Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp (15 page)

“Everyone, meet Ralph Garis,” Adele
announced. “He’s decided to join our committee, since he has a
special interest in one of our families.”

“Oh?” asked Geraldine.

“Ralph is the father of Paula Garis
Wentworth. You know, she owns the restaurant where Angelica Leonard
wanted a job.”

Suddenly it all clicked. The large
young man who had been with him yesterday was probably Frank,
Paula’s brother.

Geraldine got right to the point. “I
haven’t seen you in church lately, Ralph,” she said
sharply.

“We talked about that, Dini,”
explained Adele in a rush. Dini was Geraldine’s nickname, although
I suspected she didn’t care for it very much. Geraldine was a
large, proud woman, and the diminutive “Dini” didn’t fit her. “He’s
on the church membership roll, and there’s nothing in the by-laws
requiring regular church attendance to be on a
committee.”

Ralph leaned forward and took a
chocolate donut, while staring intently at Geraldine.

There was more tension in the room
than I understood. Geraldine and Ralph apparently were
acquaintances, but certainly not old friends. However, the dark
mood was broken when John Aho walked through the door, whistling a
lilting tune. “I think I can stay about thirty minutes, so if
there’s important business to conduct, maybe we could get right to
it,” he said. “I’ve got Marie watching the till, but she can’t do
any repairs.” He was blond and bony, with a cheerful grin, and wore
the dark blue uniform of an automobile service man, and it was
well-spotted with grease. He chose a pink donut and filled a
styrofoam cup with coffee, black. His hands were fairly clean, but
the odor of industrial degreaser wafted through the
room.

“Excellent!” Adele said, glad of an
easy transition to business. She wrote something in her
notebook.

We jumped right into a discussion of
the needs of the Leonards. Geraldine was the certified literacy
tutor, and she reported meeting once with Corliss. She didn’t call
him Len. She indicated that he did have severe dyslexia, and
rambled on a bit too long about the details of his disability, but
it gave us all a chance to nibble donuts and sip our coffee. Adele
asked her opinion of the likelihood of Len’s success. At this,
Geraldine said he was motivated, and she had high hopes if he stuck
with the program. Then I was in the spotlight a bit more than I was
prepared for, but I had seen much more of the family than any other
committee member. I explained how close I had become to the girls
because of the dog, and told some stories of our time together.
When I mentioned his name, Paddy thumped his tail against the table
legs.

“And Angelica’s body was found on your
property?” Ralph asked. This was the first time I’d been directly
asked about the location.

“Not exactly. I’ve been told by the
detective not to give out details.”

“The rumor is that the dog actually
found the burial site,” Geraldine said. It wasn’t a question, but
she was clearly prying for more information.

“People will talk,” I replied
evasively.

“I don’t understand why the body would
have shown up now, if she was buried seven years ago,” Ralph said,
sounding belligerent. “But the paper said it was definitely
murder.”

“Did you see the body? Was there a
gunshot wound?” added Geraldine, giving up any pretense of being
subtle.

“Don’t be silly, Dini,” said Adele.
“There was nothing left but a skeleton, according to the
news.”

“But a skull could still have a bullet
hole in it.”

I recalled overhearing Officer Brown
mention knife marks on the ribs, but I didn’t say
anything.

“After all, how do they know it was
murder?” asked Ralph. “The news article was very
sketchy.”

“Can we get back on track?” John put
in, looking at his watch.

“Yes, indeed,” added Adele. “Ana,
based on your observations, do you have any suggestions of specific
ways to help Len and the girls?”

“I do,” I said confidently, glad to
take the focus off the murder. “I’ve learned that the girls were
raised by Becky to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables, to eat a
healthy diet. But they can’t get to town to shop very often because
Len finds it so difficult to drive. Their refrigerator is at least
forty years old. I’m wondering if the church could buy them a new
one, and make sure they get to a store once a week.

“Excellent suggestion,” said
Geraldine. “I make a motion we do just that.”

