Murder Most Grave by G. A. McKevett

Author:G. A. McKevett [McKevett, G.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2022-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Long ago, the massive building, which was still known as “the Carriage House,” had been home to the Patterson family’s fine horses and elegant carriages. Later, after automobiles had replaced the horses, the upstairs had been converted from a hay loft into a large and elegant apartment for the plantation’s overseer.

But for years, its occupant had been Elsie Dingle, the Pattersons’ personal chef.

Judge Patterson was widely known for his love of fine food and his penchant for entertaining folks with equally discriminating palates.

When little more than a child, Elsie had distinguished herself, working in the kitchen as an exceptionally talented cook’s assistant. Though she had begun at the bottom, scrubbing pots and pans and sweeping the floors, Elsie had become known as someone with both a gift and a talent for cooking, especially baking.

As a result, over the years she had been promoted, and eventually, she had become the head chef in a kitchen where her ancestors had once worked as slaves.

Even the persnickety judge knew her value and, upon her insistence that she couldn’t sleep in the main house because of all the “haints,” as she called them, he had remodeled the old overseer’s apartment to her personal tastes and, after some considerable negotiating on her part, signed a contract with her that she could live there for the rest of her days, if she chose to.

Stella was proud of her friend. They had both endured difficult childhoods and had raised themselves above their raising. Elsie more than Stella.

But Stella didn’t begrudge her friend one bit of her success. She knew all too well how hard Elsie had worked for the right to serve governors, judges, celebrities, and powerful heads of business at her table.

Then there were all the blue ribbons that decorated her kitchen walls. Prizes she had won in cooking contests all over the county.

As always when driving onto this elegant, if aged, estate, Stella felt more joy than sadness.

Yes, she and so many others had labored and suffered on this soil. But now it was so much more. It was her friend’s home, and that made the old, historical estate a place of happiness, rather than sorrow.

Time had changed things here for the better, and since Stella knew that was a rare occurrence in the sad, old world, she was grateful.

She parked her panel truck, filled with her precious grandangels, beside the carriage house and watched as Manny pulled up next to them in the cruiser.

She was excited to think they might actually have some new, unexpected information from her grandson.

“Waycross,” Stella called back to the boy, “I hear you’ve got somethin’ to tell the sheriff.”

“It ain’t a big deal. Just somethin’ about some screens . . . there in the graveyard,” he replied.

Instantly, she was all ears and excited. “Screams? You heard screams there in the cemetery?”

“No. Screens,” Savannah explained, since her brother was already piling out of the truck, eager to get his Miss Elsie adventure under way. “He heard the man’s voice in the graveyard say something about ‘screens.

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