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MINUTES LATER, THEY called Ramsay. He parked and hurried up to them, panting a little at the rush, ten minutes later.
“I’m going to have to deputize the two of you, considering how much detective work you’ve been doing lately,” muttered Ramsay. “Where is the stolen property?”
They gestured to the spot in the undergrowth and Ramsay delicately walked closer to have a look.
“Well, they certainly appear to be the items stolen from Ophelia’s house,” he said with a sigh. “This case is going to be the end of me.”
Beatrice said, “So this basically proves that the motive for Ophelia’s murder wasn’t robbery. But we already really knew that, didn’t we? Pearl’s death is clearly connected somehow.”
“Someone wanted to make it look like a robbery, though. Does that mean that Pearl’s death was unplanned?” asked Wyatt, brows drawn together in concern.
“Unless it was the other way around,” said Ramsay. He continued staring at the scattered money and jewelry and shook his head.
“The other way around?” asked Beatrice. “You mean, if Pearl was murdered first and Ophelia’s death was unplanned?”
“The problem is that it could really be either way. Forensics can’t say for sure who died first, only that the deaths were in rapid succession and in the same short timeframe. Maybe Pearl was murdered first and Ophelia saw something. Or vice-versa.”
Beatrice said slowly, “We know Pearl and Ophelia had a minor altercation at the wedding. Maybe one of them drove to the other’s house to apologize or to continue their discussion and saw something they weren’t supposed to see.”
Ramsay rubbed the side of his face, looking weary. “I don’t know. I only know that it’s been some kind of day. Did you two hear about Lois Lee?”
Beatrice stood very still. “Lois? What about Lois?”
“She was walking back home a couple of hours ago, taking a shortcut behind the downtown shops ... you know, where that big hill has stairs to the road below? Lois was on the stairs and someone came up and shoved her down them.” Ramsay shook his head.
“What?” said Beatrice and Wyatt in unison.
“But she was just at my house this morning!” spluttered Beatrice. She realized what a ridiculous thing she’d just said: Lois’s presence at her home that morning certainly had no bearing on her being attacked later in the day.
Ramsay gave a helpless shrug. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Lois told me that she was going to stay in and work on lesson plans, though,” said Beatrice with a frown. “Is she all right?”
“She’ll be fine. She has a bunch of bruises though, and was pretty shaken up by the whole thing as you can imagine. As far as her lesson plans go, she had a whole bunch of papers with her when she fell. And she said that she’d been at the library, which sounds to me like she was probably doing work,” said Ramsay.
Wyatt asked, “Did she see who was responsible?”
Ramsay shook his head again, regretfully. “No. I sure wish she had. But the person caught her completely off-guard and it was a pretty long tumble. By the time that she had finished falling and was able to catch her breath, move, and look behind her, there was no one there.”
Beatrice said, “It would have been easy for someone to quickly follow her and just as quickly rush back up to where other people were strolling through downtown.”
“But who would do such a thing?” asked Wyatt. “Why would someone go after Lois?”
Beatrice said, “Maybe she knew something that the killer was afraid she’d reveal. Lois sure didn’t seem to though, when I spoke to her earlier today. She was just making educated guesses about who could be responsible for the crimes. And she didn’t act as though she was hiding anything, either.”
“Maybe she knows something that she doesn’t even realize she knows,” said Ramsay. “At any rate, I’m planning on talking to her later today if I can. I sent her along to the hospital in Lenoir, just to have her checked out. You know—make sure that there weren’t any internal injuries or anything.”
Beatrice said, “I can only imagine what Meadow is going to say about all this. You know how upset she gets when there’s wrongdoing of any type in Dappled Hills. She takes great offense by it.”
Ramsay groaned. “I know. Meadow is absolutely going to be in orbit. I’ve already ignored three calls from her and I’m guessing that she knows something is up. Maybe you could talk to her, Beatrice?” he asked hopefully. “You can settle her down sometimes pretty well. I’d love to be able to come home tonight and not have to calm her down. All I’m going to want to do when I get off ... if I get off ... is to have a hot meal and read my Faulkner.”
Beatrice highly doubted that she had the ability to calm Meadow down, but she gave a reluctant nod. “Of course I’ll talk with her. I’ll check on her as soon as I get back.”
