Eudora quickly dropped the knife and began screaming, claiming Lucy was trying to kill her.
“What’s going on here?” inquired Roger Wilcox, giving Lucy a hand and helping her to her feet.
Wilf Lundgren did the same for Eudora, careful to place his substantial bulk between the two combatants.
“She attacked me,” claimed Eudora, pointing at Lucy. “She tried to kill me with that knife!”
Her claim was quickly rebutted as Lily Kirwan, who was studying to be an EMT, pulled the duct tape off Mireille’s mouth.
“Don’t believe her!” Mireille cried. “Lucy saved me! Eudora was trying to take my baby!”
Hearing this there was a general gasp of horror, which gave Eudora a chance to attempt to dart away. She was stopped by the quick action of Wilf, who grabbed her arm and held her tight.
“Nobody’s going anywhere till this is sorted out,” he said as a siren was heard in the distance.
Lucy wanted to go to Mireille, but felt that since she’d been accused, she had to wait for the police. She had to be content to let Lily and a few of the runners attend to Mireille, comforting her, stripping off the duct tape, and bandaging her bleeding arm in fourteen-year-old Finn Thaw’s T-shirt, which he had pulled off. Lucy was also concerned about keeping an eye on the knife, which was still lying on the ground, and keeping a wary eye on Eudora, who had given up struggling and stood silently in place with a sulky expression on her face.
The wailing siren grew closer, bringing Barney Culpepper to the scene in a squad car. He surveyed the scene, taking it all in. He saw Mireille sitting on the grave, accompanied by a handful of caregivers, her arm wrapped in a blood-stained cotton T-shirt with a pile of duct tape neatly arranged beside her. He saw the knife on the ground and collected it as evidence. He examined Eudora, noting the spatters of blood on her hands.
Finally, he turned to Lucy. “What’s going on here? Some of the runners reported a scuffle at the cemetery.”
“I was running in the race and I saw Eudora in the cemetery, flashing a knife. She had tied up Mireille and was trying to cut the baby from her body. She kept saying ‘It’s my baby,’ over and over. I tried to stop her. I tried to get the knife.”
“That’s right,” said Roger. “When I arrived, Lucy had tackled Eudora and was struggling with her on the ground.”
“Lucy saved my life,” said Mireille.
Barney nodded and produced handcuffs, which set Eudora into a fit of hysterics.
“They’re lying. They’re all lying,” she screamed, twisting free of Wilf’s grip and starting to dart away, but running instead right into Finn Thaw’s wiry young body. A member of the high school JV wrestling team, he wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides and restraining her until Barney applied the handcuffs.
They were all watching him escort a protesting Eudora to the squad car when Mireille suddenly moaned.
“I’m in labor,” she said, panting and clutching her stomach. “I’ve got to get to the hospital!”
* * *
Nobody could talk about anything else at Rey’s Mexican Thanksgiving Dinner, which had attracted a huge crowd that somehow managed to squeeze into the basement hall at the Community Church as evening fell.
“There’s plenty of food, plenty of food for everyone,” Rey said, busy ladling out bowls of spicy pumpkin soup and piling plates with turkey burritos, roast pork, and plenty of cranberry salsa.
Lucy had signed up to help serve at the dinner, but he had insisted that she should sit this one out, considering her heroic actions that morning. She and Bill were seated at one of the long tables, along with Miss Tilley, Rachel and Bob Goodman, and Miss Tilley’s best friend, Rebecca Wardwell. Rebecca was almost as old as Miss Tilley, and was rumored to be a witch, but that was probably only because she kept a tiny owl as a pet.
“Well, as usual, Lucy, you seem to have been up to your shenanigans,” said Miss Tilley, digging into her burrito with gusto.
“Honestly, I was just running when I saw Eudora raising that knife. If it hadn’t been for the beam of sunlight that hit it, I never would have seen a thing.”
“A higher force was at work,” said Rebecca, taking a bite of a turkey taco.
“Talk about crazy,” said Rachel, stirring her soup. “That woman was completely round the bend.”
“What about your famous continuum?” asked Lucy. “You know, how our mental states fall along a continuum throughout our lives, sometimes more balanced and sometimes less.”
“I can say with confidence that Eudora fell off the continuum,” said Rachel with a nod. “Absolutely loony-tunes, completely crazy, psychopathic, out of her mind.”
“Evil. She was possessed by the evil one,” said Rebecca, sounding like someone who had firsthand knowledge of the demonic, and had the battle scars to prove it.
“Well, whatever you want to call it, we’re all a lot better off now that she’s in jail, along with her son.”
“What I don’t understand,” said Miss Tilley, scooping up cranberry salsa, “is why her family didn’t take care of her. At the very least, she should have been under the care of a psychiatrist, perhaps even confined.”
“They tried,” said Lucy. “Her husband tried to enlist Ed Franklin and Alison to commit her, but Eudora found out. That’s what began her murder spree. First Alison, who she somehow managed to lure onto the ice—”
“Whoa there,” said Bob. “Where’d you get that idea?”
“It came to me while I was running. I remembered how my mother had dropped her purse on a train track and I foolishly grabbed it for her just as the train arrived. I would never have done such a stupid thing except it was for
