Calamity @ the Carwash (Parson's Cove Mysteries) (5 page)

I shook my head. “Not any more. Dottie
says that now they drive to some park, drop them all off, and then come back
later to get them and take them home.”

“But I know that’s not what they’re
supposed to do, Mabel. I was at the town council meeting when they talked about
that. They arranged for the school bus to take them to the city once a month
for shopping. Bill Williams, the school bus driver, was getting paid extra to
do that.”

“Well,” I said, draining my cup, “that’s
not what’s happening. You should check it out, Flori.”

“You know I will. Jake can have a talk
with Bill and see what he’s up to.”

“It’s not Bill who’s driving them. It’s
Calvin Koots.”

“Calvin? Well, who’s driving his taxi
while he’s gallivanting off to the city?”

“Bernie Bernstein.”

“Really? But Bernie’s dead.”

“As I said, Flori, you’d better check it
out.”

Chapter
Eight

Prunella Flowers was sitting on her
front porch nursing a glass of something she was trying to make everyone
believe was iced tea but believe you me - that was no glass of iced tea. I know
the aroma of rum when I smell it. Personally, I enjoy a nip of gin once in
awhile. Flori is horrified that I do. She’ll imbibe in wine. When I say
‘imbibe’, I’m talking about one of the rarer meanings of the word and that is,
absorb. To her, wine is Biblical but gin is a sin.

Before Prunella could protest, I walked
up onto the porch and sat down.

“Oh Mabel, I don’t know if I’m up to
visiting with anyone tonight. It’s nice to see you but as you probably know,
I’ve had the police here so many times today and I’ve had to go down to the
station to make a statement. I don’t want to hurt your feelings but I think I
just want to sit here and drink my iced tea and try to relax.” As she spoke,
her arms fluttered and some of her rum slopped over the side of the glass. When
she saw what happened, she quickly put the glass to her lips and licked the
‘iced tea’ before it dripped on her shirt.

I reached over and patted her arm. “I
don’t blame you one bit, Prunella. If I were you, I wouldn’t be drinking iced
tea; I’d be drinking something a lot stronger. It must be terrifying for you.
Imagine seeing Melanie only minutes before she smashed her husband on the head
and sent him into another world.”

(Not that I believe in another world but
I was trying to make it sound as dramatic as I could.)

“Oh Mabel, if I’d known what was about
to happen, I would’ve called Reg right away.” Her thin arms began to shake and
she was having some trouble hanging onto that iced tea.

“Prunella, why don’t we go inside and
I’ll make you a better drink. Do you happen to have any rum in the house?”

She almost fell over when she stood up
but I grabbed her in time and helped her into the kitchen.

When we got inside, she said, “I think I
might have some rum, Mabel. Would you like a little drink too? I hate to drink
alone.”

“Of course, I’ll join you. Where is the
bottle?” I steered her into one of the kitchen chairs and sat her down.

Her face turned pink and she pointed to
the counter with one fluttery finger. “Well, I think it’s right over there on
the cupboard.”

Sure enough, there was the half-full (or
half-empty, whichever way you look at it), bottle of dark golden rum sitting
right on the kitchen counter. Imagine that.

“Do you want me to pour out your iced
tea?” I asked, very innocently.

She blushed. “Well, if you must know,
Mabel, it really isn’t iced tea. I know you must think I’m terrible but I
poured myself some rum and cola.”

“I don’t think you’re terrible at all.
You are very shaky, Prunella. Have you eaten anything lately? Did you have some
dinner?”

She shook her head. “I can’t eat
anything. This murder thing has messed up my life, Mabel. What am I going to
do? My stomach is churning all the time. Reg says that I might have to go to
court and testify. What if I didn’t hear right? What if I made a mistake and
Melanie goes to jail for life because of me? Or worse yet, what if she gets the
death penalty?” With that thought in mind, she put her head in her arms on the
table and sobbed. It wasn’t the loud wet sort of sobbing that Flori does but it
was a quiet moaning sort of sobbing. I sat there for a few minutes and patted
her back.

“Prunella,” I said. “What exactly did
you hear Melanie saying to Bernie? And, don’t worry, we don’t have the death
penalty here. This isn’t Texas, you know.”

It seemed that she suddenly woke up to
reality. She sat up and reached for a tissue from a box on the table.

“Oh Mabel, I’m sorry I broke down like
that.” She blew her nose and kept the tissues rolled up in her fist. Then she
turned to me and said in a very quiet serious voice, “I’m sorry, Mabel, but
Sheriff Smee specifically said that I should not tell anyone and especially
you, what I heard that morning.”

“Really? Why did Reg say that? He knows
very well that a woman has to confide in another woman. That’s the problem with
having a male sheriff, Prunella. They don’t understand anything when it comes
to dealing with women. Now, if you asked his wife Beth if you should talk about
what happened with your friends, she would know exactly what you should do –
you should talk it out. If you did that, you wouldn’t be sitting on the porch
all day drinking rum. I’ve a mind to talk to Reg and tell him what he’s doing
to you.”

She grabbed my arm. “Oh no, Mabel,
please don’t tell Reg that I’ve been drinking.” After clearing her throat, she
continued, “I did have a problem with alcohol at one point in my life. Do you
really think it would help if I talked about it? The murder, that is.”

“You know that it would. It’s a heavy
burden for one person to bear and you shouldn’t have to. Reg knows very well
that I’ve helped him solve a number of murder cases so I don’t know why he’s
being so stubborn with this one.”

Prunella took a gulp of the rum and
cola. “I know why,” she said. “I think he might be jealous, Mabel. And, he’s
retiring so maybe he wants to leave some sort of legacy. That’s what men are
like, aren’t they?” She grinned as if she and I were sharing some undiscovered
secret.

