Murder by Yew (An Edna Davies Mystery #1)(46)

“Who knew you’d be away?” Charlie nodded to Peggy, who opened a small black notebook and began to write with a slim gold pencil.

Edna thought back to when she’d made the decision to visit Starling. “Let’s see … Liz and Carol. That’s Liz Franken and Carol Lancell. Liz is my art instructor, and Carol is a member of the class.” She spelled their names for Peggy before continuing. “There was Mary, of course. I asked her to feed Benjamin while I was away. He’s my cat.” This explanation was in response to Charlie’s lifted eyebrow. When Peggy looked up from her pad, Edna said, “And Dee Tolkheim. She stopped by as I was about to leave. She does that, you know. Stops by unannounced. Very inconsiderate.” Realizing that she was babbling, Edna took a deep breath to steady her nerves. Why was she beginning to feel as if she were the one who’d done something wrong?

“Is that everyone?” Peggy asked.

Edna nodded and noticed that the two officers exchange glances before Charlie said, “It looks like whoever entered your house last night cut the phone line first. That tells me they probably expected someone to be home. I don’t want to alarm you unnecessarily, but you should take some precautions. For now, can you stay with Mary?”

His words confirmed the growing suspicions that Edna had been trying to ignore, and she nodded. “Yes. Mary’s offered me a bed, at least until my husband returns from his trip.” Feeling close to panic, she said almost to herself, “I don’t know why anyone would be after me.”

Neither detective spoke for a few minutes while Peggy stared at Charlie, who looked deep in thought as he studied the door to the mudroom. “There may be another explanation. Maybe they didn’t expect you to be home. Cutting the phone line may have been a precaution.” He spoke as if he were thinking aloud, his gaze still on the back room. After a few more minutes, he turned back to Edna, shrugged his shoulders as if settling more comfortably into his suit jacket, and rested his crossed forearms on the table. “We’re investigating a series of burglaries around town. I don’t know if you’ve seen the paper, but there was another break-in on Friday.”

Mutely, Edna shook her head. A vision popped into her mind of Helen Tucker’s hair spotted with blood.

“The Bishops—local family, new to the area but well off—flew to Atlanta last Thursday for their son’s wedding. Got home yesterday afternoon and found several pieces of furniture missing, along with some old coins, clocks, rugs and paintings. Looks like the same thieves. Seemed to know where everything was. Just took the most expensive stuff.”

When he paused, Edna picked up on the thought. “So you’re saying whoever was here last night might have been these same people? You think they were looking for valuables, for antiques?”

“Might have been.” Charlie looked in her eyes. “Did you lock your door last night?”

“I’ve been trying and trying to remember, but I can’t. I really can’t be certain I locked it.”

“It would help if we knew whether or not they used a key to get in.”

“Seems rather unlikely, doesn’t it? I mean the key was in its hiding place in the garden. They wouldn’t have had time to put it back, not once Mary and Hank showed up.”

“Who knows you have a key hidden outside besides Mary?” Peggy asked, looking up from her notes.

“My cleaning women,” Edna said. “I wanted them to know how to get in if there’s ever an occasion that I’m not here when they arrive.”

She saw Peggy glance at Charlie as if passing the questioning back to him. He paused only briefly before he said, “Has Beverly Lewis’s brother ever done work around here?”

“No. We’ve used only Tom.” Edna paused to think of what that meant now. Would she hire David Lewis—or Shoes, as Beverly called him—and be free of Norm Wilkins, or would Albert insist on retaining Honeydew Home Repairs? She made a mental note to speak to him when he got home from his trip.

“So, you wouldn’t have a phone number for David Lewis?”

Charlie’s question surprised Edna. “No. Have you checked with Beverly?”

“Yes, we were able to reach her on her cell phone. She’ll be stopping by the station when she gets back to town, but she said she hadn’t spoken to her brother for nearly two weeks. He’s not answering his cell phone. She says that’s unusual and admitted to being worried about him. We were just wondering if at any time you might have gotten a number for him and if it’s different from the one we’ve been calling.”

“Sorry, I don’t have one,” Edna said, then asked, “Why are you looking for Beverly’s brother?”

She didn’t miss Peggy’s fleeting glance at Charlie before the policewoman said, “They both work at homes that have been vandalized, so they might be helpful to our investigation, especially if they’ve seen anything out of the ordinary.” Without pause, she changed back to the subject of Edna’s hidden key. “Is it possible that whoever came in last night might have unlocked the door and returned the key before entering the house?”

Edna hadn’t considered that possibility. She mulled it over in her head. Without having an answer to Peggy’s question, she turned to Charlie to ask one of her own. “I still don’t understand why anyone would come here in the middle of the night. If they thought nobody was going to be home, why not come during the day?”