Agnes pushed away from the table. “We’ve got to try. We’ll take the animals. I won’t leave Maybelle here when she’s so frightened. Let’s get our coats.”
The drive down the mountain into town was one that neither Agnes nor Clara would ever forget. Rain came down faster than the wipers could clear the windshield. Wind buffeted the car and threatened to send them tumbling down the mountain the fast way. They crept around many curves that had no guardrail.
Candy, in her crate, and Maybelle, curled into a ball on the back seat, didn’t utter a sound.
Clara gripped her arm rest. “Those animals are as scared as I am,” she said.
Agnes shook her head. It took all her concentration to keep them on the asphalt. Her hands felt frozen to the steering wheel. When at last the lights of civilization glowed before them, Agnes drew a shuddering breath.
“Thank you, Lord,” she said.
“Amen,” Clara whispered.
Finding the sheriff’s office didn’t prove hard. A sign hanging in front of a well-lit building proclaimed that they had reached their destination.
Making the sheriff understand their mission, though, took a while. When at last they started the drive back up the mountain, the sheriff and his deputy were in a car behind them. The rain had lessened and the wind had abated. It took a lot less time to drive up the mountain than it had taken to drive down.
Agnes carried Candy as she, Clara, and Maybelle dashed from the car up to the wide front porch of the house. She held the door open for Sheriff Tandy and Deputy Ross.
The sheriff wiped raindrops from his eyes. “A dead body, you said. And it’s in the basement? Well, lead the way, ladies.”
The basement was far less scary with the sheriff and Deputy Ross nearby. The door to the hidden room stood open, as they had left it. Agnes motioned the men toward it, but she and Clara stayed back.
Sheriff Tandy shone his powerful flashlight into the enclosure. Then he and Deputy Ross disappeared inside. In a few minutes, he reappeared, shaking his head. “Hard to believe, but you were right. That poor fellow in there has not been among the living for quite a few years. Did either of you get a good look at him?”
Agnes shook her head.
“We didn’t stay down here long enough for that,” Clara said. “After we saw what was in there, we just wanted as far away as we could get.”
“Let’s go back upstairs. I want to show you all something and see if you have any ideas,” the sheriff said.
Deputy Ross led the way back to the kitchen. “Maybe you all had better sit down,” he said.
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