Poor Jacqueline. Dickce ached even more. She couldn’t imagine how the loss of a child, even one as difficult as Sondra, would affect a mother. She prayed again that Mireille would recover, but Sondra’s death might be too much for Mireille. Then Jacqueline would be doubly bereft.
Dickce mentally shook herself for dwelling on the tragedy. I need to try to be cheerful for Tippy’s sake. She gave the child a bright smile.
“I like silly bears especially,” she said, and Tippy rewarded her with a smile. “Has anyone ever told you the story of a very silly bear named Winnie the Pooh?”
Tippy nodded. “Gweat-gwanny telled me about him and Pigwet and Tigger. I wike Pigwet because he’s funny. We watched dem on TV, too.”
“I bet I know some stories about Winnie and Piglet and Tigger that no one else knows,” Dickce said, improvising. “When you finish your banana, how about we go to your room, and I’ll tell them to you?”
Tippy nodded. “Yes, pwease. I wuv stowies.” She stuffed the two remaining slices in her mouth and chewed rapidly. After she swallowed, she grabbed Lance’s ear and got out of her chair.
Dickce insisted on washing Tippy’s hands first. The right one was sticky from the banana. Tippy submitted patiently to the washing, and then they left the kitchen. Dickce prayed that she could get the child up the stairs without her seeing any of the activity that by now must be going on outside. She’d heard the siren of the arriving ambulance not long after she and An’gel entered the kitchen.
To her relief, the front door was closed, and the hall was empty. Tippy scrambled up the stairs ahead of her, poor Lance bouncing on most of them, and Dickce did her best to keep up. Tippy reached the third floor when Dickce had barely made it to the second-floor landing. When she made it up the last flight, she spied Tippy coming out of a door to the right of the stairs.
Tippy had a finger to her lips, and Lance was no longer in evidence. “We has to be quiet,” she said in a loud whisper. “Wance is asweep in my woom.”
Dickce smiled. “Okay,” she whispered back.
Tippy turned and walked slowly into her room. Dickce followed, trying to be quiet, but her shoes squeaked on the polished wooden floorboards. When she stepped into the room after Tippy, she expected to see the bear tucked up in bed.
Instead, to her shock, she found Lance Perigord sound asleep on the floor at the foot of the bed.
CHAPTER 15
An’gel was glad to escape the kitchen. Small children made her nervous, but Dickce didn’t seem to mind them at all. An’gel’s curiosity wouldn’t let her rest until she knew what was happening in the front yard. On the way she said more prayers for Mireille. If her cousin survived to come out of the hospital, she might well collapse again when she learned of her granddaughter’s death.
She closed the door behind her when she stepped onto the verandah. There was no point in letting a lot of bugs in the house, and heaven only knew how many had already gotten in. Although, she reflected, the storm might have blown or washed most of them away.
The EMTs were climbing out of the ambulance, and while An’gel watched, a St. Ignatiusville Police squad car came to a halt several feet away from the ambulance. A heavyset man got out of the passenger side, while a tall, much thinner man climbed out from behind the wheel.
Estelle and Jackson stood at the railing, watching the scene unfold. An’gel joined them. Horace, Trey, and Thurston stood in the yard on the gravel path about a dozen feet from where Sondra’s body lay. Benjy, she realized, must have gone back to the den to stay with Endora and Peanut.
The EMTs went to work with the body, while the two police officers came up to Horace, Trey, and Thurston. They spoke in low tones, and An’gel was frustrated that she couldn’t hear anything.
After a few moments’ conversation, Horace jerked his head toward the verandah, then he turned and pointed up at the house. An’gel figured he was pointing out the location of Sondra’s room, at the front of the third floor, on the right side if one were facing Willowbank.
An’gel decided to join the men. She walked around the silent Estelle and Jackson and down the steps. As she approached, she heard Horace say, “. . . fascinated by storms. Didn’t bother her at all. It would be like her to go out on the balcony to watch.”
“Don’t reckon on it myself,” the heavyset man said. “Pure-dee old dangerous, doing something like that.”
“Sondra was fearless,” Trey said with a catch in his voice. “I argued with her I don’t know how many times not to pull a stupid stunt like that, but she never paid any attention to anything I said.” Those last words sounded bitter to An’gel.
“Such a tragic thing,” Thurston said. “And on the eve of her wedding.” He shook his head dolefully.
The heavyset cop, whose name badge An’gel couldn’t read, nodded. “Yep, just like that Melusine Devereux. Y’all heard tell of that old story?”
Horace nodded. “Just last night, as a matter of fact. The housekeeper was carrying on about it while she was serving dinner. Even said Sondra had chosen the same wedding date as her.”
“Well, I’ll be,” the cop said. “Is that a fact? Downright spooky if you was to ask me.”
The taller, younger officer tapped his superior on the arm. “Coroner’s just arrived, sir.”
The older cop grimaced. “She has, has she? Well, I hope she don’t mind getting her dainty little feet muddy, ’cause this is sure messy after all that dang rain. Well, why don’t y’all go on up to the house? No point in y’all standing around here while we investigate. I’ll let you know what Dr. Kovacs has to say.”
Horace, Trey, and Thurston turned away and headed back to the house, but An’gel lingered. She wanted to see the female coroner. She didn’t appreciate the officer’s attitude toward a professional woman. The officer had his back to An’gel, and she hoped he stayed that way.
A tall, slender, dark-haired woman dressed in a rain slicker and rubber boots came into view and made her way up the path to where the policemen waited.
“Evening, Lieutenant Bugg, Officer Sanford,” she said in a clear, confident tone. “What have we got here?”
He would be named Bugg. An’gel had to suppress a smile because the man did make her think of a giant beetle somehow.
“Howdy, Dr. Kovacs,” Bugg said. “Got a young woman who was apparently watching the storm up yonder on the third-floor gal’ry. Reckon the wind was so vi’lent it snatched her right off and dropped her down on the ground and killed her.”
Dr. Kovacs stared at the policeman with what seemed like polite skepticism to An’gel. She found it rather hard to believe herself. It was simply too bizarre an explanation. The doctor nodded and turned away. She strode over to where the body lay. The EMTs had finished, and one of them waited nearby. After a hurried consultation with him, the coroner approached the body and knelt on the plastic sheet the EMTs had laid beside it.
An’gel kept still, hoping Lieutenant Bugg wouldn’t notice her and try to send her back into the house. Unfortunately for her, the younger man, Sanford, spotted her and nudged his superior. Bugg walked over to An’gel.
“Ma’am, there something I can do for you?” he asked. “Nice lady like you shouldn’t be standing here looking at something like that.” He waved a hand in the direction of Sondra’s body. “Why don’t you go on back up to the house with the menfolk?”
An’gel did not appreciate the man’s patronizing tone. He had at least not called her a little lady, as some had done in the past and lived to regret. “I’m simply concerned,” she said. “I want to be sure that everything is done properly to find out what happened.”