Murder by Christmas (Edna Davies mysteries)

by Young, Suzanne

  Gran set the teapot and mugs in the middle of the table and went back to the counter for a plate of brownies. “We need chocolate to go with our tea. Helps us think better,” she said with a grin. She was obviously pleased that Edna had asked for her help. “How nice of you to remember about my kitten.” She sat as Edna continued to make notes. “You said someone saw Mary at the shelter yesterday afternoon. Shall we go there, too? Maybe we can talk to some of the neighbors.”

  “That was next on my list,” Edna agreed, scribbling rapidly. “Charlie spoke to at least one person who said she saw Bethany. Maybe that person can tell us if she saw Mary at the same time. I’d like to go back to Krispin’s Kitchen and talk to Vinnie. He might remember something else they talked about when he drove Bethany to the train station. At the very least, he should have her phone number. Charlie’s sending someone to talk to her, but I want to speak with her, too.”

  Thoughts of the young woman in Boston made Edna think of her youngest daughter at that moment. If Starling weren’t visiting her brother in Colorado, she might have been called upon to visit the Marco family and question Bethany herself. Edna sighed, missing her daughter particularly at that moment. She’d have liked to talk things over with her youngest child who had shared more than one mishap with her.

  Having jotted down the obvious first steps, she accepted the mug Gran held out and took a cautious sip of the hot liquid. After a moment’s thought, she said, “I’d like to find the woman with the blue car. I’m not certain how she fits into the picture, but I got the impression she wasn’t one of Laurel’s volunteers … or one of Laurel’s admirers,” Edna added, remembering the woman who had stormed out of CATS and nearly knocked her down the previous morning.

  “How are we to do that, find someone based on the color of a car?” Gran picked up a brownie and nibbled a corner.

  “I don’t know.” Edna gave a rueful smile. “We could use Mary’s expertise with this,” she said dryly. “I’ll add the blue-car woman to our list, and we can figure out how to go about finding her after we’ve investigated these other avenues.” Dutifully, she wrote down Woman with blue car, license ending 32. Immediately, she thought of something else and wrote Did Mary contact Kevin to plow her driveway?

  “In case Charlie is too busy to contact him beforehand, I’d like to find a personal phone number for Kevin Lockhorn, but I’m not certain how to do that either. He’s new in town, so wouldn’t be listed. He’s probably got only a cell, at any rate,” Edna spoke aloud, more to herself than to Gran. “And I’d like to talk to any of Laurel’s volunteers we can find. I’m grabbing at straws, but it’s possible that Mary might have contacted one of them. Charlie’s going over to look for Laurel’s papers. I might be able to get a list of the volunteers from him.”

  “Speaking of volunteering,” Gran said, “doesn’t Mary do some work at the local hospital? Do you suppose she might have been in touch with someone there?”

  “Gran, you’re a genius,” Edna said, adding the South County Hospital to her list. “She hates to miss visiting the patients with the book cart. Certainly, she’d call to let them know if she wasn’t going to show up for her shift.” Sitting back in the chair, Edna pushed her list to the middle of the table where Gran could see it, realizing as she did so that she had just created another to-do list.

  And with all I have to do in the next two days--Christmas cards, housecleaning, grocery shopping, cooking … She was immediately ashamed of herself. Everything else could wait. Finding Mary was the most important task she had right now.

  “Oh, my,” said Gran, as if reading Edna’s next thought, “where do we begin?”

  Chapter 13

  Once decided on a plan and having straightened up the kitchen, Edna and Gran set out for Mary’s house. First, Edna had to find the green plastic frog in the herb garden at her own house to retrieve her neighbor’s key. By now, accumulation was nearing eight inches and the snow was still falling, quietly and gently but persistently. She would have to burrow to find a four-inch-tall frog.

