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Show 130 "Hey!" She grabbed the top of the ladder. "Who did that?" Giggly sounds from below. It was Miss Mary-a likely attacker -standing with her arms full of lilacs. "You bad girl !'" Dyna scolded, shaking the sponge until she realized she was sprinkling Miss Mary- Then, grinning, she bent down for a long, noisy smell. "Are those for Gram?" she asked. Miss Mary nodded. "For you, too," she gestured. Dyna smiled and put her fist on her heart. Then she pointed toward the back of the house, to the kitchen where Gram was sure to be. Miss Mary waved and walked away with dainty steps, looking more spindly than ever in her "summer frock," as she called warm-weather dresses. Dyna, watching her step carefully across the grass, was suddenly overcome with tender feelings. The old mum's bare arms stuck out of her sleeves like winter branches. From her stem-like ankles, rising out of the substantial Red Cross shoes, to her narrow shoulders, Miss Mary appeared somehow girlish-as if eighty had turned to skinny eight again, in the simple act of delivering a bouquet. Dyna had just started her second window when Detective Sergeant Fowler pulled alongside the curb in front of her house. "Moon River" had lost out to Aunt Grace's favorite hymn, "Amazing Grace," which, until recent years, Dyna had surmised was written for and about Aunt Grace herself. Dyna had once heard it rendered by bagpipes and liked it so much she tried to achieve the same effect by humming it through her nose. That's what she was doing now as the police detective approached, and that's why she was so startled to hear someone say her name. "Dyna Suggs?" She stopped humming and turned around. "Oh, hi," she stammered. "I guess you caught me . . . humming." Boy, did that sound dumb! She started over. "I didn't hear you drive up." He glanced around the yard, then out to the street. She wondered if he was being followed, then realized she wasn't thinking straight. She was scared. What's he doing here, anyway? "Can you come down a minute?" he asked politely. |