The Possum Hollow Hullabaloo (The Penelope Pembroke Cozy Mystery Series) (12 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Penelope found Sam standing inside the open pocket doors between the main parlor and the foyer when she came downstairs the next morning. “I was admiring the decorations,” he said, not turning to face her.

She thought he sounded sad. “Do you like them?”

“Yes.”

“Mum brought some of the Christmas tree balls from England after her parents died. They’re old and fragile, but I love to use them.”

“They wouldn’t do anyone any good sitting in the box.”

“That’s what she always said.”

He glanced up at the mistletoe hanging from the door facing. “I like that, too.”

“I expect you do.” She went to him and lifted her face.

“So this is what’s keeping your poor old daddy sitting at an empty table.” Jake walked out of the dining room just as Sam was working on Penelope’s lips for the third time. They sprang apart. “Oh, don’t mind me. I can always go uptown.
In the cold.”

“Stop it, Daddy.” Penelope smoothed her hair and straightened her sweater. “I’m coming right now.”

The wall phone by the pantry shrilled as the three of them entered the kitchen. Penelope answered it, then frowned. “Slow down, Mary Lynn. They did what? Are you sure? How do you know? Now wait a minute, before you and Harry go off on a wild goose chase, you ought to…I know you’re worried about them, but surely the police are looking…okay, all right, whatever. I’ll keep my cell phone with me. Call me.” She hung up. “Tonya Cisneros just called. Ellie and Evie have run away from their foster home. She told Mary Lynn and Harry where the girls were, and now they’re driving up there.”

“Where?”
Sam asked.

“Harrison.”

Jake’s shaggy brows came together. “Shame.”

“That’s up near Eureka Springs, isn’t it?” Sam asked.
“In the Ozarks.”

“That’s where it is. The social worker just called to let Mary
Lynn  know what happened in case the girls showed up here.”

Jake snorted. “Now how does that woman think a ten-year-old and a four-year-old are going to get from
Harrison to Amaryllis? Sprout wings and fly?”

“Is she sure they’ve run away?” Sam asked. “Or did somebody take them?”

“They couldn’t have. Nobody knew where they were.”

“Somebody always knows,” Sam said. “Call Mrs. Hargrove back, and let me talk to her.”

Penelope dialed the number and handed the phone to Sam. “Mrs. Hargrove? Yeah, it’s the Gray Ghost. It’s none of my business, but I strongly suggest that you and your husband don’t get yourselves in the middle of a police investigation. Yes, I understand how worried you are, but you can’t help things by going up there.” He listened for a minute. “I don’t expect you to do anything. I’m just recommending you sit tight for a while.” He listened again. “No, it’s not official. I don’t have any official jurisdiction. I’m just making a suggestion. Right. Okay.” He hung up. “She said she and her husband would discuss it more.”

Penelope nodded. “They got attached to those little girls.” She walked to the refrigerator. “Who wants what for breakfast?”

“I don’t care,” Sam said. “Just call me when it’s ready.”

Penelope watched him reach into the pocket of his jeans and pull out his cell phone as he left the kitchen.

****

Sam came back as Penelope served up scrambled eggs and sausage. “I talked to Brad,” he said, pulling out his chair. “Jeremiah
Hadden knocked a trooper in the head on the way to the courthouse in Little Rock for a hearing and got away.”

Penelope barely set down the plate in front of Jake before it slipped from her fingers. “Got away? Wasn’t he cuffed? Shackled?”

“Brad doesn’t know the particulars yet.” Sam didn’t meet her eyes.

She leaned against the cabinet. “He got away and went after Ellie and
Evie. But he couldn’t have known where they were…could he?”

Jake’s jaw tightened.
“Poor little girls.”

Penelope roused herself to fill a plate for Sam and one for herself. “The whole thing stinks,” she muttered as she sat down. “Do Mary Lynn and Harry know?”

Sam unfolded his napkin. “Brad said he was going over there.”

Jake bowed his head. “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Bless us, oh, Lord, and these Thy gifts we are about to receive from Thy bounty.” He hesitated. “And bring those babies back safe. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Penelope felt sure she heard a whispered “Amen” from Sam, too.

