William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"

I found "A Rose for Emily" to be a very interesting story. The ending was surprising for me as a reader, but I believe the narrator, the entire town, weren't surprised at all. They state earlier in the story that the last time they saw Homer Barron was entering Miss Emily's house, and then they talk about how the place smelled so bad that people in the houses next door were complaining, and that they covered it up with lime. Plus the reaction when they do find the body isn't full of  awe or confusion. I believe that the narrator knew or at least strongly suspected that Miss Emily had killed Homer Barron and was keeping him in her house. Miss Emily was the talk of the town, a main source of gossip, and her almost love story with Homer Barron was followed very closely by the towns people. They knew when he saw Miss Emily, and they knew when he came and left town. So no one seeing him leave town after entering Miss Emily's house would cause suspicion especially if Miss Emily was just seen buying arsenic. I strongly believe that the townspeople knew that Miss Emily killed Homer Barron. To me Miss Emily is portrayed as sort of a statue or a monument of the town. The narrator says things like "fallen monument", and "a tradition, a duty, and a care...a hereditary obligation upon the town" to describe Miss Emily. She is just a person who has been in the town so long she has become part of its history. She is a relic of the town. The creepy part of the story was that in the end it is suggested that she had been sleeping with the dead body of Homer Barron, the indent in the pillow and the strand of gray hair lead me as the reader to believe this. The light coating of dust over the pillow with the indent suggests that she hadn't slept there in a while probably when she was unable to get up the stairs to the room because of her old age. What supports this theory is the fact that she died in a bed downstairs. The title of the poem indicates the laying of flowers on a coffin or a grave. I found the story entertaining and captivating.