Bedeviled Eggs (40 page)

Junior was suddenly
jumping around, waving his hands
in everyone’s faces. “Can I help drag him to the car? Can
I? Huh?”

“You can
drag him into the swamp and leave him there
for all I care,” snorted Doogie.
Then he pulled himself together and said, “Okay, Junior, tonight you’re a
deputy.”
“Deputy
devil,” muttered Toni. “Seems fitting.”
Sam was still staring at Suzanne.
“He threatened you? With a gun?” He shook his head in amazement. “Holy
Christmas.”

Twenty
minutes later it was all over. Bunch had spilled
his guts. Well, most of them anyway.

Doogie
climbed out of his cruiser and stumped over to
where Suzanne, Sam, Toni, and
Junior were standing.

“You were right about
that Tortuga thing,” said Doogie.
“Bunch talked the old lady into donating an old
conquis
tador
helmet and some gold coins to the historical society.
Then Bunch turned around and sold
them to some outfit in Florida. Tortuga Trading Company, he says.”

‘Tortuga,” said
Suzanne, feeling vindicated.

Sam let out a low
whistle. “Those kind of antiques must
have been worth a fortune.”

“I’m thinking that’s
exactly right,” said Doogie.

“So Peebler was on to
him,” said Suzanne.

“Peebler must have
found some kind of donation papers
in his aunt’s house after she died,” said Doogie. “As
well
as
some reference to Tortuga. And I suppose Peebler’s first
thought was of Jane Buckley.”

“When it was really
Arthur Bunch,” said Suzanne.

“But Bunch knew
Peebler would keep nosing after the
antiques,” said Doogie. “So before Peebler could
do any
thing more, Bunch shot
him.”

“Did
Bunch kill Wilbur, too?’ asked Toni, wide-eyed at
this tale of greed and murder.

“Bunch hasn’t copped
to that one yet, but my guess is yes,” said Doogie. “Since I was the one who
sent Wilbur
over to Peebler’s
house to investigate.”

“And
Bunch didn’t realize Wilbur hadn’t found any
thing,” said Suzanne.

“Bunch gave Wilbur the
benefit of the doubt and then
killed him for it,” said Doogie, his voice tightening. He
swept his
hat off his head, murmured, “Doggone it.”

“But it’s over,” said
Toni. “That’s what’s important.”
She turned toward Junior, still in his devil costume, and
gazed at
him with unabashed love in her eyes.

“It’s over for now,”
said Doogie. “Thanks to Suzanne
and,
I guess, Junior.”

Grinning from ear to
ear, Junior thrust his pitchfork
above his head and crowed, “The devil made me do it.”

Gazing up
at the sky, breathing a sigh of relief, Suzanne
saw that the clouds had lifted
and that the church spire
next door was silhouetted against a full moon. She
smiled,
slipped
her hand into Sam’s, and whispered, “But it’s the
angels who lend wings to our prayers.”