Murder on the Ballot, Myrtle Clover #17

Chapter Twenty

Myrtle decided to immediately launch into talking about Preston's death. "Have you heard the news?"

"Not much of a news watcher," admitted Foley. "Also, the TV is broke."

Myrtle said, "You remember Preston Cook."

"Sure. His garage is where my car's at." Foley turned from looking out the window to look at Myrtle in the front seat.

"He's been murdered," said Myrtle.

"What? No way."

"I'm afraid so," said Myrtle.

Foley gave a low whistle. "Ain't that the craziest thing? What am I goin' to do now? I was thinking if I got a used car cheaper than repairin' my old wreck then I'd run it by Preston's place to have him check it out before I bought it."

Miles said, "There are a couple of other places in town, aren't there? Maybe one of them could help."

Foley snorted. "Them? They ain't no good. Preston was the only good one in Bradley. Them others is either bad mechanics or crooked. Maybe I can go out of town to find somebody."

"And you, of course, had nothing to do with Preston's demise, I suppose?" asked Myrtle.

Foley blinked at her and Myrtle added demurely, "It's just that I'm quite particular about who moves my gnomes."

"No ma'am, I had nuthin' to do with it. Like I said, I needed Preston around. Besides, Dusty has me so wore out that I go home and drop into bed. Don't even have the energy to go out and get a drink or nuthin'."

Myrtle asked, "So you weren't out last night then?"

"Nope. Dusty ran me by the store to pick up some soup for supper and then drove me home."

"But you were on your way to see Royce the night he died. Did you speak with him?" Myrtle turned in her seat to get Foley's full reaction.

Foley's full reaction was to turn quite pale and get very still. "What?"

"It's just that there was a witness who places you at the town hall when Royce died. So you clearly didn't go straight home from Preston's garage after you spoke with him about the car."

Miles watched Foley in the rear-view mirror.

Foley spread out his hands in supplication. "Look. I did nuthin' to Royce. But I really needed that money. I did go over there, okay? Knew he was there and the guy was hard to get ahold of. I just asked him to give me more time to get him the money. Or just forgive the debt. Wasn't like the man didn't have no money."

"So when he turned you down, again, you didn't kill him out of frustration?" asked Myrtle, raising her eyebrows.

"No ma'am! I figured I just was flat out of luck again. Called Dusty and went home." He frowned. "Who is it who has it in for me so bad? It's that Scotty, ain't it? He always seemed to show up whenever I was around his dad."

"Did you see him at the town hall?" asked Myrtle, practically turning all the way around.

"Nope. But I saw him yesterday evenin' when Dusty ran me by the store. Saw him leave that barbeque joint."

Myrtle glanced at Miles. Scotty had said that he'd worked late last night so why had Foley seen him out in the early evening?

When they got back to Myrtle's house, Foley set about hauling fifteen percent of the gnomes back to the storage shed while Myrtle and Miles joined Wanda inside. Wanda was playing solitaire.

"How'd it go?" she asked.

Myrtle shrugged. "Well, it seems that no one is inclined to tell us the truth, which isn't very helpful."