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

  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.”

  “That’s Jack Robinson,” Ellis said as we left. “You’ve been around Augusta too long.”

  I heard her laughter before Augusta appeared on the backseat. “I heard that,” she said, “and who is this Robinson fellow anyway?”

  My cell phone rang before I could answer but all I could hear was a football game in the background. “Brian, honey, turn that thing down!” Claudia hollered in my ear. “Sorry to be so late calling you back but my sister phoned right after I spoke with you, and I thought I’d never get away. You know how Gina is!”

  I said I knew and what did she find out about Dinah Tansey?

  “It was her all right. Died April 17, 2002. She was only nineteen, Lucy Nan. No wonder her mama looks so sad.” And Claudia sounded close to tears herself.

  “So Dinah’s really dead,” Ellis said when I told her. “Then who’s been wearing those long dresses to try and frighten people at Willowbrook?”

  And why? I wondered. And which of the family had created a shrine to Dinah’s memory in a locked room?

  donia waited at the front door and Nathan was still asleep when we returned with the box of Melrose’s belongings. “The police must not have found anything of interest in here or else they wouldn’t have given it to Al,” I said as Idonia set it on the dining room table and hastily pulled off the lid. “If there’s a clue in there to all that’s been happening, you’d think they would’ve followed up on it.”

  Idonia frowned as she examined a small composition book.

  “You’d think,” she said.

  Or maybe they had, I thought. The local law enforcement officials now knew everything we did and probably more about the two suspicious deaths, the whereabouts of the locket, and the disappearance of Melrose DuBois. Well, almost all, unless they’d also found the locked room.

  It was obvious that Idonia wanted to sift through the box alone so Ellis and I made a tactful exit. “You will call if you think you’ve found something?” I said. “Promise you won’t go running off somewhere again.”

  “Lucy Nan’s right, Idonia,” Ellis added. If you find something that might lead to Melrose, for Pete’s sake, let the police take care of it.”

  But Idonia was too busy reading to answer.

  The call came about an hour later. I had dropped off Ellis at her place and Augusta had just plugged in the tree lights and was getting ready to light a fire in the living-room fireplace when Nathan Culpepper phoned.

  “Is she there?” he demanded.

  Although he didn’t identify himself, I recognized his voice. “Idonia’s not here, Nathan. What happened?”

  “I woke up about ten minutes ago and she was gone. God only knows where she went this time! I’m calling the police.”

  “Wait, Nathan!” I called, but I was already too late. All I heard was a dial tone. When I tried to call him back the line was busy.

  “Idonia’s going to have a hissy,” I told Augusta. “She’s given Nathan the slip again and he’s already put the police on her trail.” Not that she didn’t deserve it. I would seriously consider taking her name off my Christmas card list if I hadn’t already forgotten to mail them.

  Augusta silently closed the fire screen and unplugged the tree lights. “Did he have any idea where she went?”

  “He didn’t give me time to ask him,” I said, calling Idonia’s number again. This time I got no answer. “She must’ve found something in Melrose’s notebook … “

  We started for the door at the same time.

  “How are we going to get in?” I asked as I parked in front of Idonia’s. Of course, Augusta could’ve opened the door, I remembered, but as it turned out, she didn’t have to. Nathan had left the house unlocked. His car was not in the driveway and on checking, I saw that Idonia’s garage was empty.

  “I don’t see the box,” I said, seeing upon entering that the dining room table was bare.

  “She probably took it in her room so she’d have more privacy,” Augusta suggested, and there it was on the floor between the bed and the rocking chair. A composition book, the speckled black and white kind, lay open in the seat of the chair. Although Melrose had used a computer for the course he was taking, he apparently kept his notes in longhand.

  I passed the book to Augusta while I phoned Ellis, only to find no one there. “Idonia has disappeared again, and Nathan and the police are looking for her,” I said, leaving a recorded message. “We’ve found the notes Melrose left and I’m afraid she’s gone to find him. I’m hoping the notes will help us know where to look. You can reach me on my cell phone.”

  Augusta sat in the cha
ir and read silently while I looked over her shoulder.

  “Now we know what he was doing at the church the night Opal Henshaw died,” she said. “It says here he went there to talk with Dave Tansey since it seemed the problems all centered around that family.”

  “And that’s what he was doing in Soso,” I said. “He was there for more or less the same reason we were, but I wonder why he didn’t want us to see him.”