“Second,” said John.

Adele called for discussion, but there
was none. She followed with, “All in favor?”

We voted, Adele wrote in her notebook
again, and just that easily the Leonards had a new appliance coming
their way. John said he’d check on prices at several stores, and
report back.

“Remember, they live in a trailer,” I
noted. “It can’t be a side-by-side.”

One other item was on our agenda, but
that service project consisted only of taking meals to a family
where the mother was undergoing strong chemotherapy. Adele said the
schedule was already covered for the next two weeks. We adjourned
and John rushed for the door, having stayed well past his allotted
half hour. I’d had no chance to talk to him at all.

Geraldine picked up her purse, put an
extra donut in a napkin, and left quickly, while Adele began
clearing up the trash. Ralph approached me. I already didn’t care
for his manner, and now he moved close to me. Either he was
near-sighted, or didn’t have a good sense of other people’s
personal space.

“I suppose you know quite a bit about
what happened between Angelica and DuWayne, since you’ve gotten so
close to the family,” he said.

I took a step backwards, and he moved
right into the space, again standing too near me.

“I’m not sure I do,” I said. “I’m not
even sure it’s any of my business. I’ve become very fond of Star
and Sunny, but I’m only interested in information about Angelica
and DuWayne if it will make me more able to help the girls
now.”

“Frank and DuWayne were good friends
in high school. We’re not racist.” He straightened importantly.
“But DuWayne went off on the wrong track. Frank and I tried to tell
him to shape up, or he’d end up in jail. Then he took up playing
house with Angie, and started acting as if he were too good for
us!”

Apparently, Ralph planned to fill me
in whether I was interested or not. Adele closed the kitchen door
behind her and interjected, “All set?”

Ralph ignored her and pointed a finger
at my nose. I couldn’t understand why he was being so forceful with
me. “Those kids are DuWayne’s blood. Be careful you don’t get
burned.”

Now I understood. Despite his words to
the contrary, Ralph was apparently more interested in warning us
about involvement with the girls than in really helping them. Paddy
stood and was growling softly. Adele had also heard the important
parts of his monologue.

“Really, Ralph! Is that why you wanted
to be on this committee? Go home and take your prejudice with you.
We’ll get by just fine with only four members.” She grabbed him by
the arm and turned toward the outer door.

Ralph glared at her and shook himself
free. “I’ll leave, but you mark my words, there’s nothing but
trouble ahead for that family, no matter what you do. Hammer Bridge
Town does not spawn winners.”

He stalked out the door. Adele looked
at me and rolled her eyes. “I should have known,” she said with a
sigh. “Here, I pride myself on knowing what’s going on, but I was
so eager to have another warm body on the committee that I didn’t
catch on.”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” I said,
sympathetically.

“I’ll walk you out.” She picked up her
notebook.

“OK.” I released Paddy’s leash from
the table leg, and he stretched and smiled up at us. At least he
was exempt from the problems of human prejudice. We exited, and
Adele locked the outer door while I took Paddy to the tall grass
behind the asphalt parking lot. When we converged at my car she
paused.

“Did you notice Dennis Milford at the
service?”

“The detective? Sure. He was keeping a
close eye on everyone. I don’t blame him. They say killers often
show up at the funerals of their victims.”

“Probably, but he was watching you a
lot of the time.”

“Me?” I was incredulous. “I didn’t
even know Angelica.”

“Oh, Ana. You can be so dense. I think
he likes you.”

“What are you talking about? That’s
crazy. He treats me like a block of wood. Well, maybe as if I’m a
little brighter than that, more like... a... a... cow!”

Adele was looking sly. “Of course he’s
acting that way. A man like that can’t let on that he’s impressed,
and attracted to you.”

This was really too brazen, even for
Adele, who liked to play matchmaker. “I don’t believe a word of
what you are saying. I don’t even want to believe it. The man has
nothing on his mind but business, and he’s really gruff about
that.”

