Death of a Wolfman (A Lily Gayle Lambert Mystery Book 1) (16 page)

We shifted over to the front desk and sat down.

“I don’t really think Miss Edna has anything for us. And that whole Triumphant Triumvirate thing is just plain silly. But… Having said all that, I’m goin’ nuts.” Dixie gave me a look. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re goin’ nuts too.”

“So are you saying you want to go over there?”

“I would rather go to my house.” I held up my hand when she started protesting. “I have a Renaissance dress I need to get finished for a customer. I don’t want to haul all that over to your house. You don’t have room for it anyway.”

She looked thoughtful. “You’re right about the mess. I don’t have room. But do you really think Ben is going to be OK with us going to your house?” She gave me her best mean look. “Because I promise you, we’re not going
anywhere
without Ben knowing in advance and givin’ us his full approval.”

I glanced up as a car came into the town square. “Well, there he is. Coming by to check up and make sure I’m sitting here per his instructions. I’d love to go over to the window and moon him.”

Dixie rolled her eyes. “Yeah. ’Cause that will make him so agreeable to us going to your house for a meeting with Miss Edna. You sit right there with your smart mouth closed. I’ll go flag him down and persuade him to let us do this before you blow a gasket.”

I watched as Ben pulled in and parked outside the shop. Dixie spoke. Ben shook his head. Dixie spoke some more and gestured into the shop. Ben looked doubtful. Spoke for a minute. Dixie spoke some more and smiled a lot.

“Looks like she might be bringing him around to her way of thinkin’,” Mildred said, startling me. I’d forgotten she was sitting over there processing.

Dixie came back into the shop with a big smile, giving me the thumbs-up. “Hey, Mildred. I reckon you’re about done processing. Let’s go over to the sink and rinse that out for you.”

I looked outside at Ben, still sitting in his car at the curb. Once he saw he had my attention, he gave me a stern look, then backed out and drove away.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Once Dixie got Mildred rinsed, blow-dried and out of the shop, we called Miss Edna and filled her in on the plan to go to my house for the meeting, promising to pick her up shortly. Dixie put the “Back Soon” sign on the door and we were off.

Pulling up in front of Miss Edna’s house, I noticed she’d changed the costumes on the gnomes.
The Wizard of Oz
was out. It looked like old-school scary dudes were in now, with costumes ranging from Frankenstein to Dracula to the Wolf Man. Good grief.
That
one was in poor taste if I said so myself. “Hey, Dix. Take a look at the gnomes. You’d think the old lady would have more tact than to put that wolf man costume on one of them.”

"Well, it
is
the hot topic of conversation in town right now. And not anyone we know. So I guess it’s not so bad, really.”

Miss Edna must have seen us pull up because she came out of the house, locked the door and made her slow way down the front path with her cane. I stepped out and gestured to the front passenger seat. “Hop in, Miss Edna.”

“I haven't
hopped
anywhere in years, young lady. But I appreciate that your mama taught you manners.” Once she’d settled into the seat, I closed the door and got into the backseat for the rest of the ride.

“So tell me again why we’re going to your house, Lily Gayle.”

“I have a Renaissance gown I have to get finished and out to the customer. It’s a special order and Dixie doesn’t have room at her house for all the stuff involved in getting it finished. I didn’t think I’d have to be staying at her place this long.”

“Hmm. I can’t get over people paying all that money for dresses they only wear once in a while. Like little children playing dress-up games. Must have more money than sense.”

I saw Dixie eyeing me in the rearview mirror.

"Well, Miss Edna, it’s a good thing for me that they do. Between that and my genealogy work, I’m able to live back here instead of being off in Memphis like I was before.” I stopped there.
Before
meant before Stan died in that car wreck. Before my life changed in ways I never thought it would. I gave myself a mental shake. My life was good now. Being back in my hometown with everyone I'd known all my life had been a good move for me.

We pulled into my driveway and got out. I’d forgotten to bring my purse so I pulled my emergency key out from behind the framing around the window on the porch.

Inside, it smelled a little musty from being shut up for so many days. I opened the living room windows to let some fresh air circulate while we were there.

The Renaissance dress still held court on the mannequin by the fireplace, where it had been on the day LizBeth Mitchell had come to hire me to do her family history. I shook my head to clear out the thoughts that came with LizBeth.

“Y’all sit down and get comfortable. I’m gonna fix us a pitcher of sweet tea.” In the kitchen I set a pot of water to boil with the tea bags in it. Reaching into the cabinet above my head, I got out the glass pitcher I’d inherited from my mama and set the sugar canister next to it so everything would be ready once the water had boiled and the tea had steeped for a while. Elliot came up and twisted around my legs. I stooped to pet him. Poor kitty. I couldn’t have him at Dixie's because she was allergic. Ben had fed him every day. He meowed at me, then went out his cat door.

Back in the living room, I got my box of beads and threaded a needle. Taking the Renaissance dress off the mannequin, I laid it carefully across my lap, took the first bead from the box and looked at my companions.

“All right, Miss Edna. You called this meeting. What have you got on your mind?”

The old lady eyed the gown in my lap with genuine pleasure. “That sure is a beautiful dress you’re making there. You’ve got a real talent.”

I felt a blush creeping up my cheeks. “Thank you. My mama taught me well. This is a special order through my Etsy store.” I looked up from securing the first bead. “Y’all know what Etsy is?” The look on Miss Edna’s face said no, but Dixie looked like she might know what I meant.

So to make sure they understood, I explained, “Etsy is a website where you can put up a personal store selling whatever you want to. I started a store there selling costume dresses. This one is a special order from a previous customer. I’m always careful about all my dresses, but this one is even more special.”

