Black hair threaded with gray, dark-eyed and with scruffy beards, these two stared down at me for several seconds before one of them spoke.
“Miz McNeil?” asked the older gentleman.
“Yes. Do I know you?”
The man laughed, a sound like dry leaves crackling underfoot. “No, I doubt that you do or would want to. We don’t know you neither and that’s jest as well. We knew ole Javin, though.”
The second man nodded, “Yep. We knew Javin well enough. We had to come today to make sure that was him up there in that casket. It was and I guess we’re satisfied.”
The first speaker smiled, showing crooked, yellowed teeth. “We’re satisfied, right enough. Ole Javin got jest what he deserved.”
“Sometimes bad things happen in this ol’ town,” said the second man. “Sometimes people get hurt. You might think about that.”
They glided away and out the door. A cold dash of icy water could not have chilled me more than the words of these two strangers.
Looking from Pat to Jackie, I choked, “What in the world? Who were those two men?”
Ron reached across the table and put his warm hand over my cold one. “It’s all right, Ned. Those fellows sounded much worse than they are.” He looked thoughtful. “Although, I didn’t much like the sound of what Moe said. It was very nearly a threat.”
“They didn’t look too good either,” I said, “but who were they?”
Cade strode to our table and pulled out a chair. “You just met the Decker boys,” he said. “Moe and Vermouth, Eldon’s brothers.”
My mouth went dry. “Is there more coffee?” I asked nobody in particular.
“I’ll get it,” Cade said, taking my cup and heading for the kitchen.
“Moe and Vermouth? Who would saddle their children with such names?” I wondered.
“You’ll have to admit that those names are pretty unforgettable,” Jackie said. “Moe is, I think, short for ‘Monroe’ and it’s probably not good to think about the German meaning for Vermouth.”
“What is it?” piped up Pat.
“Wormwood,” Jackie answered.
“So, Eldon was their brother and they hated my uncle?” I took the coffee Cade held out to me. “Maybe one of them shot him. Have you checked out their alibis?”
Once again, Cade sat down. “That’s the first thing I did. They were not anywhere near Ednalee or Granger Mansion. Their neighbor said that at the time Javin was shot, the brothers were helping him chase down one of his steers that jumped the fence. He swears it took them a couple of days to find it. They hardly ever show up in town. I imagine Javin’s funeral is the only thing that could have brought them out of the hills.”
Cade seemed ready to accept the Decker brothers’ alibi but I wasn’t.
“Surely they would come in to see their niece Martha now and then?” I asked.
Ron shook his head. “Martha isn’t their niece. Remember, she was Eldon’s step-daughter.”
Okay, so maybe she wasn’t their niece but I certainly was not convinced they knew nothing about my uncle’s death. If evil ever looked me in the face, it did when Moe and Vermouth Decker stopped at my table.
Excerpt from Moonlight Can Be Murder
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