Hope Callaghan - Garden Girls 06 - Magnolia Mansion Mysteries

by Hope Callaghan

  Gloria leaned in to study the yellow disc. “You built that?” She shook her head. “No! I don’t want to know.”

  “I’ll be right back.” Lucy picked up the gun and headed to the garage to put it away. She returned a few minutes later. “So what brings you by?”

  “My head is spinning over this skeleton in the dumpster,” she admitted. She trailed behind Lucy as they headed up the steps and indoors.

  Lucy washed her hands at the sink before she filled a teakettle with tap water. She set the kettle on the stove and turned the burner on.

  She leaned against the counter and faced her friend. “I’ve heard bits and pieces but only that the body is old, which gets Andrea off the hook for a change. Rumor has it that the body might belong to Abe Johnson’s stepbrother, Hank, who mysteriously disappeared.”

  Gloria nodded. The teakettle started to whistle. Lucy grabbed two teacups from the cupboard, dropped a tea bag inside each cup and then filled them with hot water.

  She carried them to the table before reaching into the small pantry next to the fridge. Lucy pulled out a plastic container filled with cookies.

  Gloria eyed the cookies with interest and reached for the container. “What kind are these?”

  “Variety pack.” Lucy them on the table.

  Gloria’s ring caught the kitchen light.

  “Oh my gosh!” Lucy grabbed Gloria’s hand. “Did you get a new ring?”

  Gloria blushed. “Yeah, Paul gave it to me last night.”

  “Does this mean wedding bells will be chiming in the near future?”

  “He didn’t ask me to marry him,” Gloria said.

  Lucy opened the container and pulled out a peanut butter cookie. She took a big bite then set it on the napkin in front of her.

  Gloria grabbed an oatmeal raisin cookie and nibbled on the edge. “His kids are finally moving out.”

  “Well, thank the Lord,” Lucy exclaimed. She’d listened to Gloria grumble about it for weeks now. “How’d he managed that?”

  Lucy smiled as Gloria told her the story about the cat and how Tina, his daughter-in-law, was allergic to them. “That was a good idea.”

  Lucy sipped her hot tea and reached for a second cookie. This time, she went for the chocolate chip. “So tell me what you know about the body.”

  “Not much.” Gloria remembered the photo. “I’ll be right back.”

  She walked out to the car, grabbed the picture off the passenger seat and headed back inside. By now, Lucy was on cookie number three.

  Gloria shook her head. “If I ate cookies that fast, I’d have a stomach ache.”

  Lucy nodded. “It takes practice. Years of practice. Kind of like getting ready for a marathon. Cookie-eating is like endurance-building.”

  Gloria glanced down at her napkin. She was still working on her oatmeal raisin cookie. She put the photo on the table and slid it towards her friend.

  Lucy grabbed her reading glasses from a stack of papers nearby and slipped them on. She picked the photo up and studied it. “Who’s the woman on the end?”

  “My mother,” Gloria answered. “Maybe,” she added.

  Lucy’s head shot up. “Your mother? She worked at the mill?”

  “That’s what Doc Decker told me. He said she didn’t work there very long. Something happened and my dad made her quit.”

  Lucy devoured two more cookies as Gloria told her the story of Abe owning the mill. She went on to explain how his stepbrother had come to work for him for a short time until he mysteriously disappeared.

  She also told her how everyone she’d talked to disliked the man.

  “So you’re thinking the remains in the dumpster belong to this Hank Johnson,” Lucy said. She glanced out the window. “Bill’s here.”

  Gloria stood. “What are you two up to today? Blowing more stuff up?”

  “We’re going to look at quads,” she said.

  Gloria reached for her purse. “You mean those four-wheel thingys?”

  Lucy nodded. “Yeah, they’d be pretty fun to take out back in the fields and ride around. You know, look for deer and stuff.”

  Gloria could picture Lucy, a rifle slung over her shoulder, as she rode around the fields in search of helpless prey. She shook her head. “How about a lunch date in Grand Rapids? We can go shopping.”

  Lucy walked her to her car as Bill got out of his truck.

  Gloria smiled and nodded but didn’t stop to talk.

