Calamity @ the Carwash (Parson's Cove Mysteries) (6 page)

“As a matter of fact, it did if you must
know.”

She dropped her arms down. “It’s a good
thing you came clean because I had proof that you were there.”

“You had proof?”

“Hmm-hmm. It just so happens that Jake
saw you sitting on the veranda with Prunella. And, you thought I wouldn’t find
out about your investigating, didn’t you?”

“Flori, I have absolutely nothing to
hide. I’m so thankful that I was able to visit with her. Do you know that the
whole town is avoiding her and she’s suffering from depression because of it?”

Flori’s cheeks turned a tiny bit pink
because her conscience always bothers her if someone is in need and there’s no
one there to help. She feels like all the problems in Parson’s Cove are resting
upon her shoulders.

 Her arms dropped and a look of horror
crossed her face. “Oh, Mabel, I had no idea. You know that I would’ve gone over
to visit if I’d known. What’s going to happen to her?”

“Hopefully, nothing, but I can tell you
if she doesn’t stop drinking all those large glasses of iced tea, she’ll be in
bad shape soon.”

“Iced tea? Why would that hurt her?”

“It does if she’s saying it’s iced tea
and really it’s rum and coke.”

Flori gasped. “Oh my goodness, Mabel,
does Reg know? If she’s been drinking, they won’t be able to use her testimony,
will they? Do you think she was drunk when she thought she saw Melanie and
Bernie fighting?”

I grabbed her arm and turned her towards
the door. “Flori, come in. We can’t talk about this outside. Besides, who knows
who’s hiding behind the bushes listening?”

I opened the door but not before Flori
quickly glanced around my back yard. 

“I have lots to tell you, Flori, so I’m
going to dig out a bottle of Sadie MacIntosh’s wine. Why don’t you sit in the
living room? I’ll get the wine and some snacks.”

“What do you mean - you have lots to
tell me? You aren’t thinking of trying to solve a mystery here, are you? You
said that Prunella wasn’t drunk so, Mabel, she saw what she saw. Please don’t
try to read things into it. Please leave it up to Reg and the boys. Please
don’t include me in anything.”

“Flori, go and sit down. If you say
‘please’ once more, I’ll scream.”

I heard Flori sigh or perhaps it was
more of a groan before she plunked down on the couch. Several springs protested
because it isn’t often that someone that size tests their integrity. It seemed
that even though the couch was over fifty years old, it has stood the test of
time and Flori was not in any danger of having a sharp spring fly up anywhere
into her anatomy. I’m always a bit leery when she sits on any of my furniture.
I know if something ever breaks, she will be heartbroken. It will do damage to her
self-esteem that could never be repaired.

My pantry, which used to be my father’s
bedroom, is off the kitchen. It holds a small freezer,

( which I try to keep filled with my
homemade muffins) four large plastic kitty litter boxes, seven cat dishes, and three
large dishes for water (which all say DOG on them). Along the north wall, there
are three shelves filled with small appliances, mixing bowls, and other items
that I don’t use too often. On the south wall, there is a large antique hutch -
where in the bottom cupboard, I store my wine supply. Sadie makes the best
chokecherry wine in the country. I’m sure it’s fifty percent alcohol. The one
window faces east. I’m proud to say that this is the largest pantry in Parson’s
Cove.

Instead of pouring the wine I just
grabbed two wine glasses, the bottle, and a corkscrew and went into the living
room.

“I thought you were going to bring some
snacks.” Flori doesn’t miss a thing.

“I will. I can’t carry everything at the
same time, Flori.”

Flori jumped up. “Oh Mabel, I’m so
sorry. What was I thinking? I’ll go and bring the snacks.”

“No, you won’t. I’ll bring the snacks
while you open the wine and pour it.” I handed the corkscrew to her. “And don’t
be stingy with the wine.”

I never have much for snacks in my house
but I did have some excellent old cheddar cheese, an almost empty box of Ritz
crackers, and three dill pickles. After cutting up the cheese and pickles and
arranging the crackers around the outside of the plate, it looked like
something a person could take to a baby shower. Speaking from experience, of
course, since Flori’s daughters or daughters - in - law seem to be having a
baby every year or so and this is what I always bring.

Flori, I am happy to say, was not stingy
with the wine. In fact, she was half way through her first glass when I walked
in with the snacks.

“Flori,” I said. “You do not guzzle
wine. Beer, you guzzle. Wine, you sip.” I placed the plate on the table in
front of her. “Sorry but this is all I have. I can thaw out some muffins if you
like but somehow they don’t go with wine, do they?”

She took another gulp. A few drops
dribbled down her chin. She expertly guided them back into her mouth with her
finger.

“I didn’t come to eat so don’t worry
about it, Mabel.” She picked up three chunks of cheese and four crackers. “I
think we might need some napkins though.”

After getting Flori settled in, I took
my first swallow. Sadie’s wine has as much alcohol in it as most tequila does
and probably twice that of Prunella’s rum. I think it was the first time all
evening that I started to relax.

“So, Mabel, what’s the news you had to
tell me? You said you had plenty.”

I leaned back in the couch and munched
on a piece of cheese.

“Well, let’s see. Melanie and Bernie
obviously had a huge fight. Prunella said they were swearing at each other.”

“That’s it?” She drained the glass and
refilled it.

“Well, I guess it was bad enough that
Reg thought she was guilty of murder.”

Flori held her glass up as if admiring
the red glow – a glow that was beginning to spread up to her face. She swirled
the wine and then finished it off in one swig.

“That’s it, Flori, you are finished
drinking wine for tonight. You’re worse than Prunella. You better eat the
pickles now so you can walk home, sober.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake, you know I can hold
my liquor. By the way, I don’t think anyone can be charged with murder for just
arguing with your mate.”

