“Maybe this will turn out to be a mosquito that’ll buzz off.”
“We can always hope. So what about Paul Hollis? Did he make a report on Ellie?”
“I guess so. Uh-oh—look at that car.”
Mary Lynn sucked in her breath. “They didn’t waste any time, did they—the child welfare?”
“Well, Mary Lynn, if a child’s being abused…” Penelope parked the SUV, and they got out. Inside the building, it was quiet until they passed the principal’s office. “I’m telling you I want to see that child.” The demand echoed in the silent hall.
Penelope and Mary Lynn entered the outer office, hoping their presence wouldn’t be noticed.
“And I’m telling you she’s not here today, and if you’re planning on going out to look for her, you’d better take a police officer with you.”
“Why?”
“Because the folks out here generally don’t shoot at a uniform—just around it.”
“What?”
Penelope rolled her eyes at Mary Lynn, who snickered.
“Go back to town and ask for an officer to go with you.”
“Why can’t you go with me?”
“I’ve been out there twice in the last two weeks. Ellie says her mother’s visiting a sick sister, and I haven’t seen hide nor hair of her father—and you don’t want to.”
“Then I’ll just get a court order to remove her.”
“It’s not that easy, is it? Don’t you have to have proof of imminent danger or something?”
“Bruises on a child’s neck constitutes imminent danger as far as I’m concerned.”
George Harris’s sigh could be heard through his closed door. “Then do what you have to, but if you’re smart, you won’t do it on your own.”
The woman who stalked out of the principal’s office was young—very young, Penelope thought. Probably new at her job. Going to save the world—if she lives that long. She better do what George told her to do.
George Harris leaned against the door jamb. “I’m going out to see if I can find Ellie.”
“Is that a good idea?” Penelope asked. “You told her…”
“Alana Mueller. Miss. Newly-minted social worker. Been on the job six weeks.”
Mary Lynn threw up her hands. “Good for her.”
“Ellie didn’t come to school yesterday either. It was Shana Bayliss’s day, and she told me she thought she could talk to Ellie about her little sister, but she didn’t show up.”
“It was worth a try. George, are you sure you ought to go back out there? Bradley said…”
“I called him as soon as Paul told me Ellie wasn’t in school again. He’s sending Parnell Garrett to go with me. Besides, this time I’m really worried. Bruises on the neck say something.”
“What about the Mueller woman?” Mary Lynn asked. “Or girl.”
George chuckled. Hopefully, she won’t pass Parnell on the road and turn around and come back. Maybe we can get some information this time around.”
“Or not,” Penelope said, turning to Mary Lynn. “I’m off to the library. It’s your day to do attendance and the rest of the paperwork.”
“I can hardly wait.” Mary Lynn flounced off toward the tiny attendance office.
****
George and Parnell showed up two hours later with Ellie in tow. Also with them, trying to hide behind Ellie’s skinny frame, a younger girl wept hysterically. She wore a faded shapeless dress, much like her older sister’s, and no shoes. Penelope stepped out of the library when she saw them in the hall.
“Now, Evie, don’t cry anymore,” George said in the soft voice practiced in soothing the innocent and putting fear in the guilty. “It’s almost time for lunch, and I happen to know there’s an extra hamburger steak with your name on it.”
“Hush,” Ellie hissed at her sister. “We’ll go home right after lunch.”
“Yum-yum.” Parnell rubbed his flat stomach and licked his lips. Evie wailed louder.
Ellie gave her sister’s arm a jerk. “Hush up!” The child hiccupped and hid her face in Ellie’s skirt.
Ellie, why don’t you take Evie down to the kindergarten room. Tell Mrs. Harris I said you could stay in there with her until lunch.
The older girl hurried off without replying.
“Well, you blessed found them anyway,” Penelope said.
“Oh, we found them all right,” George replied, glancing at Parnell. “You fill her in. I’ve got to go do some work this morning.” He walked off, shaking his head.
Parnell followed Penelope into the library and accepted the mug of coffee she fetched from the tiny closet-turned-kitchenette-nurse’s office. “So what’s going on?”
