Going home proved harder than walking into town had been. Mary’s tote kept slipping and she struggled to hold both her purse and the sack containing whatever it was Ruthie had given her for dinner with her left hand and Millie’s leash with her right. Millie seemed determined to get home quickly. Mary was equally as eager but not quite as quick.
‘Need a lift?’
A car pulled up beside her.
‘You’re an angel in disguise,’ she told Ellen. She opened the passenger door and Millie obligingly jumped in, then into the backseat. Mary handed Ellen her dinner and her tote and settled herself in the passenger seat with a grunt of relief. ‘I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. For some reason, walking into town was easier.’
‘You hadn’t walked over half the town yet, and I’ll bet you’re carrying more home than you started with. Something smells good. What is it?’
‘I bought dinner at the Yum Yum. I’m not sure what Ruthie gave me but it does smell good.’
‘You don’t know? How did that … never mind. It’ll be good, whatever it is. You should do it more often. You don’t have to cook all the time.’ Ellen pulled into Mary’s driveway.
Mary didn’t dignify that with an answer. ‘Can you come in?’
‘I really should be getting home. Dan may actually be home in time for dinner tonight and I thought … what?’
Disappointment must have shown on Mary’s face, so she immediately smiled. ‘Nothing. You and Dan deserve a nice dinner together. I appreciate the lift. Millie and I will be just fine.’ Mary got out of the door and held Millie’s leash as she jumped down.
Ellen looked doubtful. ‘I’ll help you get all this stuff inside. That tote is heavy. What do you have in here, anyway?’
‘Notebooks, files for different committees, Millie’s water dish, things like that.’ Mary opened the back door and stepped inside.
Millie elected to stay out, but that wouldn’t last long.
Mary set her dinner on the drain board, her purse on the table and turned toward Ellen. ‘Tell Dan I need to talk to him. Maybe sometime tomorrow.’
‘What about?’ Ellen set Mary’s tote by the yellow buffet and turned to face her, a suspicious look on her face. ‘What have you found out you think Dan should know about?’
‘I’m going to have a cup of tea. Would you like one?’
‘I really can’t, but I’ll make yours. You look tired. You’ve been up to something again, haven’t you?’
Mary set the tea kettle on to boil and brought out the teapot, which she set on the counter. She opened the canister where she kept the tea but was interrupted when Ellen took it out of her hands.
‘Stop that. Go sit down and tell me what’s got you so jumpy.’
Mary sat. She felt unaccountably weak. This whole thing had taken a bigger toll than she’d thought. ‘Richard Plym and Gloria Sutherland had lunch together at the Yum Yum the day Gloria died.’
Ellen stared at her aunt for a moment, her mouth slightly open, as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t. Finally she said, ‘I think I’ll stay for tea after all.’ She pulled out a chair and sat. ‘What did Ruthie hear?’
Mary couldn’t help but smile. Curiosity was a powerful thing. ‘She said Gloria was scared, or seemed that way. Then, when she brought their order, Richard was telling Gloria she better give something back, it was his and he wanted it.’
‘Good Lord, the money?’
Mary shrugged. ‘That’s all she heard.’
The tea kettle announced the water was hot.
Ellen got up. While the tea was steeping, she turned toward her aunt. ‘It sounds as if Richard thought Gloria had the money, that she was the one who stole it from Miss Emilie. Do you think he murdered her for it?’
‘I don’t know. Murdering her wouldn’t get him back the money, if she even had it.’
‘No,’ Ellen said. She tested the tea, poured two mugs, set one in front of Mary and sat. Immediately she was back on her feet, opening the back door at the insistence of several sharp barks. Shutting the door behind Millie, she sat back down. ‘Richard has a terrible temper. At least, he seems to. If she didn’t give it to him, or couldn’t because she didn’t have it and he didn’t believe her, he may have attacked her in a fit of rage.’
Mary couldn’t rule that out, but it didn’t seem right. Richard was cool, not hot. ‘He doesn’t seem the type to lose his temper like that. More the kind that would let something simmer and act quite deliberately. He still might be capable of murder, but he’d think it out. This all seems so … out of control.’
‘But he knew about the money.’
