Morning Glory Circle (3 page)

“Who’s that with Betty Lou?” Scott asked Lily.

“That’s her new kitten,” Lily said as she got out of the SUV, lugging Enid’s linens in a plastic laundry basket.

Scott kept a box of animal crackers in the glove compartment just for Betty Lou, and when he offered her one she quickly snuffled it up, tail wagging. The little kitten rubbed itself against the dog’s haunches and purred loudly between hoarse mews. When Scott reached down to pick up the kitten it arched its little back, hissed at him, and hopped sideways, the purr turning into a deep growl. Scott quickly pulled his hand back as Lily laughed.

“I should have warned you,” Lily said. “It’s a feral kitten. I can’t touch it either.”

“Is it one of Hannah’s?” Scott asked, taking the heavy laundry basket from Lily.

“No, Hannah may be sneaky, but she wouldn’t just drop one off. There are lots of feral cats out here. They keep the rabbits out of my garden and the mice out of the barn, so I don’t really mind them. Hannah leaves humane traps and fixes the ones she catches, but they breed faster than she can keep up. This one just appeared one day, curled up in Betty Lou’s bed with her on the back porch. It must have got separated from its mama somehow, and imprinted on my girl here. I feed it, but it won’t come near me.”

“I can’t believe Betty puts up with it. I thought she hated cats.”

“She loves this one,” Lily shrugged. “It follows her everywhere.”

Lily led Scott in through the back door to her kitchen, which was cozy and warm, and smelled like vanilla, cinnamon, and coffee. Betty Lou turned in a circle a couple times before laying down in her basket by the stove. The kitten hopped in and curled up against her, kneading the dog’s fur and purring loudly, eyes closed in ecstasy.

Scott sat the laundry basket on the floor and shrugged off his coat.

“Let me fix you some breakfast,” Lily said, “and we’ll get caught up.”

Lily had been peripherally involved in a recent murder investigation in Rose Hill. After Theo Eldridge, the great grandson of the founder of nearby Eldridge College, was found bludgeoned to death in the back room of the local veterinary clinic, Scott found a threatening message in his undelivered mail. It turned out to be a card Lily had given Theo, along with a photo of his deceased brother, a kind gesture that postmistress Margie Estep had altered to make look like a death threat. An offhand comment of Lily’s had alerted Scott to the issue of Margie tampering with the mail, and his subsequent search through the police station’s file archive uncovered a history of complaints that stretched back over two decades. It was through investigating those complaints that Scott had uncovered the false accusation Margie made against Willy Neff that sent him to prison.

Willy was with Theo the night he was murdered, and his death was also connected with that crime. Even though no one in Rose Hill was surprised someone hated Theo enough to kill him, the murder shook up the whole town. A greedy, wealthy bully, Theo had been known to pressure local people into selling their homes to him just so he could turn around and sell the properties to big city folks for a huge profit, or act as slumlord over the students he duped into renting them. If threats and coercion didn’t always get Theo what he wanted, blackmail and arson often did. He also ran a dog breeding scam and some believed he trafficked in drugs.

“How are you and Maggie doing?” Lily asked Scott.

“Slow progress,” Scott said. “It’s been almost seven years since Gabe left her but she still isn’t over it.”

“You know, it’s been five years since Simon passed away and I don’t think I’ll ever get over it,” Lily said. “Maggie’s still young enough to start over, though. I hope she won’t let her grief keep her from living her life.”

“I’m not giving up,” Scott said. “She’s worth the wait.”

“I hope you two work it out,” Lily said. “I’d love to see you settled with a family.”

“Me too,” Scott said. He neglected to confide in Lily about the tests he had undergone during his first marriage, the ones that determined he would not be likely to father anyone’s children.

Full of biscuits and gravy, Scott left Lily’s house an hour later. As he fastened his seatbelt, a large black luxury car pulled in the driveway next to his SUV. Scott couldn’t see anyone through the darkly tinted windows, so he waited until Lily greeted whoever it was and then waved to Scott to let him know she was fine. He glanced in his rear view mirror as he rolled down the lane, and saw a gray-haired woman dressed in a dark business suit get out of the car and walk with Lily to her back door. Scott decided it must be a friend of Lily’s from the city. He was glad she wasn’t lonely.

