Murder by Christmas (Edna Davies mysteries) (4 page)

Chapter 4

Once Edna agreed to go with Mary to CATS the following morning, Bethany didn’t stay much longer. As the young woman prepared to leave, Edna thought about how cold the day had been and remembered the bicycle resting against the side of the house.

“Did you ride your bike here from town?” she asked and wondered not only about the weather but also about how unsafe it was to cycle on the narrow, winding two-lane road that ran through their rural neighborhood.

“Only way I could get here,” Bethany said, tugging a white knitted cap snugly over her dark hair and pulling gloves from a side pocket of her red ski jacket. “I can’t afford a car, so I borrow whatever wheels I can. The bike belongs to Vinnie. He’s trying to get his uncle to use it instead of the truck, but his uncle lets me borrow it.” She grinned and Edna saw what might have been a conspiratorial gleam in the young woman’s eyes as Bethany glanced up at the clock on the wall. “I better be going. I promised to have it back before Vinnie gets off work.”

“Don’t you get cold?” Edna shivered just thinking of bicycling on such a bitter, overcast day.

Bethany nodded vigorously. “You bet, but not as cold as hitchin’ or walkin’. Turning up her jacket collar, she added, “It’s only a couple of miles. Could be worse.”

“I don’t like the thought of you hitchhiking,” Mary piped up from where she had been spooning dough onto one of the greased cookie sheets. “This community might be one of the safest in the state, but you never know who might pick you up.”

“I know, I know,” Bethany said as she pushed the gloves tight between each finger. “And I thank you for your offer of taxi service, but I can’t call you every time I want to go somewhere.” She went over to Mary and gave her a one-arm, sideways hug. “You’re a good friend, and I promise to be careful.” She turned and strode toward the back hall, waving to Edna. “Nice to meetcha,” she said as she left Edna and Mary to get on with their baking.

“What do you make of the allegations against Laurel Taylor?” Edna asked after she heard the outside door bang shut. “Could Bethany and her friend have misunderstood how much they were to be paid?”

“Hard to say,” Mary said, rolling pieces of peanut butter dough into small balls before placing them on another of the cookie sheets. “Like you said, it’s their word against hers, and they don’t have any proof of how much they’ve already been paid.”

“Makes it awkward for us to confront Laurel, especially if she’s so callous that she would fire Bethany this close to Christmas.” Edna sighed and stopped stirring her batter for the moment as she pondered the problem. “We need to be very careful not to upset Laurel if we’re to help Bethany at all.”

“That we will,” Mary agreed and began to press the peanut butter balls with a fork.

“You know Laurel better than I do. What would you suggest?” Edna felt her irritation rise at Mary’s seeming detachment. “How do we approach her?”

“Play it by ear. You’ll think of something.” Mary removed the first batch of cookies from the oven and slid in the next sheet. She had two ovens, which was one reason they were using her kitchen for their marathon baking project.

Not knowing whether to be irritated or complimented by Mary’s deferring to her, Edna finally gave up trying to discuss their predicament. She returned to the task of making cranberry cake, and as she tucked Bethany’s woes to the back of her mind, Mary brought up a new topic of concern.

“Heard from Starling?”

“She phoned yesterday.” Edna poured her batter into a greased bread pan and looked around for a spatula.

“When’re they flying in?” Mary asked, referring not only to Starling, but to Edna’s third child and his family.

“I thought they were arriving the day after tomorrow, but she said Grant signed them up for a two-day cross-country trip out of Vail. It was a surprise Christmas present for her. Very thoughtful of him because he knows how much she enjoys her skiing trips to Colorado, but I’m afraid they’ve left Karissa to pack and get the two children ready. It also means they won’t be flying home until Christmas Eve.”

“They won’t miss my party, will they?”

“Starling says they have an early flight that gets into Providence mid-afternoon, so they should arrive in plenty of time.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to meeting your new daughter-in-law and the baby--besides seeing your granddaughter Jilly and Grant again, of course.” Mary moved to the kitchen sink beside Edna to rinse out her bowl. “Shame they had to cancel their plans to visit last summer.”

