Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed: An Augusta Goodnight Mystery (with Heavenly Recipes) (32 page)

And Idonia Mae Culpepper began to cry anew.

lease don’t worry, Idonia,” I found myself saying. “We’ll work it out somehow. I think it’s time to bring the police into this, and you’re going to have to tell Nathan what’s going on.”

“Tell Nathan what?” Suddenly Nathan was standing beside us, and I saw Ben in the doorway behind him wondering, probably, what was taking me so long.

“Look, all of us have to eat lunch,” I said. “Unless you have other plans, why not meet somewhere and discuss this calmly? Ben and I were thinking of Big Jake’s out on the north end of town.”

“I’m not hungry,” Idonia said.

“Well, I am,” Nathan told her, “and Big Jake’s sounds just fine to me.”

And so it was decided. Ellis had family coming for lunch, Claudia had already left for home, and Jo Nell was expecting some of her husband Paul’s kin to drop by, but Zee and Nettie joined us at a table for eight, which included Sara and Millicent, Nathan’s wife and daughter. Over two hours later when just about everyone else had left the restaurant and the busboy began pointedly
sweeping under our feet, Nathan finally agreed to stay in Stone’s Throw one more day to await news of the whimsical Melrose DuBois. Idonia, however, was to take her story to the local police.

“Lucy Nan, you will come with me, won’t you?” she said when leaving the restaurant. “I mean, after all, you were at Bellawood when the locket was taken, and you said you saw Melrose at that mall in Georgia. Besides,” she added, “those Tanseys, who seem to be mixed up in all this, work for your family, don’t they?”

Well, what could I say? If there was ever a time a friend needed support, this was it, and besides, I was dying to find out what had happened after we left the Tanseys’ place the night before.

Ben, who would be leaving that afternoon to spend Christmas with his son Greer in Atlanta, kissed me briefly before we left in separate cars. Because Greer is in his last year of residency at Emory University Hospital, he wasn’t able to get away, and Ben didn’t want him to be without family, even though they might not have a chance to spend much time together. “See you in a few days,” he whispered, as I drove away, and I grew warm at the thought. We had agreed to exchange gifts at a ski resort in North Carolina in early January, and the fact that neither of us knew how to ski didn’t bother us a bit.

Earlier I had phoned Eula Shackelford in Soso and left a message for Carolyn to call me at my cell phone number, but as yet she hadn’t returned my call.

I found a familiar vehicle in the parking lot behind the Stone’s Throw police station and a familiar figure in it. I wasn’t surprised when Ellis got out of her car to join me in mine. “Zee called and told me you all would be here,” she said, “but you might as well just stay where you are because they won’t let you in the room while they talk to Idonia.”

“Then how am I supposed to give her comfort and support from out here?” I wailed, settling down to wait.

“I hope they don’t arrest her for being an accomplice—or,
what is it? An accessory after the fact,” Augusta said from the backseat, startling both Ellis and me.

“Good grief, Augusta! You just about scared me to death,” I said. “And that’s not even funny.”

“I didn’t mean it to be,” she said. “But I believe she’ll be all right. Her son seems a solid sort, and I expect she’ll be glad of his presence after all.”

With eyes on the door where we hoped our friend would soon emerge, we settled in to make the best of the situation, and had been there only a few minutes when my cell phone rang.

Carolyn Shackelford Haney had a voice as rhythmic and full of humor as her mother’s and I could hear a baby trying very hard to talk in the background. I told her I was looking for someone who had kept in touch with Dinah Tansey after her marriage to Dexter Clark, who might know where she died and was buried.

“It was somewhere in North Carolina,” she said, “but I can’t think of the name of the town. I kept several of her letters though, and if you’ll wait just a minute, I’ll go get them. I know Mama wouldn’t throw them away.”

I was going to tell her I would call her back, but she had already gone in search of the letters. A few minutes later I heard hurried footsteps approaching. “It was Asheboro,” Carolyn said breathlessly. “I should’ve remembered because we drove through there looking at furniture once and I went to visit her grave.”

“So you actually saw where she was buried?” I asked.

Carolyn didn’t speak for a minute and when she did it was with emotion. “Dinah and I were friends since the fifth grade, but it was about a year after she died that I got a phone call from Dexter telling me what had happened. He cried, wanted to see me, to talk, I guess—seemed to be sorry … I don’t know, but I did come. I came for Dinah. She was a gifted musician, you know. Played
the piano and the flute. Dinah could’ve done something with her life. Instead she—” Her voice broke.

“That must have been a tragic experience losing a friend like that—and one so young,” I said. “Carolyn, there’s a reason I’m asking you this, but I need to know when Dinah died. Do you remember the date?”

“I sure do. It was April 17, 2002, the day my nephew was born. The little dickens was three weeks early.”

I thought of the beautiful young girl dying too soon, and although it made me sad, it also made me furious. This could’ve happened to my own headstrong daughter, Julie. It might happen yet. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “It seems like such a waste. What on earth do you suppose made her go off with somebody like Dexter Clark?”

Carolyn hesitated before she spoke. “I think she did it to get away from that house,” she said.

But when I asked her what she meant, she wouldn’t say any more.

“How do you know Dinah was really in that grave?” Ellis said when I repeated our conversation.

