Perplexity on P1/2 (Parson's Cove Mysteries) (17 page)

     We stopped on the beach road down from our hotel and watched the sunset. I took out my camera and snapped a few pictures of the sun reflecting on the water. In the west, the sky was orange and in the east, it was pink and powder blue again. I doubted we would ever see such a beautiful sunset in Parson’s Cove. 

     “I’m going to try to remember this,” Flori said. “It’s so beautiful.”

     “And,” I said, “if you forget, you can always look at my pictures.”

     “Or, y’all can come back for a visit.” Stella had been quiet all evening. “I’m going to miss you two.” She started to tear up. “I never realized what a boring life I lead. Ever since you came, things have gotten lots more excitin’.”

     I grabbed a box of tissues off the back window and passed it up front. Stella, I found, almost matched Flori in the crying department.

     When the sobbing, hiccoughs, and snorts had desisted, I said, “Well, we don’t have to call it quits. After all, we still have to find out who the real Grace was. Besides that, we don’t know who Hatcher was going to see in prison. Do you think there’s any way you could get back in there, Stella?”

     They both turned in their seats and glared at me. Okay, so they didn’t want to do any more detective work tonight. I took the hint.

     Instead, they decided we would rather spend a lovely evening in the hotel room, watching a movie. Stella stopped at a little corner store and came out with a gigantic bag of snacks. Much to Flori’s horror, in the other arm, she had a six-pack of beer. Beer isn’t gin but it’s better than soda pop. We’d barely stepped foot in the lobby when the young man from behind the desk came rushing over to pounce on us. Well, me in particular.

     “Miss Wickles?” he said. “There’s been an urgent message for you from someone in some place called Carson’s Cove.” He handed a piece of paper to me. There was a phone number on it. “The gentleman who called sounded extremely upset. I hope everything will be all right.” The faster he talked, the more his freckles and pimples reddened. He placed his hand on my arm. “If there’s anything we can do to help, let us know. I told the manager and he said that if, and heaven forbid this might be true, but
if
someone has been in an accident or something like that…” His grip got tighter. “Perhaps, a death in the family and heaven forbid this might be true, we can make arrangements for a shuttle bus to take you and your friend, to the Houston airport immediately.”

     Flori gasped and made a low moaning sound. “Are you sure it was for Mabel?” Her voice shook. Stella put her arm around her to steady her. “Did this man say Mabel or was it Flori?”

     “No, it was Mabel. Mabel Wickles.”

     I looked down at the phone number.

     “Flori, there’s nothing to get excited about. This is Reg’s phone number.” I looked at the young man and smiled. “By the way, it’s
Parson’s
Cove, not Carson’s Cove. And, don’t worry. I doubt there’s an emergency. Did he happen to leave any sort of message?  Knowing Reg, I’m sure he must have said something.”

     The boy blushed. “Well, I thought because he seemed so upset that there must be something terribly wrong. I’m sure he didn’t mean what he said.” 

     “I’m sure he didn’t either. Can you remember the exact words?”

     He cleared his throat. “I think he said something like: ‘Where the hell’s Mabel Wickles? (Pardon my language but you said ‘exact words.’) ‘You tell her that if she’s not home on the next flight, I’ll send a posse out to search for her.’ At this point, I said, ‘Are you threatening one of our guests?’ Because, you know, Miss Wickles, we would never allow that. However, this very upset gentleman then said, ‘If I don’t hear from her within the next four hours, I’ll be there to collect her, myself.’ At which point, I said, ‘I’ll get this message to her as quickly as possible.’ He seemed to settle down a bit when I said that because then he said, ‘She better be all in one piece when I see her.’ I think that was very nice of him. I mean to say that, wasn’t it?”

     “Yes, it was. And, you did a very good imitation of Reg.” I removed his hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll call him right away. He tends to worry too much.”

     He smiled. “He must be a very good friend to be so concerned.”

     “No.” I rolled my eyes. “He’s just the local Sheriff.”

Chapter Twenty Three

     Half way through the first ring, Reg picked up.