  She carefully backed down Gran’s slippery driveway, skidding at the bottom as she gave the Kia more gas to get over a mound of snow left by the road plows while the women had been having lunch. She’d expected to park alongside the road and trudge the hundred yards to her house, but found to her delight that someone had plowed her driveway. There didn’t seem to have been enough time since she’d spoken to Charlie for the teenagers to have done the job, so she guessed the Good Samaritan had been Kevin, having recently seen him plowing Mary’s driveway. She was silently blessing him until she got around the sleigh and reindeer in the middle of her circular drive. He had pushed the snow hard up against the front and rear bumpers of her car. What strange behavior, she thought with a sudden surge of doubt as to the man’s mental stability. Why would he do such a thing?

  “Look what someone’s done,” Gran exclaimed, giving voice to Edna’s thoughts.

  “Kevin Lockhorn, most likely.” Edna frowned, studying the packed snow as she eased the Kia past her Buick sedan and pulled up in front of it.

  “The man I met at your party last night?” Gran’s disbelief was evident. “He seemed so nice, I wouldn’t have thought he’d do something like this.”

  “There must be an explanation,” Edna said, still unable to understand the bizarre behavior. Had Kevin really done this or had someone else? He was the only one she’d seen plowing snow in the neighborhood. Was it his idea of a joke?

  Sitting for a minute to ponder the situation, Edna decided she’d take time to get her cell phone from the house and call Charlie before searching for the frog containing Mary’s key. Since he was going to call Kevin to ask if he’d heard from Mary, Charlie might also be able to find out why Kevin would have blocked her car. When she first met him, she’d marveled at how much he looked like his uncle and, most likely because of that resemblance, she’d assumed he had a personality to match. Tom Greene never would have behaved in the manner just displayed by his nephew. Now, she wondered if Kevin might be more like his cousin. Norm Wilkins was as malicious and cruel as Tom had been thoughtful and kind.

  She pushed the suppositions firmly from her mind. This was no time to sit and speculate. She’d ask Charlie to send the Benton brothers over to dig out her car. If they’d already been by and seen that the entrance at the road had been cleared, they wouldn’t have come up to the house. Not only the large oak tree but also the Christmas sleigh and reindeer in the middle of the circle would have blocked the boys’ view. Besides getting rid of the snow packed around her vehicle, the Bentons could shovel the stoop at the front door and the brick path around to the back.

  “Wait here, Gran. I won’t be long.” Edna left the motor running to continue warming the car. Stepping out, she noticed footsteps in the snow leading around the side of the house. Oddly, the left boot heel looked as if a piece of the inside edge had been sliced off. She was grateful for someone having tramped down the snow, probably Kevin, but disturbed as to what he’d been doing. He hadn’t bothered to shovel the walk, so why had he come this way?

  Following the footsteps to the back door, she was relieved when she entered the mudroom to find Benjamin in his bed. He yawned and blinked at her, apparently having been awakened from an afternoon nap. If anyone had been in the house, Benjamin would not be acting so casual. Giving his ears a rub, she told him to go back to sleep and hurried through the kitchen to her small office off the front hallway.

  When Charlie didn’t pick up her call, she wasn’t concerned. If he was busy, he generally checked to see who was calling and, if he decided it had nothing to do with work, let it ring through to voice messaging. She left a brief request for him to call the Bentons and to call her back when he had the time, preferably before he spoke with Kevin. Just as well. Explaining about her blocked car and the footprints would take time, and Gran was waiting in the Kia. Having left her message, she slipped the phone into her coat pocket and went out to scuff around in the snow for a four-inch h
igh, green plastic frog.

  Once they arrived at Mary’s back door, Gran insisted on accompanying Edna into the house. “I’m not letting you go in alone,” she announced, unbuckling her seat belt.

  As had become her habit, Edna used the back door which opened into the hall off the kitchen. Opposite the door, a set of stairs led to the second floor. The house was cold and silent. Not cold enough for the pipes to burst, Edna thought with relief. It felt as though the heat were on, but not set too high, the way it would be left if Mary planned to be away for a while. Was that a good sign or not, Edna wondered and thought about the party to be held here in two days’ time.