He looked around for a chair large enough for his six-foot-five frame and folded himself into it. “They were leaving the house—if you want to call it a house—about the time we pulled up, so we just sort of followed them back into the woods. Pretty far back in. They had some flowers in an old tin can.”
“Oh, my stars, they weren’t taking them to a…”
The officer nodded. “Yep. Hard to tell how long it’d been there. Still mounded up, so I’d say it’s more or less recent.”
Penelope’s knees felt weak. She perched on the edge of a table. “Their mother.”
“Probably.”
“Those poor little girls.”
“We walked on back out to the edge of the trees and waited for them. Thought they were going to run when they saw us, but Ellie just sort of gave us a look like she knew the jig was up.”
“Did she say anything?”
“Not a word.”
“What are you going to do?”
“That’s up to Chief Malone, but I’m guessing he’ll ask Judge Gilbert for an order of exhumation unless we can find Jeremiah Hadden to tell us how she died. Always possible it was natural causes. The folks out there take care of their own and don’t bother with formalities like a coroner or a death certificate.” A look of distaste passed over Parnell’s rugged features. “I hate stuff like this.”
“Oh, Parnell, that’s too bad. At least the first body in the basement of the old school was just a pile of bones.”
“This one won’t be, I’ll bet.” He swallowed the remaining coffee and unfolded himself. “George told me about the social worker. She’ll grab those little girls so fast, and they’re already scared to death, especially the little one.”
“I know, but what else can she do? They can’t go back out there. I don’t guess you happen to know anything about Jeremiah.”
“Naw, he’s long gone, I bet.”
“You think he killed his wife or…”
“Whatever happened, I’m betting the kids saw it.”
“So you’re going to have to talk to them.”
“Not me. Brad gets that pleasure.”
“Poor little girls.”
“I gotta go, Mrs. Pembroke. If you should happen to take the girls home with you tonight…”
“You wouldn’t say you knew about it.”
He grinned. “Right.”
“It’s the best option for now, I suppose.”
“Reckon so.” He covered the space to the door in three strides and waved on the other side.
CHAPTER NINE
“They were very hungry,” Miss Maude Pendleton said when she accompanied the kindergarten class to the library after naptime.
Penelope looked around for Ellie and Evie, but they were nowhere in sight.
“The younger girl is still having a nap, and Mrs. Harris persuaded Ellie to return to her own class.” She caught a little boy by his collar and turned him in the direction of the picture book section when he seemed inclined to visit the magazine rack instead. “Two books with words, Joshua Bartell.” She lowered her voice. “Children shouldn’t be hungry, not like those girls were.”
“The children get breakfast and lunch here, but that’s not really enough.”
Miss Maude narrowed her eyes. “I happen to know that breakfast is furnished from the pock
ets of the staff.”
“Yes, ma’am, it is.”
“Who don’t take home as much as I did when I was teaching, and that was pitifully little until only about ten years before I retired. Fortunately, I have an inheritance to supplement my retirement.”
“Shana, Mary Lynn, and I are all pitching in now that we know about it.”
“And I will do so, too, of course. I daresay a great deal goes on out here that no one knows about.”
Penelope looked the other way.
“You needn’t worry about me, Mrs. Pembroke. I don’t share information about anything.”
“Thank you, Miss Maude.”
“I get the impression the Hadden girls were brought here this morning against their will and won’t be allowed to go home.”
“I’ll take them home with me tonight.”
“But that won’t be a permanent solution, will it?”
“No, ma’am.”
“They’ll go to foster care. We didn’t have that in my day. Oh, there were orphanages, but for the most part, families took care of their own.”
“Now child welfare gets involved.”
Miss Maude’s lips pursed as if she’d tasted something sour. “More’s the pity.” She turned around, reminding Penelope of a majestic ship moving slowly in the water. “Joshua Bartell, have you selected your books?”
The child edging toward the magazine rack again scuttled back to the shelves of books.
