Edit to Death : Myrtle Clover #14

Chapter Seventeen

Myrtle said, "I heard that he was."

Red said, "Well, I remember that they weren't. Boone wanted to date Tara. Honestly, if it were today and he was hounding her like he was, she'd probably have put some kind of restraining order on him."

Myrtle sat back in her chair. "Is that so? And I thought he was supposed to be some sort of heartthrob. That all the girls wanted to go out with Boone."

Red shrugged. "That might be the case overall, but Tara sure didn't want to. And she didn't have to! She was a beautiful girl and she could have gone out with anybody that she wanted to. But the truth of the matter is that, looking back, she simply wasn't ready to start dating. And that only seemed to make Boone more determined than ever to go out with her. In fact, he was going around spreading rumors they were going out."

Miles asked, "He was pursuing the one thing he couldn't have?"

"Exactly. He was sort of spoiled, I always thought, both by his daddy and his mama. Rotten. And he got away with it because he was so charming when he got caught out. You know they found out about this party that was going on," said Red to his mother.

Myrtle said, "So there was a party."

"There was. Again, one that I didn't attend," said Red, rolling his eyes.

Myrtle said, "Well, I'm certainly glad to hear that I'd raised you well. You knew that I wouldn't have wanted you to go to a party when the parents weren't in attendance."

Red said dryly, "I'm happy you're ascribing my absence there to my wonderful upbringing, but the fact of the matter is that I had a football game to play in."

Myrtle felt somewhat deflated. "Oh. Okay, so tell me what happened when Hubert and Pearl came back into town."

"From what I'd heard at the time—and we'll be covering all this again in interviews—Boone and Rose did their best to clean up the house and the property. There were beer bottles and plastic cups and cigarette butts and things like that everywhere. Plus, folks had pulled out food from the fridge, eaten on it, and left it in various degrees of going rotten," said Red. "They worked hard cleaning it all up."

Miles said, "To the extent that they or a party guest also cleaned up the evidence of a body and concocted a story about Tara running away."

"Well, somebody did," said Red.

Miles said hesitantly, "May I ask a question on a completely different subject, Red?"

Red raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Well, sure thing, Miles. You look like you have something on your mind."

"It's just—have you seen Elaine this evening? I mean, before all the finding-Tara business happened? I know you've been busy with the case," said Miles.

Myrtle snorted. "I have a feeling I know what this is regarding."

Apparently Red did too, because his face lit up with a big grin. "As a matter of fact, I surely did. And she showed me some delightful pictures from a soiree you hosted earlier today."

Myrtle said, "It's not a soiree if it isn't at night. It was simply . . . a rather rowdy gathering."

"Well, I could tell that everybody was having a lot of fun, that's for sure. And to think that I believed book club was a stuffy group! I never knew what y'all were really up to. I thought everybody was discussing literature." Red chuckled.

Myrtle said, "We rarely discuss literature unless Miles or I have been able to choose. What Elaine pictured today was a very unusual club meeting."