Snoop to Nuts (18 page)

Nothing was happening at the hospital. There was another deputy on duty outside Treenie’s door. When I went in, Treenie and Meemaw were sound asleep: Treenie in her bed and Meemaw in a high-backed chair.

I tiptoed out, figuring Justin could pick her up when he came to town. I headed back to the Nut House. As I hurried up the steps to the still lit store, I was fooling with my keys, trying to isolate my apartment key from all the others. The noise coming from one of the big wicker chairs was of a deep throat clearing and then somebody saying, “That you, Lindy?”

Miranda Chauncey sat up in the deep shadow of the porch. I heard her gun clink against something and hurried to answer.

“It’s me, Miranda. Store still open, I see.”

“Yup, but the crowd slowed down some.”

From the swing on the other side of the porch, someone else piped up.

“You woulda thought you’d be helping out here today, Lindy.” Ethelred Tomroy got the rocker going at a fine pace.

“Hello to you, too, Ethelred. I already did. This morning.”

“Have a nice time in Tupelo? You and Hunter Austen?”

“Yes, ma’am. A fine time. There checking out a suspect.”

“Really? Heard you was at Elvis Presley’s house. Always wanted to go there but I never had a gentleman to escort me. Not that I’d go without being married to the gentleman. But that’s just me. Got very high morals. Always did.”

I could feel words churning just behind my mouth. Maybe in the vicinity of my brain. Sometimes I resent being a nice Southern girl. I resent having to be polite just because a nasty person is old. I resent having to keep smiling when an old biddy stings me with her superiority.

I bit off words just beginning to leak out of my mouth and bade both ladies a good evening, but Ethelred wasn’t going to let me off that easily.

“Hold on a minute,” she said and struggled up from the moving chair. “I’m not doing well, Lindy. I really need to talk to Miss Amelia. Think she’ll be back from that hospital soon? Treenie must be sleeping by now. Heard she was all right. Miss Amelia shouldn’t be hanging around like that.”

“What’s wrong with you, Miss Tomroy? Not worried about being poisoned, are you?”

“Not that, Lindy. I got other troubles.”

For the first time in my life I looked hard at the protruding eyes and long, craggy face, wild hair sticking out everywhere above it, and wanted to put my arms around her.

“You think Miss Amelia’ll be here herself in the morning? I was thinking she’d be worn out, all of this hullabaloo going on. But I got something I need to talk over with her. I think she’s the only one can help me make sense of something I don’t understand.”

“I’ll pass on the word you need to see her. She’s been through a lot. She might not open tomorrow. Could be home catching up on her sleep.”

Ethelred nodded, every wiry hair doing a dance of its own. “I understand. It’s just that . . . oh well . . . you can tell her I’m worried. Especially now, when I’m going in for some treatments. Nothing you need to know about. What I’m saying is I need to have my life straightened out. Know where I’m headed in the future. But somebody’s saying I shouldn’t be doing things I want to do right now.”

“What things? Maybe I can help.”

She shook her head hard. “Need Miss Amelia. She knows all about it.”

“You’re not talking to a fortune-teller, are you, Miss Ethelred?” I stood in the open doorway, holding the door only wide enough for me to get inside.

“Fortune-teller! Bah! I’m talking about the riches I’m coming into. But I’m not discussing it with you. You just pass on the word to Miss Amelia, will you?”

I promised, wished Miss Ethelred a good evening, and hurried inside the store, where I saw Bethany coming down an aisle, calling my name, and telling me to hold on a minute.

Which I didn’t, only hurried up the stairs to my apartment and closed the door behind me. Answering machine was blinking. I wanted to ignore it. I had Bethany pounding on the door. People needing me to return calls. What I wanted to do was climb in my tiny bed and pull the sheet over my head, which wasn’t a very adult thing to do so I sat down to decide which bell to answer—Bethany or the phone.

Bethany’s teeth were clenched. “Jeffrey is downstairs waiting to talk to you, and some pastor’s calling about every half hour. Told him there was nobody here. I gave him your number. Hope you’ve got a lot of calls to answer.”

