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

  t seems to be some kind of shrine,” I said, standing transfixed in the doorway. “How sad!”

  “And creepy.” Ellis walked over and looked closer at the book. “They’ve even left it open to mark the place as if she’ll be back to finish reading it.”

  “What was she reading?” I asked, leaning over to see the title. I wasn’t surprised to see Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which I had read a number of times during my teens.

  “It’s almost as if she never left,” Ellis said, looking around.

  “She didn’t,” I reminded her, “because she was never here. Dinah married Dexter Clark soon after high school before her parents even moved to Stone’s Throw. She never saw this room.”

  So far Augusta had not spoken but I saw that she had stepped back from the doorway and now stood in the kitchen. The stones in her necklace, I noticed, were lusterless and dark. “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” she said. “I think we should leave right now.”

  “But we haven’t even looked in here,” I said, opening a drawer in the chest next to the bed. “If the locket is in this house, wouldn’t this be the natural place to keep it?”

  “Please, Augusta! We’re so close. I’m sure we can find it.” Ellis looked at the kitchen clock. “See, it’s not even eight yet. Just give us a little more time.”

  The angel sighed. Her earlier confidence and enthusiasm seemed to have vanished into the night. “Very well, I’ll be waiting out front, but do look quickly. However, I don’t believe you’ll be finding anything there.”

  “Well, Augusta was right … there’s not much here,” Ellis said, shutting a desk drawer a few minutes later. “I haven’t seen anything but some old schoolwork, a couple of paperbacks, and a few letters.”

  I had found the dresser drawers to be almost empty as well except for a few pairs of stockings, underwear, and a modest bathing suit. “I guess this is what Dinah left behind when she ran off to marry that loser.” I shoved the drawer back into place. “I can’t understand what she saw in him. What a waste!”

  While Ellis searched the closet, running her hands over shelves and crevices, I checked for a hiding place in the bedding, feeling under the mattress and pillow with no success. “Let’s get out of here,” I said finally. “This place is depressing.”

  Several pairs of shoes made a neat line across the closet floor and Ellis examined them one by one before carefully putting them back into place. “I’m with you,” she said, and froze with her hand on the closet door. Someone was in the kitchen.

  Heart thudding, I knelt behind the bed as close to the floor as I could get, but if one of the family was there, surely they would notice the door to the locked room was not only unlocked, but open.

  Whoever was in there was now opening the refrigerator door and I heard the clanking of jars being shifted about. I dared to glance across the room at Ellis, who was attempting to flatten herself against the wall.

  Something squeaked. An oven door? This was followed by a puzzling period of silence. I was working up the courage to make a dash for it when I heard another noise, one I couldn’t identify, but it warned me the person was still there.

  Ellis held a finger to her lips and began to move silently toward the door, hand out, as if she meant to close it quietly, when someone shouted, “Ah!”

  I recognized that “ah” and it sounded even more heavenly than usual. Augusta! I jumped to my feet and joined her in the kitchen, where she stood at the counter holding something in a small plastic bag. “Ah!” she said again. “I thought I’d find it here!”

  She had taken the top from the canister that held flour and the white powder lay scattered like snow on the countertop.

  “What is it? Is it the locket?” Ellis reached for the bag. “It is! Won’t Idonia be surprised when she sees it?”

  But Augusta was already cleaning away the mess she had made and now she held out her hand for the locket. “We can’t do that, Ellis. We have to put it back right away or they’ll realize we’ve been here.”

  All this trouble for nothing! I thought. “So why look for it if we have to put it back?” I fumed. “At least let’s open it and see what’s inside. There must be a reason this is so important to somebody.”

  But the only thing we found inside was a yellowing photograph of a bridal couple and the engraved date of their marriage, just as we had been told. Augusta quickly buried the locket once more, replaced the top, and in an instant the countertop was gleaming. “Now that we know who took it, it will serve our purpose better to let the police discover it here,” she said, quickly rinsing her hands at the sink.

