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Ollie gaped at the sight of the skin-and-bones psychic. He muttered something disbelieving under his breath, then lurched for Wanda, a knife in his hand. Which was when Myrtle, who’d retrieved Elaine’s cast-iron baguette from the narrow table, smacked Ollie as hard over the head as she possibly could.
Ollie dropped to the floor, stunned. But not stunned enough for Myrtle, who struck him again until the knife came flying out of his hand, skittering across the kitchen floor. Now Ollie was still.
Linda stared at his motionless figure, her face white. Wanda grabbed a napkin to pick up the knife, then walked to the far corner of the apartment with it. Myrtle had her phone out and was briskly calling Red. “It’s me. I’ve got your killer for you. 221C Lakefront Drive. He’s been immobilized.” She listened for a moment, then said crossly, “Yes, he’s alive. Now get over here.”
Myrtle did check for a pulse, just to make absolutely sure Ollie was indeed alive. He was lying so very still, and Elaine’s bread was quite lethal in its density. Fortunately, there was a pulse, and Myrtle could retreat.
Linda took a shaky breath. “Thanks. Thanks so much, you two.”
Myrtle gave her a smile. “Would you like a glass of water, dear? You’re looking rather peaked. Or perhaps a cracker or something?”
Linda sank down in a kitchen chair, shaking her head. “No. No, I’m all right.”
“Okay. So, before my son comes barreling in here like the Lone Ranger, let’s talk for a minute. Why were you over at the construction site where Curtis Walsh was murdered yesterday?”
Linda said, “I wanted to talk to Ollie and tell him it was over. I think he knew I was trying to reach him to make sure he understood. He hadn’t been answering his phone or even his door when I went by his house. I dropped by yesterday morning, early, hoping to catch Ollie off-guard and make sure we were on the same page.”
Myrtle said, “But he was leaving his house when you arrived?”
“That’s right. So I decided to follow Ollie. I didn’t understand what he was doing over at a construction site, but I parked the car and headed over to talk to him.”
Myrtle frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a very safe approach. It was early in the morning. Hardly anyone was around. Ollie could have lashed out at you for the rejection. And, as far as you knew, he could have been a killer. In fact, he was a killer.”
Linda said, “I was trying to be careful. I had one of those big metal flashlights with me—the kind the police carry. I had running shoes on. I was carrying my phone in my hand with 911 pulled up, just in case.” She shrugged. “But yes, it still wasn’t smart. I think I was lulled into a sense of safety because I knew Ollie. Because we’d dated. I thought I knew him better than I did.” She looked over at the man on the floor, disbelief still etched on her features.
Sirens were approaching. Myrtle was still gripping her baguette in case Ollie started moving about.
“What did you see?” she asked.
Linda took a deep breath. “Nothing. But I put two-and-two together later. I walked up to the site. There was another car there, but I figured somebody might be working on a different point of the property, and I could still have a quiet moment with Ollie.”
Wanda’s eyes were fixed on Linda. “He were arguin’ with somebody.”
“Exactly,” said Linda. “Ollie was having an argument with another man. I figured it wouldn’t be a good time to have that talk with him. I turned around and headed back to my car.”
“How did Ollie realize you were there at all?” asked Myrtle.
Linda said slowly, “A lot of things happened at one time. A truck drove up.”
“That must have been Hank, one of the construction workers,” said Myrtle with a nod.
“He sat in his truck for a few minutes, looking at his phone. Then I saw Ollie coming out of the side of the construction.”
“Could Hank see him?” asked Myrtle.
Linda shook her head. “No. Ollie had parked on the other side of the building from Hank. Besides, Hank was totally absorbed in his phone.”
The sirens stopped in front of the apartment building. Ollie groaned on the floor and opened an eye. Myrtle brandished the loaf at him, and he closed it again.
A second later, Red pounded on the door, then opened it. EMTs were right behind him. Behind them was Lieutenant Perkins.
“Is everybody okay?” Red demanded.
“He’s not,” said Myrtle, gesturing at Ollie with the loaf.
“Is that . . . Elaine’s bread?”
Myrtle nodded. “You’ll have to tell her she made some really excellent bread.”
“I won’t encourage her,” muttered Red. He watched as the EMTs examined Ollie, then carefully removed him. “Possible concussion,” explained one of them.
Red shook his head, watching as Ollie was taken out of the apartment. “Okay, so everybody tell me what is going on, please.”
No one seemed to know where to start.
