When Good Bras Go Bad (Myrtle Crumb Series) (13 page)

             
“I know I can
.
They’re the kind you just put on a cookie sheet and bake.”

             
“Well, all right then
.
See you in a few minutes.”

             
“I went in and turned on the oven before I let Matlock in
.
I gave him a hug and then washed my hands
.
I put both chocolate chip and sugar cookies on the cookie sheet
.
The sugar cookies are mainly for Matlock because he ain’t supposed to have chocolate
.
He loves his sugar cookies, though
.
When I put the cookies in to bake, Matlock sat there starin’ at the oven and waitin’ for the cookies to get done.

             
True to my word, I was takin’ them out of the oven when I heard Lenny come in.

             
“Man, them smell good,” he said
.
“I could smell ‘em plumb out in the yard.”

             
“Get washed up while they’re coolin’.”

             
He patted Matlock on his way to the sink
.
“Hey, buddy.”  He squirted some hand soap into one palm and turned on the water
.
“I heard him in the backyard
.
Is that where he stays while you’re gone?”

             
“Yeah, unless it’s cold or rainy
.
Then I leave him in the laundry room
.
But he’d much rather be outside.”

             
Lenny shut off the water and dried his hands on a paper towel
.
“I don’t blame him
.
I’d rather be outside, too.”

             
I transferred the cookies to a plate and set them on the table
.
“You want some milk or pop?”

             
“A little milk’d be good.”

             
I poured him a glass of milk
.
I didn’t have a cookie since I hadn’t had supper yet
.
Besides, I had somethin’ on my mind.
             
I set Lenny’s
milk
on the table and gave Matlock a sugar cookie before sittin’ down at the table with Lenny.

             
“Got a question for you,” I said
.
“If you wanted to set a trap to catch a thief, how would you do it?”

             
Lenny got strangled on his milk, and I had to get up and pat him on the back and hold his arms up over his head.

             
When he got composed, he asked, “Why you askin’ me?”

             
“Because you’re a bright young man, and I need some ideas.”  I told him about what happened at play practice.

             
“That’s a shame,” he said
.
“Still, I reckon in a way it’s a good thing if it means you won’t be goin’ to that play Halloween night.”

             
“I’m in a quandary about that, too,” I said with a sigh
.
“I told Alicia’s mother I’d give her a ride.”

             
“I really wish you wouldn’t
.
A woman ought not be out by herself on Halloween
.
Ain’t no tellin’ what might happen
.
Besides, you don’t want Sunny gettin’ mad at you again.”

             
“You’ve got a point
.
Still, a promise is a promise.”

             
“Yeah, but you don’t owe Al or her mama a thing
.
Keepin’ Sunny happy and keepin’ yourself safe are the important things.”

DIVIDER HERE

             
Well, Lenny wasn’t a bit of help
.
Not only did he not help me with my plan, he gave me the heebie-jeebies about bein’ out on Halloween night
.
But I’d think about Halloween on Halloween
.
Right now I had to think about catchin’ a thief…and
the
odds of it bein’ Cary Grant were zilch or I might’ve had an easier time comin’ up with a plan
..
.
like puttin’ on my flapper costume and battin’ my eyes. That
Cary
always did like the women.
Then again,
maybe not always. I heard some rumors somewhere…. But you can’t believe everything you hear. On the other hand, I never would’ve thought Rock Hudson to be, you know, not a ladies man. Humph. But I didn’t have time to wonder about
Cary
and Rock. I had a plan to formulate.

             
I was thinking about all this while I was stirrin’ spaghetti sauce
.
Crandall never was all that keen on spaghetti; but since he’s been gone, it’s
been
at least a once-a-week supper for me
.
It’s cheap, it’s easy and it tastes good
.
Plus Matlock likes it
.
Don’t get no better than that, now does it?

             
All of a sudden, I heard the biggest ruckus ever out in the backyard
.
I’d put Matlock outside while I was
getting
supper
ready
, and now I heard him barkin
g. I also heard
a young ‘un cryin’
!
I turned off the stove eyes and took off out the door.

             
Thank goodness, the young ‘un wasn’t a young ‘un
.
It was Bettie Easton’s old gray tom cat Sweetie
.
I hadn’t seen the thing since before I got Matlock, but ol’ Sweetie Easton runs off from home every now and again.

             
Do you blame him?  If you was a boy cat and your name was Sweetie, wouldn’t you want to go off and hide your face every once in awhile?  The other cats must tease him somethin’ awful
.
I don’t care if his family
does
have money
.
A bad name’ll follow you no matter what
.
Even if you’re a cat.

