A Body in the Backyard: #4

Chapter Eighteen

"Why didn't you just tell the police that you were there? It doesn't look good to have lied about it," said Myrtle. 

"Think about it," pleaded Peggy. "I'm a single mom. My mom has been dead for years and now Daddy is dead. Who would take care of Natalie if I were in prison? I decided not to say anything about it. After all, I knew I wasn't involved. And what would happen if the police just didn't believe me?" 

"What happened that night?" asked Myrtle. 

"I was trying to convince Charles to go out with me again," said Peggy in a small voice. "We'd dated back in high school and he'd told me back then that he planned to marry me after graduation. But he didn't," she continued bitterly. "Once we graduated, he moved away and left me behind in Bradley." 

"With a baby," added Myrtle in a low voice.  

Peggy gave her a startled look. "How did you know that?"  

"Don't worry; it's not a rumor going around town or anything. I specifically talked to someone who knew the situation," said Myrtle.  

Peggy relaxed, but her expression was still guarded. "So I had joined him at the bar where he'd been the last few nights. He wasn't really that friendly toward me-kept interrupting what I was trying to say to him to talk to somebody else. When he looked at his watch, he looked surprised at how late it was. Probably because he was so tipsy. He said he had to go and I followed him out. I wondered if maybe he was going to be meeting with another woman." 

Myrtle cleared her throat. "I'm surprised you really wanted to get back together with Charles, Peggy. After all he'd done to you. And I thought you were starting to go out with Dr. Bass and starting on a new relationship." 

Peggy gave a hoarse laugh. "No, Hugh and I weren't going out. That's just something my dad wanted for me so much that I half-started believing it myself. Even back when I was in high school, my dad kept telling me not to date Charles-that Hugh had a better head on his shoulders. Daddy told everybody that Dr. Bass and I were dating-even Charles. But there were no dates...just once when I sat down with Hugh in a booth when he came here to eat...just like we're doing now. Daddy was pleased as punch when he found that out." 

"So Dr. Bass was even an eligible bachelor in high school. Sounds too good to be true." Myrtle knew how high school kids were from her teaching days. She was always suspicious of reports of angelic teenage boys. 

Peggy nodded emphatically. "It was too good to be true. I kept telling Daddy that Hugh was just as wild as the other boys. He wasn't any better than Charles. He'd go out and play pranks just like they would-bashing mailboxes in, toilet papering the trees, egging houses and cars. It wasn't like Hugh  

was perfect or anything." 

"Back to the night that Charles was murdered. He was on foot-is that right?" asked Myrtle. 

"Yes, he hadn't wanted to stay with his mother, so he was in that motel just a few blocks away from downtown. But he wasn't heading in that direction. At first, I just stopped him in the parking lot of the bar. I told him that I wanted to make some kind of a future with him-to at least have him be involved in Natalie's life." Peggy's face fell. "He didn't want to listen. He just stomped right off. I followed him, still trying to get him to listen." 

She hesitated, and Myrtle wondered if she were editing her story before she told it. "Like I said, I followed him to see where he was going. I wasn't thinking real straight. I was pretty far behind him so he wouldn't see me. I guess I thought that if I saw him meeting with another woman, I'd really tell them both off." 

"By the time I caught up to where he was, he was in someone's backyard. It was your yard, Miss Myrtle. I knew that because of all the gnomes." 

"You know I have a gnome collection?" asked Myrtle, raising her eyebrows in surprise.