Death Pays a Visit (A Myrtle Clover Mystery Book 7) (15 page)

“We’ll see if Ruby has those newspapers. And then we’ll visit with Natalie,” said Myrtle.

“Who is cleaning out her mother’s things,” said Miles gloomily. “And force her to visit with us.”

Myrtle glared at him. “Are you determined to raise moral objections to everything I’m trying to accomplish today?”

Miles seemed guiltily repentant and she continued. “Anyway. We’ll see if Natalie has come across any newspapers in her clearing out. Then we’ll pick up Pasha, talk to the Greener Pastures staff—just enough to let them know we’re onto them—and we’ll head out.”

Miles shifted uncomfortably. Myrtle snapped, “For heaven’s sake, Miles, what is it now?”

“Only that … that we don’t need to have Pasha with us while we’re grilling Greener Pastures about—whatever it is that we’re grilling them about. Pasha is basically contraband. She’s not a therapy animal or whatever they listed as being Greener-Pastures-approved. She’s not even tame. We’ll likely be kicked out and told never to return again,” said Miles. His voice was vaguely plaintive.

“And that would be tragic, wouldn’t it? Especially since you’ve gotten addicted to the chicken casserole and the checkers games over here.” Unfortunately, he also had a point. This was the irritating thing about having a sidekick sometimes. “How about if I
talk with the Greener Pastures staff while you monitor the rest of Ruby’s visit with Pasha?”

Miles’s eyes held tremendous relief. He must have been very concerned about the Greener Pastures staff’s part of the day.

When Ruby opened her door, her eyes were huge as she saw Pasha in the carrier. “Look!” she gasped. “She’s so beautiful!”

Myrtle felt quite smug having someone so openly admire Pasha. Ordinarily, Myrtle didn’t get praised for Pasha. No one
really
understood the cat other than Myrtle. They were more scared of her or wary of her. And half the time no one even associated Myrtle with Pasha, since the cat was outdoors roaming most of the time. Pasha wasn’t
owned
by Myrtle, after all. Myrtle, more likely, was owned by Pasha.

But Ruby got it. She flung her door open and ushered them inside. “Come in,” she said with delight. “Can we…can we let her out of her cage?”

“It’s a carrier,” corrected Myrtle. “And yes, she’d probably love to be let out. I brought some of her favorite treats that you can feed her.”

Miles surreptitiously took several large steps backward until his back brushed Ruby’s wall. Myrtle smirked. Miles was greatly intimidated by Pasha, although recently the two had seemed to reach some sort of understanding.

Myrtle unlatched and opened the carrier door and handed the bag of treats to Ruby. Pasha cautiously slunk out from the carrier, head swinging from side to side as she assessed her new surroundings.

Ruby appeared to be holding her breath. Wide-eyed, she yanked open the treat bag and tossed out a couple of treats. Pasha gave the treats a dismissive look and Ruby’s face fell, comically. “Doesn’t she want them?”

“She’s just checking out her surroundings, that’s all. Give her a minute and she’ll be eating out of your hand, Ruby,” said Myrtle.

Miles coughed.

“So to speak,” said Myrtle.

Miles said, “Myrtle, are you sure Pasha will be all right in here while we visit with Natalie?” He shifted uncomfortably as he watched Pasha scale a bookcase in the corner and try to peer out the tiny window near Ruby’s ceiling. “Do you think she’s worried about being underground?”

“Pasha is a brilliant,
brilliant
cat. But no, Miles, I really don’t think she’s agonizing over being in the basement of Greener Pastures. She’s simply trying to do a reconnaissance mission here in Ruby’s room—she’s figuring it all out. Ruby, you’ll be fine in here with Pasha for a few minutes, won’t you?” asked Myrtle.

Ruby was watching Pasha with delight, laughing as Pasha’s eyes grew huge as she watched some ground-level creature outside.

“Ruby?” asked Myrtle again.

Ruby startled and then nodded. “I’ll be fine.” She was gazing at Pasha in fascination.

Myrtle hesitated, and then walked to the door. Miles followed slowly and said to Myrtle when they were out in the hall, “Are you sure that was a good idea?”

“Well, I certainly wasn’t going to make poor Pasha stay cooped up in a carrier for the whole time. That really
would
have agitated her. Ruby seems content with worshipping Pasha from afar, so it should be fine. Let’s go talk to Natalie before she decides she’s done packing for the day,” said Myrtle.