  “I’d like that,” Lucy told her as Gloria slipped in the driver’s seat.

  Gloria started her car and headed to the road. In her rearview mirror, she watched as Bill slung his arm around Lucy’s shoulders and they walked inside.

  Lucy really seemed to like Bill. Gloria only wished he’d do a little more of what Lucy was interested in. Of course, she seemed pretty excited about blowing stuff up, which concerned Gloria a bit.

  Chapter 9

  Back at the farm, Gloria rambled around the yard. She wandered over to the garden to water it then stepped back inside. She looked around her kitchen, still feeling as if she needed something to do.

  Maybe it was time for a long overdue visit from her grandsons, Tyler and Ryan.

  Gloria picked up the phone and dialed her daughter’s number. Jill picked up on the first ring. “Hi Mom.”

  “Hello Jill. How are you?”

  Jill let out a long, aggravated sigh. “I’ll be glad when school starts. The boys are driving me nuts!” she admitted.

  Gloria grinned. Yes, her grandsons could be a handful. What they needed was some fresh, country air! Somewhere to run around and release some of that pent up energy! “That’s why I’m calling. To ask if they could come spend the night.”

  “Seriously? They would love it. I would love it,” Jill told her.

  “How about tomorrow night? I can catch up on some things here around the house and then I’ll have plenty of time to spend with them tomorrow.”

  Before she hung up, Jill told her they’d see her around noon the next day and she’d bring the boys overnight bags.

  Gloria hung up the phone, pleased that she would not only be able to spend time with her precious grandsons, but that her daughter could have a much-needed break.

  Gloria spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the house, mopping floors, and doing some laundry. As she worked, her mind wandered to the paintings. She thought about the body and Hank Johnson. Her gut told her the remains in the dumpster belonged to him.

  What if Abe was the killer? What if they had gotten into an argument and Abe had hid his body? But Abe was long gone. That meant someone else knew about Hank’s body. Someone that lived in the small, quiet town of Belhaven.

  Gloria finally finished all her housework and plopped down in the kitchen chair. She wasn’t in the mood to cook. She wasn’t in the mood for Dot’s, either. She thought about her sister, Liz, whom she hadn’t seen her in quite some time. She picked her cell phone off the table and dialed Liz’s number.

  The phone rang and rang. Gloria was almost ready to hang up when a breathless Liz answered. “Hello?”

  “Hey Liz. Everything okay? You sound like you just ran around the block,” Gloria told her.

  “I wish that was all it was,” Liz moaned. “Frances is driving me crazy.” Frances was Liz’s closest friend. They both lived in Dreamwood Retirement Community in nearby Green Springs.

  Jill had been trying to talk her mother into moving there for a couple years now. Something that Gloria was bound and determined not to do.

  There was way too much drama at that place. Not only that, her sister, Liz, was almost always right in the thick of it!

  “What’s wrong with Frances?” Hard telling with Frances. She and Liz were a lot alike. Maybe that was why they were so close. From one drama queen to another…

  “Milt is missing,” Liz told her.

  Milt was Frances’s love interest. Frances had been chasing poor Milt for years now. He was one of only a handful of eligible bachelors that lived i
n Dreamwood. He had at least a dozen women at any given time waiting on his beck and call. “Maybe he ran off with one of his girlfriends.”

  “Yeah. We should be so lucky,” Liz muttered. She changed the subject. “So what’s new with you?”

  Gloria scratched a small speck off the kitchen counter with her fingernail. She wiped it into the sink. “I was trying to decide what to do for dinner and thought of you. Are you free?”

  That seemed to cheer Liz up. “Yeah! I need something to take my mind off Milt,” she said wryly.

  Before she hung up, Gloria agreed to meet Liz at her apartment and then they would run over to the community cafeteria for dinner. Gloria made a quick trip to the bathroom to freshen up before she grabbed her purse and car keys.

  Mally pulled herself from her doggy bed. She wagged her tail at Gloria, who paused for a fraction of a second. The residents at Dreamwood loved Mally and were always so excited when Gloria brought her by. “Okay, girl. You can come too!” Mally darted to the door, a one-eyed teddy bear firmly clenched in her jaw.