Miss Edna tapping the floor with her cane reminded me of a judge calling court to order.

“I don’t know about all these newfangled computer stores, but I’m glad you’re able to make a living doing whatever it is you’re doing.”

Ouch.
That hurt, even though I knew she didn’t mean it the way it sounded.

“Now. We need to talk everything over and figure out what’s happening in our town. I’ve been observing the goings-on here for a while—”

I caught her eye at that, but she kept right on talking.

“—and I think I have some contributions to make.”

Dixie jumped up. “Let me go turn the tea off and leave it to steep before we get going here.”

She was back in just a few minutes. “OK. Let’s get this show on the road. I have a customer in a little while.”

“Yes,” Miss Edna said, “let’s get everything going. First off: the Taylor boys. Have y’all seen the truck they’ve been driving around lately?”

“Sure have,” I said. “I saw it when I was running away from their trailer recently.”

Dixie shot me a disbelieving look.

“I bet Miss Edna has heard something about that little outing we went on.”

Miss Edna coughed softly. “I might have heard a little something. So anyway, I have a hard time believing they bought that on their unemployment checks.”

“I agree with y’all, sort of,” said Dixie. “I reckon I see the problem with the fancy truck. But aren’t we judging without any evidence?”

I goggled at her. “Have you been watching too many crime shows on satellite? We’re not talkin’ about facts here. We’re talking about appearances. Everybody knows the Taylor boys don’t have two nickels to rub together.”

Dixie crossed her arms and firmed her lips.

“You two girls stop squabbling. We have some important stuff to get through here. I just wanted to know if y’all had seen the truck, not start a war.” Miss Edna leaned back in her chair. “Let’s talk about something else first.”

When neither of us commented, she went on. “We have a dead man who looked a lot like a wolf man. Lily Gayle, you saw him in person. Is that true?”

Remembering that night. The dark woods with Ben’s flashlight strobing around. The man on the ground covered in fur. I shivered in the warm room. “Yes. He had fur all over. At least everything I could see.”

“You didn’t get any more information out of Doc Hallowell?”

I flushed. “I went over and Ben let me be there for the autopsy. I don’t know what else you mean.”

Miss Edna gave me a sharp look and Dixie twisted her hands in her lap.

“Lily Gayle, please do not treat me like an old fool. I know you went over to the morgue and played on the doc because he was sweet on your mama. I frankly don’t care how you get your information. You need to share with Dixie and me so we can get this case solved.” She sat up straight in her chair. “What if someone else gets killed and we could have stopped it by solving this one?”

When she put it in those words, I felt bad.

“Doc said he found a silver bullet in the victim’s chest. He’d never seen one before. He wouldn’t say if he thought someone shot the victim ’cause he—or she—thought it was a real wolf.” A thought occurred to me. “Hey. The silver bullet is even more of a clue than I realized. Good grief! Wolf man. Silver bullet. Doc sort of made the connection, but now I just thought of something else. A silver bullet means someone knew they would be shooting a wolf man. Right?”

Both of them looked stunned.

Adrenaline flowed fast through my veins. “This had to be premeditated.” I sat back. “But who was the wolf man and how could someone have known he would be in the woods that night?” I looked at Dixie. "And what about those shiny metal shavings we found at the Taylor boys trailer?"

Miss Edna’s eyes gleamed. “Those metal shavings you and Dixie found at the Taylor boys’ trailer. You think they’re silver?”

Dixie's eyes flashed alarm, but Miss Edna and I were on a roll. “I took some and brought them back to Ben. But he said he couldn’t use them because I got them illegally. I don’t know if he had them tested to see if they’re silver. He might have and just not told me.”

She inclined her head. “You should have known better from all the crime shows on TV. And that explains why you’re in trouble with Ben.”

Miss Edna sat back. Wrinkling her brow, she said, “The Taylors were always dirt poor and not very bright. Going back generations. So the new truck is a cause for wonder. But I just can’t figure how they fit into this case. Even if those pieces are silver, I don’t think they would
kill
somebody. But they would surely take money from anybody who offered to give them some.”

“I’m gonna go make up that tea. Y’all don’t talk about anything till I get back,” Dixie said.

I stitched some more beads onto the bodice of the dress as Miss Edna and I waited in silence.

I mulled over the Taylor situation. The location of the body pointed to someone local. Mercy wasn’t a place people just happened to be passing through, being so far off the interstate. Both boys hunted regularly and would know the woods around here like the backs of their hands. But that was also true of pretty much any male, and a lot of females, in the surrounding area.

And where had the wolf man come from? Someone with hypertrichosis as bad as this man had it would be well known. No way he could keep all that shaved off enough to fool people. So he couldn’t be local. Which led me back to wondering where he had come from and who would have known he was here. Round and round in circles.

Dixie brought in three glasses of tea on a tray and handed them around.

I rehashed my thought processes for them.

“That’s good thinking,” Dixie said. “Add to that LizBeth Mitchell. Why would somebody kill her? And the Mitchell place is way out by itself. So how would somebody know she was in that gazebo in the woods?” Her eyes got big. “Do y’all think there’s some crazy person roaming around in the woods killing people?”

“Have some sense, Dixie,” Miss Edna said in a scornful voice.

“OK. We’ve discussed some pretty interesting stuff here, but now we're going in circles and just speculating. I need to get back to the shop. Linda Jennings has an appointment in thirty minutes and I want to be back before she gets there.” Dixie hopped up, gathered glasses and headed into the kitchen.