by Riley Adams
“But Reuben was a bad guy,” said Cherry, pursing her lips as if tasting something sour. “It stands to reason that Tim wouldn’t feel too bad about killing him. I bet he’d feel sorry about it, but if he was defending himself, he might not even feel all that responsible.”
“You’re probably right,” said Lulu thoughtfully. “It wouldn’t be the same thing as running down an innocent person on the street.”
“Or sidewalk,” said Cherry.
“But can you see him killing John in cold blood? Or attacking me?” asked Lulu.
“It’s hard to imagine,” admitted Cherry.
“What about Brody and his financial problems and rocky past with Reuben?” asked Lulu.
“You know, it’s one of those things where you wonder if you can really know a person,” said Cherry. “Just because I like Brody doesn’t mean that he’s not a murderer in his free time.”
“I have a hard time thinking of any of these folks as murderers,” admitted Lulu. She got up and washed out her wineglass and put it in Cherry’s dishwasher. “Thanks for talking all this through with me. I can finally go home and go to sleep now.”
“Anytime, Lulu,” said Cherry, smiling through her green mask. “Don’t worry. You’ll get to the bottom of all this. You always do.” She added quickly, “With the help of the best sidekick in Memphis, of course.”
“Don’t y’all think Derrick has been acting funny?” Lulu asked Morty, Big Ben, and Buddy. It was the following afternoon and she’d actually ended up with a good night’s sleep after hashing things over with Cherry. She’d pitched in and waited tables for the lunch crowd since Tim was still helping Ben back in the kitchen and one of the waitresses was out sick. Now she was enjoying time on the front porch with her friends.
“You’re wondering about this again?” asked Morty. “I thought I already gave my opinion on this.”
“Funny for a regular person, or funny for a teenager?” asked Buddy.
“Well, I guess funny for a teenager,” said Lulu.
“Naw. It’s all hormonal. Are you talking about when he came in from school a little while ago?” asked Buddy.
“Yes. He acted different, I thought,” said Lulu.
Morty drawled, “He greeted us all and smiled. That’s really all you can ask for from a teenager.”
“I think that’s real good for a teenager,” said Buddy.
“Y’all are mumbling again!” bellowed Big Ben, who’d apparently forgotten his hearing aid once again. “Speak up!”
It was a good thing that Derrick had quickly disappeared into the office because they all yelled at Big Ben to fill him in.
“He’s got a secret,” said Big Ben in his booming voice.
“What’s the secret?” asked Lulu.
“If we knew, it wouldn’t be a secret,” explained Big Ben loudly.
Lulu said, “I hope he’s not getting into any trouble. Everything has been looking up lately. He’s dating that sweet Peaches and he’s helping us with our restaurant website and social media stuff that always gives me such a headache. And I thought he was done with his old friends and was hanging out with a nice group of kids.”
Morty said, “Well, we know he’s making new friends, too.” Lulu studied him questioningly and he said, “You know—Finn. He’s hanging out with Finn some, too.”
Of course, she’d been debating last night whether Finn might be a murderer. She sure hoped this case was going to wind up soon. She hated wondering if people might be killers.
“Speaking of, did you get my friend’s jacket back to him last night?” asked Morty.
Lulu made a face. “I did. But then I had a little scare while I was doing it.” She told her friends about the cell phone ringtone.
“Lulu, I guess you know that probably half the people in Memphis have the same ringtone, right?” asked Buddy. “I actually do a bit of texting myself, since the young people like to communicate that way. So listen to this.” He pulled out his phone and pushed some buttons and his phone made the same sound that she’d heard at Dawn’s house.
Lulu shivered.
“It’s the default ring for the phone for texts,” Buddy explained.
“Or else Buddy has a secret second life as a hardened criminal,” said Morty, grinning. “Do you go around mugging people at night?”
“Beats trying to get tips from playing gigs,” said Buddy with a sniff. “Anyway, all I was trying to say is that it’s a clue, I’ll give you that. But it’s not a really specific clue. There might be more than one suspect who has the same ringtone.”
