Tinkie was laughing. “Cece’s comic timing is great, isn’t it?”
In front of us, Oscar stumbled in his armor, and Tinkie doubled-timed it to get to him. He had a hard time seeing through the visor, and if the sidewalk was uneven, he was prone to trip. “Let me help my husband,” she called over her shoulder.
I dropped back to talk to Harold. “How is Darla doing?” He’d spent more time talking to her than any of the rest of us.
“She’s having a very hard time. She was going to come mumming with us, but at the last minute she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She’s holding it together because we’re still her guests, but she canceled all the reservations she’d made for the rest of this year. After we leave Sunday, she’ll be alone. She said she just needs to grieve, but it worries me. I’m afraid she’ll slip into a serious depression.”
“She’s given up on Kathleen?”
He nodded. “She has. She won’t say that, but she feels there’s no way she could still be alive.”
“Is that a good thing? I mean, is accepting reality better than clinging to false hope?”
Harold sighed softly. “It’s never a good thing to believe a friend is dead.” He lowered his voice. “I believe Kathleen is gone. If she didn’t drown, the hypothermia got her. It’s possible she hit her head going over. And she had on so many clothes. She was really bundled up.”
“It was cold on the water, and she knew it, so she was dressed appropriately. Her jacket was thick. And she had on gloves, boots, and even a thick cotton hat.” I remembered what Officer Goode had said about how if her clothes became waterlogged they would take her straight to the bottom. Unless she could shed those clothes.
“Without a body, there’s no way to tell what really happened. Clarissa was absolutely no help, Coleman said. I just feel Darla needs to get angry before she accepts this. Stages of grief and all. If she simply gives up all hope, it could be very hard for her.”
“Did Darla ever find out what happened to the boat?”
“She had it looked at. The propeller was terribly damaged, but the mechanic didn’t offer any definitive answers about what happened. As I understand it, it could have been an accident or it could have been sabotage. I believe the insurance company is looking into the circumstances. Right now Darla doesn’t care about the boat. It’s her friend that she’s focused on.”
It was hard. One moment Kathleen had been on the boat, partying and drinking. The next she was over the side and gone, swept along in the dark currents of the river.
Tinkie rejoined me and Harold. “Look, we’re at Rook’s Nest. Let’s put on the show, get it over with, and then go back to Darla’s. I’m so tired my collarbones ache.”
“Tinkie, if you’re too tired, we can stop right now. As you are wont to remind us, you are pregnant.” I gave her a hug. My partner was a real trouper, so I had to look out for her.
Tinkie squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I’m perfectly fine. The show must go on.”
Under Tinkie’s direction, we found our places for the first scene. I hid in the bushes while Millie rang the doorbell and then rushed across the porch to get into place. Clarissa opened the door to what appeared to be an empty yard. She stepped out onto the porch, followed by a cluster of houseguests. “Oh, mummers! We’re here to watch you perform,” she called out.
She was indeed expecting us. I came out of the bushes with my slanting crab walk, frazzled white hair, and completely white eyeballs, compliments of costume contacts. I heard the sharp intake of breath from Clarissa and her friends. I was a bit more than they’d expected, and I was convincing!
I scuttled up to the porch where I could look up at Clarissa and mimed cracking an egg. I pretended to roll the egg around in the bowl and cast the shells down. “Look, milady, the twin yolk of the pigeon egg predicts foul trouble will befall all who hamper the green men of the forest. See the blood in the yolk! Beware the arrows that fly!”
“You are one scary piece of work,” she said. “I don’t know who you are, but you are ugly. In fact, you’re so ugly, I’ll bet your mother had to tie a pork chop around your neck to make the dogs play with you.”
For a moment her venom knocked me out of character. She was really a very mean person. But I recovered. Waving a hand over my pretend bowl of cracked egg, I gave a high-pitched cackle. “I see the future for you, my lovely. I hope that STD is something antibiotics can cure. Some are antibiotic resistant.”
“How dare you!”
I saw Tinkie as Maid Marian laughing in the wings, but it was Harold who stepped out to confront me. “Oh far-seeing Mortianna, the Sheriff of Nottingham needs your counsel.” He grabbed my arm and began to move me away from the porch.
“Robin! Oh, Robin! Beware the traps being set for you. Great evil lurks within the walls of yon castle.” I was having a hard time holding back the laughter myself. Judging from Clarissa’s expression, she was sizzling with anger at my remark.
Millie burst into laughter, and Jaytee turned away to hide his amusement.
“I recognize the voice of my hired help,” Clarissa said, putting her hands on her hips. “Sarah Booth Delaney! You look like something that crawled out of a nightmare. And you aren’t nearly as clever as you think you are.”
I was outed, and I didn’t really care. “My name is Mortianna, my pretty.” I sounded like a blend between a dying hyena and the Wicked Witch of the West. Coleman and Oscar were behind a shrub laughing. Cece, Tinkie,
