Murder, Malice and Mischief

by Quinn, Lucy

  As the fatal night of Richard’s accident played in my memory, I couldn’t help but recall how Mac had been a good friend and insisted he go to the crash site and take care of what needed to be done there so I could focus on Grady. Mac had been great. He’d encouraged me not to look up the details online, because Richard’s car had been so badly mangled that he knew Richard wouldn’t want me or Grady to see it. That was why I’d never gone looking for photos of the scene or even gotten the report of the accident. The only thing that mattered was that from that day forward, ten years ago, I would be living life as a single mother to Grady and would never date or remarry. I didn’t need to do that. Richard had been the love of my life, and I was his. It was unlikely to find that twice in one lifetime.

  And here we were today. Mac was still single and always willing to help me out. He’d become a big figure in Grady’s life. Mac had been there for every milestone: Grady’s heartaches, graduations, and giving the father toast at Grady and Julia’s wedding. So I couldn’t help wondering why he’d kept a big deal like buying the country club a secret from me.

  “Bernadette, you okay?” Mac answered the door without his shirt on after I knocked. I blinked a few times, a little taken aback at his physique. I had known it had to be somewhat good, since he did spend a lot of time with Grady at the football team’s workouts.

  He unlocked the screen door and pushed it open, his biceps bulging nicely.

  “No.” I gulped and busied myself with making his mail into a taco shape in my grip to hand it to him. “I…um…I heard…”

  His gaze drifted down to my hand and the personalized letter on top of the pile. I recognized the handwriting from some previous letters. There’d never been a return address on them, only a postage stamp from the college town Mac had attended.

  “You heard what, Bernadette?” He took the mail and stared at me.

  “About the golf course. I mean, it’s the talk of the town, and I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you’re buying it,” I blurted, sounding a little more hurt than I should have been. “You love that golf course. Are you really going to turn the land into condos? No one in town is happy about it. What about your company? If no one trusts you anymore, they won’t hire you.”

  “Wait right here. Let me grab a shirt.” He shut the screen door, taking a step back into the house. “You want a cup of coffee?” he asked. He thumbed through the mail, taking the letter on top with him.

  “I don’t want anything.” I was careful not to have too much to drink while on my route. My bladder was the size of a peanut, and there were only a few places along the way where I felt comfortable using the bathroom.

  Besides, one of the front porch ladies always had a glass of sweet tea waiting for me. I glanced next door to Harriette’s house. The four widows jerked around as if I didn’t feel their eyes searing the back of my head to see what Mac and I were talking about.

  “Sorry about that.” Mac walked back out. This time he wore a long-sleeved T-shirt and shorts, the perfect outfit for this type of seasonal weather. It was chilly in the morning and hot in the afternoon, only to return to cold at night. Mother Nature seemed a little more cynical in her decisions this time of the year, but it was still my favorite time.

  “And you’re not at work.” I started right in on him as I leaned back on the porch’s railing to ease the heavy mailbag off my shoulder.

  “Whoa, let me sit down and get a sip of coffee in me before you go all postal,” he joked, though I didn’t find it very funny. “Okay, bad joke.” He smiled and sat down in the Adirondack chair on his front porch.

  “Harriette, what did he say?” I heard Ruby Dean trying to whisper across the yard, but it was hard for her.

  “Turn up your ears so you can hear,” Harriette spat back.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see four little heads popping up over the brick wall on Harriette’s porch. No doubt they were trying to get some insider information on the sale of the country club.

  I returned my focus to Mac and watched as he took a few drinks of his coffee.

  I always wondered why he was single. Mac Tabor was a catch, at least in the looks and friendship department. He had thick brown hair that he always kept nice and tidy, not too short but long enough to run your hands through. Not that I ever imagined doing so, but Richard would come home telling me all sorts of stories about how girls adored Mac and fawned all over him. Then there were his deep brown eyes that told you he had more than just looks. He had some brains and substance. His teeth showed how well-groomed he kept himself. They were as white as snow, and from the dental reminder cards he got in the mail, I knew he kept up on his appointments.