Big Ben yelled, “What are you talking about?”
“Doesn’t matter,” yelled back Buddy. “You don’t have a cell phone!”
“So have you got any other clues?” asked Morty. “Something a little better?”
“Well, Tim did tell me yesterday, right here on this porch, that he noticed Brody’s truck around the time that I was attacked,” said Lulu, frowning.
“Now that sounds like a clue to me!” said Morty.
“What?” bellowed Big Ben.
Buddy said, “It might not be much of a clue, either. Lots of people have the same truck. Did it have the same tags?”
“Apparently, it’s a real distinctive truck,” said Lulu with a shrug. “Tim seemed pretty sure it was Brody’s.”
“Mumbles and mutters!” yelled Big Ben.
“Lulu said that Brody’s truck was seen around the time she was attacked!” said Morty loudly, enunciating the words carefully.
Lulu caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye and quickly put her finger to her lips. It was Brody, coming through the porch door. They all froze, staring at him, but Brody was determined to act normal and as if he hadn’t heard anything. If he hadn’t heard them talking about seeing his truck, though, then he was even deafer than Big Ben.
“How are you doing today, Brody?” asked Lulu. “Are you here to eat or to visit?”
“I’m actually a customer today. Sharon seemed kind of tired this afternoon and didn’t look like she was up to doing any cooking, so I thought I’d run by and pick up supper for both of us,” said Brody.
“I guess it’s pretty tiring, being in charge of an estate like that,” said Lulu.
“Yes, and we’ve got to try to figure out what to do with the stuff in his house. We’re going to have to get Finn and Dawn over there to see if they want any of those things. Maybe Finn can wear some of Reuben’s clothes, but I kind of doubt it. Sharon and I went through some of the stuff yesterday—things we didn’t think anybody would want. It’s a lot of work. No wonder she’s so tired out. And of course the police keep talking to us,” said Brody. “Just trying to do their jobs, but it’s exhausting, too.”
He talked to them a few minutes before going inside the dining room to pick up his take-out order.
“Whew!” said Buddy. “That was close!”
“Oh, he heard us talking,” said Lulu. “He must have.”
“I wouldn’t think a thing of it,” said Morty. “I bet you anything that he and Sharon are doing the same kind of talking about all the suspects in these murders, too.”
“Except the suspects aren’t around them when they are,” said Lulu with a sigh. The dining room door opened again and this time Derrick came out, holding a paper in his hands. “Everything okay, sweetie pie?”
“I had something I wanted to show you guys,” said Derrick, clearing his throat, both nervous and excited at the same time. “I got Uncle Ben and Aunt Sara to come out, too, since things are pretty slow right now in the dining room.”
Ben came out on the porch, wiping his hands on his apron, and Sara hurried out behind him, still clutching a pencil and order pad. “What’s going on?” asked Ben, concerned.
“Well, y’all might have noticed that I was spending a lot of time with Peaches lately,” said Derrick.
Lulu really, really hoped that there wasn’t going to be an announcement of impending nuptials between the two seventeen-year-ol
ds. Peaches was as cute as a button, but her grandmama would have both their heads on platters if they decided they were going to get married.
“Peaches is really good in school, you know. And I haven’t really been,” said Derrick, coloring in a splotchy way.
Derrick’s grades had been pretty low since he moved to Memphis. But with all the upheaval in his young life, they’d all found it completely understandable. He’d also been showing real improvement and was putting time into his studying. The problem was that he’d had a good deal of catching up to do from the years in New York, where academics weren’t exactly at the forefront and making some semblance of normalcy in his mother’s dysfunctional home was. The focus had been more on survival.
“So I decided that I wanted to make a real push this semester and go all out. Try to show colleges that I could be serious and I could show improvement,” said Derrick. “I’ve been meeting Peaches for months now, studying in the library or in the coffee shop together. And here’s my report card.” He shyly pulled it out.
