When Did We Lose Harriet?

by Patricia Sprinkle

  I shook my head. “At this point we don’t need to verify any alibis. All we need to do is eat supper and see if a bird comes to our bait this evening.”

  Thirty-Two

  What the wicked dreads will overtake

  him; what the righteous desire will

  be granted. Proverbs 10:24

  “It was a dark and stormy night,” I murmured.

  Joe Riddley turned from the TV movie he was watching. “What did you say?”

  “Nothing. I was just trying to set the mood—and pass the time.” I nestled against his shoulder and wiggled to get the pillows more comfortable behind my back. “What if this doesn’t work?” I wiggled some more. “Or what if the person I’m expecting does come, but I’m wrong about who killed Harriet?”

  “I still wish you’d tell me who you suspect—and stop worrying,” Joe Riddley growled. “If nobody comes or we don’t get a confession, we’ve lost a night’s sleep and watched a good movie—if you’ll hush and let me see it.”

  It was well past eleven, and by now my bottom was numb and there was no comfortable position left to sit. We were propped, of course, on our bed in room 214 at the Marriott watching Midway—an old World War II movie Joe Riddley’s already seen a hundred times and never passes up a chance to see again. Carter, hopefully, was standing guard by the peephole in his room across the hall.

  Thunder rumbled beyond the windows. I got up and padded across the floor to pull back the drapes. Outside our windows, Nature was just beginning another spectacular performance. Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled. Even as I watched, rain began sheeting down.

  “If nobody’s come by now, we wasted our time,” I complained. “Nobody in their right mind, even a desperate mind, would come out now in that storm.”

  “Little Bit,” Joe Riddley said in exasperation, “if you don’t stop talking I am going to call down and rent you another room. Hush! Here come the American dive bombers! Watch what happens.”

  I knew what was going to happen. Aircraft carriers were going to blow up. People were going to die. America was going to win. I’d lived the book.

  “I wish we’d gotten some Co-colas.” I climbed off the bed for a glass of water.

  “Go get some,” Joe Riddley told me, intent on his movie. “My wallet’s on the dresser.” I knew he wasn’t thinking about what he was saying, but I was bored enough to go. Nobody was going to come this late and in all that rain.

  I took the ice bucket and some dollars from his wallet and left with the feeling I was being let out of jail. Waiting has never been my strong suit. Unfortunately, the ice machine was slow, and the drink machine kept spitting back my dollars. I smoothed out all the wrinkles and ran them through four times each before going to the office for some change. Nobody will ever convince me that machines aren’t conscious beings. They always know when you are in a hurry, and do all they can to hold you up.

  Finally, carrying two canned Co-colas and a bucket of ice, I hurried back to our room. Rounding a corner, I saw ahead of me down the hall, almost at our door, the killer of Harriet Lawson. Nora Sykes. With a gun.

  It was a small silver gun. It gleamed very prettily in the hall lights, then slid nicely into the pocket of that lovely full green skirt I’d admired at the hospital. With it, Nora wore the marvelous green and purple top I liked so much. She even had on her pretty green shoes.

  She raised her hand to knock at the door. In the next two seconds, I had approximately a million thoughts, all jumbled together. One was a very clear picture of Joe Riddley opening that door and getting a bullet plumb through him. Another was to wonder if it would help if I screamed and swooned. I didn’t know how to swoon. Besides, chances were good that Nora would shoot me and then turn to shoot Joe Riddley as soon as he showed the whites of his dear, familiar eyes.

  A third thought was to wish I’d gotten training in karate or jujitsu, one of those fancy methods of sneaking up on somebody and knocking them cold before they suspect a thing—except, given my agility in other sports, I’d have been maimed for life during training.

  A fourth thought was to wonder if I could throw a canned drink and knock her out. Since I can’t throw a round baseball straight at close range, the very best I could hope for at that distance with a canned Co-cola was that it would hit the ground, spew all over, and distract her for a second.

  I am ashamed to admit I even wondered if I’d get to find out where she got those shoes before she shot me.

