Hushed Up--Myrtle Clover Mystery #15

Chapter Four

"Clearly, he didn't pick up Lillian's donation. And, afterward, he didn't just feel as if he could continue on picking up donations as if nothing had happened."

Miles nodded fervently.

Tippy said, "Of course not. How awful. This does change things quite a bit. I'm not sure how it would appear to the community if we just blithely continued on with the silent auction as if nothing had transpired. Wouldn't that seem very insensitive? Lillian was an important member of our club. And what would her family think?"

These questions didn't seem to be rhetorical, so Myrtle answered them. "I'm planning on bringing a sympathy casserole to Lillian's son and daughter tomorrow. I'll ask them personally what they think the garden club should do about the silent auction."

Miles gave her another sidelong look at the mention of the casseroles and Myrtle gestured impatiently at the road.

Tippy said with relief, "Would you? That would be wonderful, Myrtle. And tell Miles to just put the rest of the auction collecting on hold until you check in with the family. I'll send an email out to the club to let them know what's going on."

Myrtle hung up the phone and said, "Well, you're temporarily off the hook for collecting the rest of the stuff for the auction."

Miles said guiltily, "I'd actually completely forgotten about it once I saw Lillian. It was as if garden club ceased to exist. It might also have to do with my total lack of sleep. Besides, I can't even get Lillian's things. I'm sure they're in labeled bags and locked up at the police station."

Myrtle frowned. "Why on earth would her dog basket items be at the police station?"

Miles said, "Because the dog feeding station was the murder weapon."

"What?"

"Whoever killed Lillian picked up that heavy dog feeding station and whacked her over the head with it." Miles looked mildly ill at the thought. "I don't think it would be an acceptable donation for the silent auction." He added urgently, "And Red said not to tell anyone. So keep it under your hat."

Myrtle said, "You really do need to try and get some sleep. I can't have a sidekick who doesn't feed me information. Didn't you think the murder weapon would be important to divulge?"

Miles said, "We've been with Erma all day. Then you were seeing Sloan. There wasn't really an opportunity to fill you in. Besides, I wasn't supposed to mention it."

Myrtle said impatiently, "Go ahead and fill me in the rest of the way, for heaven's sake. What was the scene like? Did you see any clues?"

Miles wrinkled his forehead in thought and drove a bit slower as he tried to reconstruct what happened this morning. "I knocked on the door and there wasn't any answer."

"Yes, but she'd told you to walk in if she wasn't there. So I'm guessing you didn't spend much time knocking."

Miles said, "No. I tapped on the door another time and then pushed open the door and called out her name, just in case she was there. But there was no answer. I thought she was going to keep the donation near the door, but I didn't see the dog items there, so I started looking for them."

"Did you see anything out of place? Any physical evidence at all?" asked Myrtle.

Miles said, "Well, I wasn't looking for physical evidence. I was looking for a dog grooming set and whatnot. Plus, it was kind of dim in there. All the blinds were shut and the curtains were closed. Lillian didn't have any lights turned on. I was mostly just trying not to run into anything in the dark."