A Dash of Murder

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Red listened, his eyebrows drawing together. “Wait, who is it? Luther Cobb. Remind me of the address? You’re sure he’s dead? What happened?” He listened again, now looking very alert.

Myrtle was looking very alert, too.

“He didn’t just choke? I see. I’ll be right there.” He hung up and said, “Mama, I’ve got to go.”

“Good to see you, sweetie,” said Myrtle. She watched as he left and then picked up the phone and called Miles.

Miles had apparently been able to fall back asleep after their nighttime visit. In fact, he sounded very deeply asleep and rather confused. “Mmm?”

“Yes, it’s Myrtle. We need to head over to Luther Cobb’s place. There’s apparently been a murder.”

Miles sounded only slightly less-groggy when he said, “Luther Cobb? He’s dead? Or someone else?”

“I think it’s Luther who’s dead, but I’d like to find out more. Can you drive me?” asked Myrtle impatiently.

“Going to take me a couple of minutes to get ready.” There was a crashing sound on Mile’s end of the line.

“Are you all right, Miles?”

There was a scuffling sound. Miles said, “Yes. Dropped the phone and knocked the lamp off the bedside table.”

“I’ll have coffee in a travel mug for you,” said Myrtle briskly.

About fifteen minutes later, Miles showed up outside. Myrtle joined him in the car and handed him the mug of coffee. Miles took a long sip from it.

Myrtle frowned. “Miles, your bleary eyes are a concern. How about if I drive your car? I’m not sure you’re very alert.”

Miles made protesting noises but Myrtle was quite firm. He finally nodded and they traded places. Myrtle set out down the road at a sedate ten miles an hour.

Miles took another large sip of coffee. “Now what’s going on?” he asked after a moment or two. “A man is murdered? I’m not sure I know who this guy is. And I’m wondering how on earth you found out about it.”

“Red was over having our pre-planned conversation when he got the call. Luther Cobb is the victim and I can’t say it’s a huge surprise. He’s awful when he drinks and he drinks a lot. He probably made someone upset and they decided to silence him once and for all.”

“Did Red say how he died?”

“Well, Red didn’t say anything to me, as usual. He just wanted to talk about automatic drafts for my bills. I was able to pick up a little information by listening in on his one-sided conversation. From what I understand, it must have been related to something Luther ate. Red asked if he hadn’t just choked and the answer seemed to be no.”

Miles shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I don’t think Red will be pleased to see us.”

“Red was so irritating this morning that I’m happy to give him a few unhappy minutes. I’m going to have to call Dusty as soon as I get back home. A gnome invasion is imminent.”

Miles gave a smile. Whenever Myrtle was unhappy with her son, which was a regular occurrence, she had her yardman pull out her extensive gnome collection into her front yard. Since Red lived directly across the street, it gave a visual representation of her displeasure with him.

At the speed Myrtle was driving, it took a little while to get to Luther Cobb’s house. When they arrived, there were already a few emergency vehicles there. Myrtle carefully parked some distance from the property and they peered out at the proceedings.

Myrtle said, “I think we can be useful here, Miles. Which is more than I can say for going to bingo, considering that was another possible activity.”

“At least it’s early enough in the day that it’s not broiling,” said Miles with a sigh. He pointed the air conditioning vent directly at himself. But then Myrtle turned off the motor and Miles sighed again. “We’re not getting out of the car, are we?”

“Of course we are. We can’t be remotely useful if we’re sitting down in a vehicle while an awful tragedy transpires yards away.”

Miles stared at the emergency vehicles. “I have a feeling that the awful tragedy has already run its course, no matter what we might be doing.”

Myrtle opened the door and glanced around. “There’s Jasper Hodges.”

Miles quirked an eyebrow and followed her gaze. “How do you know everyone in town? I mean, I know it’s not a very big town, but I certainly don’t know everyone here.”

Myrtle said absently, “I’ve lived here my whole life, for one. For another, Jasper was a student of mine. He’s Red’s age. He looks entirely too interested in the proceedings going on here. Let’s go speak with him.”

