Hope Callaghan - Garden Girls 07 - Missing Milt (11 page)

Gloria leaned forward.  “Did you tell anyone?”

Carol shook her head.  “I guess I should have.  I live in the unit next to his and I was coming home from a movie.  It was dark out.”

“What kind of light?” Lucy asked.

Carol shrugged.  “It wasn’t really like, you know, a lamp or anything.” She tapped her finger on the table.  “Now that I think about it, it was more like a bouncy light.  Probably a flashlight if I had to guess.”

No one seemed to be able to add any additional information.  Gloria – and Liz – thanked them for their time and headed out the door and onto the sidewalk.

Lucy looked back.  “What do you think?”

Gloria didn’t know.  It seemed as if one of the ladies knew more than they were letting on.  She didn’t have anything solid.  It was just a hunch – a gut feeling.

“I think Frances needs counseling,” Liz said.

Gloria nodded.  That was true.  The woman had an over-the-top obsession with Milt.  It was a cause for concern that she was a peeping Tom, or in this case, a peeping Frances. 

But just because she was peeking in his windows, making up a fake name on Worldbook to spy on him, chaining herself to the restaurant, didn’t mean she was involved in his disappearance.  Of course, it didn’t mean that she wasn’t either…

Gloria wasn’t convinced that this mysterious debt was the reason he disappeared.  Although, he could be hiding out, sneaking back into his apartment in the dead of the night to pick some stuff up.

Back inside Liz’s apartment, Gloria paced the floor.  She still believed the key to Milt’s disappearance was in Dreamwood. “We need to organize a fact-finding mission.” She stopped.  “Liz, I need the addresses of Vivian and Carol.  We already have Trudy.”

She started to pace again.  The last woman at the table had remained strangely silent the entire time.  “Who was the other woman at the table, the one who didn’t talk?”

Liz furrowed her brow.  She shook her head. “I don’t know but I’ll find out,” she promised.

Gloria and Lucy headed back to the car after Liz promised to find out the name of the mystery woman and her address.  The girls decided to meet Sunday evening at dusk and do a little behind-the-scenes investigation of each of the women’s homes. 

Although Gloria was initially against it, they agreed a divide and conquer plan would work best.  Each of them scoping out a different home, which meant that Frances would have to participate.  They needed four people.

Gloria passed through downtown Belhaven. Main Street was like a ghost town. 

“Do you think Frances will go over the edge if we include her in our spy mission?” Lucy asked the question that Gloria had already asked herself. 

“Well, we don’t really have a choice.  Unless, of course, we ask one of the girls to help out.”  Gloria raised a brow.  They
could
do that.  Maybe Margaret, Dot or Ruth would be willing to help.

Gloria fumbled inside her purse and handed her phone to Lucy.  “Give Liz a call and tell her to hold off asking Frances to be part of the investigation.”

Liz’s line rang and rang. Lucy was about to hang up when a breathless Liz answered. 

“Oh, good.  I’m glad I caught you,” Lucy told her.

“Yeah, I was just sitting here talking to Frances.  She’s more than willing to help out with the fact finding operation.”

Lucy frowned and glanced over at Gloria.  “So Frances is with you and she’s agreed to help out with the Sunday evening plan.”

Gloria let out a low groan.  They were stuck now.  There was no way they could talk Frances out of this. 

“Okay, well.  We’ll give you a call later.”  Lucy disconnected the line and dropped the phone into Gloria’s open purse.  “Too late.  I could hear Frances in the background talking a mile a minute.”

Gloria pulled in next to Lucy’s jeep, still parked out in front of the restaurant.  “What’re you doing this weekend?”

Lucy grabbed the car door handle.  “Well, I have a little canning to do.  The apples are falling all over out in the backyard and I figured I could can them this year.” She opened the door.  “You need any?”

Gloria nodded.  “Can you set some aside for the party?”

Lucy nodded.  “Sure.  I’ll bring a bunch by Sunday before we head out.  They’ll stay fresh if you store them down in your root cellar.”

