The Key in the Attic(55)
Annie chewed her lower lip, staring out the front window of the SUV, not really seeing anything. It was maddening. Geoffrey had to have left something for Angeline to find. Something valuable. What could it have been? And what had happened to it?
Sanders had known about the Whyte home, and he had checked the surrounding area. The trees Geoffrey had mentioned must have been someplace special to him and Angeline all those years ago. If they hadn’t been cut down, there was no way of identifying them now, was there? Between the trees.
Annie cleared her throat. “Mary Beth?”
Mary Beth pulled into the right lane to let a faster car pass. “Hmmm?”
“Did you ever go to the house Angeline lived in? Maybe the trees in the clue were on her land somewhere.”
Mary Beth chuckled. “If they were, then we’ve really hit a dead end. I remember Mom telling me how upset her mother was when they tore that place down to build a highway sometime back in the thirties.”
Annie exhaled heavily. “I don’t suppose you ever heard of any special place around there? Some trysting place for young lovers?”
This time Mary Beth laughed outright. “Just how old do you think I am? And I never lived in the area myself, you know. But, no, I never heard Mom or Grandma talk about anything like that.”
“You’ll just have to give this one up,” Alice said. “Take yourself out of crime-solving mode, and put yourself back into enjoying-a-normal-life mode.”
“You’re right. But I think if I’m not going to be in crime-solving mode, I need to be in figure-out-what-to-do-about-Burly-Boy mode. I guess I’ve been hoping that, whatever it was, what Geoffrey left for Angeline would somehow fix the Burly Boy situation too.”
Mary Beth looked straight ahead, watching traffic, but Annie could see a flicker of sadness in her eyes.
“I guess I was hoping that too,” Mary Beth said. “I suppose that would be too much of a miracle to ask for.” She sighed and then abruptly straightened her shoulders and smiled. “But it was a good way to keep my mind off things I can’t do anything about.”
Alice grinned. “It was fun, wasn’t it?”
“It’s only fun when you can actually solve the puzzle,” Annie groused.
“Now, now,” Alice said, shaking her finger. “Burly-Boy mode, remember?”
****
For the next couple of days, Annie went through her usual routine with half of her mind focused on her normal daily tasks and half if it sifting through different ways she might help Mary Beth save A Stitch in Time. Everything—it seemed—was either impractical or impossible. Finally she went across the lawn to the carriage house and knocked on the door.
There was no answer. Alice was probably giving one of her jewelry parties. Or was it Divine Décor this time?
With a sigh, Annie turned to go back home. Before she reached her own door, Alice’s red Mustang turned into her driveway.
“Hey. Were you looking for me?”
Annie waved and scurried over to the car. “I was thinking maybe you and I should go over to Mary Beth’s and do some brainstorming. What do you think?”
“I think you’re nuts,” Alice said with a good natured shake of her head, “but if Mary Beth is willing to have a little company, I’m game. As long as the conversation in no way turns to anything concerning the selling of costume jewelry. I’ve had my fill for the day.”
Annie laughed. “Let me call Mary Beth and see if she’ll let us stop by, and then I’ll grab my purse and be right out.”
Annie hurried inside and punched in a telephone number. Mary Beth picked up before it even rang.
“That was quick.”
“Annie? I was trying to call you.”
They both laughed.
“Listen, Mary Beth, Alice and I thought that, if you’re up to it, we’d come by your place and brainstorm about the Burly Boy problem.”
“Ugh. I don’t know if my brain will go there anymore. But, yeah, come on over. I have something for you to see.”
“Ooh, what?”
“Uh-uh. You’ll just have to come and see.”
****
Alice’s Mustang got her and Annie to Mary Beth’s in record time, and Mary Beth was standing at the door waiting for them.
“You won’t believe what I got in the mail today. Come in, you two, and sit down. Coffee?”
Alice and Annie followed her into the kitchen and sat at the table.
“So what did you get? Did Burly Boy decide to build somewhere else?”
Mary Beth frowned. “No, that’s still on, I’m afraid. Mr. Huggins hasn’t signed the papers yet, but my time is about up, and I don’t have any more alternatives.”