“Good morning, Tuck,” Edna greeted her friend. She had liked Helen Tucker from their very first meeting years ago. A kind woman who always wore a slightly puzzled look as if not certain how she had gotten where she was, Tuck had, nonetheless, been tremendous in helping Edna acclimate to the community.
The two women were about to enter the salon when an old, battered Mercedes spun in next to Tuck’s spotless Lincoln and stopped, slightly askew and over the line into the neighboring space. A plump woman with tight blond curls, showing gray at the roots, pushed herself out of the car and bustled toward them. She wore a paisley pants suit and carried a large, black, patent-leather handbag over her left forearm. As she approached, she dropped her keys into the purse and snapped it shut.
“Mornin’, Tuck.”
“Mornin’, Peppa.” Tuck put a hand on Edna’s arm and pulled her forward. “Meet my friend, Edna Davies. Edna, this is Harriet Peppafitch.”
“Folks call me Peppa.” She had a nice smile and a twinkle in her eyes when she extended a hand. Her face was tanned and weathered, as if she spent most of her time outdoors.
“I’ve been wanting you two to meet,” Tuck said, beaming from one to the other. “I think you’ll find you’ve a lot in common.” Getting between the two and taking each by an arm, she directed them gently toward the salon door. “We’d better not stand out here chatting. We’ll have time to talk later.”
As soon as they entered the shop, a young woman at the front counter greeted Tuck with a frown. “Heidi got a call from the day-care center that her son’s running a fever. She went to pick him up and take him to the doctor. Would you mind rescheduling your appointment? She can fit you in tomorrow, if that’s okay.”
Tuck took the card the young woman held out to her. “That dear girl. I know how busy her Saturdays are.” She turned to her friends. “This will put a crimp in our brunch plans.” After a brief pause, her face lit up. “Tell you what. Why don’t you come out to the house when you’re done here? I have plenty of food, and it’ll be a treat to cook for more than one again.”
Edna and Peppa looked at each other before nodding. “Sounds fine, Tuck,” Peppa said and nudged Edna with her elbow. “I know what a good cook she is. We’re getting the best of this.”
“I won’t look as pretty as you two, but there’ll be plenty to eat.”
They all laughed as Tuck waved and headed for the door.
Having only a wash and set, Edna was finished first and sat down in one of the dryer chairs to wait and watch the hair coloring process. Of course, she’d seen women having their hair dyed before, but she’d never paid close attention. Wondering idly if this were the salon Dee Tolkheim used, Edna glanced at her reflection in the wall of mirrors and studied her gray hair. When Peppa was ready to go, Edna was still unconvinced that she needed to reclaim her youthful color. She had a mental picture of walking into the house with auburn curls and Albert collapsing on the floor in a fit of laughter.
Peppa offered to drive, explaining that she had to pass by the mall again to get home, so it would be no bother. “No sense driving two cars if we don’t have to.” Backing out of the space, she said. “How do you know Tuck?”
“Our husbands were fraternity brothers.” Edna clutched the door handle as the car spun left onto Main Street. She wondered if Peppa had seen the green Honda as they’d pulled out of the parking lot into the path of the other car.
“Tragic about Nip,” Peppa said, “to die only six months before retirement. Next month would have been their fiftieth anniversary, you know.”
“Yes, I do know. Albert said there wasn’t a thing anyone could have done, Nip went so quickly.”
“Should have changed his diet years ago.” Peppa careened left onto a side street without signaling. Edna closed her eyes, not wanting to see how close the oncoming car was to her passenger-side door.
As they traveled down the meandering two-lane road away from the center of town, traffic thinned considerably, and Edna was able to relax a little. “Nip was the one who found our house for us, you know,” she said, keeping one hand on the door’s armrest in case Peppa took another sudden turn. “One of the reasons this area appealed to us was because of the Tuckers. Nip suffered his heart attack only two weeks before we moved in.”
They drove in silence for a few minutes before Edna attempted a lighter topic of conversation. “Is your husband retired?”