     “Mabel,” he bellowed. “Who gave you permission to go to Yellow Rose, Texas? And, who said you could take Flori all the way out there? Are you out of your mind? Flori’s kids are worried sick about her. Well?” He paused. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

     “First of all, Sheriff Smee, I don’t need
anyone’s
permission to go on a vacation to Yellow Rose, Texas. Or, to any other place, for that matter. Secondly, Flori’s kids are not worried sick about her because she’s been phoning them and most of them couldn’t care less where she is. Well, I mean, they care but they’re not worried at all. And, thirdly, I’m not out of my mind. Is there anything else you have to say to me?”

     “Yes, there is something I have to say: this is the most bone-assed trick you have ever played on me.”

     “Don’t think so much of yourself, Reg. I didn’t have you in mind for one minute when I came here. And, for another thing - you can watch your language.”

     “If you weren’t thinking of me, why’d you tell Jake to say you were in Florida? Why’d you try to hide it from me? Tell me that, Miss Wickles.”

     “Okay, I will. I didn’t want you to know because I knew you would react exactly as you’re reacting right now. And, besides that, I was going to phone you tonight. There was no need for you to scare that young desk boy half to death.”

     “You were going to call me, were you? Easy to say that after I called, isn’t it?”

     “Just one second, Reg.” I handed the phone to Flori. “Here, tell the old coot that I was going to phone him this evening anyway.”

     “Hello, Reg? This is Flori. How are you? I’m sorry we didn’t phone sooner. It’s really true, we were going to talk to you tonight. We’re having a wonderful time, Reg. I wish you could meet our new friend, Stella. The folks here have to be the friendliest in the world. And, the sunsets over the water? They are marvelous. Pink and orange and blue. Something you never see in Parson’s Cove. And, you know, Reg, we have a room that looks right out onto the water. Oh, and another thing, the food is wonderful. Stella has taken us to so many different places. I never thought I would enjoy Mexican food so much. Well, the first time, we drank too many margaritas and we were up all night.” She giggled. “Did you know that’s a Mexican drink, Reg? Mabel says they get very offended if you don’t have one or two with your supper.”

     Flori stopped to catch her breath and Reg must have asked to speak to me again.

     “Here, Mabel. He wants to talk to you.” She handed me the phone.

     “Okay, Wickles, I’ll hand it to you, it sounds like Flori is having a good time. At least, I’m glad you’re looking after her. You? I know you’re up to something. I haven’t known you for all these years for nothing. There’s no way you would’ve traveled all that way unless you were going down there to find Grace Hobbs’ killer.”

     “Hey, Reg, I know I can never pull one over your eyes. I have to admit I did do a bit of investigating while I was here.”

     “I knew it. All I can say is, you better not upset Maxymowich’s investigation. You’ll be in big trouble then. This isn’t some little game you can play, you know. You get mixed up with these thugs and you might end up like Grace. Did you hear me, Mabel? You could very easily end up like Grace - dead in a morgue.”

     “Well, you don’t mean like the
real
Grace because she’s probably still alive.”

     “What
real
Grace? I’m talking about the murdered Grace Hobbs, whose dead body ended up in Parson’s Cove. Who on earth are you talking about?”

     “That woman who was murdered and whose body was discovered behind the nursing home in Parson’s Cove? That’s not the real Grace Hobbs. Actually, there might not even be a Grace Hobbs. Her name might be Grace Tucker. Unless, she didn’t want to use her husband’s name and I wouldn’t blame her at all. Grace Hobbs was the name the dead woman gave when she was on the trip to Las Vegas, but that’s not her real name. Her real name was Andrea.”

     “You’re not making any sense, Mabel, as usual. Are you trying to tell me that the dead woman’s name is Andrea, not Grace?”

     “That’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you.”

     “Okay, say you’re right. Then, who was the Andrea who went to Las Vegas? Isn’t that what you said her name was? The one you said was Grace’s friend?”

     “That’s something I’m still working on, Reg.”

     “Well, you can quit working on it. I thought I’d save the best until last. Maxymowich and his men are probably in Yellow Rose right now and I don’t want them to see you. If you mess things up, I’m the one who’ll get H, E, double L hockey sticks. I want you out of there tomorrow morning, latest. Got that?”

     “Maxymowich? Here, in Yellow Rose? You’re kidding. As for leaving in the morning, you’re coming through loud and clear, Mr. Smee.” I put the phone back in its cradle.

     I looked at the two women.