“But I guess you can if you’re telling
him that you’re going to kill him.”

Flori’s eyes popped. “She said she was
going to kill him?”

I nodded.

“I guess that does make a difference.”
She finished off the rest of the cheese, crackers and pickles in silence.

Chapter
Ten

My next task was going to be much harder
than trying to get Prunella to talk. Someway, somehow, I had to get in to visit
Melanie in jail. Not that it’s a real jail. There’s a tiny windowless room at
the police station and in it, Reg stashes his worst criminals. The door does
look jail-like, however, as it has a small square window in it and the lock is
on the outside. There’s barely enough room for one person to turn around but
there are two small cots and I know that one time Reg did keep two nasty
prisoners in there for a day or so. Mostly, Amos is in there sleeping off a
drinking binge. I think Reg puts him there for Amos’ own protection.

Opportunity knocked the next day just
before noon. I happened to look out my shop window and saw Reg driving home for
lunch. There was no time for procrastinating. I quickly swung my ‘Closed’ sign
up and locked the door. Mutt, who has his hardware store next to me, saw me
walking past but I didn’t make eye contact. His door opened and he yelled my
name but I didn’t miss a step. It’s easier when you’re older and can pretend
you’re hard of hearing.

I was walking up to the station door
before it struck me that I’d still have to get past the two deputies. If only
Scully was there, I might have a fighting chance. There wasn’t much hope
getting past both of them.

I slowly opened the door. The reception
area was empty. However, there were voices coming from Reg’s office. I slipped
into the room, gently closed the door behind me and listened. It was Scully and
Jim and as far as I could make out they were fighting over who was going to sit
in Reg’s big leather chair. I figured that ought to give me enough time to
sneak into the back room.

There’s a short hallway off the
reception area. On one side is the cell and on the other there are two rooms: a
restroom and a coffee room. Reg had locked the cell door but the key was in the
lock so I turned it and went in.

Melanie was lying curled up on one of
the cots in a fetal position. The only light came from the hallway so I
couldn’t see too well; however, even in the semi-darkness I knew that her whole
face was swollen from crying. It looked as if her hair hadn’t seen a comb or
brush in days and it was easy to see she’d been sleeping in her clothes.

I quickly walked over to her and put my
finger to my lips. One scream from her and I would’ve been out on my ear. She
stared at me and slowly nodded her head.

“Are you going to be all right?” I
whispered.

She shook her head. “I killed my
husband,” she whispered. “I killed Bernie.”

“Are you sure you did?” I asked. “Can
you tell me what happened, Melanie? I’m going to try to help you.”

For one brief moment I saw a glimpse up
hope in her eyes but it faded quickly.

“I don’t think you can, Mabel. I’ve
already confessed.”

“You confessed? Why did you confess?”

“Because I killed him, that’s why.”

“Melanie, tell me exactly what happened,
okay? Don’t leave anything out.”

“We were at the carwash. Bernie had this
thing lately about keeping the car so clean.” She stopped. “I don’t know why
that bothered me so much. It seems so stupid now. It was like he was fanatical.
He was washing his car every second day. It was driving me crazy. We were on
our way to Mom and Dad’s and suddenly he pulled into the carwash again. He
jumped out to make change and I jumped out after him. I know it isn’t much but
it’s five dollars every time and we don’t have that much money to waste. I
guess I just lost it, Mabel. We were going to be late for dinner at my parent’s
house and there he was, trying to get change to wash the stupid car. I followed
him to that little box at the side of the building and I guess I was screaming
really loud but he didn’t pay any attention to me. I told him that I wished he
were dead. He started yelling at me then. I can’t remember everything that we
said. It must’ve sounded terrible. When he said he didn’t want me in his life
anymore, I hit him.”

“With the brick?”

“No, not with a brick. With my fist.
That’s when I saw Prunella standing across the street and staring. I was so mad
at Bernie for letting people see us fight that I pushed him out to the back of
the washing bay. He started hitting me back then. I gave him a hard push and he
stumbled. He went down on one knee and I picked something up and threw it at
him. Then, I saw him stumble backwards over a rock sticking out of the sand and
he fell into the water.”

“You picked up a brick?”

She put her hands over her face for a
moment and then looked up at me. “I didn’t think it was a brick. I thought it
was a stone but they tell me that it was a brick.”

“Who’s ‘they?’”

“Well, almost everyone. That’s what
killed Bernie and since I’m the one who fought with him and threw something at
him, it had to be me, didn’t it?”

“No, it didn’t have to be you. Someone
could’ve come after you left. Didn’t you think of that?”

“Yeah, but who? Who would want to kill
Bernie besides me?”

“I don’t know but I think we should try
to find out. Why did you sit in the car so long waiting for him to come back?”

“That’s another thing they have against
me. It looks like I killed him and then waited before calling Reg.”

“So, why didn’t you go to check on him
sooner? Why did you wait so long?”

“Oh, Mabel, I don’t know. I was so mad
at him and the longer he took coming back, the madder I got. Mommy called me on
my cell phone and I told her that Bernie was working and we wouldn’t be able to
make it for supper.”

 “Another lie. You weren’t doing
yourself any favors, were you? So, what did you do for those two hours anyway?”

“It was so hot, I let the car run and
turned the air on. I figured Bernie could sweat outside but I’d keep nice and
cool. I dozed off. Well, that is until Esther woke me up.”

“Esther woke you up?”

She nodded. “She banged on the window.
She said she thought I had passed out from carbon monoxide poisoning.”

“Oh brother, she didn’t realize that
there’s plenty of air circulating through an open carwash bay? How dumb can a
person be?”

“That’s when I went to look for Bernie.
At first, I thought he was so mad that he just left me and went home. I
wouldn’t have blamed him. I went out the back and there he was. Dead.”