Miss Dimple Disappears (16 page)

Charlie didn’t know the name of the boy who delivered the telegrams or why he rode a bicycle of that color. Maybe it was his only choice when the war began, or maybe he painted it himself thinking his mode of transportation should be somber, befitting the occasion. Of course, it would make no difference if the bearer of such grim news pulled up to their porch on red, blue, or sparkling gold, and her breath caught in her throat whenever she saw him pass.

Ollie Thigpen’s bicycle was steel gray with a basket and headlight on the front and a small motor on the back. While at school he kept it just inside the basement door near the room that housed the monster furnace Annie had nicknamed Ladon for the mythological dragon that guarded the tree of golden apples. Tall and gangling, when riding his bicycle Ollie resembled one of those dancing puppets with hinged legs, and he walked with great loping strides, but the old building now shone from his daily efforts. He arrived early to stoke the furnace, rode back to the farm to see to the needs of Paschall Kiker, and returned to the school in the early afternoon. Although the bicycle had a motor, because of the scarcity of gasoline, Ollie seldom used it. Sometimes, Charlie noticed, their principal would give him a ride, and when Ollie visited their neighbor, Bessie usually hauled him and his bicycle back to the farm in her ancient Chevrolet.

How the man sustained the energy for courtship with his rigorous schedule, Charlie couldn’t imagine, and supposed it must be love. She wished it would hurry and happen to her. Tonight, she decided, she would write to Hugh, even though he had been gone only twenty-four hours.

*   *   *

“I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just about a week away,” Annie said at the noon meal that day.

Velma Anderson spoke up. “And do you realize it’s been a week now since our Dimple disappeared?”

“A week and a day,” Lily Moss added, shaking her head. “I’m afraid it’s not looking good. Why, with each passing day—”

“We’re all aware of how long it’s been,” Elwin Vickery said. And he set his knife across his plate with such a clatter Charlie halfway expected the china to crack. She told them about phoning Miss Dimple’s brother.

“And he refuses to come here and even try to help?” Elwin glared at Charlie as if it had all been her fault. “What a cold, unfeeling person he must be to care that little about his own sister!”

But their hostess shook her head. “Now, Elwin, I don’t think that’s true. From all I’ve heard from Dimple, the two had—
have
—a very good relationship. As you know, Dimple isn’t the kind to make a fuss over someone, but it’s easy to see she adores him. He always remembers her with that lovely fruit at Christmas, you know, and at the end of every school year she joins him for several weeks at his summer place in the mountains.”

Geneva Odom paused while buttering her biscuit. “
Summer place
? Do you think there’s a possibility she might’ve gone there?”

“Without saying anything about it to us?” Phoebe frowned. “I can’t imagine why, but I’m sure her brother has mentioned the possibility to the police.”

“Well, from his callous response to your questions,” Elwin said to Charlie, “I wonder if the man’s been of any help at all.”

“There might be more to this than he’s able to tell us,” Charlie said, repeating what her mother had told her about the possibility of Henry Kilpatrick’s connection to the Bell Bomber Plant.

“Do you mean someone might be holding Dimple for
ransom
?” Lily asked, wide-eyed.

Odessa set a tray of cups on the sideboard with a rattle so loud everyone jumped. “Here’s you all’s coffee if you want it,” she announced before fleeing back into the kitchen.

“What on earth’s wrong with Odessa?” Lily asked, frowning.

Charlie and Annie started to rise at the same time. “She’s
crying,
” Annie said. “Something must’ve upset her. I’ll go see what’s wrong.”

But Phoebe held up a hand. “No. Just leave her be. Odessa’s emotions have been in turmoil since Dimple disappeared. There’s a closeness there, you know.” She lowered her voice. “Odessa couldn’t read when she came here and Dimple worked faithfully with her for over a year. Taught her how to read.”

Velma dabbed at her eyes and nodded. “And Odessa taught Bob Robert.”

*   *   *

“Did you notice anything kind of peculiar about the conversation today at dinner?” Charlie asked Annie as they walked to town after school that afternoon.

“About what?”

“Cornelia Emerson.”

Annie hopped daintily over a puddle. “What about her?”

“Well, nothing really,” Charlie answered, “except she never said a word.”

“Come to think of it, she didn’t, did she? Took the last biscuit, too, and I had my eye on that.”

