Death of a Suitor #18

Chapter Eleven

Cursing the fact that she'd neglected to put her phone in her robe pocket, Myrtle hurried back up the path, leaning heavily on her cane as she went. She pushed through her back door and into her kitchen, grabbing her phone.

Red's number rang so many times that Myrtle thought it would end up going to voice mail. Finally, he picked up. "Mama," he said gruffly. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay. Well, I'm okay, but I'm not really."

Red was starting to sound a little more alert. "Chest pains? Or did you fall down."

"Don't be silly. I'm completely fine. Better, at any rate, than the body I just saw floating in the lake behind my house."

Red now was entirely awake. "I'll be right there," he said shortly before hanging up.

Myrtle was now even more restless than she'd been when she'd wandered out to the dock to begin with. She decided to make a large pot of coffee since Red would soon be there and seemed like he might be able to use some caffeine. When there was a tap on the front door, she hurried to open it. But it was Miles.

"I couldn't sleep and saw your light on," he said. He sniffed the air and said, "Seems like you've already made coffee."

"Yes, come on in. I thought you were Red."

Miles raised his eyebrows. "You were expecting Red? At two a.m.?"

"Yes. I called him. There's a body in the lake behind my house."

Miles just stared at her.

"It does look as if you could use some coffee, Miles. Here, let's make you a cup."

While she was doing that, Red opened the front door and came right on in. He didn't seem at all surprised to see Miles there and bobbed his head in greeting to him. "Was it just directly out the back?" he asked.

"Straight ahead, unless the water has moved it along. You'll take the boat, won't you?" asked Myrtle.

It was Red's boat—he'd bought it from her years ago. But his house didn't back up to the water like Myrtle's did.

He shook his head and said in a somewhat distracted voice, "My deputy is getting the police watercraft out. It shouldn't be a personal boat for a recovery effort."

Red walked out and down to the dock as Myrtle and Miles watched him from the back window.

Without much time passing at all, the police watercraft, well-lit and moving slowly, approached Myrtle's dock. Red was on the dock, directing his deputy and the other men who were aboard.

"Must be the state police with the deputy," said Myrtle. "I suppose they're staying here in town for a few days." She frowned at Miles who was pacing a bit from window to back door to window. "For heaven's sake, Miles, do you have ants in your pants? I've never seen you so restless."

He sighed. "I just have a bad feeling about this."

"You're starting to sound like your cousin Wanda. Next thing we know, you'll be palm reading."

Miles kept looking out the window.

"Look, it's going to take a while for them to recover the body. Besides, Red is unlikely to give us any information at all. Let's do something while we wait."

Miles said gloomily, "Wait for what? You just said that Red isn't going to provide us with any information."

"That doesn't mean that I'm not going to try," said Myrtle. "I should be able to get something, if not from him than from Lieutenant Perkins. In the meantime, we'll play canasta."