Perkins asked, “Miss Lambert?”
Linda gave a quick recap of what she’d told Myrtle and Wanda. She cleared her throat. “So, like I was saying earlier, Ollie left the building, unseen by Hank. Hank was then getting out of his truck. I started to drive away, but Ollie spotted me.”
Red said, “You weren’t interested in talking to Ollie anymore?”
“Well, I’d heard him arguing. That told me he was already in a foul mood. It didn’t seem like the right time to have a conversation with him.”
Myrtle said, “Miles and I saw you on your way out.”
It was news to Red that his mother had been at the construction site. “You what?”
Myrtle gave him a regal look. “Miles and I were on our way to get breakfast when we saw all the emergency vehicles. We couldn’t help but investigate.”
Red rubbed his forehead as if it had also been smacked by Elaine’s baguette.
Linda said, “Yes, I remember seeing a car approaching when I was leaving. That was you, then?”
Myrtle nodded. “But we didn’t see Ollie leaving.”
Linda said, “He was heading out a back entrance in the other direction.”
Red took out his notebook. “Okay, let me recap this because there’s a lot of coming and going in this retelling.”
“I follow it,” said Myrtle. She looked for opportunities to showcase her superior cognitive ability.
Red ignored her interjection. “So, Linda, you followed Ollie to tell him to back off. He’d been ignoring your calls because he wanted to continue believing you might get back together.”
Linda nodded.
“When you got to the site, Ollie was already arguing with somebody. You decided to leave. Hank, a construction worker, arrived on the scene but didn’t approach until after Ollie had already walked out of the site.”
Linda nodded again. Myrtle sighed in a bored manner.
“Then you left. You saw my mom, who was driving toward the site.”
Another nod.
Lt. Perkins added, “And Ollie drove away in another direction.”
Linda said, “That’s right.” She picked up with her narrative. “I headed back home to get some work done. I figured I’d try to get in touch with Ollie again after he’d had a chance to cool down. But then I heard about Curtis Walsh’s death. And where his death occurred.”
Perkins said, “And you knew Ollie must have been the killer.”
Red narrowed his eyes. “But you didn’t contact the police department.”
Linda was apparently worried she was going to be implicated as an accessory in some way. She quickly said, “I wanted to. I picked up the phone half a dozen times to make that call. But I didn’t see or hear anything incriminating.”
Red raised his eyebrows. “You saw Ollie Spearman at the scene of the crime. You knew he would be a major suspect.” He paused. “We’ll let that go for now. Tell me what the last day has been like.”
Linda looked pale again. “As soon as I found out Curtis was murdered, I knew I wanted to avoid Ollie. The thing was, he kept trying to reach out.”
“Where he was avoiding you before,” said Red.
Linda nodded. “But I thought I knew why he wanted to reach out. Because he must have spotted my car as I was leaving. I have a metallic green Beetle, so it really stands out. But I wasn’t answering his calls or texts.” She looked at Myrtle. “I did go out this morning to the coffeehouse to clear my head, but I went to a public spot so nothing would happen to me. I needed to think, absorb the news about Curtis. Figure out what I should do next.”
Myrtle said, “You did seem to have a lot on your mind this morning.”
Red rolled his eyes at further evidence of his mother’s meddling.
Linda looked at Red. “Because Ollie was desperate and couldn’t get in touch with me, he came over here. He barged in because the door was unlocked. I don’t know if he’ll confess or not, but Wanda and Miss Myrtle both heard him threaten me.”
“I have his threats on my phone,” said Myrtle, holding up the device. Perkins gave her an approving smile.
“Of course you do,” said Red in a tired voice. He added, “The witness testimony and the digital evidence will definitely help. Mama, I’ll send a cop over later to collect the evidence from your phone. But there were also fibers taken at Teddy Hartfield’s crime scene. After the labs run some DNA, I’m hopeful there will be a match.”
Myrtle’s phone chimed. She glanced at it to find Miles had just texted her. She looked over at Wanda. “Miles is done at the dentist and wants an update.”
Wanda gave her a weary grin. “We gotta big update.”
“Indeed, we do. Perhaps we should set out on our way.”
Red said, “I think that’s a wonderful idea.”
“Good seeing you, Mrs. Clover. You too, Wanda,” said Perkins politely.
Linda reached out to give them both a hug. In a teary voice, she said, “Thanks for saving my life.”
Wanda drove them away from the apartment building. Myrtle said, “Let’s go to my house. Can you visit for a while? We should celebrate solving the case. With Miles, of course. Although he was at the dentist during the final bit.”
