Scandal by Patsy Brookshire

want Magda left alone. "I'm just worried about her state of mind. I know how I'd feel if we
found my husband buried in my backyard."
    "She's not a suspect?"
    "Not on the face of it, no. I was there when she first saw him, and I don't believe she
suspected in any of this." She shrugged. "I could be wrong, but I'm good at what I do, and one of the
things I do is trust my experience. Besides, I talked to my mom, who's known Mrs. Buler all her life
and she says to look in a different direction. We have other clues." She put her hand on my shoulder,
"Just watch her. She's highly thought of in this town, and that ain't no small potatoes."
    Magda was ready to leave. She handed me a large cloth bag, homemade of course. "Here.
Your quilt. We're gonna have some time on our hands. Let's be productive."
    I was hoping she'd forgotten the quilt. The closer we got to doing it, the bigger the knot in
my stomach became. Oddly, I took the bag with a feeling of serenity. "You have what we need at
your house?"
    "You betcha. I don't know much about murdering bears but I do know quilting. Ain't
nothing like it to calm you down. You'll see."
    I wondered if she was talking to me, or herself. No matter.
    We left the people in the backyard to gathering clues and moving the body on out of there.
Deputy Bybee watched us leave, with a last caution. "You leave your cells on. We'll be calling you
when you can return here. Meanwhile, go on down to Cannon Beach. But, come right on back, okay.
No time for funning around down there."
    As we climbed into my car the officers were loading Tom's bagged body into the back of a
van. Magda took one long look, gave a small nod, and moved on into the passenger seat. We were
buckling up when she said, "I guess that's that, huh. I never thought it'd come to this."
    "Did you ever think about how it might end?" Neither one of us questioned what "it"
meant.
    "I'm not surprised somebody offed him and buried him in the backyard. Just never
imagined it would be my backyard."
    We waited while the morgue people finished up with locking the double doors of the van.
They backed out slowly, turned down the hill and moved on down the road. Taking the body to
autopsy, not to Treeline Mortuary.
    I gave the van some distance before I followed it down the road. Neither of us said a
word..
    It was barely dusk when we got back to her house, a cottage with a large trellis arched over
the walkway to the front door, overgrown with a rose bush coming from each side and meeting in a
tangle overhead. Thorns snagged my blouse and caught in my hair as we walked under it. The
whole front looked shaggy, like no one was much paying attention to it.
    I reminded myself to tell Sam to bring his garden tools. We had work for him to do. He was
going to be one busy guy.

Chapter 20
A Hard Night
    From my bed in the guest room I heard Magda cry out. Nightmares?
    I turned on lights on the way to the kitchen where I drew a glass of water. Remembering
Deputy Bybee's earlier kindness, I found washcloths in the bathroom cupboard, and soaked one
with warm water. When I entered her room, she was sitting on the side of her bed, shaking. I turned
on her bedside lamp and handed her the water.
    She took a deep drink before handing it back to me. "Thank you." She buried her face in the
comfort of the warm cloth while I sat beside her and put my arm around her shoulders.
    "Annie, This is the most awful thing that has ever happened to me." She tossed her head.
"Oh, listen to me. It's not about me. It happened to Tommy. And here I am, looking forward to a trip
to the beach tomorrow to get Sammy. I'm a real piece of work, that's what I am."
    She breathed a deep sigh. "I know what happened to Tommy is real, but in my dream it was
just so sad, him sitting under the apple tree, saying, 'Are you happy? I'm gone for good, now.'" She
took another drink.
    "God forgive me, I'm not sorry he won't show up on my doorstep again. Drunk. Crazy.
Whoever killed him did me a favor.
    "Oh! I