Murder by Yew (An Edna Davies Mystery #1)(19)

“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.”