Myrtle wished she did. She would have loved to produce some game-changing information at this point. Instead, she shook her head. “No. Only that I could tell it was something weighing on her mind. When I saw her at Lillian’s funeral, she was watching you anxiously to see if you had a free moment to talk.”
Red groaned. “And I was totally tied up with the woman worried about truancy.”
“Exactly. Then you had to rush away,” said Myrtle.
Miles cleared his throat. “I thought perhaps she might be wanting to confess to the crime. That she had a guilty conscience.”
Myrtle shot him a look at his choice of pronoun. It had been what they’d thought.
Red said with a short laugh. “Good guess, except that clearly wasn’t the case. She must have known something that someone else didn’t want getting out.” He glanced again at the state police. “All right, I should get going. And you should, too,” he said sternly. “You’re trespassing, after all.”
“Simply getting out of the way of the official vehicles,” said Myrtle breezily. “We’ll leave soon. We’re heading to dinner.”
Red looked wistful at the mention of dinner before striding off to join the other cops.
Miles looked in his rear-view mirror and his eyes opened wide. “Annie is pulling into the driveway!”
“Well, she’s not going to have us arrested for trespassing, Miles, for heaven’s sake. And there’s plenty of room for her car because you pulled so carefully to the side. Maybe she’ll even have some information for us,” said Myrtle.
Annie gave them a brief smile before staring for a few moments at the house next-door. She walked over to their car.
“Sorry we’re in your driveway,” said Myrtle. “I wanted to speak with Red to see what was going on and there was no room on the street.”
Annie said distractedly, “No, that’s fine. This driveway is usually deserted now, anyway. I’m just here to start organizing Mama’s things. What is going on at Tallulah’s?”
Myrtle told her. Then she said, “So you weren’t here earlier, dear? Organizing your mother’s things? Such a pity, since you might have seen something.”
Annie shook her head. “No, I was busy earlier at home. I needed to clean up and organize at my own house before coming over here, otherwise I’d have been too tired coming home. Martin is not going to be any help at all,” she said with a sigh. “So I didn’t see anything. Don’t know anything. And why would anyone murder Tallulah? It seems crazy. Are they systematically taking out everyone on the street?”
Myrtle said, “We think Tallulah must have seen something that might have exposed your mother’s killer.”
Annie slumped a little. “This is all so incredible. I mean, I’m leaving Bradley because it’s a town where nothing happens. And suddenly, things are happening here all the time. Bad things.” She paused. “And now I’m even wondering if I really want to leave at all. After all, Mama is gone and she’s the main reason I was looking to leave in the first place.”
Myrtle gave her a sympathetic look. “Family relationships can be tricky, can’t they?”
A single tear trickled down Annie’s face. To Myrtle’s relief, no others seemed tempted to follow. In a somewhat shaky voice, Annie said, “Yes. I’ve been feeling bad about Mama’s death, mostly because it’s made life so much easier for me. Mama would berate me all the time. I could never seem to do anything right. She never liked a single decision I ever made, nothing I did in school was ever good enough. It was one thing after another.”
Myrtle made a tsking sound. “That’s dreadfully unfair to you, Annie. She was too harsh.”
“And very controlling. But that’s the funny thing about being controlled. After you aren’t anymore, it’s a huge adjustment. I’ve had to really stop and think what I need to do next. Right now, I’m just taking baby steps like cleaning out Mama’s house. But soon I’ll have to figure out the bigger picture.”
Myrtle said slowly, “There was one thing I wanted to ask you about, Annie. You’d mentioned you’d been watching Tomorrow’s Promise at the time your mother died.”
“That’s right. Well, I guess we don’t really know exactly when she died, but that’s what I was doing that evening. I was just trying to chill out after a long day.” Annie’s tone changed and she sounded cautious as she spoke. “One of my grandmother’s got me hooked on the show when I was a teenager.”
Myrtle nodded. “It’s just that I happen to be something of an expert when it comes to Tomorrow’s Promise. I’ve been watching for decades. And I could tell when I spoke with you about it that you clearly haven’t been watching the latest episodes.”
Annie slumped. “Got it.” For a moment, it looked as if she was searching her mind for an appropriate alibi. Then she sighed. “It’s true. I wasn’t at home that night. Not that I had anyone to confirm I was home anyway. The truth is that I was out driving. Sometimes I like to go out to the public beach area of the lake and sit and just look at the moon and stars for a while. It helps me get centered again. And, of course, I went past Mama’s house a couple of times when I did. When Red asked me, I just panicked and Tomorrow’s Promise was the first thing to come to mind. But I promise I had nothing to do with Mama’s death . . . or Tallulah’s.”
Annie glanced again over at Tallulah’s house. “Now I feel bad that I even thought she might be involved in Mama’s death.”
Myrtle said, “It’s only natural for you to speculate about it. And considering what you told me about the pending real estate transaction, it made sense that Tallulah might have been angry enough to confront your mother.”
“And now it looks like Tallulah didn’t have anything to do with Mama’s murder at all. In fact, she might have even known who did it. Now we’ll never know. This has all been so frustrating. I hope Red can get to the bottom of things.” She sighed again. “I suppose I should go in and start sorting things. I’m not even sure where to start.”
