The Possum Hollow Hullabaloo (The Penelope Pembroke Cozy Mystery Series)

by Nickles, Judy

  Then, before her passengers could exit, Penelope saw a familiar car turn in behind her, blocking her escape.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “I’ll take the girls with me.” Alana Mueller emerged looking, as Jake would say, happy as a pig in a peach orchard.

  “Your supervisor gave me permission to bring them here for the night,” Mary Lynn retorted. She glanced back at the children. “Do not take off, understand me?”

  Ellie nodded, and Evie began to wail.

  Penelope hit the lock button as Alana reached for the door. “Call Tonya Cisneros,” she said through the window.

  “I’m in charge of this case!”

  “They’re children, not a case,” Mary Lynn said.

  “I’m taking them.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  In the rear-view mirror, Penelope caught sight of a flashing blue light and saw Parnell Garrett unfold his lanky frame from behind the wheel of his patrol car. “Any problem, Mrs. Pembroke? Mrs. Hargrove?”

  Mary Lynn spelled it out for him. He turned to the young social worker. “They’ll be fine here for the night,” he said.

  She didn’t back down. “I’m taking them with me.”

  “Why don’t you just call your supervisor and get the okay to leave them here?” Parnell asked.

  “I’ll get a court order, and while I’m at it, I’ll file charges against these two.”

  Penelope held up a hand to silence the retort she saw forming on Mary Lynn’s lips. “Then you just blessed do that,” she said in a neutral tone. “But you can’t do anything tonight, and you know it, so why don’t you be a good girl and get out of my way so I can go home?”

  Alana advanced on the car again. “I’m…”

  Parnell blocked her way. “Look, Miss, I’d suggest you just cool off and go back to Little Rock or wherever you’re based. You can’t block a private drive.” He glanced at her car. “And that’s what you’re doing.”

  She gave him a look of pure disgust and stomped back to her car.

  “Drama queen, isn’t she?” Parnell asked. When Penelope rolled down the back window, he put his head through to where the girls sat frozen with fear. “You know me,” he said. “Officer Garrett.”

  Ellie nodded.

  “What’s that behind your ear?” he asked, reaching toward Evie. She stopped wailing. “Well, looky here…a nickel!” He handed it to the little girl. “And I do believe…yep…” He showed Ellie another nickel plucked from somewhere near her head. She giggled. “Okay, you ladies have a nice evening. I’ll be around.” He ambled back to the police car and waved as he fitted himself back inside.

  ****

  Penelope called Shana on the way to the B&B and filled her in. “That’s all I know, and it’s not for public broadcast.”

  “I’m off the air.”

  “Right. I’ll let you know more when I know it.”

  “Thanks for calling, Penelope. I’m headed to Little Rock to meet Peter and Tabby. She’s in a school play about recycling. I think she’s a soda can.”

  “That should be interesting.”

  Shana laughed. “Peter says she’s excited.”

  “I’m home, and Daddy’s at the door waiting. Gotta run.” Penelope waved at her father as she drove into the garage, then hurried up the flagstone walk. “Sorry I’m late, Daddy.”

  “I was a little worried, honeychild. It’s dark.”

  “It’s been a day. I’ll fill you in over supper.”

  “I put in the casserole you left thawing in the refrigerator.”

  “Did you set the table?”

  Jake grinned. “Nag, nag, nag. The old folks home is looking better and better.”

  ****

  Bradley and Rosabel showed up in time for dessert. “Had a visit from that social worker,” he said. “Parnell filled me in.”

  “He showed up at Mary Lynn’s at the right time. Where does the state find people like that Mueller woman?”

  He shrugged. “If she turns up tomorrow with a court order, you can’t keep her from taking the girls.”

  “That stinks.” Penelope’s fork went spinning, and only Rosabel’s quick hand kept the open bottle of salad dressing from decorating the table.

  “I agree,” Bradley said, “but it’s the law.”

  “Then the law should be changed.”

  Bradley shrugged again. “And Jeremiah Hadden will try to beat her to the draw. You know that.”

