Thirty and a Half Excuses (7 page)

Violet followed me out the door. “
You hired a murderer
?”

I shot her an indignant look. “He is
not
a murderer. Remember? Jimmy DeWade was the murderer.”

“He’s still a criminal!”

I shook my head. “For little things. Pot, DUI, shoplifting.”

She leaned against the door, crossing her arms over her chest and puckering her mouth. “What if he shoplifts at the church? That’s gonna look bad on us.”

My head shot up. “What’s he gonna steal, Violet? The communion plates? Copies of the Bible?”

She fumed as she tried to find fuel for her argument.

I tucked the tarp in the corner and cinched it with a padlock. “Look at it this way: maybe working for a church will be good for ‘em. Build their character and all that.” With any luck at all, Jonah Pruitt would invite
them
to his church. But then again, if he gave the guys the hard sell, they might run off before the job was finished.

Violet wasn’t entirely convinced, but seeing as we didn’t have anyone else, she relented. She planned to ask her father-in-law if she could borrow his truck to haul the bedding plants to the church. Together, Violet and I would load the truck, and then the guys would help me unload. Violet would order more flowers from the supplier, who had pledged to have them delivered to the church by Friday.

After we got everything locked up, Violet and I stood in the parking lot, staring at the sign above the front door.

“I think this is really gonna work,” Violet whispered, squeezing my arm.

I turned to her, my eyebrows shooting up. “You had doubts? You’ve been Miss Positivity since the moment you announced this crazy idea.” And then I realized the truth: Violet had faked her confidence the entire time we were getting ready to open the nursery.

She’d faked it in her marriage too.

In some ways, I didn’t really know Violet at all.

Her smile returned. “Of course I never doubted, silly. I knew all along it would work.”

We got in our cars and I watched her drive away to her home and her kids, wondering what else she had faked. How much of what I saw was the real Violet? The last several years of our lives raced through my head as I considered our past through this new lens.

I was lost in thought, driving home, when Mason called. “Sorry, Rose. I was in court this afternoon. What did you have to tell me?”

“My neighbor heard arguing coming from Miss Dorothy’s house this morning.”

“Did your neighbor happen to hear what the arguing was about?”

“No, he couldn’t make it out.”

“Would he be willing to go down to the police station and give a report?”

I paused. “Uh…that might be a little difficult since he’s only four.”

“Only four what?”

“Four years old.”

Mason was silent.

“Well?” I finally asked.

Mason paused a few more seconds. “Rose, a four-year-old child is hardly a reliable witness.”

“Come on, Mason. You have to admit that two elderly woman dying within two weeks of each other is a little odd.”

“Both deaths were from natural causes.” He paused. “Or as natural as a heat wave can be.”

“But why now? This entire summer has been bakin’ hot. Why are people dying now?”

“I don’t know.” He sounded exasperated. “Maybe they don’t expect it to be this hot since it’s late September. Both women had their air conditioning off.”

“But were their windows shut?”

“Well, yeah…”

“If they turned off their air conditioning, why wouldn’t they have their windows open? They may have been old, but I know they weren’t senile. Are you really not going to follow up on this lead?”

“You canvassing the neighborhood and finding a toddler who
might
have heard something is not a lead.”

My irritation took root. “You make it sound like I was interrogating the neighbors. I didn’t ask anyone anything. Keith just told me.”

“Keith? The four-year-old?”

“Four-year-olds have ears, Mason.”

“But they’re not very reliable witnesses in court, Rose.”

“Court? Who said anything about court?”

“That’s what it would come to. He’d be called as a witness. I can tell you right now, I wouldn’t call a four-year-old to the stand unless he had something I couldn’t live without. And it’s sure not overhearing an argument he can’t remember. How do you know it wasn’t someone’s TV? How do you know it was even her house?”

Defensiveness shot through me. “Don’t be jumpin’ down my throat. I was just calling to tell you what I heard. Excuse me for trying to do my civic duty.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I had a rough afternoon in court, and I’m taking it out on you. You did the right thing by calling me.”

“Thank you.” I tried not to sound miffed.

