alfalfa had been harvested to feed the stock. “There’s the store—there’s Dooley’s!” Annie pointed out later as the road dipped ahead, curving against a hill fringed in green.

  Charlie slowed as they crossed the two-lane bridge over Crabapple Creek. Now she could see why Suzy chose this place to meet, as evergreens grew close together near the water, providing a perfect screen for anyone who didn’t want to be seen. “I don’t see her,” she said, scanning the hillside.

  “There’s a place just up ahead where people who come here to fish park,” Miss Dimple directed. “Let’s see if she’ll come to us.”

  Maybe Annie was right, Charlie thought as she pulled off to the side of the road. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. What if the police found out they were helping a suspected murderer? Wasn’t there a law against that? The three of them sat in silence as if speaking might frighten the young woman away.

  “Doesn’t look like she’s going to show,” Annie said finally.

  “I expect she’s just being careful,” Miss Dimple said. “Let’s give her a little while longer.”

  She wants to be sure we didn’t bring the police. Charlie took a deep breath. She was beginning to hope Suzy wouldn’t come when she noticed a slight movement a few feet up the hillside, and Suzy, dressed in a long dark coat and a gray knitted hat, stepped out from behind a small grove of pine trees and hurried toward the car, looking about her as she ran.

  Any doubt Charlie might have experienced about helping Suzy vanished when she saw her face. Her dark eyes pleaded for help, and her expression was unbearably sad as she slipped quickly into the backseat beside Annie.

  “Why, you’re freezing!” Annie covered both of her hands in hers. “Where have you been all this time?”

  “In some farmer’s barn…” It was obvious Suzy was making an effort to keep her teeth from chattering as she spoke. “It wasn’t so bad. I burrowed in the hay and wrapped myself in burlap sacks—you know, the kind they use for picking cotton.” Hugging herself, she glanced about her. “Please … we can’t stay here!”

  “We need to get you somewhere warm,” Miss Dimple said as Annie tucked a warm throw around the woman’s frail shoulders. “Have you had anything to eat?”

  “I bought some cheese crackers and a candy bar at the store back there. The woman let me use the telephone but I could tell she didn’t feel comfortable about it,” Suzy told them. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she has already said something to the police.”

  “We’re on our way!” Pebbles scattered as Charlie backed quickly out of her parking place and turned for town. “Maybe you’d better scoot down in case we meet them,” she suggested to Suzy. “And by the way, where are we going?” she asked the others. “Our place isn’t safe—too many people in and out, and there’s no way we can sneak you into Miss Phoebe’s.”

  Miss Dimple was thinking. Eyes straight ahead, lips set in a determined line, she laced her fingers together, clenched them tight. “Virginia should be going home for her noon meal about now, and I know she’ll have to see to Max. If you’ll let me out there, I’ll find out if it’s safe.”

  “Max?” Suzy smiled for the first time. “Oh, I hope he’s all right. I had to shut him inside so he wouldn’t follow me.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him welcomed at the Ashcrofts,” Miss Dimple said, smiling, “but I haven’t had an opportunity to speak with Kate about it. The dog seemed to take quite a liking to Peggy and something tells me the feeling might be mutual.”

  Stopping in front of Virginia’s small gray bungalow, Dimple was relieved to see her friend’s car in the driveway and knew she would be at home. If Virginia had walked to work, her car would be parked in the garage behind the house. She hesitated with her hand on the door handle. “I think it might be a good idea if you parked in the back … just in case someone comes along.” She could only hope she would find her friend in a good mood.

  “I guess you’ve come to check on Max,” Virginia said, greeting her at the door. “The dog and I get along just fine. I only wish I could say the same for Emmaline Brumlow! Can you believe she had the nerve to suggest I rearrange all the books in the fiction section? Wants to mix the mysteries in with all the rest. Now, what do you think of that?”

  Dimple didn’t think much of it at all since mysteries were her favorites and the present method made them easier to find, but that wasn’t her concern at the moment.

