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Meadow chuckled. “Well, he certainly is. It looks as though Hawkins has decided to come speak to us.”
Beatrice looked past Hawkins to Malcolm to see what his reaction might be to Hawkins approaching Wynona. She was glad to see that he had a smile on his face and that the worried lines around his eyes appeared to be disappearing. Maybe Malcolm thought Wynona could be good for Hawkins.
Beatrice murmured, “We should be going.”
“Oh, please don’t!” said Wynona quickly. “I’d rather you’d stay here.”
Meadow said, “Okay, but if we feel like we’re not needed, Beatrice and I are going to scoot out of here!”
Hawkins hesitantly approached them and the ladies stood up.
No one spoke for a couple of seconds, and Meadow, never one for awkward silences, said in a blustery voice, “Hawkins, we’re so sorry. But what a lovely service.”
But Hawkins only nodded vaguely, his eyes still focused on Wynona. He said, “Wynona, I’m so sorry. For everything. Can you forgive me?”
Wynona nodded and Hawkins’s eyes filled with tears. She stepped forward to give him a hug and he clutched her as if she were a life preserver.
Beatrice gave Meadow a meaningful look and they both hurried away.
Meadow said, “I’m so happy for them. Aren’t you, Beatrice?”
“I’m tentatively happy,” said Beatrice. “I do think they have a lot to work through. And a murder investigation to survive.”
Meadow gave her an indulgent smile. “Beatrice. Always the realist.” She peered across the cemetery. “Is Malcolm asking us to come over?”
Beatrice started walking. “He sure is.”
Meadow said uneasily, “I wonder what he thinks of the Hawkins-Wynona reunion.”
“From what I saw a few minutes ago, it looked as though he was delighted that they were together,” said Beatrice. “At least, I hope that I was reading it right.”
Malcolm looked tired, but gave them both a smile. He gestured over to where Hawkins and Wynona were sitting on the bench. “Am I right in guessing that you ladies had something to do with Wynona being here today?”
Meadow turned bright red and said in a flustered voice, “Oh, I don’t know about that. Beatrice? Do you know anything about that?”
Before Beatrice could answer, Malcolm laughed and held up his hands. “It’s okay! I was going to thank you for getting her out here. I haven’t seen Hawkins look this relaxed and unstressed for months. Wynona is clearly good for him.”
Beatrice noticed that Della’s lips tightened as if she was biting back an argument. She stared at her nails as if trying to keep out of it.
Beatrice said, “Wynona wanted to come and show her support for the family. Especially Hawkins. I just helped convince her that it was the right thing to do and that no one would be upset that she was here.”
Malcolm smiled. “Definitely not upset. I’m delighted that Hawkins is happy. And delighted that this service is over.” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m missing about twenty hours of sleep, I think.”
He turned and opened his mouth to call to Della when a middle-aged woman came up to Della and gave her a huge hug. Della started to cry and both women walked off to sit on a wooden bench.
Malcolm grimaced. “Looks like I might be here for a while longer. Now I’m not just waiting for Hawkins, I’m waiting for Della, too.”
Meadow said sympathetically, “You’ve got to be absolutely exhausted.”
Malcolm nodded. “It’s been awful.” He hesitated, and then continued as if the murders were at the forefront of his mind and he couldn’t really avoid talking about them. “I was at least halfway prepared for my father’s death. After all, he was an old man. I wasn’t prepared for it to be like this,” he said with a wave of his hand toward the casket. “But Sadie?” He shook his head.
Beatrice took a deep breath and then pressed, “And you’re sure you didn’t see anyone?”
“No,” he said quickly, “As I told you before, I was exhausted and turned in with Della as soon as supper was finished. Or, rather, before supper was finished, since I’d just been picking at my meal.”
Meadow managed a look of surprise. “But,” she stammered, “I thought someone we’d talked to was sure they saw you out taking a walk a couple of nights ago.”
Malcolm flushed in confusion. “Someone on our property? Well, they must have gotten the night wrong.”
“I’m afraid not,” said Beatrice, sounding apologetic.
Now it was Malcolm’s turn to study his hands. “I did go out. Oh, I turned in early, like I said. But I couldn’t sleep. All I kept thinking of was my father and how he died. I tossed and turned for a little while until I finally decided to get up and take a walk. That’s all.”
“You hadn’t mentioned that before,” said Beatrice softly.
“Only because it didn’t seem important,” said Malcolm with a slight smile and a shrug of the shoulder. “And Della was sound asleep. I ended up right back in bed.”
But there was something about the way he tacked on the bit about Della that made Beatrice wonder.
Meadow’s face creased with worry. “Who on earth do you think might be responsible for all this, Malcolm?”
Malcolm spread his hands wide and looked wordlessly at them.
