Drizzled with Death(77)

“How’s Knowlton?” I asked. With Tansey there is no need to bother with the usual niceties. She’s content to get to the point and respects others who do the same. Tansey and small talk mix about as freely as church deacons and biker gangs.

“Tired and upset, no thanks to you and the guy trying to replace him in your affections.” For such a practical woman, she had a blind spot the size of the Atlantic when it came to her son and me.

“Did you want us getting killed by a giant angry bird?”

“How you manage to fit so much bull pucky into such a small package, I will never know.” Tansey stroked the cat harder and harder until the poor thing’s eyes bugged out of its head and it squirmed to the ground in a well-timed act of self-preservation.

“You run into a couple of them as night approaches and then let me know how scary they are. Besides, I didn’t find the rat poison and I didn’t call the police about it either.”

“So you didn’t turn your back coldly on your one true love?”

“I didn’t say anything approaching that. I said I didn’t rat you guys out to the police for having some old chemicals in your shed. For all I knew, they weren’t even yours.”

“They were ours, all right. When the studies came out about how dangerous that stuff was, I stopped using it around the farm. But you know how it is; you plan to get to the hazardous waste day at the dump but something always comes up and you don’t get there. So it has sat, along with all sorts of other junk in the shed, until I finally get around to it. It’s been kicking around so long I didn’t really remember it was there until Lowell came to ask us about it.”

“But Knowlton must have seen it since he spends so much time in that building.”

“Knowlton only has eyes for his mother, animals he might want to stuff, and you Greene girls. Nothing else matters to him. He still doesn’t even notice when his teeth need brushing.” She said that like it was something that would have escaped my attention. Knowlton’s lack of personal grooming was among the chief reasons he was more popular with dead animals than live people.

“Are the police just questioning him or did they arrest him?”

“They asked him questions for about an hour last night and then turned him loose. The poor thing was so upset he didn’t even go out looking for roadkill.” He must have been rattled. Gale force winds, nor’easters, and hailstones the size of biscuits never kept Knowlton from roaming around at night. Which was another reason he hadn’t snagged a girlfriend. Women in New Hampshire like their men to stick around at night if for no other reason than to take the chill off the sheets. Nights are too cold here to spend them all alone. I know from too much experience.

“Did they question you, too?”

“Of course they did. There were enough questions here to have fueled a television game show. They even got around to asking some fool thing about fertilizers.”

“Best Bett All in One?” I asked, thinking Myra had made good on her decision to tell Lowell what she knew.

“That’s the one. Lowell wanted to know if I had ever heard of anyone producing or even buying a product with that name. I told him the same thing I said to Lewis Bett when he asked me about the trust; I was only connected to the Betts by marriage and their business was not really mine.” Tansey crossed one grubby jean-clad leg over the other and stared off into space like she was remembering something.

“Lewis Bett asked you about a trust?” You know that buzzy feeling you get when you are starting to pick up a thread on an idea? I was buzzing like a bunch of wasps had started construction on a paper nest inside my head.

“He did indeed. Several years ago, when he was getting on and feeling his mortality, he asked me if I would serve as a trustee for his estate. He said he liked the way I took care of my own land and he felt I would do a good job helping to protect his.”

“But you refused?”

“I did. The whole thing sounded a lot more complicated than I really wanted to be involved in. Something about a living will and assets and making sure things all stayed like they were even if the people he left the place to wanted to make changes. I told him he ought to talk to someone related by blood, not by marriage, but really it just seemed like about as much fun as pulling burrs off a poodle.”

“So who did he ask?”

“First I suggested Myra but he said she had a big mouth so I suggested Felicia. I didn’t really want to talk about it again in case he had trouble finding someone so I never asked if she said yes. You’d have to ask her.”