Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed: An Augusta Goodnight Mystery (with Heavenly Recipes) (28 page)

I replied that they had and I thought the police probably had a suspect in mind.

Apparently tiring of the view from the window, Terrance began to walk, making a circuit of the sofa, three chairs, and a table holding the ugly glass lamp Opal Henshaw herself had donated a few years before. I had to look away to keep from getting dizzy.

“It looks like an open-and-shut case to me,” he said. “This family holds my nephew responsible for their daughter’s death, and he ends up dying under suspicious circumstances on the property where the Tanseys live. When Opal identifies the locket as the one worn by our grandmother, they deny any connection to their daughter’s marriage to Dexter. Seems to me they didn’t want anybody else to know about it either—especially the police.”

“But they know now,” I said.

“And what about this Melrose you spoke of? Has anyone asked him how he came by the locket?”

Jo Nell spoke up. “Guess they would if they could find him,” she said.

“Oh, Lordy! I thought we’d never get away from there!” Ellis wailed as we finally left the church. “First Nathan and now Terrance! Maybe between the two of them, they’ll track down whoever’s responsible for all this.”

More power to them, I thought, circling the cemetery where Terrance had gone to inspect his sister’s grave, now heaped with the fresh flowers she had considered a frivolous expense.

“Where are you going?” Ellis looked at her watch. “The day’s almost gone and I need to run by the store.”

“Thought maybe I might see Al Evans here but I guess he’s gone on back to the funeral home,” I said. “Ellis, I wonder if he knows where Melrose is.”

“Why would he?”

“Well, think about it. If Al’s cousin Melrose had anything to do with what happened to Opal, it wouldn’t do a whole lot for his professional image.”

Ellis dug in her handbag for a notebook and pen. “Maybe not, but I don’t know how you could prove it. Could we stop by the market? I need to pick up oranges and coconut for the ambrosia.”

So much for that notion, I thought. Idonia had been gone over twenty-four hours and all Ellis could think about was her Christmas menu. Yet I knew I needed to do the same. Julie would soon be home for the holidays and she would expect all her favorite goodies.

I was making out a grocery list in my mind when Ellis interrupted my thoughts. “Do you still have a key to the Green Cottage?” she asked.

“You mean the house where the Tanseys live? I think there’s one in that box of things that belonged to Mimmer, but surely you’re not suggesting—”

Ellis shrugged. “How else are we going to look for the locket?” she said.

I felt the same sensation in my stomach I remembered from the summer we were ten and she assured me it really wasn’t that far to jump from the pear tree to the garage roof. I had to wear a cast on my ankle until September and missed out on swimming the rest of vacation.

“And how do you plan to make the Tanseys disappear?” I asked.

“Tomorrow’s Sunday, isn’t it? And I happen to know the congregation at Preacher Dave’s church is having their Christmas program tomorrow night.”

“What do we do about Jeremiah?” I asked. “He might not be the church-going type.”

She shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”

And maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear I felt a pain in my ankle.

“I’m not going unless Augusta comes, too,” I told Ellis as we loaded groceries into my car.

She wedged the last bag in the trunk and slammed the lid. “She isn’t going to like it—poking about in somebody’s house when they’re not there. You know how straitlaced Augusta can be.”

“However, I sometimes make exceptions,” Augusta said from the backseat. “Did you remember to get cranberries? I thought I’d make that salad Julie likes so much.”

re you serious?” I asked Augusta as the three of us drove the few blocks to drop off Ellis and her groceries. Searching someone’s home without permission is frowned upon in most earthly tribunals, so I could only imagine how it would go over in even
higher
courts.

“I can’t think of any other way,” Augusta said, speaking in a matter-of-fact manner. I glanced at Ellis, who chewed her bottom lip, a sure sign she was reasoning we might have jumped in over our heads. I thought of my two children and six-year-old grandson coming to visit me in the penitentiary and almost ran a red light at the corner. It surprised me that Ellis and I seemed more concerned about our planned illegal venture than our virtuous guardian angel.

“Of course, there’s no need for the two of you to be involved at all,” Augusta continued. “I could go there tonight—or even sooner. I see no reason to wait.”

I pulled into Ellis’s driveway and threw on the brakes. “Now, just hold your heavenly horses!” I said. “I’m the only one who’s ever been in that house, and I know the layout. Besides, whose idea was this, anyway?”

“I do believe it was mine,” Ellis reminded me. “And I agree with Augusta, the sooner we find out about that locket, the better. We haven’t heard from Idonia since day before yesterday, and for all we know she could be locked up there somewhere, or even worse—”

I didn’t want to hear the “even worse” part. “But how do we know the Tanseys aren’t there? What if one of them walks in?”

