Nobody's Sorry You're Dead: A Hadley Pell Cozy Mystery (20 page)

“
B
ill
! Bill! Come quick! Over to the library,” Hadley said, rushing to his office and entering like a September hurricane.

“What’s the rush,” Bill said.

I know the community meets after the bake sale in the library to count up the proceeds and decide who is going to benefit this year. Did somebody make off with the cash box?”

“No, but I need you there,” Hadley said. “Hurry. Make sure everybody stays till I get there. I’ve got to run home for a minute and grab something. Guard the door and don’t let anyone out!”

Anna had opened the library to let all the folks meander in. The library was located in the middle of Main Street. It was the largest building on the square, and it had been a communal meeting place after the sale for years.

It took about 20 minutes, but when Hadley entered the cool library, she was relieved to see everyone was there. Its high ceilings and large windows always meant the building was cool, even on the hottest days.

“This better be good, Hadley Jane,” Maury said. “I’ve been standing on my feet all day. All I want to do is go home and get a nice hot bath.”

Hadley had her hands full.

“Bill, Beanie,” she said, “go out to the car and bring the rest of the stuff in.”

Hadley set her small TV in the front of the room. Her video camera was hooked up to it.

“What is this, Hadley? You’re not wasting our time to show us one of your home movies, are you?” said Luther Abraham, the postman.

“I’m not wasting your time, folks,” Hadley said. “And thank you for staying.”

“Bill threatened to hang us high if we didn’t,” someone said from the back of the library.

“Anna, kindly lower the lights,” said Hadley.

Hadley turned on the television.

“As you know,” she began, “Eustian Singlepenny’s soul left this earth under very suspicious circumstances. Now, as most of us here, I was not one to mourn his passing. But that said, he was murdered in his own home.

“I know that Sandy Miller was arrested. But, I just cannot believe that good man would do something as horrible as murder Eustian.

I keep going over everything that’s happened over the last few weeks. It was troubling and also very confusing.

But I kept digging, kept thinking, kept studying, and I know who the killer is!”

There was an audible gasp in the room.

“Eustian’s death probably didn’t come as much of a surprise. The man was old,” Hadley said. “He had lived a full life. All of you will agree it was how he died that was shocking.”

“Hadley, what are you rambling about?” someone said.

“I hope this is not another of your harebrained treks down a goat path to nowhere,” Maury muttered loudly enough for Hadley to overhear.

Hadley plowed on.

“Eustian was poisoned. We know that,” Hadley said, eyeing Bill across the dimly lit room. “Just ask Lou Edna. She’s got the latest. I hate to say this, but I believe Rayna Croft killed Eustian Singlepenny. I believe she poisoned him!”

Several people gasped.

“Hadley!” Rayna cried. “How dare you say that!”

“Are you crazy!” Bill said.

“Please! Please! Just hear me out.”

“But how?” Maury asked.

“That’s the part that kept me awake nights,” Hadley said. “I don’t know why I didn’t figure things out sooner. I was so bogged down and busy, I overlooked the obvious.

I’ve got Beanie to thank for showing me the light.”

“You’re welcome, Hadley,” Beanie said, “For what, I have no idea. But you’re welcome, anyway.”

“As some of you may know, there were several interested parties who were looking to buy Eustian’s property. What some of you may not know was that I was hired to clean out the Singlepenny house.

“Now, nobody has set foot inside that place since Eustian’s mother passed away. I recently ran up on Harry’s old video camera while cleaning out the attic. I thought it would be good to document my progress in cleaning up that house, so I taught myself how to use it.

“I have some video here I want to show you. But before I do that, I want to tell you that Eustian’s house was a nightmare. The place was a hoarder’s paradise. Why the dust didn’t ignite it and burn it down years ago is a mystery. I looked at this video over and over again. Something about it bothered me, but I just could not put my finger on it. Eustian had a lot of enemies. I think I’d be correct to say there’s not an adult in this room who has not bad at least one unpleasant experience with him.

So much has been going on. Harvest time, bazaar, and bake sale events. I guess I had trouble focusing. I don’t know. All of us are busy. Thank you, ladies, for a terrific bake sale, I might add. But there is a lesson there, too. The devil is in the details. Just like following a good recipe, I needed to take heed and pay attention to what I was trying to figure out.”

Here she turned on the projector. A black and white image jittered across the screen. It was horribly out of focus.

“Hadley,” Luther objected.

“Have patience, Luther,” Hadley said. “You’re not the star of the show.”

The image jumped on the screen went black and then the interior of Eustian’s house came into view.

“Note the counter. The ants on that pan with the uneaten slice of pie are all dead. See the shut-in box nearby? That’s a clue I overlooked at the time. The pie is apricot. If you look just over by that big box. See it? Right there.”

Hadley stopped the video and pointed it out.

“It’s common knowledge that Eustian hired Sandy to fabricate some parts for his antique tractor. Sandy Miller did the job. And afterwards, Eustian Singlepenny started spreading rumors that Sandy was a thief, that while he was in Eustian’s barn, Sandy stole parts off that tractor. We all saw that irascible old man walking up and Main Street spreading his lie and stirring up a stink. Eustian said Sandy stole the stuff. Sandy denied it. No one could prove either way what which man was lying and which was telling the truth. But we all know Eustian. He’s been pulling that same stunt in one form or another for decades. Eustian was a slick as an oiled toad.”

“Amen” someone said.

