Twillyweed

by Mary Anne Kelly

  “She must have been a wonderful woman,” I said. “Well, is there anyone I can call to come stay with you? Shall I call Father in?”

  “No, no don’t do that. It’ll all be about him, then, won’t it? I’ll have to get him ready for a death call, iron his purple stole …” She went to budge but couldn’t, sipped her drink, her eyes in the past, unable to move on to this new, terrible reality, I guessed. I let her talk. “Buys me little things, too, she does. Soaps and fancy cooking dishes. See this yellow crock from Portugal? She gave me that. And them fancy things are dear, so. She’ll leave dollar bills on my ashtray in the car. For gas money. She’s that thoughtful.”

  I got up to go. We walked together down the hallway, our footfalls echoing in the hollow space. “He couldn’t leave her alone, could he!” She shook her head. “You see what it proves? There’s a sadist on every street corner. But a good masochist is hard to find.”

  “What about Mrs. Dellaverna? I could call her to come. I know she’s at home.”

  “Lina?!” She gave me a sullen, cud-chewing face. “Don’t know why you’d be mixed up with the likes of her. … Don’t even think about it. No! Not in my kitchen! Not here! Never!”

  My, my, I thought, such dislike! “Okay, okay, I won’t call her,” I promised.

  “Telephone Paige,” she said, sniffing primly. “Tell her I’ll come up to Twillyweed once I’ve pulled myself together, so.” She opened the massive door. “I’ve got to pick something up there at any rate—a donation for the raffle—and she and I can make the plans for the wake.”

  “All right. You’re sure you’ll be all right if I leave you alone?”

  She looked at her watch with a capable flourish. “Father will be here in ten more minutes. I’ll give him his lunch and then I’ll be up. Tell her that.”

  “All right, and good-bye. I’m so sorry. Thank you for your hospitality at such a grievous time. Your soda bread was a delight.” I patted my belly. “One day maybe you’ll give me the recipe.”

  Her pale eyes cheered up. “Och, that’s what I’m famous for. Father even has me sending it back down to his old parish in Broad Channel just to brag how good he has it, so! Now you’ll tell your good mother I was asking for her?”

  “Why don’t you call her? I’m sure she’d love to hear from you. Especially since you helped Jenny Rose get her position.”

  She shook her head shyly. “Oh, no. She’ll be thinking I’m looking for praise.”

  “No she wouldn’t!”

  “Aye, we’ll just let that be.”

  “We’ll see.” I smiled sympathetically, making a mental note to tell my mother to call.

  “Good-bye.” She held her long arm up in the air and waved me off with her sodden tissue in a burst of sentiment. “To happier days. And send my regards to Mary.” She rocked her head reflectively.

  “I will.” I hopped on the old bicycle and rattled down the path, once again relieved Jenny Rose’s having the moonstones had had nothing to do with Patsy Mooney’s murder. I was almost happy. Because that’s what this Donald’s involvement meant, didn’t it? They were separate, thank God. But as I pedaled along the old country path and even before I reached the main road to town, something nagged at my complacence. Just suppose this Donald Woods hadn’t killed Patsy Mooney, I conjectured. Although surely he had, if even the police believed it. Still, I scratched my head. The mystery gems turning up in Sea Cliff and then the murder in the same house … I kept having the feeling I was missing something. The wind was at my back. I pumped along, my brow furrowed, this niggling occupying me now. A gull flew off in front and gave an excited cry and all at once it came to me. Broad Channel. She’d said Broad Channel, hadn’t she? I had more than a nagging suspicion that the two crimes had to be connected. I just didn’t know how. Had this Donald Woods clobbered the priest and stolen the statue? No, why would he? Suppose he hadn’t had anything to do with it at all? It could just as easily have been Morgan or Glinty or Oliver or Teddy or even Radiance or Paige—someone who knew enough to cast suspicion on a belligerent ex-husband.

  It was a hunch, but I couldn’t shake the suspicion. I coasted my bicycle into a broad circle and pedaled back to the rectory. I knocked. Mrs. Lassiter, half into her fussy black suit and annoyed again from the look on her face, threw the door open. I was aware that very consciously she put on a martyred, sweeter face for me. “Yes?”