It seemed to Scott as if Lily Crawford didn’t want for anything, but he knew that very few farmers’ wives had retirement accounts on which to live after their husbands died. Scott didn’t know anything about the financial status of Lily and her husband Simon. They were good people and hard workers, and they used to be rock concert and motorcycle enthusiasts when they were younger. Maybe they saved a lot of money, or maybe one or the other came from a wealthy family. Scott guessed that if Lily ever needed money, she could sell some of the farm property, but as far as he knew, she hadn’t.

Scott passed Rose Hill cemetery, where they had buried Willy Neff a few weeks ago. He drowned after his truck rolled down Pine Mountain Road into the river with him passed out inside. After finding out Margie framed Willy for a crime he did not commit, and feeling deep remorse over the way the whole town had mistreated him after he returned from prison, Scott and a few friends got together and paid for a proper burial and a stone. 

Just beyond the cemetery was all that remained of Maggie Fitzpatrick’s house after it burned down almost seven years’ previously, just a stone foundation and part of a brick fireplace? Most everyone believed Theo Eldridge had set fire to the house, with Maggie in it, because she wouldn’t sell it to him. It was the only property left on that side of the road that he didn’t own at the time, and he had been determined to have it. Theo had warned her, ominously, that it was a firetrap, and as much as bragged about doing the deed later, whilst drinking in the Rose and Thorn. The fire chief at that time, Eric Estep, had determined it was faulty wiring, so Theo could not be blamed. Scott had recently discovered, however, that Theo was blackmailing the fire chief, which may have led to him taking his own life.

Farther down the lane, Scott saw Ava Fitzpatrick and her two children walking up the snowy, rutted road toward the farm, dragging a large tractor tire inner tube by a rope. Scott slowed down and rolled down his window.

“Why aren’t you in school?” he asked Charlotte, who was twelve.

A police officer, especially one that came to dinner at her house a couple times a month, did not intimidate the poised Charlotte. A mirror image of her beautiful mother at that age, she flipped her long dark hair over her shoulders and said, “It’s an administrative day for teachers. You know we would never skip school.”

Ava laughed at her daughter and winked at Scott, which made him feel a little dizzy. He loved Maggie, but her sister-in-law Ava was the most beautiful woman in Rose Hill, maybe in the world, as far as Scott was concerned. She owned the local bed and breakfast, was a good neighbor, a good mother, and seemed amazingly normal despite the dramatic effect she had on every man she met. Her husband, Maggie’s oldest brother Brian, had abandoned the family just after young Timothy was born, not long after Maggie’s house burned down. Scott had recently discovered Brian was living in Bimini, reportedly with no intention of ever returning.

Six-year-old Timmy pulled on his mother’s arm until she bent down, and then whispered something in her ear. He was a blue-eyed, freckled redhead just like his father and Aunt Maggie.

“Timmy wants to know if you’ve ever arrested any pirates,” Ava asked Scott with a straight face.

Timmy half hid behind his mother but peered up at Scott with keen interest.

“I’ve never seen any pirates around here,” Scott told Timmy, “but as long as they were nice, well behaved pirates, I guess they could visit for a spell. But let me tell you I won’t tolerate any shenanigans on the river, like firing off cannons, or making people walk the plank.”

That answer seemed to satisfy Timmy. Ava thanked Scott, and he went on his way.

When Theo Eldridge was murdered, most of his estate went to his two sisters, the snobby Gwyneth from Manhattan, and the humanitarian hobbyist Caroline, who was currently in South America. He also left a large amount of money in a trust for Ava Fitzpatrick, and that surprise bequest had set the town buzzing with speculation as to why.

