“Hiram!” said Myrtle in her best schoolteacher voice. “What in heaven’s name are you doing here?”
Hiram sighed. He looked just as regretful as he did back in the day when he would admit he hadn’t completed his homework assignment. “Miss Myrtle, sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do.”
“Yes, Hiram, I realize that. There are plenty of things people do that they don’t want to do. Exercise. Their taxes. Visiting the dentist. But most people wouldn’t put killing octogenarians in that category.”
Hiram gave a humorless laugh. “I’d forgotten how sharp you are, Miss Myrtle. Or maybe I made the mistake of thinking you had gotten duller with age.”
Myrtle said with a sniff, “I do the crossword puzzle every day, Hiram. And I knock out the cryptic crosswords in mere minutes.”
Hiram no
