by Tonya Kappes
The room on the right where the Euchre tables were set up was empty. Surely they weren’t waiting on me. There was always an extra person there in case someone didn’t show or was late. Then I remembered Shelby and Clay and maybe that’d thrown them for a loop.
Before I went in, I let Duke run around as he was determined to sniff every blade of grass and smell all the bushes, while I made a quick call to Max.
“Good evening, Kenni,” Max greeted me right as soon as he answered the phone.
“Hey, I was about to go into my Euchre game and I wanted to touch base and see if you’ve got a time of death.” I gave a little whistle when Duke crossed into the neighbor’s yard. He darted back towards me.
“I’m putting the time of death between seven and eight a.m. She appeared to be ready for work in her scrubs. It appeared she’d just eaten donuts because her stomach had yet to digest and there was still some in her mouth like she’d been chewing.”
“Do you think she was having a conversation with someone and eating then they killed her?” I valued Max’s opinion.
“I don’t know if she was having a conversation, but she was eating when she was killed. I’m about to quit for the night, but you can stop by tomorrow afternoon to pick up a copy of the report. I’ll probably have it all wrapped up by lunch. Also, her parents came by to identify her.” I was glad to hear him say they’d come. “They want the body as quickly as possible for a funeral. They want to cremate her.”
“Did you tell them that we can’t release the body until the investigation is over?” I asked.
“No. I’m not the sheriff.” He was right. It was my job to make sure they knew that. “I told them you’d be in touch with them after I got the autopsy report to you.”
“Just another thing to add to my long list,” I moaned under my breath. “I’ll be by tomorrow after lunch.”
We said our goodbyes and I quickly texted Finn and Scott the time of estimated death. Scott texted back that he’d stopped by all the surrounding pawn shops and didn’t have any leads on the cuff links.
Tibbie’s front door flew open. She stood there with her hand planted on her hip and a death stare. Duke’s ears perked up and he bolted towards her. Her facial features softened when the big lug hopped around her in delight.
“He makes everyone happy,” I called over to her and grabbed my street clothes from the back of the Wagoneer. “I guess you’ve not started the game.”
“I think your mama has thrown everyone for a loop. She is introducing Finn’s mom to everyone and talking about how they love the idea of the two families coming together. From what you told me this morning, Viv has taken a complete opposite attitude.” Tibbie turned her head and looked into her house.
I peeked around her where Mama and Shelby were laughing and enjoying being the center of attention as all the Euchre ladies had gathered around them in a big circle.
“Your wedding is going to be bigger than any event around here.” Tibbie laughed.
“What?” My jaw dropped.
“Babies.” Tibbie’s hands lifted into the air. “Can you imagine what all five of your children are going to look like? They’ll be models.” Tibbie winked.
“Are you telling me that these two have become sudden friends?” I wondered what happened to this whole religion fight.
“Friends? They are more than that. Like sisters.” Tibbie’s nose curled. There was some shuffling behind her.
“Are you engaged and we didn’t know about it?” Jolee Fischer popped her head around Tibbie’s shoulder. “Because I’m gonna be all sorts of mad if that’s the case.”
“Does it look like it?” I held my ring-less finger in the air and looked through the door at Mama.
Our eyes caught. She pinched a smile. Her brows lifted up and down in delight like I’d be pleased with the newfound friend and attitude she’d adopted. She went back to holding court, as we called keeping the attention, with all the gals.
“You need a cocktail.” Tibbie rushed away leaving me with Jolee standing at the door.
“You comin’ in?” My best friend asked me. The freckles across her nose grew bigger as the smile on her lips reached her green eyes.
“Come out here for a minute.” I gave a quick head nod. “I need to ask you something about Lita Brumfield.”
“What about her?” Jolee had her blonde hair parted in the middle and dangled down in two pigtails.
“Her neighbor was killed this morning in the park.” I pointed to Rock Fence Park across the street from Tibbie’s house.