“Miss Maude, everyone is so glad you’re here,” Penelope said. “I hope you know that.”
“I try to do my best.”
“If everyone’s best was half what yours is, we’d all be better off.”
Mary Lynn chose that moment to poke her head in. “I heard about Ellie.”
Miss Maude moved off toward the milling kindergarteners, and Penelope joined Mary Lynn in the corridor. “I’m taking them home with me tonight,” Penelope said.
“Until Alotta Mouth shows up again, and she will.”
“You are so bad, Mary Lynn.”
“Listen, you remember years ago when Harry and I thought we might adopt and became certified as foster parents?”
“I’d forgotten, but that’s been years ago, Mary Lynn, You’d probably have to get recertified.”
“I don’t see why we can’t take the girls temporarily. Carol Harris just told me she’d let Evie come to her class—off the record, of course—and that way Ellie could stay in a familiar place. Either you and I or Shana are out here five days a week, so they’d have a ride.”
“There are rules.”
“Rules schmules. If this school crossed all their t’s and dotted all their i’s, nothing would get done.”
The door opened, and a knife-sharp line of kindergarteners, followed by Miss Maude, filed out. “I left the cards on the desk for you.”
“See that’s another silly rule that’s been tossed out here. No due-date cards.” Mary Lynn threw Penelope a I-proved-my-point look.
“Well, the children come every week. We’ve lost a few books but not many.”
“Let me have the girls tonight, Penelope. I’ll call Little Rock and see what Harry and I need to do.”
“It’s not up to me, Mary Lynn. I was just going to tell George I’d take them.”
“Then I’ll go talk to him.” Mary Lynn whirled off in a flash of printed skirt and peasant blouse.
You and Harry would’ve made good parents. The state didn’t even use you as foster parents, even after you took all those classes. And they never even tried to find you a baby. I know they dangled the carrot a couple of times, but that’s all they did, and then they said you were too old for a baby and tried to give you teenagers. Well, that’s their loss. No, it’s the children’s loss. But maybe Ellie and Evie Hadden are the answer to your prayers, because I have a feeling you never gave up.
****
Mary Lynn had just settled Evie in the back seat beside Ellie and was reaching for the seatbelt when Alana Mueller screeched to a halt and flew across the cracked asphalt toward Penelope’s SUV. “Where do you think you’re taking those children?”
“Home with me for the night,” Mary Lynn replied without turning around.
“No, you’re not! I’m taking them to an emergency shelter, and tomorrow they’ll go to a foster home.”
In a flash, Ellie had grabbed Evie’s arm and slid both of them out the other door. Evie fell to her knees, but Ellie jerked her up. They took off at a run.
“Wait a minute! You come back here! Stop, I tell you!” Alana’s otherwise attractive face turned beet red.
“Ellie, Evie! Come on back here!” Mary Lynn called. But the girls had disappeared into the nearest copse of trees. “Now see what you’ve done!”
“What I’ve done? You’re the one breaking the law. I’ll have you arrested for interfering with child custody.”
“Oh, come off it, missy,” Penelope said. “Her husband’s the mayor, and my son is with the police department.”
“I don’t care! I’ll get the state police in here!”
“Good luck,” Penelope muttered, following Mary Lynn toward the trees and hoping she wouldn’t have to go farther.
George Harris came out of the building. “What’s going on?”
“They were kidnapping those girls, and I’m going to press charges.” The woman’s nervous footwork reminded Penelope of a boxer.
“Settle down, Miss Mueller. Nobody’s kidnapping anybody.”
Penelope walked back and waded into the fray. “When she announced she was putting them in foster care, they took off like a blessed shot. We’ll never find them now.”
George Harris shook his head. “I don’t know what you learned in school, Miss Mueller, but you have to approach things a little differently out here. Now, why don’t you go wait in my office, and we’ll see if we can find the girls.” He glanced up at the sky. “But it’s already after four, and it’s getting dark earlier now.”
“And it’s a whole lot darker in those woods,” Penelope said. “I’m going to see if I can get Mary Lynn to come out before she gets lost.”
