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

spoonful of beans to his mouth. When he started eating a salmon patty, Maggie
noticed that he nibbled on his food in a manner that reminded her of a cartoon
mouse. Suddenly, Earnest put his silverware on his plate and said, “It wasn’t
Hazel’s fault I fell in love with Brandi, so I saw no reason to hurt her more
than I already had. Not that I ever planned to hurt her. I thought we’d grow
old together, retire, buy an RV, and drive cross country. That was our plan. To
pack up and hit the road. But when I met Brandi, things changed. That’s when I
realized Hazel wasn’t my soul mate. Brandi was.”
    If our soul
mates can be thirty-some years younger than us, thought Maggie, then maybe my recently-potty-trained
soul mate is waking from his nap and getting ready to ride his Big Wheel.
Wonder how we’ll meet? She put that out of her mind and asked, “I understand
Brandi was your housekeeper?”
    Earnest, who had
resumed imitating a ravenous vermin, nodded and said, “She stopped by to clean
our house once a week. Bless her heart, the poor thing, she was struggling. Her
ex-husband, they were married at the time, wouldn’t work. They couldn’t afford
daycare, so she cleaned house. That way, she could keep Paradice with her while
she worked. As it so happens, I had hurt my back and was off work for a few
weeks. We got to talking and fell in love.”
    Maggie tried to
imagine a romance budding between a well-past middle-age man laid up with a
hurt back and a fiery young house cleaner, and in full view of a child.
    “I guess it’s
true what they say about love blossoming when we least expect it,” Maggie said.
“When did you last talk to Hazel?”
    “I’d go months
without seeing or talking to her.”
    That’s not what
I asked, Maggie thought to herself. To Earnest, she said, “Do you remember the
last time you saw her?”
    Earnest kept his
eyes on the salmon patty he had harpooned with a fork. “I ran into her at the
post office a week or two or maybe even three before she died. I bet I hadn’t
seen Hazel or even talked to her a handful of times since the divorce. That’s
what I don’t understand about Stella. It’s not like me and Hazel were fighting.
You don’t just up and kill somebody you haven’t talked to in months.” Earnest
picked up his cup of diet soda with both hands and took a drink. “Of course,
Stella talked to her every day.”
    “I don’t understand
what you’re trying to say.”
    Earnest turned
his head downward and said out of one side of his mouth, “Stella wasn’t happy
when their mommy left her house to Hazel. She thought she should have left it
to Dennis. But their mommy knew he couldn’t take care of a house and she knew
Hazel would take care of the house and Dennis.”
    “Dennis lived
with their mother?”
    “Yes.”
    “So, why doesn’t
he live in that house now?”
    “Me and Hazel had
to pay the taxes and insurance on that house and we thought it was only right
for Dennis to pay rent. Stella wouldn’t have it. She found that old trailer
down the holler that belonged to one of their cousins and talked them into renting
it out to Dennis. But I did feel bad when he had to leave the house, so I mentioned
to Hazel that we should get him to take care of it for us. You know, I could
have come in on that house, but I let Hazel have it free and clear. It was her
mommy’s house and she was raised in it. I wouldn’t make a claim on it. That
wouldn’t have been right.”
    Maggie struggled
to pay attention to Earnest, but a little voice in her head that repeated “this
man is unbelievable” kept distracting her. She wanted to ask Earnest if they
paid Dennis for the privilege of performing maintenance work on a house he had
lived in his entire life before being evicted by his sister and if Earnest had
heard himself proclaim not two minutes earlier that Dennis couldn’t take care
of the house. She decided to steer clear of insinuating herself into family
drama and said, “Let me