“Aunt Elner, listen to me. You stay right where you are and don’t do a thing, do you hear me?”
Norma went into the bedroom and shook him. “Macky, wake up!” He stirred a little. . . . “Macky, wake up. We have to go over to Aunt Elner’s.”
“What’s the matter? Is she sick?”
“Get your clothes on . . . she says she killed the Griggs boy.”
“What?”
“I don’t know, Macky. She’s hysterical. She said she poisoned him. Just get dressed before she calls the police.”
Macky put his pants on over his pajamas, Norma grabbed her coat, and by the time they got there, Elner was out on the porch waiting for them, wringing her hands.
“I know I’ve disgraced the family,” she said. “I don’t know what caused me to do such a thing.”
Macky led her back into the house. “Aunt Elner, just sit down and tell us what’s going on.”
Elner was distraught. “It’s gonna be in all the papers; do you think they will handcuff me? Poor old Sonny has a hole in his head and now his owner is going to jail or maybe to the electric chair.”
Macky said, “Aunt Elner, now, just calm down. What happened?”
“I must have gone insane. Maybe I can plead insanity—do you think so?”
“What did you do?”
“Well, I wanted to get back at him for hitting Sonny. I knew I couldn’t catch him, so I tried to figure out a way to get him up on the porch and take a good whack at him. I made up some fudge to get him over here.” She looked stricken. “Oh, I just should have stopped there. But I had a whole bunch of old chocolate Ex-Lax, so I just melted it up and threw it in.”
“Is that all?”
“A little dab of Mennen’s underarm deodorant.”
“Just that?”
“No.”
“What else?”
“A half cup of oven cleaner. Polident tooth powder . . . I sprinkled a little on the top . . . it looked kinda like sugar.”
Norma couldn’t contain herself. “Oh my God.”
“Hold on, Norma,” Macky said. He asked in a calm voice, “Is that all, Aunt Elner?”
Norma looked at him like he was crazy. “Is that all? . . . That’s enough to kill an entire family right there!”
Aunt Elner said, “I never thought of that. Do you reckon he may have taken that candy home? I may have killed them all. They may all be laying up in the trailer park dead.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Now I’m a mass murderer.”
Macky said, “Aunt Elner, now slow down. Start from the beginning. Tell me everything that happened.”
“I made the candy . . . and waited till I saw him skulking around in the backyard. Then I called him over and said, ‘Come here, little boy, I’ve got some nice candy for you.’ I just meant for him to have one bite and then I was gonna try and grab for him but before I had a chance to do anything he snatched most all of the candy off the plate and took off before I could get at him.”
“When did this happen?”
“This morning.”
Norma said, “Why did you wait so long to tell us?”
Aunt Elner shook her head. “I guess when you do a thing like that the criminal mind just takes over. I thought I might get away with it. I should have come clean from the start. And now I’ve killed the whole Griggs family.”
“Oh my God,” Norma said. “Shouldn’t we call a good lawyer, Macky? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do at a time like this?”
“We are not going to call anybody. I am sure he is fine.”
“Macky, we can’t guess about something like this. We’re looking at a murder charge. You go over there right now and look at that boy. We may all have to go on the lam.”
“For God’s sake, all right, but this is stupid.”
“Macky—promise me you won’t come back until you have seen that boy walking and talking.”
“All right, all right.”
The door opened and Luther Griggs peered out first, and then opened the door wider, shotgun in hand. “What the hell do you want this time of night?”
“Are you all right?”
“Hell, yes. . . . Are you?”
“Can I come in? I need to talk to you.”
As Macky stepped into the trailer, which stank of beer and cigarettes, he looked closely at Luther to see if he looked sick but Luther Griggs had never been a picture of health, so it was hard to tell.
“I’m sorry to come over this late but we might have a little problem. Is your boy home?”
“What’s he supposed to have done now?”
“Nothing. It’s just that he may have been given some bad candy and he might need to have a doctor look at him.”
By this time Mrs. Griggs, in a ratty pink chenille robe with maroon flowers, had come into the room frowning. “What’s he done now?”
“Nothing, Mrs. Griggs, I just need to see him for a moment. If you don’t mind.”
“What for?”
“It’s a long story. But my aunt might have given him some bad fudge this morning and we just need to make sure he’s all right.”
She did not move but yelled, “Get in here this minute, you hear me . . . right now!” After a moment, Mrs. Griggs whipped around and flew into the bedroom. “I said get up! Now!”
Soon Mrs. Griggs reappeared, dragging the boy by the ears, with him kicking at her the whole time.
Macky said, “My aunt says you took a couple of handfuls of some candy she offered to you. . . . Is that right?”
“She’s a damn liar . . . I never took no damn fudge,” the boy said.
“She’s not accusing you of stealing. She—”
“Well, she’s a crazy damn old fool. I never took no candy.”
Luther Griggs got all puffed up. “You heard my boy, he never took no damn candy. You calling my boy a liar?”
“No. I’m not. I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t sick. The candy might not have been . . . uh, not made with the right ingredients.” Macky looked closely at the little boy. “Are you sure you feel all right, son? That candy didn’t make you sick?”
“I never took no candy.”
“Well, all right then, as long as you are all right. But if you do feel sick, call me. . . . Here’s my number.” He wrote it down for them.
In truth, Luther Jr. had grabbed the candy but when he took one bite it was so bad he spit it out and threw the rest over the Whatleys’ fence.
Macky walked in the door at Aunt Elner’s and winked at Norma.
“Well, Aunt Elner, I’ve got bad news for you. They’re still alive. Too bad. You might have gotten a medal from the town if you had wiped them all out.”
Norma said, “I’m glad you can joke about it. We came very close to having Aunt Elner wind up in the state penitentiary. Wouldn’t that have been nice for Linda, having her great-aunt sitting up on Death Row.”
Macky laughed.
Norma looked at him. “Laugh if you want, Macky, but she would never have gotten into a decent sorority!”
The Meeting
IT WAS SOME TIME after the memorial before Betty Raye could get up the nerve to do something she had wanted to do for a long time. She asked State Trooper Ralph Childress to let her out a half block away and when she reached the front of the building in Kansas City a uniformed doorman tipped his hat saying, “May I help you, ma’am?”
She fumbled around in her purse. “Uh, I’m here to see Mrs. Vita Green?”
“Yes, ma’am. Who shall I say is calling?”
Betty Raye, who was wearing a scarf and sunglasses, panicked. She had not realized she would be announced. She almost turned around and left but she figured she had come this far, she might as well come out with it. She said almost inaudibly, “Tell her it’s Mrs. Sparks.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He pushed a button. “Mrs. Green, I have a Mrs. Sparks here to see you.”