Miles reluctantly followed Myrtle, who was walking with determination toward an athletic-looking man in his late-40s with blond hair. The man had been pacing a bit but stopped when he saw Myrtle and Miles headed his way.

“Mrs. Clover,” said Jasper, giving her a tight smile. “How are you?”

“Curious,” said Myrtle. “Do you know what’s going on here at Luther’s house?”

Jasper nodded and swallowed. “Luther is dead. And it doesn’t look real natural. I mean, it doesn’t look really natural.”

Myrtle was used to people editing themselves when speaking with their former English teacher. She glanced at Miles and said, “Do you know Miles Bradford?”

Jasper reached out a hand and Miles shook it. He was sure to use his ever-present hand sanitizer at the next discreet opportunity.

“Were you here when Luther was discovered?” asked Myrtle.

Jasper nodded again and swallowed. “Yes. As a matter of fact, I was with his wife, Dinah, when we found him. I’d come over to talk to Luther about something and she and I walked into the house through the kitchen. He was in there.”

Myrtle pursed her lips. “That must have been very upsetting for Dinah.”

Jasper swallowed again. “It was. I think the ambulance guys are giving her a quick check-up.”

Miles stared uncomfortably at the emergency vehicles again as if wishing he were anywhere but there.

Myrtle said, “Could you tell what happened by looking at Luther?”

Jasper said slowly, “Well, at first I thought he’d had some kind of medical emergency while he was eating. You know, like a heart attack or a really bad stroke or something. Luther was a big guy and I thought it might be something natural.”

“But now you think it wasn’t?”

“That’s what I’m wondering. Because it seemed like it had more to do with the food he was eating. Then I was thinking maybe he’d choked or something. But it wasn’t really the kind of food that was hard to eat. When I think about choking hazard foods, I’m mostly thinking about peanut butter with chewy bread or popcorn or maybe hot dogs. But Luther was eating pie.”

Myrtle thought about this. “That’s interesting. I wouldn’t necessarily have thought that was the kind of food that would be hard to swallow.”

“Right. And the way he looked—I don’t want to upset you, Mrs. Clover, but it didn’t look like someone who’d just had a tough time swallowing. It looked like the food might have killed him.”

Miles frowned. “You think he was poisoned?”

Jasper looked at him in surprise, as if having forgotten Miles was there. “That’s right. And when the police spoke to me, they acted like they suspected Luther might have been poisoned, too. There was a note next to the pie—somebody else had brought it in. It wasn’t like Dinah had baked the pie.”

“A note? So the pie might have been dropped off by someone?” asked Miles.

“Exactly.”

Myrtle said, “What did the note say?”

Jasper said, “That’s the thing. It said ‘thinking of you.’ And it wasn’t signed.”

Myrtle’s eyes opened wide. “So someone left a pie for Luther, dropped it off at the house, and didn’t even put their name on it?”

“Right.” Jasper shook his head and shrugged. “Crazy, isn’t it? Dinah hadn’t been home when it was dropped off.”

“Did she have any other information about the pie or why someone would have dropped it by?” asked Myrtle.

“She was really, really upset, Mrs. Clover. But she calmed down a little after I called Red and before he came over. Dinah said Luther had been ailing lately because he had a car accident and had surgery after it. People had been bringing food by to help Dinah out because she’d been spending time taking care of him.”

Myrtle said slowly, “But it seems that someone might accidentally killed Dinah if they dropped by a poisoned pie.”

Jasper shook his head again. “Apparently not. Because right before the cops came over, she said that everybody knew she didn’t eat sweets. Just never had the taste for them. I guess that’s one reason why she’s thin as a rail. So anybody who wanted to get rid of Luther would have known Dinah wouldn’t be eating the pie.”

Myrtle tilted her head to one side and considered Jasper with a look that made him revert back to days in the classroom. “Might I ask, Jasper, what you were doing here? Were you friends with Luther?”

He reddened a bit. “No, I wouldn’t exactly call us friends.”