  “I’m so sorry to bother you again, Mrs. Lassiter. Would it be all right if I took some holy water up to Twillyweed?”

  She was glad, I could tell, it was about nothing else. “Have you got the bottle?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll get you a jar,” she said and let me stand there while she went to get it. A flock of blackbirds went rushing by.

  It was a nice, big mayonnaise jar. “Thanks,” I said, then remarked nonchalantly, “Say. Just out of curiosity, what parish was that in Broad Channel your pastor came from?”

  “Oh, that’ll be St. Margaret Mary’s. Father Steger’s parish now.”

  I put on my stupid face “Ah, too bad.” I acted disappointed. “I thought it might be my dad’s old parish. Oh, well. Just a thought.” I smiled weakly and pedaled off. My mind reeled. When I was clear of the place, I let myself think. St. Margaret Mary’s! That’s where the priest was clobbered and where the statue was stolen from! Wait till I tell Jenny Rose.

  I caught sight of Daniel’s house and turned in the driveway, then left my bike lying on the gravel. “Daniel?” I called in. No one answered. I tickled the wind chimes he had hanging from the sill. They were the big, booming, expensive ones. I waited. No one was there. Still, you never knew. I stepped into the kitchen. Everything looked the same. A cat yowled from inside, half scaring me out of my wits. Then there was no sound. None at all. I crept cautiously across the linoleum. I stepped over the threshold and was in the room with the bed. It smelled so nice, like someone had polished the nightstand with Pledge. And then, for no reason I could think of, I bent over and pulled the blanky off the doll. It wasn’t a doll; it was a statue, a statue of Our Lady, her poor eye sockets empty, her arms out extending grace. Hearing my heartbeat in my ears, I picked it up and sheltered it against me. The big cat on the windowsill looked past me, like someone else was there. I started to go. With every step a horror that someone would grab me moved me along with my spine up under me. I made it back outside. I clutched the statue under my jacket and felt tears prick at my eyes. But I didn’t cry. It wasn’t that. I just stood there thinking, I’ve got her. I made the sign of the cross, took off my jacket and wrapped her up in it, and laid her in my basket next to the big jar of holy water. I looked around and saw no one. No one saw me. I rattled along on my bike, my hand outstretched like a guardian vessel, shielding my booty. I should have gone to the police right then. But I didn’t.

  Jenny Rose

  Hastily making her way into town, Jenny Rose then stood in the middle of Main Street and took a breath. She would talk to Glinty and find out what he knew. She’d been so worried the police would suspect her that she hadn’t given a thought to whether or not he—But no. No, Glinty would never have strangled a soul. She was sure of it. Oh, poor Patsy Mooney! Jenny Rose spotted a shop where they sold crystals and religious items. Surely they’d carry Mass cards. She went in and then, hearing urgent, familiar whispers, busied herself behind a wall of scented candles. It was Paige, wasn’t it? She was lecturing Radiance in that schoolmarm, patronizing tone of hers.

  “You never even came to Noola’s wake! What’s wrong with you? You wouldn’t go to her funeral and now you won’t even come back to the house when the poor woman—!”

  “I don’t like the dead,” Radiance moaned. “They terrify me! Coffins and holes in the ground—”

  “Don’t start that again. It’s not just our duty,” Paige reminded her, “she was kind to us all.”

  That stopped her. “Yes,” she agree
d in a small voice. “You’re right.”

  “I’ve got to get back. They want to interview me again. Why are you all dressed up?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Where were you? In the city? What were you up to? I can tell you were up to something!”

  Paige said this in such an uncharacteristic, almost savage tone that Jenny Rose decided it was time to make herself known. It wasn’t that she minded eavesdropping, but she didn’t like them to catch her at it and thought if Radiance whirled around they might. She stepped out and at that moment saw Paige slide her hand up Radiance’s shirt back and pull her roughly to her. “There’s something you’re not telling me,” Paige hissed. But Radiance’s chin went up, her mouth opened, and her eyes dimmed in willingness. In lust.