“Good idea.” He stood back. “After you, Miss Mueller.”
Half an hour later, Mary Lynn emerged, her skirt torn, and her tear-streaked face smudged with dirt. “They’re gone, Pen, just gone, and it’s going to be cold tonight, and they don’t even have jackets or shoes, and…” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
“We’ll find them.”
“No, we won’t, and you know it. It’s all that woman’s fault, too.”
In George Harris’s office, Alana Mueller sat drumming her fingers. “Well?” she demanded when the two women came in.
Penelope shrugged.
“It’s going to get cold tonight, and they don’t have jackets or shoes,” Mary Lynn said. “I hope you’re proud of yourself.”
Alana Mueller lifted her chin. “I’m doing my job.”
“Then the job needs to be abolished,” Mary Lynn retorted.
Alana whipped a cell phone from her purse. “I’m calling my supervisor.” She went out into the corridor, slamming the door behind her.
George Harris collapsed in his desk chair. “Parnell called. Chief Malone just got the exhumation order.”
“Does that social worker know about it?” Penelope asked.
“Lord, I hope not.”
“Look, Bert and Betty Hadden are some kin. Maybe the girls could go there for a while,” Penelope said. “Don’t courts usually favor family over foster care?”
“Don’t forget, they have two children of their own. Their house is barely big enough for the four of them,” Mary Lynn said. “I’ve been there to take a covered dish when Betty’s mother died. It’s a nice little place, clean and all that, but they don’t have room for two more children.”
The social worker stalked back in. “I’ve spoken with my supervisor,” she said, “and it’s too bad you couldn’t have been more cooperative.” Then she left again, but this time she did
n’t slam the door.
The desk phone rang while the occupants of the office were still staring at each other. “Possum Hollow School, George Harris. Right, I’m the principal. Uh-huh. Okay, let me write down your name.” He scribbled something down on the back of an attendance slip and gestured to Penelope and Mary Lynn to sit. “Okay, well, here’s the story.” He recapped Ellie’s history and the day’s events. One of the women who helps out here is the wife of the mayor, and she volunteered to take the girls home for the night.”
“Harry and I were certified as foster parents once,” Mary Lynn stage-whispered, leaning across the desk.
George nodded and relayed the information. “Hargrove. Harry and Mary Lynn. Lived here all their lives—well, Mary Lynn came in high school, but Harry’s a hometown boy. Problem is, the girls are gone, and it would take a pack of bloodhounds to find them in those trees…wait a minute. Just hang on.” He put down the phone and pointed to the glass door.
When Penelope and Mary Lynn turned around, they saw Ellie’s nose pressed against the window under the word Principal. “Oh, thank God!” Mary Lynn threw open the door and enfolded the girls in her arms. They offered no resistance.
Penelope crossed herself. “Thank You, God,” she murmured.
“They’re back,” George said, his voice unsteady. “Just came in. Right. Right, here she is.” George held out the phone.
Still holding onto the girls, Mary Lynn took the phone. “My husband and I took all the classes years ago to be certified as foster parents. Maybe fifteen-eighteen years ago.” She listened, then gave her address and phone number. “Thank you! Oh, thank you so much!”
She hung up and hugged both girls again. “You’re coming home with me. Everything is going to be all right.”
“Her name is Tonya Cisneros,” Mary Lynn told Penelope as they drove the winding road in the dusk that was quickly turning to night. “Older woman from the sound of her voice. A slight Hispanic accent. Really nice. Common sense nice. She said she’d come out herself tomorrow.”
“What did she say about the other one?”
“That she was young and inexperienced.”
“And stupid.”
From the backseat, Ellie giggled, and Evie followed suit. When Mary Lynn launched into a slightly off-key rendition of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” both girls joined in. By the time Penelope turned into the driveway of the Hargrove home, the day’s negative turn seemed to be forgotten.
The Possum Hollow Hullabaloo (The Penelope Pembroke Cozy Mystery Series) Page 4
