Free Miss Dimple Suspects by Mignon F. Ballard

of the house proved to be empty and silent except for the ticking of the grandfather clock that stood against the living room wall. Only embers remained of what had been a wood fire in the big fireplace, now mounded with gray ashes. Dimple remembered Suzy telling her she always built the fires as Mae Martha was too frail to lift the heavy logs.
    “We can telephone from Esau’s,” Annie began. “Surely somebody’s home by now. I hate to be the ones to tell them.”
    “I believe it might be best to report directly to the sheriff in town.” Miss Dimple spoke with finality. “Let’s leave things as they are for now.”
    Annie glanced at Charlie who shrugged. She didn’t like to argue with Miss Dimple. Besides, she was usually right.
    “What about Max?” Virginia asked as they stepped outside to be met with the dog’s frenzied capers. “We can’t just leave him here. Who would take care of him?”
    “I guess we’ll have to take him with us,” Charlie said, glancing at Virginia. “I’d offer to keep him myself, but you know how much traffic we have on Katherine Street and there’s no way to fence him in.”
    “He could stay in my room tonight if Miss Phoebe wouldn’t mind,” Annie offered, “but there’s really no place for him there.”
    “Oh, I wish there were! He reminds me of my Bear.” Stooping, Dimple again calmed the dog with a few murmured words and offered her hand for him to lick.
    “Well, I suppose that leaves me,” Virginia said. “He can sleep at my house tonight and have the run of my fenced-in backyard tomorrow, but I’m afraid he’ll be lonely with no one there all day.”
    Charlie agreed. “Poor Max! He needs a family.”
    Miss Dimple thought she knew of the very one but, of course, she would have to ask them first.
    Max didn’t need any coaxing but immediately jumped into the backseat with Annie. Charlie, however, took her time joining them.
    “What are you looking for out there?” Annie asked her. “It’s too dark to see a thing.”
    “I thought I might catch a glimpse of Suzy,” she said as she climbed into the car. “Do you think she could be somewhere out here in this cold?”
    “Well, if she is, she’s had plenty of opportunity to show herself.” Virginia put the car in second gear as they started down the hill. The yellow glow of the headlights cast eerie shadows in the dark trees ahead. “What makes you so sure that Chinese woman had nothing to do with Mrs. Hawthorne’s death?” she said, leaning forward to better see the narrow road in front of them. “Why, she might be just waiting for us to leave.”
    “Then why call and ask for my help?” Miss Dimple paused as Virginia braked to keep from hitting a small animal, probably a raccoon. “I think I know why the young woman is avoiding anyone with authority, and if I’m correct, she has good reason to be afraid.”
    Charlie spoke up. “I’d be afraid, too, if I’d been the one to find Mae Martha like that, but I wouldn’t waste a minute before calling the police.”
    “So, why , Miss Dimple? Why should Suzy be afraid?” Annie asked, cuddling closer to Max for warmth.
    The older woman hesitated. After all, she couldn’t be absolutely sure. “I don’t think Suzy’s from China,” she said at last. “I believe Mrs. Hawthorne’s young companion is of Japanese heritage.”

 
    C HAPTER S EVEN
    The silence that followed was almost suffocating. Charlie spoke first. “Oh,” she said finally. “You mean you think she’s … but she speaks perfectly good English. And didn’t she meet Mrs. Hawthorne’s grandson at Emory?”
    “I only meant she might be of Japanese heritage, ” Miss Dimple explained. “I believe she told me she was born in California.”
    “But to some people—most, I’m afraid—that doesn’t matter,” Virginia said. “Japanese is Japanese.”
    “One of my students told me the other day that when the war first started she threw away a whole set of those little china