Myrtle tried to close the door again and Lucinda shoved it open. "Miss Myrtle," she said, teeth gleaming. "Are you trying to keep me from visiting with you? I thought we were friends."

Myrtle gave her a sad look as she forced her way in. "I thought we were, too. But just friends through Ezra. I suppose you were the one who overheard my conversation with Dinah in the grocery store. The one who dropped the cans in the aisle next to me. I thought it had been Red, but he never said anything to me about it."

"That was a real stroke of luck," said Lucinda. "And then I saw you went right over to Ezra's. After he took you home, I had a visit with him, myself. Just a casual one, so he wouldn't suspect anything. I stayed long enough for him to recap your visit. He mentioned that I'd come up in conversation."

Lucinda pulled out a small pistol and Myrtle warily stepped backward. "It was hardly more than a stray remark. Ezra was simply saying how much you love Marshall. That was the only reason you came up at all." Myrtle's mouth was dry but she continued on, "That ended up being the crux of the whole case, though. You do love Marshall. And you blamed Dinah for taking him away from you."

"Because she did take him away from me. Marshall hasn't been the same toward me since."

Myrtle said, "The only thing I don't understand is why you would implicate Ezra like that. He's your best friend. Didn't you realize that it was going to look bad for him if you used the nightshade berries?"

"He was supposed to be still out of town at a conference, but came home a day early. I have a key to Ezra's house and I water his plants when he's out of town. I thought he was going to have an excellent alibi." Lucinda knitted her brows.

Myrtle said, "Look, I'm an old lady and I need to have a seat. I'm going to sit down at the kitchen table and we can talk there."

Lucinda brandished the weapon at her and Myrtle said coolly, "If you're waiting for me to put my hands up, it's not going to happen. I'm using a cane, as you know." She turned her back on Lucinda and headed for the kitchen. Lucinda wouldn't be able to see the rest of the house from the vantage point of the kitchen. Miles could come out from the back and either go for help or try to take on Lucinda, himself.

Unfortunately, Miles had decided to follow the second course of action. He hadn't fancied his chances of sneaking out the front door without getting shot on the way there. Miles stole stealthily out of the back of the house with the heaviest thing he could find—Myrtle's ancient iron. He slipped up behind Lucinda, lifting it menacingly.

Myrtle's house, however, was also not the newest; it had lots of creaky boards. Miles unerringly found the creakiest.

Lucinda was young enough to have much better reflexes than either Miles or Myrtle. She leaped up and said in a snarling voice, "Drop it."

Miles hesitated. Always one to follow directions, he said, "If I drop it, it might just bounce in the wrong direction."

"Put it down."

Miles carefully lowered the iron to the floor and rose with his hands up.

"Both of you back into the living room," said Lucinda, gesturing at them with the pistol. "I obviously can't trust either of you."

"That's a funny thing to say, considering the situation," said Myrtle with a sniff as she walked with Miles back to the living room. "It appears that we are the ones who shouldn't have trusted you."

Myrtle and Miles sat in the two armchairs and Lucinda perched across from them on the sofa, the pistol trained on them.

"I suppose you know how to use that gun. I do remember your father was quite a sportsman," said Myrtle.

Miles turned his head to look at Myrtle. She sounded very cool under pressure and her tone was conversational.

The de-escalation seemed to work, at least a little. Lucinda relaxed a bit. "Yes, he'd take me out shooting sometimes. We had some good times together."

"And Beverly? Your mom? How has she been? She was sick recently, wasn't she?"

Lucinda nodded. "She's better now. She had a bout of bronchitis and ended up with walking pneumonia."

Miles looked as if he wasn't quite sure how to react to Myrtle's impromptu chat with the person who clearly planned on doing away with them both.

He saw Myrtle glance from the clock back to Lucinda. "I haven't seen Beverly for a long while now. Is she still living at home with your dad?"

"No, they've both had to move to Greener Pastures. They couldn't keep up with the house anymore and I didn't have the time to help out as much as they needed me to." This small talk seemed to both calm Lucinda down and make her agitated all at the same time. She looked down at the gun in her hand as if half-wondering how it got there.

Which was exactly when the door flew open. Elaine said in a jaunty voice, "Chess anyone?"

There was no way Lucinda could cover both the front door and Myrtle and Miles simultaneously. She stood and spun around to point her pistol at the shocked Elaine. Myrtle handily stretched out with her cane and hooked Lucinda's leg, snagging it until she crashed to the floor with a cry. Miles scooped up the gun and, reflecting the military training Myrtle had forgotten he had, directed it steadily and expertly on Lucinda.

The next few minutes were rather chaotic. Myrtle backed up Miles by holding a fireplace poker in a very threatening manner while Elaine hurried back across the street to get Red and stay with Jack while Red came over. Which Red did, looking ferocious as he hurtled into the house, glaring at the vignette in front of him of Myrtle and Miles having to hold a killer at bay.

Red quickly put Lucinda in handcuffs, took the gun into evidence, and then greeted the state police, who arrived just minutes later.

Lucinda turned as she was led out the door to the waiting police car and said, "Sorry, Miss Myrtle." There was a genuine look of regret in her eyes.

Myrtle gave her a tight smile as Lucinda was escorted away.

Miles still looked slightly stunned by the turn of events.

"I think it's time for us to have a nice glass of sherry," said Myrtle. They walked into the kitchen and Myrtle poured them two sherries in her tiny crystal glasses. They sat down at her table, covered with its cheery red tablecloth.

"You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard Lucinda threatening you," said Miles. "Did you know?"

"Well, I definitely suspected, which was what I was trying to communicate before everything went south. You see, Marshall was having an affair with Dinah."

Miles nodded. "Erma was clear on that."