‘Oh, he knew all right. That’s why he’s here, and I think it’s the reason he hasn’t left yet. Glen Manning called Cassandra to let her know Miss Emilie kept withdrawing such large sums. She told Richard. They came out here to find what Miss Emilie had done with it. I’m sure he was determined to take control of what was left by putting Miss Emilie somewhere she couldn’t get her hands on any of it ever again.’
‘But you heard Cassandra. She was having second thoughts about moving Miss Emilie to Shady Acres. I’ll bet you that’s what the argument was about the night Miss Emilie died, when Cassandra decided she needed sleeping pills.’
Ellen sipped her tea. ‘Would Richard have known she took the pills?’
Mary shrugged. She thought about the arrangements of the bedrooms. ‘Richard’s room is right across the hall from Miss Emilie’s. He could easily have heard her get up.’
‘If his door was open.’ Ellen set her tea back down on the table and frowned. ‘I have a hard time seeing Richard leaving his bedroom door open.’
She had a point. Richard would want his privacy.
Mary thought about it. ‘It really is possible neither Richard nor Cassandra heard her get up. The Duxworths wouldn’t – the motion detectors were off. She could have gotten up, remembered she wanted her dog and left without anyone knowing.’
Ellen had just picked up her mug but set it back down to stare at her aunt. ‘Then who killed her, and why? She didn’t strangle herself.’
‘It brings us back to Gloria, doesn’t it? We know she was at least in the vicinity of the church hall that night, and at about the right time.’
‘All right. Who killed Gloria?’
‘Someone who thought Gloria had the money and was determined to get it?’ Mary suggested.
‘Richard?’ Ellen didn’t sound very surprised, nor very upset by the idea.
Mary took a large sip of her tea before she answered. It seemed as if every time she’d tried to make a cup the last few days, something had happened. This time, she was finishing it. ‘Possibly. Or Cassandra. Or Caleb. Or Lorraine. It almost has to be one of them.’
‘Not Lorraine.’ Ellen set her mug down with a bang. ‘She was devoted to the sisters. I can’t really see Caleb, either. He’s a jerk but not a homicidal one. No, my money’s on Richard.’
‘We don’t really know anything about Cassandra,’ Mary said slowly. ‘She does seem nice, but we don’t know much about her. Until this morning I didn’t know her husband had died or that she has two sons in college. She seems embarrassed by Richard’s behavior, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t the same goals. I keep thinking about the clock. She would have known about that clock. She was here a couple of weeks when Miss Eloise died. The clock was in Miss Emilie’s room and Cassandra must have been in there. You could hear something moving in it. She’s also the one who donated it, so she knew where it was. Why she’d suddenly want it back, I don’t know.’
‘Richard.’ Ellen got up, put her empty mug in the sink and gathered up her purse. ‘She could have told him about the clock, that there was something in it, and he made her get it and they pried the back off. When they saw it was a safe deposit key, they tried to put it back.’
‘How did they get it out of the church hall?’
‘The key. There’s a key to the hall hanging on the key rack in the kitchen.’
Mary put her own tea down and frowned at Ellen. ‘We’re jumping to conclusions. We don’t know anything, really, except two women are dead and there’s a whole lot of money missing. Tell all this to Dan and see what he says.’
Ellen pushed her chair back, walked over to the sink, set her still half-filled mug in it, picked up her purse and stood at the door, her hand on the knob. ‘What are you going to do the rest of the day?’
‘There’s not much day left. I should go to the library, but I think I’ll stay here, feed Millie and watch the news. I can always count on that to take my mind off things.’
‘Why? You want to get more depressed?’
Mary laughed. ‘Let me know what Dan thinks.’
‘I will. Promise me you won’t go out tonight, sleuthing, asking people questions … that you won’t do anything more about any of this.’
‘I promise.’
Ellen threw her a kiss and was gone.
Mary got up, filled Millie’s dish and poured herself another cup of tea. She sat back down and stared into her mug. She’d promised Ellen she wouldn’t go out or do anything more about the murder. That was easy. What she could do she had no idea. However, she hadn’t promised she wouldn’t think about it. And that she planned to do.