Dead With The Wind

CHAPTER 24

An’gel decided not to linger where she was, in case Estelle came out of Mireille’s room. She didn’t want the housekeeper to catch her standing out there. She thought about climbing up to the third floor to check on Dickce and Tippy, but before she could make up her mind, Jacqueline’s door opened and Horace stepped out.

An’gel stared at him in blank surprise. She thought Horace was at work. She greeted him, and he held up a finger. Then he moved quietly down the hall to the head of the stairs, motioning for An’gel to follow him.

His voice low, Horace said, “Jackie’s sleeping, and I didn’t want to take a chance on waking her up. She’s so wore out from all this mess with her mama and Sondra. I don’t want her getting sick from it. She’ll push herself too hard and then collapse.”

Horace’s expression of concern for his wife seemed genuine, and An’gel warmed to him more than she ever had before.

“Yes, she certainly is,” An’gel replied, matching her tone to his. “I’m worried about her. There’s so much on her right now. If there’s anything Dickce and I can do to help, all you have to do is ask.”

Horace started down the stairs with An’gel beside him. “I sure appreciate that, Miss An’gel,” he said. “This has all been almost more than I can take in myself, and I can’t imagine how hard it is for Jackie.”

“Have you spoken to the police recently?” An’gel asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“No, ma’am,” Horace said. “I saw a cop car here when I drove up a few minutes ago, but I came in the back way and went right upstairs to check on Jackie.”

“You need to hear what Officer Bugg has to say. It’s about Sondra’s death.” An’gel steered him to the front parlor. She heard voices coming from the room. “I believe he is still in here talking to Benjy.”

Horace nodded. He strode into the room, and An’gel followed.

“Hey, Elmont.” Horace stuck out his hand as he reached Bugg. He and the policeman shook hands. “I hear you got something to tell me.”

“That I do, Horace, that I do. Coupla things, actually, and neither one of ’em ain’t good news.” Bugg looked around Horace’s substantial bulk and noticed An’gel. “Ma’am, I’m finished with this young man here, so y’all can go on about your bidness. I’ll let you know if there’s anything else I need from you.”

“Thank you, Officer,” An’gel said, frost in her voice. She did not appreciate Bugg’s tone or his choice of words. Go about my bidness indeed. “Benjy, why don’t we go up and check on Dickce and Tippy?”

Benjy nodded as he slipped around the two police officers but he stopped in front of Horace. “Mr. Mims, I know you’re busy, but I wanted to ask if you’ve heard how Lance is doing. I’ve been babysitting Tippy, and she was asking about him. Seems he usually visits her, and she wondered when he was coming.”

Oh my heavens. An’gel had forgotten all about poor Lance and his altercation with Trey last night. She felt terrible for not thinking about the young man’s welfare even once since the EMTs took him off to the hospital. She also recalled the furious look Horace had shot her way when she informed Trey she would be a witness for Lance if he decided to bring charges of assault.

“Yes, how is he?” she asked. “I’m ashamed I’d forgotten about him until Benjy mentioned him. Was he badly hurt?” She decided not to mention the circumstances. No point in riling Horace up again if she could avoid it. She wanted to question him later about other matters.

Horace looked grim. “Last I heard he was doing okay. Got a pretty hard head on him, apparently. Minor concussion, a black eye, and a bruised nose. They sent him home early this morning.”

An’gel was relieved to hear that Lance’s condition wasn’t more serious.

“You can tell Tippy that Lance won’t be coming to visit anytime soon,” Horace said to Benjy. “Even if she cuts up a fuss, I’m not having that idiot back in this house.”

Benjy flinched at Horace’s tone but said, “Okay, sir.” He moved quickly away from Horace and came to stand beside An’gel.

“That’s one of the things I got to talk to you about, Horace,” Bugg said. He cut a sideways glance at Benjy and An’gel. When neither of them moved, he sighed and went on, “You know how mamas can be when they have only one chick, and that Miz Perigord is more protective than most.” He sniggered. “Reckon she has to be, since that one chick of hers is lucky if he can find his way out of his bedroom in less than three hours.” Behind him, Sanford laughed.

Horace made a gesture with his right hand, as if telling Bugg to get on with it. The policeman sobered. “Well, anyways, Horace, Miz Perigord is threatening to press charges against Trey for assault.”

Horace uttered a string of obscenities, and An’gel said, “Come along, Benjy.” She wasn’t going to stay and listen to any more of that kind of vulgar talk. She thought it served Trey right and hoped that Mrs. Perigord followed through on her threat. That young man had to learn to control his temper, and this might teach him a lesson. Unless he killed Sondra, and then he’ll have a much worse lesson to learn. Her thoughts were bleak as she climbed the stairs with Benjy.

“Miss An’gel,” Benjy said, “when we get upstairs, I need to talk to you and Miss Dickce. It’s about something I heard Tippy say while she was playing a little while ago.”

Benjy sounded concerned, An’gel thought. “Okay. It’s time the three of us had a talk and shared whatever information we’ve been able to pick up.”

