In Harm’s Way - Ch. 22

Excerpt from rough draft of In Harm’s Way by Pat Otterness

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

????????????The quest for Crazy Betty was on. Driving home, our conversation was all about the best way to discover where she lived. “Who do we know who gossips?” I said. I thought of Glad Handy, but she was in Rehab in another state, recovering from chemical burns and other damage recently done to her body.??“Who else has lived around here a long time?”

????????????Since Hope wasn’t local, and Hiram was new to the area, they had no suggestions at all.

????????????“I’ll ask Ralph,” I said.

????????????“Who?”??Hope and Hiram both looked puzzled.

????????????“You mean Ralph, the postman?” Hiram asked, after a moment’s thought.

????????????“He goes everywhere and meets everyone.,” I said. “And he gossips, too, but don’t tell him I said so. If anyone knows, it will be Ralph.??And if he doesn’t, he’ll know someone we can ask.”

????????????Of course, finding Ralph was a conundrum, since he was out delivering mail all around the county.??We’d just have to wait till he came to us.

????????????I put Hope in charge of watching for Ralph.??Hiram had to leave for a job in town, and took off on his rusty bike, pedaling as fast as he could.??“He really needs a car,” said Hope. “I should have lent him mine.”

????????????“ You might need yours if you’re going to track down Jon Mason,” I said.??“The forensic van isn’t here any more.??I think they’re done. You drove all this way for nothing.”

????????????“Maybe he’ll come back,” said Hope. “You always seem to have plenty of bodies.??Maybe there’s one in your compost hole.”??Her indignant glare made me laugh.

????????????“Maybe you should try and find one,” I said. “My shovel is already up there.??I’m sure Wolf would help after you got past the rotting iris stalks.”??I looked around, but Wolf was nowhere to be seen. “Maybe he’s up there now.”

????????????“I’m watching for Ralph,” said Hope. “ I thought you had work to do.”

????????????“Let me know when he gets here,” I said. “ I want to talk to him myself.”??I started back up the hillside, scissors in hand.??I was going to collect some ripe iris pods.??It was a few days early, but I wouldn’t actually open the pods until their 60 days were up.??I would leave them in a sunny window to finish maturing. The problem with letting them mature in the garden was that sometimes they cracked open and shed their seeds on the ground. Then, many if not all, were lost.

????????????I was happily immersed in this task when I got a hail from Hope.??Ralph had arrived.??I set down my basket of seed pods and hurried down the hill.

????????????Ralph was sitting in his car, looking out of the passenger window.??Postmen have to drive in the passenger seat to reach the mailboxes.??I wondered how hard it would be to get used to driving on the wrong side of the car. “Hi Ralph!” I said.

????????????“What’s up, Chat?” he asked. “Anything wrong?”

????????????I hastened to reassure him.??“Not at all,” I said. “I just wanted to pick your brain.??I’m looking for someone I’ve heard is living around here.”

????????????“Ask away,” said Ralph.??“I know almost everyone.”??He looked around at the empty fields. “ I sure do miss the iris blooms,“ he said.??“It’s so pretty out this way when all the fields are in bloom.”

????????????“They’ll be back next May, “ I said. “I work all year for three or four weeks of blooms.”

????????????“So, who are you looking for?” said Ralph, needing to get back to delivering mail.

????????????“ Do you know of a Betty Diez living around here???I heard she used to live somewhere on Dancing Creek.”

????????????“Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.” He thought for a minute. “Crazy Betty, some call her, but I don’t think she’s crazy.??Maybe crazy like a fox.??Wiley.”

????????????“Do you know where she lives?” I asked.

????????????Ralph gazed up my hillside at the heavily wooded mountain that lay beyond it. “Up there somewhere,” he said. “There isn’t a road. Just a few animal trails. Funny thing, you know. I’ve heard she comes down to look at your iris garden in the moonlight sometimes, late at night.”

????????????“Who on earth would be out here late enough to see her?” I asked.??Impossible!

????????????“Now that’s the funny part,” said Ralph. “It was that Inspector Vaughn. Does he visit you out here? I never knew you were friends.”

????????????“We’re not,” I snapped. “Why on earth would he be out here late at night?”?

????????????“I don’t know, but he was looking for her. Said I shouldn’t mention it to anyone.”??Ralph looked unrepentant at mentioning Vaughn’s secret. “Pretty creepy, if you ask me.”

????????????Hope and I looked at each other as Ralph drove away.??“That’s not exactly an explicit address,” I said, looking up at the mountain. “But Carmen might be up there looking for Betty.??We need to find out.”

????????????“What? You’re just going to look for random animal trails through all that undergrowth?” Hope shook her head in amazement. “ Sometimes I think the stork left you at the wrong address.”

????????????I went back to finish gathering pods, but I looked over the fence to see if I could spot any animal trails. Nothing obvious.??This was going to take some exploration. I carried my pods into the house and laid them out in the sunny kitchen window. Then I made a list of the crosses I had brought in, and set it aside until I was ready to open the pods.??The tags were still tightly attached to each seed pod, with pod and pollen parents listed along with the date of the cross.??Record keeping was a big part of hybridization.

????????????Hope had made sandwiches … PB and J … so lunch went quickly. The afternoon was?stretching long before me, and I returned to thinking about Crazy Betty. I could go up and look for animal trails. Just look. I didn’t like the idea of the underbrush, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I put on hiking boots.??Hopefully no snake could get his chompers through those.

????????????I invited Hope to join me.??Hmm? Her response was lukewarm, at best. A few remarks about no other insanity known in the family. I grinned and grabbed up a flashlight. I was going to find a path.??A pathfinder!??That’s what I am!?I set off up the hillside, eager to begin my search.