“But I can worry about that later,” he went on. “What I meant is that I just got another call from Maudie down at the funeral home.”
“Ah,” I said. Clarence’s curious haste to select Parker’s burial clothes suddenly became more understandable. “She’s fretting?”
“I told her the funeral can’t be for a few days, but she keeps saying we need to settle what they’re going to put him in for the services.”
“You know Maudie,” I said. “Only woman in town who finishes her Christmas shopping by Valentine’s Day.”
“I think she wraps it up by Twelfth Night,” Clarence said. “So I went over this morning after the chief released the house and took Maudie some of Parker’s clothes, but she says they won’t do and she wants something else.”
“What did you take?” I asked.
“Some new jeans, and a nice Hawaiian shirt,” he said.
“I can see Maudie’s point,” I said. “You can’t have Parker wearing a Hawaiian shirt and blue jeans to his own funeral.”
“I don’t see why not,” Clarence said. “I can’t remember Parker wearing anything else the whole time I knew him.”
“Not suitable,” I said. Perhaps I should bring up the closed-casket idea. Although that probably wouldn’t placate Maudie, who fretted horribly if she had to send any of her customers to their reward in less than perfect fashion.
“I picked the most somber Hawaiian shirt in his closet,” Clarence said. “Black and white flowers. And black jeans.”
I shook my head and frowned at him. I was struggling not to laugh, imagining how Maudie Morton had reacted at being handed a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of jeans to put on one of her charges.
“It’s just not done,” I said.
“So Maudie tells me,” Clarence said, with a sigh. “Which means someone has to drop everything to go over there and get a suit, if he has one. Or figure out what size he wears so we can borrow one.”
“Borrow?” I said. “You think he’s coming back to return it?”
“Buy, then,” Clarence said. “Anyway, it looks as if I’m the one who has to take care of all that. So could you make sure the beagle puppies get their next feeding? And I need for you to pill a couple of the cats. And—”
“You take care of the animals.” I held out my hand. “Give me the key and I’ll work on Parker’s funeral clothes.”
“Are you sure?” He sounded uncertain, but I saw he was already fumbling in his pockets, presumably for Parker’s key.
“Do you really want to face Maudie if you show up with another unsuitable outfit?” I countered. “I probably have a lot better chance of picking out something she’ll approve of.”
“Thanks.” He plucked out an enormous key ring, fumbled with it for a few seconds, and then began sliding one key off.
Interesting. Clarence was Parker’s executor, and had a key to his house, and yet he didn’t exactly seem heartbroken over his friend’s murder. Did that make him a more plausible suspect?
Not to me. And not to anyone who really knew Clarence.
Except, perhaps, the chief. After all, in his years of police work, he’d probably seen more than one friendship that had soured into homicide.
Perhaps that was the reason for the curious formality with which the chief treated everyone when he was in the midst of an investigation. Perhaps it was his way of reminding everyone—including himself—that we were, for the time being, not his friends and neighbors but so many witness and suspects.
Sad that anyone ever had to do that. Sad, but necessary.
I shoved these thoughts aside and took the key from Clarence.
“Back soon,” I said.
But as I turned to go I realized I was about to do something sneaky, and maybe I didn’t have to.
“I gather you and Parker were good friends?” I leaned against the barn door as casually as I could.
“You mean, because he made me executor?” Clarence said. “Surprised me when he asked. We mostly knew each other from our animal welfare work. Of course, once he asked, I realized I probably knew him better than anyone else in town.”
“So you didn’t know what else he was interested in?”
“Animal welfare, and his store and … well, his social life was pretty active.” Clarence was blushing slightly. And he was no prude, which meant Parker’s social life really must have been very active indeed.
“Randall seems to think Parker was investigating some kind of Pruitt sneakiness related to the town beautification project,” I said.