2 Knot What It Seams (24 page)

Meadow was apparently completely immune to being intimidated. “Booth! I was going to call you later. I know you were so disappointed not to be able to see a
full
quilt show last time.”

Booth hardly appeared crushed or incomplete by this omission.

“I know you had to leave early because of the circumstances and being an official of Dappled Hills,” said Meadow. She sounded a little uncertain about this, as well she should. In Beatrice’s mind, there was absolutely no need for the mayor of the town, no matter how small that town might be, to go to the scene of an accident. Even if it ended up not being an accident. He’d been searching for an escape route.

“But we ended up having the quilt show after all, since we were all set up and had the space. Of course, it cast a pall over the proceedings. But we soldiered on,” said Meadow in a ringing tone.

Booth continued blankly surveying her.

“Since you weren’t able to stay to really get a true feel for the event, I’d like you to come to the next one. And there just so happens to be another quilt show in the area this weekend. We’ll also be having a short memorial in honor of Jo and Opal. It’s a bit more of a drive, but not too badly—the next county over. I’ll call you tonight and give you more exact directions so that you can drive yourself.”

“My wife and I won’t be in tonight to take your call,” said Booth stiffly. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose to more effectively glare at Meadow.

“Perfect!” said Meadow, grinning. “It would be better for me to leave them on your answering machine, anyway. That way you could rewind the tape if you get confused with my directions.”

“I believe we might have already had plans for Saturday,” said Booth.

“That’s fine for us, then,” said Beatrice. “Since it certainly wouldn’t be considered fair for you to levy taxes and other fees on the group without a full understanding how it operates. You’ll have to hold off. To be fair.”

Booth’s eyes flashed at her. She was right—she’d definitely made an enemy. And now he apparently thought that she was putting pressure on him. And he could be right.

* * *

“Look, here comes yet another suspect in this case,” said Meadow in her too-loud whisper as Glen Paxton walked toward the town hall from the parking lot. “Ramsay should have your luck. Maybe you should be the policeman and he should be the retired person.”

For once, Ramsay would likely agree with Meadow.

Glen smiled at them, deepening the smile lines around the corners of his mouth. Beatrice said, “Coming to get another volunteer assignment? I met Penny—she’s a delightful person.”

Glen said, “She is, isn’t she? Yes, I needed to see her this morning and figure out what time we’re picking up the food from the food drive on Sunday.”

“Thanks for the reminder. I have a few cans that I need to put in the collection bag,” said Beatrice.

Meadow leaned in and Beatrice sighed. Here it came. Meadow had clearly not gotten the memo about keeping Penny’s illness quiet.

Meadow said, “We heard about Penny. She’s in my prayers.” She reached over and gave the startled Glen a hug. Meadow clearly still believed Glen and Penny were having a romantic relationship.

“Oh,” he said, looking confused. “You know about Penny’s illness? She wasn’t really telling people about it. I was trying not to mention it, either. You know how it is when you’re working closely with someone in a small office. You start overhearing calls from the doctor’s office— by accident, you know. . . .”

Meadow said, “Glen, we know all about you and Penny. I think it’s so wonderful that you’re finding love again.” She obviously
didn’t
, though, and made a slight wincing face as if the words tasted bad.

Glen’s eyes opened wide. “Do people think that Penny and I are having a relationship? A romantic one?” He turned a mottled red color. “Penny and I are just friends and coworkers. I do care a lot about Penny, but only as a good friend. I loved Jo—I’m still trying to work through the fact that she’s suddenly gone. Does the whole town think that Penny and I are . . . having an affair?”

Beatrice said, “It doesn’t really matter what the rest of Dappled Hills thinks, does it?” But even as she said the words, she knew that it
would
matter. If you live in a small town, you don’t want to have to face disapproval . . . day after day.

Meadow blushed, obviously remembering her role in spreading gossip about Glen and Penny.

Glen gave an uncertain sigh. “If you could, please help spread the word that Penny and I are just good friends. And thanks for inviting me to the quilt show and for having the little memorial for Jo. Penny wanted to go to that with me to be a supportive friend. You don’t think other people will misinterpret that, do you? Or that it’s inappropriate?” he asked in a rush.

“I certainly don’t,” said Meadow staunchly. “I think it would seem odd to everyone if such a good friend didn’t support you.”