I hadn’t thought to ask Carolyn if there had been a stone. “We’ll have to wait until tomorrow and call about the death certificate,” I said. “All the county offices will be closed on Sunday.”

“No, we won’t,” Ellis reminded me. “Now that we know where and when Dinah was supposed to have died, we can access that on a computer.”

Augusta sighed. “Glory be! I should’ve thought of that.”

“I wish we had one with us,” I said. Now that we were this close to learning the truth about Dinah’s death, I couldn’t bear to wait.

“What about your friend who works for the college?” Augusta asked. “Wouldn’t she have one of those machines?”

“Claudia! Of course. I know she used to do a lot of freelance work from home,” Ellis said. “Let’s hope we can catch her before she goes off somewhere.”

We were in luck. “Ohmygosh! Do you really think she might not have died? Wait a sec, let me turn off this food processor.” Claudia, I learned, was in the middle of making clam dip for a family party. “I can look it up now if you can hold, or did you rather I call you back?”

I was going to tell her we’d wait when Ellis let out a shout, “Here she comes!” And I looked up to see Idonia coming out of the building with Nathan and his family.

At least they didn’t arrest her, I thought. Not yet, anyway. “Idonia’s just leaving the police station, and as far as I can tell, she’s not in handcuffs,” I told Claudia. “Just give me a call on my cell phone when you know something, okay?”

“Will do, if you’ll fill me in on Idonia,” she promised.

Nathan, I noticed, had a firm grip on his mother’s arm and she signaled frantically for us to follow them as they left the station and turned in the direction of Idonia’s house.

“I’ll ride with you,” Ellis said when I hesitated to follow. “We don’t want to lose them.”

Nathan’s wife and daughter were leaving Idonia’s as we drove up; they had things to do to get ready for Christmas, Nathan explained. He and his mother, he added, would be following them in the morning.

Augusta accompanied us inside, then disappeared, but I knew she was there listening. Like Ellis and me, she couldn’t bear not to know what was going on.

Yawning, Nathan excused himself to take a short nap, as, he said pointedly, he didn’t get much sleep the night before.

Good, I thought. Now Idonia can tell us what went on during her interrogation with the Stone’s Throw police.

She didn’t waste any time. “Bless his heart,” she said as her son left the room. “I’m afraid he’s a bit miffed with me.”

“He’ll get over it,” I said. “What did the police have to say? They didn’t tell you not to leave town, did they?”

Idonia sighed. “Oh, I wish! They really wanted me to tell them all about Melrose.”

“And did you?” Ellis asked.

“I told them all I knew. Of course, I don’t know where he is now. I wish I did!” Idonia went to the window and peered out at the empty street. “I’m afraid I was a little harsh on them, but Melrose is in trouble. I know he is, and they keep acting as if he’s done something wrong!” She pulled herself up to her full stature and gave the curtains a jerk. “I told that simpleton Elmer Harris if he’d concentrate on finding the real killer instead of picking on innocent people, they would’ve cleared this up by now.”

Idonia paced to the mantel and paused just long enough to adjust a candlestick. “And I’m not the only one who feels that way. Paulette Morgan—you know Paulette—dispatcher over at the police department—anyway, she told me Opal’s brother was in there yesterday carryin’ on something terrible about what happened to Opal. The man’s no fool. He knows good and well it was murder.”

I wasn’t surprised. From what Terrance Banks had said when we spoke with him the day before, he was as determined to get to the bottom of this as we were.

“What else did they want to know?” I asked.

Idonia perched on the arm of a chair and spoke so softly I had to strain to hear her. “They asked where he got the locket.”

I leaned forward. “Where did he get it?”

“From some booth at a flea market in Charlotte.” Idonia flushed. “Oh, I know Melrose stretched the truth—okay, he told a whopper about it being a family heirloom and all, but he wanted it to be special, you see. He had no idea it had belonged to the Tanseys’ daughter.”

“And to Opal’s family before that. I’m surprised Opal didn’t mention it to him,” Ellis said. “Didn’t he show it to her?”

Idonia nodded. “Told him her grandmother or somebody like that—had had one just like it. She wanted to know where he got
it, but of course he didn’t want to admit it came from a flea market. Silly man! Didn’t he know it wouldn’t have mattered to me where it came from?”

Idonia turned away, I thought to hide her tears, but she stood and spoke with new resolve. “I want to speak with Al Evans. When Melrose disappeared after Opal died the police took a box of his belongings from the Spring Lamb. They turned it over to Al after they looked through it since he’s his closest kin. I’d like to know what’s in there.”

Ellis grinned. “Lucy Nan thinks Al’s been hiding Melrose. Thought they were in cahoots together.”

“I did not!” I shot her a dirty look.

“Did, too! After Opal’s funeral you wanted us to follow that poor man home. You know you did, Lucy Nan.”

“Well … I thought he might know where Melrose was,” I admitted.

“I wish he did,” Idonia said, “but there might be something in the notes Melrose made that would give us an idea where to find him. I know he kept a notebook from that correspondence course he was taking. It’s got to be in there.”

I remembered what Idonia had said about Melrose taking a course in detective work and offered to bring her the box.

“I’ll come with you,” she said.

“Idonia, if Nathan wakes from his nap and finds you gone, I won’t be responsible for what he might do,” I told her. “If you’ll call Al and tell him we’re on the way, we’ll be back before you can say, John Robinson.”