****

Sam left after breakfast, saying he had something to do. Mary Lynn, her eyes red-rimmed, came in soon afterwards. “I know,” Penelope said, putting her arms around her friend. “Sam called Brad after he talked to you.”

Mary Lynn sobbed into Penelope’s shoulder. “I can’t stand it, Pen. I just can’t.”

“It’s blessed unfair.”

“He’ll kill them—if he hasn’t already.”

“But they’re his flesh and blood, his own children.” Penelope murmured, taking two clean mugs out of the cabinet.

“Their testimony could send him to Death Row.”

“Maybe they really did run away,” Penelope suggested, sliding a mug of hot coffee in front of Mary Lynn. She uncovered the plate of leftover sticky buns still in the middle of the table.

“You don’t believe that.” Mary Lynn wrapped her hands around the mug but didn’t lift it to her lips.

“Ellie’s savvy beyond her years. Maybe she had a feeling about things and took Evie.”

“That’s ridiculous. Tonya told her in front of me that her father was locked up, and you could see the relief on her little face.”

“Where would two little girls go off to in the middle of the night? Think, Mary Lynn.”

“They didn’t go off, and you know it.”

“I don’t know it. The police are out hunting Jeremiah Hadden. They’ve already decided he’s got the girls.”

“He does.”

“But if he doesn’t, where would they be?”

“It’s cold,” Mary Lynn said. “Even colder up there than here. They’d have to find some sort of shelter.”

“Where would Ellie feel they were safe?”

Mary Lynn shook her head. “A school? They’re closed for the holidays. A library? Not open all night.”

“Did Tonya drive up there?”

“She was on her way when she called us.” Mary Lynn dropped her forehead to the table, narrowly missing the mug of hot coffee. “She thought they’d be safe out of Amaryllis.”

Penelope rested one hand on her friend’s hair. “It’s going to be okay, Mary Lynn. I don’t know how I know but I do.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Jake returned from his daily conference with the Toney Twins, followed by Brad and Rosabel. Sam’s failure to appear by the time Penelope banged on the chili pot to call everyone to dinner, made his presence greater. “I don’t know where he went,” Penelope said, a question in her voice as she glanced at her son.

Bradley took his bowl to the table and sat down. “I couldn’t tell you,” he replied with a telling vagueness.

“Maybe the social worker should’ve left the girls here,” Jake said.

“
Wouldn’t have been a good idea, Pawpaw.”

“Seems like it wasn’t a good idea to put them where she did either.”

“Nothing’s guaranteed,” Bradley said.

“It should be.”
Rosabel crumbled crackers into her chili. “For children anyway. Children should have a guarantee of safety at the very least and being loved most of all.”

“I think for the most part that the children in the Hollow are loved, at least as much as the parents know how,” Penelope said. “It’s just a different world out there.” She pulled out her chair to sit down just as the phone rang. “Go on and eat before it gets cold,” she said as she skirted the table.

She picked up the phone. “Sam? Where are you? Supper’s on the table. He’s here. Wait a minute.” She handed Bradley the phone.

“What’s up?”

Penelope tried to read her son’s face as he listened to Sam, but his expression remained set.
Travis could look blank like that, especially when I confronted him about one of his bimbos.

“Okay. Thanks.” Bradley reached behind him and hung up the phone.

Rosabel touched her husband’s arm. “What?”

“Jeremiah
Hadden was picked up on I-40.”

“Coming or going from Harrison?” Penelope asked.

“Going.”

“So he didn’t have the girls.”

“Nope.”

Penelope slumped in her chair. “They really did run away.”

“Looks like.”

“Maybe he wasn’t after Ellie and
Evie,” Rosabel said. “He could’ve been headed for the state line.”

“What’s happened to us, to Amaryllis?” Penelope asked. “Murder, drug-running…this used to be such a nice quiet little town.”

“No place is nice and quiet anymore, Mother.”

“We blessed well should be!” The spoon flew out of Penelope’s hand and landed on the table beside the bowl of shredded cheese. “Damn!”

“You know better than to talk that way, Nellie.” Jake peered at her over the rim of his glass of milk.