Glen relaxed a bit. “Hopefully these murders will be solved soon. Right now I feel like I can’t exactly do anything—I’m sure I’m a suspect in Jo’s murder, since I’m her husband. Penny has been really worried about me, actually.”

Meadow nodded. “She was asking me what Ramsay might be thinking. I can’t believe you have anything to worry about, Glen, and that’s what I told Penny.”

“She was also telling us about the morning of Opal’s murder—how you were at the Patchwork Cottage to ask Posy about having a new sign made for the shop.” Beatrice abruptly stopped talking as Glen’s face went white. “Glen?”

He cleared his throat. “Penny was mistaken. I wasn’t at the shop that morning. It was the morning before. I slept in that day and didn’t get out until it was time to be a reading buddy at the elementary school.”

Beatrice frowned. “Really? Penny was certain that was the day. I was going to ask you if you’d seen anyone or anything. . . .”

But Glen was vehemently shaking his head. “No. She’s wrong about that, but who could blame her, with everything she’s got on her mind? And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go in; I don’t want to be late for my next assignment.”

And before they could even say good-bye, Glen was inside the town hall.

Chapter 17

Meadow and Beatrice got into Meadow’s car. “Well, that was certainly interesting,” said Meadow. “Especially our chat with Penny. Although I don’t understand how you managed to bring up the subject of the investigation. It really worried her.”

“Me?”
said Beatrice. “I had nothing to do with it! Remember, she wanted to ask you what Ramsay thought about Glen’s involvement.”

“Oh. Well. Anyway, she sure seemed worried about it all,” said Meadow.

“And for good reason, I think. Look at it from the police perspective, Meadow. Here we have two people who are rumored to be having an affair. One of them is married to someone who has a lot of money but lives a very simple life. The other has a life-threatening illness and her only hope is to get expensive experimental treatment at a distant hospital. She can’t afford it.”

“But Glen could help her—only if he gets access to that money. And his wife obviously isn’t going to just
give
him the money . . . especially considering what he wants it for,” said Meadow, light dawning in her eyes. “And she’s sort of a frugal person, anyway.”

“Right. And not only is this man a former auto mechanic, but he also has a pair of wire cutters that he’s recently purchased. He chooses to disable her car’s brakes on a morning when it would look like a complete accident and probably never even be investigated. It would have been easy for him to slip out into the driveway while Jo was in the shower. He knows her mountainous mail route well. On a stormy morning, the police were certain to write off the tragedy as a horrible accident.”

“And they would have,” said Meadow, “if you hadn’t convinced Ramsay to investigate. Oh, I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”

“That might have had something to do with the fact that you were telling him that Opal Woosley had a vision about the car,” said Beatrice in a wry voice. “You should’ve known that wasn’t exactly going to fly with Ramsay.”

“I guess. So, do you think that Opal saw something to do with Glen?” asked Meadow. “In one of her psychic visions?” Meadow was obviously completely enamored with the supernatural.

“I think she probably actually
saw
something. With her eyes. We already know she was at Jo’s house the morning that Jo died—Booth Grayson kindly gave that information, as I told Ramsay,” said Beatrice.

“Right. So Opal might have seen Glen messing with Jo’s car? But that would have seemed perfectly normal at the time,” said Meadow. “Unless maybe she had a vision about it! Seeing into the future.”

“She looked as shocked as the rest of us at the quilt show that Jo had died. Although that might have been the moment when she realized exactly what she
had
seen. If it actually was
Glen that she saw. We still don’t really know that,” said Beatrice. “And he insisted that he and Penny aren’t having an affair. But we don’t really know that’s true. The two of them are awfully close.”

“Run through it again for me, Beatrice,” said Meadow. “Booth was over at Jo’s house to try to get the voice recorder, Opal was over there to play another practical joke on Jo, and maybe Glen was outside tinkering with Jo’s car.”

Beatrice nodded. “Opal could have been wandering around the Paxtons’ yard to make mischief and not even seen Glen immediately, since he was under the car. Then she
did
see him and hurried out of there. Later, she thought about what she’d seen and contacted Glen about it. Maybe she simply wanted to ask him what he was doing, if she might have misinterpreted what she’d seen.”