  Ellis frowned. “But we really don’t, do we?”

  “Don’t what?” I asked.

  “Know who took it,” she said. “It could’ve been any of the Tanseys.”

  I watched as Augusta made sure the door to “Dinah’s room” was locked, and one look told me she was wearing her “secret” face. “You know, don’t you?” I asked. “You know who took the locket.”

  “Well, who? Don’t keep us in suspense,” Ellis said.

  Augusta busied herself bundling up in her cape before stepping out into the night. “I’d rather not say until I’m sure,” she said.

  I hurried after her. “But how did you know where to look? What made you think to check the flour canister?”

  “Why, I read it in a mystery,” she said.

  We had only walked a few steps from the house when Augusta stopped suddenly in front of us, her hand lifted in warning.

  “What is it?” I asked, untangling my sleeve from a briar.

  The angel spoke quietly. “I don’t think we’re alone out here.”

  I listened. “I don’t hear anything,” I said. It was hard to see in the darkness and I hadn’t seen or heard a car approaching.

  “Oh, come on, Augusta. It’s freezing out here!” Ellis grumbled. “I think we’re all on edge, and it’s getting late. Let’s just hurry and get home.”

  We couldn’t very well spend the night standing out here in the woods, I thought, and was relieved when Augusta finally moved on.

  The three of us walked as quickly as we could but it was impossible to be quiet, at least for Ellis and me, as we seemed to step on every brittle twig in our path, and dry leaves rattled in our wake.

  Was there someone else in the woods? Augusta wasn’t the type to be alarmed for no reason. Had one or more of the Tanseys returned and were now waiting to confront us here in this lonely place?

  I was soon able to make out the dark outline of the shed just ahead of us, and Ellis and I started to run to the safety of the car parked behind it. But again Augusta signaled us to stop.

  And that was when I saw them. In the clearing beside the shed two figures waited as if they intended to block our way to the car. It was too dark to see their faces but they didn’t appear to be trying to hide. It was almost as if they wanted us to see them.

  Should we run? Try to escape? Terrified, I looked to Augusta for advice.

  “Uh-oh!” she said.

  Uh-oh? What kind of angelic response was that? Of course she didn’t have to worry, I remembered. Whoever waited for us wouldn’t be able to see her, which would leave them free to concentrate on Ellis and me.

  One of them spoke. “You might as well come on out. We know you’re there.”

  As soon as I heard the voice, the fear that had formed a huge icicle in my middle began to thaw—a little.

  “I hope you have a good reason for being out here,” Kemper Mungo said.

  Someone shone a flashlight in our faces. “Miss Lucy Nan? Miss Ellis? This isn’t a very good place for you ladies right now.” Speaking softly but sternly, Police Lieutenant Ed Tillman, my son’s boyhood friend, came out of the darkness to meet us. “I’m going to have to ask you to explain why you’re here,” he said.

  “Fine, as long as we can do it someplace where it’s warm,” Ellis said.

  I agreed. The wind had picked up and the athletic shoes I wore to
sneak around in weren’t doing a very good job of keeping my feet warm. Augusta, I noticed, had vanished altogether.

  We wound up sharing a Thermos of coffee in the police cruiser parked off the road not too far away. Augusta was somewhere close by. I sensed her presence and knew she’d never desert us even if she couldn’t testify on our behalf in court. Ellis concentrated on relishing her steaming beverage and looked to me to take all the heat. And that was when I decided to tell the truth. Sort of.

  “We went by to drop off some homemade candy but the door was locked,” I said. “I hated to leave it outside—it’s divinity, you know, and moisture just ruins it, so I just let myself in—”

  Ed Tillman frowned. “How?”

  “With a key, of course. My cousin owns the place and sometimes asks me to look in to see if everything’s all right—with the tenant’s permission, of course.”

  Well, that was an out-and-out lie. I could just imagine Augusta flinching.

  “But the Tanseys weren’t at home?” I could barely see Ed’s face, but there was a question in his voice.

