Queenie's Cafe

by SUE FINEMAN

  “Frank Fosdick, that’s what happened,” said Laura. “He’s got friends and political influence, just like Earl Windsor.”

  “Earl’s political influence is gone,” said Clyde. “I don’t know what the hell y’all did to him, but I gotta hand it to you. You got him good.”

  Yes, they did, but they didn’t get rid of a bad cop. Laura filled their coffee cups again. “I have to get to work before the lunch crowd gets here. Stay as long as you like.”

  The men sat talking for nearly an hour before the meeting broke up. Laura asked Luke what happened.

  “Clyde and Ben both agreed to stay on the council. Marv and I are going to talk to the other two members and see if we can’t get some cooperation. Frank is up for election this fall, but Marv doesn’t want to wait that long to get rid of Bobby Wharton.”

  Laura had never been involved in politics, and she’d never wanted to stir the pot this time, but she had. With any luck, they could not only get rid of an ineffective police department, they could also get a new bank in Kingston.

  And a new mayor.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “It’ll be all right, Bruce,” said Florence. “The real estate agent said he’d take care of the fishing camp while we’re gone.” They only had one guy interested, and he wouldn’t pay them anywhere near what they’d paid for the place. Most of the Queenie’s life insurance money was gone for good, and they both knew it.

  “This is all Queenie’s fault. If she hadn’t blackmailed us and stolen all my money, we could have gotten a fresh start back when Laura was a baby.”

  Florence wasn’t so sure about anything at this point, except that she loved Bruce in spite of his negative attitudes. Years of living an unhappy life had made him cynical.

  “Come on, Bruce. Help me pack. Luke has a job waiting for you in Kingston, and there ain’t no sense staying here.”

  “I hate like hell going back to that dump.”

  “It ain’t a dump no more, Bruce. They been fixin’ it up real nice, and wait ’til you see the café.”

  He threw a shoe into the suitcase. “I don’t ever want to set foot in Queenie’s again.”

  “Queenie ain’t there no more. It’s Laura’s. She’s damn proud of the place, and she’ll be real disappointed if you don’t look and see what she’s done with it.”

  Bruce grumbled under his breath and packed his clothes. She knew it bruised his pride to go back to Kingston, but he needed a job, and he couldn’t seem to find one anywhere else.

  Florence stared at her bare fingers. “Bruce, what would you think ’bout going respectable?”

  He turned to face her. “You mean get married?”

  She nodded. “If we’re gonna do it, I want to do it now, before we go back to Kingston. Shoot, we’re living together like we’re married anyway.”

  “Okay, then let’s do it.”

  It wasn’t the romantic proposal she’d been waiting for, but she’d take it.

  <>

  Charley repaired the stucco on the café and put the first coat of paint on. It took three coats of creamy white to cover the ugly flamingo color someone had put on long before Laura was born. She knew it would look better painted outside, but she wasn’t quite prepared for the transformation. It looked clean and bright and prettier than it had ever looked before. The blue trim around the windows and door and roofline finished it off perfectly.

  The café was a little plain looking from the street, but the sunroom addition would change that. So would landscaping.

  Charley had just started painting the section of the apartments directly behind the café when Laura’s parents arrived. They’d brought both cars, and when Laura saw the boxes in the backseats, she knew they’d come home to stay.

  Dad stared at the café as if he’d never seen it before, but Florence bolted out of her car and into Laura’s arms for a big hug.

  “What’s with Dad?”

  “He don’t especially want to be here, honey. Bad memories.”

  Laura had bad memories, too, but she was making new ones. So would he, if he’d give it half a chance. Sometimes she thought Dad liked being miserable.

  Florence gave her a last squeeze and released her. “You look happy, Laura.”

  “I am. We’ll talk later.”

  Dad finally pried himself out of his car and Laura hugged him. “Welcome home, Dad.”

  “The café looks better.”

  “So will the apartments when Charley gets finished painting them.”