  “What a lovely old house.” Gran’s voice brought Edna out of her musings. The older woman had moved past Edna and gone into the kitchen where she stood in the archway to the dining room. She was looking through to a bank of tall windows that allowed a panoramic view of the yard, stone walls and woods at the back of the house.

  “I never saw these rooms in their original state, so I can only imagine how gloomy they were. About three years ago, at a friend’s suggestion, Mary had the wall between the two rooms replaced with the archway and added those big windows. It is nice, isn’t it,” Edna said.

  The sides of the archway consisted of narrow open shelves which could be reached from either side. Mary’s answering machine, its red message light blinking steadily, stood on one of the shelves. Edna stopped to investigate as Gran, apparently enthralled with the view to the outside, moved to the windows at the end of the dining room.

  Mesmerized by the blinking red light on the machine, Edna was trying to decide whether or not to listen to the calls when the thought that had been nagging at the back of her mind finally crystalized. Mary was in this house after Charlie phoned me last night. He said he hadn’t left a message because the machine hadn’t been on.

  She didn’t want to intrude on Mary’s privacy, but maybe Mary herself had recorded something. Any straight-thinking person would have called Edna directly, but it would be just like Mary to leave a message on her own machine and expect Edna to find it. Still, she hesitated, staring at the blinking light, slowly rubbing her hand up and down her thigh. Finally making up her mind, she reached out and was about to push the “play back” button when Gran’s voice brought her up with a start.

  “Somebody’s been walking around out here.”

  Responding to the urgency in Gran’s tone, Edna hurried through to where she stood pointing to footprints in the snow.

  Remembering Charlie’s conversation, Edna thought at first the prints might have been made by the patrolman who had come to see if Mary was home. “These tracks can’t be from the police officer,” she said, dismissing the idea instantly. “He was here before the heavy snowfall.”

  “These are fresh prints,” Gran agreed, leaning with her head almost touching the glass as she looked down at tracks beneath the window. “There’s a light dusting of snow in them, so I’d say he was here within the last hour. Otherwise, the prints would either be completely covered up or barely visible.” She turned to look up at Edna. “How am I doing as a detective?” she asked with a mischievous grin.

  Edna couldn’t help but smile back before turning serious. Whoever it had been--and the prints looked to be those of a man or a large woman--they had walked close to the house after having gone to investigate the outbuilding nestled in the trees off to the left as the women stared out over the scene. Originally, the outbuilding had been a buggy barn and now was where Mary garaged her Jeep when she wanted it under cover.

  “You’re right,” Edna said, thinking of the footprints leading to her own back door. She noticed the distinctive tread, as if a piece of the left heel had been cut away. She was certain the same person had walked around both houses. “The snow hasn’t had a chance to obliterate them. I’m thinking that Kevin probably took a walk around the place when he finished plowing.” But why, she wondered silently.

  “You don’t think it was Mary? Should we go look in that shed?”

  Edna slowly shook her head, considering as she spoke. “The tracks are too big. Mary is tall, but her feet are narrow. And I don’t think anyone is in the buggy barn. The tracks go in, but then come out again and up to the house. I’m fairly certain it was Kevin. I think he did the same at my place when he was there to plow the driveway, but he only went to my back door. Here, it looks like he made a circuit of the house in order to look in the windows.”

  “Do you think he was trying to find a way in?”

  Gran’s question made Edna’s heart skip a beat. Was he hiding somewhere in the house or had someone else been here after Kevin left? She calmed somewhat when she thought of the empty driveway. In this sparsely-settled neighborhood and in this weather, the trespasser would certainly have driven in, and she would have noticed more tire tracks. No vehicles had been parked anywhere nearby that she had seen. She thought briefly of Charlie’s mystery bicyclist and dismissed that thought, too. However hardy that soul was, nobody would be riding a bike on these snow-packed and icy roads.

  When she’d parked in front of Mary’s house a few minutes ago, she’d noticed fresh tire tracks, almost certainly left by Kevin’s truck. Of course, she thought, he must have been the one nosing around the property, but why? It didn’t make sense when he would be welcomed inside by either Mary or by Edna herself. Why skulk around when nobody was home?