“I know better than a lot of things,” she retorted. “But when I see the world I grew up in and felt safe in changing like this, I forget. Or maybe I just don’t care anymore.”

Rosabel’s eyes were wet as she turned them on her mother-in-law. “You’ve got to care, Penelope. People like you—the older women who’ve got some life experience under their belts—you have to teach the rest of us how to survive.”

Penelope reached for her spoon. “You’ll survive,
Rosabel,” she said. “I didn’t have any choice, and neither do you.”

Bradley slipped an arm around his wife. “It’s about more than just surviving, Mother, and you know it. It’s about living. You didn’t just survive after you left Dad. You made a life for yourself. You made a life for the two of us together, even if I didn’t want to admit it at the time.”

Penelope chewed her lip. “You were so angry with me when I left Pembroke Point.”

“I was twelve then, and I’m not angry anymore.” He blew out his breath. “You did what you had to do, and you probably should’ve done it a lot sooner.”

“You mean that?”

Bradley nodded and put his lips against
Rosabel’s smooth olive cheek. “If you’d stayed, I’d probably have turned out like him, but I didn’t. I meant my marriage vows. I’ll always be faithful to my wife.” He addressed his chili again. “Pass the cheese, please.”

****

Sam came in while they were eating blackberry cobbler. “The chili’s still warm,” Penelope said. “I’ll fix you a bowl.”

“Thanks.” He sat down. “Rumor has it that Jeremiah
Hadden’s on his way back to Little Rock.”

Bradley’s mouth twitched. “Rumor, huh?”

Sam grinned. “Right. Rumor.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

“Any time.”

“Any news on the girls?”
Penelope asked as she set the steaming bowl in front of him and went back for the crackers and cheese.”

“Not yet, but at least their father doesn’t have them.”

“We’ll hope St. Anthony’s on the job,” Jake said. “He won’t mind doing a little overtime for two lost babies.”

“I’ve been talking to him all day,”
Rosabel said. “I have a feeling he’s busy out there somewhere.”

****

The only light in the darkened parlor emanated from the Christmas tree lights and several strategically placed candles as Penelope and Sam retreated to the long sofa after dinner. “I can guess what you’ve been doing all day, but what I don’t understand is why you can do all of it.”

“You don’t need to know.”

“Will I ever know?”

“I hope so.”

“So meanwhile I just have to trust you.”

“Yes.”

She lifted her face from his shoulder. “Then I will, as long as you keep coming back.”

“I’ll keep coming back.”

“Forever?”

“For as long as I can.” His fingers brushed her cheek. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a reason to go back anywhere.”

“Were you happy growing up? I mean, you had a good family and all that?”

“Yes.”

“But you don’t have them now.”

“No.”

She pressed her face into his shoulder again. “You have me, Sam. And Daddy and Bradley and Rosabel.”

She couldn’t interpret the sound she thought she heard coming from far back in his throat—or maybe from the depths of the soul he claimed not to have anymore.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

When Penelope came downstairs the next morning, she found a note from Sam propped against the napkin holder in the middle of the table.
I’ll try to get back for Christmas. No promises.

She sat down and held the paper against her lips.
Oh, Sam, why do you come and go like the wind with no warning at all? Did you know last night you’d be gone this morning? When you were holding me with such gentleness—and keeping your hands in check—did you know?

“
Mornin’, Nellie.”

She glanced up at Jake, standing in the door of the hall leading to his apartment, looking spiffy in a light blue and white pinstripe shirt.  Snowflakes fell over a darker blue tie. “Sam’s gone.” Tossing the note on the table, she rose and headed for the coffee maker.

“Thought he was going to be here through Christmas.”

“So did
I.”

“Maybe he’ll get back. It’s still four days away.”

“I don’t know, Daddy. What do you want for breakfast?”

The phone rang before he could answer. “The police found the girls early this morning. Tonya called a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, Mary Lynn, are they all right?”

“They’re being checked out at the hospital right now.”

“Where were they?”

“In an abandoned warehouse near the railroad tracks.”

“Do the police know…”

“Nobody knows anything right now. At least, that’s what Tonya gave me to understand. She said she’ll call back later.”

“I’m so relieved.”