“Ryan and Tyler are spending the night and we’re gonna work on the tree fort Saturday.  You’re welcome to come by,” Gloria offered.

She didn’t want to think that poor Lucy was sitting home with nothing to do. 

“Yeah, I might.  I got some other stuff to do.  What time do you think?” Lucy asked.

Gloria did some quick calculations.  If the boys came after school, they could run by Dot’s for dinner. She remembered Brian saying he would stop by around 2:00 on Saturday.  “We’ll probably eat dinner at Dot’s Friday night and start on the fort around 2:00 Saturday.  Brian is going to come by and help the boys assemble the fort.”

“What?  You’re not going to crawl up there?” Lucy grinned.

Gloria shook her head.  “No way.  I mean, I suppose I could.” She frowned.  If Brian backed out, of course she’d have to.  Otherwise, the boys would be heartbroken. 

Lucy climbed out of the car and leaned back in.  “Yeah, I don’t want to miss this.  Maybe I should stop by the hardware store and tell Brian not to bother coming by Saturday.  That you and I can build the fort ourselves,” she teased.

Gloria shook her finger at Lucy.  “Don’t you dare!”

Lucy smirked and slammed the door shut.  But Lucy didn’t talk to Brian.  Instead, she hopped in the jeep and headed towards home.

Gloria followed her out of town.  She honked and gave a small wave as Lucy turned into her drive.

Gloria spent the rest of the evening puttering around the house.  She pulled a leftover tuna noodle casserole from the freezer and popped in the microwave.  Mally and she wandered out onto the porch to wait for it to cook.

There was a cool breeze in the evening air.  Gloria stepped back inside to grab her sweater before returning to the porch.  She slid into the rocking chair and absentmindedly watched as Mally made her rounds. 

Mally had a set pattern for patrolling the perimeter of the farm.  It cracked Gloria up each time she watched her. 

Mally would start at the big barn on the other side of the driveway, careful to stay close to the barn since she knew Gloria didn’t like her near the road.

She would disappear behind the barn and pop back out on the other side seconds later.  The crazy dog would mark her territory when she stopped near the edge of the farm field.  Next, she would make a sharp left and race along the backside of the yard, past the garden. 

Gloria knew she would make another sharp left, run the perimeter behind the house, eventually taking a shortcut through the front yard, and end her run on the porch. 

Gloria watched her pass the garden and waited for her to come around the back.  When she didn’t come back, Gloria scooted out of the chair and headed down the steps.  She rounded the back corner of the house, in the direction that Mally had taken. 

“Woof!” Gloria heard her before she saw her.  She recognized that “woof.” It was one that meant Mally had found something – or gotten into something. 

Gloria picked up the pace and jogged to the back. 

Mally had crouched down on the edge of the field and was barking at something in the tall grass.  Gloria could barely make out a black shape.  Black and white.  Striped.  It was a skunk!

“Mally!  No!” she shouted, but it was too late. The skunk turned around, lifted its tail and sprayed Mally.  Thankfully, Mally had just turned and the spray hit the side of Mally – not her face.

Mally let out a yelp and darted across the backyard– right towards Gloria.  The smell of the skunk reached Gloria before Mally did.  Gloria pinched her nose and took a step back.  “Good grief!” she cried.

Mally shook her body, trying to rid herself of the smell.  Gloria tipped her head back.  “It’s gonna take more than that, girl.”

“C’mon.  We’re gonna have to do something about that smell and fast.”

Mally trotted along beside Gloria as they rounded the front of the house and made their way up the steps.  She stopped Mally at the door. “Stay here.”

Mally obediently sat on the porch while Gloria stepped inside and grabbed her leash from the hook on the wall.  She made her way back outside, snapped the leash to Mally’s collar and then hooked that to one of the spindles on the porch rail.  “You wait here until I figure out how to get rid of that smell!”