By the time they reached the third floor, An’gel was wishing—and not for the first time—that Mireille had installed an elevator. One long flight of stairs was bad enough, but two were a bit wearisome.

An’gel and Benjy walked down the hall toward Tippy’s room. Dickce stepped out when they were a few feet away and pulled the door halfway closed. She held a finger to her lips, then beckoned them with the same finger to follow her across the hall to the bedroom where she spent the night.

“Where are Peanut and Endora?” Benjy asked in an undertone as he followed the sisters.

Dickce whispered back, “Sound asleep on the bed with Tippy.” She grinned. “She wore them and herself out, and I didn’t think anyone would mind if they napped with her.” She ushered An’gel and Benjy into the room and left her door half open.

Dickce sat on the bed, feet dangling slightly. An’gel took the chair in front of the vanity and Benjy the armchair in the corner.

“I can’t believe how much energy a four-year-old has,” Dickce said. “I swear I could take a nap myself right about now.”

“Better you than me,” An’gel said. “Benjy has something to tell us.”

“I think I know what it is,” Dickce said, “but go ahead, Benjy.”

Benjy replied, “While I was watching Tippy earlier, she was talking a mile a minute. I tuned out some of it, but I heard her say something a man yelling at her mother.” He related the rest of Tippy’s story.

Dickce nodded. “She told me pretty much the same story.”

“Did either of you ask her whether she recognized the man?”

Benjy shook his head, but Dickce said, “I did, in a roundabout way. But it was no use. The voices were too far away, even though they were loud. And when the storm hit, Tippy was too frightened and got under the covers and hid there till she fell asleep.” Dickce frowned. “Poor little thing. She shouldn’t have been on her own during a storm like that.”

“No, she shouldn’t,” An’gel said. “Her mother should have been looking after her.” She paused. “But of course, Sondra could have been killed soon after Tippy overheard the argument. Thank the Lord the child hid under the covers, or she might have been killed as well.”

“The storm was the perfect cover for the killer,” Dickce said. “Especially if everyone else was hunkered down somewhere in the house until it passed.”

“We really don’t know where anyone was, besides ourselves, Tippy, and Sondra,” Benjy pointed out. “What would happen if we asked everybody?”

“It would arouse suspicion pretty quickly,” An’gel said. “We can’t do it directly. We’ll have to get them all to tell us some other way.”

“The killer will lie,” Benjy said.

“True.” An’gel nodded. “But he might give himself away somehow. We just have to be cleverer than he is.”

“Do you think the killer is a man?” Dickce asked.

“I do,” Benjy said. “It had to be somebody pretty strong to lift Sondra up and throw her over the railing into the yard.”

“Exactly,” An’gel said. “Estelle is wiry, but Sondra was bigger than she is. And Jacqueline was in town at the hospital with her mother.”

“So that leaves us with Horace, Trey, Richmond Thurston, and Jackson,” Dickce said.

“Jackson?” An’gel said. “That’s utterly ridiculous. The poor man can hardly get himself around, much less pick up a woman and throw her over a railing. I say we rule him out.”

Dickce’s mouth set in a stern line, and An’gel recognized this sign of her sister’s stubbornness. “No, think about it. Jackson adored Mireille, and he knew what Sondra had done. If he was truly furious at Sondra, the adrenaline might have been enough to make it possible for him to do it.”

“She’s got a point,” Benjy said. “Although I’d hate to think it of him. He’s such a sweet old man.”

An’gel sighed. “I suppose you’re right. But by the same token, we can’t rule out Estelle either. She was devoted to Mireille, and I know she loathed Sondra.” She told them about her conversation a little earlier with the housekeeper.

“I vote for her, then,” Benjy said. “She creeps me out anyway. Reminds me of that old lady on The Addams Family. You know, the grandmother, although the lady on the show wears her hair down, and Estelle doesn’t.”

An’gel dimly remembered the character to whom Benjy referred, and she had to admit a certain resemblance between the fictional grandma and Estelle.

Dickce giggled. “I see what you mean, Benjy. I hadn’t thought about it before, but Estelle could be a character right out of that show.”

“Be serious.” An’gel frowned. She herself had a rather dark sense of humor on occasion, but this was not one of them.

“What about the man Tippy heard yelling at her mother?” Benjy said. “What about Lance Perigord? Wasn’t he in the house last night, too?”

“Why do I keep forgetting that young man?” An’gel shook her head. “Yes, he was here, too. Although I really can’t see him harming Sondra. She was his ticket out of St. Ignatiusville.”

“He’s not exactly a deep thinker,” Dickce said in a wry tone. “If Sondra made him angry, he might not stop to think about lashing out at her.”

“She falls and hits her head on a sharp corner or something in her room.” Benjy nodded. “Then he panics, the storm hits, and he drags her out to the gallery and tosses her over the railing.”

An’gel could envision the scene all too easily. She wondered if that was what really happened. Whether it was Lance who was responsible or someone else remained to be determined, but it seemed like a plausible scenario.

The quiet was shattered a moment later by the sound of Peanut barking frantically across the hall.