  “You mean he’ll come looking for the girls? Parnell said he was long gone.”

  “Maybe long but not so far,” Jake said.

  “That’s possible, Pawpaw. Listen, Mother, I know you go back on Fridays when you don’t have anyone staying at the B&B, so I want you to tell George Harris for me to keep the doors locked and have recess in the gym if the girls come back to school, which I doubt.”

  “I’ll tell him. You don’t think their father would try anything at the Hargroves’ tonight, do you?”

  “We went by there first,” Rosabel said. “If anybody saw them in your car, they’ll know they’re with Mrs. Hargrove or you.”

  “Anybody as somebody from the Hollow.”

  Bradley nodded. “I warned them to lock up, and I’m telling you the same thing.”

  “We’ll lock up, Brad,” Jake said. “You know I keep a handgun in the drawer by my bed. No real reason, just a habit, but it might be a good one now.”

  “Pawpaw, you’ve had that same gun since I was a little boy. You threatened to hang me out the upstairs front window if I ever touched it.”

  “It’s been taken care of, son. It works.”

  “How do you know it works, Pawpaw?”

  Jake blew out his breath in disgust. “Because I take it out to the Toney place and shoot it ever so often.”

  Penelope glanced up. “Oh, Daddy.”

  “Penelope Corinne Louise, I fought my way off of Omaha Beach and through the Bulge. You know I know about guns because I taught you to use one before you turned thirteen.”

  “Sorry, Daddy, I wasn’t criticizing you.”

  “Sounded that way.” He tossed out the challenge through narrowed eyes. “And you must’ve thought it worked when you took it to Eureka Springs with you and Shana three years ago.”

  Penelope looked away.

  Bradley smiled at his grandfather. “If you didn’t go out and practice, that’s when I’d be worried about the gun, Pawpaw. Just don’t go plugging Mother if she comes down for a midnight snack.”

  Jake guffawed. “Not unless she’s after the last piece of this lemon cake.”

  Rosabel leaned over to kiss Jake’s cheek. “Just lock up tight.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt you to have a gun, spending so much time out in Possum Hollow these days,” Jake said to his daughter when the younger folks had gone.

  “You know I can’t carry a gun on school property, Daddy. It’s the law.”

  “I remember, but it still wouldn’t hurt. You could park across the road, and leave it in the car, I guess.” He got up. “I’m going to make sure the downstairs windows are latched.”

  “Somebody could just break one and reach inside.”

  “That would make more noise than just raising the window.” He ambled toward the swinging door to the dining room. “You go lock that back door.”

  As she showered and put on her gown, Penelope considered that life settling down had been too much to ask for. Nothing ever happened in Amaryllis until that blessed cotton gin burned down with two people in it. Now we’ve got bodies cropping up all over the place. I hate it. She slipped into bed and pulled the cover up over her head. I wonder if I could just stay right here under the covers forever. I wonder if, when I finally came out, the world would’ve just gone away like Sam goes away. The problem is, he always comes back.

  ****

  She woke wondering if she’d really heard the breaking glass or if she’d been dreaming, but she knew her heart galloping inside her chest was very real. Tomorrow I’m going to buy a blesse
d gun, she thought as she sat up and put her feet over the side of the bed. If I live that long.

  In her bare feet, she padded to the door and leaned against it listening, and her hand slipped down to turn the key. Is that somebody on the stairs, or is it my imagination? Hail Mary, full of grace…She crossed herself and pressed her ear closer to the solid door. Nothing. The phone beside her bed rang twice and stopped before she could get to it. Beside the phone the digital clock read 2:51 AM.

  She went back to the door, carrying the cordless handset with her. Almost immediately, the phone rang again. Clicking the button, she held the phone against her ear and waited. A faint gurgling sound, almost like someone being choked, moved her pseudo-calm to panic. “Daddy!” Unlocking the door, she hit the hall at a run, managing only inches before a large hairy hand clamped her mouth shut.