“Clothing might be easiest, although it’s the most personal,” said Myrtle.
Annie nodded. “It sure would be a lot easier if Martin thought to come over and help me with it.” A tone of discontent edged into her voice. “His mind is totally focused on getting money from Mama’s will.”
Myrtle asked delicately, “Is he having some financial struggles, then?”
Annie snorted. “Struggles? He’s drowning. Martin seems to fancy himself a big spender, so he has the big house and the expensive car. His wardrobe probably costs five times what mine does. And he hawks insurance.”
Myrtle said, “I’m surprised he was able to get loans if his income wouldn’t support his lifestyle.”
Annie said, “Well, you have banks that are eager to make loans. And he did have cash for a while. I happen to know he gambled. For a while, he was winning, too. But then he started to lose and the more he lost, the more he gambled to try and get his money back.” She made a face. “Not a smart tactic.” She glanced at the house. “All right, I’m off. See you soon.”
She trudged off to Lillian’s house, looking as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
Myrtle said thoughtfully, “It sure sounds like a cash infusion would have been very helpful for Martin.”
Miles said, “Yes, but how much money are we talking about for Lillian’s estate? It seems like a rather modest business to me.”
Myrtle looked across at Tallulah’s again and narrowed her eyes. “For heaven’s sake. Red is on his way over to shoo us off again. Doesn’t he have better things to do?”
“I don’t think that’s what he’s doing,” said Miles slowly. “Look, he’s heading to his cruiser.”
Sure enough, Red was striding rapidly to his police car, not over to speak with them.
Myrtle raised her eyebrows. “And Perkins is getting in the car with him! They both seem very grim. Let’s follow them.”
Miles gloomily looked at his watch. �
�The restaurants will be closing soon. I’m getting pretty hungry.”
“We’ll have food at my house once we figure out what’s going on. Let’s go, Miles!” said Myrtle impatiently as Miles slowly started up the engine and cautiously backed out of Lillian’s driveway.
Red and Perkins disappeared around a corner. “Step on it!” said Myrtle wildly.
Miles gripped the steering wheel. “I’m going over the speed limit.”
“Barely!”
“I’ve caught up with them,” said Miles in a relieved voice.
“I think they’re heading to Martin’s house,” said Myrtle, leaning forward until her seatbelt pulled her back a bit. “There’s nowhere else they could be going.”
A minute later, she was proven right as Red’s police cruiser turned down Martin’s long driveway.
“Hold on. Let’s wait a second and let them get inside the house first,” said Myrtle. “Otherwise, Red will shut me down before we even get to the front door.”
Miles looked uneasy. “Won’t we be interrupting official police business?”
“Well, of course we will be. That’s the whole point. Just park right here until they walk in Martin’s house.”
Miles continued, “I don’t think Red will be happy to see us.”
“Naturally. But he isn’t going to arrest us. All we’re doing is checking in on Martin about the silent auction,” said Myrtle.
Miles said, “But we’ve already done that. He said it was fine for the auction to proceed.”
“We’ll just say it’s garden club business. We’ll be vague.”
“If I’d known what garden club membership entailed, I’d never have joined,” grumbled Miles.
Myrtle said impatiently, “This isn’t complicated. I could simply say I wanted to give Martin a preview of the tribute we’re giving to Lillian. The point is that we need to figure out what’s going on.”
Miles looked unhappily at the large house.
“Okay, they’re in. Let’s go,” said Myrtle.
When they reached the front door, Myrtle turned the doorknob.
Miles gasped. “We should ring the doorbell, Myrtle.”
“Why? Clearly Martin is otherwise engaged right now. He may not be able to answer it.” Myrtle walked inside. “Yoo-hoo! Martin? It’s Myrtle.”
There was a loud groan from the living room. Myrtle hurried in that direction with Miles miserably following her.
They found Perkins, who rose politely in greeting; Red, whose face was furious; and Martin, who looked rather ill.
“Oh, goodness!” said Myrtle in an overly innocent tone. “Are we interrupting something?”
Red looked at the ceiling. “Yes, you are. As you well know.”
“Miles and I are simply here on garden club business,” said Myrtle with a sniff.
Miles gave Red a weak smile.
Red said, “It doesn’t really matter because we’re going to continue our conversation down at the station. Since someone hasn’t been forthcoming.”
He and Perkins stood up and Martin turned white. He spread his hands out in supplication. “Look, I don’t know what you want from me. I don’t know that wretched woman at all! Tallulah was just my mother’s next-door neighbor. I never even had a conversation with her. Well, except to try to sell her insurance. Besides that? Never.”
Perkins said coldly, “Then it’s even more interesting that we found something of yours at the crime scene a few minutes ago.”
Martin blinked at him, looking startled. Then his expression grew angry. “My business card holder, maybe? Because it’s missing. Somebody is setting me up!”
“Now who would want to do that?” asked Red.
Martin was now gesticulating even more. “My sister, for one! She’s never liked me. Annie was always jealous of my relationship with our mother. Besides, if I’m in jail, she can use Mama’s inheritance to get out of town.”
