Scarlet Spirits by Alice Duncan

Author:Alice Duncan [Duncan, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-64457-025-8
Publisher: ePublishing Works!

Fourteen

“I have two telephones in the house,” Angie said as the three of us hurried to her gorgeous home. “One of them is on the sun porch. I’ll call from there. Um…Daisy, you’d better stay with me.” She glanced at Mr. Prophet, who stood like a statue of grim death at the door to the sun porch. “Mister Prophet, if you don’t mind, would you wait at the door leading onto the corridor. Don’t let anyone into the room except Hattie or Li. If you don’t mind,” she repeated, sounding a trace panicky.

“And If I do mind?”

“Stop being such a pill, Mister Lou Prophet!” I told him, exasperation finally overtaking fear. “Just stand guard at the door so Angie and I can call the coppers.”

With a disgusted eye-roll, Mr. Prophet limped over to the door now standing open to reveal the hallway. He shut the door and stood in front of it, thereby blocking anyone’s entry, should it be necessary to do so.

“Thank you,” I snapped.

“Yeah.”

I noticed the crank on Angie’s telephone, and realized she probably had to go through an operator in order to be connected to the police department. Therefore, I made a sacrifice of myself.

“Want me to call, Angie? I probably know the girl at the telephone exchange.”

“Oh, would you? Thank you, Daisy!”

“Sure. I don’t mind.” I did mind, but I didn’t want Angie or Mr. Prophet to know it.

“Um, do you have a party line, or a single line?”

“A single line,” said Angie. No surprise there. If she had other people out in the big wide world who wanted to shoot her, she probably didn’t want to let her party-line neighbors know about it. And she definitely wouldn’t want the would-be shooters to know where she lived, although it looked as if that boat had sailed. Golly, I don’t know where I got that expression. It definitely wasn’t one of Lou Prophet’s.

Anyway, glad for small favors—like not having to shoo party-line sharers off the wire—I asked the telephone exchange to connect me to the Pasadena Police Department. For once, I was glad the operator at the exchange wasn’t Medora Cox or any of my other friends. After my request had been fulfilled, I asked the officer who answered the telephone at the police station to connect me with Detective Sam Rotondo.

“Who’s this?” the officer had the effrontery to ask.

“My name is Missus William Majesty. Daisy Gumm Majesty, and I am Detective Rotondo’s fiancée. This call, however, is not personal. It’s important, it’s related to an untimely death, and I need to speak to Detective Rotondo. Instantly.”

“All right, all right” said the officer, peeved.

I didn’t really blame him for his annoyance. I had a pretty good idea Sam was going to pitch a fit when he found out what had happened in Angie’s orange grove.

I was right.

“Damnation, Daisy! Why do these things always happen around you?”

“I don’t know!” I screeched back at him. From the tail of my eye, I saw Angie give a start of surprise, and I lowered my voice.

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