Best Enemies (A Triple Trouble Mystery)

by Lynn Emery

  “Yes, and a radio broadcast of his church sermons Sunday mornings. Not to mention the CDs they sell, the church gift shop and Abundant Love Car Wash.”

  “Well, if anybody can clue you in its Ametrine.” Aunt Ametrine walked into the restaurant seconds later. Mama Ruby waved a hand to get her sister’s attention. “Speak her name and up she pops.”

  “Sorry I’m late girls. How y’all doin’?” Aunt Ametrine looked flushed from an active morning. “Lord, I stopped to chat with Sister Isabelle and just couldn’t get away.”

  “Really?” Mama Ruby shot a sideways glance at Willa.

  Willa swallowed a giggle. They both knew Ametrine loved to gossip. Papa Elton claimed she held the world record for marathon gossiping.

  “How is Miss Isabelle these days?” Willa managed finally.

  “Poor soul is lonely. Her son and daughter ought to be ashamed. Hardly call her, bless her heart.” Aunt Ametrine spent a few more seconds criticizing. She only paused to give the waitress her order.

  “As usual you had a happy morning helping others,” Mama Ruby said fast before Ametrine could resume. Again she gave Willa an amused glance. What she meant was her sister loved dipping in other people’s business.

  Aunt Ametrine went back to arranging items in her huge tote bag. She missed the joke as usual. She gave a dramatic sigh as she nodded. “The Home Mission Ministry really does have big job. As the president most of the work always falls on me. Still I’m blessed to carry the Lord’s load.”

  “Yes, indeed. You’ve certainly got a load all right,” Mama Ruby deadpanned and rolled her eyes.

  Willa coughed to cover a bark of laughter then drank from her tea glass.

  “Ahem, must be a cold coming on.”

  “And speaking of ungrateful children, have you talked to Jazzmonetta?” Aunt Ametrine arranging her tote bag finally.

  She refused to call her Jazz, her stage name.

  “She’s probably busy,” Willa said and swallowed more tea.

  “Humph.” Aunt Ametrine started to continue but stopped to accept her order. She watched the waitress leave then leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Should be on her knees in somebody’s church. Half naked giving laps dances.”

  “Let it go, Ametrine. When she’s ready to change her life she will.” Mama Ruby’s tight expression said she hadn’t accepted her own words so easily.

  “Speaking of church.” Willa was determined to avoid more Jazz generated family tension. “I met Reverend Lawrence Fisher. Know him, Auntie?”

  Aunt Ametrine blinked a few times then adjusted to the change in direction. She wore an expression of respect and envy. “Abundant Love Ministries. Of course. That church has doubled in size in just five years. They do radio and TV shows every week.”

  “Reverend Fisher is a little too slick for me,” Mama Ruby said then savored a forkful of her lunch.

  “Jack signed a contract to provide security to the Abundant Love Tabernacle. So he’s a client,” Willa said.

  “That’s funny. I think his congregation needs protection from him. He’s got his hands way down in their pockets. And on their wives if I’m any judge of men.” Mama Ruby pointed her fork to reinforce her words.

  “He’s an anointed man of God, Ruby. Maybe he’s a bit theatrical, but he teaches Bible fed lessons.” Aunt Ametrine frowned with disapproval at her sister.

  “Two words, girl. False prophet. Another two words, scam artist.” Mama Ruby had never been affected by her sister’s righteous scolding.

  “Maybe if you came to church more often you could afford to judge,” Aunt Ametrine said with a sniff. She took a dainty bite of her gyros pita sandwich.

  “Anyway,” Willa said to break the usual argument cycle about to commence. “According to the good reverend Jack had gone back to church. His church.”

  Aunt Ametrine dabbed her mouth and swallowed. “Well, lift Holy hands. Jack died after getting right with the Lord. Reverend Fisher is truly a fisher of men if he got Jack into church.”

  “Oh he’s reelin’ ‘em in all right,” Mama Ruby retorted. She shrugged when Willa frowned at her.

  “Just where did Reverend Fisher come from?” Willa didn’t waste time or breath asking her aunt if she knew.

  Aunt Ametrine rested both elbows on the table. “Came from New Orleans. He’s got a powerful testimony of deliverance. Reverend Fisher ran with a murderous drug dealing gang in one of those projects. Broke his grandmother’s heart with his lifestyle.”

