If possible, I was more horrified than when Kevin and I had found Miss Elizabeth on the beach. This new scenario made me physically sick. I watched the chief go back to his car, my stomach clenched in nausea and fear. I rushed back inside and locked the front door.
But what could I do? This wasn’t a fortress. I couldn’t bar the gates and not let him in. Miss Mildred needed help, but not the kind I could give her. I pulled out my cell phone and called the only person I could think of. “Gramps, you have to find a lawyer and get over to Miss Mildred’s house fast. Chief Michaels wants to accuse her of murder.”
I quickly dead-bolted both doors into the house. I waited for help as Chief Michaels came back to conduct his search and found he couldn’t get inside. He pounded on the door and shouted my name. There was a penalty for keeping the police from doing their job. I didn’t care. Someone had to protect Miss Mildred, and I was the only one around. I wished Mary Lou and her turtle rescuers were here. They might have known better what to do.
“You have to let us in sometime, Mayor,” the chief yelled. “This is obstruction of justice, you know.”
“What’s going on outside?” Miss Mildred asked. “Ronnie sounds angry.”
“Just a little disagreement,” I answered with a smile.
“Maybe you’d like to lie down for a while since you were in the closet all night.”
“That’s a good idea, Dae, thank you. I’ll go outside and check the mail first.”
“No!” She stared at me with troubled eyes when I caught her hand as she reached for the doorknob. “I mean, not right now. Maybe after your nap. The mail isn’t here yet anyway.”
“Are you feeling all right?”
“I’m fine. Thank you.” I resumed my guard at the front window. Would they call in the SBI and use a battering ram to break down the front door? Would I be led away in handcuffs with Miss Mildred while Jerry Richards tried to ask us questions for his next TV news feature?
I was scared and paranoid. I didn’t know what to expect. I wanted to do what was right for Miss Mildred, but the consequences might be awful. I squared my shoulders, prepared to face the worst. Then I heard the first siren.
I knew the entire Duck Police Department was already outside. Chief Michaels had made sure of that. There was only one other group with sirens—Gramps had called on his volunteer firefighter friends for help. Within seconds, there were trucks, cars and firefighting vehicles everywhere. They outnumbered the police five to one.
I laughed out loud. Miss Mildred frowned with concern. I didn’t care. At least Gramps was there. I looked out again and saw that Kevin had joined the group too. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. He could either be there to help me save Miss Mildred or to add his expertise in helping Chief Michaels.
Gramps and a tall man with a sandy-colored buzz cut spoke to Chief Michaels and Kevin for a moment. I held my breath as the men talked in the yard, glancing at the house occasionally. Finally, Gramps and the man I didn’t recognize approached the house. The chief and Kevin stayed where they were, arms folded resolutely across their chests.
I stood behind the door until I heard Gramps call my name, then I slid back the dead bolt, opened it quickly and let them in the house. “I’m so glad to see you!” I hugged him. “I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry to drag you into this.”
“I’m not sorry you called me, honey.” Gramps patted my back. “I’m sorry you decided to take a stand on this. I don’t know there’s much I can do to help.”
“But maybe I can do something,” Sandy Buzz-Cut said. “I’m Luke Helms. I used to be a prosecutor in Wake County before I retired to my fishing boat this month.”
I shook his hand eagerly. “Thank you so much for coming. I don’t know exactly how I got into this mess. I wanted to help Miss Mildred.”
“Let’s sit down for a minute of the five they gave us and tell me what happened.” Luke took off his bright yellow jacket. “You’re lucky they let us in at all. They didn’t have to.”
“She’s my granddaughter and the mayor of Duck,” Gramps protested. “The chief did the only rational thing he could do. Now, tell Luke the story, Dae.”
So I spilled it, everything from Miss Mildred putting Miss Elizabeth’s purse on the table to the chief saying he was going to search her house and land. “It’s not right. She didn’t realize what she was giving him permission to do.”
Luke nodded. “She’s incapable of making that kind of judgment?”
“I don’t know if I’d say that about every circumstance, but—”
“What Dae is trying to say is that she fears for my sanity because my sister visited me last night,” Miss Mildred added. “She’s a very sweet girl with remarkable talents. But I’m not senile. I know what I saw. And I have nothing to hide from Ronnie. He’s welcome in my house anytime.”
I tried to think of a nice way to say it, but there wasn’t one, so I blurted it out—“Chief Michaels thinks you killed your sister.”
Miss Mildred’s eyebrows disappeared into the cloud of her white hair. “Why on earth would he think something like that?”
The sound of Chief Michaels’s voice, amplified by a bullhorn, interrupted us. “Your five minutes is up in there. We’re coming in, even if we have to break down the door.”
Chapter 9
“What do we do now?” I looked at both men with something like panic beating in my chest.
Luke shook his head. “Well, if Miss Mildred is okay with the chief searching her house—”
“I didn’t know he wanted to put me in prison,” Miss Mildred protested. “I didn’t kill anybody. I wouldn’t hurt my sister for anything. Please help me.”
“In that case, he needs a search warrant,” Gramps said. “That’s clear as glass.”
“He may not see it that way,” Luke added. “But you’re right. We can hold him off for as long as it takes to get a warrant. He’ll be in here sometime. You can’t keep him out forever since he found evidence here.”
“What about if we hide the purse?” I suggested.
“That’s tampering with evidence. That will make the police angrier and could land you in jail, Mayor,” Luke explained. “There’s no point in making the situation worse.”
“So we hand it over?” I couldn’t believe there was no way to protect Miss Mildred.
“That would be the best thing. If she didn’t kill her sister, there won’t be anything to hide.” Luke glanced at Miss Mildred, discomfort written all over his face. I attributed it to his giving advice to possible law breakers instead of prosecuting them. “Are you sure you don’t remember anyone visiting you who could’ve dropped off your sister’s purse?”
“No. No one has been here, except for Andy. He was working outside and didn’t come in. Lizzie brought me her purse,” Miss Mildred insisted. “I know how that sounds. I’ve never been much of a believer in this kind of thing. But I swear on my mother’s Bible, that’s what happened.”
The front door burst open. I hadn’t replaced the dead bolt when I let Gramps and Luke in. Chief Michaels stood there glowering, with Kevin, Tim and several other Duck police officers at his side. “Miss Mildred, you’re under arrest for murdering your sister, Elizabeth Simpson.”
Luke shot to his feet. “That’s a mighty big jump, Chief, going from wanting to search her house to accusing her of murder.”
“Stay out of the way, lawyer boy.” The chief took out his handcuffs. “Now you know I’m as sorry as I can be about this.”