Read Online Snoop to Nuts by Elizabeth Lee - Free Book Online

the tumbled shores of the Colorado River, where, from time to time, the wild hogs ran and scared me half to death.
    “We’d better get going, Lindy,” Miss Amelia protested. “I don’t want to come up against any of the people in that house for a while.”
    We were almost to the water. I could smell it, along with the sprinkler in the garden. The path sloped fast where the cultivated flowerbeds stopped and a tangle of weeds and tough wildflowers began. With my botanist’s eye, I swept the banks of the river—taking in huge plants with enormous leaves. I identified the tall plant:
Cicuta maculata,
with a purplish tinge at the base of the leaves. And another
apiaceae
, short-leaved, bipinnately divided. No flower umbrels but still I recognized it as Queen Anne’s lace.
    “Watch yourself.” Miss Amelia pointed to a couple of deep holes in the earth. “Break a leg down here.”
    I turned to climb the path, back among Selma’s manicured flowerbeds.
    “I still don’t see how she does it,” I marveled despite myself.
    Miss Amelia, too distracted to pay much attention to the garden around her, muttered, “Now don’t go giving yourself a major case of garden envy. The Riverville Garden Club does a lot, to tell the truth. I’m here every Tuesday. But maybe not this week. One of the deacons paid a landscape designer to work all this up. Now, can you get me home?”
    She sniffed and turned away from the flowers as a group of ladies made their way ahead of us, out of the house and over to the parking lot. Miss Amelia put a hand out, holding me back. She slowed to let the ladies get in their cars and drive off before urging me to walk faster.
    *   *   *
    The road toward town was almost empty. I was heading for the Nut House when Miss Amelia leaned over to whisper in her best peremptory voice, “If you don’t mind, Lindy, I’m going home. I’m feeling . . . well, I don’t know how to say it, but I’ve got the feeling I should get back to the ranch and stay there.”
    “Meemaw!” I frowned over at the woman. “You can’t do that. I’m taking you to the store. Treenie needs help . . .”
    “You realize that Sheriff Higsby must’ve gone out of his way to tell Dora about me? I never woulda thought it. Not in a million years.”
    “That’s his job. Dora was there. She’s just putting two and two together and getting nine.”
    “What I’m sayin’ is . . .” The tired-looking woman took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “It looks like people around here want to believe the worst—and there’s not much we can do to stop them.”
    “Yes, there is. I’m calling Hunter soon as I take you back to the Nut House. See what poison it was and if they ruled out your caviar yet.”
    “Sure would help to know what that means: ‘volatile organic.’”
    “Comes from burning fuels like gasoline or even natural gas. Diesel exhaust. Paints, glues—things like that. Formaldehyde. Dry-cleaning fluids.”
    I thought awhile. “A lot of dyes, I think. Poisonous plants. Chloroform. Some ethers and alcohols. Lots of things, Grandma.”
    She slouched in her seat and muttered, “You know we’re in this alone, Lindy. Just you and me. Thought the sheriff was with us, but it looks like maybe he’s thinking of playing one against the other.”
    “Well, I’m with you, Meemaw. Just don’t cave on me. I need you. That brain of yours . . .”
    Miss Amelia chuckled. “Your grandfather used to say I had a head like a criminal. Could always figure what they were thinking. Helped him when he was in the Texas State Senate, I’ll tell you.”
    She said nothing more until I pulled in front of the store. “I meant it, Lindy. I want to go home. You and Emma and Bethany can work out a schedule here between the three of you. Bethany’s spending too much time with that Jeffrey anyway. I’m just tired now. For the first time in my life, I’m feeling old and kind of . . . well . . . maybe I just need to