“No idea?” asked Beatrice. “Was anyone upset with Sadie? Had you overheard her arguing with anyone?”
He sighed. “Well, Sadie could get pretty wound up. Sometimes she wasn’t the easiest person to get along with. She was impatient, with people in general. I remember being very surprised that she chose to go into social work, considering her short fuse. But apparently, when she was at work, she was incredibly patient and understanding.” He laughed, then looked sad, remembering that his sister was now gone. “I guess I haven’t gotten used to speaking of her in the past tense. But the point is: had she argued with anyone?”
Beatrice nodded.
Malcolm said, “Well, of course, you saw that she’d argued with Hawkins over Father’s funeral arrangements. But that’s hardly something you’d murder someone over. And she’s argued with me, too. It’s been pretty tense around the house lately, as you can imagine.”
He looked sad at the thought of having argued with his sister.
Meadow said, “Of course it was tense there. I can’t even imagine.”
“What did you argue about?” asked Beatrice. She glanced over and saw Della and Hawkins were still caught up talking in their respective conversations. She hoped she had enough time to talk to him before they came back over.
“Oh, you know,” said Malcolm with a sigh. “We’d just heard from the lawyer about the will.” He hesitated, and then said, “Ordinarily, I’d keep my mouth shut about financial things, but somehow it will all end up being common knowledge in Dappled Hills anyway. Father had apparently gotten tired of Hawkins always being low on cash and didn’t give him a full-third of his estate. Although I don’t think he’ll be hurting if he is responsible with what he did leave him. And Father left the estate to Sadie and me.”
Beatrice raised her eyebrows. “And you had different ideas for what to do with it?”
Malcolm laughed. “How did you guess? Sadie wanted to sell it. I wanted to keep it up and keep things as they were ... for a while. I also had some ideas of maybe allowing part of the house to function as a bed and breakfast. But Sadie wanted no part of that idea. To her, it was going to be nothing but trouble. All she wanted was to make a few updates to the house and sell it.” He shrugged. “We argued over that, sure. But we were hardly at each other’s throats.”
“And Della?” asked Meadow, as they turned to look at the young woman who was still chatting with her friend out of earshot.
Malcolm said, “Are you kidding? Della and Sadie always got along great. I mean, sometimes Sadie maybe got a little irritated with Della—maybe she wanted to get her to hurry up when we were all about to leave. Della can be a little poky sometimes when she’s getting ready. But that’s it. They were almost like siblings.”
Beatrice found that hard to believe. She’d seen Sadie with Della and Sadie always seemed a bit more than irritated with Della. But it seemed to Beatrice like Sadie was genuinely trying to include Della in things. “What about Wynona?” she asked quietly. “Did Sadie and Wynona always get along?”
Malcolm nodded. “Most of the time, sure. They were good friends, after all. But Sadie could end up getting frustrated with Wynona. She told me once that she felt like Wynona was just wasting her time trying to get back together with Hawkins. Sadie thought Wynona should just give up. Said that it was never going to happen because Hawkins was too scared of defying Caspian. Sadie thought that Wynona should just move forward and start looking for someone else to have a relationship with.”
Beatrice raised her eyebrows. “And what was your response to that?”
Malcolm sighed. “I didn’t agree. And I told Sadie that. In fact, I was surprised by Sadie’s point of view. After all, Sadie was the one who ended up returning home to try to mend fences with Father—that’s hardly moving on. I mean, she definitely left us and struck out on her own when she got sick of our father. But ultimately, she decided that the estrangement didn’t make her happy. She ended up coming back home. It was ironic that she was telling Wynona that she should move on.”
Meadow asked anxiously, “On a slightly different subject, what are y’all going to do about Sadie’s service? I know you just finished this one. Is there anything that we can do to help with planning or bringing food or anything?”
Malcolm smiled at her. “That’s really nice of you. But we’re actually not going to do anything for a while. She deserves a real service of her own—not something slapped together in haste right after our father’s service. Sadie always said that she wanted to be cremated.” He closed his eyes briefly as if trying to control his emotions. He opened them and continued, “Once we receive her ... body ... back from the police, we’ll follow through with her wishes. Then we’ll have a nice memorial service for her at a later date when we have more time to prepare.”
Meadow said stoutly, “I think that’s a marvelous idea. And it will be so much more thoughtful that way.”
Malcolm nodded. Then he said, “All right, it looks as if Della is wrapping things up. And we’ll invite Wynona to come home with us. I’ll see you both soon, I hope.” He gave them a quick hug and then turned to greet Della’s friend who was approaching him.
Minutes later, Meadow was driving Beatrice home.
