Died in the Wool

by Rett MacPherson

  “Very much so,” she said.

  “Then you can’t help me,” I said.

  “Why not? What did you need to know?”

  “I was hoping somebody could tell me why Hazel left Whalen, and if Hazel remembered the goings-on in that house,” I said.

  “You’re right, I can’t help you,” she said. “I truly can’t.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m a bit shell-shocked. Are you sure about all of this?”

  “Not one hundred percent, because I haven’t seen a birth record for Sophia yet, but I’m fairly certain.”

  “Well, none of it matters to me. The Kendalls were all long gone before I came into the picture,” she said.

  “I have to ask … why did you move to New Kassel? If you knew nothing about the Kendalls then, was it just a coincidence?” I asked.

  “Evidently so,” she said. “Blake had a job at Wisteria General Hospital. We lived in Wisteria for a while, and then it got too commercial for Blake’s taste, so we found a house here. I had no idea I’d been living a few blocks from where my real great-grandfather had lived. And his family.”

  Coincidences do happen, Mort had said.

  “I might be able to get you some photographs,” Anna said. “My oldest brother, Mike—even though he’s a twin, he was born first, so he never lets us forget he’s the oldest—he got most of my mom’s old pictures. I remember him specifically saying a few years back that he didn’t know who half of the people were in the pictures, but he just didn’t have the heart to throw them away.”

  “That would be great,” I said. “I could copy any that might be of interest.”

  “Sure,” she said. “I’ll drive down and get them next weekend.”

  “Where does he live?”

  “Cape Girardeau,” she said.

  “I’d really appreciate that, Anna.”

  “Sure, whatever I can do to help,” she said. “Why do you want to know all of this? I’m assuming it has something to do with the historical society.”

  “I’m buying the old Kendall house. Your grandfather’s sister, Glory, was a fabric artist. She made the most amazing quilts,” I said. “I’m going to set up the house as a textile museum.”

  “Why the interest in my grandmother? What has she got to do with it?”

  “Well, as you know, all three of the siblings ended their lives in the house, and Hazel left just a short while before all of that happened. I thought maybe she could answer, or at least shed some light on, why they may have decided to end their lives. Maybe help me to understand just what went on,” I said. “Not that I have to know these things to have the textile museum. I suppose it’s more for my own personal interest. But since Glory Kendall will be the main focus of the display, it would help if I could shed some light on why she ended her life.”

  “I understand,” she said. We talked a little more about family histories in general, and then she told me some animal stories from the veterinary hospital. Anna has always been very personable, and I like her a great deal. Her cat had even snuggled up next to me and started purring. A victory, according to Anna.

  “I gotta go, it’s late,” I finally said.

  “I’ll let you know when I get the pictures from my brother,” she said. “And I’m sure I’ll hear about the museum when it opens. I’d like to be one of the first to see everything.”

  “I’ll give you and your family a private tour,” I said, and smiled. “You sure you’re okay with this?”

  “Fine,” she said. “Just a little surprised. I’ve never really taken much interest in the past, so it doesn’t have the impact on me as it would, say, somebody like yourself.”

  “Fair enough,” I said, and left Anna’s house.

  On the way back home I dialed Sheriff Mort to see how Maddie Fulton was. I got a recording and left a message.

  Well. Eight hours of tracking down Anna Gatewood only to come up completely empty-handed. It was clear that Anna had never heard any family stories about the Kendalls, and so I doubted any of her siblings had, either. In fact, I was beginning to doubt that even Sophia had known anything. She’d probably just been told that her father had died and that was it. According to the newspaper article, she was only an infant when Hazel left with her. All my sleuthing had been a total waste of time.

  Thirteen

  The next day was Saturday, and the rose show was a week away. My local rose expert was in the hospital, and Eleanore was in jail. I supposed everything would fall to Tobias. He is the one I would trust to carry on everything in Maddie’s absence. My work, for the most part, was finished. All I had to do was show up and be there for emergencies and make sure all of the refreshment stands were stocked. The shop owners would take care of their own shops, so I didn’t have to worry about them. They look forward to events like the rose show, which bring amazing numbers of people to town, people who eat at our restaurants and shop at our stores.

  I sat on my back patio, drinking a cup of chai and watching the birds flutter around the mimosa tree. When Rudy and I picked out the location to build this house, I saw this mimosa tree off in the distance from the road. My Grandma Keith had always had two mimosa trees on her farm, and as a kid, I thought they were the most exotic things I’d ever seen. When you think about it, they don’t look like the run-of-the-mill trees you see in Missouri, with their fluffy pink flowers and tiny leaves. So I asked the contractor if there was any way he could leave the mimosa tree if we built a house here, and he said yes. That was what settled it. Well, that and the fact that Rudy had plenty of room to drive golf balls without breaking any windows. Rudy didn’t even play golf yet. He said he needed to practice at home for a few years before he ever stepped foot on a range.

  I heard the phone ring inside the house, and Rudy came out and handed me the handset. He kissed me on top of the head and said, “Matthew had breakfast. He just needs to get dressed.”

  “All right,” I said. Then I answered the phone. It was Mort.

