A Body in the Backyard: #4

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen 

Myrtle walked into downtown Bradley as soon as the shops opened. There was a small sporting goods store that had been in the same location for the past sixty years. It had probably been forty years since she'd last been in there-getting a football or a baseball for Red. 

This time was slightly different. The clerk looked doubtfully at her. "Red pepper spray?" he asked. "Is that something you think you'll really need here in Bradley? With a cop living right across the street from you?" 

This was another former student of hers. He was elderly too, as many of her former students now were. "Look, Mike, you know what happened in my backyard; not once, but twice. I think I need all the self-protection I can get." 

She'd leveled the same look at him that she had when he'd been talking in her class so many years before. 

He sighed. "I won't argue with you, Mrs. Clover. I just didn't want to take advantage of you by taking your money for a product you probably won't be using, that's all." 

Wasn't he still arguing with her, in a backhanded way? She kept staring ferociously at him as he rung up her purchase.  

Once that errand was finally successfully finished, Myrtle headed home. She'd like some motion detector lights and to have her locks changed, too. Since her handyman was murdered, this was going to be tricky. She certainly didn't want to ask Red to do it, because it would start worrying him again and all she needed was to be sent to Greener Pastures retirement home.  

"Dan could do it for you," said a gravelly voice behind her. Myrtle jumped violently and swung around, holding her cane out in front of her. 

Wanda stood there, straggly-looking as usual, watching her with those dark eyes. 

It was very disconcerting that Wanda appeared to know about the security measures that she wanted to have done at her house. "What do you mean?" asked Myrtle in a voice that came out haughtier than she'd intended. 

Wanda stretched out a nicotine-stained hand to gesture at the paper bag that Myrtle carried. "You're wanting to change your locks and put up more lights, right? Same type thing as the spray. You want to be safe. Dan can help you." 

Clearly, Wanda had observed her in the sporting goods store as she purchased the pepper spray. She'd probably also run into Erma this morning. No doubt, Erma was telling half the town about her new motion detector lights and how they helped to chase away a villain in her elderly neighbor's yard. But changing the locks? She couldn't think of a way that Wanda would know about that. Myrtle shivered. Then she shook it off.  

"Crazy Dan can help me put new locks in and motion detectors?" Myrtle wasn't even sure that Dan and Wanda's hubcap-covered shack had a lock on it at all. It certainly didn't have motion detectors. It might not even consistently have electricity, depending on how often they paid their bills. 

"Used to be a locksmith a long time ago," said Wanda with a shrug of an emaciated shoulder. "Sometimes does odd jobs." 

"Okay," said Myrtle. "I guess he's hired, then. Can you get him to come over later this afternoon to do the jobs?" 

Wanda gave her a steady look. "Since I sorta knew this was going to happen, I brought him along." She pointed across the street and Crazy Dan gave them a lackadaisical wave from where he stood, propped up against a streetlamp.  

This precognition was an irritating thing. It made you feel like you were always one-step behind. "All right then," said Myrtle a bit huffily, "have your brother run by the hardware store and pick up the locks and the motion detector lights."