Miss Dimple Suspects (17 page)

“Footprints everywhere,” the sheriff grumbled, “and a lot of them are ours. It’ll be impossible to tell anything from all this mess.”

Charlie stooped to look closer. She never wanted to see that ghastly face again, but something didn’t look right—besides him being dead. Someone had attempted to clean him up!

“Now, why in the world would anybody do such a thing as that?” Peewee wanted to know when she told them what she suspected.

“Probably because they wanted whoever found him to think he died a natural death,” Sheriff Holland said. “Now, don’t anybody touch him until I’ve had a chance to get some pictures.” With his flash camera he took photographs from several angles before moving in closer to get a better look at the body. “I’ll swear, if this don’t beat all! It’s pretty clear he’s been moved here and tidied up.” He turned the dead man over just long enough to get a look at his back. “Shine your light here, Doc.… Sure enough, there’s a streak of mud across there that might’ve come from being struck or held down by a log. Can’t tell much tonight. We’ll have to come back in the morning when I’ll be able to get a better look at the surroundings, and my wife isn’t going to like that one bit! We’re supposed to go to her aunt Ora’s for an early Christmas dinner.”

“Why would whoever killed him leave him in the creek and then come back and move him?” Charlie asked. “Surely, they must have noticed we had already pulled him out of the water.”

The sheriff shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe they heard you all coming and didn’t have time to get him cleaned up. They’re probably hoping nobody will believe you. Isn’t this Isaac Ingram’s property? This fellow Bill Pitts—he lived around here somewhere, didn’t he?”

Nobody had an answer for that, but Doc Morrison suggested one of the Ingrams might know.

Charlie could hardly feel her feet, and even in gloves, her hands were so cold they hurt. She stuck them inside her jacket and stamped her feet. The others seemed impatient, too, and a stiff wind whipping the trees around them made matters even worse.

“What in the devil is keeping Harvey?” Sheriff Holland stormed. “I called him the same time I called you, Doc. If he doesn’t get here soon, we’ll all be as cold and stiff as poor old Bill there.”

Minutes later a light flickered in the darkness and someone called out from the direction they had come.

“Here’s Harvey, finally!” Doc went to meet him while Sheriff Holland stayed at the scene. Charlie never thought she would be so glad to see the local funeral director when he arrived with his assistant and the deputy who had stayed behind where they’d left the car.

Fighting her way back through the tangle of trees and underbrush, Charlie tried to stay as close to Doc as possible. He had kindly offered to take her home while the sheriff lingered to talk with those responsible for transporting the body. What a relief at last to duck under the barbed-wire fence that separated the densely wooded area from the Curtises’ pasture! In her haste she snagged her sleeve on the wire, but Charlie didn’t care. All she could think about was the possibility that someone might have been watching the whole time she and Annie dragged Bill Pitts’s body from the water.
And they could be watching them now!

C
HAPTER
S
IXTEEN

With Christmas only five days away, Phoebe Chadwick could think of nothing else, but even with Miss Dimple and Annie joining her at the table, why, my goodness, the three of them would rattle like peas in a gourd in that big house! Why not invite that new young music teacher, Lottie Nivens, who was staying with Bessie Jenkins? And of course, she would include Bessie as well. Phoebe’s cook, Odessa, and her husband, Bob Robert, would be joining relatives for the holidays, but with Odessa’s help, Phoebe was preparing as much ahead of time as possible. Odessa had already made corn bread for the dressing, and baked two loaves of her wonderful orange marmalade nut bread to be served later with cream cheese, and Phoebe filled a tin with sugar cookies cut in the shapes of trees, stars and angels.

The tree, however, left something to be desired and sat in the parlor window strung with colored lights and very little else. “I don’t know what happened to all my ornaments,” Phoebe said, searching her hall closet for the third time. “The few I have left look just plain lonely hanging there. We can’t even get icicles anymore because of tinfoil being used in the war, and the ones made out of cellophane aren’t worth putting on the tree.”

“Why don’t we just use popcorn chains and candy canes?” Annie suggested. “I’ll be glad to pick up what we need from Mr. Cooper’s store.”

