Murder by Yew (18 page)

Edna mulled over this problem, trying to figure out how Mary might pull off a murder in her own home. Perhaps she would rig things to look like someone broke in and came up the back stairs. The house is big, and Mary could reasonably deny ever hearing a thing, if Edna were overpowered and smothered in her bed. Besides, Mary probably knew what the police would look for. She would probably know how to cover her tracks.

“
You’re being ridiculous,” Edna scolded herself softly.
Am I?
her other self asked. She didn’t know the answer. Her head throbbed. Of one thing she became certain. She would leave this house at first light. She would go home and later think of a plausible excuse as to why she couldn’t stay at Mary’s any longer.

Once her mind was made up, Edna vowed to stay awake until dawn, but the next thing she knew, she was opening her eyes, and the little bedside clock read six-fifty-six. Feeling muzzy, she slipped out from beneath the warm covers and only then noticed her bedroom door was ajar. She crossed the room, her uneasiness of the night returning, and closed the door tightly. Then, as quietly as she could, Edna dressed and packed her suitcase while Benjamin watched, yawning, from his perch on the wooden radiator cover.

These chores completed, Edna slipped an arm through the handles of her tote bag, picked up the overnight case, and eased open her bedroom door. Poking her head into the hall, she paused, listening for sounds. Nothing. Certainly, Mary must be asleep. Edna went back to gather up Benjamin, who seemed quite content to stay on his warm shelf beneath the window. Then she tiptoed down the back stairs.

“
Good morning,” Mary said as Edna reached the bottom step. “Coffee should be ready in about five minutes.”

Edna jumped, almost dropping the suitcase, while Benjamin leaped to the floor. She could only stare at Mary, who with her back turned was taking plates and mugs down from a cupboard and arranging them on a large metal tray. Hank, lying in the middle of the floor, turned to gaze over his shoulder.

Busy with the plates, Mary hadn’t yet turned toward Edna. “Sorry I woke you earlier, but I thought I heard Benjy crying.”

“
Benjamin.” Edna corrected automatically, setting her suitcase near the back door and balancing the tote bag on top.

“
Yes, well, he probably wanted to explore the house or something. He came into my room about an hour later. Hope you don’t mind, but I opened your door so he could come and go without my having to get up again.”

When Mary turned, her look moved at once to Edna’s luggage. “Where’re you going? I thought you’d be staying until Albert got home.” Her face flushed, and a deep crease formed between her eyebrows as she stared at Edna.

Not expecting to run into her hostess, Edna hadn’t yet thought of an excuse as to why she was leaving. She stammered, “I’ve put you to enough trouble, and I have so much to do. I think it would be best if I stayed in my own house.” She hurried on before Mary could protest. “I’ll call someone today and have them change the locks, and I’ll make sure the doors and windows are secure before I go to bed tonight. I’ll be fine.”

Mary looked doubtful. “Charlie’s going to be mad at me. I promised him I’d watch you. I was even going to call the hospital this morning and cancel my volunteer shift.”

“
Oh, don’t do that.” Edna still wasn’t convinced that Mary’s nocturnal wanderings were innocent, and she didn’t want to have to watch her back—or her food—the entire day. Knowing she would have to come up with an acceptable compromise, she said, “Look. I’m sure they depend on you at the hospital, and I have lots of errands to do today, so I won’t be home much anyway. Let’s see how the day goes, and we can talk later about where I’m to stay.”

“
Well …” Mary hesitated.

“
It’ll be okay. I’ll call Charlie and let him know. I’ll even wave to every policeman I see.”

Mary laughed at that and nodded her head. “Okay, but how about breakfast first. You have to eat before you go. I’m making pancakes. Hank likes my pancakes, don’t you, Boy?” She smiled at the lab, who thumped his tail on the floor at the sound of his name.

Edna supposed if Mary also ate, and if she fed the same food to Hank, it could hardly be poisoned. Besides, the coffee smelled good, and her stomach felt empty. She told herself to relax and went to take the tray from Mary, offering to set the table.

The two women ate a leisurely meal. Edna had to admit that Mary’s pancakes were delicious with a generous dollop of warm maple syrup. She sat back, enjoying the last of her coffee, her gaze drifting from the yearbooks at the end of the table to the view beyond the windows. She noticed absently that the rain had stopped. She had probably been wrong about Mary being a threat, but what had she meant last night about Tom promising something? Edna brought her thoughts back to the present and was just turning to ask Mary to explain when a clock began to chime from somewhere deeper in the house.

“
Oh, no.” Mary looked at her watch. “It’s eight o’clock already. I’m late.”

Edna’s curiosity would have to wait. “You go ahead. I’ll clean up here and take Hank out before I go.”