“Eustian was killed with cyanide. And Sandy Miller uses cyanide, not only at his metal shop but also in his hobby of gold plating metal. Sandy’s a capable fellow when it comes to safely using poisons. He and Gunn work with a lot of them in their business.

“But I think we should focus on cyanide.

Did you know that stuff is released in cigarette smoke? It’s in apple seeds and the pits of cherries, apricots, and peaches. And if you eat enough of those seeds, you can die!”

“But cyanide is bitter, Hadley,” someone said.

“Yes. That’s right. There’s a very bitter taste associated with it. Which brings me back to a question that kept bothering me – if something tastes that horrible, why not spit it out? That is one way we have that Nature protects us against bad things. I’ve looked into this too, thanks to Anna and her library.

What if a person couldn’t taste the bitterness?

Then he would never realize something was wrong with the bite he’d put into his mouth.

“Eustian took that bad conk on his head when he had his tractor accident. He refused to go to the doctor’s office and be checked out. Gunn and Eustian got into it over at the Spoon when Eustian complained that his food tasted like metal.

A conk on the noggin can mess up your sense of smell. Your sense of smell is critical in helping you taste food. I think Eustian lost his sense of taste as a result of his tractor accident. His face was badly injured. Delta described him as looking like a Concord grape.”

“She’s right. His face was all bruised and purple for the longest time.”

“Another clue I overlooked,” Hadley continued, “was when Anna took me for a flight over the county in her new biplane. From the air, I noticed there is a maze of roads and paths bisecting and intersecting the orchards and farms around here.

“Remember when Junior Croft tragically died?

He rode the utility vehicle to Eustian’s to get fuel for the kerosene heaters. I believe he used one of those paths connecting the Croft orchards to Eustian’s place.

I think it was the same road Rayna took to deliver the box of food that went to shut-ins last month when she was in charge of those deliveries. Eustian was old, but he was no shut-in.

“Maury has been after me to volunteer to head it in a couple of months. She showed me the list of folks I would have to deliver the boxes to and Eustian’s name was not on the list. It didn’t hit me at first. Why was the shut-in box sitting on Eustian’s counter when he wasn’t on the list of names that received deliveries? You made a special trip out there, didn’t you, Rayna?”

Rayna Croft sat in her chair, gray as a ghost, looking at the floor.

A low growl suddenly emanated from her chest.

“Yes, Hadley!” she screamed. “I did it! I did it, and I’m not sorry I did!”

Bill moved next to Rayna.

“You ground the apricot kernels up in your coffee grinder, didn’t you, Rayna?” Hadley asked.

Rayna lowered her head.

“You had me going, you know, when you suggested Teddy had come back. But that was just a ploy. You didn’t want me to use the coffee grinder, did you? You practically shooed me out of your house that night with a broom. You volunteered to help me, in spite of all the work you had to do at the orchard, to see what I knew.

“Maury told you how upset she was that Bill had offered the job of cleaning out Eustian’s house to me. You and Sandy were friends. You knew what chemicals he used to gold plate jewelry and coins. All you had to do was order some of the same cyanide solution.

“My guess is, you waited until Eustian had time to eat the food you left. You knocked on his door. He didn’t answer. The old man was probably like most of us around here. We lock our windows, but leave the door unlocked.

“It’s a habit I have that Maury continually gripes to me about. But I’ve always left the back door open. It’s just convenient.

“Anyway, you knock on the back door. It’s open. You enter the kitchen. All you had to do was place that plastic bottle under the table.

“We talked about experimenting and adding things to recipes. And Richie told me you were always saving apricot pits”

“You’re right! I hated that man. He ruined so many lives! He ruined Teddy’s! He killed Junior! My blood boils when I think of how Eustian Singlepenny’s negligence killed that boy!

“But Eustian denied putting gasoline in the oil cans. And it was his word against Teddy’s. Eustian swore it had to be the kerosene heater that was faulty. And he got away with murder! Murder! Well, if you frightened mice sitting here in this library weren’t going to do anything, I made up my mind that I surely was!”

“But why,” Hadley asked, “did it take you so long?”

“I wanted to figure out a way to do it that would bring him down when he least expected it. I’ve stewed on this problem for years. I guessed Eustian had lost his sense of taste when he gobbled up Juanita’s casseroles.

“And then, it just hit me one day when I was preparing apricot pits to grow new seedlings for the orchard. I tried pulverizing them with a hammer. I was afraid Eustian would notice the pieces. But the coffee grinder ground them to dust.

“I mixed them with the flour and made a pie crust. I baked a pie and dropped off the box on his doorstep. I knew he’d eat every crumb rather than spend money on food. It was a sure-fire plan. I couldn’t lose.”

“But you have lost, Rayna. You’ve lost Richie, your freedom, and the farm. You’ve lost everything.”

Anna cut the lights back up. Bill handcuffed Rayna and led her off to jail.

“
D
o
you think Rayna killed Teddy,” Hadley asked Bill.

“I don’t know. Hadley. I don’t think we’ll ever know. Rayna’s got a lawyer. She’s not saying anything.”

“Well, I don’t like to think about it.”

“Me, neither. Good thing Richie’s old enough to take over the orchards. At least there’s that.”

“Yeah. I guess. Say, Bill, are those people still wanting to buy Eustian’s place?”

“Yeah,” Bill said.

“Well, give me that key. You know I owe Beanie $250. It would probably take me the rest of my life to pay him off in baloney.”

“Baloney,” Bill said, as he laughed and handed Hadley the key to Eustian’s house.