Free Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery by Michelle Goff

Maggie, “Now is later.”
    Maggie provided
her parents with a timeline of her activities from the day Stella contacted her
to her conversation with Sylvie Johnson. When Maggie finished, Lena threw up
her hands and walked out of the room. Robert shook his head and asked, “Didn’t
you learn your lesson last time?”
    She didn’t have
time to ponder lessons learned. When she arrived at her house, a light flashing
on the telephone alerted her to a message. She pressed play and heard an
unfamiliar voice saying, “Hi, I found your name in the book. I need to talk to
you. This is Earnest Baker.”
     

Chapter Ten
    Maggie met
Earnest a few days later in Jasper at the Dinner Bucket Diner. Before they
ordered, she asked him, “How did you know my name?”
    “When Stella
called you Maggie that rang a bell, but I didn’t realize why until I was
looking through the paper and saw your picture. I read your articles all the
time. I loved the one about how you finally realized Dick Button the ice skater
was not the same person as Dick Butkus the football player. Hazel loved ice
skating. That’s the only reason I know who Dick Button is.” Earnest chuckled.
“She loved football, too, and, actually, that’s the only reason I know who Dick
Butkus is. Except for basketball and NASCAR, I don’t care for sports, but Hazel
would watch any kind of televised sporting event. I always thought she had to
be the only woman in the world who liked ice skating and football, but now that
I’ve met you, I guess I was wrong about that.”
    Maggie thanked
him for his compliment and Earnest stared at her as if he expected her to say
something else. She couldn’t think of anything to add and was grateful when the
waitress stopped for their orders. Maggie had planned to deviate from her usual
Dinner Bucket fare of pork chops and potato salad and go with a garden salad, but
when Earnest asked for soup beans, cornbread, and salmon patties, she changed
her mind.
    “Can I have soup
beans, cornbread, and fried potatoes?” she asked the agreeable waitress.
    “I love soup
beans,” Earnest said as the waitress walked away. “But bless Brandi’s heart,
she can’t get the hang of cooking them.”
    Maggie had no
interest in hearing about Brandi’s lacking culinary skills, so she said, “On
the message, you said you needed to talk to me. About what?”
    “I wanted to
talk to you for a couple reasons. I wanted to apologize for Brandi’s behavior
and mine for that matter. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that
you were an innocent bystander who was dragged into this by Stella.”
    “Apology
accepted.”
    “The second
thing is that I couldn’t help but think about what Stella said. I know she
thinks I killed Hazel. Let me make one thing clear, I didn’t have anything to
do with her death. I don’t believe anybody killed her. I think her drowning was
an accident. Stella needs to accept that and move on. But I’ve known the family
for as long as I can remember. I was with Hazel for years and we were a second
set of parents to Stella’s daughter. So, if I can do anything to help bring the
family peace, I’ll do it.”
    Before Maggie
could ask another question, Earnest said, “I’m doing this even though I don’t
have to.”
    Maggie once more
got the feeling he wanted her to offer additional comment. Instead, she asked, “How
would you characterize your divorce? Was it friendly? Contentious?”
    “I thought it
went as smoothly as a divorce could. I didn’t fight Hazel. I gave her
everything she wanted.”
    “Including part
of your pension?”
    “Yes. She said
she had earned it and I couldn’t disagree with her.”
    “Stella says you
didn’t want to share the pension.”
    “No, that’s a
lie, that’s a lie,” Earnest shook his head so fast and so forcefully that
Maggie suspected he was hurting himself. “That is a lie.”
    The waitress
brought their meals and Maggie noticed Earnest’s hands trembling as he brought
a