"I started realizing Dinah Cobb was probably already involved with someone when I was talking with her at the Piggly Wiggly tonight."

Red, walking into the kitchen with Lt. Perkins, overheard the last bit. "Don't tell me that your hostage situation was caused by our trip to the grocery store tonight."

"As a matter of fact, it was, Red." Myrtle straightened in her chair a bit. "I was in a hostage situation, wasn't I?"

"Or a situation where you were about to be shot," said Red, sounding exhausted.

Perkins said, "What happened with Lucinda at the grocery store?"

"Well, I was having a conversation with Dinah Cobb while Red was perusing the barbeque sauces. I mentioned something about her dating again and got the distinct impression that she was already dating someone."

Red said wryly, "That hardly seems remarkable. Bradley could be a setting in a soap opera with all the dating and affairs going on."

"It wasn't that remarkable, no. But then I suggested that someone might have wanted to target Dinah, not Luther."

"That theory you broached in the car to me." Red rubbed his forehead. "So it apparently had some truth to it."

"Yes. And Lucinda was on the very next aisle over—I heard her dropping some cans, although I didn't realize it was her at the time. Dinah also casually mentioned that Ezra did know Jasper, which wasn't what he'd claimed. I ran by and visited him briefly, too."

Red groaned.

Lt. Perkins smiled at her. "It sounds like you were putting all the pieces together."

"My visit with Ezra really helped me with the final bits."

Red quirked a brow. "Because of his friendship with Jasper?"

"His friendship with Jasper had nothing to do with anything except it revealed that Ezra was more worried about being suspected of murder than he appeared. The main thing that came out of that visit, besides a ride home, was that Ezra said Lucinda was still very much in love with Marshall."

Red said, "You've lost me again."

"I think I'm following you," said Perkins thoughtfully. "Lucinda was jealous of Dinah's relationship with her husband. She decided to send her a poisoned pie."

Myrtle nodded. "Not realizing that Dinah wasn't a fan of desserts. Luther ended up eating it. Although I don't think Lucinda was very sorry that he did."

"An accidental death," said Red. He looked as if he very much might want to have some of Myrtle's sherry.

"And Jasper, I suppose, just got in the way," said Perkins.

Myrtle said, "Jasper was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He'd gone over to confront Luther again about reporting his son's vandalism. He saw Lucinda leaving the house. Maybe Lucinda was trying to get out of there quickly or maybe it looked like she had something to hide. He probably couldn't be sure that Lucinda was the one who delivered the pie that killed Luther—but he knew something wasn't right."

Perkins nodded. "Maybe he tried approaching her to give her a chance to explain herself. He'd have known Lucinda from school, I'm imagining."

"They were in the same grade with Ezra," said Myrtle. "But Lucinda ended up following along as he went on his early morning trip to the park for his usual workout."

Red threw his hands up in the air. "I thought she was such a fan of Ezra's! Why would she use nightshade berries as the murder weapon? It made it look as if he was involved."

"Lucinda was watering his plants while he was gone and had access to the greenhouse. Ezra was still supposed to be at a conference, but had come back a day early."

Perkins asked, "What made Lucinda decide to come over here? How did she know you were figuring it out?"

"Lucinda followed me from the store and saw me go into Ezra's house. After Ezra came back from driving me home, she paid him a quick visit. She somehow ended up with the impression that I'd gone over to Ezra's to ask him about her. Between that and what she'd overheard at the grocery store, she was sure I knew something. Sure enough to bring a gun with her, at least."

Perkins said, "Thankfully, you ended up all right."

"Thanks to Wanda," said Myrtle in a satisfied tone.

Red groaned again and Myrtle shot him a cross look.

"How did Wanda help out?" asked Perkins politely.

"She told me at the beginning of all this that I needed to encourage Elaine's interest in chess. And, bless her, Wanda was absolutely right. If Elaine hadn't run over here to have Miles help her out with her awful chess game, who knows what might have happened?"

Red stood up and gave another longing look at the sherries. "On that note Perkins, we'd probably better go have a talk with Lucinda." He turned again to his mother. "Mama . . . "

"You don't have to say it. I'm planning on just having a quiet evening and turning in."

"Good."

Perkins stood up too and smiled at Myrtle and Miles. "Thanks to both of you for your help with the case. You made some excellent deductions, Mrs. Clover."

She beamed at him. "Maybe now you can even make it to the chess tournament tomorrow."

Red said in an ominous tone, "Mama is baking a snack for it."

To his credit, Perkins maintained his smile.

"Actually, the cookie pizza suffered a mishap," said Myrtle carefully. "I'm planning on just picking up some party mix at the store."

"I'll see if I can make it over there tomorrow," said Perkins. "Thanks for thinking of me."

As Red and Perkins took their leave, Myrtle took a sip of her sherry. "You know what I need to do now?"

"Stay inside and turn in, like you were telling Red?" asked Miles.

"No. No, I need to call Dakota."

"Who? You mean the high school newspaper intern?"

Myrtle said, "Precisely. She should interview me for the article."

Miles smiled. "The one you're planning on having Sloan run on the front page?"

"It'll be an excellent story for her to use as a launching pad to get into a good college," said Myrtle in a satisfied tone. "And, of course, will be chockful of quotes from me. And you, too, Miles with your threatening iron and excellent firearm skills. I'll give her a call."

Dakota was delighted to write the story and her mother brought her right over. It turned out that Myrtle had taught Dakota's mother years ago. Dakota's mother, a middle-aged woman, proceeded to call Myrtle ma'am for the next hour. They ended up doing the interview back out on the dock where it was cooler since the oven disaster and the resulting open windows had led to Myrtle's house becoming quite warm. And while Myrtle and Miles recounted their harrowing story to an attentive Dakota, they all enjoyed ice cream by the lake.