  “Just wanted to let you know that Maddie Fulton is awake and asking to see you,” he said.

  Relief flooded me. “Oh, thank goodness she’s all right,” I said.

  “She’s been awake since last night, but they didn’t want her to have any visitors except her closest family,” he said.

  “Oh, sure, I totally understand that,” I said. “I’ll stop by on my way to work.”

  “You work seven days a week?” he asked.

  “Sometimes. You know, the weekend is the busiest time in a town like this.”

  “I see,” he said. “I also wanted to let you know that Eleanore is being released.”

  “No charges?”

  “Maddie said she didn’t want to press any trespassing charges, and there was nothing else to charge Eleanore with,” he said.

  “Not even attempted murder?” I asked.

  Mort chuckled.

  “Can’t you charge her with something?” I said. “She needs a few more days in jail.”

  “Maddie thinks it was an accident, and she’s probably right,” he said. “However, Eleanore will be unbearable to live with, since now she’s convinced she was a victim of … well, I’m not sure exactly. She wants to bring charges against the sheriff’s department for harassment.”

  “Oh, great,” I said.

  “Yeah. Can I ask you something?”

  “What?”

  “What spaceship did she get off of?” he said.

  “We’ve been trying to figure that out for a long time.”

  He laughed, and we hung up. I finished my chai and went inside to get Matthew dressed. The girls had spent the night with the anime club, and Rudy was just getting ready to leave. He needed to check on a display at a store he’d finished last week. I kissed him and then swiped at a small speck of shaving gel. “Your face is soft,” I said.

  He ran a finger across my jaw and then winked at me. “I’m cooking tonight,” he said on the way out the door.

  “What are you cooking?�
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  “It’s a surprise.”

  “Okay,” I said and looked at Matthew. “What do you think it’s gonna be?”

  “Macaroni and cheese,” he said.

  “Probably.”

  Matthew and I drove out to Wisteria General and made our way to the intensive care floor, after having stopped by Maddie’s house to gather a bouquet of roses from her garden. The nurses would not allow Matthew into the room, so I left him sitting with the desk nurse under penalty of death if he misbehaved or broke anything. Of course, I then had to be more specific. “That means don’t leave this chair. Don’t touch anything. You can talk to the nice lady, that’s it.”

  He stuck out his lower lip and crossed his arms.

  I entered Maddie’s room, almost as if walking on eggshells. I was a bit apprehensive about what sort of condition she would be in. Her head was propped up slightly, and she still had IVs and tubes everywhere. She looked like hell, but I wasn’t going to say that.

  “So,” she said. “I really do look as bad as I feel.”

  “I didn’t say anything,” I said.

  “Your expression says it all,” she said, and smiled. “Actually, I feel really lucky and happy and exhilarated. I’m alive. And you brought me roses!”

  I smiled and handed them to her.

  “And they’re my roses,” she said, breathing their scent in deeply. Then she added, “I know that whole exhilarated part is hard to believe, but it’s true.”

  This time I laughed. “You scared us,” I said.

  “I scared myself. Look, Torie,” she said, reaching out with one hand. I took her hand in mine and she squeezed. “I can never thank you enough.”

  “All I did was show up unannounced,” I said. “Everybody else cusses me out for that.”

  “You acted quickly,” she said. “That and coincidence saved me.”

  “It really was just my nosy nature that saved you. I didn’t want to wait until the next day to find out what you were going to tell me.”

  “Well, see there? Don’t ever be ashamed of who you are, then. It saved my life.”

  “Maddie, do you have any idea how this happened?” I asked.

  “Who knows,” she said. “Strychnine is used in lots of things. You know, they used to use it for medicinal purposes way back when.”

  “The doctor said you got a very small dose,” I said.

  “Yeah, so I think I just got into something … you know, in the garage or something. I don’t specifically remember anything that could have had strychnine in it, but who really knows.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re back with us,” I said.

  “Listen, Torie, what I wanted to tell you was about Glory Kendall.”

  “What about her?”

  “The other night when I was getting Glory’s quilt top ready to give to you for the display, I kept thinking about my grandma, trying to remember anything she might have said about the Kendall family. My grandmother was one of Glory’s best and only friends. She said Glory was lonely, I remember that. The girl only had a handful of friends, and she pretty much was not allowed out of the house. I mean, she went out some, but I got the feeling that Glory just didn’t go anywhere very often. Grandma said she almost always went to Glory’s house to visit, not the other way around.”

  “Why the tight reins on Glory?”

  “My grandma said that Glory had a lover. Young man who lived in Wisteria, I think, or somewhere close by. When her father and brothers found out, they forbade her to see him, and she just never went many places after that. Now, this is all secondhand and coming through the interpretation of my grandma, so take it with a grain of salt.”

  Maddie’s breathing seemed more labored, so I didn’t want to stay much longer. Her eyes had dark, purple shadows beneath them. It looked as though even blinking was difficult. “When do you get to go home?”

  “They won’t say. I’m thinking a week, maybe sooner if I start flirting with the doctor,” she said, and winked.

  “Look, Maddie, I know you’re tired, and my son probably has the nurse tied up by now, so I’m going to head out,” I said. “I’ll come by again tomorrow.”