“I’m hoping the weather doesn’t make them cancel Christmas plans, too,” Edna said. “I wish they hadn’t waited until the last minute to travel. If flights are delayed …” She didn’t finish the thought, determined not to let her worries ruin the holiday spirit for Mary, if not for herself. “How about finding a radio station with good Christmas music,” she said, vigorously scraping the last of the batter from her bowl into the bread pan.

Thereafter, Edna made certain conversation remained on neutral, non-troublesome topics, and the two neighbors worked and chatted companionably. They even sang a few carols along with the all-music radio station Mary found. Hank decided to join in when they began “Away in a Manger” and their laughter halted not only their singing, but their work.

Since it was past five o’clock, Edna left Mary with a final pan of mint brownies in the oven and, taking a few ginger snaps and peanut butter cookies with her, she returned home to get ready for dinner with Diane and her family.

The chicken-divan casserole was heating in the oven, and Edna had just finished making a Greek dressing for the salad when she heard a terrible choking and sputtering racket coming from the road. She knew she wouldn’t be able to see outside past the glow of the porch light, but the din drew her to the window above the sink anyway. Peering out, she saw Roger’s black Chevy Suburban rounding the driveway. She couldn’t imagine her son-in-law’s vehicle making such a dreadful noise. For one thing, Diane wouldn’t stand for it. Sure enough, the horrific sound faded into the distance before Roger pulled to a stop.

“They’re here,” she called to Albert, hurrying to open the front door. Fifteen-year-old Buddy was the first to enter, giving his grandmother a quick kiss on her cheek before heading down the hall to find his grandfather.

“Hello, Mother,” Diane also greeted Edna with a kiss. “Who is your neighbor in that junker of a pickup?” she asked, shedding her coat.

“Needs a muffler,” commented Roger, bending to plant his kiss on Edna’s cheek before following his wife to the coat closet.

“It
needs
to go to the old-car graveyard,” Diane retorted, handing her husband a wire hanger.

Closing the door against the cold, Edna said, “I’ve never heard such a noise. I can assure you, it’s no neighbor of ours.”

“You don’t have Christmas lights up,” Diane said. She stood in front of the hall mirror and ran a brush through her shoulder-length blonde hair.

You don’t need to remind me,
Edna thought, feeling anew the pressure of preparing for the holiday without Albert’s help.

“Granddad says it’s time for a drink,” Buddy announced, coming back into the hall. He was obviously unaware that he’d just saved his grandmother from saying something she might have regretted at that moment.

Perhaps it had been a look in her mother’s eye, but Diane made no more mention of the lack of decorations or of the thunderous pickup as the family gathered in the living room for drinks and chatted amiably before a glowing fire. Soon, Albert and Buddy set up a chess board and began a match while Roger looked on. Diane and Edna went to the kitchen to get dinner on the table. The evening progressed pleasantly enough until Edna began clearing away the supper dishes. Setting plates in the kitchen sink, she looked out the window to see fat snowflakes falling slowly and silently. Roger’s vehicle was already covered with a fine layer of white. She returned to the dining room with cookies and a pot of tea and urged her family to hurry through dessert.

Refusing Diane’s offer to help with the dishes, Edna said, “This is probably the start of the big storm the weathermen have been predicting. I’ll feel better if you leave soon and get home safely.” She hoped her face didn’t reflect her sinking feeling as she thought of cleaning up without her daughter’s help which meant Edna would probably not get any greeting cards written that evening. Her to-do list wasn’t getting any shorter as the time before Christmas drew nigh.

Soon, Buddy went upstairs to the bedroom to get Albert’s suitcase while Diane fetched her father’s wool coat, hat and mittens. Roger went out to warm up the Suburban and brush away the snow.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay here, sweetheart? I don’t like leaving you with a storm coming on.” Albert stuffed a paperback into an already stretched-out pocket in the green cardigan he wore over a yellow shirt.