“How do you think Harry and I feel? We went over to the church last night to pray and ran into Fr.
Loeffler. We talked a long time, and then he told us to stay as late as we wanted to. We were there until almost midnight.”

“St. Anthony came through.”

“With bells on.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“Wait for Tonya to call. If she gives us the go-ahead, we’ll drive up this morning and stay through Christmas.”

“Keep me posted.”

“Absolutely. Talk to you later.”

“They found the little girls?” Jake asked when Penelope hung up.

She gave him the gist of what Mary Lynn had said.

“Do you think that has anything to do with why Sam took off?”

“No idea. I’m just glad they’re safe, and Jeremiah Hadden’s locked up. Surely no judge will release him now for any amount of money.”

“We can always hope. So what do you want for breakfast?”

****

On the way to the Garden Market, Penelope ran into the library to tell Shana about Ellie and
Evie. “Now I’ve got a bombshell for you,” Shana said when Penelope finished.

“I saw that
Snively character going into the newspaper office about an hour ago, and as far as I know, he hasn’t come out.”

“Hal probably threw him in the dumpster out back,” Penelope said, smiling at the mental image.

“That may be where he belongs, but I don’t think that’s where he is. He wasn’t alone.”

“No?”

“Some guy in a business suit went in with him.”

“Well, at least he didn’t disrupt the Christmas program. With everything that’s happened, I haven’t had time to properly appreciate what a rousing success it was.”

“Oh, it was. Tabby loved it. She said it was almost as good as the program at her school.”

“High praise.
Are you going to spend Christmas in Little Rock?”

“I’m going up Christmas Eve, but I’ll stay in a hotel.”

“Right—you can’t afford to give those sleazy in-laws any fuel for the fire.”

“Ex-
in-laws.” Shana sighed and straightened a stack of date-due cards on the scarred circulation desk. “But they’re Tabby’s grandparents, after all.”

“You and Peter just need to get married.”

“I’m getting a ring for Christmas. We picked it out last week-end, but it had to be sized.”

“That’s wonderful, Shana!”

“I don’t know. If it causes trouble for him with those people…”

“He has a right to move on with his life.”

“I know that, and you know that, but they don’t.”

“They wouldn’t care what he did if he’d give Tabby to them.”

“He’d die first. I recognized the Gray Ghost at the program. Is he…”

“Gone again.
He says he’ll try to be back for Christmas, but it might be easier if he just stayed away.”

“You’re crazy for him, aren’t you?”

Penelope nodded before she thought. “But if you say I said so, I’ll murder you, and tell God you just disappeared.”

****

Elbert Hadden avoided her eyes when Penelope began to browse the produce. “I see you, Bert” she said, moving closer to where he was spraying down the carrots. “I’m not mad at you.”

He nodded without looking at her.

“The story about Jeremiah Hadden was on the news this morning. It didn’t mention the little girls.” She watched to see if he showed any surprise. He didn’t. “I wonder how he knew which direction to head?”

Elbert’s hand faltered on the sprayer between the carrots and the cucumbers.

“But you know, don’t you?”

“I wish I didn’t know half of what I do,” he mumbled. “I thought I got out of there.”

“The Hollow? You did.”

“Not really. Nobody gets out completely.”

“Why don’t you get a transfer away from Amaryllis? The boys are still young enough to adjust well somewhere else.”

“Can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t.”

He shrugged.

“Well, Merry Christmas, Bert.”

He didn’t reply.

****

After Penelope put away the groceries, she decided to take the gifts from the closet under the stairs and arrange them around the tree in the parlor. By the time Jake added his, and Bradley and
Rosabel brought their load, the pile would be embarrassingly large. Abijah followed her out of the kitchen and curled around her ankles as she fiddled with the latch on the closet. But when the opened the door and reached to pull the light string, the big orange tabby hissed and shot up the stairs.

Penelope’s skin crawled, and her hand froze in mid-air. She backed away, letting the door swing shut, and flew up the stairs behind
Abijah. In her room, with the door locked, she called Bradley’s private number and told him about the closet.

“Something’s wrong,” she said, trying not to sound as panicked as she felt. “I don’t know what it is, but
Abijah sensed it, and I didn’t even turn on the light.”