I let her go on without stopping.

“I’m closing up now. You and Jeffrey can talk in the kitchen. If I don’t get rid of Miss Melody soon, I’m going straight out of my mind. All she asks is when we jacked the prices up the way we did. I keep telling her we haven’t raised a price since I don’t remember when, but she says I’m wrong and we keep going around on it. I am totally worn out and here I have to get home and change into my pink outfit while Jeffrey’s getting impatient waiting downstairs. Please go talk to him and I’ll run to the ranch to get ready to go out.”

“Got to return those calls. Me and Meemaw both have been waiting to talk to Pastor Albertson.”

“Pastor Albertson? That him? Why didn’t he say? Anyway. When you get done with the pastor, go down and talk to Jeffrey. If you’re my sister at all, you won’t turn on me now. What’ll he think if you keep dodging him? Why, he’s our guest, Lindy. You know about Southern hospitality.”

I knew about Southern hospitality all right. And I knew about killing somebody with kindness. But still, I had other things to do rather than talk to Jeffrey Coulter about property, which had to be a ruse since I didn’t know what he was talking about.

Bethany was gone and I locked the door behind her. The pastor didn’t say much in his message, just to call him back, he had some things to talk about. Second message was the same—only faster. Third was a plea to call him “Please!”

Which I did.

Identified myself as Miss Amelia’s granddaughter and explained how Miss Amelia’s friend was poisoned with the same poison that killed Pastor Jenkins and we were very worried what was going on and hoped he might be able to help us.

The man’s voice was slow and resonant. I thought I wouldn’t mind listening to this voice on a Sunday morning.

“Give my best to your grandmother and tell her I am so very sorry to hear about her troubles there. And I’ve been thinking hard on what she called to ask about and I think it’s time I came back to town. I’ve been nursing a deep grief since Sally died. And besides that, nursing a bruised ego after the board dismissed me the way they did, but from what you’re saying—awful things are happening there in Riverville. I think I’d better get back to see what I can do to help straighten it all out.”

He went on, “I’m going to be flying into Houston tomorrow morning. I’ll be renting a car and driving over to Riverville. Can’t say for sure what time I’ll be there, but I gotta . . . What I’m saying is, I’ll need a safe place to stay.”

He hesitated and then cleared his throat.

“Considering what happened to Millroy Jenkins, I gotta ask if I can stay someplace where nobody can get at me. Taking precautions, you see. Just want you to know Millroy called me the day before I heard he died. He didn’t know much more about what was going on than I did, but we were going to figure things out together. Anyway, I’ll call you when I get close to town. Maybe—wherever you think it’s safe for me to stay—we could talk there.”

I played it all back in my head to make sure I heard it exactly.
Taking precautions. Wherever you think it’s safe for me to stay . . .

Cloak-and-dagger stuff. The man was afraid of something, or somebody. All my own plans went flying out the window. I looked at the clock on the wall. Seven. Whew, what a long day. Now I had to get ahold of Miss Amelia. Tell her about the pastor’s message. We’d have to come up with a place for him to stay—unless he stayed with us, which might not be the best thing if anyone was looking for him.

I called Meemaw. When I laid out what Pastor Albertson said, she was quiet a long time.

“How about the farm? Think that’s safe for him?” she asked.

“I don’t know, Meemaw. We’re kind of at the heart of this whole thing right now. You and me. Whoever did this has to know we’re looking for him.”

Quiet again. “You think Martin would take him in? Jessie could watch him . . .”

“Meemaw. I don’t want to put the Sanchez family in any danger. Let’s think harder.”

Which we did, until Meemaw exclaimed she had it.

“The girls!” she said. “We’ll meet him at their place. Those two can take care of themselves and the pastor, too, if anybody can.”

I almost laughed out loud. Great way to get Miranda off the porch.

“They’re here at the Nut House right now. Maybe Melody’s gone because Bethany closed up, but I’ll bet anything Miranda will still be there, at least until dark.”