Natalie had the door to Mickey’s room propped open with a doorstop. Myrtle lightly tapped on it. “Can we come in?” she asked. She hoped her voice had an appropriately solemn and mournful tone to it.

Natalie had apparently been deep in thought (and deep in packing) and jumped violently. Her hair was even more messed up than usual and she was wearing a stained cotton tee shirt and shapeless cotton slacks. She peered at Myrtle and Miles through her thick glasses. “Oh. It’s you. From the other day.”

Myrtle and Miles weren’t getting any excited invitations to enter the room, so Myrtle decided to enter anyway. “Is it all right if we speak with you for a few minutes?” asked Myrtle in a meek voice. “You see, Miles and I simply haven’t been able to sleep—no, not a wink since your mother so tragically passed away. We decided that the only way we might be able to free ourselves from this insomnia is if we told you how very sorry we are about your mother’s passing. And to see if there were anything we could do.”

Natalie gave them both a puzzled look. Since Myrtle continued advancing on her, she finally realized that she should offer her older guests a place to sit down. Natalie sighed and shifted the piles on the sofa to the floor with Miles quickly jumping forward to help. With space cleared, they both sat down and Natalie sank back to the floor where she’d been sorting through clothes.

“That’s nice of you…uh, I don’t remember your names, sorry,” mumbled Natalie.

They reintroduced themselves.

“Right.” Myrtle got the impression that their names had once again flown directly out of Natalie’s head. “As I was saying, that’s nice of you to care so much. Except I’m a little surprised. Didn’t you just meet my mother the other day? Why would her death bother you so much?”

“Because it was foul play,” said Myrtle simply.

Now there was an expression on Natalie’s face that bordered between tired and cynical. “I see. So to whom have you been speaking? Ruby? She’s the one who’s convinced that Mother was murdered. And Inez for some reason, too. If that’s the case, then you can consider your insomnia cured. I can assure you that Mother’s death was completely natural. She was just a casualty of old age, that’s all. Ruby cared a lot about Mother and was horrified by her death. Not only that, but she believed every word that Mother uttered. Even the total nonsense.”

Myrtle said carefully, “So you think that your mother’s concerns about her personal safety weren’t valid?”

“Not valid one whit. Mother was completely paranoid and also had an inflated sense of her own importance. She was convinced that everyone was out to get her. It had gotten out of control…believe me,
no one
was taking her seriously except Ruby,” said Natalie. “Besides, if Mother were truly concerned for her own safety, it seems like she’d lock the door to her room every once in a while.”

Miles cleared his throat. “When you say that Mickey thought everyone was out to get her…was there anyone in particular that she’d talk about?”

“Darla was a frequent target,” said Natalie dryly. “I’m not sure what exactly Mother had against Darla.”

“Darla is…one of the managers here?” Myrtle frowned.

“That’s right. She’s the General Manager of Greener Pastures. Mother acted as if she thought she were some kind of criminal. She kept saying that Greener Pastures was wasting money on things like paint and carpeting when they should have been focusing on a higher staff to resident ratio and better care,” said Natalie.

“Which sounds completely reasonable to me,” said Myrtle.

“Maybe that part sounds reasonable. But Mother made all kinds of wild allegations about Greener Pastures that were a lot more colorful. No wonder they kept confiscating her newspaper.” Natalie rolled her eyes, remembering.

“By the way,” said Myrtle in as casual a voice as she could muster, “do you have any of those newspapers? I was just curious about them. I work for the
Bradley Bugle
, and have a real interest in…journalism.”

“I’m not sure you can call Mother’s paper journalism by any stretch of the imagination, but sure.” Natalie rummaged in a pile on the floor and pulled out a few papers. As Inez mentioned, it was really more of a news
letter
than a newspaper. Myrtle put the papers in her large pocketbook and snapped the top together.

“Who else was upset with your mother? That you can remember?” asked Myrtle.

“Plenty of people,” said Natalie with a sigh. “I guess the ones who first come to mind are that Fred guy. He was annoying about his animosity and would stop in his tracks and give Mother an evil stare whenever we were walking down the hall and saw him. I even saw her having an argument with Winston recently. I figured if she could pick an argument with Winston, she could pick an argument with
anybody
. He’s always struck me as a very easy-going, nice man.”

