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BAILEY WAS A RATHER nerdy-looking fellow. He had a wiry frame, steel-gray hair, and black-framed glasses. He gave Myrtle a tight smile.
Myrtle was glad that Marigold had left because she’d been hoping to speak with Bailey on his own. She was about to launch into her questioning when a voice behind her said, “Hi there, Myrtle! May I squeeze in with you?”
Eloise. Myrtle turned around and snapped, “No, unfortunately, you may not. We’re saving these seats for Miles and Marigold.”
“But there’s plenty of room. I’ll just scootch a chair in between these two.”
Myrtle had had entirely enough of this. She bared her gritted teeth at Bailey. “I’ll be right back. Do save my spot.”
“Of course,” he said in a rather bemused tone.
Myrtle stood up and grasped Eloise’s arm, pulling her out of earshot of others. “Now listen to me and mark my words, Eloise. You are done with stalking Miles. You were unfaithful to him and your relationship is over. He ended it. You clearly have no understanding of what this means, but here it is in a nutshell: you don’t see each other anymore socially.”
Eloise narrowed her eyes. “You’re not the boss of me, Myrtle.”
“I’m just letting you know that if you continue hounding Miles, I’ll be sure to make your life miserable.”
Eloise snorted. “How would you manage to do that?”
“Ask Red. I make his miserable all the time.”
Eloise opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it. Scowling at Myrtle, she slunk away.
Myrtle looked up just in time to see Red quirking an inquiring eyebrow at her from several tables away. She gave him a small smile.
Myrtle rejoined Bailey. “Now then!” she said gaily.
Bailey pushed his glasses up and gave her a small grin. “I’m glad you dodged that one, Miss Myrtle. I wasn’t wanting to share a table with Eloise. You might not know it, but she’s been spreading rumors that Marigold killed Jax.”
“I didn’t know it, but I’m certainly not surprised. That’s just the type of thing Eloise would do. Now how have you been doing? I haven’t seen you around for a while. Been working a lot, I suppose?”
He gave her a solemn look. “Indeed I have, Miss Myrtle. Lots and lots of travel.”
Myrtle politely inquired, “What type of work do you do? I can’t remember.”
“I work in information technology. I sell security software to corporations.”
That was decidedly a conversational dead-end since Myrtle knew next to nothing about that. Besides, that wasn’t really what she wanted to hear about in the first place. She needed to get information from Bailey before Marigold came back to the table. Fortunately, it appeared that Marigold had no intention of hurrying back over.
“You’re not about to retire, then? Spend more time at home?” asked Myrtle.
Bailey pushed his glasses up his nose and regarded Myrtle with that same serious look. “Do you think I should be spending more time at home?”
This question flustered Myrtle a little. “I don’t think that’s for me to decide.”
Bailey said, “I have the feeling you know a bit about Marigold’s extracurricular activities.”
Myrtle flushed a little. “I might have heard some things. You know how small towns can be.”
Bailey nodded. “I was upset when I found out, of course. Marigold and I have been married for a long time. I admit that I’ve been away from home quite a bit, as you pointed out. The truth of the matter is that I like working and I like the software I’m selling. I also don’t really mind traveling to different places and getting a different perspective on the world. It didn’t really occur to me that Marigold would be finding someone else to spend time with while I was gone.”
He seemed very calm about it all. Myrtle wondered if he’d been this calm when he found out about the affair. He’d said he was “upset.” How upset did he get?
“But then, you know how marriage can be,” continued Bailey. He paused as if to wait for her to say that she did.
“Sort of,” said Myrtle. “My husband died decades ago and my memories are all rather foggy.”
“Well, just to remind you, one tends to get in a sort of routine. You build your lives around each other and then you’re in this cocoon of habit. I can’t really blame Marigold for being lonely and seeking out companionship.”
“I think that’s very generous of you,” said Myrtle.
He shrugged. “Like I said, I was upset at first. But then I thought about it. Jax was pretty much 180 degrees different from me in every way. Where I’m introverted, he was outgoing. Where I love reading, Jax did everything but read. Where I’m quiet, Jax was fun and loud.”
Myrtle nodded. “Has Red spoken with you? I’m imagining he has.”
Bailey said in a tired voice, “Of course he has. I must have looked like the perfect suspect to him. I definitely had motive and I was actually in town when Jax died. But I’d just come back from a trip and my sole focus was spending time with Marigold. And perhaps do some laundry. At any rate, I was home with her and settling back in after being on the road. We had a lovely dinner together at home. I made sure to spend time with her first before recharging my laptop and recording my sales notes for my manager over an email.”
It didn’t sound like much of an alibi. Marigold could be covering for him or he could have quickly slipped out of the house when he was allegedly composing emails. Myrtle said, “It’s nice of you to come to Jax’s funeral—considering everything.”
