“Yes,” I said. “And he’d never forgive me if I jumped the gun and told you.”
“Oh, dear,” she said, shaking her head. “I do hope none of them do anything tasteless when they hear the news. Feelings have been running rather high all summer.”
“I’m sure the chief will remember that,” I said.
“Yes, and I hope he also remembers that the SPOOR members weren’t the only ones at odds with Mr. Doleson. I think the Shif-fleys were rather worked up, too.”
“The Shiffleys?” I asked. “I didn’t realize any of the Shiffleys had become bird-watchers.”
“They’re not,” she said. “But they do—”
“Ladies and gentlemen!” the chief said. He had his battery powered megaphone. “May I have your attention please!”
The crowd gradually settled down. It consisted by this time not only of the costumed SPOOR members but also an ever-increasing number of spectators who’d figured out this was where the best pre-parade entertainment could be found.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the chief began again.
“Geese and ganders!” one goose exclaimed. A wave of laughter rolled through the crowd, and the chief waited it out.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he repeated. “I regret to inform you that we’ve had a crime here at the parade. And I’d like to ask your help in solving it. Will all the SPOOR members please accompany me to the barn?”
A buzz of conversation erupted, and not all of it sounded happy.
“Oh, dear,” Ms. Ellie murmured. “Some of our members don’t look as if they feel like cooperating. I’ll have to see if I can help.”
She strolled over to where the chief was standing and said a few quiet words to him. The chief bowed slightly and gestured toward the barn. Seeing Ms. Ellie and the chief strolling along, chatting amiably, most of the SPOOR members fell into step behind them. The few would-be rebels made a big show of dragging their heels and making it clear with their body language that they were only going to the barn out of curiosity, not because anyone had the right to order them around.
Deputy Sammy came over to talk to me.
“The chief wants to know if you have any trash bags we can borrow,” he asked. “We don’t have any evidence bags large enough to hold the goose suits.”
“There’s a whole case of them right inside the barn,” I said. “The Boy Scouts were going to use them in their post-parade cleanup.”
“Thanks,” he said.
And speaking of the Boy Scouts, if Chief Burke was going to confiscate all the goose suits and perhaps detain all the SPOOR members for questioning, perhaps I should find them and see if they really were prepared enough to fill in as the six geese a-laying.
Though why should they have to? An idea occurred to me, and I followed Sammy out to the barn.
“The trash bags are over there,” I said, pointing to the corner where they were stored. Rather unnecessarily, since Sammy had already spotted the giant box with TRASH BAGS printed on it in two-inch letters.
“A school bus will be fine,” the chief was saying into his cell phone. “How soon can you get it here?”
“A school bus?” I echoed.
“He’s taking us to town to be interrogated,” Ms. Ellie said.
“Interviewed,” the chief said. “Okay, we have thirty-seven SPOOR members here. Is that all of you?”
“Thirty-eight counting Mrs. Markland,” several geese chimed in. The chief scowled at his officers.
“And where is this Mrs. Markland?” he asked.
“Since I wasn’t her pastor, I couldn’t tell you,” Ms. Ellie said. “But I can assure you she wasn’t here murdering Mr. Doleson.”
The chief blinked.
“That’s the late Mrs. Markland,” I put in.
“She’s dead, then?” the chief asked.
“As a doornail,” Ms. Ellie said.
“ ‘I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade,’ ” I quoted.
The chief and Ms. Ellie both turned to frown at me.
“Sorry, total Dickens immersion,” I said. “Just ignore it.”
“We’ve found the trash bags, thank you,” the chief said. “I’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
Coming from him, it was a relatively subtle dismissal.
“Great,” I said. “But I need something from you.”
“What?”
“Six geese,” I said.
“The geese are all—”
“Only six,” I said. “Look, you can’t possibly talk to all thirty-seven at once. Why not take thirty-one of them to town in your school bus, and let the remaining six take themselves there by marching in the parade?”