“
Thanks. See you this afternoon. I get off at three-thirty.”

After the sound of Mary’s Jeep had faded down the drive, Edna decided to take advantage of the break in the storm and go for a walk. Once outside, Hank ran circles around her, nose to the ground, as she followed the grassy ruts of a narrow track across the field behind the old house. The morning air was crisp and invigorating, helping to clear her head and renew her usual optimism. As her spirits lifted, Edna knew she was wrong to think Mary might have had anything to do with Tom’s death.
Lack of sleep can really make you paranoid,
she thought.

Wandering along the wooded edge of the property, she stopped to pick up a stick and toss it to Hank. Benjamin walked behind her, gingerly picking his way though the wet grass. When she turned and headed back to the house, her mind drifted once more to the appointment book, and she wondered where Tom might have gone after he drove away last Thursday.

Maybe Mary was right. If the book had been in Tom’s truck or in his house, the police probably would have found it by now. But, if Nancy didn’t have it, where was it?

Okay, Edna,
she scolded herself,
forget the book. It might not have an entry for that afternoon. But I bet anything Norm Wilkins knows where Tom was. That man spends more time and energy keeping tabs on his employees than running his business.
If anyone knew Tom’s whereabouts, Norm did. She knew as sure as she was standing there that he’d made up the story about Tom working at her place all day, but why would he do that? Was he the killer? No, Edna couldn’t imagine Norm using poisoned tea as his weapon. Was he protecting the killer? What would he gain? Money was the only answer that came to her. Would Norm stoop that low?

She shuddered at the thought of confronting Tom’s cousin, but she had to do it. He was the only solid lead she had, and if she couldn’t get him to tell her what he knew, she was doomed. She might as well give up and wait for the police to come and arrest her, just as they had Aleda Sharp.

Stop it.
Edna shook off the self-pity that threatened to overwhelm her. Leaving the two animals in the house, she grabbed her tote bag and hurried next door to get her car.

Nineteen

As she drove the short distance into town, Edna rehashed the possibility that Norm knew where Tom had been on Thursday afternoon. Her mind refused to accept that he would hide his cousin’s murderer.
But why had he insisted Tom had been at our house the entire day?
she wondered.
Norm’s making it look as if I were lying, and
therefore guilty of poisoning his cousin. According to Tom, Norm worshipped the almighty dollar. Was Norm sticking to his story simply to collect a day’s worth of labor?

And who is Davy? Apparently, Danny is obsessed with this Davy person. Could Davy be Beverly’s brother David? But they call him Shoes, not Davy. What if Tom met with Shoes about going to work for him? Would that be motive enough for Norm to kill Tom, because he was jumping ship?

According to Beverly, Shoes was planning to start a handyman business in town. Maybe he was scheming to lure Tom away from Honeydew. If Tom had refused to desert his cousin, would Shoes kill Tom to eliminate the competition?
Murder would be a pretty drastic measure in either case,
she thought, rubbing a temple. Her head ached.

Why couldn’t the police find Shoes? Was he with Beverly and she just wasn’t admitting it to the police? She’d said she’d be out of town for the weekend. Nothing unusual there, unless …Was she coming back?

Now I really am being paranoid,
Edna scolded herself.
I’m beginning to sound like an amateur detective like Mary,
she thought. Edna laughed aloud at the mental image of the two of them dressed in belted London Fog raincoats and holding large, round magnifying glasses in front of their noses.

It was nearly ten o’clock when she reached the office of Honeydew Home Repairs. Norm lived alone in his family’s two-story clapboard house a block off Main Street in the middle of town. The two front rooms on the ground floor were reserved for his business.

The street was crowded, but Edna found a parking space on the next block. She hurried through the rain that had begun again. As she neared the house, she saw a large green utility van pull away from the curb.
Drat,
she thought,
two minutes later and I could have parked right in front.

Cursing her luck and following the instruction on a small sign above the doorbell to “walk in,” she pushed open the unlocked door and found herself in a wide hallway. An old wood and brass coat rack stood on a large rubber mat to her left. She removed her sodden coat and hung it up, not wanting to drip water across the floor.

A closed door to her left had the word Office painted on its frosted glass top, while the room to her right was open to the hall through a wide, square frame that may have held double sliding doors at one time. It looked like a waiting room with a few straight-backed chairs and two old sofas. The bare parquet floor needed waxing. A cluster of toy cars and trucks lay in front of one of the couches, but nobody seemed to be around. She knocked hesitantly on the office door and heard a gruff voice yell, “What is it?”