  “Ever since she was elected president of the Woman’s Club, she’s been like a great big thorn in my side,” Virginia went on, “and you know the club pays my salary, so what can I do? How would she like it if I tromped into Brumlow’s Dry Goods and swapped everything around in her display cases?”

  Miss Dimple had found the best way to deal with Emmaline was to agree with her and then go ahead and do as she pleased. She told Virginia that. “I wouldn’t waste my time worrying about it,” Dimple said. “She’ll forget all about it as soon as something else comes along.

  “Now,” she added, leading the way into the familiar living room. “I’m afraid I have another favor to ask.”

  “You want to bring that woman in here?” Virginia said when Dimple explained the situation, and immediately ran to the kitchen window to peer at the car parked in back. “Dimple, how do you know she didn’t kill that poor soul? I don’t want to come back here and find your body lying in a pool of blood!”

  “Charlie and Annie are with me, so I don’t believe she can do away with all of us,” Dimple said, not bothering to hide her smile.

  “I don’t see anything funny about it, Dimple. It didn’t take much imagination to see how that Hawthorne woman was killed. Gives me chills to think about it. I can’t believe you didn’t go straight to the police!”

  “Do you really believe that young woman would still be around if she were guilty of murder?” Dimple said. “Suzy spent the night in a barn, Virginia, and she’s only eaten a few crackers and a candy bar since yesterday—plus, she’s chilled to the bone. I’m asking you to look at her—just look at her, and if you still feel she’s a threat, I promise we’ll go somewhere else.”

  Dimple used the same tone of voice she used when reading Snow White or Cinderella to her small charges. It never failed to elicit pity for the damsel in distress.

  It didn’t now. “Oh, well!” Virginia shrugged. “Bring her in, but don’t expect me to feel sorry for her.”

  * * *

  “Charlie, watch that pan of milk on the stove! And, Annie, there’s an enamel tub in that cabinet in the bathroom. If you’ll bring it in here, I’ll fill it with hot water.” Virginia touched Suzy’s forehead with the back of her hand. “I’m surprised you don’t have a fever. Now, sit right here at the table and let us warm you up.”

  Max, delighted to be allowed inside after a morning in the fenced backyard, frisked about the small kitchen, obviously happy to see his owner’s companion again. From time to time, Suzy stroked the dog’s head when at last he had settled beside her.

  Virginia frowned as she glanced at the kitchen clock and then at Suzy. “I should be getting back to open the library, but first I have to know what happened. Why on earth did you run away?”

  Shedding her wraps, Miss Dimple pulled up a chair as the others gathered around her. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?” she encouraged Suzy. “No one’s going to bother you here, so take your time.”

  Her feet immersed in warm water, the young woman held the mug of steaming milk with both hands, sipping it slowly while Charlie kept an eye on the pan of oatmeal simmering on the stove. “First of all,” she told them, after taking a deep breath, “I had nothing to do with what happened to Miss Mae Martha.” She looked from one to the other. “I can’t make you believe me, but I promise you I’m telling the truth!”

  Suzy sighed and shook her head. “It seems a mill
ion years ago.… I can’t believe it was only yesterday. It was soon after breakfast that Miss Mae Martha decided she wanted some fresh greenery to make an evergreen wreath for the door and to decorate the mantel, so I took some shears and a bucket and walked about a mile or so over that hill on the other side of the house where she told me I’d find some pretty holly, and there’s a grove of short leaf pine there, too.”

  “How long were you gone?” Virginia asked.

  Suzy frowned. “An hour at least … couldn’t have been much longer. It felt good to be out in the cold air, and Max here went with me.” She smiled as the dog licked her fingers. “It gave him a chance to run, and he loves to chase sticks. I think we both needed the exercise.”

