The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose (19 page)

“Wasn’t such a good day for me, either,” Lizzy remarked, thinking about Verna and Alice Ann Walker and the sheriff and Mrs. Biggs.

Coretta rushed on, gathering steam. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to Verna, so I was planning to go over to her house after work. I didn’t want to because I knew it would be awkward, but I thought I’d better do it anyway. Then I got the word that she had gone to Nashville.” She gave Lizzy a sideways glance. “So I decided to come over here and talk to you. I said to myself, Liz Lacy is Verna Tidwell’s best friend. They’re thick as thieves. Liz will know what’s what. And why.”

Lizzy was surprised. “Who told you about Verna going to Nashville?”

“The sheriff came into the office this afternoon. I heard him and Mr. Scroggins talking about it. But then I—” She stopped as though she might be going to say something else and decided not to. She took a breath and began again.

“Look here, Liz. I reckon I should start from the beginning. When Mr. Scroggins called to tell me I could start working full time again, he said it was because Verna is in some kind of trouble. Money trouble. He said he had to put new locks on the office doors to keep her from using her key to get in.” She raised an inquiring eyebrow. “Do you know about this?”

“I know that it happened,” Lizzy said cautiously, not wanting to give too much away. “But I have no idea why.”

“It’s got to do with the state audit. And the report.” Coretta was perspiring. She opened her leather handbag, took out a hanky, and delicately patted her forehead and cheeks. “Verna tell you about that?”

Lizzy hesitated. “Um, she told me that a couple of auditors came into the office a while ago. She didn’t mention a report.” That was true. It was Myra May who had told her—and Verna—about the report.

“Well, the report came in today’s mail.” She paused, her face becoming serious. “And all I’ve got to say is, it’s a good thing Verna is in Nashville.” She looked over her shoulder as if she was afraid that somebody might be lurking on the other side of the privet hedge. “And for pity’s sake, don’t tell anybody—especially Mr. Scroggins—that I’ve been here and talked to you. I am taking a big chance, Liz. A lollapalooza of a chance. I could lose my job—or worse.”

Lizzy narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to scare me, Coretta? What do you mean,
or worse
?” She was thinking that Coretta hadn’t changed much since high school after all. She had always loved to dramatize herself.

“I’m not trying to scare you, honest I’m not.” Coretta sounded earnest. “I just want to be clear. This isn’t a little Sunday School party. It’s serious business.” She rolled her eyes. “To tell the truth, I wish I’d told Mr. Scroggins to go jump in the river when he told me come back to work—and if I’d’ve known then what I know now, maybe I would’ve. But I need the dough real bad. And I can’t back out now. I’ve got to do things the way Mr. Scroggins and Mr. Tombull want me to or they might think I had something to do with it.”

That was the last straw. Lizzy stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Coretta Cole, you are talking like a character in a Hollywood movie. You can stop beating around the bush and come straight out with what you know, or you can march out of that gate and straight on home. What’s it going to be?”

Coretta squared her shoulders defiantly and Lizzy thought for a minute that she was going to get up and leave. Then she slumped. “Sorry,” she muttered. “Okay, here’s what I know, so far, anyway. There’s fifteen thousand dollars missing from the county treasury.”

“Fifteen thousand!” Lizzy pretended astonishment.

Coretta held up her hand and hurried on. “The county commissioners are putting the thumbscrews on Mr. Scroggins to find out where that money went. They’re telling him he’s got to get it back fast, too—he’s the treasurer now, so it’s his responsibility. Mr. Scroggins has convinced himself that Verna took it. He talked Mr. Johnson at the bank into letting him have a peek at Verna’s savings account, which he says has ten thousand dollars in it. He told Sheriff Burns to go to Judge McHenry and get a warrant. Verna is going to be arrested as soon as the sheriff locates her. He says once he’s got her in custody, she’ll have a chance to explain herself.”

Lizzy chewed on her lower lip. Ten thousand dollars was a fortune! Where on God’s sweet green earth had Verna gotten that much money? She had no income other than her job and no property other than her house, and she’d used her husband’s life insurance to pay off the mortgage. Her family had been dirt poor, and none of them were left. Why, if she didn’t know Verna as well as she did, she herself might suspect that—

She shook her head. No, of course not. That was out of the question. Verna wouldn’t. She simply wouldn’t. Not under any circumstance.

