Death Pays a Visit : Myrtle Clover #7

Chapter Sixteen

Miles and Myrtle both made a face at the word lovebirds. "Seems like you were able to dispatch him relatively quickly, Myrtle. Did you step on his toes a lot?"

"No, but I should have. His dancing was exhausting. But I've created what I think will be the perfect diversion for him. I intimated that Inez had a crush on him."

Miles's eyebrows flew up. "Inez?" He glanced over at Inez who had her hands on her hips and was looking at the drinks table in a disapproving way. "She seems a little straight-laced to be interested in Winston."

"She is. I made it up. Besides, I really don't care for Inez very much. She has this very condescending air about her and forever has an expression as if she's smelled something disagreeable," said Myrtle. "So I've crafted some revenge to spring on her." She squinted as a figure approached them. "Here comes grumpy old Fred. Probably wants to grab you for a game of checkers again."

Miles's face clouded. "Ordinarily I wouldn't mind, but we're getting pretty close to midnight. I'd like to be part of the countdown. And maybe have some champagne."

"You're having entirely too much fun," snapped Myrtle. "You really need to be focusing on the project at hand. Which is, if you've forgotten, finding out what happened to Mickey and who was behind it. And, if possible, who might have been behind Ruby's attack yesterday. You could help me question Fred about it. If I do all the questioning, people are going to start running away when they see me coming."

Miles appeared to be pressing his mouth shut tightly as if to keep ill-advised words from popping out unbidden.

Fred did indeed want to play checkers with Miles. "Feel up to a game?" he asked. "I had a winning streak yesterday and I'm feeling lucky. Maybe we can even wager on it."

Miles looked at his watch. "It's getting very close to midnight now, Fred. I have a feeling I'm not at my best right now."

Fred gave him a canny look. "Too much champagne to play?"

"No, it's not that. It's just been a long day and I want to play when I'm fresh." Miles sounded apologetic.

Myrtle interjected quickly before talk could continue on the topic of checkers, "Fred, I was wondering if you could tell me where you were yesterday morning."

"Yesterday morning?" Fred frowned at her. "Well, I do the same thing every single day, so I would have been following my routine. I got up at seven. I showered, dressed and headed to breakfast. I read the paper in the commons area in our hall. Then I changed my shoes and took a walk around the perimeter of the retirement home."

"Inside or outside?" asked Myrtle.

"Inside, naturally. I wouldn't want to walk outside and freeze my tail off. It's cold out there!" Fred's wrinkles all collaborated in a ferocious frown.

"Did you see Ruby Sims at all?"

"Certainly not. If I had, I'd have avoided her. Silly woman, always broaching some sort of nonsense or another," said Fred in a crabby voice. Then he hesitated and reluctantly said, "I might have seen her in the basement commons area when I was just unfolding my paper. I remember feeling fortunate that she hadn't seen me."

"Where was she when you saw her?" asked Myrtle.

"Just coming out from the kitchenette, I think. Why on earth does this matter?" Fred cast a longing look at the drinks table.

"Because there was an incident yesterday and I'm trying to get a better handle on what happened. Did you see anyone in the kitchenette with her?" asked Myrtle.