  Suzy’s face clouded. “Mrs. Hawthorne was in her studio when I left but she said she was going to start some stock to make soup for supper, so I thought I’d smell it simmering on the stove when I got back.” She smiled. “When she gets—got—all wrapped up in her painting, she tended to forget about everything else, so I thought about starting it for her … but then Max practically went wild barking.” Suzy set aside her mug, her eyes filled with tears. “And that was when I found her.”

  “Did you touch anything?” Annie asked. “Move her?”

  “Of course I moved her!” Suzy sat up straighter, her eyes sparked with anger. “She was on her stomach and I turned her over, tried my best to revive her, but it was too late. She’d been struck in the back of the head and there was no way she could’ve injured herself that way!”

  “Are you sure she was dead?” Charlie asked.

  Suzy looked at her silently. “Very sure,” she said finally.

  “And so you telephoned me from Esau’s,” Miss Dimple said.

  Suzy nodded. “No one was there but the door was unlocked. I had your number and didn’t know who else to call. I heard a truck drive up while I was talking to you and saw that it was Bill.” Suzy paused to dry her feet as Annie removed the tub of water. “Of all the people I might’ve turned to for help, Bill would be the last one I’d ask! He’s made it obvious from the start that he doesn’t trust me.”

  “Why?” Virginia and Annie spoke at the same time.

  Suzy spoke softly. “I imagine it’s because of my heritage. My parents came here from Japan.”

  Charlie held back a gasp. Would the silence never end? Although Miss Dimple had mentioned the possibility earlier, she had assumed, as had the others, that Suzy was of Chinese extraction. She and Annie had attended college with a girl from China, but she had never seen anyone from Japan except for the cruel soldiers in the newsreels. How had Suzy come to live among them during a time when most people cursed at the very mention of the name? The people of Japan weren’t only disliked; they, like the Germans, were hated by a good portion of the American public, and with good reason.

  And there, in Virginia’s green-painted kitchen by the heat of the Magic Chef oven, Suzy explained her presence there.

  * * *

  Although Mrs. Hawthorne’s grandson, Madison, was a couple of years behind her in medical school, she explained, they had been in some of the same classes at Emory, and the two had become friends while working on a project together. The war was into its seventh month when Suzy had received her medical degree the year before.

  She had planned to join her parents in California, where she was raised, Suzy told them, and go into practice there, but they had warned her not to return to the West Coast, as people of Japanese heritage were being moved to war relocation camps as far inland as possible from what the government had designated “military areas.”

  “They told me to stay where I was until things got better,” she said, her voice breaking. “They never got better. My father had to sell their home, and let his business go for practically nothing when my family was relocated to a camp in Utah, where they live with thousands of other people in barracks made of tar paper and wood.

  “One of my professors asked me to stay on as his assistant,” Suzy continued, “but he left to join the military just before Christmas. Then Madison enlisted soon after that and told me about his grandmother. Miss Mae Martha was suffering that winter from a bad case of bronchitis, which later went into pneumonia.” She smiled. “She needed me and I needed her, so it worked out well for both of us. Until now.”

  “Did you tell her about your background?” Virginia wanted to know.

  Suzy shrugged. “I didn’t have to. As my friend Mae Martha liked to say, ‘I don’t allow no cobwebs in my belfry!’”

  Miss Dimple laughed. “Now, why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  Charlie laughed, too, as she rose to spoon up oatmeal for Suzy, but Virginia held up a hand. “Wait! Shh! Someone’s coming. What should we do?”

  “Miz Balliew? You home? Got a package here from your niece in Knoxville!” A booming voice shouted from the living room.

  “Oh, my Lord! It’s the postman! Coming, Boyce!” Virginia shouted, and quickly shut the kitchen door behind her.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Well, that was close!” Virginia returned to the kitchen a few minutes later with a square parcel wrapped in brown paper. “I suppose we shouldn’t worry too much about Boyce, though. Poor thing’s deaf as a post.”

  “Aren’t you going to open your package?” Annie asked as Virginia set it aside.

