Free Nobody Can Say It’s You: A Hadley Pell Cozy Mystery by Jeri Green

begin to describe it.”
    “Exactly,” said Hadley.

Chapter Thirteen
    A graveyard at midnight is not exactly a warm and welcoming place. Shadows abound and sounds seem magnified in the presence of the dead. The air is filled with a sinister feeling. The darkness has a palpable, eerie quality.
    Something is coming.
    Something is waiting.
    Something is watching.
    That something may or may not be human.
    It is a feeling that cannot be shaken off in a cemetery in the late hours of the night.
    A small crowd had gathered in the gloom. They stood silently by the gravesite. Coy Noel and Dee Dee Noble were there. So was Florine Aurelia and Elda Mandy. All the old timers had come down from the hills to pay their last respects to Button Dudley. How did they get here, Hadley wondered, on such short notice. It wasn’t as if all these old folks were wired to the Internet or had phones. Most of these people didn’t have indoor plumbing or even electricity.
    It was another of life’s inexplicable mysteries.
    Granny Dilcie and one of the Elanor twins were there. Hadley didn’t know which one. Impossible to know, unless you asked her. They were all dressed in black. Solemn men in black suits. Somber women in long, flowing black dresses. Black bonnets and black hats. Black brograns and sturdy work shoes. They stood quietly with their hands folded in front of them. Waiting. Waiting.
    The scene was like something out of a Shakespearian play. The night was as dark as ink. The cool winds whipped off the mountains, chilling to the bone. Each old timer held a burning torch, and the light from the end of their wooden firebrands flickered in the infinite obscurity of the sky above them. The small knot of mourners stood in a circle around the hole where Button’s coffin rested.
    It was a full moon night, but the heavy cloud cover dimmed any light the moon cast down upon the gathering. The illumination from the torches danced in the gloom throwing macabre shadows on their faces.
    “Lou Edna!” Hadley whispered. “What on earth are you doing here?”
    “I was at that festival, too! Remember?” Lou Edna said. “I saw Button Dudley drop dead at your feet. And of course, I told everybody who came into the shop every gruesome detail that I could remember. Even some I couldn’t. I just mixed up everything I saw with everything everybody else was telling me and let ’er rip, like I always do.
    “I been thinkin’ about it. That must be why somebody is mad at me. Something I’ve said has rankled somebody’s feathers. You know, spreadin’ all that gossip is what I think caused someone to go to such drastic measures. It’s the only reason I can come up with. But, I’m takin’ that curse seriously, Hadley. I done what I needed to do to unhex myself.
    “I peed on a brick and tossed it into the dump. Drove all the way out there yesterday. All by myself. I hate that place. Even when it’s cold, that site stinks like all get out. There was nobody out there but me ’n’ Booger Ray.
    “He’s ran that dump for a coon’s age. Still looks the same. Must be something in the water out there that’s like a fountain of youth. Garbage ginger ale. Who knows? The stink’s enough to pull every wrinkle out of your skin. Like this.”
    Lou Edna pulled back her skin at the temples and grimaced.
    “Anyway, I wanted that brick located as far from my house as possible and in a spot where it belonged. The hex is broken. I can breathe easier. I heard that they were buryin’ Button, tonight. I just had to come ’n’ see who showed up.
    “Just look!
    Why, it’s a who’s who of the Ancients, Hadley. Well, except that Elanor twin. She’s the only one in the bunch who’s blood ain’t sludge and who ain’t seen 75 years old about 75 years ago! Huh! Sure ain’t many of them left though, is it?”
    “I wouldn’t joke about them, Lou Edna,” said Hadley. “They’re the elders of these mountains. The knowledge of the generations past is in their