“That was her neighbor?” Jolee’s gasped. “Wow. I had no idea. I heard about that but didn’t know her.”
Even though Cottonwood was a small town, it’d been growing from farmers selling off their land to developers. There’d been a lot more neighborhoods being built in the county part of Cottonwood.
“You don’t think Lita did it, do you?” She almost laughed in my face. “She can barely write her name, much less kill someone.”
“She and Avon had a very rocky relationship. According to Avon’s parents,” I knew this was an active investigation, but I needed the inside information Jolee was privy to, “Lita and Avon had a run-in about the apple tree hanging over Avon’s chain-link fence onto Lita’s property.”
“Lita keeps a very clean house and yard,” Jolee said. “She pays someone to come do it since she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.”
“She has Parkinson’s?” My mind rolled back to Lita’s shaking hands and when she grabbed the railing on Avon’s porch to go down the steps.
“I thought you talked to her. You didn’t notice it?” She asked.
“I noticed it, but I thought maybe she was nervous about talking to me.” I tapped the five-point star sheriff’s badge on my shirt.
“Because you’re so scary?” Jolee joked. “Seriously, though. You might know her as the nosey old lady who calls on the young neighbor all the time, but if you ask anyone at the Cottonwood Acres Rehabilitation Center, they all love her. She’s not got a mean bone in her body.”
“Wait. She goes to the rehab?” This was just another tie to the victim.
“Yeah. She goes for the Parkinson’s at least a couple of times a week.” Jolee patted her chest. “I take her sometimes.”
My stomach lurched. This was a sure sign I had to get to the rehab center tomorrow. Not only to question Reagan Quinlan, but to find out if Avon had any part of Lita’s physical therapy.
There seemed to be a lot of hidden things at the rehab that needed to come to the light.
“What is that look?” Jolee’s eyes narrowed.
“It looks like I’m about the sweep right out under the rug at the rehab.” Just like with our homes and personal lives, Southern businesses loved to keep their secrets swept under the rug and it was high time I discovered the ones Avon knew.
My mind wandered back to Wally Lamb. What on Earth did she know that was illegal? I couldn’t help but think that the fact Avon was at work all the time, according to her timesheet we’d found at her house, and this big secret she was keeping were tied together.
Something in my gut told me.
“Are you getting in here?” Mama brought me out of my head and had replaced Jolee at the entrance of Tibbie’s house.
Duke heard Mama’s voice and ran over to her. He was the only dog she loved. He made sure of it.
“Look at my granddog,” she gushed over him. His tail slammed against the brick of Tibbie’s house with each excited word Mama poured over him. “Now, we just need some two-legged grandchildren before I die,” Mama’s tone turned sour.
She looked down at my hands. I cupped them behind my back.
“Did you not bring anything?” Her eyes grew scary big. “Kenni, your soon to be mother-in-law needs to know how things work around here and you know better than this.”
My mama was referring to Southern charm, something that was taught at a very young age and meant bringing a dish of some sort to the host when you went to their house. No matter if you were stopping by for a quick visit or coming to Euchre.
“I’m embarrassed,” she spat. “You know you can’t show up empty-handed even if both your hands are amputated.”
My mama was so politically incorrect, it was awful.
“How are you ever going to teach my grandchildren Southern charm if you don’t have any yourself?” She appeared to have given up on me and went straight to my offspring. “I taught you politeness, table manners, kindness, but where’s the grace?”
Around here, we were taught at an early age that you needed four things to have Southern charm as a true Southern gal. Those were table manners, politeness, kindness, and the one Mama said I was lacking, social grace.
“Enough, Mama,” I said with and exhausted sigh. “How’s things going with Shelby?”
“Not as good as your daddy and Clay.” Mama took me by the arm and dragged me into the house. “Your daddy took him down to the Hunt Club’s retreat on the river.”
“He did?” I drew back and looked at her. I was completely surprised. “That’s strange for Daddy.”