  “Now, what was it that you’re so upset about?” he asked.

  “The country club and what it’ll do to the people who use it.” I dropped my mail carrier bag between my feet and sat down on the half brick wall that was built around his porch. I told him my concerns about the country club but left out how I was wondering why he was still single.

  “First off, the country club isn’t making money for Sugar Creek Gap. I’ve looked at all the numbers.” He smiled.

  Even with his hair all mussed, he still looked like a million bucks.

  “No one in the fancy neighborhoods wants to pay the Home Owners Association fee to keep the pool and golf course running, so someone might as well buy it and make money. Dennis and Chuck have damn near gone bankrupt over it, and I’m the only one who can buy it. Why would I buy a dying country club and keep it when I can make money on prime real estate for condos?”

  He let out a long, deep sigh and turned his gaze past me. I looked over my shoulder to see what he’d seen, because the disapproval on his face wasn’t hard to notice.

  The mayor, along with three of the city council members I’d seen just a few minutes earlier, was crossing the street with the signs I’d seen earlier under their arms.

  “Stand with the citizens of Sugar Creek Gap against Tabor Architect Firm,” I read out loud. “Wow. The whole town is against you. I just came from the emergency city council meeting. Did you know they’ve got a commissioners’ meeting at the fairgrounds tonight at five?”

  “They can’t do anything. Just want to create a lot of ruckus for me. That’s all.” He was as cool as a cucumber as he dragged the coffee cup up to his lips, his eyes barely looking over the rim at the mayor and her gaggle of sidekicks. “Planning and zoning already approved it, though Dennis Kuntz is giving me a little problem. I don’t know why, because he’s going to make forty percent off my deal unless he has something else up his sleeve. I’m signing the paperwork tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” I questioned, because I’d heard from Trudy that he was signing later today. But now I knew to chalk it up to gossip. This was why I had come straight to the source to get the real story behind all the tales swirling around out there.

  “This deal has been a long time in the making. Dennis is always saying he wants to have something when he retires. If he takes my full offer at the signing, he can retire. He can get out of Sugar Creek Gap for all I care.” He nodded toward the mayor and her crew.

  “Well, okay.” I pushed myself up and hoisted the bag back onto my shoulder. “I’ll see you at the game.”

  “Yep.” He got up from the chair. “I almost forgot.” He blinked several times. “I can’t believe it’s been ten years. Are you okay?” he asked with sincerity.

  “I’m fine.” My voice cracked. “Ahem.” I cleared my throat and looked at my good friend. “You lost someone special too. Are you okay?”

  “I’m all good, but I need to know that you and Grady are doing good today. I made a promise to myself when Richard died that I’d take care of you and Grady.” He reached out and touched me.

  I was thankful I had on long sleeves so he couldn’t see the chill that ran up my arm. My mind was having a hard time processing what this was. There was no way I was attracted to Mac. I smiled, shaking off the notion that I could possibly have an att
raction to Mac. He was honoring his friendship with Richard. I had been alone for so long, I’d bet if the duck touched me, I’d get goose bumps.

  “We are fine.” I took a step back, teetering on the top step. “I release you from your promise.”

  His large hand reached out and grabbed me by my arm.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” he questioned.

  “I’m just clumsy.” I smiled and turned around so he wouldn’t see me roll my eyes at how stupid I felt. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Yes, you will.” He pumped his fist in the air when I turned back. “Go, Grizzlies!”

  Without another thought about the country club, I walked next door to Harriette Pearl’s house, where the front porch ladies were all waiting for me.

  “Morning, ladies.” I greeted Harriette, Ruby, Gertrude, and Millie. They were all spread apart on different chairs with their hands busy with cups of coffee, chatting as if I hadn’t heard them say Here she comes, be quiet when I unlatched the gate.

  “We are good.” Harriette smiled and nodded. “What do you have for me today?”