“I can’t figure her out,” Charlie admitted. “The other day when she first came she asked so many questions, I felt like I was being interviewed, but lately she mostly just sits and listens.”

“And eats,” Annie added grimly. “And what about Elwin? Think he might know more than he lets on?”

“I doubt it,” Charlie said. “He seems to get genuinely upset whenever the subject of Miss Dimple comes up.”

But Annie disagreed. “I’m not so sure about that. Remember that quote from
Hamlet
: ‘The lady doth protest too much …’ Except in this case it’s a man.”

Charlie just shook her head. She couldn’t even imagine Elwin Vickery being mixed up in Miss Dimple’s disappearance. She looked at her watch. They would have to hurry if they were to drop by the library to speak with Virginia before meeting Janet Delaney at the drugstore. Afterward the three planned to see Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert in
The Palm Beach Story
.

*   *   *

The librarian had pulled several books from one of the mystery shelves for a patron whose back was turned but she paused to greet them when they entered, and from Virginia’s wearied expression it was obvious to Charlie she’d had very little sleep. She didn’t recognize the woman browsing through the volumes as Cornelia Emerson until the newcomer headed for the check-out desk with a stack of books in her arms. Charlie noticed
Hangman’s Holiday
as the title on top as she passed and mentioned that she’d read and enjoyed it. “But I like just about everything by Dorothy L. Sayers,” she added.

Cornelia nodded. “It helps to pass the time,” she said, frowning as she looked about her. “But such a tiny library! I’ve never seen one so small.”

Charlie, who had always loved “the cabin,” as they called it, wasn’t sure how to accept that comment, but she rose to the occasion and gave the woman the benefit of the doubt. “Cozy, isn’t it? It was built by the Woman’s Club about fifty years ago and they still use it for meetings. Once in a while when it’s really cold somebody will build a fire in that big stone fireplace, and in summer people like to read on the porch in the shade of the wisteria vines.”

“And it’s not unusual for someone to stop for a while and play a few tunes on the piano over there,” Virginia added as she checked out Cornelia’s books.

Cornelia thanked her and left without further comment, and the three of them watched her from the window. “Thoughtful of her to offer me a ride back to Phoebe’s,” Annie said wryly.

“But you aren’t planning to go there yet anyway,” Charlie reminded her.

Annie shrugged. “She didn’t know that, did she?”

Virginia turned to Charlie. “Tell me about Henry. Have you spoken with him yet?” And Charlie told her of her disappointing conversation with Miss Dimple’s brother. “Don’t waste your time looking for him in Elderberry,” she said. “He practically hung up on me when I mentioned it.”

Virginia was silent as she straightened books in the children’s section. “I wonder if Elwin Vickery might be able to shed some light on that,” she said.

“Why Elwin Vickery?” Annie asked.

“I’d almost forgotten this,” Virginia told them, “but I believe Dimple mentioned once that Elwin had gone to college with her brother.”

“You wouldn’t have guessed that by the conversation at noon,” Charlie said. “If Elwin’s ever known Henry Kilpatrick, you could’ve fooled me.”

“And from his comments during dinner, he certainly didn’t seem to think much of Henry’s refusal to come,” Annie added.

“Mama thinks Henry might be working on something important at the Bell Bomber Plant,” Charlie told them.

Virginia followed them to the door. “If that’s the case,” she said, “whoever took Dimple might
want
her brother to come to Elderberry. There’s a possibility they mean to use her for bait.”

*   *   *

Charlie’s high school friend Janet Delaney had been so enthusiastic in her response when invited to meet them for a Coke and a movie, Charlie felt guilty for not asking her sooner. She wasn’t surprised to find her scooping up the last of a chocolate soda while waiting for them in a back booth at the drugstore.

Janet smiled when she saw them. “Sorry, but I just couldn’t wait—been craving this all day!”

Charlie, who remembered when her friend could hang by her knees from the apple tree in her backyard and turn cartwheels all the way down the front walk at school, couldn’t help noticing there was scarcely an inch of space between Janet’s growing stomach and the edge of the table. It startled her to think that her younger sister would soon be in the same situation.

Janet spoke with pride of her husband Ben, who was training as a gunner at the Army Air Field in Las Vegas and had recently been given his first chance to train in the gun turret of a B-17. “He’s due to graduate in another two weeks,” she told them, “and I’m expecting him home on leave before they have to—”

“So he’ll be home soon after Thanksgiving,” Charlie said, seeing Janet’s lips tremble. “You must be excited!”

