Chapter Nine Shortly after being kidnapped by Erma, Myrtle devised an avoid-Erma campaign. The brief break she’d had when Erma left town on the senior bus to gamble had only whetted her appetite for more. Her current tactic of avoiding her neighbor involved looking through her curtains for several minutes for lurking Ermas before leaving, speedy retrieval of all mail delivery, and using caller ID to screen calls. Myrtle spent some time spying through her sheer curtains. She noticed the Pilgrim (as she’d come to think of him) scurrying to his car and back indoors just as furtively as she did. Could be signs of intelligent life. Maybe he’d picked up on Erma’s less-endearing qualities in the past week. Or could he just be tired of the predatory pack of wily widows that descended on him at e