  Florence had already seen the new apartments, but Dad hadn’t, so Laura showed him to the apartment Florence had stayed in before, the one they’d live in for now. “The manager’s apartment is all torn up, so you’ll have to stay here until it’s finished.”

  “I like the new roof and the parking lot looks great. Queenie wouldn’t let me—”

  “I know, but Queenie doesn’t own the property now.”

  He walked around the little apartment, inspecting the work, nodding his approval. “Nice job. New windows?”

  “New everything. We still need to do something about the landscaping. I thought we could let Morris take care of it after it’s in.” She motioned at the space between the motel and the parking lot. “We’re putting a patch of grass here in the front, and Jay is building a raised planter over there, between the parking lot and the grass. And we’re putting a sunroom addition on the diner.”

  He whipped around to face her. “You couldn’t possibly have enough business to—”

  “Oh, yes, she does,” said Florence.

  Laura had called him numerous times and told him about the increase in business, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Dad apparently still thought of Queenie’s as it was when Queenie ran it, with a handful of customers at the most at any given time.

  Laura turned away, disappointed in his reaction. She wasn’t sure what she expected from him, but this wasn’t it. Florence was the only one excited about the changes, the only one who’d praised Laura for her part in making Queenie’s a success. At least she had one parent who approved.

  “Florence, would you like a job?”

  “Me?”

  “If you don’t want to work for me, it’s all right, but I need to hire another person to work in the café. Meg and Judy are both working full time and so am I.”

  Her father’s mouth dropped open. “Three of you?”

  “Dad, you won’t believe what kind of business we’re doing at Queenie’s. Oh, by the way, Luke and I applied for a name change. We’re going to call it the Duchess Diner.”

  “That’s cute,” said Florence.

  Dad didn’t say a word. He stood there looking stunned. Laura lifted her chin. When he left Kingston, he’d expected her to fail or at the most maintain the status quo. He hadn’t expected her to succeed, partnership or no partnership, especially in three short months. Nobody expected her to succeed except Luke and Barbara. And her mother.

  Florence had more faith in her than Dad.

  Queenie didn’t believe in her at all.

  “We got somethin’ to tell you.” Florence held out her hand. There was a gold band on her ring finger.

  “You got married?” whispered Laura.

  “Last week. I thought it was about time to go respectable.”

  Laura couldn’t speak. She wanted to congratulate them, but she couldn’t. Florence was already married. Hank didn’t drown. He could still be alive.

  “We hoped you’d be happy,” said Florence.

  “I am.” Laura forced a smile. “I’m very happy about it.” She would be under other circumstances, but not now.

  Luke walked over and introduced himself to Dad, and the two men went off together. Laura pulled Florence into the apartment and closed the door. They had to talk, and it couldn’t want another minute.

  “Florence, you’ve got to tell me what happened back when you were pregnant. Why did you give me up and why did Dad stay?”

  “Honey, I told you—”

&n
bsp; “Did your husband really die?”

  “They didn’t find his body, but I’m sure—”

  Laura shook her head. “He went to California.”

  Florence gasped. “How do you know that?”

  “You and Dad wouldn’t tell me anything, so I asked Luke’s lawyer to find out what happened.”

  “Your Daddy don’t want me to talk about this, honey.”

  “I don’t care what Dad wants. This is my life we’re talking about here. I grew up without a mother because of what happened, and I have a right to know.” Laura’s voice rose, and she didn’t care. “Stop playing games with my life. Tell me what happened. One way or another, I’m going to find out.”

  Florence gazed deeply into Laura’s eyes. “We never meant to hurt you, honey. We did what we thought was best.”

  “Tell me.”

  Florence took a deep breath and then she started to talk. “Hank had been gone a long time. I thought he wasn’t never comin’ back. Your Daddy and I was gonna leave the next mornin’. We was all packed and ready to go. I never saw Queenie so upset. She cried and begged, but Bruce wouldn’t listen. I felt sorry for her, but I couldn’t do what she wanted. I couldn’t give her my baby.

