The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree (Berkley Prime Crime)

head, admiring her reflection in the mirror. “My, Beulah, but that is pretty.”
    “Well, if I say so myself, I do know hair,” Beulah said modestly, picking up a soft brush and whisking hair off the back of Bessie’s neck. “Listen, ladies, I want to know if either of you have heard anything about that escaped convict. Bettina and I ask everybody who comes in here, and nobody seems to have heard a blessed thing.”
    “There wasn’t even anything about him in Friday’s Dispatch,” Bettina complained, beginning to unwrap Aunt Hetty’s little white caterpillars, which by now were nice and dry and very springy. “You would think Mr. Dickens would give us at least one little clue, wouldn’t you? Why, I don’t know whether it’s safe to sleep with my window open at night, or whether I ought to lock all the doors and take the stove poker to bed with me.”
    “Oh, pooh,” Aunt Hetty said dismissively. “You can stop worrying about that escaped convict, Bettina. He probably hopped a freight train and is havin’ a high old time with the ladies in Memphis or St. Louis by now.”
    “I agree,” Bessie Bloodworth said, getting out of the beauty chair and allowing Beulah to unfasten her cape. “Nothing for any of us to worry about, Bettina.”
    Bettina breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, I am glad to hear that. I guess I can put that big ol’ stove poker back where I got it, can’t I?” She unwrapped the last caterpillar. “Now, Mrs. Little, I need you to tell me what I’m doin’ wrong with my eggplants. They just don’t seem to be growin’ as good as they should. They’re just little bitty things.”
    “Don’t you fret about those eggplants, dear,” Aunt Hetty said in a comforting tone. “The mornings have been chilly lately, and they don’t like cold feet. They love summertime, and they’ll perk up real good when it heats up some. Look for ‘em to grow like a house afire along about the Fourth of July. Come hot summer, you’ll have more eggplants than you know what to do with, and you’ll be askin’ everybody for recipes.”
    “I’ve got a good one for you, Bettina,” Beulah said, hanging Bessie’s cape on the hook. “Tomato and eggplant pie, with eggs and a little milk and cheese rubbed through the grater, if you’ve got cheese. If you don’t, you can do without, but maybe put in an extra egg so the custard sets up. I have a hard time getting my children to eat eggplant, but they do like that pie.”
    “Thank you, everybody,” Bettina said gratefully. She looked around, smiling. “I guess I owe just about everything I know about gardening and cooking to Beulah’s Beauty Bower.”
    It is true, however, that while the Dahlias know quite a lot about growing vegetables and making pies, they don’t know all there is to know about escaped convicts.

EIGHTEEN
    Lizzy and Verna Plan an Expedition
    When Lizzy and Verna stopped giggling about their narrow escape from Mrs. Brewster’s boardinghouse, they discovered that they were hungry—which might be expected, since the sandwiches they had eaten at lunchtime were a distant memory. Lizzy’s house was closest, so she invited Verna to have supper with her.
    “Nothing fancy,” she said, “but there’s cheese and ham, and tomatoes and green onions and lettuce from the garden, and I can scramble some eggs and open a pint jar of Sally-Lou’s canned peaches. She always puts up more than we can eat.”
    “Sounds perfect to me,” Verna said. “I think we need to talk, don’t you?”
    Lizzy nodded. She had been wondering how much of what Mr. Moseley had told her she should share with Verna. He expected her to keep it in confidence, but she felt she owed Verna an explanation for taking that revealing letter, which she knew should be left for the police to find. But she and Verna had been friends for a very long time and Liz felt that she could be trusted. After all, they were both Dahlias, weren’t they? Dahlias were loyal. Dahlias could keep a confidence.
    So while she fed Daffodil and then got busy scrambling eggs with cheese and bits of ham and green onions and Verna assembled a garden salad from lettuce, fresh tomatoes, and chopped green peppers, along with a handful of fresh raw peas and more green onions, Lizzy told Verna about her conversation with Mr. Moseley. Some of it was ... well, torrid, she thought, especially the part about Bunny and Mr. Moseley going to Mobile together.
    But as Lizzy had said earlier, she wasn’t a