Ramsay said, “Which should be now. Y’all have had a very busy last couple of days. I think you need to take a break.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Wyatt. He turned to Beatrice, “It’s about time for Noo-noo to be fed, anyway. Why don’t we head back with her? Then maybe you can run by Meadow’s house and check in with her.”
Ramsay said quickly, “As long as you can find something to talk about besides this crazy case. I mean, fill her in on finding Ophelia’s things, of course. But then maybe you can find some unrelated and totally innocuous subject to talk about.”
“What about filling her in on Lois?” asked Beatrice.
Ramsay winced, “Yes, but maybe just brush over that a little. Play it down. Then maybe you can segue to something else?”
“We do have a guild meeting coming up tomorrow morning,” said Beatrice slowly.
“Perfect!” Ramsay beamed at her. “If y’all are talking about the guild meeting, that’ll be sure to distract her from anything else. You know how she gets all caught up in that stuff.”
Wyatt and Beatrice made their way with Noo-noo back down the trail and into the car.
Beatrice said, “I know it’s early, but I’m thinking about going ahead and making dinner before I go to Meadow’s house. We really didn’t eat anything for lunch. At least, I’ll cook it and you’re welcome to eat it whenever you’d like.”
“That sounds perfect. But are you sure you wouldn’t rather sit down and put your feet up for a while?” asked Wyatt with concern. “You’ve been going like a house afire for days. Shouldn’t you take a few minutes to rest, instead?”
Beatrice gave him a grateful smile. “That’s sweet of you, but sometimes when I’m really tired, I get really restless. This is one of those times.”
Back at home, Wyatt fed Noo-noo while Beatrice quickly made some spaghetti with frozen meatballs. She didn’t feel like being super-creative in the kitchen right then, but at least it would be filling between the pasta and the protein. Besides, Wyatt was far from a picky eater ... and they’d enjoyed that delicious lasagna the night before. If Beatrice waited until after she came back from Meadow’s house, she might not have the energy left to cook even a simple meal. And right now, as she’d told Wyatt, she was absolutely spilling over with energy.
After they ate, Beatrice strolled over to Meadow’s house. The house was lit up like a Christmas tree, as if Meadow had turned on every light in the place. That just went to prove that the murders were weighing heavily on her mind.
When Beatrice knocked on the door she saw Meadow’s face glowering out the front window as if the killer had arrived and was announcing himself. When she saw that it was Beatrice, she relaxed and pulled the door open. As Beatrice walked in, she saw that Meadow was holding a cast iron frying pan.
“Were you really going to use that on me?” asked Beatrice mildly. “A heavy frying pan? I might have to give that a go, myself. It would certainly be an effective tactic to cut down on the number of visitors that Wyatt and I receive.”
“You scared the dickens out of me!” scolded Meadow, although she was grinning as she said it. “I was cleaning the kitchen and so deep into my thoughts that I jumped about a mile when you knocked on the door.”
“Why didn’t you simply release the hounds?” asked Beatrice with a grin. “Boris would be sure to scare intruders absolutely out of their skins.”
“Oh, I’ve put him in the back bedroom with the sound machine on,” said Meadow, waving her hands. “He was fixated on barking at a squirrel in the backyard and it was about to drive me batty while I started putting supper together. I decided he needed a little rest time. Ordinarily, Ramsay would be home by now and would throw the ball for him.”
“And Ramsay’s not home,” said Beatrice, seeing a natural segue into the theme of her visit.
“He’s certainly not. It’s been a very trying day. I haven’t been able to get in touch with Ramsay at all. Everything seems to be so scattered and impossible!” Meadow strode back to the kitchen and quickly stirred what smelled like a gravy as Beatrice followed her.
Beatrice paused, picking her words with care. “As a matter of fact, I’ve seen Ramsay in the last hour or so. He’s completely fine, but very busy.”
“With two murders, I’d imagine he’d be busy, but he’s never so busy that he won’t return my calls,” said Meadow in a huffy voice. She peered at Beatrice through narrowed eyes. “There’s more, isn’t there? Not—another murder?” She covered her mouth. “I can’t stand it!”
“No, no, not a murder. But Lois Lee fell down the stairs on her way home from downtown. On that big hill behind the shops,” said Beatrice.
“Well, I certainly hope she’s all right, but I can’t think what that has to do with Ramsay.” Meadow broke off. “Wait. So ... she didn’t simply fall? She was pushed?” Meadow’s face was horrified.