  At that moment, she wanted to leave as quickly as possible, but not before she’d investigated the place. Turning abruptly, she said, “I’ll just make a quick check of the upstairs rooms. Then, let’s get out of here.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Gran said, sounding as spooked as Edna felt.

  With her elderly companion following close behind, Edna went through to the foyer and mounted the wide, curving front stairs to make a quick tour of the upper two floors. Most of the rooms were closed off, so she merely stuck her head in each door, murmuring aloud what she could remember Mary telling her the year before when Edna had spent a night in the old house. With Edna muttering such explanations as “Mrs. Osbourne’s room” and “Mary’s old nursery,” the two women hurried through the dark hallways.

  The two rooms Edna actually entered, Mary’s bedroom and its adjacent sitting room, were on the second floor. The furniture was highly polished and the canopied bed neatly made. At the foot of the quilt-covered bed lay a squarely folded stadium blanket. For Spot, Edna guessed. On the floor beside the four-poster was a large, red plaid dog’s bed.

  In the sitting room, two overstuffed chairs framed a small fireplace. A twenty-five inch flat-screen television stood on a sturdy mahogany table and, on either side of the door leading out to the hallway, the walls consisted of built-in shelves, stuffed to overflowing with books and magazines. A round braided rug covered the parquet floor and an end table with a reading lamp sat next to a floral-patterned settee. Almost unconsciously, Edna noticed again that the two rooms were on the north side of the house, with a fine view of her own house and backyard patio.

  A tour of the top floor, half of which had once been Mary’s playroom and the other half attic space, led them around to the back stairs. Other than an occasional, softly spoken remark like “Lovely” or “How nice” over an antique table or Tiffany lampshade, Gran had been silent during their investigations. Edna had seen nothing out of the ordinary and no sign of where Mary might have gone. She was certain her neighbor had been in the house the previous night, and she was just as certain Mary hadn’t slept there. So where was she? And where were Hank and Spot?

  These thoughts spun in Edna’s head as the two women reached and descended the back stairs. Edna ushered Gran out of the house and carefully locked the door behind them. As she thought again of the animals, she relaxed slightly. Certainly their absence was a good sign. If Mary had been at the house to adjust the heat and collect her pets, she wasn’t hurt, nor was she being held against her will.

  “Do you think we should look in that old barn?” Gran asked again. Apparen
tly, there was something about the building that was calling to her.

  Edna hesitated, not wanting to trudge through more snow, but her better sense took over. Gran was correct to suggest a thorough search, and at once, Edna had to know for certain if Mary’s Jeep were there. If she had come home last night before the storm, she might have garaged the vehicle and gone off with someone else. So, leaving Gran in the Kia again with the motor running, Edna trekked to the buggy barn to find it empty. No Jeep and no sign of Mary.

  On the road again, Edna thought they should stop at Krispin’s Kitchen before heading for CATS. She wanted to speak to Vinnie and get a phone number for Bethany. Charlie was sending someone to talk to the young woman, but if Edna didn’t hear back by this evening, she intended to phone Bethany herself. When they arrived at the restaurant, it was to find Codfish McKale, but not his nephew. The old man was busy sweeping the floor around the tables, a once-white bib apron tied over his flannel plaid shirt and worn blue jeans. As the two women entered, Codfish raised his head from his task with an expression of annoyance that lunch time was over and the restaurant door should have been locked, but at the sight of Gran, his wizened face broke into such a look of joy, Edna thought immediately of a bud opening to full flower.

  “Watcha doin’ here?” he asked, leaning on the broom handle and not taking his eyes off Edna’s companion for a second. He was grinning broadly and when Edna turned to look at Gran, the old woman had the same expression on her face.

  Ahhh, true love, Edna thought, smiling to herself as she looked from man to woman.

  The frozen tableau was shattered by a middle-aged woman who burst through the swinging doors from the kitchen. “Sorry, we’re closing for the day,” she said before recognition dawned as she spotted Gran. “Oh, it’s you, Gran. I thought I sent you home. What are you doing out in this weather?”