And here came the fun part, explaining how I knew what had happened. “I have this doorknob; it can see anywhere, and I was looking at the apple orchard and I saw the murder.”
A very long, uncomfortable pause followed. “So, was it like a premonition?”
“No, nothing like that. Isawthe murder.”
“In your head.”
“On a wall.”
I’m pretty sure that I actually heard him thinking. “Was it on a wall inside your head?”
I sighed. This was proving harder than expected. “Sure. It was a premonition of the death. But she’s dead, because I saw it. I was with John, and we’re heading over to Dooley’s now.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you there. I’ll call when I arrive.”
We hung up, and I twisted my fingers together.
“Maybe she’s still alive,” Rufus murmured.
“I don’t think so. She looked pretty dead to me.”
He didn’t say anything.
“I was so awful to her,” I said.
“She was awful to you, too,” he gently reminded me. “Don’t be hard on yourself.”
“It’s difficult not to be.”
Earl Granger was already at Dooley Hutto’s when we arrived.
“Clem,” Dooley snapped, bathrobe flying out from behind him like a cape, “what’s this about Crystal being murdered?”
“We can show you where the body is,” Rufus said.
Dooley looked at me suspiciously. “Earl said you had some kind of premonition.”
Great. Now it was going to get around town that I could see the future. Awesome.
I ignored Dooley. Best to keep things simple. “Come on, John. Let’s show them what we saw.”
“We?” Dooley said.
Once again I didn’t answer. It was too complicated to explain to him. Heck, Earl didn’t even understand, and he had sense. Dooley Hutto was all tinkle and vinegar. He’d never be able to wrap his head around the concept of the doorknob.
We shone the flashlights of our phones out into the orchard. The three of us—Rufus, me, and Earl—moved quickly. It only took about five minutes to find Crystal’s body.
Earl bent and touched her neck. “She’s dead. In that premonition that you had, did you see anyone, Clem?”
I shook my head. “No, I couldn’t see who it was, but she sounded scared. She asked them what they were doing here.”
“Hmmm.” He stepped back. “I’ll get your statement shortly. Right now I need to call in some folks. Do y’all mind waiting at the house?”
“No, sir,” Rufus answered.
A few minutes later, sirens blared through the silence. Tuney Sluggs showed up along with the paramedics and the coroner. It only took about five minutes for Crystal to be declared dead.
Rufus and I gave our statements, which even though Rufus said that he saw the murder, too, everyone kept saying that it was a premonition. Too tired to argue against it, I just let folks think whatever they wanted.