Janet drained the last of her soda before replying. “We’re waiting to have Thanksgiving until he gets here. His mother’s ordered a turkey and Aunt Opal’s making a coconut cake—if Mr. Cooper can get any coconuts. Jesse Dean’s promised to hold one for us if they come in.”

Janet leaned forward. “Say, what’s all this about Miss Dimple up and vanishing? Have you heard anything yet?”

“Not a word,” Annie told her, “and we’re getting more worried every day.”

“I wish there were something we could do …” Janet folded her paper napkin and set it aside. “I’ve always thought a lot of Miss Dimple. Remember that little boy who started out with us in the first grade, Charlie? He was called by his initials: T. W., or something like that.”

Charlie nodded. “C. W. Can’t remember his last name, but I think his family moved away before the end of the year.”

Janet smiled. “Miss Dimple probably wouldn’t like me telling this, but I was on my way home for dinner one day and I remember C. W. sitting out there on the wall all by himself. His folks were poor as Job’s turkey, you know, and he hadn’t brought anything to eat. Anyway, I saw Miss Dimple take a quarter from her purse and kinda bury it in the dirt with her foot, and I thought it was a strange thing to do until she called that little boy’s attention to it and asked him if it was his. He just looked at it and shook his head.…”

“I doubt if he’d ever seen a quarter before,” Charlie said, remembering the shabby clothing and sad little face.

“Miss Dimple said, ‘Well, I guess it’s yours now. You found it, didn’t you?’ ” Janet continued, “and she stood there and watched that child run to that little school store where you could buy a grilled cheese sandwich and a candy bar. Then she saw me standing there and frowned so it just about scared me to death. ‘What you just saw is between you and me, Janet, and you must promise not to tell a soul,’ she said. And I haven’t until now.”

“And that’s just one more reason we have to find her—and soon!” Annie said, and everyone agreed. But nobody knew exactly how to go about it.

“I thought you might have something exciting to tell me today,” Janet said to Charlie in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood. “Didn’t Hugh just leave for the navy?”

Charlie stirred her Coke with a straw and rolled her eyes. “If anything happens between me and Hugh, I’ll put you on the list to be informed,” she said, and then felt ashamed for being curt. Janet was only asking a friendly question, but why did everyone think it was imperative that she become engaged?

She looked at her watch. “Hadn’t we better hurry? It’s almost time for the movie to start.”

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN

Geneva Odom hugged herself as she walked through the park on her way home from her sister’s. Not because she was cold, but because she didn’t want to relinquish the delightful feeling of a tiny baby in her arms. Her younger sister, Sandra, had given birth to her third child, a little boy, two weeks before, and with her husband away in the army, she had her hands full coping with the newborn, a five-year-old, and a toddler underfoot. Geneva had taken dinner and stayed to get the older two to bed, then lingered to rock tiny Donald to sleep. She and Sam had thought about adding to their family, but with their two girls in high school now, they had to consider the cost of their college years ahead. She smiled remembering the strains from a lullaby their mother used to sing, “Bye, baby bunting, daddy’s gone a hunting to get a little rabbit skin to wrap his baby bunting in …” How lucky she was to have her sister’s young family close by!

The lamps in the park cast yellow circles on the grass and Geneva heard the trickle of the fountain as she approached. Now and then a car circled the courthouse square a couple of blocks away, their headlights like candles in the dark night. It had been after eight o’clock when she left Sandra’s and traffic was usually light at this time of night. Sam hadn’t liked the idea of her walking home alone, but Geneva reminded him she had come that way many times before. Except for the shadows around the two large magnolia trees on the other side of the bridge, the path was well lit and she had never felt afraid here. Still, Sam had insisted on coming to meet her and Geneva knew it would be useless to argue.

The rattle of leaves in the magnolia to her right caught her attention as she crossed the bridge and Geneva thought she saw one of the limbs move as she passed. She walked faster as the crunch of footsteps behind her grew louder. Was Sam trying to frighten her? If so, he was doing a pretty good job of it and it wasn’t funny! Geneva paused at the edge of the pathway. “That’s enough, Samuel Odom! You’re going to be sorry!” she called.