  “Ha, served time in jail, too.” Mama Ruby stopped her next comment at a dirty look from Willa.

  “Go on, Auntie. You were saying about his testimony.” Willa smiled at her aunt.

  “He’s never hidden his past,” Aunt Ametrine replied with a sharp glance at her sister. “He says Hurricane Katrina swept away friends and relatives. The whole experience made him re-examine his sinful life.”

  “Interesting.” Willa wondered who was right, her aunt or her mother. Then she remembered the suggestive glint in his dark eyes when he looked at her. Willa had a feeling Mama Ruby would come out on top this time.

  “More than that, inspiring really.” Aunt Ametrine went on to tell how he was born again during a church service in Houston, Texas where he had been evacuated during the storm. His grandmother died. Two of his brothers drowned because they had refused to evacuate. His mother, a drug addict, disappeared into the ghettos of Miami where she relocated. Fisher had three children by three different women by the time he was twenty-five. In true Sister Ametrine fashion, her aunt gave Willa plenty of back-story on Reverend Fisher. Willa figured Cedric would have an easy time filling in more details. After ten minutes Aunt Ametrine had moved on to the rest of the congregation.

  “Do you know one of his deacons, Isaac Nelson?” Willa said to re-direct the flood of information back to relevancy.

  “Isaac Nelson,” Aunt Ametrine repeated. She dipped a sliver of pita bread in hummus, chewed slowly on it and the name. Then she shook her head. “Can’t put a face to that name.”

  “Oh.” Willa ate a tiny piece of chicken.

  “Sorry, baby. Wait a minute. You can’t think Reverend Fisher had anything to do with Jack’s death.” Her aunt’s light brown eyes went wide at the very thought.

  “I’m just trying to connect any dots that I can, Auntie. Especially in case Detective Miller starts looking at Anthony again.” Willa thought about the beefy officer of the law. He did not impress Willa as a man who would roll over that easy.

  “Looking at Anthony?” Aunt Ametrine’s eyes grew wider. “Y’all didn’t tell me that! Why the nerve of those officers. Anthony has his faults, but he would never hurt anybody.”

  “Well that’s one thing I can say ‘Amen’ to,” Mama Ruby added.

  “So far Detective Miller hasn’t been back.” Willa pursed her lips. Somehow she felt like Miller had another shoe to drop though. Not to mention her fears that Anthony would slip from boyish mischief into more serious misdeeds.

  “Don’t forget that lawyer your brother told you about,” Mama Ruby said, breaking into her thoughts. “No way we gonna let that child get caught up in nothing bad.”

  “And I’m gonna pray on it, too,” Aunt Ametrine added.

  Willa put a hand on each of their arms. These were two of her strong anchors. More than blood had forged her adopted family. Once again she felt a rush of love and gratitude to have them.

  “Thank you. Y’all always make me feel like things are going to work out.” Willa gave each woman a kiss on the cheek.

  “We love you, too, sweetheart.” Aunt Ametrine glowed from the compliment.

  Willa felt a prick of guilt. Jazz had always felt like an outsider. She needed to find her sister and try again to bridge the gulf between them.

  “I’m going to talk to Jazz again,” Willa said. She saw her mother and aunt exchange a glance.

  Chapter 7

  Willa’s head hurt from staring at numbers and reading reports. Cedric had taken over dealing with t
he contracts in a hands-on way. Easy decision since he had the experience in providing security services. Still he’d been forced to admit Willa knew about legal investigations. Her job as a paralegal meant she was very comfortable digging through records. Kicking it around online databases was second nature to her. Still she was getting sick of sitting behind a desk. She stood and did a few stretching exercises.

  Kay knocked then entered. She carefully shut the door behind her. “This lady says she’s your sister.”

  Willa stopped mid-stretch. “Jazz?”

  “She wouldn’t tell me her name, just said, ‘Tell Willa her sis is out here.’” Kay wore a skeptical expression.

  Willa exhaled noisily. “Yeah, that’s my sister Jazz. I apologize.”

  “For what?” Kay blinked at her.

