Digging Up the Dirt

by Miranda James

  Dickce and Coriander were looking after Reba until an ambulance arrived. An’gel prayed they arrived in time. She hoped the bullet hadn’t hit a vital artery.

  Thank the Lord this is over now. Lottie was obviously completely crazy. A woman her age thinking she could bear a child. An’gel wondered how long she had been this way, and none of them suspected. She felt sorry for Lottie, and for Reba too. Both women had wasted years of their lives on unrequited passion for one man.

  An’gel looked at Hadley. He watched helplessly while his wife and Dickce ministered to Reba. She had loved Hadley herself once, and she still was very fond of him. But was he worth all this? The destruction of several lives?

  No, he wasn’t, she decided. No man was.

  CHAPTER 35

  “I was never so surprised in my life,” An’gel said. “I thought for sure after what happened at Ashton Hall that Lottie was the murderer.”

  “Me, too,” Dickce said. “If it hadn’t been for Reba’s confession, though, she would have gotten away with it.”

  “Maybe not,” Benjy said. He fed Peanut another tidbit, then gave one to Endora. “You said that her son talked to Deputy Berry at the hospital. Didn’t he tell them he knew she’d killed Mrs. Turnipseed?”

  An’gel didn’t normally allow Peanut and Endora to be in the dining room while they ate, but tonight was an exception. Tonight was a celebration that the horrors of the past few days were mostly over.

  “Yes, you’re right,” An’gel said. “But would Martin have sat there in court and testified against his mother? I don’t know.”

  “I think that’s why Reba confessed,” Dickce said. “She didn’t want Martin to have to go through that. Plus she thought she was dying.”

  “It might have been better if she had,” An’gel said. “Though I have very little sympathy for her, frankly.”

  “I don’t either,” Dickce said. She picked up her wineglass and finished off the contents. She reached for the bottle and refilled her glass. “She killed three women, put another in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, and forced one of her victims to try to kill you.”

  “She either used Mrs. Turnipseed’s car or had Mrs. Turnipseed herself run Arliss off the road,” An’gel said. “I don’t know which. That Turnipseed woman was a nasty piece of work.”

  “Why was she blackmailing Mrs. Dalrymple?” Benjy asked. “Did you find out?”

  “I think it was because she knew Reba killed Callie,” Dickce said. “What did Kanesha tell you about that? You haven’t said.”

  An’gel sighed. “It’s all so very sad. It took Kanesha a while to get this part out of Reba, but this is apparently what happened.” She paused a moment. “You remember Coriander told us she saw a car in front of the house when she left for Memphis?”

  Dickce nodded. “I’ve told Benjy all about that.”

  “That was Reba’s car,” An’gel said. “She had just found out that Hadley was gone, and she drove out to Ashton Hall to confront Callie. She was furious with her because she knew Callie was the reason Hadley had left. He was gone, and she was desperately in love with him. She found Callie and Hamish already having an argument over Hadley. Callie was allegedly pleading with Hamish to allow Hadley to come back, but Hamish wouldn’t budge. Then Reba arrives and immediately starts screaming at Callie. She told Hamish that she knew Hadley and Callie had been having an affair—I think she was more than a bit unhinged back then, because I think it was a lie.”

  “Hamish probably went ballistic over that,” Dickce said.

  “He did,” An’gel replied. “Reba said he was so enraged that he struck Callie and knocked her down, then he ran out of the room, crying. He thought he’d killed her because she struck her head.”

  “Didn’t he?” Benjy asked.

  “No,” An’gel said. “Reba did. Callie was in bad shape and might have died, I think, but Reba made sure she did. She picked up Callie’s head and slammed it against the floor. Callie died then.”

  “So did Reba make Hamish think he’d done it?” Dickce asked, obviously appalled by the story. She had another sip of wine.

  “She did, and she told him she would never tell anyone. She convinced him to bury Callie there at Ashton Hall. Everyone would think Callie had run away to join Hadley, and no one would ever know he killed his wife. Reba said she would make sure the rumor spread.”

  “That’s sickening,” Benjy said. “How could she do something like that? Especially since Hadley was long gone.”

  “I don’t believe she really thought it through at the time,” An’gel replied. “I don’t think reality, such as it was with her, set in until much later. I think she was so obsessed with having Callie out of the way, she didn’t realize Hadley wasn’t coming back. She evidently had no idea that he was in love with Coriander instead, and that they were planning to be married and live abroad.”

  “Where does that Mrs. Turnipseed come into this?” Benjy gave the cat and the dog more tidbits, then held up empty hands to show them that there were no more. Peanut whimpered once, but Endora made her way to Dickce and leapt into her lap. Peanut stretched out on the floor beside Benjy and kept watch in case more treats should miraculously appear.

  “I believe she saw what Reba did,” An’gel said. “Reba wouldn’t say for sure, but the woman had been blackmailing Reba for years. She also blackmailed Hamish, but she was shrewd enough not to ask for too much, evidently.”

  “Then Reba must have promised Mrs. Turnipseed something to get her help with running you and Arliss off the road.” Dickce rubbed Endora’s head and smiled at the resulting purr.

  “She offered her more money,” An’gel said, “though I don’t think she really had much to pay her with by this time.”

  “Why did she kill Mrs. Turnipseed?” Benjy asked.

  “Apparently after the woman tried to run me off the road, she demanded that she be allowed to live at Ashton Hall when Reba married Hadley.” An’gel shook her head. “That was apparently too much, finally, and Reba decided she had to go.”

  “I just don’t get how all these women were so obsessed with Hadley,” Benjy said. “I guess he’s good-looking, for his age, anyway, and I obviously didn’t know him forty years ago. But it all seems whacked to me.”

  “It’s whacked to me, too,” Dickce said. “The heart wants what it wants, and with certain types of personalities, not getting what the heart wants can warp a person in strange ways.”

  “When we were young, women were reared with the notion that they couldn’t have a complete and worthwhile life unless they married and had children,” An’gel said. “That’s nonsense, of course. It certainly was for Dickce and me, though we had our opportunities to change that.”

  “We sure did.” Dickce smiled.

  “For some women, though, this whole notion is so ingrained that they will go to great lengths to be married, even if they’re not happily married. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, I know, but that’s the way it is.”

  “It’s all very sad,” Dickce said. “There’s Lottie, locked away in the loony bin for probably the rest of her life. Reba is facing prison for murdering three women and trying to kill two more. So many lives ruined.”

  “I wonder how Martin will cope now that his mother is no longer there to look after him,” An’gel said. “Perhaps he’ll surprise us all and manage just fine.”

  “He’ll have to get a job, for one thing,” Dickce said. “I suppose he’s smart enough with computers that he can find something.”

  “Let’s hope so,” An’gel said.

  “You’re going to have to find some new members for your garden club,” Benjy said. “Or at least for your board.”

  An’gel and Dickce exchanged looks. “I hadn’t thought of that yet,” An’gel said.

  “We can always ask Coriander to join,” Dickce said with an impish grin. “That ought to
liven things up.”

  “I daresay it will,” An’gel replied. “I think she’d be better suited to it than Hadley. In fact, I think we should discourage men from joining altogether.”

  “Maybe we should simply exclude Hadley,” Dickce said. “He was at the center of all the goings-on. With him out, things might settle down and operate smoothly again, like they did before he came back.”

  “We can only hope things will be quiet for a while,” An’gel said. “We’ve got to get ready for the spring garden tour, and then there’s the historical society meeting in Natchez. I’ve had enough of murder for now.” She pushed back her chair and stood. “Now, who’s for dessert?”

  Peanut barked loudly, twice, and they all laughed.

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