Miriam had reported seeing the dark-stained sickle beside the girlâs body.
âI heard theyâd been screwinâ aroundâoops, sorry!â One of the girls flushed and grinned. âI mean getting it on out there for weeks. âHornyâ Hornsby, they call him. And all this time Iâve been sitting right there in his class. Gives me the creeps! I wonder what she saw in him.â
âOr he in her,â Celeste said. âBut he didnât have to kill her.â
âShe was gone all day Friday, you know, and so was he. They mustâve met somewhere,â Troll suggested. âMaybe he wanted to break it off and she threatened to tell his wife. Thatâs probably why she was crying the next morning.â Troll was one of a group tending simmering pokeberries at the next stove and she carelessly shoved hair from her face, leaving a dark red smear. Though the girls were swathed in huge aprons and wore rubber gloves almost to their elbows, it was impossible to protect every inch. My old once-white sneakers were spattered in yellowish-brown, and I knew I had painted my nose when I gave in to an itch.
âWait just a minute,â I said. âWe donât know that he did kill her.â
Celeste fanned away walnut fumes and made a face. âHeâs gone, isnât he?â
âMaybe heâs just scared,â I said.
She shrugged. âThat makes two of us.â
It occurred to me as I drove home that afternoon that not one person had mentioned the suspicious letter D. C. Hunter was supposed to have received in the mail, which must mean that only the police knew about it. âJust like that other girl got,â the sergeant had said. But what other girl? The girl who was killed four years ago? If only I knew what had been inside that envelope!
âWhat envelope?â Augusta asked when I told her about it that night.
âThen they must be keeping it quiet for a reason,â she said when I told her what I had heard at Blythe Corneliusâs apartment. âAnd by the way, your cousin called and left a message just before you got home. Seems the professor turned himself in this afternoon.â
âWhere was he? Has he admitted anything?â
âJo Nell said he showed up at the police station around fourâbeen staying with a relative. Says he didnât do it.â Augusta had laid a fire in the sitting room and now she gazed at the embers, absently stroking Clementineâs black-and-white head. âI wonder how long heâs been at the college. Could he have had anything to do with the other girlâs death?â
âIâm sure Captain Hardyâs looking into that,â I said. âHe seems to know what heâs doing. Do you think there might be a connection?â
Augustaâs amber necklace reflected the flickering blaze on the hearth. âIt might be a good idea,â she said, âto look into some of the old newspaper files. You never can tell what might turn up.â
âBut donât you think the police have already done that?â
The angel turned her gray-green gaze on me. âThatâs just the point, Lucy Nan. Youâll be looking at this with an open mind. You just might catch something that went right past them. Something so ordinary they wouldnât think it was important.â
I frowned. âYou mean like mysterious letters?â
âI mean, youâll know it when you see it,â she said.
Chapter Six
I wasnât so sure about that, so I convinced Augusta to come along with me. It didnât take a lot of persuading.
Stoneâs Throwâs weekly newspaper, The Messenger (Ellis calls it The Mess because she claims thereâs a typo on every other line), shares a yellow brick building facing the town park with Petal Pushers, the new florist (âWe sell every blooming thing!â) and McBrideâs Pharmacy.
The receptionist put her telephone conversation
Shantel Tessier
Jake Needham
M. S. Parker
Sparkle Hayter
Roberta Latow
C.J. Newt
Dustin Mcwilliams
Alistair MacLean
Kim Thompson
C.L. Richards