‘Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you.’ Les McIntyre, the pastor of Saint Mark’s, looked more than a little frazzled as he grabbed Mary by the arm. ‘We’re having an emergency meeting to reschedule the rummage sale. We have to get it in before the Easter week services start. I think I can work around the girl scouts and the clog dancing class, but not any of the Holy Week events. Hurry. Everyone’s waiting.’ He practically pulled Mary toward the Sunday school building, the door of which stood wide open.
‘I’ve been at the Plym house,’ Mary managed to get out. ‘Dan wanted me and Ellen, of course, to try to go to the Plyms’ to be there before they discovered Miss Emilie was missing. Unfortunately they’d already realized it.’ She couldn’t get much more out as she grabbed onto Les’ arm to keep from falling over Millie’s leash.
Luckily he stopped and groaned. ‘Oh, I should have gone with you. How could I have been so thoughtless? Of course, they would all have been distraught. I don’t know Richard’s children, but Lorraine and Caleb, oh, dear. Are they all right?’
The look of distress on Les’ face appeared greater than on any of the faces at the Plym house. Except maybe Lorraine’s.
‘Horrified, but I think all right. Ellen and I left because Glen Manning arrived with a briefcase full of papers. Glen looked pretty upset.’
‘I’m sure he was. He hasn’t been handling the Plym sisters’ trust fund very long, but I know he’d gotten pretty fond of them both. Especially Miss Emilie.’ Les smiled. ‘She was hard not to like.’
Mary pictured Miss Emilie: small, gray hair never combed quite neatly, sweater or dress never buttoned up correctly, but with a sweet, if somewhat vague, smile for everybody. She was impossible not to like. ‘Yes, she was.’ She had Millie’s leash in one hand, her tote bag in her other and decided walking was once more safe. ‘Who is at this meeting?’
‘Ysabel, of course, Pat Bennington, Joy Mitchell and I think Leigh Cameron. She said she had to pick up her daughter at ballet class, but it seems early for that.’
Since this was a school day and not even halfway through the morning, Mary thought the ballet class improbable. Leigh often invented things to do when she didn’t want to stay for a meeting or show up for a job she’d agreed to do. Mary couldn’t help thinking they wouldn’t miss Leigh if she skipped. Mary had thought, on more than one occasion, Leigh liked the idea of volunteering more than the actual jobs. ‘Did I mention Gloria Sutherland arrived at the Plyms’ unannounced and uninvited, not long after Ellen and I got there?’
Les had taken Mary’s tote bag and started for the Sunday school building, but he abruptly stopped. So did Mary.
‘Why? Why was she there at that hour of the morning? Why was she there at all?’
Mary didn’t have an adequate answer. ‘She said she heard about Miss Emilie on the radio and wanted to be there for them. She said she felt they were like family after taking care of Miss Eloise before she died.’
‘Humph. She took care of her with Lorraine for what … a few weeks? Maybe more – a couple of months? That hardly makes her family. It was probably more she wanted to find out what was happening so she could somehow turn it to her own advantage.’ Les’ hand flew up to his mouth and he got a little flushed around the ears. ‘Oh, dear. That wasn’t a very kind thing to say.’
‘It seems a true one. Come on. Let’s get this rummage sale reorganized, and I want to know what’s going on with the dog adoption.’ She started toward the building but stopped again. ‘Les, did Dan ask you who had keys to the community room?’
Les nodded.
‘What did you tell him?’
‘That you did.’
‘I don’t think I’m on his suspect list. Who else?’
Les sighed. ‘Mary, I really don’t know. There have been so many people using that room over the last few years, I’ve handed out a number of keys. I haven’t gotten them all back. I try to unlock and lock up myself, but I’m not always available to do that, so I give out a key. I probably should have had the locks changed before now, but we’ve never had a problem …’
Les looked as miserable as Mary thought it possible for someone to look.
‘Never mind. Let’s go have our meeting.’ Too bad. They’d just have to come at the problem of who had been with Miss Emilie and how they’d gotten in another way. What that way was, she had no idea.
It sounded as if everyone was talking at once, and no one was listening. They all stopped as Mary walked in the room, closely followed by Les.
‘It’s about darn time,’ Pat said, smiling.
Mary thought it looked more like relief than welcome.
‘Where have you been?’ Joy, of course, sounded aggrieved, but there was a little relief in her voice as well.
‘At the Plyms. Ellen, Millie and I went over so they wouldn’t wake up and find Miss Emilie missing. It didn’t work out too well. They’d already discovered she was gone.’
Millie tugged a little on her leash. Mary let go and she trotted to Pat and sat on her foot.
Pat scratched her ears but looked at Mary. ‘Oh, dear. That doesn’t sound like fun. Was Lorraine in a complete panic?’
‘More like a teary meltdown. And, no, it wasn’t fun.’