I grinned back. “I’ll make myself that
drink now.”

In the fridge, I found some cold cuts
and cheese so I took those out, along with a canned soda and a jar of dill
pickles. There were some almost fresh buns in a bag on the counter so I took
one out and made a sandwich for her. Prunella sat, looking very gloomy and
every now and then taking a sip of her drink. I wanted her to eat before she
passed out on me.

I plunked the sandwich down on a plate
and put it in front of her.

“Here, eat. I’ll freshen up your drink.”
I emptied the glass and poured in a small amount of rum with a large amount of
cola. In my glass, I did the same – except the opposite. After all, I hadn’t
been drinking all day.

While she ate, I talked about everything
that was happening in Parson’s Cove except the murder. There wasn’t much to
talk about but I wanted her to relax. I told her about the senior citizens
going into the city every week now and how they couldn’t even go shopping
anymore. She thought that was terrible too. Someday, I told her, she and I
should go with them and force Calvin Koots to drop all of us at the Mall.

“And,” she said, quite excitedly, “we’d
tell him that we would watch over them. How could he say no to that?”

I didn’t want to tell her that I wasn’t
too fussy about babysitting a bunch of golden oldies, especially old Mr.
Dudley, but I was happy that she was settling down and had stopped being so
fluttery.

She was finished her sandwich so I asked
if she would like some coffee.

“Oh yes, that would be so wonderful. I’m
told that you make the best coffee in Parson’s Cove.”

“You mean in all these years, you’ve
never stopped in at the shop and had a cup of my coffee?”

“I’ve been in your shop, you know that,
but I’ve never had a cup of coffee there.”

I knew Prunella stopped in once in
awhile but I also knew that she never bought anything so I never offered her
coffee. If I started giving coffee to everyone, the place would be full every
day but not with customers. Sometimes I see Prunella walking around with Esther
Flynn and I obviously never offer coffee to Esther.

“Well, you’re in for a treat, Prunella.”
It wasn’t hard to find everything so in a matter of minutes, there was a pot of
coffee brewing.

Prunella pushed her rum away. It was
still full. I placed the coffee in front of her and took the glass away. I’m
sure she realized that she’d reached her limit in the rum department.

“So, Prunella,” I said. “What exactly
bothers you so much about what you heard? Is it that you’re not sure now what
Melanie said?” She hesitated as though she wasn’t sure if she should answer.
“You don’t have to tell me what she said. I know Reg told you not to and I
don’t want to get you in trouble but I think you should tell me why you’re so
upset or worried about it. I know it would make you feel better.”

She took a drink of coffee and savored
it for a few seconds before swallowing. “This is wonderful coffee, Mabel.” She
smiled and thanked me. “In fact, you’re nothing like Esther makes you out to
be.”

It was my turn to smile. “I know.”

She laughed. “Oh no, I know what I
heard. I guess that is what’s bothering me the most, Mabel.” She looked at me
with a sad smile. “It’s hard because I was married for over forty years before
my husband passed away and never in all those years did I raise my voice to him
and tell him that I hated him and wanted him to go to hell.” She shook her
head. “Even when I was angry with him, I never would’ve told him that I was
going to kill him.”

“Melanie told Bernie that she was going
to kill him?”

She nodded. “That’s why I went to the
police. Do you think I did the right thing?”

“Yes, you did. If she did kill him in a
moment of heated passion, I’m sure they’ll call it manslaughter. It definitely
wasn’t something that she planned ahead of time.”

“They called each other a lot of
terrible names, Mabel. I wouldn’t even repeat them. Except Reg made me tell
him, but I told him that I would say them only once and never again. That’s why
I had to go to the station so they could make a video. It was so humiliating.”

“It’s something that they have to do,
Prunella. You were very brave to say all those words.”

I looked at my watch. It was after nine.
By now, Flori would’ve called my house about five or six times and maybe she
would be sitting on my back step waiting for me.

“I guess I’d better get home, Prunella.
Are you going to be okay now? There’s still some coffee left if you want
another cup. It might keep you up all night though.”

Prunella stood up, much more steady than
the last time. “I think I might leave it and warm it up in the morning. That
should wake me up good.” She walked me to the door. “I want to thank you so
much for coming over, Mabel. You’re the only person who has. Esther hasn’t even
come and she’s supposed to be my friend. I was feeling so lonely and wondering
if everyone in Parson’s Cove had abandoned me.”

Although I’m not the hugging type of
person, I stepped over and gave her a hug. I didn’t think she was ever going to
let me go.

Flori was sitting on my back step when I
got home.

Chapter
Nine

“Flori,” I said. “What on earth are you
doing here?”

“You know very well what I’m doing
here.” She stood up. Considering the fact that she is already almost a foot
taller than I am and then add my back steps to that, I felt like an ant
preparing to be squished.

“Well, my goodness.” I smiled. “Don’t
just stand there. Come on in.” I tried to maneuver around her as nonchalantly
as I could but she wasn’t going to let me get away with it that easily.

“No, Mabel, I’m not coming in. I’ve been
waiting here for almost an hour. I phoned three times before I came. Where, on
earth have you been? And, don’t tell me you were working at the store because I
already called there and there was no answer.” 

“I had some errands to run, that’s all.
You didn’t have to worry about me, Flori. Why do you want to stay outside on
the step? You can come in and I’ll make us a cup of tea.”

“What kind of errands do you have to run
in the evening, Mabel?” She crossed her arms. This is no easy feat for her as
her breasts tend to get in the way. So, there she stood, trying to stare me
down and trying to keep her arms together. “Did they happen to involve
Prunella?”

“Did what involve Prunella?”

“Your errands, Mabel.”

I know Flori well enough to know that
she already knew I’d been at Prunella’s house. There was no point in prolonging
the pain.