The Plague Doctor (18 page)

“Wow! The ultimate power trip.”

“There's only one thing,” I added. “He made mistakes.”

“What?”

“Underestimating Mabel and Apollo, for one.”

Chapter Thirty-six

“Have you finished your telephone call, Paisley, dear?” Mother preceded Horatio into the library. “We thought perhaps you and Cassandra would like to join us for coffee.”

Horatio put the heavy silver tray on the table between the two sofas. Cassie plucked Aggie off the cushions to make room for the four of us and dropped the puppy on the floor quickly before she could bite her. Aggie didn't like being displaced. The big comfortable sofa in front of the fireplace had become her throne.

“Well, my dears, what's new on the mystery front?” asked Horatio as Mother poured his coffee. “Have you proven the innocence of Cassandra's young man?”

He took a sip and peered intently over the rim of the dainty porcelain cup.

“Do you have him hiding under your bed?” He winked broadly as he continued, “I heard this morning that he escaped from Teddyville in the wee hours.”

“He's not under the bed, yet, Horatio,” I sighed. “But you and Mother might as well know, Cassie and I are meeting him later tonight.”

“Did you plan this foolishness, Paisley?” demanded Mother sternly.

I shook my head in response.

“Did you Cassandra?”

“Well, sort of,” answered Cassie guiltily.

She busied herself with pouring her own cup of coffee. She hardly ever drank the stuff and certainly not with five teaspoons of sugar

“Aha!” Mother nodded her elegantly coifed head so hard a tendril of snow white hair escaped from her French twist.

“The early morning phone call. The one I was too sleepy to answer. You little devils! You've known all day long, and yet you still haven't seen fit to tell me.”

“I'm sorry, Mother,” I lied. “It was for your own protection. I didn't want you to become involved in a potentially illegal situation.”

“Ha!” she laughed ironically. “Like that ever stopped you before, my dear.”

“Well…” She had my number. I couldn't think of anything to say.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” she chided. “When are you meeting Ethan and where? And,” she continued, “don't lie to me any more, Cassandra. It's very disrespectful.” Mother glared at me in fury. “Your mother should have taught you that.”

I squirmed in my seat like a child while my mother reprimanded me. I felt like I was in kindergarten. Suddenly Horatio started laughing. Mother turned on him with her eyes blazing. He choked and sputtered.

“I'm quite sorry, my lovely Anna,” he croaked. “But you are so fearsome! You would have had General Patton quaking in his boots.”

He smiled fondly and kissed her on the cheek in appeasement. “Thank the good Lord you were not my mother. I might have missed out on all the naughty fun.”

“Gran's not that bad, Horatio, honest!”

Mother sniffed haughtily, “No need to try and butter me up, Cassandra. The damage is done.”

“Okay,” I sighed. I knew it was time to come clean. “How about we trade you all the information we know for some much needed assistance later this evening?”

Mother's eyes sparkled with merry excitement. Once again she had manipulated us with Machiavellian expertise. The woman who was furious at us one moment ago for engaging in nefarious undertakings was now quite ready to listen to our adventures.

I let Cassie start. I had some quick thinking to do. Horatio Raleigh was one of Rowan Springs' leading citizens. He was also a businessman with a lucrative commercial enterprise. I didn't want to compromise him in any way. I stopped Cassie when she got to the tale of the car wash.

Horatio was laughing heartily, “Don't stop, my dear, please. The thought of our grave and somber Chief of Police being outwitted by a mere slip of a girl is much too delicious.”

“I'm sorry, Horatio,” I apologized, “but I am too fond of you to relate anything more in your presence.”

He raised one white eyebrow questioningly. I was being reprimanded again but in a much more subtle way.

“I'm glad you have the decency to blush, my child,” he said softly. “You speak to me as though I were a stranger instead of someone who has had intimate and loving ties to this family for three generations.”

He took pity on my discomfiture and patted my hand with his beautifully manicured one. “There's nothing that could happen under this roof that I would not be proud to be a part of,” he assured me.

