Murder on the Ballot, Myrtle Clover #17

Chapter Nine

"Mama, you didn't tell Bonner anything, did you?" he asked grimly.

"Tell him things? Certainly not."

Red persisted. "I mean, did you tell him how Royce died?"

"Of course I didn't. What sort of idiot do you think I am? Really, Red." Myrtle shot him a venomous look.

"Okay, okay, just making sure." Red held his hands up in surrender.

Myrtle said, "So I'm guessing your concern about releasing information indicates that this is a suspicious death and that Royce didn't have a heart attack on the stairs."

Red shook his head. "Despite his stressful experience last night, I don't believe his heart was affected because of his debate with you."

Myrtle looked slightly miffed at this. "Perhaps it was a contributing factor."

Miles said slowly, "So there's evidence that Royce was murdered?"

Red gave them a cautious look as if weighing what to tell them. "Well, since Mama has already had an up-close look at Royce, I suppose there's no harm in telling you as long as you keep the information to yourselves. I don't even want staircases mentioned in any way. You can say Royce is dead and you can say Royce died at town hall, but leave it at that. Yes, there's evidence that Royce was murdered. As I said, I don't think he had a medical episode. I also don't believe he stumbled on the stairs—at least, not until he was hit on the head."

"Well, in my opinion, he was overly fond of taking the stairs. Perhaps if he'd taken the elevator, this wouldn't have happened at all." Her voice was slightly smug.

Red twisted his mouth skeptically. "I'm of the opinion that if somebody wanted to take Royce out, a little thing like being on an elevator wouldn't stop him." He gave Myrtle a severe look. "You didn't seem too happy with Royce yourself last night."

"Did you see how he treated Erma last night? He was unbelievably rude." Myrtle sniffed.

Miles hid a smile. He seemed amused to have Myrtle suddenly turn into Erma's defender after so many years of avoiding the woman.

Red shrugged. "It was a debate. Usually folks aren't all that polite during the course of them." He paused. "To me it seemed as though Erma's feelings were hurt. Is that the impression you got?"

His voice was deliberately casual, but this didn't fool Myrtle. "You think Erma is a suspect?"

Myrtle, although not wanting Erma to be abused in a public forum, didn't have as many reservations about her being arrested and carted off to jail.

Red sighed. "Mama, I just don't know. How do you think Erma would respond after being attacked like that?"

Myrtle and Miles looked at each other for a moment. Finally, Myrtle said reluctantly, "Well, I think she'd react pretty much like she did last night—embarrassed and sad. I don't think she'd attack and kill the man responsible. Do you?"

Red shook his head. "It just doesn't seem very likely. I'll have to speak with her anyway, of course. I left the same time y'all did last night, of course. Did you happen to notice anything? Hear anything? Any arguments or bad words between Royce and anyone else?"

Myrtle was very annoyed that she hadn't noticed anything. She'd mostly not noticed anything because she'd still been so miffed at Royce. "No, nothing. How about you, Miles?"

Miles considered this seriously before regretfully saying, "I'm afraid not. We were preoccupied with the elevator and the weather. We wanted to get out of there before it started storming."