             
Sorry I got off track
.
I was so relieved to see Sweetie Easton in the yard instead of a hurt young ‘un, I let myself get blown off course.

             
Now poor little ol’ Matlock wasn’t doin
g
a thing to that blasted cat except tryin
g
to defend himself
.
There was Sweetie all bowed up in the middle, makin’ that god-awful mournful racket with a paw raised like he was fixin
g
to slap Matlock.

             
I hollered, “Sweetie Easton, you’d better put that paw down right this instant!  I mean it!”

             
I’d always been cordial to Sweetie, partly ‘cause I feel bad that he has such a lousy name, but I was not about to let him come into Matlock’s very own sanctuary and smack him
.
That ain’t right
.
In fact, if Sweetie Easton w
as a person, he could be looking
at trespassing charges at the very least
.
Not that I’d call the law on him, but I’m tryin’ to make a point.

             
While I was scoldin
g
Sweetie, Matlock got between the two of us
.
I reckon he thought Sweetie might do me bodily harm…which is a possibility, mind you
.
Don’t you ever underestimate no cat
.
They can sure fling a hurtin’ on you if they’re of a mind to.

             
Sweetie hissed at Matlock, and Matlock showed Sweetie every tooth in his head
.
Well, that did it for Sweetie Easton
.
He streaked across the yard with Matlock on his heels
.
Lucky for Sweetie, Matlock can’t shimmy up a fence post.

             
“Here, Matlock!” I yelled
.
“Come on in.
”  He followed me back into the kitchen
.
“
I don’t reckon we’ll see Sweetie Easton again for a few days.” 

             
I turned the
stove eyes back on
.
“He’s not a bad cat really
.
I guess he can be a bit of a bully, but I’m pretty sure that’s because he has self-esteem issues.”  I stirred my sauce
.
“Well, you know how it is
.
You were once abandoned…had to stay in that old shelter.”

             
I turned around to see if Matlock was gettin
g
what I was tryin
’
to say, but he’d laid down and was chewin
g
on an old sock with a knot tied in the middle of it
.
He has other toys, but the sock is one of his favorites
.

             
At the moment, he was shakin’ the dickens out of that sock
.
I don’t know whether or not he was pretending that sock was Sweetie Easton
.
He might not’ve given Sweetie another thought
.
But I was still thinkin
g
about Sweetie long after supper
.
In fact, he’d given me an idea for my plan.

DIVIDER HERE

             
It was about nine o’clock when I called Bettie
.
“Sorry to be callin
g
so late,” I said, “but I was concerned about poor little Sweetie
.
He came to see me while ago and was shocked to find Matlock here.”

             
At the mention of his name, Matlock got up and moved closer to me
.
I petted his big ol’ head to reassure him he was way higher up on my totem pole than Sweetie Easton.

             
“I appreciate you,” Bettie was saying, “but Sweetie’s layin’ right here on the couch.”

             
“Well, good
.
I’m glad he got back home okay
.
“By the way….”  Don’t you always say “by the way” when you’re gettin
g
to the point you was aimin
g
to make in the first place?  So I said, “By the way, that grandson of yours is doin
g
a bang-up job playin
g
Banquo
in that play they’re puttin’ on at school.”

             
“Thank you
.
I’ve not been to any of the rehearsals
.
I wanna see it for the first time opening night.”

             
“Well, you won’t be disappointed.”

             
“Is Crimson in the play?”

             
“No, she didn’t seem to want to be in it, but one of her friends is playin
g
Lady MacBeth.”

             
“Oh, yes!  That Alicia something-or-other.”

             
“Alicia Granger.”

             
“Right,” Bettie said.

             
“I…uh…I wonder if you might help me with a little detective work.”

             
“Detective work?  That’s your fort
é
, Myrtle.”

             
“It’s nothin
g
dangerous or anything
.
It’s just that somebody stole one of the play props today, and I’d hate for anything to keep the play from going on
.
Those young ‘uns have worked so hard.” 
I knew that’d get her
.

             
“What do you need me to do?”

             
“I’ve got an old necklace that would go great with Alicia’s costume
.
It
’s not
real, but I thought if you or Brandon loaned it to the drama teacher to be used in the play—”

             
“And if they
thought
it was real,” Betty interrupted, “then the thief might take the necklace and get caught.”

             
“Exactly
.
What do you think?”