     “Well,” I said. “Sheriff Smee says we have to leave tomorrow which is no big deal because we were planning on leaving soon anyway. Except he said tomorrow morning and how does he even know we could get a flight? Just shows what a county bumpkin he is.”

     “Oh but, Mabel, we’re going to listen to him. If we don’t, he’ll talk to Jake and then I’ll be in trouble. Besides, didn’t I hear you say that Maxymowich is here?”

     “Can you believe it? Let’s hope we don’t run into him. Don’t worry, Flori, we’ll get a flight sometime tomorrow for sure. We’re on standby for an evening flight anyway.”

     Flori and Stella sat looking at me, not saying a word.

     “Which means,” I said, “we can either waste the time we have left watching some movie or we can get back out there to try to find a killer.” I smiled my best smile. “What do you think? All ready to find a killer?”

     Both of them looked at the television set and then the bag of junk food. I could see already that this was going to be a hard sell.

     “Okay. How about if we don’t solve anything by midnight, we come back and eat all our snacks? Or, better yet, what if we take all the snacks with us?”

     “I don’t think so, Mabel,” Flori said. “How about we go out until nine and if we don’t find our killer, we come back and eat our snacks here and watch a movie?”

     “Eleven and it’s a deal.”

     The women looked at each other and nodded.

     I looked over at the alarm clock by the bed. It was already eight-thirty. Only two and a half hours to solve a murder?

     Stella went out and brought back some ice for the beer. Flori and I used the washroom and then we were ready to go.

     “Okay,” Stella said, “where to, Mabel?”

     “Let’s go back to the houses on P ½. We might see who the Andrea is at 3602 or we could check and see if Cecile Tucker is at home.”

     “It’s so confusing,” Flori said. “Why would this Andrea change her name to Grace Hobbs? I don’t understand that.”

     “Maybe,” I said, “they’re all undercover cops. Why didn’t we think of that before? What if the whole thing was to expose Cecile and his drug deals?”

     “Okay, but remember when you were in Tucker’s house? You said someone named Andrea phoned and left a message for Grace. You also said, the woman’s voice on the recorder sounded like Grace Hobbs and the woman who left the message sounded like Andrea Williams,” Stella said. “So, why would this Grace be with Hatcher? They were obviously in somethin’ together.”

     “Just a minute,” I said. I grabbed the hotel notepad and pen. “I’m going to write down all the things that we know for sure. There isn’t much but it might help us to get it straight in our minds.”

     I looked up at them. “Okay, start. What do we know for sure?”

     “Well,” Flori said. “We know that Grace Hobbs is not Grace Hobbs but is Andrea somebody. And, we know she was white so the dead Andrea Williams isn’t the Andrea Williams who is black and missing.”

     “Hold it! We don’t know that she’s Andrea
William
s, do we? All we know is that her first name is Andrea. I mean, lots of people have the same first name, right?”

     “You’re right,” Stella said. “Do you think because she’s a crook, that when she found out the other woman on the trip had the same first name, she decided it would be best to use different name?”

     “I have no idea, Stella, but it sounds logical, doesn’t it? Except how would she know who else had won a trip?” I looked at them. “Oh that’s right, it wasn’t a real trip, was it? It was something she and Hatcher hatched up. Come to think of it, I wonder how they picked me to win? Oh well, let’s not focus on that right now. So, what else do we know?”

     “We know that Hatcher is a shyster and that he and Grace were involved in this thing together. Which is a good motive for murder; especially, since we know that they were arguing about it. Oh yes, and we know that the whole Las Vegas thing was just a front for some illegal goings-on. What it was, we don’t know but it could’ve been drugs or guns.”

     “We don’t know if there were any guns involved, Flori. It could’ve been illegal gambling of some kind, couldn’t it?”

     Flori shook her head. “We don’t really know much at all, Mabel. I think we should’ve stayed home.”

     “Don’t say that,” Stella said. “We had lots of fun doin’ this. Hey, maybe someday, I might even make a trip up to Parson’s Cove, if y’all say it’s okay.”

     “That would be wonderful,” Flori said. “Mabel and I both have lots of spare bedrooms.”

     I don’t but I didn’t want to spoil Flori’s moment. Besides, it would serve Jake right if he had another ‘Flori’ in the house.

     “Okay, girls,” I said. “Humor me. Let’s go and check out those two houses on P½.”