  She looked up briefly. “Probably because he knew you would inevitably ask about the locket he gave Idonia.”

  Melrose had continued his investigation, it seemed, by attempting to trace the origin of the locket.

  “Look here,” Augusta said. “He bought it from a place that sells estate jewelry … a man named G. Wayne Gravitt … “

  Melrose’s notes were precisely written in letters as neat and rounded as Melrose himself. From them we learned that he had gone back to the flea market where he bought the locket and found it had been included in a collection of items purchased from a dealer. From what Melrose wrote, G. Wayne was reluctant to tell him the name of the person who sold them, but Melrose DuBois was not above bribery. He told the man he had seen a photograph of the locket with matching earrings and pretended interest in finding the earrings. It cost him a hundred dollars in the long run and he still didn’t learn the name of the dealer. He was given instead a phone number. It only took seconds to find the listing under Tansey.

  “I wonder why Melrose didn’t take his notes with him,” I said.

  Augusta closed the notebook. “I suppose he had already found out what he needed to know.”

  I didn’t have a clue how to get in touch with Nathan Culpepper, but I did know how to reach the Stone’s Throw police. Ed Tillman, I was told, was off that day, and neither Kemper nor Captain Hardy was in, Paulette Morgan said. At that point I would’ve even agreed to speak with Chief Elmer Harris, but he had gone to Columbia to see his granddaughter in a Christmas pageant, I was told.

  “I’m afraid Idonia has gone to the Tanseys thinking her friend Melrose is in some kind of danger,” I told her, “and there’s a good chance she might be in danger, too, so you need to get in touch with whoever’s on duty right now. We—I’m going out there to see if I can find her, so please let them know where I am.”

  “You’re going where?” Paulette asked.

  “To the Tanseys out on Willowbrook Road—they know where it is, and if Nathan Culpepper calls, you can give him the same message.”

  “Will do,” Paulette said. “Anything else?”

  Isn’t that enough? I thought as Augusta and I hurried to the car and headed for the Green Cottage on the outskirts of town. Paulette was dumb as a brick and the only reason she had that job was because her aunt was married to the chief’s cousin, but surely she could remember a message as simple as that, I thought.

  When we arrived the place seemed deserted and no one answered when I called their number on my cell phone. And then I remembered it was Sunday and the family would be at church for their Christmas program that night. I didn’t know if the program was scheduled for late afternoon or evening, but I did know that the police had issued an APB for Jeremiah Tansey, so I would be surprised to find him here.

  “It might be to our advantage if you turned the car toward the road in case anyone shows up,” Augusta advised. “Meanwhile, I’ll check the house to see if Idonia’s there.”

  “Don’t forget the locked room!” I called, but she had already disappeared inside. I let the engine idle and watched the road ahead until my eyes ached, feeling as if I were experiencing déjà vu from our adventures of the night before. The Tanseys had left a light burning in the living room, but except for that, darkness surrounded me and I was relieved when Augusta slipped in beside me. “No one’s there,” she said.

  “Did you look in the locked room?” I asked.

  “I looked everywhere,” she said. “And, Lucy Nan, I’ve been thinking about that room since you told me what Dinah’s friend Carolyn said.” Augusta touched my arm. “I believe there was something very wrong in this family.”

  I had been thinking the same thing. Dinah married Dexter Clark … to get away from that house, Carolyn had said. I told Augusta about the dream I had about the young girl crying. “Only her door was locked from the inside,” I said. “Dear God, do you think her brother, or even her father—”

  “I think we’d better get to Willowbrook as fast as possible,”

  Augusta said. “I just hope we’re not too late.”

  The short drive to Willowbrook took only a few minutes but it seemed much longer and I had the door open as soon as we stopped. I saw Idonia’s car parked out front about the same time I heard her scream.

  “Wait!” Augusta said, and I felt her hand on my shoulder in an attempt to hold me back, but I was already running toward the house. A couple of the boards that were nailed over the entrance had been pried off and I heard some one crying inside. It sounded like Idonia.

  “Let me go! I know he’s here somewhere and you’d better not have hurt him!” she yelled. “Melrose, where are you?” This was followed by the sound of a scuffle taking place. I stood at the door listening to see if I could tell where it was coming from and wondering what to do when Idonia screamed again, and although the night was cold, I felt as if a fire burned inside me. I had to try and stop whatever was happening, but how? I stepped through the opening and into the entrance hall but it was so dark I couldn’t see a thing, and almost jumped through the ceiling when someone touched my arm.

