Miss Dimple and the Slightly Bewildered Angel (25 page)

The man took off his cap and scratched his head. “Ma'am, I've driven down that road just about all my life.
There is no building like that between here and Lynchburg.
”

 

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-NINE

“I don't understand how that man at the service station could miss seeing that old blacksmith shop,” Annie said as once again they left Shelbyville behind. “It's
right there
next to the road. He must need his eyes examined.”

“It does seem peculiar,” Velma agreed. “I suppose we become so accustomed to things on a familiar route, we don't always take note of what we see.”

Miss Dimple nodded and said that was probably the case.

Augusta only smiled.

The rain finally stopped and a hint of sunlight broke through after they passed Lynchburg, but darkness fell quickly as they crossed the state line into Georgia. Having bypassed lunch, they pulled into a drive-in in the small city of Dalton and ordered hamburgers all around.

Dimple examined the watch she wore pinned to her dress and saw that it was after eight. “It's going to be late when we get back home. I'm sure they must be worried. Do you think we should telephone?”

Everyone agreed that would be a good idea, but when Annie tried to use the pay phone, she found others in line ahead of her.

Velma blinked her lights for the carhop to collect the tray. “We don't have time to wait. If we get back on the road right now, we should be home before midnight.”

But it was almost one o'clock when Velma finally parked her old reliable Ford V-8 in the garage behind Phoebe's house. “I expect everyone's asleep by now,” she whispered as they made their way wearily across the lawn and crept in the front door, attempting to be quiet.

“Where in the world have you been?”
Both Phoebe and Lily waited in their robes, faces shiny with cold cream. “We were just about ready to call the State Patrol,” Phoebe said. “Did you have an accident? What happened?”

Velma yawned as she started for the stairs. “It's a long story. We'll tell you all about it in the morning.”

But Lily stepped in front of her. “Oh no you don't! We've been pacing the floor for most of the night, and frankly, you've given me a headache.”

“And that goes for me, as well,” Phoebe added. “I think you owe us a few minutes at least. It won't take long to heat up the kettle, and there're still some of Augusta's molasses cookies.”

“Cookies? Well, why didn't you say so?” Annie said, as she had been a little miffed since Velma wouldn't wait for her to order ice cream at the drive-in.

And so the six of them gathered around the kitchen table while the four tardy travelers took time about telling their story of rain and mud, flat tires, and a return trip filled with delays.

“But what about Dora's sister?” Phoebe asked. “What about Elaine?”

“You'd never guess the two were related,” Annie told them, describing Elaine Arnold and her warm, welcoming home.

“And guess what? She turned out to be a relative of Miss Dimple's fiancé.”

And of course everyone wanted to hear about that.

“She gave us the name and address of a college friend of Dora's,” Dimple said after that subject was exhausted. “A Carolyn Freeman who lived there in Macon, but a letter to that address was returned. Elaine assumed she probably married or moved, or both.”

“Then how do we go about finding her?” Lily asked.

“I can take care of that,” Augusta assured her. “I've a friend in Macon and will get in touch with her tomorrow.”

Yawning, Velma rose to put her cup in the sink. “I don't suppose anything exciting happened while we were gone,” she said, and everyone looked bewildered when Lily and Phoebe laughed.

“What is it? What did we miss?” Annie, who had stood to follow Velma, sat abruptly.

“Yes, tell us, please,” Augusta said. “Don't keep us in suspenders.”

For a few seconds, everyone was quiet, and then Phoebe laughed and said, “I wouldn't dream of it, Augusta. And then Lily took a deep breath and told them about the break-in.

“You mean you were here all alone?” Annie gasped. “Weren't you afraid?”

“Of course I was, but I had to do something. Nobody was here to help me,” Lily told them primly.

“Have the police found out who it was?” Velma asked, and Lily shook her head. “Not yet, but whoever broke in here should have a great big lump on his head,” she told her.