“Sure thing,” said Wanda, inching her car in that direction.
Myrtle said, “You were right, as always, you know. Ollie changed his habit of putting his muddy boots on his front porch before starting work. Who knows what he did with those boots after leaving the construction site?”
“Reckon he threw ‘em out.”
“Perhaps in a landfill. I suppose they had evidence on them from the scene of the crime. Hopefully Red and his gang can locate them and use them in court,” said Myrtle. She looked out the car window at the slowly moving scenery. “It’s a pity Curtis found it necessary to blackmail Ollie. At least, I suppose that’s why Curtis was meeting with Ollie at the construction site. If he’d only told the police what he saw instead of telling Ollie, he might still be alive.”
Wanda stopped at a stop sign, put her blinker on, and sat watchfully for a few moments before turning left. “Yep. Shoulda just told the cops.”
Myrtle said, “Ollie always was a good suspect, of course. He had plenty of reason to want Teddy out of the way. It was all about revenge, wasn’t it? Revenge for Teddy firing him, revenge for Teddy stealing Linda away from him.”
“Don’t think Linda an’ Ollie woulda been together long anyway,” noted Wanda.
“No, I suppose not. Linda seems like a very independent woman. She owns a business, she maintains her own home. She really didn’t need a clingy man like Ollie appeared to be.” Myrtle frowned. “It seems like I’m forgetting something important. What can that be?”
“Mebbe that article on Ollie?”
Myrtle snapped her fingers. “You’re right! I’ll call Sloan and tell him to stop the presses. I’ve always wanted to say that. The Bradley Bugle certainly doesn’t need to be running a fawning feature on Ollie Spearman and his floral business. Now, I have a completely different story in mind.”
A few minutes later, Wanda pulled into Myrtle’s driveway. Wanda said, “Think Erma is on her way over.”
Myrtle made a face. “I simply can’t be dealing with Erma right now. It’s completely impossible. I swear the woman lies in wait for me like a spider in a web.”
Wanda stepped out of the car, made a clicking noise, and Pasha came bounding up. Pasha adored Wanda, and the feeling was mutual. Pasha was much less fond of Erma, and the feeling was also mutual there. Erma made an abrupt about-face and headed back toward her own house, much to Myrtle’s relief.
Myrtle took out her phone and texted Miles back. “I’m asking Miles to come on over. I said we had news. That should tempt him.”
Sure enough, a minute later, Miles was knocking on the door. Wanda let him in, grinning at him.
“What’s up?” asked Miles.
“Wanda and I solved the case,” said Myrtle smugly.
Miles’s eyes opened wide. “What happened?” he demanded.
They filled him in. Wanda’s prediction, Myrtle’s observant nature, Ollie’s boots, and a visit to see Linda.
“And you knocked Ollie out with Elaine’s bread?” asked Miles.
“That I did. It proved a formidable weapon, in the right hands. And now, enough of murder and mayhem for a few minutes.” Myrtle delved into a kitchen cabinet, where she pulled out a small bag. “Sweets to the sweet.”
She dumped the bag on the kitchen table, rather like a child with a Halloween haul. There were heart-shaped chocolates wrapped in foil. Lots of them.
“We’re going to eat chocolates until we pop at the seams,” stated Myrtle, sounding very pleased with herself.
“You bought a lot of Valentine candy,” said Miles, staring at the pile.
“It was on sale. Greatly reduced. Their loss, our gain.”
“Any updates on the copyediting situation?” asked Miles.
“Yew git th’ job?” asked Wanda.
Myrtle nodded, pleased with herself. “Yes indeedy. The copyediting job is open, and I’m sure Sloan will give it to me when I ask for it. Imogen Winthrop wisely gave up her position.”
“Was it Elaine’s bread that discouraged Imogen?” asked Miles. “I’d imagine that would be the final straw.”
“I’ll hear nothing against Elaine’s bread. After all, it saved our lives today. As far as Imogen goes, the job was simply too much for her,” said Myrtle with a shrug. “I always knew she’d crack under pressure.”
Wanda had already started pulling foil off several of the candies. Soon the three friends were eating chocolates, drinking glasses of milk, and watching Tomorrow’s Promise together. As the familiar theme song played, Myrtle looked around at her friends, the pile of chocolates, and her cozy living room. She smiled contentedly, thinking that sometimes the sweetest mysteries in life were the ones shared with good company and even better desserts.