“Lois was pushed. And she didn’t see who was responsible, unfortunately. But Ramsay said that she’s doing fine, aside from some bruises and being a bit shaken up. He’d just sent Lois off to the hospital to get checked out, just in case, when Wyatt and I called him,” said Beatrice.
“You had to call Ramsay? What now?” demanded Meadow. She clutched at her heart as if anticipating some sort of attack.
“Wyatt and I were taking a hike with Noo-noo and saw a bunch of money and jewelry in a wooded area off the trail. The stash appears to be the items stolen from Ophelia’s house,” said Beatrice.
“Why on earth would someone take the trouble to rob someone’s house, killing them in the process, and then ditch the stolen property?” asked Meadow.
Beatrice said, “Unless the person wanted everyone to think that the motive was robbery, instead of whatever the actual motive was.”
Meadow nodded slowly. “That does make sense. But it’s all so frustrating. When will this all end?”
Beatrice could tell that Meadow was getting more worked up the longer she thought about it. “Let’s talk about something else. I don’t think I’m totally clued in to what’s going on at the guild meeting tomorrow. Could you fill me in?”
Meadow looked startled. “Tomorrow? Oh, for heaven’s sake. It’s crept up on me with all my worrying about the murders and whatnot. And I’m the hostess, too! I’ll have to go to the store. I was thinking about it earlier today, but then I totally forgot about it again.”
“The meeting isn’t until after lunch—you should have plenty of time to go tomorrow morning. What is it that we’re doing tomorrow at the meeting?”
“We’ll discuss that show that we’re putting on in the fall and give everyone the opportunity to sign up for different roles. Other than that, we’ll talk about what we’re working on and Posy was going to talk about some new fabrics she has at the store,” said Meadow. “It’s a pretty basic meeting. Oh, and Posy is bringing Edgenora to the meeting.”
Beatrice raised an eyebrow. “The same Edgenora who’s a member of the Cut-Ups guild?”
“As if there could be more than one Edgenora in town! Yes, the same one, of course. Posy mentioned that Edgenora wanted more quilts to use as examples or inspiration and so she invited her to come to our meeting since the next Cut-Ups meeting is a while away,” said Meadow.
“Maybe she’ll have some insight into what’s going on with Violet,” mused Beatrice.
“Who knows? She’s a new member, so maybe she really won’t know anything. But it’s worth a try.”
Meadow absently offered Beatrice the cookie jar, which was full of homemade cookies. Beatrice’s phone rang in her pocket and she frowned.
“Don’t tell me,” said Meadow. “Someone wants to know when Communion is served the next time.”
Beatrice said slowly, looking at her phone, “I don’t recognize the phone number.”
“Then don’t answer!”
But Beatrice couldn’t resist. After all, maybe it was a doctor’s office reminding her of an appointment. Or some other business. “Hello?”
“Beatrice? This is Marjory Beakner. I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you knew when the men’s Bible study meets.”
“The men’s Bible study?” asked Beatrice, somewhat taken aback. And she couldn’t for the life of her place Marjory Beakner.
“Yes. I’m just trying to find something to keep Roger busy. He’s just retired and he’s about to drive me out of my mind here around the house.” Marjory gave a snorting laugh.
“One second, let me check.” Beatrice pulled the phone away from her ear and fiddled with the apps for a moment while Meadow rolled her eyes and made all kinds of cryptic motions at Beatrice.
“Marjory? Yes, I’ve found it. The men’s Bible study is on Tuesday nights at 7:30. That’s right. No problem.” Beatrice put the phone back in her pocket and sighed.
Meadow lifted an eyebrow at her. “No problem? Yes, there is a problem, Beatrice. If you keep being helpful then you’re going to encourage repeat callers. And why couldn’t she look it up on the church website, herself?”
Beatrice shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s true that the church website is woefully un-updated. But, of course, that was the church secretary’s job. This is just one activity that I know hasn’t changed in the last twenty years or so because Wyatt has told me that.”
Meadow shook her head. “Something’s got to change.”
“You’re right about that. I think Wyatt is looking into it. And speaking of Wyatt, I should be getting back. He’s supposed to be teaching me how to play chess.”
Her job there was done since Meadow gave her an absentminded goodbye and was now totally absorbed in planning for the forgotten meeting the next day.