“How about over this roof, because that's how we're going to elude Joiner's men when we sneak out to meet Ethan.”

“Marvelous!” he said with admiration. “I was wondering how you were going to pull it off.”

Since he had declared himself to be in for the long haul, we confessed everything. I explained about our trip to the extension farm, and the startling information we had learned from Barry. Horatio already knew about him.

“Ah, yes, Dr. Bartholomew Sedmonds.”

“Doctor?”

I was sorry to hear there was another medical doctor mixed up in the case. I was even more sorry to hear that Barry was the doctor.

“Yes. Sedmonds has a Ph.D. in microbiology.”

I breathed a sigh of relief as Horatio went to explain.

“Very esoteric specialty, as I remember. Something about mushrooms.”

“Fungi?” asked Cassie.

“Exactly! He's a world renowned expert. We should be proud to have him here in our midst. Even if he is a bit peculiar.”

“He should fit right in,” I mumbled.

“What's that, dear?”

“Nothing, Mother. He asked me out for dinner,” I added to placate her.

“Oh, how lovely, dear!

“Venison spaghetti. You and Cassie are invited, too.”

“How charming! I simply cannot wait!”

“Yeah, me, too,” I grumped. But I had to admit I was just the tiniest bit excited by the prospect of seeing Barry again. It was hard to forget that warm infectious laugh and those wonderful green eyes.

By the time we had finished relating all of the day's events, including the suicide of Edgar Baxter, Mother and Horatio were exhausted and depressed, and Cassie and I were high on caffeine and adrenaline in anticipation of our next adventure.

“Ethan will probably be hungry, dear. Shall I fix some sandwiches for you to take?”

“No, Gran. He said he had someone who could put him up for the day. I'm sure he's had nothing to do but eat and sleep. He'll be fine. Thanks anyway.”

“Why couldn't that ‘someone' get him out of town? Then he wouldn't have to involve you and your mother.” asked Horatio.

“I honestly don't know,” answered Cassie. “I'm sure he would have made other arrangements if he possibly could have.”

“You can still make those sandwiches if you want to, Mother. As a matter of fact it's a great idea. I was wondering how we could distract those cops while we make our escape. If you don't mind, you and Horatio can serve them coffee and something to eat while we play monkey on the rooftop.”

“Terrific idea, Mom!” Cassie laughed. “I know you'll slip at least once and yell something nasty. Maybe if they're eating and talking with Gran and Horatio they won't hear you.”

“I'm as surefooted as…well, maybe you're right,” I admitted. “And don't forget Aggie. She's sure to hear us up there and make a ruckus. Feed her something also.”

“Just make sure it's not jelly beans,” hooted my daughter.

Chapter Thirty-seven

Mother was always able to cure herself of depression by cooking. Horatio picked up on her mood, and in no time at all the two of them were laughing and talking as though Edgar Baxter had not shot a big ragged hole in his head. It was a perfect example of the fittest surviving. I firmly believed the first tool of civilized man was not fire or some silly old sharp rock, but his unique ability to enjoy a sense of humor.

I sat and listened to them for a moment so I could sneak a finger full of Mother's wonderful pimento cheese when she wasn't looking. I was sorry now that I had abandoned my dessert to Cassie. My stomach was warming up to all the possibilities in the kitchen. Cassie poked her head around the corner and caught me as I was stealing another swipe of p-cheese.

“Remember Mom, a full mongoose is a…”

“I know, I know,” I sighed.

“The food is ready, Paisley. Just let me know when you want me to serve it to the men outside.”

Mother looked worried for a moment. “I do hope you know what you're doing.”

“Relax, Mother, it's a piece of cake.”

I looked around to see if Cassie had left. “By the way, do you have any of that cake…?”

“Mom!”

“Coming Cassie!”

I gave my concerned little mother a quick hug.

