Death of a Wolfman (A Lily Gayle Lambert Mystery Book 1) (4 page)

I groaned. But Miss Edna was eighty and lived alone. Hoping she hadn’t gotten so nutty in her old age that she’d mixed sweet tea in a watering can that no doubt contained traces of all kinds of plant-growth chemicals, I braked to a stop, got off the bike and rolled it up the front walk between carefully tended rows of dahlias.

Some of the other Garden Club ladies swore Miss Edna did some form of sorcery to make those dahlias so thick and beautiful every year. But then, since Miss Edna always won the flower show every year, those ladies had to come up with some reason why they just couldn’t beat the old woman no matter how hard they tried. Or how much they spied on Miss Edna’s gardening habits.

Propping my bicycle against the porch rail, I made sure it wasn’t touching any of the flowers. No point in getting the old lady riled up on the subject of lack of respect for other people’s property.

Up on the wide, gray-painted porch sat a wicker table with two chairs, and dead center on it was a tray with a pitcher of tea and two cut-crystal glasses. The old woman must have been on the lookout for someone to innocently wander past her house and I had drawn the dumb-luck card.

I waited till Miss Edna, dressed in one of her ever-present flowered dresses with her bird-watching binoculars hanging around her neck, had seated herself before sitting in the other chair. In Miss Edna’s world, those younger than the hostess did not sit first.

Accepting a glass of tea, I took a deep breath and plunged in. “So, Miss Edna, what was it you think needs to be reported to Ben?” I sipped carefully from the antique glass, smiling at the older woman.

Miss Edna sniffed. “I can tell by that unattractive smirk on your face that you think this will be a total waste of your time.”

I needed to learn to control my facial expressions better in front of sharp-eyed old ladies.

Widening my eyes in my best innocent expression, I said, “Why, not at all, Miss Edna. I’d be happy to pass anything along for you. You know I would.”

Miss Edna’s look didn’t convey a lot of confidence, but she began her story anyway. “Well! I was just sittin’ here on the porch. Minding my own business.”

I bet she’d been sitting on the porch minding the business of anyone she could spot out on the streets of the town, especially with the “bird-watcher” binoculars.

“Are you paying attention, young lady?”

I focused. “Oh, yes, ma’am. You were on the porch here minding your own business.”

Miss Edna sipped at her glass of tea, giving me a stern look over the top of the crystal. “It was Halloween last night, you know.”

I barely could control an eye roll. No point in getting her off track on the subject of manners instead of whatever else it was that had me sitting there bored out of my mind and itching to get on over to Doc Hallowell’s to find out about the autopsy.

“Yes, ma’am. I know it was. Ben was worried about me being home by myself so he insisted on taking me to the Blue Chip for dinner.”

Miss Edna looked sad for just a minute. “Must be nice to have a man concerned about your safety. Even if it is just a cousin.”

Leave it to Miss Edna to stick a little bit of a knife into something that otherwise would have been a kind remark. For the Lord’s sake. How much longer would I be stuck on this porch? Why hadn’t I just waved real friendly like and ridden on by? Because my mama had taught me better, damn it.

“Yes. It’s nice most of the time. When Ben isn’t trying to run my life.”

“Be happy you’ve got someone left who cares about your life.”

OK. This wasn’t going well at all. Just because my husband was dead didn’t mean I didn’t have lots of friends who cared about what happened to me. And my friend’s husbands were always willing to help out in a pinch if I wasn’t speaking to Ben at the moment. And why was I even letting this get to me? Because Miss Edna was saying it and Miss Edna’s aim in life was to make everyone else miserable—hence the reason
she
didn’t have anyone to worry that she was alone at home on Halloween.

Take a deep breath, Lily Gayle. Count to ten, then decide the right thing to say.
“You’re right, Miss Edna. I should count my blessings.” I sipped more sweet tea. Wasn’t it supposed to be a cure for something? Oh, yes. Shock. Well, I wasn’t in shock, but I was still sitting on Miss Edna’s porch so anything could happen. I took another big swallow, just in case.

“Uh. I don’t mean to rush you or anything, but I have somewhere I need to be right soon. Can you go ahead and tell me about what happened so I can pass it along to Ben? I’ll be seeing him later on today.”

Miss Edna pointed an arthritic finger at me. “That’s right. Got somewhere to rush off to. No time to spend with the old folks. Who, I might add, know a dang sight more about life than any of you youngsters. Why, I bet you’re off to see old Doc Hallowell about that wolf man what got himself killed out in the woods last night.”

I tried mightily not to react but apparently didn’t succeed.

“Ha! I knew it. All in a rush to find out what’s going on. That’ll be your downfall, young lady. Sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

I’d had enough. More than enough. The nosiest, most interfering woman in town was sitting across from me accusing
me
of being nosy? I refused to sit there being polite one minute longer, no matter what my mama taught me.

Placing my tea glass neatly back on the table, I put my hands on the arms of the chair, prepared to stand.

“Reckon you wouldn’t be interested to know the wolf man was here in my yard last night.”

I froze in a half-standing position.

“Yep. Leaped right over both my dahlia beds. Guess I should be glad whoever it was had some appreciation of the hard work it takes to make those dahlias such prize winners.” Miss Edna sipped her tea, waves of glee almost visible in the air. “But you’ve got somewhere to be, so I’ll just wait till Sheriff Carter has some time to talk to me. You run on along to your important meeting.”

The porch and street beyond swung in dizzying arcs as my thigh muscles protested at the half-standing position. Should I sit and give credence to Miss Edna’s claim that I was nosy or should I take the high road, stand on up, get on my bike and head over to Doc Hallowell? But if I didn’t sit back down, I’d never know what Miss Edna had seen because Ben sure as shootin’ wouldn’t give me the first detail.

