Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery by Michelle Goff Page A

you while you rest?”
    He seemed
confused by her question, but nodded his head.
    Although Maggie
wasn’t sure if the nod meant he did or did not mind, she sat on the bottom of
Cullen’s green slide and pulled her knees to her chest. “So, Dennis, do you like
taking care of the house?”
    “I like being
outside.”
    His semi-direct
answer took Maggie by surprise, but she quickly recovered. “It is nice to get
outside and work in the fresh air, especially if you spend your week inside an
office.” When Dennis failed to maintain his side of the conversation, Maggie
added, “What’s your favorite thing to do outside?”
    “I like to fish.”
    Finally, this
man gives me a good answer, Maggie thought to herself. “It must have been
convenient having a sister who lived beside a pay lake. Do you ever go fishing
at Catfish Corner?”
    “No, Hazel
didn’t like the pay lake, so I didn’t go there. I go to the riverbank with my
cousins.”
    “That sounds
like fun.”
    Dennis downed
the last of the orange drink, closed the lid on the bottle, and placed it
beside him on the steps. “I went fishing with Stella’s husband when he was
living. His friend had a boat. We went out on that boat and spent whole days on
the water. Fishing and eating hamburgers.”
    Maggie looked
into Dennis’ sad doughy face and said, “That sounds like fun, too. Did your
sisters go with you?”
    “Sometimes. My
niece went sometimes, too. She came in for Hazel’s funeral services. She called
me the other night and said she’d have a surprise next time she comes in.” He bent
his head and stared at Maggie. “You know, you remind me of her. Of my niece.”
    “I do? In what
way?”
    “You’re both
really sweet girls. You care about people. You can see it in your faces.”
    Maggie rested
her chin on her knees. “Thank you, Dennis.”
    “Stella is there
now. At my niece’s. She asked me to go, but I couldn’t get off work and,
besides, Hazel didn’t like me going off and leaving the place unattended.”
    “Hazel’s gone
now, Dennis. Can’t you do what you want?”
    “I am. I want to
take care of the house.”
    Maggie looked
around the yard. It was certainly in better shape than Dennis’ browning lawn.
The grass was low and green and not one dandelion or wild violet was in sight.
Of course, Maggie liked dandelions and wild violets and couldn’t understand why
people made such a fuss about ridding their lawns of what they considered weeds
and she referred to as flowers. But at least no one could say Dennis couldn’t
take care of the property. She wondered what Earnest would think of Dennis’
landscaping skills. “What about Earnest?” she suddenly asked. “Did he go out on
the boat?”
    “Once, but he
said it made him queasy. He spent most of the time below deck.” Dennis smiled.
“Stella called Earnest a big baby. She told Hazel to leave her big baby at home
and come out and have some fun with us. But Hazel didn’t go with us again after
the time Earnest got queasy.”
    “Did you like
Earnest?”
    “He was okay. We
didn’t have much to say to each other. I liked Stella’s husband. I liked him a
lot.”
    “You like Stella
a lot, too, don’t you?”
    “I do. I liked
Hazel, too, but Stella is …” Dennis trailed off before adding, “When we all
lived here, when we were younger, we had a dog that had a litter of puppies. I
liked all the puppies, but there was one we named Patch. He was solid white
except for a black circle around his eye.” Dennis made a circular motion around
his right eye. “It looked like an eye patch. He was my favorite. I liked him
more than the others.” Dennis looked down. “We found him one day when we got
home from school. He had been run over.”
    A lump formed in
Maggie’s throat. “I’m so sorry, Dennis.”
    “It’s all right.
It was a long time ago. And it’s not like I didn’t like the other ones. I just
liked Patch more.”
    “And you like
Stella more than you liked Hazel.