Phoebe thought that was a fine idea and said that while Annie was there, why not invite that nice Jesse Dean Greeson to Christmas dinner, too, as she’d learned Harris Cooper and his wife were spending the holidays with their daughter in Covington? “And you’d better order another hen as well,” she added, as it looked as if one chicken might not stretch for the six of them.

Although agreeable to running an errand, Annie was eager to hear a report from Charlie about the activities of the night before. She had told Miss Dimple about finding the lifeless body of Bill Pitts, but hadn’t shared the information with anyone else. She didn’t want to destroy Miss Phoebe’s Christmas spirit with such a grim tale, and besides, they weren’t really sure what had killed him.

Bundling into her warm jacket, Annie started off for town, hoping to avoid her next-door neighbor, Willie Elrod, who she was sure would want to elaborate about their grisly discovery.

So far, so good!
Annie thought as she waited at the corner for the light to change. On the other side of the street Lottie Nivens waved to her and waited for her to join her.

“How thoughtful of Phoebe to invite us for Christmas dinner!” Lottie said as they fell into step together. “Miss Bessie and I are looking forward to it and I thought I’d look for a little gift to show our appreciation. Any suggestions?”

Annie laughed. “I’m sure she’d tell you that isn’t necessary, but we are a little short of decorations for the tree. I’m on my way to Cooper’s for popcorn and candy canes if he has any left.”

“That isn’t what I had in mind, but our tree could use a little help, too. Maybe he’ll have enough for both of us. And isn’t there a little gift shop on the corner? It won’t hurt to look in there.”

Bennie Alexander usually carried gift items in his jewelry store, and although Annie had finished most of her shopping, she did want to look for something for Miss Dimple so they decided to stop there first.

Lottie frowned as they passed Brumlow’s Dry Goods. “Why do they have all those posters in the window? I’ve seen them on every tree and telephone pole. Haven’t they found that Japanese woman yet?”

Annie did her best to look nonchalant. “Guess not. Seems to me Emmaline’s the only one really serious about looking for her.”

“But didn’t she kill that woman, the artist she was supposed to be taking care of?”

“As far as I know, the police haven’t learned who killed Mrs. Hawthorne.” Annie stopped to admire a small picture frame in Bennie’s window.

“Then why did she run away?”

Before Annie could answer, Willie Elrod hailed her from across the street and Annie held her breath as she watched him weave through the traffic on Court Street.

“Tell Miss Charlie I saved her my best piece of mistletoe, and it has berries on it, too!” he announced, waving a paper bag with a sprig of the plant inside.

“And I’m sure she’ll be happy to get it, but not at the risk of your getting run over crossing the street! You know you’re to cross at the light, Willie Elrod! You just about scared me to death!” Annie accepted the mistletoe for her friend and reached in her pocketbook for change.

“No’me.” Willie shook his head and grinned. “That’s my Christmas present, and there’s something in there for you and Miss Dimple, too. I got ’em at Murphy’s with some of my mistletoe money. I sold every bit of it, too. Wish I had some more!”

“Oh, Willie!” Annie swallowed a sob as she opened the bag to find two small pinecone elf ornaments to hang on the tree. “How did you know we needed ornaments? Thank you! I can’t think of anything that would please us more.” Annie smiled, knowing this simple trinket would always bring to mind this special little boy.

Willie flushed as she hugged him. “That sure was somethin’ yesterday, wasn’t it, Miss Annie? Finding that dead man and all! Looked Gawd-awful, didn’t he? I’m glad I was there so you and Miss Charlie wouldn’t be so scared.”

Annie laughed and hugged him again. “I’m glad you were there, too, Willie.” She watched him as he ran to the corner and waved back at her before crossing at the light. Lottie, she saw, stood admiring a small china angel in the window of the jewelry store.

“This reminds me of one we had when I was little,” Lottie said. “I’d forgotten all about that angel—wonder what happened to it.”

“It is beautiful. Why don’t we go in and take a look?”

Bennie took the angel out of the window and set her on the glass counter. The figure had yellow hair, blue eyes, and held a tiny stringed instrument close to her breast.

“Oh…” Lottie reached out to touch it, then changed her mind. “How much is it, Mr. Alexander?”

He quickly removed a price sticker from the bottom. “Well to tell you the truth, this angel came as part of a pair, but the other one was broken in shipping.”