  “A little while later, Hank showed up, loaded for bear, and Queenie was right behind him. He waved this gun around, threatened to shoot Bruce, then me. I worked my way over and grabbed for the gun. It went off and shot him in the stomach.”

  Laura’s hand covered her mouth.

  “Hank stumbled out to his car and drove away. Queenie went after him, said she’d take care of him and talk some sense into him. They was gone a long time, then she come back alone. She said he was hurt real bad, but he wouldn’t go to the hospital. Said he went to stay with a friend.”

  “Was he really shot?”

  “We thought he was. There was blood all over him and all over the motel room, but he walked out on his own two feet and drove away bent over the wheel, like he was really hurtin’. Bruce and I waited for the cops to come, but they didn’t come ’til the next mornin’. I thought they come to take me off to jail, but they didn’t. They come to tell me ’bout findin’ Hank’s car in the river, only he wasn’t in it. They searched for his body for days, but he was gone.”

  “He didn’t die,” said Laura.

  “No, honey, he didn’t die, but I didn’t know that until just before Queenie died. Scared me half to death to hear that man’s voice on the phone. All those years I thought he was dead. He was pissed because Queenie wouldn’t give him no more money. I don’t ’spose she had anything left to give him. Lookin’ at the café, at the way she’d let it get run down, she couldn’t be making’ much, if anything.”

  “But you married Dad. Florence, Hank is still alive. You can’t marry one man when you’re still married to another one.”

  Florence rubbed Laura’s arm. “No, honey. Hank had a stroke a couple weeks before Queenie died. The state sent him to a nursin’ home. Last time I called the home to check on him, they told me he passed away. They sent his body back to Alabama, to his brother.

  “I never did tell your daddy that Hank was still alive. Maybe I should have, but if he’da known, he woulda killed Queenie for sure. Hank told me she set the whole thing up that night. It was a scam to keep you and Bruce here. Queenie wanted a baby so bad, and once she latched onto the idea, she wouldn’t let go of it.”

  “What about the blood?”

  “It was human blood, but I doubt it was Hank’s. He probably got it from some hospital or someplace. We thought he was shot and then drowned in the river, but Queenie took the gun, so we didn’t know if it was loaded with real bullets or blanks.

  “Queenie said you’d be born in jail, that Hank’s family would get you, and Bruce would never get to see you. We didn’t think we had no choice, honey. We did what we thought was best for you. If your Daddy and I had gone off and they arrested me for murder, he woulda been charged as an accessory. We both woulda gone to jail and we woulda lost you for good.”

  Queenie forced Dad to stay in Kingston with his baby, but she lived alone and miserable. Over time, she grew to resent Laura, just as Laura grew to hate Queenie. Nobody was happy, yet Dad stayed and Laura stayed, and Florence wasn’t allowed to be a mother to a little girl who desperately needed one.

  Queenie thought she’d won, but there were no winners.

  <>

  Charley finished painting the main section of the motel while Jay and his crew worked on the manager’s apartment and the new laundry area. The window seat Laura wanted would have obstructed the sidewalk, so Jay did it another way. He put in a big window with a cabinet under it and flanked it with shelves, creating a window seat without having it extend beyond the existing wall. Laura loved it, and so did Florence.

  The sunroom addition was approved by the county. Luke made a pest of himself until he got approval. He told Laura, “We need to get this done right away.”

  “What’s that going to do to business?”

  “We won’t have to close down, if that’s what you’re asking. It’ll be inconvenient and noisy and dusty, but it can’t be helped. Jay said he’d do the messiest stuff in the evenings, after the dinner crowd leaves.”

  “Good.” They’d make a mess, but it couldn’t be helped. They needed more room and they needed it now. They didn’t have enough tables to serve everyone.

  The café hummed with activity. Laura proudly introduced Florence to her customers. “This is Florence Whitfield, my mother. She’ll be working here now.”