“So he was onto her and saw her car that morning when he was downtown trying to ask the shop owners about replacing their signs,” said Meadow.

“When he realized she was alone in the store, asleep, he took advantage of the situation,” said Beatrice. “Did you see how eager he was to make sure that we didn’t think he was in the Patchwork Cottage the morning Opal died? He was obviously trying to cover that up.”

“And he tried to run you down, too?” asked Meadow breathlessly. “He somehow realized you were getting close to the truth? It scares me silly to think that we’ve been talking to a
killer
.”

“This is just one scenario that fits, Meadow. But it might not have happened this way. I’ll admit that all the pieces fall into place, though. And it’s hard to imagine that Glen would do these things—but when people get desperate and when they’re in love, they sometimes act out of character. He could be lying to us about the nature of his relationship with Penny.”

Meadow glanced sideways at Beatrice. “I’m glad your crush on Glen is over now. At least, I’m guessing it is, since you’ve revealed that he’s a two-time murderer and a liar. Plus, there’s the fact that he tried to kill you, too.”

Beatrice struggled to control her temper. “Meadow, let’s get this straight. I have never for one second entertained the thought of being romantically involved with Glen Paxton. I promise. I think that you somehow got that impression one day when I said I was going to be thinking about him. I meant about his connection to this case.”

“If you’re sure,” said Meadow with a shrug. “You certainly seem very passionate when you’re talking about him.”

Beatrice’s blood pressure pounded in her ears and she was about to really tell Meadow off when she abruptly changed subjects again.

“You’re going to the quilt show, I hope. You can help keep an eye on Glen, since he’s a mass murderer. Oh, and thankfully, I did get the food set. I had a cake tasting at Miss Sissy’s house and sampled June Bug’s baking. Delicious! Every bit as good as Opal’s cakes. Well, I guess they weren’t Opal’s cakes at all, if Miss Sissy is to be believed.”

“The tasting must have been interesting,” said Beatrice, smiling at the thought of Meadow invading Miss Sissy’s house and wrangling cake from the old woman.

“Indeed it was! I thought Miss Sissy was going to be completely inhospitable and not even let me have a crumb of June Bug’s cake! She was being quite piggy over it.”

Beatrice wished she could have witnessed that scene. Meadow and Miss Sissy wrestling over cake.

“But back to the end of your crush,” said Meadow briskly. “That’s really wonderful news. Not only because Glen is a depraved killer and pathological liar, but because it means that you’re still available to explore a rewarding relationship with a man who’s a lot higher on the moral plane—Wyatt.”

For a split second, Beatrice entertained the thought of opening the door to the slow-moving car and stepping out.

“It’s been obvious to me for some time that Wyatt has feelings for you,” said Meadow, a matchmaking sparkle in her eye.

Beatrice took a deep breath to calm herself. “Meadow. I know you mean well. But I promise you that Wyatt and I are just friends. However, if you keep interfering with our friendship, that might soon
not
be the case.”

“I wouldn’t dream of interfering! All I want to do is to maybe increase the chances that your paths cross, that’s all. You’re barely at church at all, so I know that you’re not going to meet up with him where he spends most of his time,” said Meadow.

“I’m at church every Sunday!”

“Well, but you’re not there Wednesday nights. Or Sunday nights. Your Sunday morning attendance is a bit spotty, too. And he has little events and Bible studies there on different nights during the week. Or you could always volunteer with the youth—they meet on Thursday nights. . . .”

“Being there on Sunday mornings works well enough for me, Meadow,” said Beatrice stiffly. They pulled into Beatrice’s driveway. “Thanks for the ride.”

As she was getting out of the car, she heard Meadow say, “Fine, then. But you’re making this all much more difficult.”

* * *

“Do you think that you’ll be able to take Miss Sissy to the quilt show on Saturday?” asked Posy in a hopeful voice. “If you’re planning on going, that is.”

Beatrice had been wavering on going since she didn’t have a quilt in this show and she didn’t think that Piper did, either, with all the training she’d had lately for school. But when Posy called to ask her for a favor, she found it hard to say no. Besides, if Meadow was going to make Booth Grayson go to the show, maybe it would give her an opportunity to talk to him again. “Of course I will,” said Beatrice. “It’s an out-of-town show, isn’t it?”