Mally sank to the floor, dropped her head on her front paw and looked at Gloria as if she’d been sentenced to some terrible punishment.

Gloria made a beeline for the computer, switched it on and pulled up the search page.  “Get rid of skunk smell.”  The homemade recipes were her best bet: a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap.  Thankfully, they were all common household items Gloria knew she had on hand. 

She quickly whipped up a double batch and carried it to the bathroom. She left the container next to the tub before going out to the porch to get Mally.  The smell was even stronger now and hung heavy in the air.  Gloria waved a hand over her face, sucked in a deep breath and reached down to unhook Mally’s leash.

She led her inside, careful to keep a firm grip on her collar. 

Puddles was standing inside the door, wondering what in the world was going on.  When his sniffer got a whiff of the skunk, he backed up and darted out of the room.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Gloria burst out laughing.  She wished she could make a run for it, too, but unfortunately, she didn’t have much of a choice.

Gloria and Mally hustled into the bath. “Hop in,” she told her dog. 

Mally loved taking a bath and promptly jumped in the tub, which was a bit of a luxury.  Her baths were usually in her own special tub and using the garden hose.

Gloria shoved the plug in the drain and turned the water on warm as Mally patiently waited for the tub to fill. 

She leaned over to start scrubbing and noticed she was wearing one of her few nice outfits.  Gloria pushed herself to her feet.  “Stay right there,” she commanded Mally. 

In the bedroom, Gloria slipped out of her blouse and peeled off her slacks.  She pulled an old t-shirt over her head and yanked on a pair of garden shorts. 

Mally was right where she left her. 

Gloria reached up, unlatched the locks on the bathroom window, shoved the pane all the way up and took a deep breath. 

Gloria poured a healthy dose of the concoction along Mally’s backside, added some water and began to scrub.  There were a few times Gloria stood up, leaned over the open window and gulped fresh breaths of air. 

When the last of the mixture was gone and Gloria had rinsed Mally so many times, her fur gleamed, she emptied the tub and grabbed a towel from the bathroom cabinet. 

Gloria dried her as best she could and then opened the bathroom door to let her out into the dining room.  Puddles was in the far corner, hiding under the computer desk.  His eyes glittered in the dark as he warily watched Mally and Gloria.

Mally did a doggie shake to get rid of the excess water, spraying the hutch and table with droplets of water.  She followed Gloria into the kitchen and promptly crawled into her bed. 

Gloria filled her food dish, then filled Puddles’ dish before she reached inside the microwave to check on her casserole.  It had not only unthawed and warmed up, but it was cold again.  She pressed the warmer button to turn it back on and settled into the chair.

She glanced up at the clock on the wall.  It was already 7:30.  So much for a relaxing evening, she thought to herself.

Puddles wandered into the kitchen and slunk along the outer wall, careful to stay as far away from Mally possible as he headed to his food dish. 

Mally didn’t move.  “Aren’t you going to eat?” Gloria asked her. 

Mally shifted in the bed and closed her eyes, clearly depressed by the turn of events.

Gloria pulled her dinner from the microwave, set it on the table and unfolded the morning paper she hadn’t had time to read.  She grabbed her reading glasses and slipped them on.

There, on the front page, was a picture of Milt.  The caption underneath read:

“Have you seen this man?  Police are investigating the mysterious disappearance of Milton Tilton, a longtime resident of Dreamwood Retirement Community in nearby Green Springs, Michigan. 

Mr. Tilton was last seen the evening of Friday, September 2nd.  Several key witnesses told authorities that Mr. Tilton had been talking to a man driving a dark blue, four-door sedan, possibly a late model Ford Taurus, near the entrance to Dreamwood. 

Police would like to talk to the man driving this sedan.  If you have any information about the whereabouts of Milton Tilton, Montbay County Sheriff’s Department is asking you to contact them at 229-1627.”

Gloria pulled her glasses off and set them on top of the paper.  This might throw a wrench into the investigation now that the police were involved.