‘Mary, can I talk to you for a minute?’ Dan Dunham sat down on the picnic bench across from Mary and set his chief’s hat in the middle of it.
He looked very handsome in his uniform, even if his tie was on a little crooked and his jacket only zipped up halfway. His gun was set much too easily on his hip for her taste, and all the other things hanging on his belt made her a little nervous, but then, even though Santa Louisa was a small town, it had its share of crime and she supposed he needed them. She let her hand drift down and touch Millie on the head. She’d been a little surprised when the dog had jumped up on the bench beside her, and a little worried she might fall off. She should have known better. Instead of thinking about the dog, she needed to concentrate on what Dan was going to say. From the look in his eyes, she wasn’t going to like it.
‘I need a favor. A big favor.’
She’d known she wasn’t going to like it. ‘What kind of favor?’
He ran a hand through his hair, just like he always did when he was trying to think how to put something, the look on his face troubled. ‘I need you to go over to the Plym house and be there in case they hear before we arrive.’
Mary had no idea what she’d been expecting, but certainly not that. ‘You want me to do what? Why?’
‘A couple of reasons. One, I don’t want them to wake up and find Miss Emilie gone. They’ll panic. At least Lorraine will. I imagine the niece … Cassandra … will also. It’s not quite seven, so you may be able to get there before they realize she’s not in her room.’
Mary’s mouth was slightly open as she stared at him, but it took a moment before she could make words come out. ‘You want me to do what? Go over to the Plyms’ and keep them from finding out that Miss Emilie’s dead, strangled? I don’t think so.’
‘Don’t get so upset. First, Ellen’s going with you. She knows the Duxworths well and she’s met the niece. I just called her. Got her out of bed.’ There was a tiny smile under his tidy mustache as he said that. ‘Second, I don’t want you to tell them she’s dead. Certainly don’t tell them she was murdered. I’ll do that when I get there.’
‘Ellen and I are supposed to drop in for coffee at seven in the morning? Just a casual call?’
Dan sighed. ‘No. Tell them there’s been an accident. That Miss Emilie evidently wandered off during the night and that you wanted to tell them before they discovered she was missing. You don’t need to say anything more, other than that I’ll be there as soon as I can.’
‘What’s your other reason?’ She didn’t say it, but she thought it was the real reason he wanted them to go.
Dan’s smile had disappeared. ‘I want to know how they react. All of them. I understand Cassandra’s brother arrived a couple of days ago and he’s already been to see Glen Manning over at the bank. Glen says he’s a cold fish if he’s ever seen one, and I imagine he’s seen a few. I haven’t met him yet, although I will sometime today. I haven’t met the niece, either, but Ellen likes her. I expect Lorraine will be the most upset, but I’d really like to see how Caleb takes it.’
‘Caleb?’ Mary sat up a little straighter and quit stroking the dog’s ears. ‘Why Caleb? He wouldn’t hurt Miss Emilie. He and Lorraine have worked for the twins for years. He might not have been as fond of her as Lorraine but he’d never hurt her. Caleb might rant and rave but he wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
‘He’d give one a nervous breakdown with all his yelling, though.’ The voice came from behind Mary. Ellen, her niece and Dan’s wife, slipped onto the bench beside her. ‘Hi.’ She gave her aunt a quick kiss on the cheek. She smiled at her husband and wiggled the fingers of her free hand at him. The other hand clutched a paper Starbucks cup.
‘A latte?’ Dan’s gaze slid from her to the paper cup.
Ellen laughed. ‘It’s early. You woke me up and told me to get over here before I’d made the coffee, so I drove through.’ She took a sip, looking at him over the lid. ‘I got a large one so we could share.’ She pushed the cup over toward him.
He grinned and took it. ‘Thanks.’
‘There’s coffee in the church hall kitchen.’ Mary looked with faint disapproval at the cup. She liked her coffee to be just that, coffee, with a little milk or cream and a small teaspoon of sugar, but no syrups, flavors or frothy stuff. How much might Ellen have paid for her drink? It was really none of her business.
‘If we’re going to do this, we’d better get a move on. They’re all going to be up any time now, and if we’re going to be of any use we’d better get there before they realize she’s missing. Pat has everything under control, so Millie and I are ready.’
She leaned across Millie and picked up her tote bag, which was much lighter now the coffee, notebooks and cashbox had all been stashed somewhere else.
Ellen took her cup back from Dan and sipped. ‘Do you want us to break the bad news to them?’
‘No. Just say there’s been an accident and I’ll be there as soon as I can. I don’t want them to hear it on the radio and panic. I want someone to be there as a sort of buffer.’
‘And that someone has to be me. Me and my beloved aunt.’ She sighed heavily and, it seemed, a bit theatrically. ‘OK. I need to meet Richard Plym anyway, but I hadn’t planned on doing it like this.’ She set the cup down in front of Dan, said, ‘You don’t deserve that,’ and eased herself off the bench.
He smiled and picked up the cup.
‘Dan, you won’t forget about the clock, will you? I saw it yesterday afternoon and if Joy says she put it somewhere then that’s where it should be.’ Mary paused. ‘Unless Miss Emilie took it. She could have slipped it into her bag when Lorraine wasn’t looking.’
‘I’ll find out.’ Dan pushed himself to his feet. ‘The county CSI guys just pulled up. I need to see them.’ He started to hand Ellen back the Starbuck’s cup but she smiled and waved it away. He grinned at her and left.
Mary set Millie on the ground and extricated herself from between the bench and the table. She gathered up Millie’s leash in one hand, her tote in the other and looked at Ellen. ‘Well?’
‘What clock?’
‘I’ll tell you about it in the car.’
‘We’re really doing this?’
‘Dan asked us to, and it makes sense. We don’t want those poor people waking up and finding her gone.’
Ellen didn’t look as if she agreed, but she yawned and then nodded. ‘Are we taking the dog?’
‘Of course. I always take her when I go to the Plyms’. Miss Emilie just loves … loved … her. Oh, dear. I still can’t believe this is true. Let’s get this over with.’
Ellen pointed to where she’d parked her car, well behind the line the police had strung across the front parking lot, and followed her aunt and the dog as they briskly headed toward it.