Hushed Up--Myrtle Clover Mystery #15

Chapter Sixteen

Red rubbed his eyes. "She sure is."

"She didn't have the opportunity to speak with you, then?" asked Myrtle.

"She did not." Red looked very tired.

It occurred to Myrtle that Red hadn't discovered a single body in all the murders he'd investigated. Discovering this one seemed to have really shaken him up.

Miles said, "Were you able to just walk in? Her door was unlocked?" He colored a little. "Sorry for the nosiness. It just reminded me of the way it was with Lillian when I found her."

Red nodded. "It was slightly ajar and Tallulah didn't answer when I called her name. Sort of worried me since she'd been so eager to talk to me and I was punctual. So I walked inside." He frowned. "Mama, did you know her at all?"

"Just a bit."

"Was she a golfer?" asked Red.

Myrtle nodded. "She certainly was. Apparently, quite a good one." Her eyes narrowed. "Was Tallulah killed with a golf club?"

Red sighed.

Myrtle said, "Well, this murderer certainly seems to arrive at homes unprepared. He always seems to grab whatever is around as a weapon."

Red was quiet. Then he said, "I wish we could figure out what was behind all this."

Myrtle was pleased by his inclusive choice of pronoun. "Anger."

Red raised his eyebrows.

"Anger is behind it." Myrtle nodded her head sagely. She knew better than to tell Red where that little insight had come from. Red never seemed to take Wanda's statements very seriously. To his detriment.

"Unfortunately," he said tiredly, "we have lots of angry people involved with this case." He glanced over at the house where the state police were busily going in and out. "Mama, you don't have any idea what Tallulah was so eager to speak to me about, do you?"

Myrtle wished she did. She would have loved to produce some game-changing information at this point. Instead, she shook her head. "No. Only that I could tell it was something weighing on her mind. When I saw her at Lillian's funeral, she was watching you anxiously to see if you had a free moment to talk."

Red groaned. "And I was totally tied up with the woman worried about truancy."

"Exactly. Then you had to rush away," said Myrtle.

Miles cleared his throat. "I thought perhaps she might be wanting to confess to the crime. That she had a guilty conscience."

Myrtle shot him a look at his choice of pronoun. It had been what they'd thought.

Red said with a short laugh. "Good guess, except that clearly wasn't the case. She must have known something that someone else didn't want getting out." He glanced again at the state police. "All right, I should get going. And you should, too," he said sternly. "You're trespassing, after all."

"Simply getting out of the way of the official vehicles," said Myrtle breezily. "We'll leave soon. We're heading to dinner."

Red looked wistful at the mention of dinner before striding off to join the other cops.

Miles looked in his rear-view mirror and his eyes opened wide. "Annie is pulling into the driveway!"

"Well, she's not going to have us arrested for trespassing, Miles, for heaven's sake. And there's plenty of room for her car because you pulled so carefully to the side. Maybe she'll even have some information for us," said Myrtle.