“An accident?” I said. “The woman’s body wound up in a sofa bed!”
“Yes,” Daniel said, “And we have no doubt that she concealed the body, which is against the law. However, she doesn’t seem to have killed Miss Merkle deliberately.”
“Well, stop talking like a lawyer and tell us about it!” Kylie said.
Daniel told us about it.
“She said that Miss Merkle came to visit,” he said. “She even called to say she was dropping by. When she arrived, she claimed that she had proof that some of her poems were written long ago by her great-aunt who lived in Charleston. Mrs. Lewis told me, by the way, that this was preposterous, and she tried to take some photocopied papers from Miss Merkle’s hands to look at them. Miss Merkle wouldn’t let her see them, and slapped her.”
“I can see her doing that,” Kylie said. “But it couldn’t have been much of a slap. Maxie was way taller than Miss Merkle.”
“Let’s say the two ladies had an altercation,” Daniel said. “There was a struggle and Miss Merkle fell backward and hit the back of her head on a cast iron rabbit doorstop. The rabbit had pointed ears. There’s still more work to be done, but it’s fairly clear already that those odd wounds on the back of Miss Merkle’s head were a match for the rabbit ears.”
Darlene shuddered. Kylie made a face.
“I can’t believe it,” I said, “She painted that rabbit white and used it for a patio decoration.”
“Exactly,” Daniel said. “And that was one solid cast iron rabbit. I think a defense attorney can easily establish that Maxie Lewis wouldn’t have had the strength in her hands to use it forcefully as a weapon.”
“But,” I said, “how did the body get to the Dabneys garage and into the sofa bed?”
“I wish I could tell you that,” he said, “But, about that time she realized that we weren’t going to just say, ‘Have a nice day,’ and leave, Jade Montgomery came over. She was being all protective, and she told Maxie she shouldn’t say another word, and she should call her attorney.”
“Too bad,” I said, “But I guess that was good advice.”
“True,” he said. “It was good advice, but we got a lot accomplished. For one thing, we have a motive, and you were right, Kate. We found another copy of the book of poems you showed me, and there were more—in a very old journal with many more handwritten poems in it. She had two scrapbooks of her own printed versions from The Register. Nobody has had time to go through those things, but I’m guessing she never wrote a single original poem. I don’t think there’s any crime in that, but it does explain why she was so panicked.”
“Oh, forget the silly poems!” Kylie said. “Is the old bat in jail? Are Kate and Miss Verily safe?”
“Yes,” Daniel said, and then he grinned slightly. “And all the residents of Camelot Court are up in arms. Hester Foley told Brenda that old Chief Waterfield would never have put a senior citizen in handcuffs while letting the likes of Flip Tarver steal a valuable vase right out of his dead sister’s house.”
“Oh, Daniel, you poor thing,” Darlene said. “People around here are so slow to accept any change.”
She had recovered and was getting up from the sofa.
“Come on into the kitchen and I’ll give you a nice hot meal.”
I let the ‘poor thing’ heap his plate with meat loaf, mashed potatoes, butterbeans, corn and biscuits before I asked him one more question.
“Does Aunt Verily know about all this?”
“No, but I do need to explain it to her,” he said, “And I was hoping you’d go with me to talk to her.”
John Robert was there in the hospital room, and he and Aunt Verily listened to Daniel’s brief account of Maxie Lewis’ breaking into my house and her perhaps accidental killing of Meredith Merkle. I filled in a little information about the poems and the cast iron rabbit.
Maybe it was all the medication she was on, or maybe she had already thought it through after her morning visit from Daniel, but Aunt Verily was not as shocked or upset as I had expected. Instead, she appeared to be exasperated with Maxie Lewis lack of good taste.
“You know,” she said, “It’s dreadful enough that she passed herself off as a poet all these years, but I can’t say I’m totally surprised. They were all so—well—old fashioned. I find it harder to believe that she painted that rabbit and used it as a patio decoration. Now that was truly tasteless.”
She paused and looked across the room at the flower Maxie Lewis had sent her.
“John Robert,” she said, “I really wish you’d remove that Peace Lily from my sight.”
When we left the hospital, Daniel said he had to go and inform Flip Tarver, but he’d take me back out to the Carsons’ first.
I said, “No, I want to go home. I thought you said they’d boarded up the back door. I’ll be fine.”
“You can’t even open that door,” he said. “It’s boarded over from the outside until you get another door. Why don’t you stay at the Carsons’ another few days until you can get the whole door replaced and get a security system?
“I’ll be fine, Daniel,” I said.
“Well, I won’t be fine,” he said. “Do you realize that until I called the Carsons’ house this morning, I thought there was a very good chance you’d been abducted? There was a broken-in window, your car was in the driveway, and your cell phone was even there.”
“You just keep Maxie Lewis in jail,” I said, trying a smile to break through his intensity. It didn’t work.
“Right,” he said with a scowl. “And your crazy kinfolks from Lulaville will be up here next. I’m going to take care of that, but I’ve got too much to do right now, and I want to get a good night’s sleep tonight.”
“Okay, okay!” I said. “For one more night, but at least let me get my car.”