And if I ran off to Doc Hallowell, would I be fooling anyone? No. Not Miss Edna and not myself. Sinking back into the porch chair, I picked up my abandoned tea, sipped and said, “Tell me about the wolf man.”

Miss Edna had a grin that would put the Cheshire cat to shame, but she refrained from any comment about my capitulation.

Dabbing gently at the corners of her mouth with a lace handkerchief, Miss Edna got ready to tell her story. “As I was sayin’ earlier, I was just sitting here minding my own business when this man in what I thought was a wolf costume came running out of the woods back of the Tucker place headed straight in this direction, right for my dahlia beds.”

Miss Edna shuddered. “I just knew he was gonna plow right through them and ruin my chances at the flower show this year. Then, before I could even open my mouth to holler, he leaped over both sets of beds and was gone into the night. Just like a ghost.” Miss Edna patted her chest with one hand and fanned herself with the hanky. “I must confess, my heart was palpitating something fierce, what with the costume and my dahlias and wondering why the man was running like the devil was chasing him hot on his trail.”

Miss Edna sat back, folding her hands in her lap. I waited. And waited. One didn’t rush someone like Miss Edna. But when no further information came out, I asked, “Well? Who was chasing the man?”

Looking annoyed, Miss Edna asked, “Well, how would I know that?”

I gave a significant glance at the binoculars hanging around her neck.

Miss Edna gave me a stern look back. “These are bird-watching binoculars, my dear. Not military-issue night vision goggles.”

“Er. Of course.” I felt a blush creeping up my neck. “I just thought maybe you had them on at the time, since you might have been bird-watching earlier in the day and forgotten to take them off.” I laughed. “I mean, I’d sure have used them if I’d had them on and something like that ran through my front yard.”

Miss Edna fiddled with her handkerchief, twisting and untwisting the delicate lace.

Bingo.

“All right. I did try to see what might be going on. Any intelligent person would!”

I said nothing.

“There didn’t seem to be anyone chasing him. At least not that I could see, with it being so dark and all. I thought it was probably just some drunk from the roadhouse acting crazy, and since he didn’t actually cause any damage, I thought I’d wait till I saw you so you could tell the sheriff for me.”

Yeah. Right. You knew Reenie would tell you the sheriff would have to call you back and you wouldn’t be high on that particular list.
Which had actually worked out to my own advantage on this particular occasion.

Smiling inside, I said, “Now Miss Edna, you just relax and I’ll make sure Ben finds out all about this man running across your yard in the middle of the night.” And wouldn’t I just get the biggest surge of pleasure to be the one to come up with this particular bit of info before good ol’ cousin Ben?

Miss Edna tried to straighten out the crumpled lace of her handkerchief. “I knew you’d understand, Lily Gayle. And when I heard that rumor this morning that it really
was
a werewolf running around last night …well, I have to tell you, I almost came over in a faint. And I’m
not
the fainting kind.”

“You sure aren’t, ma’am.” I finished my tea and stood. “I’d best be off to find Ben to make sure he knows about this. I’m sure he’ll be right on over here as soon as I tell him about it.”

Sauntering down the porch steps to my bicycle, I savored the newly discovered information. Passing it along to Ben would just have to wait, though, until I’d been over to see Doc Hallowell to worm information out of him about the autopsy… and see if I’d been right about the dead man.

CHAPTER FOUR

I let my bike coast along the Main Street sidewalk, oblivious to the beautiful November sky stretching above my head. Without glancing around, I waved my hand in the general direction of anyone who called a hello to me as I passed. Every so often I pushed the pedals to keep my forward momentum, but my mind was turning over the information I’d just gotten.

The wolf man had run across Miss Edna’s yard late the night before. Not long after that, Ben had received the call about a body out in the woods.

Someone had to have been chasing the wolf man. Maybe the pursuer had seen Miss Edna on her porch and hidden so he or she wouldn’t be seen, then sneaked past the old woman to continue pursuit.

But where had the wolf man come from? There’d been no talk of anyone like that around here, and there certainly would have been. In Mercy everyone knew everything about everyone else. Had the man escaped from an asylum? But there wasn’t one closer than Nashville, Tennessee, and Mercy wasn’t on the main track to anywhere big so why would an escapee from an asylum be passing through here?

If what I thought about the body in the woods was true, he’d needed food, water and shelter just like any other human. Maybe he’d been living off the land, but this time of year there wasn’t a lot to live off of out there. There hadn’t been any reports of late-season vegetable gardens raided—at least not that I knew of.

Maybe the man had just taken a few things here and there. Not enough for anyone to notice something missing. Plenty of small streams ran through the woods surrounding the town so that could be a water source. But something just didn’t ring true about my suppositions.

Someone would have seen the man if he’d been running around the area for any length of time.

As I rounded the corner onto Yancy Street, a car horn blared, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Land sakes, Lily Gayle! That’s a good way to get yourself run over. Riding your bike out into the street like that.”

Bill Johnson, owner of the local grocery store, stared at me from the seat of his Jeep, hands shaking just a little as he lifted them from the wheel. “Where you headed in such a daze?”

Pushing an errant curl out of my eyes, I smiled. “I'm headed over to see Doc Hallowell.”

Bill gave me a knowing look that irked me to no end. Did everyone around here think I stuck my nose into everything? With a sigh, I admitted the truth: I
did
stick my nose into a lot of things, but darn it, I’d been instrumental in helping solve a lot of mysteries in town.

Bill got out of his Jeep and walked over. “Give me your bike and I’ll throw it in the back of the Jeep and drive you over to Doc’s office.”