“Clay said that he’d like to see what a real hunting club in Kentucky looked like, so he called up Sean Graves. You know,” she said and patted my hand as we walked into the food room off to the left. “Your daddy has been spending a lot of time with Sean since Leighann’s death. I’ve been trying to help Jilly in her grief.” Another little tidbit I didn’t know about. “Plus, your daddy and I have a wonderful marriage, so we knew we could help Sean be a better husband.”
Sean and Jilly Graves had a rocky marriage. He was a bit gruff and sometimes knocked her and their daughter, Leighann, around. Unfortunately, Leighann had been brutally murdered. I should’ve been by to check on them more, but apparently, my parents had been filling in for that job.
“I still can’t believe Daddy is down at the hunt club’s retreat.” Finn and I had been to that cabin a few times. It wasn’t what my daddy was used to. I mean, there was no running water or bathroom. From the impression of Finn’s dad, Clay, I wasn’t sure he was cut out for the hunt club life either.
“It’s just a couple of nights.” Mama dropped my hand. “Kenni, where are your manners? Did you say hello to Shelby?”
“Hi. I’m sorry I had to cut lunch short.” I apologized and ignored how Mama had thrown my manners under the bus when I’d yet to have time to even look around the room. “But, I see that you and Mama are enjoying yourself.”
Shelby was sitting in the middle of the room with the Heney Hens circled around her in seats that were supposed to be around the Euchre tables set up in the other room.
“We are. I’m having fun getting to know your mother’s friends.” She spoke so formal, all the women swooned over it as if she were just so sophisticated.
“Can I get you a drink?” I gestured to the punch bowl where Jolee and Katy Hart were manning the ladle. “I’m thirsty.”
“I’m good.” She looked down at the cup she was holding. “I’ve never seen ice cream in punch.”
I was unable to decipher if she actually liked the punch that was a staple at all events and gatherings in Cottonwood, or if she didn’t like it.
I was going with the first assumption that she liked it. Who didn’t like punch? Who didn’t like napoleon ice cream? The two together were amazing and if you were lucky enough to get a chuck of the ice cream in your cup, it was a bonus.
“I want some ice cream in mine.” I instructed my girlfriends and headed around the table to scoop my own into a cup. If I did the ladle just right, I was able to use the edge to carve out some ice cream from the ice cream block. “Why aren’t we playing Euchre?”
“All because of you.” Katy Lee Hart’s brows lifted. She tossed her long blonde hair around one shoulder making me so jealous of the loose curls springing into place and laying naturally against her.
“Me?” I smiled while I scooped out a big side of the orange ice cream, my favorite.
“No one wants to play because Deputy Finley Vincent’s mother is here.” She fluttered her eyes and fanned her hand in front of her face. “Makes me sick.” She snarled before she started to laugh.
Finn was the talk of the town when he first came to Cottonwood. It wasn’t a secret that every single, and not just single as in available, girl in town swooned over him. We’d never had the likes of him around here. It just so happened that I, a no makeup and no fuss kinda gal, was his type.
“Good, because I’ve got to talk to you.” I knew it wasn’t the right place to ask about the insurance policy on the cuff links, but I had to take the opportunity when I got it.
“About. . .” She hesitated. “What?”
“Let’s go in here.” I gestured towards the room with the Euchre tables.
Katy Lee walked in ahead of me while I took my time to peruse the food tables. It was the best night of the week. All the older women in the Euchre group took the opportunity to bake and cook their very best or even try out a new recipe on Euchre night. It was a big deal around these parts to be amazing in the kitchen and these ladies brought it out tonight.
I took a spoonful of homemade potato salad made with real mayonnaise, along with some homemade BBQ pulled pork, that I was sure Maryna Savage had brought from her farm and spooned it on Mama’s homemade biscuits. The dessert table was on the other side of the room and I didn’t want to risk getting caught up in another conversation, so this plate was going to have to hold me over until I finished talking to Katy Lee.