“What a shame!” Annie said, watching his face. “What instrument was the other one playing?”

“Instrument?” The shopkeeper seemed puzzled.

“Yes. This one’s playing a lute—or I think it’s a lute.”

“Oh … yes, of course! I believe it was a horn of some kind.” He smiled at Lottie. “At any rate, we’ll let you have this one for less than half price, which would come to about two dollars.”

“Oh, thank you. I’ll take it!” Lottie paid for the gift and watched as he carefully laid the figure on a bed of cotton in a small box, wrapped it in silver and blue paper, and added a curl of ribbon.

“Next time you write, be sure and tell that sailor husband of yours we’re all pulling for them here at home!” he called after them as they left the store.

“What a kind man,” Lottie said, looking back. “How did he know my husband was in the navy?”

“Bennie and his wife have a son in the service, too,” Annie told her. “And you might as well know here in Elderberry, there aren’t any secrets!”
Except for one,
she thought.

Harris Cooper was busy in the back of the grocery store, but Jesse Dean welcomed them and smiled when Annie told him what they wanted. “Our tree is practically bare, and Lottie tells me the one she and Miss Bessie have looks kind of pitiful, too,” Annie explained, introducing Lottie Nivens. “And I’d like to find something for Miss Dimple, but frankly, I’ve run out of ideas.”

“Well, you just happen to be in luck.” Jesse Dean reached under the counter and brought out a box of candy canes. “We’ve plenty of popcorn, but this is the last of the peppermint. It should be enough for two trees if you space them far enough apart.

“As for our Miss Dimple Kilpatrick, I know the very thing—but you’ll have to promise you won’t tell anyone else.”

“What?” Annie leaned over the counter. “Now, Jesse, I am
not
buying any ingredients for her awful Victory Muffins!”

“Not what I had in mind. Back in a minute.” Jesse Dean held up a finger before disappearing into a stockroom. Moments later he returned with a cardboard box filled with Hershey bars. “This just came in today, and I can’t let you have them all,” he said, scooping some into a bag, “but these should last her a few weeks at least.”

Annie smiled. She had seen the candy in Miss Dimple’s desk drawer but considered the possibility it might have been confiscated from an errant snacker. Here was a secret she wouldn’t object to keeping. Miss Dimple Kilpatrick had a dent in her armor!

“And by the way, do you think you can scare up another hen for Miss Phoebe? She’s inviting a few people over for Christmas and said to tell you she hoped you’d be able to join us, too.”

The young clerk flushed with pleasure, bringing color to his usually pale face. “Oh, that would be so … well … that would be … great!” he stammered. “Please tell her I look forward to it, but only if you’ll let me contribute the candy canes and popcorn.”

Annie agreed and paid him for the Hershey bars. “What a thoughtful thing to do!” Lottie exclaimed as the two of them left the store with their tree decorations bagged separately. “Is he always so nice?”

Annie laughed. “Well, most of the time. Just don’t let him catch you with a light on during an air-raid drill!”

“Tell me about little Peggy,” Annie said on the way home. “I hear she came through her tonsillectomy fine but haven’t had a chance to talk with Kate since she came home from the hospital.”

“To hear her mother tell it, I believe she’s fallen in love,” Lottie said with a smile. “She and Max are inseparable, and the cat’s so jealous she won’t come out from under the dining room table.”

“Poor Peaches! What a rude awakening! Maybe she’ll come around in time.”

“Looks like we’ll have our work cut out for us stringing all this popcorn,” Annie added as they paused at the corner. “Guess we’d better hurry home and get started.”

But Lottie lingered, her gaze fixed on a house across Katherine Street. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a place like that?” she said.

“Like what?” Annie asked.

“The white house on the corner, the one with the big magnolia.” Lottie sighed. “It appeals to me somehow. Maybe one of these days when this war is over, Hal and I will have a home like that.”

Annie smiled. She knew just what Lottie meant. She liked to think of the home she and Frazier might have someday and children they had planned: a girl they would name for her mother and a little boy called Frazier. In bed at night she tried to imagine them, imagine how it would be when he finally came home, but sometimes Annie couldn’t remember his face.

“Maybe you will,” she told Lottie, squeezing her hand. “Well, not
that
house, but one like it, right here in Elderberry.”