  I let that hang in the air for a minute. “I thought I might find Idonia’s locket,” I said finally.

  Kemper cleared his throat. “In other words, you searched the house.”

  Ellis, seeing my dilemma, finally jumped in—and about time! “Just looked around a little, that’s all,” she said.

  “You must have known you were breaking the law,” Ed said. “And what made you think the Tanseys had Mrs. Culpepper’s locket?”

  I couldn’t believe these two were as thickheaded as all that, but this wasn’t the time to say so. “Who else would have taken it?” I asked. “That locket was given to the Tanseys’ daughter, Dinah, when she became engaged. There’s a picture on their piano of her wearing it.”

  The two men exchanged looks which I took to mean they thought they knew something we didn’t.

  “I don’t suppose you found it,” Ed Tillman said. I let that one hang, too, until the silence got too much for them. “Are you trying to tell us you did?” This from Kemper. “Well, you did ask,” Ellis reminded him. “What do you want us to say?”

  Ed—or somebody—drew in his breath. “Then I’ll have to ask you to turn it over to us. That locket could be used as evi—”

  “We don’t have it,” I told him.

  “Then just where is it?” Ed was getting impatient.

  Ellis finished her coffee and nudged me. “Should we tell them, Lucy Nan, or let them find it for themselves?”

  I considered suggesting we make a game of it like I do with Teddy, letting them know when they’re getting hot or cold, but my better instincts took over. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s in the flour canister,” I said.

  “They never would’ve found it,” Ellis said on the drive home.

  Augusta spoke from the backseat. “Probably not. You did the right thing, Lucy Nan. Now it’s their time to hit the ball.”

  I smiled to myself in the darkness. The ball was in their court, all right, if they would just pursue it. After a serious lecture on the dangers and repercussions of what we had just done, we were warned to stay on our own side of the fence, so to speak, and leave the detective work to the professionals.

  “What do you think they were doing out there?” Ellis asked as we turned into my driveway on Heritage Avenue.

  “I think they were on a stakeout,” I said. “From what Weigelia tells me, Jeremiah seems to have cut and run. They must’ve been waiting for him to show up at home.”

  “I’ve read all about that,” Augusta said. “It’s called ‘casing the joint.’”

  Now that the police knew where to find the locket, I thought, the next step would be to obtain a search warrant, and it occurred to me we hadn’t even told them about the locked room.

  Ellis must have been thinking about it, too. “I was hoping we’d find at least some clue as to where Idonia might be,” she said. “Tomorrow’s the program of Lessons and Carols and she’d never miss that—not intentionally, anyway.”

  “Hey! It’s not over till it’s over,” I said. “Maybe Nathan’s heard from her by now.” I didn’t like the way this conversation was going.

  “Isn’t that a car parked over there by your hydrangea bush?” Augusta said as Ellis pulled up to the back steps.

  I leaned forward to get a better look. Were the Stone’s Throw police casing our joint, too? I had left the porch light burning and even with the headlights from Ellis’s car, it was hard to distinguish one make from another. Julie wasn’t due home for another couple of days and even in this poor light I would recognize her little red Honda.

  “I think we’d better get out of here,” Ellis said, and gunned the accelerator to back away, but Augusta leaned over to touch her on the shoulder. “Wait. It’s all right,” she said.

  We watched as the driver’s door of the strange car opened and a figure stepped into the light. “Where in the world have you been? I’ve been waiting out here for hours,” Idonia said. “I thought you’d never get home!”

  nd we’d like to know where you’ve been,” I said, running to hug her. “Are you all right? We’ve been worried to death!”

  Idonia practically shoved us up the steps. “First, I have to go to the bathroom, and then I’d really like something hot to drink. It’s freezing out here.”

  “Does Nathan know where you are?” Ellis asked after Idonia’s needs were taken care of. “He’s been out of his mind wondering if you’re okay.”

