The April Fools' Day Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

on the floor. She was a woman of about seventy, give or take a couple of years, wearing no makeup, and dressed in a shapeless black dress with large black buttons down the front. She looked grandmotherly, but not particularly healthy. Her skin was sallow and she looked worn. “Did you call him, Doris?”
    “Oh. No, I didn’t. I’m sorry; it slipped my mind. Let me give him a ring.” She jumped up as though she were happy to be leaving us, and disappeared. From another room I heard her voice.
    She came back and said, “He’s on his way. I got him in his car.”
    As I started to think that I was not needed here anymore,the daughter-in-law said, “Is there anything I can do for you, Mrs. Brooks?”
    “Thank you, I think I’ll be on my way.” I wrote my name and phone number for Winnie and gave it to her. “If you need a ride, please give me a call. I live quite near you. And if there’s anything else I can do.”
    “That’s very nice of you. Thank you for driving me.”
    I patted her back, took my coat, and went to the door.
    The younger Mrs. Platt followed me. “I appreciate your driving Winnie. She shouldn’t take long walks at night.”
    I had no idea how to respond, so I didn’t. I went out to my car and made my way back to Oakwood Avenue and completed my errand.
    “That is one seriously weird family,” I said to Jack when we were finally sitting in the family room sipping our coffee and eating the cake that I had picked up at Prince’s.
    “You’re telling me this woman’s son, the son of the murdered man, was working late on a Saturday night when he knew his father had just been killed and his mother was alone?”
    “That’s sort of what his wife said, but not exactly. When I asked if he was working, his wife said no and then changed her mind, as though I had given her the excuse she was looking for.”
    “Sounds like they should get the medal for dysfunctional family of the year.”
    “Frankly, my head is spinning from all of this. Forget about the mix-up this afternoon when I thought he was dead but he wasn’t, don’t families come together when amember dies? Even if this son, Roger, didn’t get along with his father, he must have some feelings for his mother.”
    “I would think so,” said my husband, who got along well with both his parents and would have broken speed limits to get to them if they needed him.
    “And to walk on Oakwood Avenue at night. Jack, that’s just looking for trouble. Wait a minute. She said something intriguing that I didn’t follow up on. She said she didn’t drive. Then she said she used to drive, but not since the accident.”
    “I’ll ask at the police station tomorrow.” He took an envelope that was ready to be tossed and wrote on the back of it. If there was a record of an accident locally, he would find it.
    I started thinking that maybe I would drop in on the son and daughter-in-law the next afternoon and ask if there was anything I could do to help, and hope to pick up some sense of the relationships in the family. Then I had another idea. “Jack, when we finish our coffee, I think I’ll take a drive back to the younger Platts’ house. I’m a little concerned they may let Winnie walk home by herself.”
    “Come on.”
    “No, really. Neither one of those people went to get her or went to see her. Suppose she says she wants to walk and her son doesn’t want to be bothered?” I took my last bite of cake and sipped my coffee. My usual nighttime sleepiness had fled. I felt very awake and very interested.
    “Sometimes I wonder about you.”
    “Give me an hour,” I said. “After that, I’ll probably be glad to get home.”
    “Write down the address.”
    I checked it in the phone book and then wrote it down for him. He was clearing the cups and saucers as I put my coat on.
    A large dark-colored car stood in the Platts’ driveway. The living room lights were still on but I could see nothing through the curtains. I made a U-turn and parked a