Lizzy took a breath. “I guess I don’t understand why you’re telling me all this,” she said quietly. “Or why you care, Coretta. From what I’ve heard, there’s no love lost between you and Verna. I’d think you’d be just as happy if she got into some serious trouble. So why are you—”

“No love lost is right,” Coretta broke in, her sharp face hardening. “And I’ll be the first to say that, in the normal way of things, I’d be just as glad to see Verna Tidwell taken down a peg or two. She is one smart cookie, but she is the very worst supervisor I have ever worked for.” The words were coming out fast now, as if Coretta had been thinking about this for a while. “She acts like you already know what you’re supposed to be doing, and when she wants something done, she tells you really fast. She doesn’t give you time to ask questions, and then she gets mad when you don’t get it right the first time. She hates mistakes, and once you’ve made one, she figures you’ll make more, which of course you do.”

Lizzy winced. Coretta’s description might be a little harsh, but it was accurate enough. Verna had high expectations of herself and everybody else, and she didn’t tolerate mistakes. She was not the world’s best teacher, especially if you were a slow learner.

Coretta wasn’t finished. “But when it comes to money, I’ve got to say this for Verna. She is totally and completely honest. She is so honest, it would make you sick. And as for keeping track, she cannot rest until she knows where every single penny is and what it’s doing there. The county’s bank accounts were a total mess when Verna inherited them, and trying to figure out what’s what has literally given her nightmares.” She paused for emphasis. “Somebody must have taken that fifteen thousand dollars, Liz, since it’s gone. Or at least, that’s what the auditor says, and his report shows it, I guess. But I just can’t believe it was
Verna
who took it.”

“I see,” Lizzy said, and waited.

“And there’s something else.” Coretta’s eyes narrowed. “If Verna is made to look like the guilty party, the guilty party will get away with murder.”

“Murder?” Lizzy asked, startled. She immediately thought of the inexplicable death of Mr. DeYancy, the former treasurer, who had died (or so the coroner said) of alcohol poisoning.
“Murder?”

“In a manner of speaking, that is,” Coretta said hastily. “What somebody is getting away with is fifteen thousand dollars of the taxpayers’ money, which is a huge amount of money. If we don’t do something about it, Verna will get the blame and somebody else will get a potful of money.” She leaned forward. “I for one don’t think it’s fair. It’s just plain wrong for them to do Verna like that. And I think I know what can be done about it.”

Lizzy frowned, not quite believing what she was hearing. “Let me get this straight. You’re saying that you’ve come up with a way to help Verna out of the jam she’s in?”

“That’s right,” Coretta said, lifting her chin. “But I can’t do it by myself. I’m going to need help.”

Lizzy sat back, thinking. She wanted to believe that Coretta was being sincere. But everything she knew about this woman told her that Coretta couldn’t be trusted. Tell her a secret and she would exaggerate and twist it to serve her own purposes, and then she’d blab it all over the place. Agree to do something with her, and she’d change her mind halfway through and quit. She sneaked a sideways glance at Coretta. True, all that had been quite a few years ago, when they were in school together. Coretta was older now and more mature. Maybe she meant what she said. Maybe she had changed.

Or maybe not. She might be the same old Coretta. And if she ran true to form, she would finagle it so that she’d end up looking like a hero and Verna would be in even deeper trouble.

Lizzy sat back and folded her arms. “Just what is it that you think you can do?” she asked warily. She would go along with this scheme just far enough to find out what Coretta had in mind.

“I can go undercover in the office,” Coretta said, and batted her Joan Crawford eyes.

“Undercover?” Incredulous, Lizzy fought the urge to giggle.

“Exactly,” Coretta replied earnestly. “I can be a
spy.
But as I said, I’m going to need help. This isn’t an operation I can carry out by myself.”

Now, Lizzy did laugh, skeptically. “That’s rich, Coretta. Really rich. Just who do you think you’re going to spy on? Those two women in the office? And how is that going to help Verna?”

If Coretta was offended by Liz’s skepticism, she didn’t let on. “I don’t know enough to figure out what’s going on all by myself. But Verna does.” She leaned forward, her dark eyes glittering. “I have access to the account books, and I have a key to the office. I can smuggle the books out to Verna, wherever she is. Or I can smuggle Verna into the office, if she’d rather me do that. I’m thinking that if she uses the auditor’s report as a guide, she’ll be able to figure out what happened to that money. At least, she might come up with a pretty good idea.” She patted the handbag she had put between them on the swing. “In fact, I’ve brought the report with me. I think she needs to see it.”