  “Oh, I will eventually, but I know what it is. Carolyn sends me the same thing every Christmas. It’s some kind of crocheted atrocity. One year it was dresser scarves, and the year after that, Christmas ornaments—little bells, stars and such. And last year she sent antimacassars—you know, those things people put on the arms of chairs. I do believe if Carolyn had enough thread she would’ve crocheted her way around the world by now!”

  The other women smiled, but Suzy looked up from her bowl of oatmeal with a bleak expression. “Tell me the truth,” she said. “Do you think the authorities—or anyone else here—are going to believe me? What am I going to do?”

  “I believe you,” Miss Dimple assured her, “but I’ll admit you might have a problem. If only we had more time!”

  “To find out who really killed Mrs. Hawthorne, you mean?” Charlie said.

  Suzy frowned. “How are you going to do that?”

  “Obviously, you don’t know about my friends here,” Virginia told her. “Look,” she added, gathering her things together, “I have to go, but you’re welcome to stay here awhile as long as you keep well out of sight. Be careful about turning on lights and things like that when I’m not here. The Kilgores live just across the street, and what one doesn’t know, the other will find out.”

  After Virginia left, Annie collected Suzy’s empty bowl and washed it in the sink. “It doesn’t seem right,” she said. “If you were born in this country, you’re as American as I am. I don’t understand why your family was uprooted like that.”

  “Not just my family, but many others as well. It seems the government doesn’t trust us. They’re afraid we’ll give aid to the enemy.”

  “I remember when the president signed that order last year,” Miss Dimple said. “I believe it might’ve come about because of what happened when a Japanese pilot landed his disabled plane on a Hawaiian island right after Pearl Harbor was bombed.

  “It seems that some of the people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the island went to great lengths to help the downed pilot, but they were outwitted by the natives who were loyal to the United States.”

  “The island of Niihau,” Suzy said. “I read about that, but it had nothing to do with the rest of us.”

  “Is there anything back at the house—in your room, for instance—that would lead those who are investigating to realize the truth about your heritage?” Dimple asked.

  “There’s my diploma … and medical textbooks—several boxes of them—with my name inside. I’ve been going by Suzy Amos here, but my given name is Suzu and my family name is Amaya. They won’t have to look far to find that out.” Suzy started to go to the window but shrugged and cha
nged her mind. “All my correspondence with my family has been going through friends back in California. Miss Mae Martha and I were trying to be careful so that no one here would suspect.”

  “So, you’re a physician,” Miss Dimple said. “I’ll have to say I’m not surprised after seeing the way you stepped in and took care of our Peggy. Doctor Morrison, by the way, holds you in high esteem.”

  “She was a very sick little girl,” Suzy said. “I can tell you now I was doubtful she would last the night. I don’t believe the outcome would have been as positive without your help, Miss Dimple.”

  “Ah, well…” Miss Dimple waved that aside. “Now, about yesterday morning when you were looking for greenery … Do you know if anyone happened to see you leave the house? Did you meet anyone along the way?”

  Suzy frowned and shook her head. “There’s no one to see unless Bill or one of the nephews makes the trip up the hill, and I don’t remember seeing anyone that morning.”

  “Maybe Mrs. Hawthorne mentioned it to somebody,” Annie suggested, but Suzy had no reply.

  “I suppose that’s something we’ll never know,” Miss Dimple said.

  Suzy carefully smoothed the napkin at her place. “You’ve all been so kind.… I’m afraid I’m putting you in danger. What will happen if anyone finds out I’m here? It might be best if I just go ahead and turn myself in.”

  “First let’s weigh the possibilities, shall we?” Miss Dimple smiled, but there was no doubt she was in charge, and that, in itself, was reassuring to Charlie.

  “I think it’s safe to assume that you are at present the number one suspect. In fact, I doubt very much if the police are even bothering with further inquiries. There’s a chance, I’m afraid, if you turn yourself in now, they might rush to convict you.”

  Charlie frowned. “You mean she’d be railroaded?”