  She let her knees fold under her, and when she hit the floor, the hand disappeared. A large bulky form hurtled past her toward the stairs. At the same time, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs and then the sound of a struggle. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the sound of gunfire, but there was only the sound of something—a body?—hitting the wall. Light flooded the hall.

  “Nell, are you all right?”

  “Sam? Where are you?” She stood up and looked around. “Sam?”

  “Stay where you are, Nell.” More sounds of a struggle, though half-hearted this time, drifted up the stairs from the direction of the foyer.

  “What’s happening?”

  “Just hang on, Nell. Don’t move.” Another thump. “Dammit, I’ll break your neck if you don’t stop messing with me!”

  “Sam?”

  “I said hang on!”

  The sudden realization that she wore only a mauve silk gown, transparent in the overhead light, sent Penelope back to her room in search of a robe. When she came out again, Sam stood in the upper hall with a handcuffed man just in front of him. “Who is this, and what is he doing in your house?”

  Penelope blinked. “Bert? Elbert Hadden? What…”

  The man’s face crumpled. “I’m real sorry, Mrs. Pembroke. Real sorry. I wouldn’t have hurt you.”

  “You’re looking for Ellie and Evie, aren’t you?”

  His chin fell to his chest.

  “Bert, I know they’re your kin, but breaking into my house—that’s not something you’d do. Not unless…”

  “I’m real sorry. Real sorry,” he repeated.

  Sam gave him a shake. “Breaking and entering, assault, resisting arrest—not a stellar performance Mr. Hadden.”

  Bert’s shoulders slumped even farther.

  “Oh, Sam, let him go. He didn’t hurt me.”

  “Let him go, hell! I’m betting this ox left bruises on me, knocking me against the wall the way he did. What’s going on? Why is he here?”

  “It’s a long story,” Penelope said. “Wait a minute—who was on the phone? I’ve got to check on Daddy.” She took two steps before she heard Jake’s voice.

  “Nellie? You okay?”

  “I’m okay, Daddy. What about you? Did you call me from downstairs?”

  “Not me.” Jake appeared on the landing, his gun clutched barrel down at his side. “Bert Hadden! Hello, Sam. What’re you doing with the produce manager of the Garden Market?”

  “He tried to smash this tomato,” Sam said gesturing toward Penelope with his free hand. “Only I shredded his lettuce.”

  “Oh, hush up,” Penelope snapped. “Come on downstairs, all of you, and I’ll make some coffee.”

  “And call the police,” Sam said.

  “No, Sam, it doesn’t work that way in Amaryllis, not with folks you know. Bert has to tell us what he was doing here, and then we’ll decide what to do.” Penelope moved past him toward the stairs.

  “Then I’ll call the police myself.”

  “No, son, not yet,” Jake said. “Just take those cuffs of Bert. He’s not going anywhere—are you?”

  Bert, his eyes still on the floor, shook his head.

  “That’s damned foolishness,” Sam said, but he unlocked the cuffs, ready to grab the other man if he made a run for it. When Bert stood still, Sam frowned, then scratched his head. “I’ll never understand this place.”

  Penelope took her father’s arm. “Come on, Daddy, go put away the gun, and we’ll get things figured out.”

  ****

  “You were looking for Ellie and Evie, weren’t you, Bert?” Penelope asked as she poured mugs of coffee and brought them to the table.

  He nodded.

  “How are they related to you?”

  “Cousins. Their daddy is my daddy’s younger brother.”

  “Which one?”

  “Harvey was my older half-brother,” Bert said. “My daddy Hector and Jeremiah were the second family.”

  Sam snorted. “Anybody out there in the Hollow not a Hadden?”

  Penelope glared. “Don’t be rude.”

  “Rude? Me? This guy breaks into your house and attacks you, and I’m the one who’s rude?”

  Jake touched Sam’s arm. “Just hold on, son.” Concentrating on Bert, now shivering like he was naked in the middle of a blizzard, he said, “So who told you the girls were here and to come get them? Jeremiah?”

  “I’m not real sure. There was a note under my door—told me they were either here or at the Hargrove place.”

  “So if the note told you to go stand in the middle of Interstate 30, you’d have done that, too?” Sam leaned into Bert’s face.