“That’s exactly why you need to leave, dear. If we’re to get three feet of snow, as they’re predicting, I might not be able to get you into the city for your doctor’s appointment tomorrow.” With mixed feelings of relief that he would be well tended and of sadness that she’d miss his company, Edna thought she might laugh and cry at the same time. Instead, she swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled. “I’ll be fine. You’ll be away for only a few days, and I’ll be so busy getting the house ready, the time will fly. Besides, Charlie promised to be here tomorrow. If we get much snow, I’m sure he’ll be willing to shovel me out. I’ll be perfectly fine.” She kissed him, wondering if she were trying to convince Albert or herself.

Donning her own winter coat, hat and gloves, Edna followed her family out to their car and waved them on their way. As the tail lights disappeared down the road, she closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sky, letting snowflakes land and melt on her nose and cheeks. She enjoyed the sight and feel of a winter snow. She hoped the storm wouldn’t be as severe as the reporters feared, but she felt that snow enhanced the festive atmosphere this time of year.

“Hi, neighbor.”

The voice of the young woman who lived across the street interrupted Edna’s thoughts. She turned to greet Carol James whom she’d first known as Jaycee Watkins.

“I saw your company leave and hoped you’d have a few minutes to spare,” Carol said. She looked like a marshmallow with stick legs in a thigh-length, white down coat. She wore no hat and her medium-brown hair was plaited into its usual single braid. Her hands were thrust deep into the coat’s side pockets.

“Come in. I’ll make some tea.” Edna made her way back to the house and held the door for her visitor to precede her.

“Thanks, but I can’t stay long. Gran has been filling me with so much tea, I think I might float away.” Carol looked sheepish in the brighter light of the hall when she turned to face Edna. “Actually, I’ve come to ask a favor.”

“O-kaaay,” Edna said, drawing out the word as an image of her to-do list popped into her head. She hoped Jaycee’s favor wouldn’t be something time-consuming.

“I’m flying to Chicago in the morning.” She paused, waiting for Edna to react to her news.

Edna frowned. “This is rather sudden, isn’t it? So close to the holidays?”

“It
is
sudden,” Carol agreed, “and a darned nuisance, but I guess the prosecutors want to go over my testimony once more. The trial starts right after New Year’s.”

The trial was the result of Carol, a photojournalist, having caught arsonists in the act of burning down the house of a prominent banker. That accidental discovery was the reason she’d tried to hide under the alias of “Jaycee Watkins.” She’d been shooting photos of holiday lights in one of Chicago’s wealthier suburban neighborhoods just a year ago when she’d seen the fire and captured the criminals with her camera.

“They say it’s really important,” she went on, “or I wouldn’t leave Gran alone right now.” Her face brightened. “I’ll be back in a couple of days, depending on how things go, but I’ll definitely be back for Mary’s party.”

“I see,” Edna smiled, remembering that Carol’s boyfriend lived in the Chicago area. He would be joining Carol and her grandmother in Rhode Island for Christmas, but a couple of days in his city would be fun for the two young lovers. She didn’t speak these thoughts aloud, but instead said, “And you would like me to check on Gran while you’re away?”

It was a rhetorical question, but Carol answered anyway. “Yes, please. Just to make sure she’s alright. I’ll worry about her with the snow coming and all.”

“Of course. I’ll see that nothing happens to her,” Edna said, biting back a laugh at her neighbor’s transparent excitement. She had developed a fondness for Carol over the past several months and enjoyed the young woman’s zest for life.

Edna also liked Carol’s no-nonsense grandmother who had arrived from Florida before Thanksgiving and planned to stay through the New Year. “Gran,” as everyone called her, had grown up in Westerly, Rhode Island, a half-hour’s drive south of Edna’s neighborhood. Gran and her third husband moved to Florida when he retired. Widowed now, she had decided to spend a few months with her granddaughter and was looking forward to her first white Christmas in years. Edna figured she would simply have to make a daily phone call to the energetic and outspoken octogenarian--neither an unpleasant nor a time-consuming chore.