“Is that why you carried a gun over here?” asked Myrtle smoothly.

Miles drew back a little. He had no background nor interest in guns. Just the thought made him dig through his pockets for his hand sanitizer, which he applied liberally.

Jasper gave Myrtle a grudgingly admiring look. “You are very observant, Mrs. Clover.”

“I’m sure Red was, too,” said Myrtle dryly.

“Yes ma’am, he wanted to check on my conceal carry permit right away. But it was all good—I’m certified and it’s current.”

Myrtle cared very little about the status of Jasper’s paperwork. She was a lot more interested to hear why Jasper had gone over to Luther’s house with a gun. She raised her eyebrows and just waited.

Jasper looked down at his shoes. “That’s the problem, isn’t it? It just doesn’t look real good. That’s what the police think, too, I’m sure. I just came over because I’d heard Luther treating Dinah pretty bad yesterday when they were out at the store. The way he was talking to her was awful. I thought somebody should stand up for her, that’s all. She doesn’t have any family in town or anything. So I thought about it for a while and then decided to come over and confront him.”

“With a gun.”

Jasper swallowed. “He was a big guy, Mrs. Clover. I didn’t fancy my chances with him.”

“But you just finished saying that Dinah was taking care of him because he was recovering from surgery following a car accident.”

Jasper looked at her admiringly. “You’re still sharp as a tack, Mrs. Clover.”

Myrtle just waited, looking stern.

Jasper took a deep breath. “Yeah, he was injured. But that’s how much of a control freak he was. He was at the store, on crutches, with Dinah to make sure she got exactly what he wanted her to pick up there. And this morning, I thought I’d wear my gun just to intimidate him, you know?”

“But he was dead when you arrived,” said Myrtle.

“That’s right. Then I called the cops and tried to calm Dinah down and here we are.” He gave a small shrug and looked morosely at the emergency vehicles. He looked at his watch and shook his head. “Well, I need to get on to work. I was hanging around because I thought I should make sure Dinah was okay, but it looks like the cops are still talking to her.”

Myrtle said smoothly, “Don’t worry. We’ll check in on her, Jasper.”

He hesitated for a moment before giving a quick nod. “Got it. I’ll head out, then.”

After he left, Myrtle and Miles watched the scene from a distance for a few minutes. Miles said, “Did you get the impression that he wasn’t telling the whole story?”

“I most certainly did. I almost expected his nose to start growing with all the lies.”

Miles lifted an eyebrow. “Did you think he was lying, then? I thought maybe they were just omissions.”

“I think he was lying about why he was over at Luther’s house, yes. I don’t think of Jasper as somebody who really looks out for the interests of anybody but himself. And yet he was over here to protect Dinah out of the goodness of his heart?” Myrtle shook her head.

“Why do you think he came over here, then?”

Myrtle said, “If I had to guess, it has something to do with that boy of his. Archie, I think his name is. Jasper thinks the sun and moon rise in that kid. Whenever I see Jasper out around town, he always has Archie with him. And I think this conversation we had with him might be the only one where he wasn’t bragging about Archie.”

Miles said, “Archie is apparently brag-worthy?”

“According to Jasper, he definitely is. From what I remember, Archie is something of an athletic superstar. Baseball, maybe? Or maybe it was soccer. Anyway, he’s in the midst of college recruitment and Jasper is heavily involved in all that.” Myrtle glanced down the street and said, “Look, Dinah is finished speaking with Red.”

Miles looked leery. “Myrtle, she’s just endured a terrible tragedy.”

“I’m thinking she was well-rid of Luther if he was treating her so shabbily. Besides, we just promised Jasper that we’d follow-up to make sure Dinah was doing all right.”

Myrtle started walking down the sidewalk toward Dinah and Miles reluctantly followed.

They didn’t get too close to the scene, but were close enough so that Red glowered at his mother and made a sweeping motion with his hands to indicate that she needed to stay back. Fortunately, it was at that moment, though, that Dinah spotted them and started moving their way.