  “No, sir.”

  “Then what?”

  “There’s a code in the Hollow,” Jake said. “When it’s your kin, you do whatever you have to. Right, Bert?”

  Bert nodded.

  “What were you supposed to do with the girls?” Penelope asked.

  “Just take ‘em home with me.”

  “So they’d be with family, right?”

  “Yes’m.” Bert cupped his mug in both shaking hands and lifted it to his lips, then took a deep breath. “I got a phone call after I found the note.”

  “Who from?”

  “Can’t tell you, but it wasn’t Jeremiah.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Sam snorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “You’re going to have to tell Bradley,” Penelope said. “You know that, don’t you?”

  “Can’t tell anybody,” Bert insisted.

  “Bert, I don’t want to see you charged with anything. You’ll lose your job, and it’s a good one. You’ve got a family to support. You got out of the Hollow.”

  “Nobody gets out,” he said.

  “You mean away from the family? You’re in a better position to know that than anybody else, I guess. I’m not going to press any charges. I’ll call Bradley tomorrow and tell him, but you need to talk to him yourself.”

  “I will, Mrs. Pembroke. Thanks for understanding.”

  Penelope sighed. “Unfortunately, I do. Now go home to your family.”

  “And remember you owe us for the window,” Jake added.

  “I’ll get somebody out here tomorrow, I swear. First thing in the morning.” Bert rose and started for the back door. “I’m real sorry, Mr. Kelley.”

  “You’re just going to let him walk out of here?” Sam exploded.

  Jake nodded. “He won’t be back. Not until tomorrow, that is. He’ll make sure the window’s replaced.”

  Sam shook his head. “I think everybody in this town is insane.”

  Penelope raked him with angry eyes. “I can think of one or two people who’d nail Bert’s backside to a tree just because he’s a Hadden, but I’m not one of them.”

  “I’m going to bed,” Jake said. “See you at breakfast, Sam?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Sam flung himself down on the loveseat under the window of Penelope’s bedroom. “Care to explain the little drama that just transpired?”

  Penelope detailed the day. “Bert wouldn’t have done me any permanent damage.”

  “You’re sure
of that.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  Sam ran his fingers through his hair, which Penelope thought seemed whiter since she’d last seen him. “I don’t understand. Brad should arrest Bert Hadden for breaking and entering.”

  “You understand, Sam. You do whatever you have to do to get your job done, and so does Bradley. It’s just I know what Bradley’s job is and don’t have a clue about yours.”

  He was on the bed beside her before she realized it. “I didn’t plan to wake you because it was so late, but now that you’re up…” His voice trailed off as his lips met her neck just under one ear.

  “Oh, Sam, don’t blessed start.”

  “Missed you, Nell.”

  “Sam, stop it. You make me crazy when you do that.” She shivered as he stroked her shoulders through her robe.

  “Why don’t you just give it up, Nell?” His lips moved to her mouth.

  Why don’t I? I love you so much, Sam. But I want you in my bed every night, not just whenever you happen to show up.

  “God, Nell, I want you so much. I need you like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “I believe you,” she murmured. “I need you, too, but not like this.”

  He moved against her, sending shock waves through her body. “Nell, Nell, Nell…”

  “Mother? You up there?”

  Sam rolled to his side.

  “I’m here, Bradley.” Penelope rearranged her gown and robe on the way down the hall and leaned over the bannister.

  “Come on down for a minute.”

  Penelope joined him in the foyer. “What are you doing here?”

  “I got a tip you’d had some trouble tonight.”

  “Bert Hadden broke a window and came in looking for Ellie and Evie. He’s going to replace the window and come talk to you tomorrow. I don’t want to press charges.”

  “Yeah, that’s cool, Mother. I kind of figured somebody would try something tonight. Parnell’s checking on the Hargroves.”

  “Jeremiah put him up to it. Jeremiah’s his uncle, I think Bert said.”

  “Yep. Well, I’ll put the fear of God in Bert tomorrow, and you let me know if he doesn’t replace the window.”