“I’ll have Detective Taylor ask some of the other neighbors if they heard anything, but I don’t think anything is going to come from it. There was no forced entry. No sign of violence. She was lying on the floor as though she’d collapsed with a heart attack.” His voiced warmed. “Your neighborhood is safe.”

After the last several months, I wasn’t sure I’d ever consider my neighborhood safe. “Thanks for believing me.”

He sighed. “It’s not a matter of believing you, Rose. It’s a matter of whether the four-year-old actually heard something. But like I said, I’ll have Taylor do some checking.”

“He won’t like it. Especially when he hears it was me who told you.”

Mason’s words were clipped. “He’ll do his job, and he won’t know it came from you.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime. But just in case…be sure to lock your doors, okay?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t have to tell me to lock my doors. I made sure to do it every night. Not that it had done me much good. I was pretty sure my back window had a flashing neon
Welcome murderers and thieves
sign over it.

Chapter Six

After I made a sandwich, I sat on the front porch watching Muffy do her business in the yard. I snuck a glance down at Miss Dorothy’s house, wondering why someone would want to kill her. Or Miss Laura for that matter. Mason said that in both cases there’d been no forced entry and nothing had been stolen. How could someone make the old ladies’ deaths look so natural that they didn’t arouse the suspicions of the Henryetta Police? Not that much made the police suspicious of anything. Unless the suspect was me.

I had to admit that even though it looked suspicious to me, it just didn’t add up to murder.

Muffy kept looking longingly down the street, and a wave of guilt made my stomach knot. I’d neglected my little dog too much over the last few weeks while Violet and I were making the final push to have everything ready for the opening. The boys next door had “dog sat” her over the weekends, but I knew for a fact they hadn’t taken her on walks. The only thing I had to do tonight was laundry. Maybe a walk would help me sort out my unsettled feelings.

When I approached Muffy with her leash, she got so excited I had trouble getting the hook attached to her collar. Once she was connected, she took off running, and I nearly tripped trying to keep up. She sniffed and peed over half the surfaces we passed, practically shaking with excitement. My plan had been to take her a square block, but she still had a ton of energy when it was time to turn back. The truth was that I wasn’t ready to go back to my empty house yet, so we just kept going. I spent the next forty-five minutes thinking about my encounter with Jonah Pruitt. I hadn’t been to church since Momma’s funeral, which hadn’t even been a service. I’d turned my back on church, but Jonah Pruitt’s church sounded like everything I’d ever dreamed of in a church. A place where everyone was wanted and accepted. Shoot, I’d spent my entire life looking for that. Violet, Aunt Bessie, and Uncle Earl were the only ones who’d ever truly accepted me until Joe had come into my life.

Wishing for Momma to accept me had been a wasted effort. Boy would she be surprised to see me now—Rose Gardner, business owner.

The sun began to rapidly sink toward the earth, casting shadows, and I realized I was close to the park where I’d spent time the night of Momma’s murder. Instead of going home to her, I’d sat on a bench to write my wish list. If things had gone differently, Momma might not have been killed.

More wasted thoughts.

I turned Muffy around, and we took the same path I had taken that fateful night. Truth be told, I was sorry Momma got murdered, but my life had changed a lot since that night in May, and I wasn’t sorry about that. Why hadn’t I tried to change things before I thought I was going to be killed?

A half a block away, I hesitated at the street corner, staring at the house where I’d lived since I was a baby. Tonight was so similar to the night Momma had been killed—same time of day, same path, no porch light on—I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.

Muffy stood next to me, looking up in confusion. Why was I standing still when we were so close to home?

I was being paranoid. I made myself put one foot in front of the other and crossed the street, chiding myself for acting so silly. I’d had a busy day, and the elderly women’s deaths had me on edge, not to mention all the weirdness about Joe and Mason. All I needed was a good night’s sleep.

But Muffy had other ideas. She bolted, jerking the leash from my hand, and tore across the street toward Miss Dorothy’s house.

“Muffy!”

She ignored me, running between the deceased woman’s house and Thomas’s on the corner.