  “Well, I’ve come with bad news.” I frowned and reached around in my bag to grab her stack of what I’d consider junk mail.

  “Oh no.” Her gray brows furrowed as she appeared to be considering what it could be. “Is it about…” She hesitated and jerked her head toward Mac’s house.

  “Mac? No.” I shook my head. “What about him? Did he have a woman over there?” I joked, knowing they were trying to get any news about his plans with the country club out of me.

  “Who told her?” Gertrude jerked herself up straight.

  A round of not me come from all of them.

  “Wait.” I was taken by surprise, getting stung by my own joke. “Did he really have a woman over there?”

  “Mmmhhhmmmm,” Harriette hummed through her pinched lips. “Young one, too. Not the first time she’s been there, either.”

  “Really?” A bit of panic suddenly rioted through me, making me all confused. What was this feeling? Not feelings of being attracted to him. Maybe?

  Nah. I continued to have a conversation with myself in my head as the four of them discussed this young girl with brown hair and a fancy car who had been crying when she left.

  Maybe I was panicking a little, because if he did date or get married, where would that leave me and Grady?

  “Bernadette, if his love life is not the bad news, what is the bad news you have for me?” Harriette stomped her black shoe on the concrete.

  “I…um…I.” I swallowed hard and blinked a couple of times. “You didn’t win the Publishers Clearing House.”

  I handed her the mail and the box of biscuits, minus one.

  It was no joke. Harriette filled out that sweepstakes form and ordered all the magazines. She was as serious as could be. I remembered when I’d see her at the grocery store when Grady was just a baby, and Harriette would pick up copies of different magazines, telling me how she swore Ed McMahon was going to be on her front porch one day with a big cardboard check made out to Harriette Pearl.

  “That’s all right.” She eased out of the rocking chair. “I’ll get the new one I filled out and your sweet tea.” She held up the box before she went in. “We’ll have these biscuits with Gertrude’s jam.”

  I forced a laugh, still thinking about Mac’s big lady news.

  Ugh.

  “I didn’t forget you, Bernadette.” Gertrude handed me a small glass jar with some fabric on the top tied with a little ribbon. “Jam for you.”

  “Thank you so much. You ladies are too good to me.” I hugged her then took the empty thermos out of my bag and handed it to Harriette in place of the full one she was about to give me.

  I hugged her before she sat back down in her rocking chair. “Now, for you ladies.” I looked at Millie, Gertrude, and Ruby, referring to their mail. “Would you like your mail now? Or I can put it in your mailboxes,” I asked.

  All of them put their hands out.

  I put my bag on the ground and sat on the top step to gather their mail. Plus, one stop for all four of them gave me a little time to chat and possibly find out more information about Mac’s mystery woman.

  “Mac didn’t say a word about a woman.” I shuffled through the mail, not because I had to, but it gave them time to give each other the side-eye and gather their thoughts.

  “Millie thinks he’s lost his mind.” Gertrude nodded at Millie. The two of them were sharing the porch swing.

  “I didn’t say that, Gertrude. You are rude.” Millie shifted on the swing, slightly turning away from Gertrude. “I just mentioned that it was out of his character to buy the country club to make condos when he loves Sugar Creek Gap so much. And now her.”

  “Something ain’t right in his head.” Ruby let out a long sigh as if it was normal to make such a comment before she took a sip of her coffee. “You, Bernadette Butler, are a fine woman. He needs to open his eyes to what is in front of him.”

  I shot her a look. My mouth dropped open then shut again.

  “I heard Kenneth Simpson plum drove the golf course into the ground.” Gertrude continued to gossip. “He spent all they had redoing the golf course and couldn’t afford to pay the pool staff or the upkeep, not to mention the restaurant.”

  “Poor Audrey.” Ruby tsked.

  “Poor Audrey.” Millie slowly nodded.