Miss Dimple, who had been longing for her own bed, suddenly became wide awake. “I wonder what they were looking for. Did the authorities find any prints?”

“Looks like he was wearing gloves,” Phoebe said. “They dusted all around the window over there, which is how he came in. Chief Tinsley had it boarded up for us, but we won't be able to replace the glass until tomorrow.” She shrugged, glancing at the kitchen clock. “I mean today.”

Augusta rose and studied the boarded-up window. “Has this kind of thing happened here before?”

Phoebe's eyes widened. “Oh, good gracious, no! Why, what would anyone want to steal? None of us has anything valuable that would make it worthwhile.”

“Then the person must have been looking for something else,” Augusta said.

“Like what?” Annie asked.

“It might be something that seems worthless to you but could actually be valuable.”

Velma laughed. “I can't imagine anyone risking his life to steal my grandpa's pocket watch. It doesn't even run.”

“Or my aunt Chloe's recipe book,” Phoebe added, “although it does have a really good recipe for apple brown Betty.”

“What about postage stamps?” Dimple offered. “Some of the rare ones can be worth quite a lot of money.”

No one remembered having anything like that but agreed to look through old letters just in case.

Augusta turned to Lily. “Could you tell where this intruder was searching?” she asked.

“It would be hard to say. I was afraid he would know I was there if I moved about too much, but I could hear him just below me in the parlor, and then he seemed to linger for a short time in the hall.”

“What could he possibly have been looking for there?” Phoebe asked. “Although Odessa tells me she sometimes finds coins under the couch cushions.” She smiled. “I tell her, finders keepers—”

She paused. “Do you think it was the same person who broke into the library last week?”

Miss Dimple spoke quietly. “That happened a week or so after Dora was in the library. Someone must have believed she left something there.”

“Was she in there long enough to do that?” Phoebe asked.

“Yes, I think she was,” Dimple told her. “And then she came here. She certainly had time to hide something in this house.”

“Whatever it was had to have been in that paper bag she carried,” Velma reminded them.

“They obviously didn't find what they were looking for in the library,” Augusta pointed out.

“And I didn't give them a lot of time to look for it here.” It was obvious to the others that Lily struggled to control her emotions. “Thank goodness the four of you are back safely from Tennessee!”

Rising, Phoebe wiped crumbs from the table into her palm and whisked them into the sink. “It's become obvious that Dora planned to meet someone here in Elderberry. How do we know it isn't a person we see every day, somebody we wouldn't suspect? I wonder if Bobby Tinsley has considered this. I'll phone him first thing in the morning. Now, I think it's time we all got some sleep.”

Yawning, Annie reminded her that it was already morning as she stumbled off to bed.

The others followed. To Dimple Kilpatrick, the stairs seemed steeper somehow, and it took all her energy to wash her hands and face and brush her teeth before climbing into bed.

But first, she took the ring from its small box in her dresser drawer and slipped it onto her finger.

*   *   *

The next day was Monday and four weary teachers straggled in for dinner at noontime that day. Even Miss Dimple had forgone her usual sunrise walk that morning, and although the idea of a nap seemed appealing, the conversation of the night before weighed heavily on her mind.

“Did you have a chance to speak with Chief Tinsley?” she asked Phoebe over tuna croquettes and turnip greens fresh from the garden.

Phoebe paused as she spooned chow-chow over her greens and glanced up with a frown. “I don't know what's going on down there. I called and left a message with that woman who answers the phone—what's her name … Shirley … Shelby?”

“Shelly,” Velma told her.

“Well, anyway, Shelly told me he wasn't in, so I asked to speak with Warren. Turned out,
he
wasn't in, either, and neither was anybody else! Shelly said she'd have somebody get in touch soon, but I haven't heard a mumbling word.”

“Good thing an ax murderer wasn't chopping at the door,” Lily said. “Will somebody please pass the catsup?”

“That seems most unusual,” Miss Dimple said. “There must be a reason no one's returned your call, and I'm very much afraid it's not good.”