Clutching her tote bag against her stomach, she turned the knob and poked her head in. No wonder the door was closed. The room was a mess. Piles of magazines and newspapers were stacked on the floor and covered two folding chairs. Boxes of all different sizes, advertising everything from a space heater to screws and nails, were strewn about, the lids open or partially open to reveal that many of them were empty. Piled high with more junk and paper in no discernable order, a desk stood to her right. Above the debris, Norm’s head appeared as if separated from his body and left on top of the heap with his eyes open and the chewed stub of a cigar sticking out of his mouth.

Edna stared at the head, waiting for some sign of life.

“
What are you doin’ here?”

Taken aback by his rudeness and the abruptness of the question, she hesitated before saying, “I’ve come to speak with you about Tom.”

“
I’ve nothin’ to say.” Norm’s eyes narrowed. “Saaay,” he drawled. “You’re after the boy, aren’t you?” It was more of an accusation than a question. He rose and maneuvered his bulk around the desk, moving quickly for a big man. Taking Edna by the shoulders, he turned her around and roughly propelled her back into the hallway. After they had cleared the office door, he let go of her and strode across to the waiting room.

When he reached the middle of the big empty room, he turned and eyed her. “Where is he? What have you done with him?” He took a menacing step forward.

“
Who? What are you talking about?” Edna felt her temper rising. She resented being manhandled and yelled at.

“
Don’t look so innocent. You know who. Where’s Danny?”

“
What are you talking about?” she repeated, more confused than angry now as she entered the room and looked around. “Danny was here?”

“
You know damned well he was. I left him in this room an hour ago, playing with his trucks. Can’t watch him all the time, you know. Got work to do.” Now he sounded defensive.

“
Where’s Nancy?”

“
None of your business. Where’s Danny?”

A small object on the far sofa caught Edna’s eye. She moved around Norm and went to pick it up. “This is Danny’s hearing aid,” she said, holding the object up for him to see.

“
Yeah, so what? Kid’s always taking that thing out and leaving it somewhere.”

She looked down at the toys near her feet. In the back of a Tonka dump truck was a pint-sized Ziploc baggie with a wrinkled picture of Tom inside. She bent to pick it up.

“
He doesn’t leave this lying around, I’ll bet.”

For a minute, Norm looked bewildered. “He never lets go of that.” His eyes narrowed again, and his glance went from the photo to Edna’s face. “Say … don’t change the subject. Somehow you found out that Nancy left him with me while she talks to the undertaker. She told me to make sure you don’t get near her boy.”

“
Don’t be such an idiot. I didn’t know Danny would be here. I came to see you, not him.” She held her arms wide, her tote bag suspended from one hand. “Just where do you think I’ve hidden him?” Lowering her arms, she added, “If I had him, why would I walk into your office? All I’d have to do is take him out to my car. With your door closed, you would never have known.”

As she spoke, Edna’s stomach roiled. The words brought to mind an image of the green van pulling away from the house.
Don’t panic
, she thought.
First, make certain he’s not in the house.
“Maybe he’s in the bathroom or upstairs. Instead of standing here accusing me, why don’t you go look for him? You go upstairs. I’ll check down here. If he’s not here, we must call the police.”

The expression on Norm’s face turned from outrage to suspicion, and the quickness of his action took her by surprise. Before she knew it, he’d grabbed her upper arms. She felt like she had been clamped into a vise. “I don’t know what you’ve done with him, but by God …” With those words, he shook her once, hard. Whatever else he had been about to say was forgotten as his action tore the tote from Edna grasp. The bag hit the floor with a thud, and its contents spewed across the room with clanks and clatters.

“
Get away from me.” She twisted free of his grasp and knelt to pick up her belongings, fighting back tears. The tops of her arms burned where he had held her.

He walked around the floor, kicking the furthest-flung objects toward her with the side of his black boot. “Hurry up. Get your things, and get out of here,” he snarled. “You’re not to go near that boy. Understand?”

“
You’ve got to look for him. We’ve got to find him.” Trying to contain her anger and fighting back tears of frustration, Edna picked up the last item, a small coin purse, and dropped it into her bag.

“
This is none of your concern. I’m telling you to stay out of it and keep away from Danny.” Striding toward the open doorframe, Norm bent to snatch a small penlight from the floor. Edna grabbed for it as she sidled past him and hurried into the hall. As she tugged to pull it from between his fingers, he growled, “I don’t want to see you around here again.”

When he opened his fingers, releasing his tight hold on the tiny flashlight, Edna stumbled backwards. Shoving the object into her pants pocket, she almost ran to the front door, stopping only long enough to grab her coat. By the time she had jammed her arms into the sleeves, Norm had the outside door open and stood aside, watching her closely as she ran out into the storm, her coattails flapping.

The driving rain felt good on her hot cheeks. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so frustrated, humiliated or defeated.