yourself?” I asked. “People will be wondering where you are.”
She dabbed her plum-colored lips with a paper napkin. “Then let ’em. I’m keeping an eye on the toolshed . . . and for heaven’s sakes, keep your voice down, Kate! I don’t want anybody to know I’m out here.”
If a person could bellow in a whisper, my cousin Violet did, and if anybody had been within twenty yards of the toolshed, they would’ve heard every word she said.
“After what we said in there, I don’t think anybody will come close to that place in broad open daylight,” I told her.
Violet laughed and nudged me with a hefty elbow. “But just wait until tonight! Fooled ’em good, didn’t we?”
“We’ll see,” I said.
I went inside to give Ma Maggie and Aunt Leona a break with hostess duties and was grateful that some of the neighbors had taken over in the kitchen. Uncle Ernest, his friend Goat and Uncle Lum, along with several other men, had made themselves comfortable on the front porch with glasses of something that looked like iced tea, but I knew darn well it wasn’t. I was glad when Marge came by with Jon and Hartley a little later to see if she could help. A friend had taken Darby and Josie, along with her own children, to an afternoon movie, she told me.
“You can keep me company and tell me who some of these people are,” I said. “They seem to expect me to remember that their sister went to school with my mother in the third grade, or that Aunt Somebody-or-Other was a bridesmaid in my grandmother’s wedding.” I wanted to tell my cousin about Violet’s far-fetched plan, but if it didn’t work out, I knew I’d never hear the last of it. I did tell her what I’d found out about the skeleton belonging to a male.
Marge directed a new arrival to the kitchen with a plate of sliced ham before replying. “Really?” she said. “Well, that’s kind of a relief, isn’t it? I mean—we thought it might’ve been—you know.”
“I know,” I told her. “So where do we go from here?”
“We don’t go anywhere, Kate McBride, so don’t even think about it.” My cousin stepped back and frowned at me, turning her head to the side so that a strand of bright hair fell across one eye. “You aren’t cooking up some crazy scheme, are you?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve had enough excitement,” I said, feeling that surely nothing would come of Violet’s wild plan. Still, I was relieved to see Burdette bouncing up the steps so I could change the subject. “Here comes your hubby,” I said. “Uncle Ernest says he’s to take part in the service tomorrow.”
Marge nodded. “Ella earmarked several Bible verses for him. Thought a lot of Burdette, she said—even though he is a ‘heathen’ Baptist!” My cousin shook her head and smiled. “Poor Ella,” we said together.
By late afternoon visitors had thinned and we were running out of places to put all the food. Deedee had left earlier to collect Cynthia from pageant rehearsal and Marge and Burdette followed soon after. I managed to entice Cousin Violet from her back-porch sentry duty long enough to join us for an early supper as Ma Maggie and Uncle Ernest planned to stop by the funeral home before going to my grandmother’s for the night. Formal visitation was scheduled at Bramblewood after the service the next afternoon.
“Maggie and I have some things to discuss and I’ll be late getting home, so please don’t wait up for me,” Uncle Ernest told us at supper. My grandmother looked at him kind of funny but didn’t say anything, and I think I was the only one who noticed that he carried a small overnight bag with him when he left.
Thank heavens Violet stayed out of sight until Lum and Leona, tired after a long day, went upstairs early, and Grady had taken off to visit a friend he’d known in high school. I didn’t blame him for not wanting to hang around Bramble-wood. I wouldn’t be here myself if I hadn’t been fool enough to go along with Violet’s crazy scheme.
“Lord, I never realized it took so blasted long to get dark this time of year!” Violet said as she paced back and forth in the dusky kitchen. I had finally convinced her we could keep an eye on the toolshed just as well from inside.
It was after nine and, so far, nobody had approached the shed. I hadn’t