Meemaw gave a hoot.

“Could you talk to Miranda on your way out then? Tell ’er they’re going to have a guest coming in the morning. That’ll set Melody to cleaning up a storm and Miranda to squawking and hollering about all the dust. Then we can meet out there whenever he shows up. This has got to mean something, Pastor Albertson flying back like this. I sure would like it if he knew what was going on and knew who killed Millroy and tried to kill somebody at the Nut House. I’ll tell you, Lindy, I’m about worn out.”

“Ethelred’s on the porch, too, waiting to talk to you. Wouldn’t tell me what it was.”

There was a groan and then a sigh. “Could be about her treatments for the thyroid thing. Don’t blame her for being scared of what’s coming though the doctor said she’s going to be fine.”

“I don’t think that’s it. Something about wealth she’s depending on and somebody is telling her not to do anything right now.”

“Probably Ben telling her not to take all her daddy’s money out of the trust he left her. She’s hell-bent on buying a fancy car or taking a fancy trip. Don’t know what’s gotten into Ethelred. That’s not the way she was raised.”

“Ethelred’s never gone anyplace nor owned much of anything. I can see where this thyroid operation she’s facing and then the treatments would shake her up. Just think, she’s never been married, Meemaw. Never had any kids. Closest thing is a bunch of nieces and nephews she doesn’t see much. I think I’d be worried about dying, too. And never having lived.”

“Okay. I’ll see to her. If she’s still outside waiting, tell her I’ll call in the morning. You talk to Miranda and Melody. Set that part up. Could you pick me up here and take me out to the ranch afterward? My car’s there at the store. I’ll be needing clean clothes and such, for morning. Then I’d like to come back into town and stay with you at the apartment. That way we’ll be together when the parson calls.”

“I’ve got to meet Hunter at nine thirty, over at the saloon.”

“What? You becoming a drinker? I don’t know . . .”

“Meemaw. Grover called Hunter earlier today, asked him to come over tonight. He’s got something to tell Hunter, and Hunter thought I should be there.”

“Well, I doubt I’ll be staying up ’til you get in.”

“You take my bed. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

She made a noise. “That little thing? I’ll take the sofa, thank you.”

*   *   *

I flipped on the light downstairs to make my way back outside, talk with Miranda, then get over to the hospital to pick up Meemaw.

“Lindy,” a voice called from the kitchen doorway.

Jeffrey Coulter stood in the shadows, leaning to one side as if he’d been standing there awhile.

I’d forgotten about him.

I gave a small “Yipe” and put a hand to my chest, wanting to ask what the devil he thought he was doing standing there, eavesdropping on me.

“The store’s closed,” I told him fast and hard.

“I’m not here for a pie, Lindy. Bethany knew I was staying. I only wanted to ask if I could bring someone out to your greenhouse tomorrow. Have a look around. The man’s thinking of selling off some acreage close to Austin and buying around here. I happen to have my eye on his property for Father’s mall. The one glitch is the man wants to go into pecan ranching—same as you. Wants to look around here for property but wants to know more what he’s getting himself into first. I told him you were working on new kinds of trees and he expressed an interest in seeing your operation. Justin said it was fine with him but that I’d better check with you. He said you kept your greenhouse area locked up tight.”

If ever I wanted to let loose a string of curses, this was the time, but I heard Meemaw, back in my head again and clucking her tongue, reminding me to be “a lady.” Whatever that was supposed to be.

I tried to stick on a big, Southern-charm smile, but it fell off before reaching my cheeks. Still, I came up with a so-sorry voice, one of those Southern voices that must have greeted a few Yankees trying to join the Daughters of the Confederacy. For good luck, I crossed my fingers behind my back. “Geez, Jeffrey,” I said. “I can’t let anybody in there right now. Kind of a quarantine, I guess you’d call it. Had a little trouble with a few of the trees and we’re not sure where it came from—this particular virus. Just gotta keep the building off-limits to visitors awhile. Tell your friend I’m sorry as can be. Maybe another time. Another year or so.”