He gave me a wary look but drove me to the house.
I got my car and a couple of changes of clothes, and he followed me all the way back to the Carsons.
Chapter 20
I told Josh that he’d have to write the story because I was involved in it, and he wanted to know if Daniel was going to send out a press release.
As it turned out, Daniel had a press release and a press conference with all the other law enforcement agencies, and Jabari Hill wrote the story.
When I pointed out to Josh that Jabari was bright, but he was a senior in high school, Josh said, “What’s the big deal? If he can cover sports, he can sure cover something like this where you get told exactly what you can say.”
Jabari did a very good job. I went by and told him so on Thursday, and he gave me his future-television-news-anchor-smile. Then I showed him my photo of Doris Dabney snarling, and he got very interested and wanted to know what kind of camera I recommended. The kid’s going to go far.
Thursday was the day I went home without asking Daniel O’Reilly’s permission, and found a truck in my driveway and two men installing a new kitchen door without a window in it. They said Buddy Carson had already paid them.
I knew there was no point in arguing with Buddy, and I decided I owed the Carsons a big favor, but what I really needed was to retreat for a while.
I was glad when they finished with the door, installed the deadbolt on the inside, and handed me the new keys.
I had just started on the painting of the barn before things began to happen, so I pulled an old t-shirt on and got out my paints.
I was deeply into it when I happened to glance toward the front window and saw a blue and white cruiser. I went to look, but it wasn’t the chief’s car, and nobody was in it.
I went back to my painting, discovering a preference for blacks and grays, and deciding that may the sun should be setting, and there should be some dark birds overhead.
Sally Turbo came over with some chicken salad sandwiches from the Chicken Coop and I invited her in. The cruiser was gone
.
“I’m sorry, Sally,” I said. “I should have thanked you before now. I appreciate what you did the other night.”
“Well,” she said, “After letting those Bodreys walk off with your furniture the time before, I guess I owed you one.”
I made some iced tea, and we sat at the kitchen table and ate.
“I guess you must have decided to go after them,” she said.
“Who?” I asked.
“The Bodreys,” she said. “Brenda Breaker was just asking me about what I saw when they came to your house, and then she went to Mrs. Patterson’s house.”
I knew right away that was something Daniel was doing.
Sally went on.
“Brenda said he totally freaked out when they got to your house, and you weren’t there,” she said, and then she concentrated on her sandwich. “She says she had to tell him to call the Carsons. She thinks he’s got a big crush on you.”
I managed a smile.
“Brenda talks too much,” I said. “And the truth is that he was really mad at me.”
“Same thing, sometimes,” Sally Turbo said.
On the way out, she stopped and looked at my barn painting.
“Is that for Halloween, or what?” she asked.
I tore it up after she left.
On Friday, Brenda Breaker showed up at my house with a form for me to make a complaint against the Bodrey family of Lulaville. She had all their names, including Melvalene’s. Melvalene was more-or-less my grandmother’s stepdaughter, and the three sons were my grandmother’s step-grandchildren.
“The chief says that he needs a list of what they took,” she said. “He doesn’t know what they can get back, but he’s working with the sheriff down there, and he says he wants them to stay out of River Valley and away from your house. How about just doing it, Kate?”
I sighed and got my notebook. I visualized each room as it was when my grandmother lived there.
Dusty rose sofa. Mahogany coffee and side tables (matching). Chair in pink floral print. Platform rocker. Oval hook rug. Maple double bed with matching vanity and chest of drawers. Maple twin beds with small chest of drawers. Wooden kitchen table with four matching chairs (old). Hoosier cabinet (has sliding metal counter, drawers, shelves, casters, very old.)
“You know,” I told Brenda as I ripped out the page and handed it to her. “I wouldn’t have anywhere to put the stuff now, except for that last item on the list, the cabinet. It’s supposed to be right over there. You can see how the wallpaper is less faded there because it was against that wall.”
She looked and said, “Yeah, I can see right where it was.”
That Saturday, Kylie and I skipped the yard sales and went clothes shopping instead, just for a change of pace, and because Kylie heard about this big sale. We got some cute things for summer and when we came back, Daniel and Buddy were sitting on my front porch steps.
My grandmother’s Hoosier cabinet was in the back of Buddy’s truck. I hugged them both, and the hug with Daniel lasted a little longer.
“They sold all the rest of the furniture,” he said after they had put it in its proper place in the kitchen, “But Mrs. Melvalene Bodrey had this one piece on her back porch, and she said it wasn’t anything from their side of the family, and she had told the boys to take it back, but they wouldn’t. She said we were welcome to it because it was a piece of junk.”
I said, “That’s fine. That was the one piece I really wanted.”
Kylie said, “It could use a fresh coat of paint.”
Epilogue
Aunt Verily is home and doing better. She hadn’t been taking her blood pressure medicine, and John Robert is making sure she does that. She’s on some new heart medicine, too, and has been given instructions for this low-salt diet she fusses about all the time.
Daniel says she probably won’t have to testify if her doctor thinks she can’t handle it, but she says she doesn’t want Maxie to get away with it.