“I’m on my way, Mother. Where are you?”

“Locked in my bedroom.”

“Where’s Pawpaw?”

“Still uptown with the Toneys as far as I know.”

“Then stay put, and I’ll be there.”

She realized her mouth felt dry, and her palms were clammy. She began to pace, stopping occasionally to look out the window. When she saw Bradley’s official car coming down the street, she unlocked the door and started down the hall. She could hear him using his key in the front door and waited as his footsteps echoed in the foyer. The closet door creaked. Then she heard him yell, “Mother!”

Her feet barely touched the stairs. “What?”

He grabbed her arm and shoved her through the front door and toward the street. Without her coat, the breeze went through her. “Bradley, what’s going on?” She watched him punching in numbers on his phone. The word
dynamite
turned her chilled body into a block of ice.

Almost immediately, sirens filled the quiet neighborhood. “Closet under the stairs,” Bradley said to the fire chief. “It’s connected to the string hanging down from the light
bulb.”

“How many sticks?”

“I counted six.”

“
Abijah’s in there!” Penelope shrieked.

Bradley grabbed her arm as she turned toward the house. “I saw Pawpaw’s truck in front of the café as I left the PD.”

“But Abijah…”

Bradley steered her toward the patrol car and put her in the back seat. She rolled down the window and heard the chief telling the other four firemen to fan out to the houses on either side and behind the B&B. “Get ‘
em all out, and then we’ll go in.”

Penelope sat in the patrol car, her teeth chattering more with terror than with cold. Craning her neck to see out the re
ar window, she observed Rosabel in uniform setting up a roadblock at the intersection. In front of her, a state police vehicle turned horizontally to block access, and a trooper emerged, bullhorn in hand.

Hysteria rose in her throat, but she began to giggle.
You don’t need that thing. This place is so small you could stand on any corner and yell, and half the town would hear you.

Ed Biggs removed his chief’s helmet and put on another one with a protective face covering. His heavy regulation coat flapped open revealing a padded chest protector. She thought of his wife and four teenagers and wanted to scream at him not to go inside. The house—even
Abijah—wasn’t worth a man’s life.

She stuck her head out the window. “Bradley…”

He waved her off and followed Ed as far as the front steps. After a hasty conference, Ed mounted the steps to the porch and didn’t hesitate before walking inside. Penelope buried her face in her hands. Then, feeling like a coward, she lifted her face and noticed her neighbors, now routed from their homes, being herded past the barrier Rosabel had set up. Her heart turned over as a state trooper practically carried old Mrs. Putnam away from the home she’d come to as a bride seventy-odd years before.

Penelope was sure she didn’t breathe again until Ed emerged and signaled to Bradley. They spoke briefly, then
fanned out to impart their conversation to the other firefighters. Bradley went to speak to Rosabel before he came to the car. “It was a dud, Mother. No blasting caps. Ed’s going to bring out the dynamite sticks.”

“Oh, Bradley, he’s got four kids at home!”

“The dynamite’s not going to go off, Mother. He’s made sure of that. He knows how to handle explosives since the city sent him to that training class over in Little Rock three years ago. He didn’t think he needed to go at the time, but now he’s glad he did.”

“Why would somebody want to blow up the B&B? And me?”

“Nobody wanted to blow you up. They just wanted to scare you.”

“A
Hadden?”

“Probably, but I can’t figure out what his connection with Jeremiah is.”

“Just that he’s a Hadden.”

“Well, there’s that, but he’s after something else. Listen, we’re going to go through the whole house, but I doubt we’ll find anything.”

“Can I go back inside? I’m freezing.”

“I’ll get
Rosabel to take you to the station.”

“I’d rather go inside.”

“I’ll come get you as soon as I’ve checked things out. Be a sport.”

“A sport?
And by the way, why did Abijah take off as soon as I opened the door?”

“Cats have sensitive noses. Ed described the odor in the closet as dead possum. The guy had probably been hunting before he came in the house.”

“How did he get in?”

“I’ll look for that, too.”

Rosabel walked up. “Come on, Penelope. Let me take you somewhere warm.”