  “Poor Audrey nothing. She’ll be just fine. Your very own mama down at the Wallflower has been dying to get her full-time down there. She’s the best cook in all Sugar Creek Gap.”

  Harriette always made me laugh. She told it like it was, and I appreciated that, but I was definitely going to ask Mama about Audrey and if she’d said anything.

  “Looky here. They finally made it over to see us.”

  The mayor and her cronies were coming through Harriette’s gate holding their signs.

  “Good day,” Mayor Leah Burch greeted all of us. Following closely behind her were council members Willy Bingham, Ashley Williams, and Zeke Grey. “I’m guessing y’all heard about the country club issue. Well, we’d like to take a stand on it and bring this matter of making it into condominium living to a halt.” Leah put one foot on the step and leaned on the bent knee. “I did see you at the meeting this morning. Shouldn’t you’ve been working?” she asked.

  It would be just like her to tell the postmaster how I’d slipped into the meeting when I was technically on the clock.

  “I pertnear don’t see that I have a horse in this race.” Harriette pushed off the ground with her toe, rocking back and forth. “If they want to sell it and Mac wants to buy it, it’s none of my business.”

  “But you don’t understand,” Ashley said as she moved around Leah. “My family and I live in that neighborhood, and if they make those condominiums, no telling what kind of riffraff will move in. We moved there for a nice community. Surely you of all people understand that, raising your family on this nice street.”

  “Then it seems to us”—Harriette gestured to her friends, who were all looking up at the ceiling as if they didn’t like her throwing them under the bus—“and we all have discussed it,” Harriette followed up in a louder tone, “maybe your little fancy country club subdivision should pony up and buy it yourself if you want regulations on who can and can’t move in there. Or pay some sort of yearly or monthly homeowner fee to cover the cost of what Kenneth Simpson did to y’all. Seems to me that he had champagne taste on a beer budget.”

  “I never.” Ashley huffed and jerked around.

  “So you’re telling me you don’t want a sign in your yard?” Leah was relentless, making me wonder what on earth her beef was with the condos, but it wasn’t my business. “Stand with the community.”

  “There’s a commissioners’ meeting tonight at five p.m. at the fairgrounds before the big game.” Ashley was using any angle she could to capitalize on the situation.

  “No way. Not in my yard. I happen to really like Mac Tabor, and I think he
will make those condos amazing.” Harriette gave Leah a look that made her blush and sent my heart racing.

  “You don’t stand with our community?” Zeke Grey spoke up, using Leah’s same question. It seemed as if they were using it as a way of guilting the citizens who didn’t care or didn’t want any part of this entire mess. “That’s not like you, Harriette,” Zeke said.

  He was Harriette’s age, and they’d run around with a lot of the same people, so he probably knew her best out of the three council people.

  “Zeke, my loyalty is to you and your family. When you ran for office, I sure did support you, and it didn’t matter to me what your views were, but that was an election based on me being loyal to your family. But this here.” She shook her finger at Willy Bingham, the youngest and newest member of the city council, who was holding the signs and not saying a word. “This is harassment to Mac Tabor, who has done a lot of good for the people of our community. It’s now time to let the community rally around him, and that’s what me and the girls are doing.”

  Millie, Gertrude, and Ruby all shifted uncomfortably.

  “I don’t hear them speaking up.” Leah continued to poke Harriette. “They have voices. They can speak for themselves about their property, because the last time I checked the PVA site, you didn’t own those three houses.” Leah pointed down the street to Millie’s, Gertrude’s, and Ruby’s houses.

  “May I help out, Mayor?” Mac’s voice floated across the yard. He was sitting on the brick wall of his porch with his coffee in his hand and a big smile on his face, enjoying the little fiasco taking place on Harriette’s porch.

  “Mac,” Leah’s voice softened.

  “Come on, Leah.” His smile faltered. “This is not a political gain. This is strictly a business move, and there’s literally nothing you can do about it.”

  “Let’s go.” Leah turned to her three cronies after giving Mac a few long seconds of her cold stare.