  Finally I remembered something my mama always said: Use the gifts the good Lord gave you, girl. That’s what they are for.

  At that moment, the only two weapons that stood between Joe Riddley Yarbrough and a small silver gun—besides two cold Co-colas and a full ice bucket—were Southern charm and a carrying voice.

  “Why, hello!” I called brightly and very loudly down the hall, hurrying toward her. “Were you looking for me, Nora?”

  She turned toward me, startled. Do you know, she was so well trained by her mother that she actually smiled? I kept walking. Having read somewhere that a moving target is harder to hit, I wove back and forth across that wide hall, hoping I looked either drunk or very sleepy.

  “I’m so sorry,” I called, sounding as apologetic as if I’d stood up Rosalynn Carter when I’d invited her to tea. “I got very thirsty and ran down for some drinks, but I got lost coming back. I don’t stay in hotels very often, and I plumb forgot my room number. Wasn’t that silly? I’ve written it on every scrap of paper I could find all day long, and I still forgot.”

  From a moment’s uncertainty in her white still face, I thought I’d scored with that. I hoped she was thinking Maybe the number on that piece of paper wasn’t the out-of-town visitor’s room after all.

  She still hadn’t said a word as I came nearer, but I pretended not to notice.

  “I had to go ask the desk clerk,” I babbled on. “I hope you haven’t been standing there too long.” I got within handing range. “Here, if you’ll hold these for a second, I’ll get the key out of my pocket.” I stuck out the two drinks, and she automatically put out both hands to take them. I tucked the ice bucket in my left elbow and fumbled with my right hand in my pants and then my jacket pocket.

  Come on, Carter! I was silently urging. Where are you? Get your eye to that peephole and get yourself out that door before this dadgum killer turns around and sees you! Now, while we’ve both got our backs to you and her hands are full! And Joe Riddley, don’t you dare open our door.

  Both doors remained obstinately shut.

  Since I kept my eyes fixed on Nora’s face, I sensed rather than saw when she stuck both Cokes in one hand and lowered her other hand back toward her gun pocket. Come on, Carter! I thought, trying to send a louder silent message through the door across the hall. He must not have on his listening ears.

  “Oh, no!” I exclaimed, louder than before. “I’ve left my key inside on the dresser. I’ll have to—”

  At least I’d gotten the attention of a man next door. “What’s going on out there?” A very large and irate head stuck out his door. “People are trying to sleep around here.”

  “Sorry!” I put a finger to my lips and gave him my silliest smile. “I’ve locked myself out of my room.”

  “Go ask for a key at the desk.” He was about to go back inside, leaving us alone in the hall.

  “Could you just call and ask them to bring one?” I pleaded, hoping I could still bat my lashes when my whole face felt frozen. “Tell them poor Mrs. Yarbrough is standing right here waiting, with her guest, Nora Sykes. Please!”

  He slammed the door behind him, hard. I doubted, somehow, that he was going to call for my key, and I had run out of clever things to say.

  I’ve never been good at a poker face, anyway, and I’d spoken too desperately and too deliberately. Nora slid her hand back in her pocket. With the entire world to choose from, I was going to die in this hall.

  I had to know one thing before it happened. “Why did you kill Harriet, Nora?”
>
  She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “For the money, of course. Julie needs it for college. Poor William’s just not a businessman. I doubt if he’d be able to pay for more than a year at a quality college.”

  I thought for a second about trying to distract her with a discussion of the American university system, but she’d already made me too mad. People who assume that some colleges are automatically better than others always get my dander up. I sit on the board of our local community college, and if it’s not quality, I don’t know what is. “Surely you’ve got enough money to send her yourself,” I said, with just that little edge to my charm that any Southern woman worth her salt knows how to use.

  Her eyes flashed. “Of course I have enough, but that’s not the point. Julie deserves that money. Harriet didn’t. She’d have wasted her whole inheritance. That’s probably the only thing in history that Dee and I have ever agreed on.”

  “You can’t kill people just because they don’t spend their money the way you think they should,” I pointed out, stalling for time and wondering where the dickens Carter was.