“We'll be fine, you'll see. This mess will be straightened out in no time, and everything will be back to normal.”

“Normal?” she laughed. “What's that?”

I smiled, “Point well taken.”

Cassie and I dressed in black jeans and dark sweaters. The sweaters would come in handy. The evenings were getting chilly even though we hadn't yet seen the last of September.

“Put on an extra pair of socks, Cassie. We'll walk across the roof in our stocking feet. We'll have better footing that way. Tie your sneakers around your waist by the shoestrings. We can put them on once we get down on the ground.”

“Sounds like you've done this before!”

“Your Aunt Velvet and I did this almost every night in the summertime. Granpa Sterling would have been furious if he had known we were traipsing about on his roof, but lucky for us he was partially deaf. And Grandma Sterling either didn't hear us or pretended not to, because she never said a thing.”

“How come you never told me?”

“It's dangerous! Do you think I want my one and only precious duckling cavorting about on a steep roof two stories off the ground?”

“Who says I haven't?”

I sat down hard on the floor and looked up at her.

“Have you, Cassie?” I asked, astounded.

“Let's see how good I am at cavorting. That may answer your question.”

I shook my head in amazement as I pulled on a second pair of thick athletic socks. I had always thought Vel and I had just been very clever with our nighttime activities and that's why we weren't discovered. Now I realized that maybe our grandparents just never imagined we would do such a thing.

Cassie turned off the light in her bedroom, and I ran back to mine to do the same. Mother was to tell anyone who asked that her daughter and granddaughter had already gone to bed.

I stood in the darkened dining room just outside the kitchen and whispered loudly to get Mother's attention.

“Don't look, Mother, just in case somebody's watching. Pretend that you are talking to Horatio. Cassie and I are ready to leave. You can start serving the food anytime.”

“Good luck, darlings,” she whispered back while smiling brilliantly at Horatio.

“Thanks!”

Cassie and I hurried through the dark house and up the stairs to what used to be the second floor. For the last fifty-odd years it had been an attic. For some mysterious reason the previous owners decided to lower the roof. They also boarded up the windows and doors on the top story. There was no rhyme or reason for what appeared to be a rather hasty and haphazard job.

At one time there was speculation in town that something terrible had occurred in one of the upstairs bedrooms—something so terrible, it was rumored, that the people who lived there wanted to erase the very space in which it happened. I did know that the story was common knowledge around town. Chief Joiner would believe that the only exits from the house on Meadowdale Farm were on the ground floor. He didn't know what Velvet and I had discovered one summer night over thirty years ago.

“How do we get on the roof, Mom?”

“Aha! I thought you had done this before?”

“I always used a ladder.”

“That's cheating,” I chuckled. “Look around you,” I said as we climbed to the top of the stairs. “What do you see?”

She started to turn on the flashlight, but I stopped her just in time. The logs were less insulated up here. Chinks of mud and limestone had fallen out over the last one hundred and fifty years, and even though the outside was covered with wood siding, I was afraid the light might shine through in places to give us away.

“Ugh, I can't see a thing, but I just walked thorough a spider web.”

“Stand still a moment and let your eyes adjust to the dark.”

We stood side by side in the big dark hallway of the old house. Up here with the old logs exposed, it was easier to imagine what it might have been like to live in a log cabin. Of course, this was a monster of a log house. Some of the older folks in town swore it used to be a way station for travelers on the trail to the Mississippi and further west. Others claimed that it had been the frontier residence of a wealthy merchant from Chicago who came out here for his health and had the bad luck to die the first winter. He left the house, they said, to his three children, who each refused to give their share to the others. All three had lived here together until they died of old age. The story was told that they died within days of each other after almost sixty years of spiteful, jealous sibling rivalry.

“This place gives me the spooks!” exclaimed Cassie. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”

“Light. Look for the moonlight. That's the way out.”

I felt her turn around in the dark and peer in all the corners.

“There's no…oh wait, the chimney! You climbed out the chimney!”