Red said, “Well, she couldn’t allow you to profit from your crime, could she?”
“It wasn’t my crime! Okay, if it wasn’t Annie who set me up, it could have been a ton of other people. Your suspects, whoever they are. The killer would try to set me up to deflect attention from himself. Come on, you know that’s how it works! Like I said, I’ve never even been over to that house.” Martin’s voice was getting louder and shriller.
Red drawled, “Someone spotted you at your mother’s today.”
“There’s a huge difference between being at my mother’s house and being at Tallulah’s. I never said I’d never been at Mama’s house,” spat Martin.
Perkins said in a clipped voice, “It’s interesting that you were at your mother’s today. Your sister told us you haven’t been over there much. It would be very easy to dash over to Tallulah Porter’s house and murder her.”
“For what reason?” Martin gave a disbelieving laugh.
“Perhaps she saw you the night of your mother’s death. Maybe she was planning on telling the police what she saw,” said Perkins.
“Maybe you’re just desperate and trying to find your killer. But it isn’t me. I can tell you exactly why I was at my mother’s house today. Annie said she was going over there to start clearing Mama’s things out. I didn’t want to help her, but I didn’t want her to get rid of some of the stuff I wanted. I ran over there and threw a few things I liked in the car,” said Martin. “That’s it. End of story.”
Red asked, “You didn’t see anything suspicious next door while you were there?”
“I couldn’t have been less interested in what was going on next door,” said Martin.
Perkins said, “Unfortunately, we still have evidence you were there. We’re going to need to bring you in.”
Martin’s voice was shrill again. “Why on earth would I have wanted to kill my mother? I actually got along with her pretty well.”
“We know about your debts. We know you argued with your mother about money,” said Red.
“I need a lawyer,” said Martin furiously.
“We’ll be sure to get you one when we get to the station,” said Red. He turned a stern gaze on Myrtle and Miles. “Your garden club business is going to have to wait.”
Myrtle and Miles walked back to the car, watching as Red ushered Martin into the backseat of his police cruiser.
Miles said, “Well, that was interesting. I was rather pulling for Martin to be innocent, since he was such a reader. I usually don’t think of ardent readers as being especially violent.”
Myrtle shook her head. “I don’t think he did it.”
Miles said, “But the evidence seems to indicate otherwise.”
“Evidence can be faked, just like he said. He was probably set-up.”
Miles said, “I don’t know, Myrtle. I remember him playing around with that business card case. I think it was one of those things he liked to fidget with. He took it over to Tallulah’s to see what she had to say and was fidgeting with it there and dropped it or set it down at some point. Then he killed her, apparently with a golf club, and left in a panic.”
“And you think he killed his mother.”
Miles shrugged. “He’d argued with her. He was clearly in debt and needed money. Maybe Lillian had finally seen him for what he was and denied him more cash. He was desperate and angry and acted impetuously.”
“Hitting her over the head with a dog’s feeding station.” Myrtle quirked her eyebrows.
“It was the closest thing at hand.”
Myrtle tilted her head to one side, considering this. “I just don’t know. There’s a weakness to Martin that doesn’t really translate to murder. Maybe he did. But it just seems unlikely to me.”
“Maybe it was planned then and not impetuous. He realized he’d be inheriting money from his mother and he killed her when her back was turned,” said Miles.
“That’s even worse than if he’d acted out of desperation.
Besides, I think you’re right—Lillian wasn’t a wealthy woman. She definitely was comfortable, but I don’t think it was enough money to kill over.”
Miles pulled up to the restaurant. He sadly said, “They’ve already turned off the ‘open’ sign.”
Myrtle snorted. “This town closes up ridiculously early during the week.”
“The diner was already closed, too. I saw it when we passed by,” said Miles morosely.
“Well, there are two options. We can go to the all-night breakfast place out near the highway or we can go to my house and I can make us something.”
Miles’s expression revealed that neither of these options was particularly attractive. “There’s a third option. We could go to my house. I happen to have some food there I could prepare.”
Myrtle looked at him in surprise. “Now that sounds nice! If we run by my house first, I can grab my laptop and work on my Tallulah story for Sloan while you cook.”
“I think the paper’s already printed for tonight, isn’t it?”
“Most certainly. But Sloan will have it first thing tomorrow and will have plenty of time to design the rest of the paper around my article,” said Myrtle in a satisfied voice.
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, Myrtle called Tippy. “How is the auction coming together?”
Tippy sounded a bit distracted. “I was so organized with it. But suddenly, there are a million things to do.” Her voice turned hopeful. “You don’t happen to know what Miles’s day looks like today, do you? We could use a bit of muscle.”
Myrtle crossed her fingers and said, “I happen to know Miles has nothing important on his schedule later today. He and I would love to come over to the venue and help set up.” She paused. “Do you know when the caterer and florist will be arriving? Maybe that would be a good time for us to be there.”
Tippy said, “Bianca will be here with the flowers around 5:00. Rowan should be here with the food around the same time. And thanks, Myrtle. You’ve been a real lifesaver for this event. Thank Miles for me, too.”
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