Ben and Sara peered at it and then Ben held it up for everyone to see. “All A’s!” he said with a whoop. Sara hugged Derrick tightly around his neck until Lulu wondered if the poor boy could breathe.
“So you’ve been studying with Peaches?” asked Lulu.
“More than studying,” said Derrick. “She was tutoring me, too. Getting me caught up with everybody else.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Sara.
“Well, I didn’t want to let you know what I was doing, in case I really bombed,” said Derrick with an attempt at a careless shrug. The insecurity still showed on his face, though. He didn’t want them all to be looking forward to a great report card if there was a chance that he might end up with bad grades and disappoint everybody.
Lulu reached out and gave Derrick a big hug. “I’m so proud of you, sweetie. I know you were taking tough classes, too. This calls for a celebration.”
Morty snapped his fingers. “I know just the thing. The Back Porch Blues Band will play tonight in celebration of our young scholar. Derrick, I know you’re a fan.”
Derrick grinned at them as the men started making plans.
“I bet Finn would like to hear y’all sing and celebrate, too,” said Lulu. “Why don’t you give him a call and tell him to come on over tonight.”
Derrick grinned even wider.
Ben said, “I’ll cook up some special stuff on the grill just for Derrick. I know you especially like grilled shrimp, Derrick. And Peaches will have to be our guest of honor, since she was the tutor extraordinaire. Her food will be on the house tonight!”
Derrick gave a whoop. Lulu had the feeling that there would be many good grades in Derrick’s future. Between their reaction and his own pleasure at doing well (and the boost in his self-confidence), it seemed like he was finally starting to make his peace with school.
They’d decided that the celebration would start at seven thirty that night, and once they’d settled on a time, Lulu headed home to put her feet up for a few hours.
Before she left for home, she remembered to ask Derrick to show her how to text. He was still on cloud nine with all the praise.
“It’s not so hard,” he said. He showed her which icon to press and how to open a new message and type in the contact name or phone number she wanted to reach.
“Where is the keyboard?” asked Lulu, frowning at the device.
“It’s right here,” said Derrick. He pointed at the tiny cell phone screen.
“Mercy! You mean I don’t have any raised buttons to type on?” asked Lulu.
“Not on this phone. But it’s okay—you’ll get used to it,” Derrick said in a comforting voice.
“But I’ve got such chubby fingers!” Lulu said, studying her hands in dismay. “How am I going to be able to make out the different letters?”
“Why don’t you try to send a test message to my phone and see how you do,” said Derrick.
Lulu took the phone from Derrick and stared at it in great concentration. Then she carefully followed the steps he’d shown her.
Derrick’s phone beeped at him to notify him about the text and Lulu was glad that he’d chosen a different ringtone than Dawn and Sharon had. He opened the text. “Okay. So…rsty mradagr.” His brow furrowed. “I’m sure there’s a message in those letters somewhere.”
Lulu sighed. “It was supposed to say test message.”
Derrick smiled at her. “It takes time, Granny Lulu. Don’t worry—before long, you’ll be texting like a pro.”
Back home, Lulu put her feet up for a while and was surprised to find herself waking up from a nap. She must have been more worn out than she’d thought. Glancing at the clock, she decided to head back over to the restaurant to help prepare for Derrick’s big celebration. She was picking up her big key ring when her doorbell rang. She peeked out the window and saw Sharon.
This time Sharon wasn’t crying, but her eyes were red like she’d been crying recently, and there was a streak of mascara on her cheek. She remembered Pink’s warning from last night not to trust anybody. Could you really live your life like that, though? Lulu wasn’t sure she wanted to. But she didn’t want to be stupid, either. She hurried to the junk drawer in a nearby end table and pulled out a screwdriver. She could defend herself with it, although she didn’t want to have to get to that point. Then she opened the door and invited Sharon to come inside and to sit down on the sofa with her.