I took off, chasing after her. “Muffy! Come back here right now!” But Muffy had her own plan and stopping wasn’t part of it. She sped around the corner and into the backyard. I stood at the edge of the property, letting my eyes adjust. The sun had almost set and the house was completely dark. It didn’t help that Miss Dorothy had sheets hanging on a clothesline in the back, obstructing my view of the yard.

“Muffy!”

I heard her low growl over by the house, and my breath came in short bursts. My little dog only growled when there was danger. I considered turning and running for my house, but I couldn’t leave her there, and I felt like a coward for even considering it. Muffy would never leave me.

“Muffy!” I whispered, but my voice was drowned out by a sudden chorus of locusts. I pushed between two sheets on the laundry line, finding a row of house dresses. Just when I was about to push through those, Muffy growled louder, and a figure burst through two of the dresses, plowing into me. I screamed and fell backward into the sheet hanging behind me. The man fell with me, landing on my stomach and knocking the air out of me.

Muffy jumped on the man, snarling as her teeth sank into the attacker’s upper right arm. He shoved her away, cursing under his breath, and then jumped up and ran off before I could gather my wits enough to react. I worried Muffy would run after him, but she came over to me whimpering instead.

Her cries got me moving. I sat up and ran my hands over her body, fearing that she may have been injured when the attacker threw her. But I couldn’t find anything wrong with her, and she stopping whining when I got to my feet.

Muffy had been whimpering because she was worried about me.

My butt was sore from the fall, but I was more frightened than hurt. I was on autopilot as I walked home, flipping on the kitchen light before I stepped inside, already planning to run to Heidi Joy’s house if it didn’t turn on. But the room flooded with light. No one was waiting in the dark to finish me off. I breathed a sigh of relief.

After locking the door, I grabbed my cell phone out of my purse, calling the first number that came to mind. He answered on the second ring.

“Rose, is everything all right?” Mason’s worried voice filled my ear.

“I don’t know. Someone just attacked me behind Miss Dorothy’s house.” My voice was strangely calm.

“Have you called the police?”

“No. I called you.”

“Where are you now?”

“In my house.”

“Lock the doors and don’t open them until I get there, okay?”

“Okay.” I nodded, only realizing as I did it that he couldn’t see me.

“Are you hurt?” His voice sounded tight.

“Not really. More scared.”

“I’ll be right there.”

I sank into a kitchen chair as my legs turned to limp spaghetti. I felt lightheaded, so I laid my head on the table as Muffy drank massive amounts of water from her bowl. A new fear filled me. “Muffy, you shouldn’t have run off like that. You could have been killed.”

She looked up at me like I’d just said the most ridiculous thing in the world.

“I mean it, Muffy. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” My voice broke when I thought about what could have happened to her. Muffy lifted her paws onto my knee, and I rubbed her head. “Good girl. I love you too.”

Sirens filled the night air, coming closer and clinching my stomach. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to the sound of sirens. Especially when I knew they were coming because of me. Instinctively, I had known Mason would call the police, but their presence still made me nervous.

Pounding on the front door made me jump, but Mason’s voice followed. “Rose! It’s me!”

I stood, waiting a second to be sure my legs would hold my weight, chiding myself for being such a baby. I’d been in worse fixes than this.

When I opened the front door, Mason’s worried face filled the opening. Flashing lights filled the street behind him. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

He looked over my shoulder, hesitating. “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” I answered, stepping backward to let him in.

He led me to the sofa. “Sit down and tell me everything that happened.”

I sank into the cushions while he sat in the overstuffed chair next to me. “I took Muffy for a walk, and we went farther than I’d planned. So it was gettin’ dark when we started for home. When we passed Miss Dorothy’s house, Muffy jerked the leash out of my hand and ran behind her house.” Muffy jumped onto the sofa and pressed her body against my thigh, resting her chin on my leg. “Miss Dorothy’s laundry was still hanging on her clothesline so I couldn’t see Muffy, but I heard her growling. I was in the middle of a bunch of sheets and house dresses when someone burst through and knocked me down and fell on top of me. I don’t think he meant to attack me. He was just tryin’ to get away. But he landed on me, and Muffy thought he was trying to hurt me, so she bit him. He threw Muffy to the side, got up, and took off. Thank goodness, she stayed with me.”