“I’m just saying... “

“I don’t want to hear any more silly
ideas like this. The man was doing his job, that’s all.”

“Whatever you say. I need to get back
to the store. Actually, I am able to stay away longer than I used
to. Justin’s working out so well I’ve made him a manager, and hired
another cashier. Justin is even thinking about switching his major
to business. But I hate to leave him more than a couple of
hours.”

“I won’t keep you, then. Actually I
need to go to Emily City.” I really wanted to get away from Adele
and her wild ideas. I opened my car door, and Paddy jumped
in.

“Wait,” Adele implored, sensing my
desire to leave immediately. “You do need to know something, but I
didn’t want to tell everyone. You know how nosy people
are.”

I tried not to smile. Adele was
nosiest of them all, but she hadn’t needed to ask any prying
questions at the meeting. Everyone else had done that, and she had
only kept her ears open. “What’s that?”

“Did you see Frank
yesterday?”

“Is he the heavy man who was with
Ralph?”

“That’s the one.” She glanced around
as if suddenly worried that someone might hear, but the parking lot
was empty except for the two of us. I was more worried that someone
had overheard her wild speculations about Detective Milford. “Such
a shame. He used to be the picture of fitness, but he came home
with PTSD, and he’s never been the same.”

“From the Army?”

“Yes, Iraq.” She shook her head
sadly.

“I saw him, but I didn’t meet
him.”

“He couldn’t get away from Ralph for
even a minute. But when they left, he slipped me a note.” She
placed a piece of paper in my hand.

I opened it and read
silently, “Larry Louama was released from prison last week.”
I raised my eyebrows, but said nothing. I wasn’t
sure how this was important to me.

Adele had more to tell me. “They only
sent him away for robbery and assault, but there’s not much doubt
that he killed J. Everett Bailey.”

“Who’s that?”

“He owned the Sleep Lodge in Emily
City. He walked in on a drug deal going down in one of his rooms
and ended up dead.”

“And you think Larry did
it?

“Everyone knows he did, but no one
could ever prove it. He’s slick as a snake.”

“Why is this important to me?” I
asked, doubting her accusation which she didn’t back up with
anything resembling a fact.

“My money’s on him as Angelica’s
killer.”

Chapter 23

All of Adele’s crazy ideas swirled
around in my head as I drove to Emily City, but I was too annoyed
to sort it all out. Paddy was getting accustomed to staying at Fur
and Fins, and once again I dropped him off to play while I looked
for a place to get an inexpensive cell phone. I grabbed a burger
and fries at a fast-food drive-thru and cruised the small strip
malls until I found a wireless phone store.

After an interminable wait with six
people ahead of me, a young, acne-scarred man asked if he could
help. He tried to sell me several fancy “mobile devices,” as he
called them, but I finally convinced him I only wanted to make an
occasional phone call while away from my house. This caused him to
downgrade his sales pitch to something smaller, but I was
determined to buy a phone and not a portable computer. Eventually,
I had my way, and left with a basic flip phone, activated for a
limited number of monthly minutes at a reasonable fee.

My frustration quota for the day was
about maxed out. Having Family Friends infiltrated by a racist,
hearing Adele’s improbable assertions, eating junk food for lunch,
and being pressured to buy something I didn’t want had taken a
toll. To be honest, I was seething inside, and nearly forgot to
pick up the dog at the pet store.

But Paddy wagged his whole body, not
just his tail, when he was brought in from the play yard, as if I
were his favorite person in the whole world. He thrust his nose
into my hand, and when I knelt down to pet him he insisted on
trying to lick my face, despite my protestations, until I was
laughing out loud. Somehow he knew my efforts to push his long face
away from mine were only half serious, and in a few minutes I was
sitting flat on the floor, leaning against a pallet of dog food
bags, with a wet face, half-crying from my released emotions and
gulping with the effort to stop. The sales assistant had walked
away and left me several minutes previously. Now, he returned with
a woman who appeared to be a manager.