“Is this store bought?” Viola White snarled at the box of donuts in the Piggly Wiggly box. “Who brought these store-bought donuts to Euchre? The nerve,”
Donuts? Euchre? Piggly Wiggly? I sucked in a deep breath knowing those were from Shelby. Probably the same ones I’d asked Toots Buford to take out to them.
“Shhh...” Tibbie held up a finger to her lips. “Shelby Vincent brought it.”
“I guess she didn’t know better.” Viola’s brows rose. “She ain’t a bit Southern.”
“Or Baptist,” Tibbie whispered back. “They’re Catholic.”
It took everything I had not to turn around to give them both a piece of my mind. She was a guest, re-gifted donuts or not. Store bought or homemade.
“Did you know that Finn was Catholic?” Katy Lee’s eyes grew big when she asked the question with a jaw drop. “I mean, your Mama,” she gasped, “it was the first thing she said when she got here. I swear she ran into the house, leaving his poor mama outside to tell us that.” Katy Lee laughed as though she remembered something. “After she told us, she put her finger up to her mouth and told us not to tell. But when I’ve seen her without Finn’s mama at her side, she’s letting everyone know.”
There was a lot in that long-winded question Katy Lee had started out with, but I figured it was just best to address the question only.
“Yes. Finn is Catholic. Right now, I don’t have the time to tell you what happened when Mama found out last night.” My lips stretched across my lips, my teeth clinched in an eeck way.
“We have to have coffee this week. Have to.” Katy Lee could barely contain herself. “All of your stories about Viv crack me up and make my week.”
“I’m glad someone gets pleasure from my pain.” I joked. It was good to be around my friends, though Mama was clearly on a mission to let the entire town in on the big Catholic conspiracy she felt the Vincent’s were playing on me.
I knew my time with Katy Lee was limited. If what she told me was right about Mama flapping her jaws, it was only a matter of time before the others snuck around to question me about it.
“I need to know about the insurance policy on the cuff links Woody Moss took out with Hart Insurance.” Out of the corner of my eye, I coul
d see some of the women getting up from around Shelby. “Those were the only things taken from the Moss house during the robbery.”
“I didn’t even know they had a policy with us. It was probably a long time ago when we were kids.” Katy Lee had started working for her dad when we had graduated from high school.
After that, she went on to get her licenses and now runs the business fulltime. Her father does come in time to time, but she was mainly in charge.
“You mean, Lenora hasn’t come down to see for herself?” Not that a day was a long time, but when I saw those papers on her coffee table, I really did assume that figure of $20,000 might’ve been the tag on those cuff links.
“No. I’ve not gotten a call or a visit from Lenora and I’ve been in the office the past couple of days.” She shrugged, and we were surrounded before we knew it. “I’ll look tomorrow and talk to Dad. Let me give you a call back on that.”
“On what?” Viola White, the owner of White’s Jeweler and a Heney Hen, stood over us like a hawk rather than a hen. Her claws were out for a bit of gossip. “What you want with Lenora?”
“Kenni wants to know about some policy on cuff links stolen from Woody’s house.” Katy Lee looked at me. My jaw was dropped. “Oh, was I not supposed to say anything? Because you didn’t say it was between me and you.”
“It’s fine,” I sighed. It was already out there. It wasn’t like people couldn’t go down to the station to get a police report. “The only item stolen from Lenora Moss’s house was a pair of cuff links worth some money.”
“Who told you that?” Viola’s nose curled. Her short grey hair had freshly been cut with jagged edges around her face. She wore a big, thick pair of rimmed glasses that was probably from her sixties wardrobe. Though she stood five foot four inches tall, she was mighty in spirit, gossip and in money.
Viola was the wealthiest woman in Cottonwood but dressed in the strangest of outfits and God-awful jewelry. She could be wearing some fancy diamond necklace, that would be too tame for her, instead, she had on a lime green golf ball sized ball necklace that was tight around her neck. The big lime green stone ring was probably worth something. To me, it looked like it’d come out of the dime machine for children down at the Piggly Wiggly.