Sharon said, “Lulu, I hope you don’t mind that I dropped by. I called the restaurant this morning and they said that you hadn’t come in yet. There was something I wanted to talk to you about.” She frowned, studying the bruises on Lulu’s arms from the fall. “Is something wrong? Has something happened?”
“Oh, I’m fine. But I had an incident when I was leaving the restaurant last night.” She told Sharon what had happened.
Sharon’s reaction to the story was pretty strong. Her eyes widened and she gasped when she heard the news. “And this was last night? When?”
Lulu said, “Around midnight probably. I sort of lost track of time last night.”
Sharon slumped into the sofa, buried her face in her hands, and groaned.
“Sharon? What is it?” asked Lulu.
Sharon lifted her head. “It might be nothing,” she said in a tone that sounded like she was trying to reason with herself as much as with Lulu. Then she shook her head. “No, it’s definitely something. It shows me how bad everything really is.”
She gave Lulu a weak smile. “You must think I’m a nut. I’ve always got drama going on. But what I’m trying to figure out right now is why Brody was out last night around midnight.”
Lulu’s heart skipped a beat. “Oh.” So Tim had definitely seen Brody’s truck. Her mind spun trying to find a reasonable explanation for him to have been in the parking deck. She couldn’t come up with one.
“Yeah. But Lulu, I can’t imagine Brody hurting you. He told me how much he enjoyed meeting you and how great you were. I can’t believe I’m even talking like this. Brody couldn’t hurt anybody. He’s not that kind of a person. Not the sweet guy that I fell in love with.”
“Where did he say he was last night?” asked Lulu.
“He said something about going to the store…that he’d forgotten that he’d run out of toiletries that he needed for getting ready for work,” said Sharon.
“Did he come back home with toiletries?” asked Lulu.
“He did. But when I checked under the bathroom sink, there were still plenty of deodorants and toothpastes and stuff like that under there,” said Sharon. “Besides, he was gone for a long time. He could have gone over to Aunt Pat’s, attacked you, then run by the store on the way back home.” She stopped. “No, I don’t believe it. He couldn’t have done it.”
Lulu said, “Y’all have been married a long while, haven’t you? Does that seem like the kind of thing that Brody could possibly have done?’
Sharon dropped her gaze. “I have a toug
h time wrapping my head around the idea that he could have done something like that. I mean, yes, he’s had minor scrapes with the law before. We’ve been married for about ten years, but before we were married, he was doing some things that I wasn’t happy about. He hung out with a kind of wild crowd of people for one—and went to parties where sometimes there were people there doing drugs. He wasn’t one of the druggies…but because he was there, sometimes he’d get in trouble, too. But the way he was with me was always so gentle—so sweet.”
“He’s stayed out of trouble since y’all have been married?” asked Lulu.
“For the most part. One time he got arrested for gambling, but that was it. Besides, he knew I don’t like gambling, so he made sure he stopped. And he had a DUI once. That was all,” said Sharon.
It sounded like a lot to Lulu. But then, she’d led a pretty sheltered life.
“Sharon,” said Lulu slowly. “You didn’t know about last night when you came over here. Why did you visit?”
Now Sharon appeared even more deflated until Lulu had to wonder if she was going to disappear completely into the stuffing of her sofa. “I came because I wanted to talk to you about the night that John died.”
Lulu leaned forward.
“You see,” said Sharon with a sigh. “Brody had gone out that night. He’d told me that he’d wanted to blow off steam. Everything had been so stressful with Reuben acting so weird and then being murdered. Even our being the will executors was making us stressed out. He’d met this guy named Jim at work and he’d gone out a couple of times with him after work. Once I’d joined them and Jim’s wife had, too.”
Lulu nodded.
“So I told him sure. I told him to go on out and have a nice time with Jim. I was worn out that night and I was in the bed by nine o’clock. I woke up when he came back in—it was probably around eleven thirty, which I thought was pretty late. But I was still so exhausted that I fell back asleep right away,” said Sharon.