  “She’s all attitude, right? Sorry for whatever crap she tossed your way.” Willa patted Kay’s shoulder as she walked past her to the door.

  “She’s grown and should take responsibility for her own behavior,” Kay replied.

  “Have you been talking to my mama?” Willa wisecracked as she opened the door. With Kay on her heels Willa entered the lobby.

  Jazz wore straight-legged jeans and a lime green tank top. Both clung to her curves like a second skin. Today she wore a short chin length blonde wig cut in a bob. Her sunglasses were huge and gold. A large gold metallic purse hung from her left shoulder. She jingled a set of keys on one hand and held a super-sized plastic cup of soda in the other.

  “Hey.” Jazz flicked a brief gaze up and down Willa. Then she turned in a circle to examine the office.

  “Kay, this is my sister Jazz. Kay is our administrative assistant,” Willa said, and then wondered why she bothered with the obvious.

  “How ya doin’?” Jazz turned to face Kay. “Got a secretary. I could use one of them. You freelance?”

  “Excuse me?” Kay blinked at Jazz then looked at Willa.

  “You know, every girl could use some extra money. Least all the ladies I know. I’m startin’ my own business. Gonna call it Girls To Go. My slogan is ‘We can make your party rock hard’.” Jazz tilted her head to once side. “What ya think?”

  “Wow,” was Kay’s stunned reply. Her blinking no doubt could set speed records.

  “Yeah. I have plenty of contacts from my work so I figure the phone’s gonna be jumpin’. I’ll need a good appointment secretary and stuff. Nothing too different from what you do around here.” Jazz swept a hand out. “Bet you meet a lot of interesting people.”

  “No doubt,” Kay blurted, then pressed her lips closed.

  Jazz laughed. “Girl, for real. Listen, you could make some good connections. Some of the guys I know are pretty successful businessmen. Potential clients, I mean.”

  “I don’t really have time to work another job. But thanks for the offer.” Kay smiled at her then sat at her desk quickly.

  “Okay, but you might wanna think it over.” Jazz turned to Willa. “So what’s up with you?”

  Before Willa could recover from Jazz’s performance Cedric strode down the hall from his office. Jazz’s attention switched to him like a laser sight on an automatic weapon. She gave him a full body scan then smiled.

  “How you doin’? I’m Jazz, Willa’s sister. Nice suit.” Jazz gestured at the charcoal gray suit he wore.

  Cedric’s gaze flickered to Willa for on an instant before he smiled at Jazz. He held out one hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Same here.” Jazz shook it then briefly turned it over to stare at his ring finger. “Very nice meeting you.”

  Cedric’s smile stayed steady as he freed his hand and turned to Willa. “Just call me when you’re available. I have some results from that research we talked about.”

  His words hardly registered though Willa nodded at him as if she understood. The shock of having Jazz show up had twisted her brain and tongue. After a few minutes she realized Kay and Cedric were staring at her. Jazz was still staring at Cedric provocatively. Willa snapped out of her daze.

  “My office is this way, Jazz.” Willa moved to block Jazz’s line of vision to Cedric and pointed the way.

  “Right.” Jazz looked past her anyway. “Maybe I’ll see ya later.”

  “Have a great day,” Cedric replied. He glanced at Willa but kept his expression neutral. Then he turned around and went down the hall to his office.

  Though she walked ahead of Willa, Jazz glanced back in the direction Cedric had gone several times. “Girl, you got more like him up in here? Hell, I want a job with you.”

  Willa waited to reply once they were in her office with the door closed. “To what do I owe this totally unexpected pleasure.”

  “So you must be kickin’ it with him. That’s cool. Just make me happy and tell me he’s got a brother, a cousin, or shit I’ll take his daddy.” Jazz let out a coarse laugh.

  Willa led her to the seating area in her office. “Have a seat.”

  Jazz laughed again and dropped down into one of the leather chairs. Willa fully expected to hear the sound of fabric splitting. Yet Jazz looked quite comfortable. She even crossed her legs.

  “This is a tight office. You got it sweet.” Jazz looked around like an appraiser mentally adding up a price tag.

  Willa could almost hear the word “again”added on the end of her sentence. “Hardly the way I wanted to own a business,” she said crisply.