  “You’ll need this but don’t turn it on yet,” Augusta said, pressing a flashlight into my hand. Linking arms we made our way toward the noise, muffled now. It seemed to be coming from upstairs and I had started up when I heard someone pounding on the wall somewhere toward the rear of the house.

  “Idonia! Idonia, I’m coming!” a man shouted. His voice sounded far away.

  “Melrose?” I paused on the stairs. “It’s Lucy Nan. Is that you?”

  “Oh, Lucy Nan, thank God! They’ve locked me in this place down here and I can’t get out. You’ve got to get the police!”

  “They’re on the way,” I said, although I knew no such thing, and hoped they wouldn’t hear me upstairs. I had been in such a hurry to find Idonia, I had left my cell phone in the car. Had Paulette Morgan relayed my message?

  All was quiet upstairs until somebody cursed—a man. “You’ll not get away with this!” Idonia said. At least she was still alive.

  I froze when I heard the sound of a car pull up in front of the house. Oh, please, let it be the police!

  “Lucy Nan, what on earth’s going on in here?” Ellis said, shining a light in my face.

  I hurried down to shush her and almost stumbled in the darkness on the bottom step. “For God’s sake, be quiet!” I whispered. “Somebody’s got Idonia upstairs and they’ve locked Melrose in the basement.”

  I felt Ellis stiffen beside me as Idonia cried out again. Below us, Melrose, or I thought it was Melrose, banged and clattered about as if he meant to send the old house crashing down on top of us.

  Ellis grabbed a splintered board from the front door and stepped in front of me. “Come on!” she said, shining her light on the stairs. I was about to follow when the light came to rest on a pair of shoes. The shoes had feet in them.

  “Run!” Idonia shouted, but it was too late.

  “Jeremiah Tansey!” Ellis muttered under her breath.

  “Looks like a party down here,” Jeremiah said. “You didn’t tell me you were going to invite your friends, but since you’re here, let’s all go into the living room—now!”

  I switched on my light to see him shove Idonia in front of him with one hand while he held a gun in the other. Idonia’s hands were tied in front of her and she had trouble maneuvering the stairs, although Jeremiah appeared to be accustomed to making his way around the house in the dark. He didn’t seem to have noticed Ellis was holding the board. If she could just get close enough, I thought—
r />   “Whatever that is you have in your hands, drop it right now!” he commanded as he herded us into what was once the drawing room, and Ellis did as she was told. “Now what in hell am I going to do with you?” Forcing us into a corner, he waved the gun about, mocking us. “First the old guy comes poking about, and now you!”

  It occurred to me then that Augusta was no longer with us but I knew she would find a way to help if she could—and the sooner the better. If we all rushed him at once, I thought, he probably wouldn’t be able to take aim. But if he did, I would surely be the one he hit. Still, I was contemplating such a move when a figure entered from the room behind him, the yellow gleam of her flashlight bouncing on each of us in turn. “Well, Jeremiah, what now?” Louella Tansey said.

  “Thank heavens you’re here!” I said. Surely he wouldn’t shoot us in front of his mother. But why was she just standing there?

  “What’s all that racket about in the basement? Sounds like a wild man down there? And what are all these people here for?” Louella said.

  “He has a gun, Louella,” I shouted, “and he’s locked—” But Louella Tansey didn’t seem the least bit concerned. I couldn’t see her face in the darkness but her voice didn’t sound at all like the mousy woman we knew. “Be quiet!” she said.

  “As you can see, I have a little problem here,” Jeremiah said. “I had the old man tied up down there but he must’ve gotten loose somehow.” He gave Idonia a shove and she would’ve fallen if Ellis hadn’t steadied her. “Then this one comes crashing in—pulled half the boards off the front door and came in here hollering for the old guy—and now these two! What am I supposed to do with them now?”

  “Put them down there with that other one, I reckon,” his mother said. “But we’ll have to hurry, Jeremiah. The police have been here looking for you. We can’t stay here any longer.”

  “And then what? Somebody’s sure to find them, and you know they’ll tell,” he said.

  His mother didn’t answer, but her silence lay like a suffocating shroud around us.