Edit to Death : Myrtle Clover #14

Chapter Six

"Tara," said Myrtle. Her expression became thoughtful. "I taught her, as a matter of fact."

"Naturally," said Red. "Can you remember what happened to her? She ran away from home, didn't she?"

"And hasn't been seen or heard from since. There was some investigation at the time and that's probably why you remember the Epps family being involved. Tara was Rose's best friend," said Myrtle.

"I'll look in the old files. That's odd they wouldn't have put more time into the disappearance of a young person," said Red, frowning.

Myrtle said slowly, "The theory at the time was that Tara had been somewhat troubled and had threatened to run away before. But her parents never got over it. They moved away years ago."

Red strode toward the door.

"What are you doing now?" asked Myrtle.

Red said, "I'm going to ask the one person who spies on everybody in the neighborhood if she saw anybody hanging out of the windows at your house."

Myrtle made a face. "Erma Sherman! Ugh. That's a waste of your time."

Red said, "How do you figure that? We're talking about the woman who is so nosy about everybody's business that she asked me the other day if Jack was feeling any better. She'd seen me come home and then leave again and bring in a bag from the pharmacy." He shook his head.

"But if Erma knew something about a break-in at my house, do you think that she'd be content to sit silently at home? No. She'd be hootin' and hollerin' at the person until somebody came over and hauled the burglar out."

Red considered this.

Myrtle continued, "And then she'd have told everybody in town later how she saved the day and how she looks out for her poor, decrepit neighbor, Myrtle. She'd pressure the town of Bradley to give her a medal and throw a tickertape parade."

Red hid a smile that threatened to tug at his lips. "That's true."

"Believe me, she doesn't know a thing," said Myrtle emphatically.

Red said, "That may be the case, but I still need to drop by and talk to her. Maybe she saw someone lingering on the street. Maybe she noticed a car that isn't usually here."

"Or maybe she has one of her frequent and disgusting illnesses and spent the entire morning in her bathroom," growled Myrtle. "It's my understanding that she's been sick."

"Still, I need to go by there. You be careful, Mama, and leave those windows shut for now. Let Pasha scratch on the door if she needs something." He hesitated and then gave her a light kiss on the cheek. This completely stunned Myrtle to silence.

"See you later, Mama," said Red as he left.

Myrtle sat for a few minutes and then got up to pick up the phone. "Sloan? It's Myrtle. It's definitely murder now, so just take out my subtlety and any ambiguity. Somebody shoved poor Pearl down those stairs."

That night, Myrtle slept fitfully. She got out of bed at 3:30 and made herself a large breakfast. It was, she decided, a testament to her general sangfroid that when a figure appeared in her kitchen window while she was scrambling eggs, she didn't immediately jump to the conclusion that it was a burglar. Instead, she calmly opened the window and let Pasha in.

"What a bright girl!" crooned Myrtle as she opened a can of cat food. She frowned. The stock of cat food in her pantry was running lower than she'd thought. But today was the day of the sale. She just needed to make sure that someone could drive her to the grocery store. There was no way for her to handle a walk home with a cane and a large amount of canned cat food. She had the feeling that Red would be too busy to accommodate her. Elaine might be too if she was out doing photo assignments for the newspaper. Even Miles might be an issue if she didn't intercept his morning newspaper with that horoscope in it.