The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star

Charlie nodded. There was never any point in arguing with Mr. Stevens. He had, once, and regretted it, when he learned that after their argument only half of the press run had reached his subscribers. Not that Mr. Stevens was nasty. He was just inclined to be irritable, and it was better to stay on his good side if you could, so he wouldn’t misplace your mailings—temporarily, of course. The missing papers had arrived two weeks late. The post office always delivers, Mr. Stevens had told him knowingly.

The newspapers taken care of (and their final delivery date resting on the weary shoulders of old, slow Fred), Charlie thought once again about lunch, but felt that he would rather accomplish his second objective without any further delay. He went out onto Rosemont, crossed Franklin, and walked past the Darling Savings and Trust to the second building on the block, Fannie Champaign’s Darling Chapeaux.

As he walked, Charlie’s heart grew lighter and his steps swifter, for he planned to correct the regrettable impression about his character that he had left with Fannie on Wednesday night. He wasn’t quite sure how he was going to do this—that is, exactly what he was going to say. But he was confident that the right words would come when he saw Fannie’s sweet, tremulous smile and felt the encouraging touch of her hand.

Now feeling a sudden rush of surprised eagerness and the unexpected warmth of actually wanting something, he took the wooden steps two at a time and grasped the brass handle to push open the front door.

But the door was locked. And in the window, there was a hand-lettered sign:

Miss Champaign Is Out of Town

Closed Until Further Notice





NINETEEN




Purple Ink, Pink Paper,

and Two More Black Eyes



When the airplane topped with a half-naked Angel had disappeared back in the direction of the airstrip, Lizzy and Verna climbed into Verna’s LaSalle and headed for the Kilgores’ house.

Lizzy wasn’t very enthusiastic about the plan Verna had suggested. For one thing, they might be barking up the entirely wrong tree. After all, the main thing they had to go on was Raylene’s intuition, although it had already proved fairly powerful and was supported by a fact or two, such as the death of Mabel’s sister, Bess. But basically, they were operating on Raylene’s say-so, which might or might not be accurate.

Still, as Lizzy and Verna both knew, they didn’t have a whole lot of choices, so they agreed they should give it a try. And since Mildred Kilgore had the documents that were the key to the plan’s success, they would begin with her.

When they arrived, Lizzy was startled to see that Mildred’s eye looked a lot worse. It was turning purple, with green streaks and shadows, and was almost swelled shut. But neither she nor Verna were so impolite as to call attention to it.

Mildred was overseeing the boys who were setting up the tables in the garden and the girls who were working in the kitchen, but she was ready to take a few moments out to talk. They took glasses of iced tea to the back veranda, where Mildred could keep an eye on the boys. When they were settled at a table, Verna said, “We’ve got news, Mildred,” and told her about finding Lily Dare in Raylene Riggs cottage at the Marigold Motor Court.

Mildred shook her head as she listened, then gave a disgusted little hmph. “I’ll have somebody take her things over there,” she said. She stiffened her shoulders and raised her chin. “I may have to be civil to that woman tonight,” she said thinly, “but she’s not going to be sleeping here.”

“We can take her things,” Verna offered. “We’re driving past the Marigold on our way out to the airstrip. That way, you won’t have to bother.”

“Thank you,” Mildred said, slightly mollified. “I’ll be glad to have them gone.”

Then Lizzy told Mildred about the conversation she and Verna had had with Raylene at the diner that morning—most importantly, Raylene’s surprising story about Bess and Mabel Hopkins (aka Angel Flame), and Raylene’s hunch. And then Verna told her about their plan.

“We don’t know if it’ll work,” Lizzy said when Verna was finished. “But we think it’s worth a try. Of course, we’ll have to apologize if it turns out that we’re wrong. But that’s a small price to pay for the possibility of getting to the bottom of that nasty business of the letters and the checks. Don’t you agree, Mildred?”

Mildred wore a doubtful look at first, but she listened with a growing interest and when Verna and Lizzy had finished, she agreed that it was worth a chance. She went indoors, got the items they asked for, and came back down.

“I hope you won’t show these to anybody else,” she said, handing them over. “I’d hate for them to fall into the wrong hands. Darling is such a horrible place for gossip. Everybody would be talking about it.” She sighed and touched her eye. “As it is, I don’t see how I can face people tonight. What will I tell them?”

“If you want to tell them that you walked into a door,” Lizzy said sympathetically, “we’ll be glad to back you up.”

“Roger’s got a black eye, too,” Mildred said.

“And so does Lily Dare,” Verna put in.