Peppa glanced at her with an unreadable expression, then stared silently at the road for a few minutes before responding. “I’m divorced,” she said finally.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Edna felt her face flush. Why hadn’t Tuck mentioned this, she wondered. And just what does she think we have in common?
“Happened years ago. I’m over it.” Peppa momentarily turned her head away, muttering something under her breath that Edna thought sounded like “some ditch.”
Whatever she was thinking made Peppa press even more heavily on the gas pedal. The old Mercedes sped along the tree-lined road until Peppa swung left, barreled though an opening and onto a dirt track. As the vehicle straightened, Edna twisted to look out the back window.
“Did you see that? The post is down. It looks like someone sideswiped the stone wall.”
“Didn’t notice.” Peppa raced up the quarter-mile drive toward the main house. Branches from large oak and maple trees created a canopy over the road, and a tangle of underbrush crowded both sides, making it seem as though they were driving through a tunnel. As soon as they broke out of the foliage and she saw the house, Edna reached out to grab Peppa’s arm. “Stop the car. Something’s wrong.”
Six
Peppa slammed on the brakes, spinning dirt and gravel as she stopped fifty feet from the house. Tuck’s light blue Lincoln was parked a few feet away in the grass beside the drive. “What do you mean, something’s wrong? Looks okay to me.”
“Tuck would never park on the lawn. Besides that, the car is too far from the house and the driver’s door is wide open.”
“Is that all?” Peppa looked at Edna and laughed. “She was probably unloading groceries and forgot she left the door open. Happens to me all the time.”
“Why didn’t she pull up to the house, if she was unloading groceries? And why is she parked on the lawn?”
“Obvious. She was leaving room for us.” Peppa reached over and patted Edna’s shoulder. “It’s fine. I see nothing wrong.” That said, she gave the Mercedes some gas and stopped within a foot of the front step, the hood mere inches from the juniper bush growing next to the side railing.
The way she parks, no wonder she doesn’t think anything’s wrong, Edna thought as she pushed open the passenger door, finally releasing her grasp on the inside handle. She noticed the car’s front bumper was overhanging some asters planted at the base of the juniper.
Peppa came around behind the car, head down as she dropped her keys into the pocketbook swinging from her arm. Edna grabbed her wrist before she could reach the portico. “The door’s ajar. I have never known Tuck to leave her front door open.”
“No, not usually.” Peppa sounded annoyed as she snapped her purse shut. “But this morning, she’s expecting us. She obviously wants us to walk in, since the kitchen’s in back.” From her tone, Peppa might as well have added, “you ninny.”
Edna felt chastised, but a sense of unease continued to plague her. After a moment’s hesitation, she hurried up the few steps after Peppa, who had pushed the door wide and was entering the foyer. Busy looking at the windows, trying to decide what else seemed out of place, Edna didn’t notice Peppa had stopped short just inside the door. She bumped into the stocky woman, propelling her forward into the large anteroom where she stumbled and nearly fell headlong onto the parquet floor.
While Peppa was regaining her balance, Edna saw what had made her trip. “It’s Tuck!” Dropping to her knees beside the still form on the hardwood floor, she pressed her fingers to the side of Tuck’s neck, seeing as she did so the blood in Tuc
k’s hair.
“I feel a pulse, but it’s weak.”
“What happened?” Peppa leaned forward over their friend.
“I have no idea.”
“Looks like she fell. Maybe she hit her head on something.”
Examining Tuck’s scalp, Edna spoke her thoughts aloud. “She’s on her face, but the blood is on the back of her head. See?” She pointed to a dark spot high on the right side of Tuck’s skull, trying to stay calm. She wouldn’t do her friend any good by panicking.
“You don’t suppose someone struck her?” Peppa’s eyes widened.
Edna glanced around. The anteroom was only slightly better lighted than the foyer behind her, but she couldn’t see anything that looked like a weapon. In fact, the room was totally empty—no rugs, no furniture. She looked back at Peppa, a heightening sense of urgency tightening her stomach. Don’t panic, she told herself. Forcing down her rising anxiety, she asked Peppa, “Do you have a cell phone?”