Lizzy was taken aback. Smuggling Verna into the office was very close to Verna’s original scheme for conducting her own investigation, when she thought she still had a key that worked. Maybe what Coretta was suggesting was doable. On the other hand, maybe it was a put-up job, some kind of trick.

“The report,” she said. “May I see it?”

“Why?” Coretta asked uneasily.

“Because I want to make sure it’s the real thing,” Lizzy said.

“Well, I guess it’s okay,” Coretta said, and reluctantly pulled a large envelope out of her handbag.

Lizzy opened it and scanned the three sheets of paper. As far as she could tell, the report was genuine. It had what appeared to be the seal of the state auditor’s office at the top of the first page and a signature and another seal at the bottom of the third.

She handed it back with a frown. “I don’t understand, Coretta. Why would you even think of doing such a dangerous thing? Why would you
risk
it? If Mr. Scroggins found out what you were doing, he’d fire you so fast it’d make your head spin. And then both you
and
Verna would be out of a job. If Verna winds up in jail, you might be in there with her.”

“Why would I do such a dangerous thing?” Coretta repeated, with the air of someone who has thought all this out. “Because I don’t like what’s happening here, Liz. This whole situation stinks to high heaven
.
It’s corruption, that’s what it is, and Verna is getting blamed for it. Like I said, I am not a big fan of hers, but what’s happening is just plain wrong.”

“Yes, but the risk—”

Coretta lifted her chin. “Some things are worth taking a risk for, Liz. I do have my principles, you know.”

“I didn’t say you didn’t,” Lizzy said, although that was exactly what she was thinking. Coretta had never struck her as the type to take a risk on principle.

“You didn’t have to,” Coretta replied regretfully. “I can tell.” She became very serious. “Anyway, I don’t believe Verna took that money. But like I said, I’m going to need help to prove it.” She gave Lizzy a straight, hard look. “Actually, Liz, I’m going to need
Verna’s
help. Before I can do anything, I need to sit down and talk to her, so we can make a plan.”

“Talk to . . . Verna?” Coretta sounded convincing, but all their past history rose up in Lizzy’s mind like a dark shadow. Maybe she was working for Mr. Scroggins—or for the sheriff. Or both. Maybe this was a ploy, a trick to find out where Verna was, so the sheriff could come and arrest her.

“Yes, talk to her,” Coretta insisted. “I need to sit down with her and map out a strategy. Like right away.” Her voice became emphatic. “Like tonight.”

“Tonight?” Lizzy asked. “But Verna has taken the train to Nashville. You can’t—”

“Uh-uh,” Coretta interrupted, shaking her head definitively. “I know for a fact that she didn’t take that train to Nashville.”

Lizzy shifted uneasily in the swing. This wasn’t going the way she wanted it to. “I don’t understand. What makes you think she hasn’t—”

“Because,” Coretta broke in, “I telephoned Mr. Gilmer, over at the depot, and asked him if Verna Tidwell was on the noon spur train to Monroeville. That’s the train she’d take if she was going to Nashville. But she didn’t. Mr. Gilmer says he hasn’t seen her.” Coretta gave Lizzy a penetrating look. “Of course, if it occurred to me to check out her story, Liz, it could occur to the sheriff as well.”

That was true, Lizzy thought, with a cold feeling in her stomach. Maybe Sheriff Burns had already talked to Mr. Gilmer. But she tried to parry.

“Well, then, maybe she got a ride to Monroeville with Mr. Clinton. She does that sometimes, when she goes shopping. She could have caught the train at the L and N depot.”

Mr. Clinton drove an old red Ford two-seater back and forth between Darling and Monroeville, twenty miles away. Two trips in the morning, two trips in the afternoon. He charged fifteen cents for a one-way trip, a quarter if you wanted to go both ways. It might be a little crowded, since Mr. Clinton was known to put as many as four riders in the backseat, along with all their packages. Sometimes people had to sit on other people’s laps.

“Uh-uh.” Coretta shook her head. “On my way here, I happened to see Mr. Clinton letting people out at the diner. He said he definitely didn’t give Verna a ride today. So if she didn’t take the spur train and she didn’t ride with Mr. Clinton, she’s still here. In Darling, I mean. Hiding out.” Her voice tightened. “And
you
know where she is.”