Mountain Ice (David Dean Mysteries)

"Valuable?" Dean questioned.

"What did you tell them to get them so excited they want to travel all the way to Ouray Colorado and Bird Song?" Cynthia asked.

Dean paused half way through his pie, awaiting Fred's answer. Fred picked up an extra fork. "You gonna finish that?" he asked, pointing at Dean's plate. Dean didn't answer quick enough before Fred began eating his pie. "I just told 'em the truth," he continued, his mouth half full.

Dean shook his head. "Let me get this straight. Two ladies are flying all the way from Boston to buy some old underwear, a yellow dress and a bunch of junk? And a dozen 'having-a-great-time-wish-you-were-here' letters? That's a stretch and a half, Fred."

"I didn't even have to sell all of the stuff-just the clothes and letters." Then he added magnanimously, "I'm donating the school book and ink bottle to the museum, seeing as Miss Worthington helped in locating the buyers and all."

"What did you tell these women?" Cynthia asked. "Are you sure they know exactly what you're selling them?"

"I listed piece by piece what I had. I even read the letters. Told 'em what I paid for the merchandise and they didn't bat an eyebrow. You gotta understand these genealogy-type women," he added. "It's a big deal to them, to get stuff from their ancestor and find out where she lived and all. This Annie woman was their grandpa's little sister. It's like finding a long lost periodical son."

"'Prodigal' daughter, who's been dead a hundred years," Dean answered. "You could stick the junk in a box and mail it a whole lot cheaper than having them fly out here. It's not like there's a long line waiting to buy that stuff." Dean got up to get a fresh piece of pie.

"It's important for 'em to stay here-in the same place where ancestor Annie lived."

Cynthia looked at him. "You mean Ouray."

"Yeah," Fred answered, but absent much conviction.

"You didn't tell the women Annie Quincy lived here, at Bird Song, did you?" she asked.

"No. Not really. I mentioned how this here place was a boarding house in the old days and now it's a fine bed and breakfast. They said they always heard Aunt Annie lived in a fine rooming house before she met up with Reverend Martin. They seemed to think that was a first rate coincidence, especially Effie, the first sister I talked to. The other one wasn't so pleasant."

"Let me get this straight," Dean asked. "You told these ladies that this Annie Quincy woman probably lived here in Bird Song?"

"No. Not exactly. They just suspected she might have lived here, Ouray being a small town and all."