There had never been any love lost between the Fitzpatrick family and Theo Eldridge. As a teenager Maggie’s brother Patrick had once beaten Theo within an inch of his life for trying to drown their brother Sean. After Theo’s own brother drowned in similar circumstances Theo blackmailed Sean so that he would not implicate him in the crime. Theo also loaned Maggie’s brother Brian a huge amount of money right around the time he disappeared, using Brian’s home and life insurance on his wife Ava and their children as collateral. Add to all that the belief that Theo burned down Maggie’s house and it was not surprising when a Fitzpatrick brother was a suspect in Theo’s murder.

Back in town, Scott stopped in the Rose Hill Sentinel newspaper office to see if his buddy Ed, the owner and editor-in-chief, had any insight into Margie Estep’s disappearance. Hank, Ed’s big black Labrador retriever, was snoring on a red cushion in front of the gas stove. Ed was staring dolefully at a dozen cinnamon- and sugar-covered doughnuts that were sitting on a plate in front of him.

“What’s up?” Scott asked him.

Ed shook his head sorrowfully.

“She keeps bringing me pastries. I can hardly button my pants as it is, but she just brings me more.”

“We’re talking about Mandy, I guess.”

“She won’t listen to me. I keep telling her I’m too old for her, but she just smiles at me like I said the cutest thing.”

Mandy’s son was Tommy, Rose Hill’s only paper-carrier, whom Ed had rescued a few weeks earlier when a car almost ran over him. During the emotional 24 hours that followed the accident Tommy’s mother had fallen hard for Ed. Mandy worked at the Fitzpatrick’s bakery during the day and the Rose and Thorn bar at night, and if her constant tokens of appreciation were any indication, she seemed intent on making Ed her fat, drunk boyfriend. Scott found it hard to feel sorry for Ed, who hadn’t had a date that Scott knew of since his wife left him several years ago.

Scott helped himself to a doughnut and took a seat at the table. He refused the coffee Ed offered, knowing from experience it would look like tar and have a similar taste. Ed got more coffee for himself, but resisted the sweet siren call of the deep-fried dough.

“Men have often dated women who were much too young for them,” Scott told him. “Why don’t you just enjoy it?”

“It’s not just that she’s so young,” Ed said. “I hate to say it, but she’s really not very bright. We have nothing in common and nothing to talk about except Tommy. Don’t get me wrong, she’s sweet as molasses and very pretty, but I can’t get over the feeling that she should be riding around in some young guy’s sports car, listening to America’s top forty.”

“You could always buy a sports car, you know. Then all you’d need is an earring, a tattoo, and some baggy pants.”

“Very funny. I won’t lie to you, I’m tempted. I’d have to be dead not to be. But you know as well as I do that this is a very small town, and if I end up the bad guy in all of this there will be a price on my head that any Fitzpatrick would be glad to collect. Plus, I really like her kid, and I don’t want to get him mixed up in a situation that could hurt him as well.”

“Sounds like you’ve talked yourself out of it.”

“Now if I could just convince her.”

“Ah, the life of a Rose Hill playboy,” Scott said, and Ed threw a doughnut at him, which he caught and bit into.

Between chewing bites of doughnut, Scott told Ed what was going on with Enid and Margie.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you this,” Ed said. “Tony Delvecchio mentioned to me that Margie asked about getting a life insurance policy on her mother.”

“When was this?”

“Last week. Tony told her it would be nearly impossible, given Enid’s age and health, and Margie didn’t follow up on it.”

“That woman,” Scott said. “I think she’s got an important screw loose.”

“The one that keeps the conscience securely fastened.”

“The thing that continues to astonish me is how immune to any consequences she believes she is. Instead of being grateful I didn’t arrest her, she’s now convinced she can do anything she wants and get away with it.”

“Is that an indication of a sociopath or a psychopath? I’ve forgotten my college psychology.”

“It’s an indication of a dangerous loon, and that’s my official diagnosis.”

“At least Enid is safe now.”

“Yeah, that’s a relief. Ruthie is going to make sure Margie doesn’t get in to see her mother without someone else present.”

“I’ll ask around about her today and let you know what I find out.”

“Thanks.”

“Speaking of victims and their potentially murderous relatives, have Anne Marie and Knox returned from their cruise?” Ed asked.