“Oh yeah. I’m not sure how much Elsbeth understood, but from what Piddy was saying to Stella Jane when she made an appearance at the bookstore as a favor to Elsbeth and our group, Piddy pretty much told Stella Jane that she and Elton were going to sue her for what she wrote in the book without her permission.”
One of the residents pushed her walker into the room, where she sat down on the couch in the reception area near the television. She picked up the remote off the side table and turned up the volume.
“Marlene, turn up your ears and turn the television volume down,” Vivian called over to the resident, who met her words with resistance but complied anyways.
I knew exactly what Piddy was talking about with Stella Jane—the affair between her and Bobby Peters that Stella Jane had written about but tried to use different names so people wouldn’t figure out it was them. Of course everyone in Sugar Creek Gap, not to mention the rest of the world, knew it was real-life secrets that Stella Jane had told. Especially now that it was on every major news outlet and social media site. Or at least it was the topic of conversation on the television show Marlene was watching.
Chapter 13
“So you mean to tell me that she was murdered by mothballs?” Iris asked. I nodded. “Then they can check me all they want. I have no mothballs.”
Iris, Revonda, and I sat at the preparation island at Pie in the Face kitchen to go over any clues that we might’ve thought of, especially now that we knew Piddy had ingested mothballs or something with that same chemical.
“It still makes you a suspect.” I hated to tell her that. “You volunteer at the Sugar Creek Gap Nursing Home, which when you walk into the place, you can smell that distinct smell to high heaven.” Her face went from bright to dull. “I’m sorry. But we have to explore all angles. I didn’t get to see Jigs Baker because he was busy with Angela when I delivered the funeral home mail, so I didn’t get to see an exact time of death or maybe ingestion. But here’s the thing. Who was with her the last five minutes? You,” I pointed out. Iris groaned, and her shoulders slumped.
“If we can figure out how she ingested it, then. . .” Revonda had a good suggestion, so I wrote it on the wipe-off board.
“She had a coffee!” Iris jumped up.
Revonda Gail jumped.
“Sorry.” Iris went over to the board, and she pointed to Stella Jane’s name. One of our suspects we’d come up with along with Elton, Piddy’s husband, and now Lucy Drake since she’d suddenly been given a leave of absence.
“Coffee. That’s a good start.” I wrote under Piddy’s name that she had coffee.
“I’m not sure if it was coffee or something else, but it was one of the thermal cups with a lid.” Iris paced back and forth as she tried to remember. “It was light blue. Kinda teal or country blue.”
“Maybe I can get Monica Reed to do my route, and I work the counter at the post office. Then I could have a reason to pick Elton’s brain since they have a PO box.” I wanted to get to Elton, but I wasn’t sure how I’d get in front of him without being so obvious.
“You don’t have to do that.” Iris turned, and a smile crept up on her face. “We can get in because I’ve got some orders to be delivered to him at their house.”
“Brilliant!” Revonda’s voice jumped an octave. “I’m sure you’re not welcome since you and Piddy had a fight and you’re a suspect, but Bernadette and I sure can deliver it. Bernadette, you can talk to him while I snoop around the house.”
“How exactly will you snoop around the house?” I asked.
“You keep him talking, and I’ll take care of what I need to do.” Revonda Gail seemed very confident, which didn’t make me question her.
The three of us went ahead and decided to make the plan. Tomorrow was Sunday. Before church would be a perfect time to take the desserts over.
“We can drop off the dessert, and then we can go to church,” I said.
“You can drop me off before you go to church.” Revonda Gail didn’t want no part of going to church.
“If you want to take part in this here little investigation, then you’re going to church.” Not that I needed her to go to church to pull off snooping around, but I knew it would make Gertrude very happy to see Revonda in a building that Gertrude loved so much. “Plus, it will make your mom believe you are on the up-and-up.”
Revonda Gail crossed her arms and studied my face for a minute, like she was trying to decide if she wanted to take my deal.
I continued on with the others.
“We have Stella Jane who was with Piddy. I overheard the conversation she had on the phone. She has access to mothballs since Elsbeth is in the nursing home. She’s already on the radar for Angela since they went to see Elsbeth.” I wasn’t able to get any information from Vita Dickens, the newly deputized sheriff’s deputy.
Since she’d been promoted, she wasn’t in the department much. I would pick up a sweet treat from Pie in the Face on my route on Monday because good sweet treats got Vita’s lips moving. I’d be all ears.
“We also have Lucy Drake, who thinks she’s flying under the radar with her flaunting ways, but now that Elton has come forward, I’m not so sure Lucy killed her. But maybe with Elton being so mad, he and Lucy might’ve killed Piddy.” It wasn’t all worked out with the details, but I did know Lucy was mad. Elton was mad.
I let out a long sigh and bit my lips together while looking at Iris.
“What is that look?” Iris asked me.
“I know you’re not going to like this.” I used the marker to circle Bobby Peters’s name on the wipe-off board.
“No. You think you’re going to get me to talk to Bobby Peters about this?” Iris shot me down.
“I know you don’t want to do this, but you know Bobby Peters better than anyone, and you will be able to talk to him about it. Use your gift of feeling and see if he did it.” I wasn’t doing a very good job of convincing her.
“Or you can look at it like he’s your ally.” Revonda Gail got our ears.
“Go on. I’m listening.” Iris leaned her hip up against the island and crossed her arms.
“You can finally use him for what you need. Maybe he did do it. You can use him and his knowledge to clear you but figure out how he slipped her the mothballs or naphthalene. I mean, honestly the cops are looking at it only as mothballs.” Revonda Gail pulled her cell out of her pocket. She typed away on it until she brought it up to her face and read, “Naphthalene is also in several bug sprays and pesticides. Does Bobby use any of those in his lumberyard to keep off the bugs?”
“Mm-hmm.” Iris’s lips curled together, and her eyes narrowed.
“And I did see him in the crowd on the way to the football game,” I recalled but didn’t tell her that I’d actually thought to myself how glad I was that Iris had stayed back at the bookstore because if she’d seen him, she might’ve lost her ever-loving mind.
“That son of a gun,” she spat. “You saw him?”
I nodded.
“Near the bookstore that night?”
I nodded again.