“I’ve thought about that,” Ellis said. “It would seem reasonable for you to have a key since your relatives own the property, and you could always give some excuse or other like … “

I waited. “Like what?”

“Like—uh—well … measuring for new countertops or something,” she said. “Maybe the sink drips or the toilet runs. Can’t you just make up something?”

“I’d rather not,” I said.

“And you shouldn’t have to,” Augusta assured me. “Not when you have me to do your recon—reconnais—preliminary survey of the area.”

I smiled. “I’d hate to be the one to lead you into a life of crime, Augusta.”

This time the angel didn’t smile back. Her words were solemn and her voice, sad. “You must be aware there is someone in this town who holds human life in little regard. This person has killed twice, and I don’t believe they would hesitate to do it again. If I have to make this choice to prevent another such loss, then so be it.”

“Hooray, Augusta!” Ellis applauded. “Just give me time to put away my groceries.”

Although it was only six o’clock, it was dark when we started out a short time later, which wasn’t surprising since the day before,
I remembered, had been the shortest day of the year. At Augusta’s urging we stopped at a fast-food drive-in for milkshakes, although nobody seemed to be hungry but her.

“Your body needs fuel to go on,” she reminded us.

The plan was for Augusta to find out if any of the Tanseys were at home. If not, using my grandmother’s key, Ellis and I would enter and search for the locket we were almost certain was somewhere inside the house while the angel kept watch.

This time, Ellis drove and I sat in the passenger seat beside her holding an untouched milkshake in my lap. Augusta had ordered fries with her strawberry shake and sat in the backseat dipping each one in ketchup as she ate. Although I enjoy junk food as much as anybody, the greasy smell of the fries was causing a small uprising in my stomach.

“I don’t see how you can sit back there and eat like we don’t have a care in the world,” I told her. “Aren’t you even the least bit nervous?”

Augusta finished the last fry and dabbed her lips daintily with a paper napkin. “Think blue, Lucy Nan,” she reminded me. “Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and think of a calm and beautiful place—a summer sky, a peaceful lake, a gentle stream.”

Well, I tried, I really did, but all I felt was a tornado forming somewhere in my middle, and the closer we got to Willowbrook, the more I hoped we would find the Tanseys at home.

We didn’t. The yellow-painted cottage sat bordered by huge oaks at the end of a lonely road, and the only thing that stirred on our approach was a gray squirrel scurrying across the grass in search of something to eat. The garage that housed the family’s two vehicles was empty.

Ellis brought the car to a stop and parked boldly out front as if we had a right to be there. “Maybe you should go to the door and knock—just in case,” she said, turning to me.

But holding up her hand, Augusta signaled for us to stay and
silently slipped from the car. We watched as she walked up to the front door, hesitating for only a second before she disappeared inside—at least I assumed she was inside, although the front door never opened to admit her.

What would we do if any of the Tanseys drove up just then? What would we say? A hundred explanations came to mind but none was believable. I might be able to lie convincingly to Preacher Dave or Louella, I thought, but what could I say to Jeremiah?

The cottage, the yard, the car where we waited was shrouded in darkness now and I felt the bleakness of it creep into my head and inch its way down. I was afraid of Jeremiah Tansey.

“I guess they’ve all gone to church to rehearse for tomorrow’s program,” Ellis said, looking over her shoulder. “I hope it takes a long time.” She shivered. “Why is Augusta taking so long in there?”

As if in answer, the angel suddenly slid into place in the backseat. “There’s no one there now,” she said, “but I wouldn’t take too long if I were you. And it might be wise to move the car somewhere out of sight. Is there anywhere nearby where we could conceal it?”

“You mean so we could make a quick getaway?” I said. For some reason I wanted to giggle.

“What about that old shed just down the road? We could walk from there,” Ellis suggested.

Or run, I thought, thinking more of the return trip. Mimmer had said the shed had once been used to weigh and store cotton, back when the fields were planted with cash crops, but now the sagging building contained only rusting pieces of outdated farm machinery and extra salt blocks for the cattle.

I watched for lights approaching the whole time Ellis turned back onto the road and drove the few yards to park behind the shed. In warmer weather weeds surrounding it would be so high it
would be difficult to walk, but now dry grass only whispered under our feet. Ellis used a flashlight to find the narrow pathway through a thicket of trees and underbrush to the back of the Tanseys’ cottage. Preacher Dave and others before him often used it as a shortcut to the shed and the cattle gate to the pasture across the road.