Free The Rotary Club Murder Mystery by Graham Landrum Page B

Buchannan Patterson was an item of interest.
    â€œAnd did Bucky and his wife get back together?” I asked.
    â€œLord, no! He got that divorce, and she and him both left town.”
    â€œAnd what about Mr. Hollonbrook?”
    â€œHe faced it out. You never saw such a thing in your life.”
    â€œDidn’t folks talk about it?”
    â€œHoney, you can bet your sweet life they did. But Mr. Hollonbrook with his money, and Miz Hollonbrook taking it cool as you please, it kind of passed over. And then some said that little Desiree was just a fool. And to tell the truth, she was. I don’t know what become of her.”
    â€œDid Bucky marry again?”
    â€œHe might have, but I doubt it. You never saw anybody so broke up as he was.”
    Maud had certainly been right about Noralou. But whether or not it had gotten me anywhere, I was not certain.
    Anyhow, I got myself dressed again and asked Noralou how much I owed her. And do you know, that sweet Maud had told her to add my massage to her bill there at the club. So I gave Noralou a five-dollar tip. I certainly wouldn’t know, but I hoped that was a handsome tip. I wouldn’t want Noralou talking about me.
    Maud had arranged to meet me in the club dining room for lunch. She was already seated at the table when I got there. That girl was always pretty, but it just seems that age was good to her. She was a picture in a gray silk suit with a frilly white blouse and great big pink pearl ear bobs and necklace—fake, of course—I don’t even know if real pearls are ever pink. But they ought to be, for they certainly were becoming to Maud.
    Her sweet blue eyes were just flashing as I came to the table;
I could tell she had something really exciting to tell me. But she said we should order first.
    I selected the chicken-salad croissant, and Maud ordered quiche. Then as soon as the girl had left with our orders, Maud said, “You’ll not guess who wants to talk to you.”
    Well, I couldn’t imagine. So I told Maud I would just give up.
    â€œIt’s the widow,” she said.
    At first, I didn’t get the idea, but Maud explained that Mrs. Alice Hollonbrook had called and wanted to talk to me.
    I want you to know that was a surprise to me. I had been wondering how I could work it around so it would seem natural for me to talk to her and ask her a lot of questions—and most of all about her alibi —and here she had called me! But then I reflected that Ms. Folsom at the library had penetrated my disguise.
    Well, if it had got me access to Alice Hollonbrook, perhaps it was not such a bad thing that Ms. Folsom had published my presence to Stedbury.

MY STORY
    >> Alice Hollonbrook <<
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    P erhaps you are surprised to see that I have joined the staff and am contributing my bit to the story of how my husband’s murder was disguised as suicide and how the murderer was found.
    I warned Mrs. Bushrow that it was a bad idea to include me in the number of narrators. You see, it removes me from the list of suspects—but this is what she wanted, and this is what it is going to be.
    In a way, it is appropriate that I should participate in the Rotary Mystery, because I am what was formerly called a Rotary Ann, the widow, in this case, of a Rotarian—one who was president of his club and governor of his district. And, I hasten to add, regardless of the peccadilloes and larger flaws of Holly’s character, he was truly supportive of Rotary and was a good officer. Though his tremendous ambition was certainly served by the offices he held, I assure you that in his official activities he actually did put service above self.
    I suppose Rotarians are only like the rest of us with all our faults. But there is something about Rotary that brings out the best in its members. Rotary calls for the same amount of loyalty to the local club as any other organization does: attendance—
oh how loyal Holly