  Jazz looked at her. “I know, I know. I was just sayin’. Anyway, I was over this way and decided to say hi.”

  “Possibly because of the dozen or so messages I left.” Willa counted to five to keep her temper in check.

  “Yeah, well. I’ve been busy. It’s crazy at the club, girl. I mean, do you even know all the guys that are still in this city after that storm?” Jazz said, referring to the population boom in Baton Rouge since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

  “Right,” Willa said dryly.

  “Girl, Lorraine wants me to do three shows a day. I’m trying to be a partner in the business. She can’t pimp me like I just got there.” Jazz snapped her fingers to make her point.

  “I didn’t realize dancers had seniority,” Willa answered. Some sarcasm must have dripped into her tone. Jazz’s eyes narrowed.

  “We’re a business just like this place. Different product, but a lot of the same rules apply,” Jazz cracked back. “Course I wasn’t lucky enough to have a husband to leave me set up.”

  Willa sighed. Somehow they always arrived back in the same place. Jazz resented what she saw as Willa’s good fortune. Logic, and Mama Ruby, told Willa the bad things that happened to her sister weren’t Willa’s fault. Yet their mother’s words all those years ago stuck in Willa’s head. “You shoulda been lookin’ out for your baby sister” Vivienne had spat. Never mind that she’d never been much of a parent. Always chasing men and hanging in the clubs, Vivienne had never accepted any responsibility. She blamed the social workers, the police, the men, the drug dealers-- and Willa. A firm mental shove stuffed those memories back in the closet.

  “So you had time to visit me. Nice.” Willa gripped the arms of her leather chair.

  “Yeah, well.” Jazz shrugged. “You heard from the po-po again?”

  “I haven’t heard from Detective Miller lately, no. I did talk to Anthony. Jack offered Anthony a job, so that should show Detective Miller that Anthony had no motive to kill him.”

  “Right. Right. Good point. Yeah, Jack probably wanted Anthony to take over the business someday, huh? Probably told him about it.” Jazz stood and walked around the office. She examined the prints on the wall. Then she went to the bookshelf in one corner and read the book spines.

  “Anthony doesn’t know any details, just general stuff.”

  “Still I’ll bet Anthony would want to help out the family business. Work around here after school, right?” Jazz went to the window and gazed out at the scenery.

  “Anthony has his hands full keeping his grades up right now. He can get a job next year.” Willa studied he
r sister’s profile. “You seem real interested in the business and what Anthony knows about it. What’s up with that?”

  Jazz turned to face her. “Me and Anthony just got kinda close, ya know? I understand what it’s like to have people on your back all the time, wanting you to follow their plan.”

  Willa frowned. “Tell me again how y’all hooked up?”

  Her sister shrugged and turned away. “You’re gonna get on his case.”

  “Don’t even tell me it was in the club.” Willa grimaced.

  “You didn’t tell him I worked there,” Jazz said over her shoulder. “So he was shocked to see me. Him and a couple of his boys slipped in with fake ID cards.”

  “He saw you on stage? Oh God.” Willa flinched. The dull ache at the back of her skull kicked in full force.

  Jazz twisted a lock of the fake hair. “I was in the bar hanging with a couple of regulars. Saw him and his partners havin’ a good old time. Just kid stuff. Red-blooded teenage males with raging hormones. Whooping it up with beer and girls. When I could get away I rounded ‘em up and kicked their little under age butts out of there.” Jazz came back and dropped down into the chair without looking at Willa.

  “Gee, thanks for finally telling me my son is involved in watching strippers and drinking,” Willa snapped.

  “I wasn’t gonna let nothin’ happen to him. Oh hell, don’t give me that look like Ruby and her Amen Sisters.” Jazz smacked her lips.

  “You were looking out for him. Well that puts it in a whole new light,” Willa shot back. “While I’m trying to keep him from being a statistic you’re giving him a pat on the back.”

  “I told you I tossed ‘em out,” Jazz replied, her voice cracking loud enough to bounce off the walls. “They were bein’ kids, not robbin’ banks. Damn, no wonder he talked to me.”

  Willa rose from her chair. “I’d rather he be angry with me now if it saves his future, maybe even his life. Being a parent and being a buddy aren’t compatible, Jazz. I realize you might have a tough time understanding that.”