Shelton Squires got Maxie Lewis out on bail, and nobody’s seen much of her. The folks at Camelot Court seem to be on her side, except for Mr. Robuck, who has told Daniel that it would be easy enough to put a small person like Meredith Merkle in one of those polyethylene wheelbarrows like the one Maxie has, and it would be straight downhill to the Dabneys in the wee hours of the morning.
Daniel thinks that probably how it was, and that once she saw the open sofa bed, she decided that it might take a while for the body to be found.
Josh is worried because the city manager told him that if Aunt Verily retires, he was going to offer me the library job. I don’t want it, but I didn’t tell him that. He raised my pay a little and agreed after some negotiations that I could cover the city council and some feature stories and maybe write a little “round and about” column.
He needed somebody to take Maxie Lewis’ place.
I heard that the Dabneys had a big house-warming and barbecue at their new house by the lake. David’s trial for prescription drug dealing is coming up, but Doris is declaring his innocence to anybody who wants to listen. Dave has announced he won’t run for City Council again.
Flip Tarver must have decided not to have a legal fight over his sister’s estate because we haven’t heard any more about that. However, he did close his shop for ten days to take a trip to Paris.
Kylie and I have gotten back to going to yard sales and thrift shops, even though I’ve got just about everything I need for the house. She says it’s good therapy and that I need to get out of the house more. She says she’s entirely over the whole thing, but she doesn’t think I am.
Then last Saturday we came across a plaid sofa bed at a thrift shop, I dared her to open it.
She wouldn’t. She said, “That’s a really ugly plaid.”
I said, “Look at the bones!”
I know it was awful of us, but we laughed so hard the other people in the store must have thought we were crazy, and then we just ran out without buying anything and laughed some more in the truck.
Did I mention we’ve been best friends since third grade?
THE END
Coming in December
TRASH, TREASURES AND TREACHERY
The River Valley Annual Flood Festival closes with a bang as fireworks light up the sky, kids light some firecrackers of their own, and a gunshot goes unheard. When it’s time to take down the tents, Chamber of Commerce leader (and River Valley Romeo) Cody Granger is found dead.
Once again Kate and Kylie find themselves in the middle of a murder with multiple suspects—including an ex-wife and two grieving girlfriends. Kate’s life is also complicated by a surprise visit from her parents who have a problem of their own to solve.
Also by Charlotte Moore
The Hunter Jones Mysteries:
DEEP SOUTH DEAD
Hunter Jones has recently moved from Atlanta to the small town of Merchantsville, in Magnolia County. She has taken a job as a reporter and photographer for The Magnolia County Weekly Messenger and is living in an upstairs apartment at the home of Miss Rose Tyndale. She is expecting the peace and quiet she needs to write a novel—but things start changing when she goes to interview Mae-Lula Hilliard, the President of the Magnolia County Historical Society and finds the old lady dead in the butler’s pantry of her old mansion. She also finds herself in a bit of conflict with Sheriff Sam Bailey, who wants her out of his murder scene.
DEATH OVER THE DAM
Hunter and Sam, who finally stopped fighting by the end of the first book, are now dating, and that means they’re the talk of Magnolia County. Hunter has hit it off right away with Sam’s daughter, Bethie, but is feeling insecure about the first Mrs. Bailey. The story begins with rain, rain and more rain, as the creeks and river rise and the county is cut in half by a major flood. Sam and his team keep everybody safe, but there’s a problem when a floating wooden coffin turns out to hold someone
whose death wasn’t that long ago. The romance continues and is given a little push by two elderly matchmakers.
WHEN I AM DEAD MY DEAREST
Hunter and Sam are newly-weds, but she surprises the county by keeping her own name. The big story in Merchantsville is that Hill Roland, a novelist who has made a small fortune on vampire novels, has bought his childhood home, and is is moving back with his New York City wife/agent to get serious about a literary novel. Unfortunately, he has a bit of a drinking problem, and a young woman who’s a big fan drives him home from a book signing and winds up dead in his bathroom. It turns out, however, that she ate the poisoned rum balls that were really intended for Hill Roland, and the killer will strike again.
MISSED YOU IN CHURCH
Hunter’s boss retires and she hires Mallory Bremmer—who has just graduated from the Universit of Georgia—to be a reporter, photographer and page designer. Mallory is happy to have the job, and excuse not to spend all of her time being lured into helping with the plans for her younger sister’s big church wedding. Everything begins to spin out of control when Mallory’s stepmother is shot to death on a Sunday morning in their family home, but the wedding invitations have already been sent…
OVER TROUBLED WATER
Hunter is 8 ½ months pregnant when this story begins, and everybody, including Sam and Mallory, wants her to stay at home and rest. Unfortunately, the biggest story of the decade comes along—with a mass shooting of a team of cyclists on the bridge over Foxtail Creek. Three well-known local people are dead, and a fourth is wounded. Things begin to get weird when an anonymous letter from someone called “Abomination” arrives at the paper, and they get stranger still when the son of one of the victims puts new locks on the doors of the family home and won’t let his sister in. The killer gets caught just in the nick of time, and Baby Bailey arrives as the newest character in the cast.
A Body in the Bargain: A Kate & Kylie Mystery Page 15