  Mally climbed in the passenger side, riding shotgun, which was her normal place in the car if Gloria didn’t have someone else tagging along.

  The evening air was warm. Gloria rolled down the front windows to let the fresh air in. Mally hung her head out the passenger door for most of the ride.

  Gloria grinned when she noticed her tongue hanging out of her mouth, a smile on her face.

  She pulled the car into a visitor parking spot, directly across from Liz’s shiny new four-door sedan. The two of them climbed out of the car and headed to the slider out front.

  Liz was waiting for them. She flung the door open before she reached down and patted Mally’s head. “Look who we have here – my favorite super dog!”

  She rubbed Mally’s ears. “I have something for you,” she told her. Ever since Mally had saved the girls’ lives up in the mountains, Mally held a special place in Liz’s heart.

  She trotted off to the kitchen and came back moments later with a surprise, which Mally gratefully accepted. She licked Liz’s hand in a show of appreciation before grabbing the doggie treat in her mouth and wandering over to the corner to devour the tasty morsel.

  Gloria watched the exchange. “So what’s this about Milt being missing?”

  Liz looked up. “He disappeared a couple days ago. No one has seen hide nor hair of him. Frances is freaking out.”

  The three of them stepped onto the sidewalk. Liz locked the door behind them.

  It was a short walk to Dreamwood’s main restaurant, “Dreamwood Eats.” There was one other restaurant in the complex, “Fifth Plate.” It was more of an upscale restaurant for special occasions. The only other place to grab a bite to eat was the snack shack inside the clubhouse, near the golf course.

  Gloria had to admit Dreamwood had a ton of activities for residents. It just wasn’t her thing. At least not yet. Perhaps it was something else that stopped her from seriously considering a move. Gloria thought in the back of her mind if she moved to a place like Dreamwood, she’d be surrendering some of her independence.

  Liz seemed to love it. She held the door and waited as Gloria and Mally stepped inside. The place was busy and it was only 5:00 in the afternoon.

  Gloria glanced at the signboard on the way to the back. “Today’s special is liver and onions.” She wrinkled her nose. She wasn’t too picky of an eater but she hated liver and onions.

  Liz grinned, fully aware of Gloria’s aversion to the special. “I’m sure you can find something else to eat.”

  They made their way over to the end of the line. Gloria grabbed a tray then handed one to Liz. The smell of fresh baked bread filled the air. Her stomach grumbled as she set the tray on the metal runner.

  Gloria started with a small side salad and moved onto the hot items. She set two pieces of meatloaf off to the side, grabbed a bowl of mashed potatoes and brown gravy before sliding forward.

  It was then she spied the fried chicken. Her mouth watered. She glanced down at her plate. There was plenty of room for a piece of chicken. She set it on her plate and added a mound of corn to the small space she had left.

  “The raspberry tea is really good,” Liz told her.

  Raspberry tea sounded perfect. Gloria grabbed a plastic cup, filled it half full of ice and then topped it off with the tea.

  She and Mally waited for Liz at the end of the line. “Where do you want to sit?” She glanced around the room. A few of the faces looked familiar but the names… Gloria had a hard time remembering names. She tried word association. Sometimes that worked but there were times it backfired on her. Like the time she called Harry Washenter, one of the residents – Henry Kissinger. It was an honest mistake but Liz still teased her about it.

  Liz pointed with one finger, her hand still gripping the heavy tray. “Over there. I see a couple open chairs next to Frances.”

  Gloria and Mally followed Liz to the empty seats. Gloria set her tray on the table and settled in. Thankfully, she had remembered to grab a paper plate from the food line. She lifted a slice of meatloaf from her own plate and chopped it into small pieces.

  She put the pieces on the paper plate and set it on the floor beside her. Mally licked her hand in appreciation before turning to the tasty morsels.

  Gloria turned to Frances. “Heard anything from Milt?”

  Liz narrowed her eyes and shook her head - but it was too late.

  France lifted her head. Her eyes filled with tears. “Not a peep,” she answered sorrowfully.