  Idonia waved that aside while she dunked an orange spice teabag in a cup of steaming water. “Oh, I left a message on his cell phone. He knows I’m all right.”

  “But does he know where you are?” I asked, and I was almost sure of the answer. If Idonia’s son knew she was here he’d be in this kitchen with the rest of us.

  “Well, you see … that’s the thing …” We waited while she stirred sugar into her cup. “He’ll have all these questions and it’s late and I’m really tired.” Idonia smiled coyly, which is not—I repeat, not her usual manner at all. “I’d rather not have to deal with Nathan until tomorrow.”

  Ellis was turning red in the face, which meant she was about two seconds away from giving Idonia Mae Culpepper a serious piece of her mind, but she’d have to get in line behind me. “Well, you’re going to have to deal with us,” I said. “Where on God’s green earth have you been for the past two days?”

  “Melrose felt uneasy about my staying here in town after what happened at Bellawood, so he arranged for me to meet him at this lovely little inn this side of Raleigh,” she said.

  Ellis frowned at her across the table. “You’ve been with Melrose all this time?”

  Idonia sipped her tea before speaking. “Oh, it was all very proper, you understand—separate rooms and all.”

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass if you and Melrose made out on the courthouse lawn!” I said. “Would it have taken too much of an effort to give at least one of us a call?”

  Alarmed at the tone of my voice, Clementine scurried into the sitting room where I knew Augusta waited to calm her. If only she could calm me!

  Idonia spoke serenely as if she were addressing a small child, one who isn’t very bright. “But that would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it? The object, after all, was for me to remain out of sight until all this has been cleared up.” She tucked a stray lock of red hair into place and cleared her throat. “Of course I insisted on returning for tomorrow’s Christmas service, although Melrose was dead set against it. But I just told him, ‘Melrose,’ I said, ‘I haven’t missed taking part in our Christmas music program for over thirty years, and I don’t intend to start now.’”

  Idonia drained the rest of her tea and stood. “And now, if you don’t mind putting me up for the night, I’d like to get some sleep. I was going to ask Nettie for that spare room upstairs but she must’ve already gone to bed as I couldn’t get her to come to the door. You know, I wouldn’t dare mention this to Nettie, but I believe she’s
getting quite deaf.”

  Ellis, who also stood, held up a hand. “Whoa!” she said. “Do you realize, Idonia, that the police are looking for Melrose DuBois?”

  The woman seemed genuinely puzzled. “Now why would they do that?”

  “Let me count the ways,” I said, listing them on my fingers. “First, he was seen at the church the night of Opal Henshaw’s murder, and left town soon afterward—”

  “Murder?” Idonia gasped.

  “We’re pretty sure it was deliberate,” I said, continuing. “Also, he lied about that locket he gave you, which, if you’ll remember, belonged to the Tanseys’ daughter, Dinah, who was married to Opal’s nephew Dexter Clark … “

  “Remember him?” Ellis said. “Dexter was the fellow we found under the balcony at Willowbrook—deader than a doornail. The police are kind of curious to find out how Melrose came by that fascinating piece of jewelry.”

  Idonia sat again. “I’ve asked him about that, and there’s a perfectly good explanation, if you’ll—”

  “Idonia, if you know where Melrose is, I think you’d better tell us,” I said.

  She looked down at her hands in her lap. “You’ll know soon enough. He plans to be at church in the morning … and Melrose didn’t know anything about that locket, I promise!”

  “But why the disappearing act?” Ellis asked. “And why isn’t he with you now?”

  Idonia shook her head and smiled. “He has his reasons. You’ll see. And now, if you don’t mind, I really need some sleep.”

  “Only if you make a phone call first,” I told her, and Ellis and I stood on either side of her while she spoke with Nathan, who happened to be staying at Idonia’s. I could hear Nathan Culpepper’s stormy ranting from a few feet away.

  “He wants to speak with you,” Idonia said, handing me the phone, and I assured Nathan that his mother was safe with me and that I would deliver her to church in the morning. And then I laughed.