I grinned in the dark and grabbed her hand. “Let's go!”

The last time I had climbed up the big brick chimney, I was only fourteen years old. I was considerably larger in width and length now than I'd been then, and suddenly I wasn't sure I could make it. It would be extremely embarrassing to have to call the fire department to come and pluck me out like a cork from a wine bottle.

“Uhhffff!”

“Uhhfff, is right! Quit knocking soot down in my face, Mom!”

“Shhhhh!”

I paused to get my breath and wipe the sweat from my eyes.

“I told you to wait until I was up and out before you started climbing. We're not even sure this can be done. It's bad enough for one of us to get stuck. The two of us crammed in here like sardines would make us the laughingstock of Rowan Springs for the next three generations.”

“Then you should have let me go first,” she complained. “I'd rather be stuck in this dirty chimney with you than wait alone in that creepy old attic.”

I looked up and saw that by some miracle I was almost at the top. I felt around for another purchase in the rough handmade brick as I called softly down to my daughter.

“Hey, guess what? We're almost there.”

In just a few more minutes, we had both made it up and out of the chimney. We lay spread-eagled on the warm shingles and breathed deeply of the cool fresh air. I looked up at the harvest moon.

“Wow! It's beautiful!” whispered Cassie. “It looks so much bigger up here.”

“I thought you had been up here before?”

“No, Mom, not this far up. I was just trying to get your goat. You and Aunty Vel are the only ones who ever did this at night before. Now I can see why you did.”

She rose up and looked down into the yard. “It's like the dreams I used to have of flying!” she said softly. “I feel so free.”

“Let's hope we stay that way. Come on, follow me. And be as quiet as a mouse.”

We crept over the rooftop in our stocking feet until we reached the place where the original log structure ended and the modern renovation began. Here the roof was flatter and easier to traverse. That's when I slipped.

My ankle turned under me as I was hurrying along the roof over the dining room. Fortunately I was out of sight of anyone down below when I fell and rolled head over heels until I fetched up against the flue over the kitchen stove.

“Mom? Are you all right?” whispered Cassie urgently.

For a moment I couldn't answer. The breath was knocked out of me. And then I heard voices down below. Mother and Horatio had decided to entertain the law on the back porch.

“Damn!” I said under my breath. But I forgot that Cassie had bionic ears.

“What?”

“Shhhh!”

I crawled back up the roof and pulled her along behind me until we reached the old part of the house again. We huddled down next to the chimney while I explained our problem.

“I forgot to tell Mother and Horatio to take the food out front. It's not their fault. I didn't explain our escape route. I meant for us to climb down to the lower level, hang off the side porch roof, and jump off into my night garden. But if we did that we'd be clearly visible to anyone sitting on the back porch. Now what do we do?”

“We do what I used to do,” she laughed.

“What's that?”

“Climb down the tree next to my bedroom.”

“Gosh, I never thought of that! Clever child, Cassie!”

“Follow me, Mom.”

Unlike the chimney, Cassie's tree had grown in the last few years. The limbs reached up to the exact height of the second story roof. We took a moment to slip on our sneakers and then stepped off the roof into the protective canopy of leaves. We descended slowly and carefully until we had almost reached the bottom.

“Head for the orchard when you reach the ground,” I whispered. “We can hide under the trees until we get to the beginning of the lane where the undergrowth is still thick and bushy. They'll never see us from the house.”

We jumped down from the lowest tree limb and hugged the trunk for a minute to make sure no one was watching. Cassie went running toward the orchard, and I followed close behind. We paused to catch our breath under the cherry tree, then waited for the moon to go behind a cloud before we zigzagged across the orchard to the entrance of the lane.

“We did it!” laughed Cassie as she collapsed against me. We both fell down in a heap on a bed of leaves.

“I can't believe it worked.”

“Of course it worked, Mom! It was a great idea. Are you sure Leonard didn't help?”

I grinned. “Maybe just a little bit.”