The woman nodded. “In the car.”
“Call 911.”
While Peppa rushed out to the car, Edna remained beside Tuck and again studied the dimly lighted anteroom. The last time she had been here was for Nip’s funeral, shortly before she and Albert moved into their new house two months ago. At that time, the room appeared just as it had for most of the forty years she’d known the Tuckers with a large Oriental rug covering a thirty-foot square in the center of the room beneath the massive crystal chandelier, a small mahogany desk with a Queen Anne’s chair at the foot of the winding staircase, and a tall pendulum clock standing beside the door to the living room. Now, as she looked around, Tom’s voice sounded in her head, “Haven’t you heard about the rash of break-ins?”
Just then, Peppa burst back into the room, phone in hand. “Ambulance is on the way. They’re sending out a patrol car, too. Bill, their dispatcher, wants me to stay on the line until they arrive.”
Still uncertain of what might have happened here and not wanting to alarm Peppa unnecessarily, Edna said more casually than she felt, “Is Tuck selling the house? Do you know if she’s moving?”
Peppa stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Really, Edna, this is not the time for small talk.”
“Look around you.”
Lifting her gaze from Tuck’s inert body, the former librarian walked a few steps into the middle of the room. “Oh m’gosh,” she said, turning around slowly before raising the phone to her mouth. “Bill, she’s been robbed.”
The next few hours seemed a blur to Edna. A uniformed policeman was the first to show up, followed closely by two white-clad men carrying a stretcher. More police arrived, and Edna began to wonder why she had ever thought the anteroom seemed large.
Tuck was rushed off to the hospital, while Edna and Peppa were taken to separate rooms and questioned by the police as other officers searched through the rest of the house. The detective who spoke with Edna introduced himself as Charlie Rogers. He seemed to be in charge.
Before dismissing them, Rogers asked the two women if they would follow him through the house and describe any item they knew was missing. After acknowledging that Tuck would have to identify most of the stolen pieces, they were able to help out with some.
During the walk-through, their silent exchange of looks several times let Edna know Peppa felt as devastated as she about the antiques, now gone, that had been in either Tuck’s or Nip’s family for generations. Only one guest bedroom seemed to have been disturbed upstairs. Everyone agreed it looked as though Tuck had interrupted the burglars.
When at last they were allowed to leave, Peppa drove to the hospital, where they were directed to a private room. Tuck was propped up in bed, attended by a nurse.
“Hi, Janet,” Peppa said, striding into the room. “How’s she doing?”
The nurse, pleasant-faced and stocky in light blue slacks and a floral print blouse, smiled. “She’ll be okay. She’s suffered a mild concussion. We’ll monitor her through the night. It would have been much worse but for her thick hair.” Janet’s voice and manner were soothing.
“Nip would have said it’s my thick skull that saved me,” Tuck called from the bed, wincing as she raised her hand to a bulky bandage.
The patient was allowed to sit up while her friends visited, but if she showed any unusual signs or sleepiness, they were to push the call button immediately. Edna and Peppa stood on opposite sides of the bed and waited until the door closed behind the departing nurse before grilling Tuck.
“What happened?” Peppa was the first to speak.
“I don’t really know.” Tuck tried to sit up straighter, grimaced and leaned back into her pillows. “After I left you at the salon, I stopped at the market to pick up a few things, then drove home.” She looked confused for a moment. “There was a moving van outside the house.” She looked from Edna to Peppa and back again as if waiting for them to explain the truck.
“A moving van?” Edna said. “Did you tell the police?”
“Oh, yes. Peggy King was here when they finally brought me up to the room. I answered her questions as best I could, but I’m afraid I was a bit groggy. ‘Course, I’ve known Peggy’s mother for years, but it seemed so strange for Olga’s little girl to be questioning me. Peggy seems so grown up now.”