  Laura’s customers smiled and chatted with Florence. Everyone in town knew who she was and what she’d done in the past, but no one said an unkind word.

  <>

  Billy came by the café to have lunch with Luke. He’d turned the evidence against Earl over to the state authorities. “They’re all set to arrest Earl, but they want to watch and wait for a few more days.”

  Luke cocked his head, asking without words.

  “They found a locked room in the corner of every one of Earl’s warehouses, just like you suspected, so they sent someone into Earl’s Tampa warehouse with a dog trained to detect drugs. But the dog didn’t go near the room.”

  “They let a dog in the warehouse?” said Luke.

  “Supposedly a blind man and his wife. They’ll let me know when they’re ready for us to start foreclosure.”

  Earl would be livid when he figured out what they were doing.

  “They found a record of Rusty’s 911 call the night Earl attacked Laura,” said Billy. “I hope they fry the cop who didn’t come. Laura should have been taken to the hospital and Earl should have been arrested that night. It’s downright scary to know that someone could call for help and not have any response.”

  Earl wouldn’t be the only one in trouble over the attack on Laura. Bobby Wharton would no doubt face charges of his own. Frank Fosdick might, too. He was Mayor of Kingston, the man who’d hired Bobby. The publicity over this could ruin any political ambitions he had for county and state office.

  <>

  Three days after Bruce and Florence arrived, Bruce had still not set foot in the café. Luke saw the disappointment on Laura’s face and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Laura’s smile didn’t reach her eyes, and he knew she was hurt. She’d worked her ass off to turn that café into a decent place and her father couldn’t take a look and give her a little praise? What was with him?

  He and Bruce were discussing plans to put more apartments on the back of the property when Florence called to them. “Bruce, come to the café and meet Luke’s mother. She come up to have lunch with Jay and Luke, and she invited us to join them.”

  Luke folded the plans and put them aside. “Let’s go.”

  He watched the look of wonder on Bruce’s face when he stepped through the door of the café. There were only two empty tables, and Laura was talking and laughing with her customers, filling coffee cups, and making everyone feel comfortable.

  Remembering what the
café looked like the first time he’d seen it, Luke knew what Bruce was thinking. “Quite a change, isn’t it?”

  “Is this the same place?”

  “Yes and no. Laura has been changing one thing at a time. The next step is a sunroom on the side by the street. Laura’s vision. If that works out, we may add a party room.”

  “I’ll be damned!”

  Luke pointed. “There’s Mom and Jay. Florence, why don’t you introduce them while I check the kitchen?”

  Laura followed him to the kitchen. “How on earth did you get my father in here?”

  “Florence did it. She said Mom and Jay invited them to have lunch with us.” He chuckled. “He’s still in shock.”

  Laura filled the coffee pot and carried it out to the dining room with two cups. She put one in front of Florence and one in front of her father. “Welcome to the Duchess Diner. Let me tell you how the buffet works....” She filled the coffee cups while she talked.

  Dad filled his eyes with the buffet table and the new furniture, painted walls, carpet, and pretty woven window shades. And all the customers. “I’m not sure I’m in the right place.”

  Someone called to Laura, and she filled more cups. “Refills are free, folks. Just use a clean plate and eat what you take.”

  She glanced over her shoulder to see Dad and Florence filling their plates at the buffet table. Her eyes filled and she blinked back tears. Dad didn’t say he was proud of her, but his surprised look said it for him. All the tables were full now, and Judy was refilling one of the salads while Meg put out more sandwich rolls.

  Luke walked up behind her and squeezed her right shoulder, and then helped himself to the buffet.

  <>

  Jay left one of his men to finish the woodwork on the manager’s apartment while he and his other men started on the sunroom. The outer walls would come up about three feet, tinted glass would form the upper four feet, then shorter, tinted glass panels would slant up from there toward the ceiling. The upper panels could be cranked open for ventilation. The room would be air-conditioned, but Laura wanted to be able to get fresh air inside, especially in the fall and winter. Three paddle fans would help circulate the air.