Free Shadow of an Angle by Mignon F. Ballard

"I'll pick one up. Care to go along?"
    She folded her huge, gaudy apron over a chair. "I believe I will."
    "I thought angels liked fancy things like ambrosia," I said. (Augusta, thank goodness, seemed to favor barbecue and pizza.) "There are restaurants in Columbia and Charlotte that offer more elegant fare."
    But Augusta was already halfway to the car. "I've never been concerned about keeping up with the…what are those people's names?"
    "Joneses," I said, and headed for the Heavenly Grill.
    I got a pepperoni with extra cheese and two orders of lemon icebox pie to go, and pulled into the driveway at the Nut House, looking forward to eating it.
    "There's a man at the back of the house," Augusta said. "Wonder what he's doing there."
    A man in a brown overcoat was peering into the kitchen window. I wasn't sure, but it looked as though he might have been trying to open it.
    I slammed the car door to get his attention. Hugh Talbot!
    He hurried down the back steps to meet me. His legs were short, I noticed, and he puffed as he walked. "Arminda! I was afraid you weren't at home."
    Balancing the pie on top of the pizza box, I made my way inside.
    "Mr. Talbot! I didn't expect you." What was I supposed to say? "Won't you join me for pizza?"
    Please say no!
    I saw Augusta in mock prayer behind him and knew she was asking the same thing.
    "No, no, thank you. I just wanted to see how you were after the strain of the last few days. I'm sure it must have been difficult for you."
    "It hasn't been easy, but I believe we'll see things through. I don't suppose you've had any word from the police?"
    He shook his head. "They're checking everybody who has a record, but nothing was stolen, so it doesn't look like a robbery."
    "And how is Mrs. Whitmire?"
    "Hobblin' and grumblin'." He smiled. "She'll be all right."
    "Are you sure you can't stay?" I asked as he turned to leave, but he said he had stopped by for only a minute.
    But why the back door instead of the front, I wondered. And I hadn't seen a sign of a car.
    What was Hugh Talbot after?

    "I wish we knew the rest of the Mystic Six," I said after we'd finished off the pizza and pie.
    Augusta was smashing cooked pumpkin through a sieve with a big wooden spoon, but she paused in her cooking to take a small notepad from her huge tapestry handbag. "At least we now know three of them," she said, with a quick flourish of her pen. "Lucy, Annie Rose, and Irene's mother, Pauline."
    "But what about the others?"
    Even as I waited for her answer, I knew there wasn't going to be one. "You know something, don't you? You were there ! If you know about the Mystic Six, why don't you tell me?"
    The angel gathered her sparkling necklace into a handful of stars and turned to face me, the wooden spoon dripping jack-o'-lantern orange. "There are things you don't understand, Arminda. Things I don't even know myself. Pauline Watts practically lived here—a dark-haired girl with dimples—always reading novels…. But don't ask me about the others, because I just don't know."

Chapter Seven
    M inda?" I could tell by my cousin's voice something was wrong.
    "Gatlin? What is it? Vesta hasn't had a wreck, has she?" I pictured the dangerous intersection near Calhoun Street, where I knew our grandmother was meeting for lunch. Vesta drove like she was racing the devil and had the speeding tickets to prove it. If she hadn't taught the local police chief in Sunday school, she'd be under the jail by now.
    "No, no, nothing like that. It's Mildred. She's not answering her phone, and I'm kinda concerned is all. You know how she's been since Otto—"
    "Maybe she's not there." I looked at the kitchen clock; it was almost two in the afternoon. "Even Mildred has to eat. She probably went to the store."
    "Minda, she could've walked to the next county and been back by now! I've been calling all morning."
    "I'll meet you there," I told her. A nasty little tongue of fear flickered inside me, but I wasn't having any part of that.
    "I'm