“Olga was one of my favorite Saturday morning children when I first began working at the library,” Peppa said. She glanced at Edna. “Story hour, every Saturday morning, nine to ten,” she explained the reference. “I knew Peggy too, of course, but she was never as avid a reader as her mother.”
“The moving van,” Edna prompted, trying to get them back on the subject. “What did it look like?”
Tuck glanced at her with a blank expression. “I can’t remember. I guess it’s more of a feeling I have that a moving van was parked at the house. It certainly was a very large truck.”
“Tuck.” Peppa was frowning down at the patient. She paused for several seconds, frowning, seemingly thinking very hard. “Did you have your alarm system turned on?”
Tuck looked sheepish. “No. The darn thing was always going off, at the oddest times, too. I’ve been meaning to call the security people and have them take a look at it.”
“Do you suppose those weren’t false alarms?” Peppa’s remark drew the attention of both women.
Tuck gasped. “Do you mean to say you think the burglars were trying to get into the house?” Her eyes widened in increasing alarm. “A couple of those times were in the middle of the night when I was asleep in bed.”
Peppa said hastily, “I think they might have caused the alarms to go off so you’d do just what you did—turn off the whole system. From what I know, burglars generally aren’t violent. They want to steal valuables, not confront the owners.”
Seeing that Peppa’s words hadn’t helped much in easing Tuck’s fears, Edna interjected. “That’s right, Tuck. Let’s not worry about it right now. I’m sure the police will find whoever did this.” She pulled the covers up, smoothing them around Tuck’s shoulders, and shot Peppa a look, trying to convey that a change of subject might be better for their friend’s health. “I was asking Beverly Lewis this morning about her brother’s new handyman business. I hear that he’ll take on whatever job you need done, including moving.”
Edna could have bitten her tongue at the last words, remembering it was a moving van that Tuck had seen in her driveway. Fortunately, Peppa jumped into the silence before it could grow.
“I heard the same thing,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “If you ask me, Norm Wilkins could use some competition. Beverly’s done well since she started Housekeeper Helpers. If her brother is half the worker she is, he’ll do just fine around here.”
To Edna’s dismay, Tuck returned to their former subject. “Speaking of moving,” she said, “my Victoria wants me to move in with her. Do you think I should? I wasn’t going to. I didn’t think I could stand to leave the house. Nip and I were so happy there. Now that this has happened, I just don’t know …” He
r voice trailed off.
Peppa bent over to pat Tuck’s shoulder. “There, there,” she soothed. “Edna’s right about the police, and we might be able to help them.” She looked over at Edna. “Remember when we were driving up to the house? Didn’t you say something about someone had sideswiped the stone wall and knocked the post down?”
Edna brightened, more to encourage positive thinking on Tuck’s part than because she really believed her words. “That’s right. I forgot to mention that when I was talking to Detective Rogers. I bet the police will be able to find something, paint from the truck or something. These thieves need to be caught before they hurt someone else. You were lucky. The next victim might not be as fortunate.”
“Ooohhh, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Tuck started to slouch down beneath the covers. “I feel dizzy. I think I’ll sleep now.”
Edna pressed the call button while Peppa took Tuck’s hand, rubbing and patting it while she spoke.
“Come on, Tuck, I think you’d better stay awake.”
Feeling inadequate but wanting to be helpful, Edna plumped Tuck’s pillows while they waited for a nurse.
Peppa, trying to keep Tuck awake, said, “I’d like to see them pull a moving van up to my house. Rufus would have them for lunch.”
Tuck’s eyes opened in a squint. “Oh, pooh. That Rottweiler of yours is a big baby, and everybody around here knows it.”
The three women laughed as Peppa said, “Well, then, let’s hope the crooks are strangers to town.”
The thought sobered them all. Edna wondered if the other two were thinking the same thing she was. Had this been done by someone they knew?
Seven
Peppa and Edna left after the nurse returned, but only after Peppa promised to check in the next morning to see if Tuck could go home. She seems to enjoy ferrying people around, Edna thought, amazed that anyone who knew her would agree to ride in the Mercedes of their own volition.