  “I didn’t want to kill her. For nearly a week I kept trying to persuade her to sign a paper, but Harriet wouldn’t listen to reason. Very foolish.” Her green eyes glittered in the light. She held out the cans. “Please take these drinks. They are very cold.”

  I ignored her request. “From what I’ve heard about Harriet, you can’t have had an easy time with her for nearly a week.”

  A small and very unpleasant smile flickered on her lips. “I drugged her soft drinks. That child drinks more of them than you would think possible. The poor dear thought she had a touch of the flu. And I kept telling her we were going to see her mother as soon as she felt better. It wasn’t as hard as you might think. Now take these drinks, please.” Again she thrust them at me.

  I shook my head. “Put them down if you don’t want them.”

  She bent her knees and tumbled them from her arm onto the carpet, watching me every second. If I gave one quick thought to shoving her while she was distracted and trying to get away before she could shoot, I was too spineless to try.

  “So you had Harriet up at your lake house all week?” I asked as she stood erect, right hand still in her pocket. She didn’t answer. Desperately, I kept talking. “I know it’s true, Nora, just like I know you killed her. I even know how. Nicotiana, wasn’t it? Out of William’s flower beds. The tobacco family is so deadly in any form.”

  I’d startled her. “How did you guess?”

  “We’re in the nursery business. If the cigarettes under Harriet were supposed to make forensics think she was a smoker, you could have saved yourself the trouble. A medical examiner I called this afternoon told me they routinely find nicotine in everybody these days. We’ve all got it, even rabid nonsmokers like Harriet. He said they don’t even bother to report it a lot of the time. They didn’t for Harriet, but he’s going back to check their findings.”

  Over her shoulder I saw a movement. Carter, far down the corridor, edging along the wall. Where in heaven’s name had he been? Terrified I’d give a sign I’d seen him, I willed myself to look straight at Nora. At the edge of my vision, Carter crept closer and closer. Would he get to her before she got me? And how could I stall her until he did?

  Your mind does the strangest things sometimes. I found myself once again admiring Nora’s pretty green and purple sweater. “I know it’s changing the subject, Nora, but would you mind telling me where you got those shoes? I’ve been wanting some that very shade of green.”

  Her eyes flickered toward her feet, but the instant was too short for me to run. “Dillard’s, honey. They’re soft as gloves. You can try them on in the car. Don’t look surprised. We’re going for a little ride. Now I have a gun in my pocket, so don’t make a scene. Would you please turn around and lead the way to the ele—”

  She stopped, diverted by something over my shoulder. “Oh, dear. Your husband is out looking for you.” Her forehead puckered in a worried frown.

  I whirled. That fool Joe Riddley was getting off the elevator! I tried to shoo him back, but the dummox just waved back and started loping up the long hall.

  “Such a nice man,” Nora murmured, almost to herself, “but he’s made things very difficult.” Slowly and deliberately she pulled the little gun from her pocket. “I doubt I can shoot both of you and get away, but as my daddy used to say, we never know what we can do until we try.”

  “No!” I gasped. “He doesn’t know a thing. Really! Run, Joe Riddley! Run!” You find out how much you really love somebody when you’re about to lose them.

  Nora wasn’t listening to either one of us. She was raising the little gun until it was aimed directly at my chest. “No!” Joe Riddley yelled, pounding up the hall.

  Over her shoulder, Carter was still one room away.

  I didn’t take time to think. I threw my whole bucket of ice in her face.

  Startled, she staggered backwards. Carter sprang forward. As he pinned her arms to her side, I saw her finger tighten on the trigger.

  I flung myself face forward onto the scratchy carpet as the shot rang out. Heard it whiz over my head. “Watch out, Joe Riddley!” I screamed.

  I heard him throw himself to the floor. “What in tarnation…?”

  Carter struggled with Nora for what seemed an hour but was probably seconds. She was stronger than she looked. I reached for her ankle and tugged. She shook her foot trying to loosen my grip, and toppled backwards. Carter wrested the gun from her as she fell and dropped it to the carpet near my head. Then he held her down while she wriggled to get free.

