Secret Sisters - an LDS cozy mystery

Chapter Four

Chapter 4 

Tansy and Ida Mae retraced their steps to the Dunns' front door, avoiding all the ice patches. Mary answered with a different child on her hip, but the same tired expression on her face. 

"Sisters! I didn't expect to see you again," she said. Ida Mae couldn't decide if her expression was one of surprise or dismay. 

"I got all the way home and remembered I forgot something," Tansy said. Coming from anyone else, a sentence like that would have been laughable, but from Tansy, it fit. 

She rummaged in her bag and brought out a card, decorated with a huge silk flower. "This is a fridge magnet," she said, handing it to Mary. "It has all our phone numbers on it. You just go ahead and hang it right on your fridge, and then if you need anything, you just call us. In the meantime, it will hold your shopping lists or coupons or anything else. It really is very strong." 

Mary turned the card and read the words on the front. "Thank you," she said, moving it out of the grasp of the child on her hip. "I'll hang it up right now."  

She closed the door after the sisters stepped off the porch. Ida Mae shook her head as she pulled out her keys. "You're a wonder, Tansy. I bet you could infiltrate the Mafia, and they'd never know what hit them." 

"I've never tried," Tansy replied artlessly. "Do they need it?" 

Ren and Arlette looked up from their seats in the back of the car as Ida Mae and Tansy climbed in. 

"Slick as a whistle," Ida Mae said. "We've got our own Miss Marple here." 

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Tansy said, glowing with modest pride. "I just did what had to be done." 

"Okay, step two," Ren said. "I've established a connection, and I can see the inside of the house now. The magnet has been placed on the fridge, and I count no fewer than twelve fingers trying to grab it. No-make that fifteen. There was a petal in the way and I couldn't count right." 

"Sorry," Ida Mae said. "I tried to glue the flower so the whole lens would be free, but then the lens was too visible." 

"It's okay. I can see enough. She just scooted the magnet up higher, thank goodness. I wasn't in the mood to get an insider's view of a child's mouth. You know how they taste everything." Ren adjusted the settings on his laptop. "Okay, you can go." 

Ida Mae drove a short distance down the road and parked in a small stand of trees. Everyone fell silent as they waited. 

Ida Mae glanced over her shoulder, noting the look of satisfaction on Ren's face. He was in his element. She wondered, not for the first time, if she had agreed to this crazy scheme for Ren's benefit and not just for the Dunns'.  

"Why couldn't we just stake out their house from the front?" Arlette wanted to know. "We'd be able to see if Nick brought sacks or not." 

"There aren't any trees or other houses across from them. We'd be completely obvious," Ida Mae said. 

"So, let me get this straight. In order to help preserve someone else's pride, we're making ourselves look like fools?" 

Tansy turned and looked at Arlette with a beaming smile. "That's right! Isn't this fun?" 

"So what happens when the camera's battery runs down?" Arlette asked. "It certainly can't last very long." 

"That's the beauty of the whole fridgemagnet thing," Ren said. "It doesn't even need batteries. I added a teeny little gyrogenerator to the back of the card that's kept spinning by the magnet. It'll power the camera almost forever." 

The sun was nearly down, and they had exhausted the hot cocoa in Ida Mae's thermos when Nick's car passed them on the road. "That's him," Ida Mae said, excitement making her voice catch in her throat. "Are you ready, Ren?" 

"Everything's still working fine," he said. "I've got a shot of the kitchen door and table." 

Arlette muttered something under her breath. 

"What was that?" Ida Mae asked. 

"I was just wondering what color our prison uniforms are going to be," she said. "I look terrible in orange." 

"I look good in peach," Tansy said. "I was told that I'm a spring." 

"A spring what? Certainly not a spring chicken," Arlette retorted. 

Ida Mae sighed. She didn't know if this was goodnatured bantering or contention. With Arlette, one didn't know a lot of things. 

"Show time!" Ren exclaimed. Arlette leaned over and peered at the screen with him. 

"Nick is coming in. His arms are empty." 

A gust of disappointment escaped Ida Mae's lips. 

"But he's taking something out of his pocket. It's money! He just set it on the table." 

"That's good! He must have just gotten a job," Tansy said. 

"But Mary doesn't look happy," Ren said. "She's yelling something." 

"Doesn't this thing have a microphone?" Arlette asked. 

"Nope, 'fraid not." Ren paused, then whistled. "She just picked up the money and threw it at him. It's fluttering all over the place. Wow-there must be over a thousand dollars." 

"If he just got a job today, how would he get a thousand dollars?" Ida Mae asked. "Mary would have told us if he'd been hired somewhere, and jobs don't often pay you the first day out. There's usually a twoweek or more wait, I thought." 

"Maybe there was a signing bonus." Ren pushed a few more buttons. "Well, they've left the kitchen. I think they're going to be okay-that money will get them the groceries they need." 

Ida Mae started the car. "Well, I'm glad to hear that," she said, pulling back onto the road. "I don't like to think of those children without any milk." 

"Many children do just fine without milk," Arlette said. "We never had it-we were lactose intolerant." 

"What did you do for calcium?" Tansy asked. 

"Broccoli," Arlette replied. She was quiet for a minute, then added, "I can't eat a stalk of broccoli to this day. And thank goodness for the discovery of soy milk." 

Ida Mae dropped everyone off, then she and Ren returned to their house. "Your little toy was a success," she said as she rinsed out her thermos. "Why don't you look happy about it?" 

"It just occurred to me, I don't have a way to get it back," he said. "It's pretty much stuck there on the Dunns' fridge." 

"Did you keep a list of parts? Can you make another one?" 

"Oh, sure, that's not a problem. It's just that I really was sort of attached to that one." 

"I didn't realize you could get attached to little . . . tiny camera things," Ida Mae said lamely, not knowing what to call the gizmo Ren invented. 

"I get attached to everything," he said, walking toward his room. "That's the problem." 

Ida Mae watched him close the door, wondering what he meant. She imagined he'd tell her in time-he was never able to keep a secret for long, especially from her. 

She opened the fridge and pulled out the eggs, deciding to mix up a batch of muffins for the next morning's breakfast. As she stirred, she counted up all her sins and their consequences. She'd be released from her calling. She'd go to jail. She'd take her entire presidency with her. Bishop Sylvester would be very disappointed. 

She finished the batter and put the muffin tin in the oven. Everyone would wonder what on earth had happened to her. Her children would be ashamed. 

At that, she started to laugh. Her children hardly ever thought of her as it was. Neither of them had been to see her in a couple of years-maybe it would be good for them to worry about her for a while, instead of the other way around.  

*** 

If you'd like to learn more about these mysteries, visit http://secretsistersmysteries.blogspot.com/