“But you don’t know
why
there was tension between your Mother and Fred or Winston?” pressed Miles.

Natalie gave him a surprised look. “No, that would require me to have listened to all the nonsense that Mother was spewing. I did my best to block it out, believe me. I don’t know how Ruby stood it. She must be a saint. I’m giving Ruby a lot of the junk that’s in here—Mother had so much stuff that I’m not interested in all of it. Ruby seemed to be. And since Ruby was so good to listen to Mother, she really deserves it.”

Or perhaps Ruby simply didn’t remember Mickey’s “spewing” minutes after it had happened. Myrtle said, “This is a big job for you, Natalie. Did Greener Pastures give you a deadline for moving everything out?”

“No, they’ve actually been very easy to work with. I think they’re not in any hurry because they’re not immediately moving another resident in. They said they wanted to freshen up the carpet and curtains and so forth in here. Of course, if I had some
help
, it might move a lot faster,” Natalie made a face.

Miles quickly stood up. “I should have offered to help you.”

“That’s nice of you. But no, I’m really talking about the help that I should be receiving from my brother Tradd. He’s worthless. He never lifted a finger to help me over here and rarely even visited Mother. I’m sure he’ll be around to find out what Mother left him in her will, though.” She spat out the words. “Not that he deserves anything. I’m the one who did all the work so I should be the only one who receives anything.”

The bitterness in her voice was hard to stomach. Myrtle felt as if she needed an antacid. She nodded at Natalie to validate what she was saying, and then said, “At least
you
know that you were with your mother right at the very end of her life. You must feel good about that. Why, I’ve even heard that you were here late the night your mother died.”

Natalie froze, staring at Myrtle. “You heard wrong,” she said in a tense voice. “I was here earlier in the day. But yes, it does feel good to know I was with Mother the day she passed away.”

There was a tap at the door and Ruby’s round face with its china doll features peered into the room. “Excuse me, sweetie,” she said to Natalie.

Miles said sharply, “Ruby, where’s Pasha?”

Ruby’s chin trembled. “That’s just it. I don’t know where she is. The door was open only a smidgeon, but she somehow got out. I’ve been up and down the hall and can’t find her. You don’t think she could have gotten upstairs somehow?”

“No. Ridiculous,” said Myrtle. But her heart thumped in her chest. Pasha, when she wanted to, was very good at hiding out.

Chapter Thirteen

“Let’s go find her,” said Miles grimly.

One thing Myrtle liked about Miles. He was never one to say ‘I told you so’.

They stepped out into the hall and looked both ways. No Pasha.

“Everyone’s door is closed,” said Myrtle impatiently. “She’s got to be either in Ruby’s room or in the commons area or the hall kitchen. She’s not in Mickey’s room or else we’d have seen her and hers is the only other door besides Ruby’s that’s open.”

Natalie said, “And I’m closing the door now. It’s a cat that’s loose? I don’t need that kind of trouble right now. Plus, I’m allergic, to boot.” And Natalie shut the door tightly behind them.

They hurried down to the commons area. Myrtle swished through the window curtains with her cane, Miles squatted down to look under the tables. Ruby peered into the tiny hall kitchen that was near the commons room. “Oh dear, oh dear,” Ruby kept murmuring, wringing her hands.

There was no sign of Pasha. Miles even looked under the low sofa in the commons room, just to make sure.

“We’re going to have to assume she somehow got upstairs,” said Miles grimly. “She honestly could be anywhere if she’s up there. This is a big place.”

“But a wide-open place,” said Myrtle. “It’s not cluttered with a lot of furniture in the hallways. We should be able to spot her.”

Miles’s face was doubtful. “With all those commons areas? With all those curtains and sofas? What about the dining hall? Every table is covered with a tablecloth and each one could easily conceal a cat underneath. There must be…oh, fifty tables? Something like that?”

“Well, don’t sound so down about it! We’ll just be methodical,” said Myrtle.

“I think we should admit our folly to the Greener Pastures staff and enlist their help in finding the cat.” Miles’s voice was resigned. “And then they’ll put my name on some sort of blacklist and I will never be allowed admittance here.”

A minor blessing during a difficult day, decided Myrtle. She said, “I disagree. We don’t have to tell Greener Pastures anything. I don’t want to have them decide to throw us out, right when we’re making progress with our investigation.”

“
Are
we making progress with our investigation?” Miles made a face.