Augusta was spooning up a dessert of boiled custard with a sprinkling of nutmeg when Warren Nelson telephoned to tell them there had been another break-in.

 

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY

“Seems Rose McGinnis took her aunt Trudy to visit her sister over in Eatonton yesterday, and when they got home last night, somebody had gotten in through that little room off the back porch. Looked like they'd jimmied open the door,” Warren told them when he came by the house that afternoon.

Phoebe frowned. “What on earth could they be after? Gertrude doesn't have any money except what she takes in from her sewing.”

“Told me she keeps that in a pillow—one of those fluffy things with a cat or something on it, just for looks, you know—that stays on her bed,” he said.

“Chenille?” Velma offered, and Warren nodded. “I reckon. Anyway, the burglar didn't know to take that, but whoever it was did make off with a silver punch ladle that had belonged to Mrs. Hutchinson's grandmother. She's right upset about that.”

“It's a good thing they weren't at home when that happened,” Lily said, hugging herself. “I'd hate for anybody else to go through what I did. I'll swear, I think it took at least a year off my life!”

“And that's not all they took, either,” he continued. “Miss McGinnis says she's missing two china vases, an antique platter, and a brass candlestick from that little shop she has. I reckon the person would've gotten more, but she says she thinks they might've scared the thief away when they got home last night. Seems kinda funny to me, as it doesn't look like anything was stolen from here or the library.”

“I believe we all need to put some thought into this,” Miss Dimple said. Gray skies threatened rain, and they gathered in the parlor, where not even autumn leaves and paper jack-o'-lanterns seemed to lessen the gloom. The next day would be Halloween, and earlier Augusta had carved for the porch a large orange pumpkin that looked suspiciously like Adolf Hitler, complete with painted mustache.

“Do you think whoever broke in here might be the same person who caused that disturbance at the library the other day?” Dimple asked.

“They seemed to be looking for something,” Phoebe added, “and we think it might have something to do with Dora Westbrook, as she spent some time at both places.”

“But she never went to the Hutchinson place,” Warren pointed out.

“It seems the intruder didn't know that,” Miss Dimple reminded him.

Velma spoke up. “Well, if Rose hadn't bragged about that shop she runs, the thief probably would've left them alone. She's always talking about the nice things she buys from estate sales and places like that, and I'll be willing to bet those things came from the Cunningham estate near Athens. Old Mrs. Cunningham didn't have any heirs, and that sale was advertised in the Atlanta paper not long ago. Rose ought to keep her mouth shut or invest in stronger locks.”

The policeman shifted in his chair and sighed. “What do you suppose
your
burglar was looking for?” he asked.

“Something that was valuable to Dora. Something she wanted to keep safe,” Annie volunteered.

He frowned. “Didn't you just get back from seeing her sister? Did she know what it might've been?”

Velma nodded. “Yes, and Elaine couldn't imagine what it was. She said her sister didn't have anything valuable.”

Annie idly adjusted the burgundy-colored sweet gum leaves on the mantel. “But don't forget what Lucille Westbrook said. Dora's mother-in-law accused her of being a thief when Charlie's mother and aunt were there last week.”

“What did she think Dora took?” Warren asked.

Annie shrugged. “She didn't give them a chance to ask.”

“Do you suppose that woman could be behind all this?” Phoebe asked.

“I can check with the police down there, see if they can find out if she left town recently,” the officer told them.

“From what we've heard, you'd better be careful if you plan to mess with her,” Annie said.

Warren stood to go, tucking his notebook into a shirt pocket. “Maybe we can at least find out what she
thinks
Dora took.

“Now, be sure and lock your doors and fasten all the windows. We'll be in touch as soon as we know anything.”

Annie laughed after the policeman left. “He talks like we're going to be invaded by spooks tomorrow.”

“I think he has another kind of spook in mind,” Miss Dimple said.

But Halloween passed peacefully enough, except for a multitude of small costumed callers.