  Jenny Rose took a quick step backward and turned and slipped, dismayed, around the display shelf and out the door. Blindly she clattered down the wooden steps. God! she muttered silently. Imagine it! Two of the best-lookin’ women anyone could think of. Either one of them could have any man she chose. What a waste! She could understand what it was for Brigid and Deirdre, her own stepparents. No disrespect meant, but let’s face it, nobody else would want them, would they? It shouldn’t surprise her, of all people, but it did. And how in hell, she puzzled, could those two be carrying on and nobody have a whiff of a clue? Auntie Claire sprang to mind. Poor old sod. How shocked she must have been when she’d found out about her fellow! It went to show it was just like she said. You can be living your life and not even know the person closest to you. Not even know where they go in their mind. Jenny Rose huddled away down the street. Uh-oh. There was Teddy leaning on his car in front of the bookshop, drinking a cup of coffee from the deli and paging nonchalantly through a book. Smug bugger. Thought himself fine, didn’t he? Smarter than everyone. Figured she’d come around if he just gave it enough time. She went to dart down the alley, but he’d seen her. He kept a blue eye on her until she felt she had to come over and say something. “’Lo,” she said as she nodded grudgingly and crossed over.

  “You know what I like most about this town?” Teddy mused. “This bookshop keeps its top step like a shelf for books that don’t sell. You can take any one of them, free.”

  She stuck out her pursed lips and slid a reluctant hip against the hood of the car.

  “Poor Patsy,” he said, shaking his head softly.

  “Yeah.”

  “Looking for Glinty, eh?” He took a knowing sip of his coffee. “Did you talk to the detectives?”

  “No to both. It’s so horrible, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. Horrible. What a way to die!” Teddy sighed, giving the horizon a searching look. “I can’t get over Glinty, though,” he puzzled, “what with all this going on! For him to go off looking for—how did he put it—the prettiest lass on the planet …”

  What did he mean? Who was he talking about? Radiance? “Wouldn’t have been me then, though, would it!”

  “He must have meant you,” Teddy blustered, sounding conciliatory, but unable to keep the doubtfulness from his voice. He smiled again, loose with charm. “Maybe he was afraid of the cops. Maybe he knows something we don’t …”

  Jenny Rose tried to smile, not liking him at all just now. She wasn’t going to stand here. Forget it! She walked the long way back to Twillyweed.

  Claire

  By the time I got to Twillyweed there were emergency vehicles and cop cars all over. I hesitated, but Oliver’s Alpha Romeo was there and I saw my PT Cruiser, so I left the statue wrapped up in my jacket in the bicycle basket and I walked boldly over the yellow tape. Radiance had just come in and Morgan was grilling her, “Where have you been anyway? Your father’s been sick with worry!”

  “I was in the city. I walked up from town. They wouldn’t let me in the house until just now.”

  “Well, I want you to calm down. The way you’ve been acting, you’ll be heading for a breakdown!”

  No doubt I was gaping at Radiance. I’d never seen her and now here she was—this practically mythological creature, this extraordinary combination of all worlds. You wouldn’t see one like her every day.

  He noticed me. “Come in, Claire. I’ve got your car here.”

  “Yes, I saw it; thank you.”

  “Thank Mr. Piet. Detective Harms wants to talk to you anyway.”

  “Me?”

  “About Patsy Mooney.”

  “Well, of course. But I didn’t know her, really, just saw her that once at the dinner party.”

  “Well, then, that’s what you’ll tell him.” He pulled out the straw-back kitchen chair for me.

  Jenny Rose, a cherry red sweater thrown over her shoulders with one button done, minced through the back door in a conscientious little jig. You could tell she was making a great effort to compose herself and maintain appropriate decorum. She said, “I’ve got to go pick up Wendell. I don’t know if I should bring him back here or not.”

  Oliver, just coming in from the back porch, a cigar in his mouth, addressed her through gritted teeth, “I went over to the school to get him but we decided it would be better if he stayed until dismissal. You’ll pick him up as usual. Oh, and I was hoping you could take him with you to the Great White for a few hours, Claire. Just until they remove the body.”

