Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery Read Online Free PDF

Sugar Creek to buy a
couple goats off a feller and then I drove up Caldonia Road and bought some
eggs off of Robert. Well, actually it was off his son, I guess that would be
your brother, and that boy they tried to pen that murder on last year.”
    “Your memory
amazes me, Mr. Osborne. I could never remember all that.”
    “No,” Stella,
who had joined Boone in the swing, said. “She couldn’t even remember where you
lived. You’d think a writer would be more cognizant of her surroundings.”
    Although Maggie
wanted to correct Stella and remind her she never said she couldn’t remember
where Boone lived, she didn’t want to seem petty in front of Boone, so she let
Stella’s insult pass. “Mr. Osborne –”
    “If you don’t
want me to call your daddy, you’d better call me by my name.”
    “In that case, Boone,
what can you tell me about the morning you found Hazel’s body?”
    “Well, there
ain’t much to tell. I was fixing to go to my garden and I saw something over
there in Earl David’s lake.” Boone pointed in the direction of Catfish Corner.
“I walked over there and when I got closer, I saw somebody floating in it. I
come back here to the house and called 9-1-1.”
    “Did you hear any
strange noises the night before or in the early morning of the day you found
her?”
    “No, but I run a
fan at night. I never took a liking to an air conditioner, but it gets stuffy
at night so I run the fan. It keeps me cool but I guess you could say it blocks
out the noise. That’s good if you’re talking about dogs howling or motors
revving on those derned ole four-wheelers and motorcycles, but it ain’t so good
when something like this happens. I keep thinking that if it hadn’t been for
that fan, I might have heard her calling for help and been able to get to her
before she passed.”
    Stella touched
Boone’s elbow. “You are such a dear man, but don’t you spend one more second
blaming yourself.”
    “I know that
what’s meant to be will be, but the good Lord gave me a mind and a man can
still wonder,” Boone said.
    “That’s
understandable, but you let me do the wondering. You talking to Maggie will be
a tremendous help.”
    Boone nodded and
Maggie asked, “What about the evening before? According to the police, you were
on your porch.”
    “I was, I was,
and it was just another evening. I come out here after supper and strung beans
until dark. How’s Robert’s beans?”
    “They’re doing
really good.”
    “How are his
tomatoes? Mine have took the blight.”
    “They’re growing
so fast that he has to stake them every few days. If I had known I’d be seeing
you today, I would have brought you some of them.”
    “Maybe next
time.”
    Maggie looked in
the direction of Hazel’s property. “Did you see much of Hazel?”
    “I did not. But
I knew she liked beans, so I gave her a mess that day.”
    Stella patted
Boone’s elbow again. “I found those beans in her refrigerator. I strung them a
couple days after her funeral. You can’t buy better beans. I ought to have known
they came from your garden. And, if I had known, I would have thanked you
before now.”
    “That’s all right.
I reckon you had more important things on your mind than thanking me. She
offered to pay me, but I don’t think it’s right to make money off your
neighbors and family. Unless you need it, of course. But I’m making it all
right, I guess, and as long as I’m blessed with a good garden, I’ll share.”
    Maggie asked him
a few more questions and told him to call if he thought of anything else.
    “I will, I will,” Boone said. “Now, you tell that Daddy of yours I was
asking about him. Why, I might take a notion one of these days to go see him.”
    Maggie and
Stella stopped at the local dairy bar for lunch. In spite of Maggie’s protestations,
Stella insisted on paying. “You’ve come all the way here to Sassafras and given
up your Saturday. It’s the least I can do.”
    After receiving
her order – a