Les set Mary’s tote bag down beside the chair she had pulled out and took a seat next to her. ‘All right, everyone. What are we going to do?’
‘We’re going to have to cancel the whole thing.’ Joy glanced down at her watch. She was the only person Mary knew who still wore one. Everyone else consulted their cell phones. ‘It’s going to be too hard to reschedule all this. Newspapers, radio – they’ll never get it all announced in time and no one will come.’
‘Why wouldn’t anyone come?’ Mary ignored the impossibility of getting press coverage. That there would be a new date announced soon was already all over the local airways, and this rummage sale was eagerly awaited by half the town. Of course people would come.
‘After what happened? Would you come to someplace where a crazed killer had strangled some little old lady?’ Leigh asked.
Mary was surprised Leigh had actually stayed for the meeting, but she wasn’t at her reaction. After all, this was Leigh, whose glass wasn’t half-empty, it was completely dry. Joy also expected disaster but, if one occurred, was prepared to meet it head on. In the meantime, she briskly handled every task anyone asked of her, managing her family with a fist of iron and turned out food second only to Mary’s. Miss Plym’s murder was a tragedy, but she wouldn’t make it into a disaster that meant calling off something as important as the rummage sale fundraiser. She’d worked too hard on helping put it together. It would go on as close to schedule as possible, a sentiment Mary totally supported.
‘Leigh, no one thinks there’s a crazed killer running around town, and no one will think they’re in any danger by coming to a rummage sale.’ Mary tried to keep her voice neutral but she was getting tired. She was feeling rattled by all that had happened and there was still a lot to do. ‘Dan says his people will be ready to release the building in a couple of days, so we can try again for next week. We have to have the building cleared out by … when?’ She looked down the table at Les, who looked at his wife.
Ysabel opened the large engagement book in front of her. ‘Easter is two weeks from this Sunday. We’re booked starting …’ She ran her finger down the page, nodded and looked again. ‘It’s either next Thursday or not again until May.’
‘Then that’s settled.’ Mary gave Leigh the look, the one that dared anyone in her home economics class to contradict her.
Leigh settled back a little in her chair and said nothing.
‘Now, Pat. What about the dogs and cats? Today wasn’t a huge success. Can we get them all back here for next Thursday?’
Pat Bennington shook her head, making her ponytail sway. ‘Today was a disaster. The only people who came wanted to watch the police work. No one even looked at the animals. As for Thursday, I don’t think so. The rummage sale people all live here, and they’re organized. Getting the dogs and cats who were brought any distance back here would take a little doing.’ She stopped as if she’d just had an idea. ‘However, Furry Friends is having a special sale this Saturday – that’s only the day after tomorrow. I’ll bet I could get some of the out-of-town rescue people to leave their animals here if we promise to provide shelter for them. We can take a few at the vet clinic and I’ll call Amber at the shelter and see if they can take some. We won’t get them all, but I know John and Glen will let us do an adoption at their store. We can use the parking lot in the back for the dogs; the cats can come inside. The Komodo dragon will be gone tomorrow, so we won’t have to worry about him.’
‘The dragon.’ The thought of it made her feel lightheaded. ‘I’d forgotten about it.’
‘He’s leaving for a zoo tomorrow. John told me.’ Pat started to laugh. ‘It’s tomorrow you’ll be at the store, right? Well, you won’t have to touch it or go near it. The guy from the zoo will take care of everything and we’ll all be glad when that disagreeable thing is gone.’
‘Yes. John told me not to go near him. Or is it a her? Anyway, I don’t like it one bit, and I don’t want Millie anywhere near it. When we were in the store while I learned about the cash register, she went up to that big glass thing it’s in and it hissed at her.’ Mary dropped her hand onto Millie’s head, which was, as usual, right beside her knee. ‘Anyway, why don’t you call John right now? If he and Glen agree I’ll call the radio station and Ben over at the paper and we’ll start getting the word out.’
‘Call Luke,’ Joy said.
Mary looked over at Joy, surprised she hadn’t thought of that. ‘Great idea. I’ll get him to put up a sign in the library and he can call his dog club and tell them we need to get people out for this.’
‘Who’s Luke?’ Leigh looked up from doodling on her notepad.
‘Luke from the library, of course. He’s the head librarian.’ Disgust dripped from Joy’s voice. ‘Don’t you go to the library?’
‘No.’ At least this time Leigh’s reply was short. ‘He knows about dogs?’
Mary swallowed a sigh. ‘Luke is president of the Pure Bred dog club of Santa Louisa. They put on the big dog show in the fairgrounds every year. They always help with adoptions, and he’ll get people to spread the word.’
‘Not all of them help.’ Pat’s eyebrows almost touched each other, her frown was so deep. ‘There’s still a contingent that wants nothing to do with any dog that’s not a purebred of some kind.’
That was true but Mary was in no mood to worry about it. ‘We’ll get enough to help. Go call John.’