Bailey said, “I didn’t care about Jax at all, to tell you the truth, although I don’t mind sitting here and eating his food and drinking his wine. All I care about is Marigold. Jax wasn’t worth going to prison for, as I told your Red. I’m here to support Marigold who did care for Jax. It’s over now . . . I think it was actually over when I found out about it. And now, after this service, I’m anticipating that everything returns to normal.”
Miles, loaded down with food, plopped a plate down in front of her. Myrtle gave him an absent smile. “Bailey, you remember Miles, don’t you?”
Bailey’s expression indicated that he neither really remembered Miles, nor really cared to. He gave a grunt.
Miles sat down next to Myrtle. Myrtle said, “We were just talking about Jax’s death, Miles.”
Miles nodded. “Seems an appropriate topic. Considering the circumstances, I mean.”
“Yes, I thought so, too.” Myrtle noticed that Bailey’s gaze was following Marigold sadly around the yard as she spoke with others. “Bailey, do you have any thoughts about who might have done this?”
He brought his attention back to Myrtle with some difficulty. “Done what? This service? His daughter did, I’m sure. Nanette, or whatever her name is.”
“Nicole. But I meant Jax’s murder. Any guesses on who might have killed him?”
Bailey looked a little bemused at Myrtle’s question. Perhaps he wasn’t accustomed to octogenarians nosing into murder. “Well . . . no. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I thought you might have heard something from Marigold. Or perhaps you had ideas of your own. If we find out who did it, it would certainly let you off the hook.”
Miles sighed. He was used to Myrtle’s persistence, but had the feeling that Bailey would like to escape from the table as soon as possible.
“Isn’t it usually the spouse?” he asked in a distracted manner.
Myrtle gave him a disappointed look. “Jax was single.”
“Oh? I thought Eloise was his wife. I used to see them out and about.”
Miles looked deeply unhappy at this.
Myrtle shook her head. “Despite evidence to the contrary, Eloise was not married to Jax.”
“I see. Then I really don’t know. And I don’t really care. Like I said, all I care about is Marigold and making her happy. Things will get back to normal now.” It was more of a declaration this time. A notice of intent.
Marigold settled like a butterfly at another table—one populated by some of the more-boisterous male members of the gathering. Bailey quickly stood up. “I’m sorry, but I should join my wife. You’ll excuse me, won’t you?” Without waiting to find out if they would, he hurried away to her table.
Myrtle said, “Well, I guess that’s as much information as I could hope to get from him. What an unusual person he is.”
Miles’s face indicated that he believed Bailey shared the same opinion about Myrtle. “Did you find out anything from him before I sat down?”
“I suppose so. Nothing earth-shattering. He thinks Marigold just needed a change of pace and that’s why she embarked on a relationship with Jax. Bailey said Jax was completely different from him.”
“Very true,” said Miles. “But I can’t imagine he was as calm about it as you’re making him sound.”
“That’s the thing—he was calm about it. He acknowledged that he’d ‘been upset’ when he’d discovered Marigold was cheating on him, but seems very matter-of-fact about it now. He also gave something of an alibi, although it relies on Marigold. He was at home spending time with her when Jax was killed.”
“And here he is at his rival’s funeral,” said Miles.
“Yes, but he said that was because he was trying to be supportive of Marigold. He said he didn’t care anything about Jax. Why would he?”
Miles ate some of his coleslaw and then swallowed. “I thought I spotted you yelling at Eloise.”
“Don’t be silly. I don’t yell at people.”
“You had that look on your face that said you meant business,” said Miles.
Myrtle sniffed. “It’s better to be direct with some people.”
“Should I ask what was discussed?”
“I think not. I’m just hoping that will be the end of that. It just depends on how much sense Eloise has. I’m starting to suspect she doesn’t have much.”
The rest of the celebration of life service and, indeed, the following day went very quietly for Myrtle. Her article was published in the newspaper and Red was apparently too busy hunting down bad guys to call her or be grouchy about it. She happily ate the different baked concoctions that Miles’s well-meaning women friends brought over to him (and which he quickly delivered over to her).
Even after eating wonderful baked goods (or, perhaps, because of all the carbs sitting like a rock in her tummy), Myrtle had a very difficult time sleeping that night. Finally, around two a.m., Myrtle decided she might as well get up. She puttered around the house a little, but couldn’t seem to focus on anything—not her puzzle book, not the television, not the book she was reading. She decided finally to walk through her backyard and out the gate and down to the sloping path to the lake. Sitting in the rocking chair on her dock and looking out on the water could be soothing.
And indeed, it started that way. The moon wasn’t full, but it was full enough to spill light on the water as it lapped against the dock. The frogs were singing to each other and she could hear crickets chirping, too. Lightning bugs were lighting up here and there as they looked for a mate. The only thing that seemed to break the peaceful vista was a lump in the water. Myrtle really wished people would stop dumping their yard waste into the lake. It was incredibly lazy of them to just chuck it into the water and made for hazards on the lake.
As she looked more closely at the lump, Myrtle wondered what sort of trash it was. It looked almost like part of a log. But then, Myrtle realized it wasn’t part of a log at all—it was a person.