“It was a lovely service,” Lucy said.
“If you like that sort of thing,” snorted Willie. “I sure don’t want a lot of people crying over me. I told Scratch to cremate me when I go and toss my ashes on the compost heap where they’ll do some good.”
“You know, there’s a company that can take people’s ashes and turn them into diamonds,” said Frankie, joining the group. “I think that’s what I’d like. Turn me into a sparkling gem.”
“Who would wear such a thing?” asked Willie, a shocked expression on her face.
“My daughter, my sisters.”
“Yuck. That’s disgusting,” insisted Bonnie. “I think a traditional funeral is best: music, flowers, sobbing mourners.”
“Not too many sobbing mourners here today,” observed Lucy. “It seems that most people came out of curiosity rather than grief.”
“I think a lot of people wanted to get a look at that husband of hers,” said Willie.
“Do you really think he did it?” asked Lucy.
“Yes!” chorused Bonnie and Willie. Frankie didn’t join the chorus and Lucy wondered if the rumors about her and Fred were true.
“The husband is always the most likely suspect,” said Lucy, hoping to get the gossip flowing by priming the pump, “but we all know that Mimi could be awfully bitchy. She made a lot of enemies.”
“I liked her fine until she reported me to the health department for keeping a farm animal in my living room,” muttered Willie. “As if Lily were some sort of hog or something. Why she’s cleaner than most people I know.”
“She got me in trouble, too,” confessed Frankie. “Renee had a few friends over after school and she called the cops saying it was an unsupervised party. They sent a social worker to question me and decide if I’m a fit mother.”
“That seems a bit extreme,” observed Lucy.
“Tell me about it. I was furious, but I couldn’t let on because they could take Renee from me and put her in foster care. It was terrifying.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” said Bonnie. Her tone was so intense that they all turned to look at her, expecting a real horror story, but that was all she said.
“Don’t tell me she left you alone,” said Frankie, raising an eyebrow.
“Not at all,” stammered Bonnie. “But it wasn’t a big deal. She just came over and told us we had to register our cars in Maine. We had Massachusetts plates, you see. And of course, we knew that but, well, you know how it is when you’re busy.” She blushed. “It was a helpful reminder, really.”
“I’d call it being a busybody,” said Lucy. “So do you think there’s going to be some sort of collation at the house?”
“If there is I’m not going,” said Frankie. “I’ve got to show a house.”
Willie sniffed, as if showing a house was somehow unseemly. “I’ve got a new riding student coming in half an hour. I’ve got to get changed and get over to the stable.”
“I’d go,” said Bonnie, “but I don’t think they’ve planned anything. The minister, I mean priest, didn’t mention it and they usually do, don’t they?”
“They do,” agreed Lucy, whose eye was caught by an extremely unkempt man hovering around the edge of the thinning crowd. He was obviously out of place, with his long hair, shaggy beard, and ragged green Army jacket and people were beginning to notice him. Lucy watched as one older man, dressed in a gray suit, registered his presence. He reacted by taking his wife’s hand—she was a trim woman with white hair dressed in a blue linen dress—and leading her to the car. As others did the same thing, the stranger was left standing all alone, beneath the white statue of the Virgin Mary that stood in front of Our Lady of Hope church.
The symbolism wasn’t lost on Lucy and she approached him, intending to offer help. As she drew closer she saw that he was in a genuinely sorry state. Bits of leaves and twigs clung to his hair and beard, the sleeves of his jacket were frayed at the cuff and there were holes in both elbows, and his hands and face were filthy. She could tell because the tears running down his face left tracks in the grime.
“Is there something I can do for you?” she asked, fumbling in her purse for her wallet. “Do you need money?”
The man stood staring at her for a moment, then shook his head.
“Are you looking for someone here in town?”
He didn’t say anything but began to shake so violently that Lucy thought he must be having an attack of some kind.
“I’ll call for help,” she said, pulling out her cell phone. She flipped it open and dialed 9-1-1, but when the dispatcher answered, the man was already running along the front of the church.
“There’s a man in some sort of distress at Our Lady of Hope,” said Lucy, flipping the phone shut and following him. When she got to the corner of the building, however, there was no sign of him. He must have disappeared into the woods behind the church. Lucy considered following him there, but decided against it. For one thing, she didn’t know him and he might be irrational, even violent. A lot of homeless people were and that’s what this man seemed to be. But, in truth, Lucy wasn’t afraid of him; she was sorry for him. Whoever he was, he seemed to be the most sincerely grief-stricken of all the mourners at Mimi’s funeral.
She was walking back to her car when the cruiser arrived and she pointed out the path the man had taken. “We’ve had some other calls,” the cop told her, after she described the man. “So far he hasn’t broken any laws so there isn’t much we can do.”
“What about protective custody?”
“He’d have to be a danger to himself or others,” said the cop.
“Right,” said Lucy, watching as he drove off. She had a feeling that whoever this guy was, he was connected to Mimi, which meant he was either dangerous or in danger himself.
CHAPTER 10
Phyllis took one look at Lucy’s face when she got back to the office after the funeral and handed her the box of tissues. “That’s why I hate funerals,” she said, looking up from the stack of press releases she was filing in chronological order. “They’re just so damn depressing.”
“And she was so young. Only thirty-nine,” added Ted, who was paying bills.