  Gloria quickly changed the subject. She pointed to the front doors. “I noticed they’re having a dance here tomorrow night,” she said.

  Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to help matters as a tear trickled down poor Frances’s face. “Milt was going to take me.”

  Liz scowled at Gloria and turned to her friend. “Did you hear about the body they found out in Belhaven?”

  “I hope it’s not Milt’s,” Frances wailed. She burst into tears and buried her face in her hands.

  Gloria reached over and wrapped her arm around Frances’s shoulders. “I’m almost 100% certain it’s not Milt,” she assured her.

  Frances shoved her chair back, grabbed her walker that was next to her chair and bolted from the room. Gloria’s heart sank as she watched her shuffled from the room.

  Liz chewed on the end of a French fry. “Nice going, sis,” she said.

  Gloria’s head whipped around. She glared at Liz. “You didn’t do much better.” She mimicked her sister. “Did you hear about the body they found in Belhaven?”

  Liz shrugged. Yeah. It probably wasn’t the best choice in words to say to someone whose love interest had just disappeared. “So how is the investigation going?”

  Gloria shrugged. “Kind of at a standstill until they identify the body,” she admitted.

  Gloria told her who she thought it was and why. She changed the subject and they talked about Jill and the boys. Liz mentioned that her son, Eric, was coming for a visit. Eric lived somewhere out in Colorado. Gloria could never remember exactly where. He had a girlfriend that Liz had never met. “Is he bringing his girlfriend?”

  “Casey?” Liz sawed off a piece of the liver on her plate and took a bite. “Yep. Finally get to meet her.”

  After they finished eating, the three of them wandered back to Liz’s place. They chatted for a while and the conversation turned to the coins. “David said they’re close to a decision and it’s looking good.”

  Gloria tried not to get her hopes up. She didn’t want to be disappointed if the courts ruled in the state’s favor. She glanced at her watch. “We better go. I want to get home before dark.”

  Liz walked her to the door. “How’s it going with Al?” Gloria asked as she grabbed the door handle.

  Liz blushed. Her eyes slid to the ground. “Pretty good,” she answered vaguely.

  “Hmm.” Gloria nodded. She didn’t press the issue.

  Gloria and Mally strolled back to the car.
She opened the door for Mally then slid into the driver’s seat before heading back to Belhaven.

  Dot’s dinner rush was over and only a couple cars were parked out front. For a split second, Gloria thought about stopping but drove on instead.

  She needed a good night’s rest what with the boys coming the next day. Mally and Gloria headed inside and settled in to watch Gloria’s favorite TV show, Detective on the Side.

  After the show ended, she wandered off to bed with Mally and Puddles in tow. She switched off the light and slid in between the sheets. Mally crawled in on the other side and Puddles curled up next to Gloria’s head. She squeezed her eyes shut and began to pray, asking God for a restful night, certain that tomorrow was going to be a busy one!

  Chapter 10

  Gloria woke early the next morning. At first, her foggy brain couldn’t register exactly why she was up so early, then it dawned on her. Her grandsons, Tyler and Ryan, were coming for a visit!

  She flung back the covers, shoved her feet in her slippers and headed to the kitchen for a pot of caffeine.

  Mally headed for the porch door and let out a low whine. It was time to go out.

  Gloria pulled her robe tight and cinched the belt before stepping onto the porch. She smoothed her hair back and reached for the paper.

  Smack dab on the front page of the morning paper was the headline: “Bad Luck or Black Widow?” Below the caption was a picture of Andrea’s house with the dumpster off to the side. Her heart sank. She hoped Andrea hadn’t seen the paper – but chances are, she had.

  She and Mally wandered into the house. Gloria set the paper on the table and poured a cup of coffee before sliding into a kitchen chair and slipping on her glasses. The article was brief. It told how another body – this one a skeleton – had been found in a dumpster out in front of the newly-renovated house. The article mentioned Andrea by name. How her husband had been found murdered and just weeks later, a body had been found in the shed on the property she had just purchased.

  After she read the article, she folded the paper in half and shoved it to the back of the table. It did seem as if Andrea had the worst luck in the world. What were the chances of another body popping up on her property?