  “Thank you so much for the roses,” she said. “I came close to never smelling a rose again.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said. “Hope you don’t mind that I cut them from your bushes.”

  “That’s what they’re for,” she said.

  As I was headed out the door, a man about Maddie’s age came in with a bright yellow GET WELL balloon and a box of chocolates. “This is my brother, Kevin,” she said.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, then turned to leave.

  “Oh, Torie, one more thing,” she said.

  “Yeah?”

  “One other thing I do remember my grandmother saying, and I remember it because she said it more than once. In fact, she said it pretty much every time the Kendall family came up. She used to say that she couldn’t stand the oldest brother. I can’t remember his name…”

  “Whalen?”

  “Yes, Whalen. She said he was a no-account. Whatever a no-account is. She really didn’t like that man,” she said.

  “Thanks a bunch, Maddie. I’ll see you later.”

  When I went out to the nurse’s station to retrieve my son, the nurse looked both entertained and irritated. My son will talk a person’s leg off. Whenever he gets around people that are not his two sisters, I think, he realizes that this is his chance to say everything he’s ever wanted to say, and so he just dumps sentence after sentence with incredible determination. He will talk over people. He’ll even talk while two other people are talking, all the while thinking he’s part of the conversation, even though what he’s talking about has nothing to do with what they’re talking about. So the nurse looked quite overwhelmed, as though her circuits were on overload and if she heard one more word her brain would fry. At the same time, she was smiling. He is cute, after all. Of course, he can only ride on his looks for so long.

  I thanked the desk nurse for watching Matthew, and we left.

  * * *

  The work week had gone by fairly quickly. Maddie continued to get stronger and the majority of my time had been taken up by Rachel’s play. If I wasn’t running to the school with items to use as props, I was taking food to the cast members. Now, I’m not a good cook, mind you, but all the kids sung my praises when I showed up with homemade mostaccioli. They’re high school kids, what do you expect?

  I had gone to Marty Tarullo’s house on Wednesday but nobody was home. So I thought I’d try again today. I pulled up at my mother’s house and went inside to drop Matthew off with her. Her house smelled so good, I could have started eating the first thing I found. She was making her homemade vegetable soup.

  I kissed Matthew good-bye, and then Colin came running down the hallway with one shoe on and one shoe in his hand. “Wait, wait, wait,” he said.

  “What?”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “Going where?” I said. “Colin, I’m going to work.”

  My mother gave me her best read my mind look, but I couldn’t for the life of me read her mind. All I managed to accomplish was to realize that she was trying to silently tell me something, and that got me even more confused. “Where are you going to work?” he asked.

  “The Gaheimer House,” I said. “Where I always work.”

  His shoulders slumped. “When I was sheriff, you rarely ever worked at your office. You were always out in cemeteries and stuffy old courthouses and … places.”

  I gaped at him.

  “You mean to tell me you’re not going anywhere today other than the Gaheimer House?” he asked, clearly irritated.

  I glanced at my mother, who nodded her head, albeit casually.

  “Uh … well, I was going to meet with a man named Marty Tarullo, since I was going to be in Wisteria already. He lives here. Then … I was going to go by the Kendall house. There’s something I wanted to … check out. Colin, why do you care?” />
  “Hang on one second,” he said. He ran back down the hallway with his shoe in his hand.

  When he was out of earshot, my mother took the opportunity to finally talk. “Torie, please let him go with you,” she said. “He’s driving me crazy. He wants to do something so badly. He is going stir-crazy with this new job. He keeps reaching for his holster, but he doesn’t wear one anymore! He listens to the police radio. All night! If I’d known he would be this miserable being mayor…”

  “Is he really that miserable being mayor, or is it that he’s more miserable not being sheriff?”

  “Whichever. Please, Torie. For your poor, handicapped mother, please take my husband with you!”

  “Well, well,” I said, crossing my arms.

  “This is not funny,” she said. “I’ll bake you a pie.”

  “A pie? You think putting up with Colin all day is worth a measly pie?”

  “Hey, I already babysit your son, isn’t that worth something?”

  “Yes, but I pay you for that!” I said.

  “Okay, two pies.”

  “No, Mom, there are no pies in the world worth having to put up with Colin. You don’t understand,” I said. “I just got to a point where I don’t have to deal with him. I finally got a new sheriff in town, who actually likes me. He actually listens to me and considers my input.”

  “I’ll bake you a homemade banana cake,” she said.

  “Oh, you’re evil.”

  We stared at each other for a good thirty seconds.

  “All right, it’s a deal,” I said.

  Colin came back out wearing his sunglasses and a hat and both shoes this time. “All right, I’m ready,” he said.

  “Torie, are you sure it’s all right if Colin tags along?” my mother said, smiling.

  Banana cake. Remember I’m getting homemade banana cake. I can do this.

  May as well start calling me Faust.

  Fourteen

  “So where are we headed?” Colin asked as we got in my car.

  “A man named Marty Tarullo’s house,” I said. Last night I’d checked the white pages and found an address for him on Canon Avenue.

  “And who is he?”