“Well, that was a very interesting funeral,” said Meadow. “And I never expected I’d be saying that. The way the service was originally planned, it sounded like it was going to be a very ordinary funeral.”
Beatrice said, “It might have been one of the happiest funerals I’ve ever been to. With Wynona and Hawkins getting together.”
Meadow drove briefly off the road as she turned and looked at Beatrice.
“Meadow! The road! I swear, I need to take over the driving,” said Beatrice.
“Sorry! Sorry! Just a momentary distraction,” said Meadow, hastily jerking the wheel and getting them back on the road again. “I was just thinking: is it really a good thing?”
Beatrice said, “Why wouldn’t it be? Wynona is terrific for Hawkins. I haven’t known the man very long, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen him that he hasn’t looked abjectly miserable.”
“Because he could be a murderer, Beatrice! Or she could be a murderer. We just heard Malcolm tell us that Wynona sometimes argued with Sadie,” said Meadow.
“Yes, but that’s hardly motive to kill someone. Now, if Sadie had seen something that pointed to Wynona as Caspian’s killer, then that might be more of a motive.” Beatrice stopped. Wasn’t there something Sadie had said? Something that she had seen?
“So she’s still in the picture,” said Meadow gloomily. “Poor Wynona—never able to find true happiness.”
“Well, we’re still working on it. These deaths may have nothing to do with Wynona at all,” said Beatrice.
“But they could have to do with Hawkins! And what do we know about Hawkins? That he was, as you said, abjectly miserable. That he needed money. That he gambled. That he was furious with his father for depriving him of the woman he loved. That he frequently argued with Caspian.”
“And he argued with Sadie, too, even about minor things like Caspian’s funeral. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a killer.” Beatrice sighed. “Although I did think it was petty of Caspian to not give Hawkins a share in the estate. I wonder if Hawkins knew that, or if the contents of the will were a total surprise.”
Meadow pulled into Beatrice’s driveway. “If he did know, then he wouldn’t have really had a motive for killing Caspian.”
“No, he still had a motive—he was angry at his father for forbidding his relationship with Wynona,” said Beatrice. She thought for a minute. “I’m still thinking about what Hawkins said. That Sadie was upset that her father had been murdered out of greed.”
Meadow nodded. “Well, if you think about it, it makes sense. Sadie wasn’t exactly a fan of greedy people. Her own father had been so greedy that he’d stopped supporting her mother, even when she became ill.”
“Yes. But how did Sadie know that her father was killed because of greed? It sounds as if she knew who his murderer was and the motive, too.” Beatrice frowned.
“Then do you think that Hawkins knows more than that? Since he was talking to Sadie? Do you think she gave him any clues?” asked Meadow.
“I don’t know. But I think I’m going to go over again and talk to him,” said Beatrice. “Except that I don’t really have a great excuse. And I just saw him.”
Meadow said, “You have the perfect excuse to go over there. Quilting. You’re over there to see if Della wants some extra fabric that you can’t use. After all, you’ve been rearranging your household and trying to get organized before Wyatt moves in after the wedding. Then you can try and snag a quiet conversation with Hawkins. He’s probably out walking the estate, as usual.”
“That’s true. Although I’m not sure I do have some extra fabric. I tend to buy only what I need,” said Beatrice.
“That sounds like you. Then you should come by my house. I have gobs of extra fabric that I don’t need that’s been collecting over the course of twenty-five years. I’d go with you over there, but I told Ash that I’d go with him to the caterer to help choose a menu for their rehearsal dinner,” said Meadow. “We’ll just zip by my house and then I’ll drop you back home.”
Beatrice said, “All right. Although I still feel like it seems a little weird of me to be going by their house on the day of Caspian’s funeral. And after having just seen them.”
Meadow said, “It’s not weird at all! You simply had them on your mind and forgot to mention to Della that you had extra fabric for her when you saw her. You wanted to go ahead and drop it by and ask if there’s anything you can do while you’re out—something like that. What could be more natural?”
Beatrice wasn’t so sure, although she took the extra fabric from Meadow’s house, which Meadow stuck in a tote bag. “FYI, Meadow, there isn’t just fabric in here. There’s a pair of shears, rulers, and batting. You don’t need any of this?”
Meadow shrugged. “I have way too much stuff. You’ve inspired me to clear some things out. I don’t need that ancient tote bag, either.”
When Meadow dropped Beatrice back home, she decided to go in for at least a little while. She wanted to put her feet up for a bit.
An hour later, Beatrice picked up the large tote bag, and headed off to the Nelms estate.
The sun was starting to set. She parked the car in the circular driveway and got out with the bag of fabric. She hesitated for a minute, looking to see if she could spot Hawkins walking around. But she didn’t even see Barkis there.
Beatrice walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. After a minute, she heard footsteps coming.