  “Of course,” she and I said as one.

  I whispered in her ear, “I’ve got to talk to you.”

  But just then Paige, released from the detective and very pale, came in. Catching sight of Oliver’s cigar, she said, “Please put that thing out if you’re going to be in the house, Oliver. It stinks. No sense all of us losing our grip.”

  “I’ll get you a cup of sweet tea, shall I?” Morgan put a calming hand on her slim shoulder.

  “Yes, thank you.” She smiled wanly. “That’s just what I need.”

  Radiance said, “I’ll get it. She’ll want her Japanese Sencha tea. I know where everything is.”

  I offered, “Paige, I went and told Mrs. Lassiter what happened. She said she’d come up later and help you plan the wake.”

  She put the back of her wrist to her head. “That’s all I need right now. Nosy Lassiter!”

  “That’s her, all right.” Jenny Rose hoisted herself onto the marble countertop, “She used to stand outside the confessional back in Skibbereen and listen.”

  Everyone stared at Jenny Rose.

  “What?” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “She did.”

  Through the heavy lace curtains, I saw Teddy’s maroon station wagon pulling up. He hopped out with his real estate clipboard and came in the door, hesitating respectfully. He sat down. “Radiance, I stopped by your apartment. I was so worried about you. Where were you?”

  “I’m all right.” She went about setting up the tea things, placing an extra cup and saucer before Jenny Rose on the countertop. Her fingers trembled.

  Teddy said, “I can’t say I’m happy they found out who killed her, but I feel a sense of peace. There was always something menacing, something tense around the house. And now it’s over. Or it will be when they catch him.”

  I thought of my father who always says Carry a clipboard and you can walk in anywhere. I don’t know what made me think of that.

  Radiance gave her little French shrug. “It doesn’t feel very over to me.”

  He returned her look. “All right. Where were you all night?”

  “If you must know, I had my tryout for the Rockettes this morning.” She sank into the chair.

  Surprised, Paige reached for her arm, “Darling! Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Radiance bit her lip. “The worst of it was when I came back to Sea Cliff and I saw the police, I was actually glad something terrible had happened so I wouldn’t have to tell anyone.”

  “Tell anyone what?”

  Her head hung. “That I’d tried out and didn’t make it.”
/>
  “Oh, my dear—”

  “I’m so ashamed.” Her face crumbled. “I was eliminated before they even got started. They took one look at me when I came in. One girl called me a giraffe! I am too tall.”

  “At least you weren’t eliminated because you were a rotten dancer,” Teddy consoled.

  Eliminated from the Rockettes and—I made a mental note—eliminated from our suspect list. It would be so easily verified.

  “Everything’s ruined now. Whoever killed Patsy should have killed me instead.” Radiance sobbed uncontrollably. “Save me the trouble!”

  “That’s a terrible, melodramatic thing to say!” Paige knelt and took hold of her. “Stop it!”

  A young police officer came in and said the detectives would like to speak to Morgan Donovan.

  Radiance wiped her eyes, and Morgan straightened slowly and marched forward dutifully.

  I said, “I’d like to speak to the detectives myself actually.”

  “You’ll have to wait your turn, miss.” The officer informed me.

  “Well, he asked to see me.”

  “You’ll still have to wait your turn.”

  They left.

  Paige stood up and cleared her throat theatrically. “How did it go, Teddy?”

  “Uch. They want to buy low and sell high.”

  “They didn’t like it?”

  “They like it, they just want it for nothing.”

  “It has a lovely porch.”

  “And the shade up there. Great old trees.”

  “Yes. Well, they won’t get it for nothing. Dosoris is prime location now.”

  I thought such a conversation oddly out of place. But then Paige, too, lost it, holding her head in a hopeless gesture.

  “Paige! This is too much for you!” Teddy glared angrily at Oliver as though all this were his fault.

  Paige babbled, “It’s just … I remember I looked to check the time and the clock was stopped. I should have known something was wrong! Patsy wouldn’t forget to wind the clock!” She pounded her slight fist uselessly on the table.