Miss Dimple Suspects by Mignon F. Ballard Page B

a bad case of bronchitis, which later went into pneumonia.” She smiled. “She needed me and I needed her, so it worked out well for both of us. Until now.”
    “Did you tell her about your background?” Virginia wanted to know.
    Suzy shrugged. “I didn’t have to. As my friend Mae Martha liked to say, ‘I don’t allow no cobwebs in my belfry!’”
    Miss Dimple laughed. “Now, why doesn’t that surprise me?”
    Charlie laughed, too, as she rose to spoon up oatmeal for Suzy, but Virginia held up a hand. “Wait! Shh! Someone’s coming. What should we do?”
    “Miz Balliew? You home? Got a package here from your niece in Knoxville!” A booming voice shouted from the living room.
    “Oh, my Lord! It’s the postman! Coming, Boyce!” Virginia shouted, and quickly shut the kitchen door behind her.

 
    C HAPTER T EN
    “Well, that was close!” Virginia returned to the kitchen a few minutes later with a square parcel wrapped in brown paper. “I suppose we shouldn’t worry too much about Boyce, though. Poor thing’s deaf as a post.”
    “Aren’t you going to open your package?” Annie asked as Virginia set it aside.
    “Oh, I will eventually, but I know what it is. Carolyn sends me the same thing every Christmas. It’s some kind of crocheted atrocity. One year it was dresser scarves, and the year after that, Christmas ornaments—little bells, stars and such. And last year she sent antimacassars—you know, those things people put on the arms of chairs. I do believe if Carolyn had enough thread she would’ve crocheted her way around the world by now!”
    The other women smiled, but Suzy looked up from her bowl of oatmeal with a bleak expression. “Tell me the truth,” she said. “Do you think the authorities—or anyone else here—are going to believe me? What am I going to do?”
    “I believe you,” Miss Dimple assured her, “but I’ll admit you might have a problem. If only we had more time!”
    “To find out who really killed Mrs. Hawthorne, you mean?” Charlie said.
    Suzy frowned. “How are you going to do that?”
    “Obviously, you don’t know about my friends here,” Virginia told her. “Look,” she added, gathering her things together, “I have to go, but you’re welcome to stay here awhile as long as you keep well out of sight. Be careful about turning on lights and things like that when I’m not here. The Kilgores live just across the street, and what one doesn’t know, the other will find out.”
    After Virginia left, Annie collected Suzy’s empty bowl and washed it in the sink. “It doesn’t seem right,” she said. “If you were born in this country, you’re as American as I am. I don’t understand why your family was uprooted like that.”
    “Not just my family, but many others as well. It seems the government doesn’t trust us. They’re afraid we’ll give aid to the enemy.”
    “I remember when the president signed that order last year,” Miss Dimple said. “I believe it might’ve come about because of what happened when a Japanese pilot landed his disabled plane on a Hawaiian island right after Pearl Harbor was bombed.
    “It seems that some of the people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the island went to great lengths to help the downed pilot, but they were outwitted by the natives who were loyal to the United States.”
    “The island of Niihau,” Suzy said. “I read about that, but it had nothing to do with the rest of us.”
    “Is there anything back at the house—in your room, for instance—that would lead those who are investigating to realize the truth about your heritage?” Dimple asked.
    “There’s my diploma … and medical textbooks—several boxes of them—with my name inside. I’ve been going by Suzy Amos here, but my given name is Suzu and my family name is Amaya. They won’t have to look far to find that out.” Suzy started to go to the window but shrugged and changed her mind. “All my correspondence with my family has been going