  I grabbed the gun and clutched it close to my chest. Doors up and down the hall flew open and cautious heads popped out.

  “Go back to bed. It’s okay, folks, go back to bed,” Joe Riddley climbed to his feet and flapped his hands. For all the world he sounded like he does on Wednesday nights, quieting the church supper crowd before the program. He bent and peered down at me. “You okay down there, Little Bit?”

  Mama often said no experience is ever wasted. Since that moment, I’ve known how to swoon.

  Thirty-Three

  The LORD works out everything

  for his own ends—even the wicked

  for a day of disaster. Proverbs 16:4

  Jake shifted himself on his pillows and pulled the covers up around his chest. “All right, now, begin at the beginning and tell us everything.”

  “Do you think you are up to this?” Glenna reached out an anxious hand to touch him. She was perched awkwardly on the bed at his waist. Joe Riddley sat leaning up against the footboard, and I leaned against him. Ever since I fainted, I’d needed him real close by.

  “Nora pulled a gun on my big sister,” Jake said indignantly. “I want to know why.”

  “Because MacLaren had to have one of her Co-colas.” Joe Riddley put his arm around me and squeezed, then left it there. “I was so involved with my movie, I didn’t think about what she was doing until she was out of sight. I called Carter, and he pointed out that she could be in danger if she ran into somebody out there alone, so he said we ought to go after her. By the time we got to the vending room, though, she’d gone to the lobby. We went back to the room, thinking she’d gone back a different way, and when she wasn’t there, we panicked and started combing the halls. We got back just in time. You do beat all, Little Bit, for getting around!”

  I laid my head on his shoulder. “You’re a fine one to talk. Look at how much effort I wasted trying to keep you from opening the danged door. I’d have let Nora beat on it till she was blue in the face, if I’d known you were out gallivanting.” I lifted my face for a kiss.

  “You two can smooch later,” Jake said grumpily. “What about the story?” I didn’t blame him for sounding peeved. We’d roused him up from a sound sleep much too early, but Joe Riddley and I had been at the police station for hours. We’d decided to wake Glenna and Jake and tell them everything right away, then we could all go to bed.
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br />   “You are certain Nora killed Harriet?” Glenna twisted her hands in her lap.

  I nodded. “Positive. She told me she did, then made a full confession to the police before William and her lawyer got there. Now they have persuaded her to take it back, of course, but Carter doesn’t think they’ll have much trouble proving it.”

  Her gray eyes were huge with pain. “Why, Clara? Why would she do such a thing?”

  “Dee’s mother’s money. Nora knew—even if Lou Ella didn’t—that William’s business was in hot water. She wanted them to have enough to send Julie to what she calls ‘a quality college.’“

  I paused for Jake’s predictable reply. Sure enough, “Send her to Auburn.”

  “It was William’s insisting on sending her to Bama that started all this,” I informed him. “Nora felt if they had more money, though, they’d be willing to send Julie to one of the colleges Nora planned to show her, and she was dead certain Julie would like one of them better than a big state school. Also, as we grandmothers tend to do, she felt her own granddaughter both needed and deserved that money far more than Harriet. She decided to get it for her. Nora insists she didn’t set out to kill Harriet, though. She just wanted to pressure her into signing a paper giving her inheritance to Julie. So, on June fourth, Nora called Harriet at the club, pretended to be her mother, and set up an appointment in the cemetery. She met Harriet there and took her up to the lake house—promising that her mother would be waiting. All week she kept her there, insisting she sign the paper.”

  “Why didn’t Harriet just run away?” Jake wondered. “She seemed to have plenty of gumption the one time I saw her.”

  “Nora kept her sedated,” I explained, “and told her she had the flu. She also kept promising to take Harriet to her mother as soon as she felt better and signed the paper. Harriet, however, kept refusing to sign, and the Sykeses were supposed to leave for the mountains Friday afternoon. Finally, Friday morning, Nora poisoned her. When Harriet was nearly dead, she drove her to the cemetery and left her in the kudzu.”