Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 08 - Wed and Buried

by Toni L. P. Kelner

  “Maybe there is something to the rumors about that young protégé.”

  “If so, then that’s exactly who I want to meet.”

  Chapter 18

  Richard and I were planning to leave then, but Miz Duffield came panting into the room.

  “Thank goodness y’all are still here,” she said. “Mr. Big Bill needs to see you right away.”

  “I told him…” I started to say, but stopped. Miz Duffield was only the messenger—there was no reason to fuss at her. “All right, we’ll go see what he wants.” But I was fussing under my breath all the way up the stairs. I quit when I got to the top, but not because I was worried about Big Bill hearing me—there was so much commotion coming from Big Bill’s room that I couldn’t even hear myself.

  I knocked, but when nobody answered, Richard and I let ourselves in. Aunt Maggie was standing in front of Big Bill’s bed, hands on her hips and a fierce look on her face. Big Bill was glaring right back at her. Vivian was hiding behind a magazine, which I didn’t blame her for, and Tavis Montgomery was standing next to Big Bill’s bed, looking as if he wished he were just about anyplace else.

  Aunt Maggie saw us and said, “Laurie Anne, talk some sense into this old man.”

  “Who are you calling old?” he snapped back at her. “Laurie Anne, kindly remind your aunt that I’m not really…” I was sure he was about to blurt out that he wasn’t really sick, right in front of Tavis, but he stopped himself. “Remind her that I’m getting better, so there’s no reason I can’t go to the Halloween carnival.”

  “How about the fact that you were at death’s door two days ago?” she said.

  “If I’m so bad off, then why are you going?”

  “Because I’m in charge of the white elephant sale. I’ve got to go.”

  “If it’s a problem…” Tavis started to say, but shut up when Aunt Maggie flashed him a look.

  “If you’re going, I’m going,” Big Bill nearly yelled.

  “No, you’re not,” Aunt Maggie said just as loudly.

  Tavis broke in with, “I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I stopped in to check on Big Bill, and mentioned that we’d miss him at the carnival. That’s when—”

  “That’s when I told him that I’m going to that carnival,” Big Bill said. “I’ve already got my costume prepared.”

  “Well whoop-de-doo,” Aunt Maggie said. “You’ve been wearing the same costume for the past twenty years.”

  Big Bill always dressed up as a Confederate general. He added an accessory every year or so, or replaced a moth-eaten hat, but otherwise, the costume stayed the same.

  “Are you saying there’s something wrong with my costume?” Big Bill said icily.

  “I give up!” Aunt Maggie said, throwing her hands up in disgust. “There’s no talking to you. I’m going to take Bobbin for a walk.” Upon hearing her name, the dog scrambled out from under the chair where she’d taken cover, and followed Aunt Maggie out of the room.

  “That’s right,” Big Bill called after her. “Cut and run. Again!”

  Both Tavis and I started to speak, but Richard interrupted us. “If you two don’t mind, I think I should talk to Big Bill alone.”

  I blinked at him in surprise.

  “Please,” he added.

  “Okay,” I said, and went out the door, with Tavis at my heels. A few seconds later, Vivian stepped out, too. I was dying to stick my ear to that closed door in hopes that I’d be able to hear something, but I wasn’t willing to do it in front of the others.

  Tavis said, “I didn’t mean to cause such a ruckus. I just wanted Big Bill’s advice on who should judge the costume contest in his place.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I told him. “This isn’t the first time they’ve been riled up today.”

  “Oh?” Tavis said, looking concerned. “Big Bill is doing better, isn’t he?”

  “He’ll be fine.” I wasn’t sure if I should mention Pudd’nhead or not, so I settled for, “They’re just worried about the poisoning attempt and all.”

  “Has there been any progress on that? I’d heard that you and your husband are investigating.”

  Since Tavis was a suspect of sorts himself, I didn’t want to say much about that, either. “We’re still working on it, but we’ll get to the bottom of it sooner or later.” Though it was likely to be later if we had to keep playing referee for Aunt Maggie and Big Bill.

  Conversation petered out after that, though I did think about asking Tavis if he had anything going with Dorcas. Somehow, it just didn’t seem like the right time.

  After a long spell of awkwardness, Aunt Maggie trooped up the stairs with Bobbin. “What are y’all doing out here?”

  “Richard wanted to talk to Big Bill,” I explained, “so he chased all of us out.”

  “Richard did that?” she said, surprised.

  I shrugged. It wasn’t my husband’s usual style, but since my approach hadn’t worked, I was in no position to complain.

  I halfway expected Aunt Maggie to burst in on Richard and Big Bill, but she seemed content to wait with the rest of us. At least she had something to say to break the silence: she started quizzing Tavis about arrangements for the white elephant sale. Listening in gave me something to do to pass the time until the door finally opened and Richard stepped out. He looked intact, and I peeked around him to make sure Big Bill was okay, too.

  “Ready to go?” Richard asked, as if nothing were wrong.

  “I guess so.”

  “Good. Tavis, Big Bill asked me to tell you that he regrets that he’ll have to miss judging the costume party this year, but that he’s sure Burt will do an excellent job. Vivian, Big Bill says he’d like something to drink. Aunt Maggie, Big Bill would very much like to speak with you.” He headed down the stairs, not waiting to see if people did what he wanted them to, and I had to scoot to catch up with him at the front door.

  “Richard?”

  “We’ll talk in the car.”

  I restrained myself that long, but just barely. I was driving so he’d have no excuses to keep him from explaining. “Talk,” I said.

  “That’s just what Big Bill and I did. You see, I realized that what Big Bill really needed was a man-to-man talk. Though I’m not the first man he’d have picked, I was available, so I stepped in. Now, of course you realize that Big Bill wasn’t really upset about the Halloween carnival.”

  “He sure sounded upset to me.”

  “He was upset, but not about the carnival. It was Aunt Maggie’s encounter with Pudd’nhead Wilson that was bothering him, especially because she refused to talk about it. So I told him what happened.”

  “All of it?” I said, aghast.

  “I did leave out the kiss. No man newly married needs to hear about something like that. What he did need to hear was that Aunt Maggie was furious at Pudd’nhead for deserting her all those years ago, and that she did not seem inclined to forgive him.”

  Realization dawned. “Big Bill was jealous?”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t he be?”

  “Because… because he’s Big Bill. The man is self-confidence personified.”

  “Not where Aunt Maggie is concerned. He really loves her, you know.”

  “I figured that, since he married her.”

  “People marry for lots of reasons other than love. Companionship, possession—in this case, fear. But Big Bill honestly loves her and doesn’t want to lose her.”

  “Do you think Aunt Maggie loves him that way?”

  “This was a man-to-man talk—you’ll have to handle the woman-to-woman talks.”

  “Sorry. What else did y’all say?”

  “After I reassured him about Pudd’nhead, I told him why Aunt Maggie was so adamant about going to the carnival while he stayed home.”

  “That’s obvious. She wants him safe but doesn’t want to miss out on running the white elephant sale.”

  “Maybe that was obvious to you, but not to a man grappling with jealousy.”

  “Di
d he think she was going to meet Pudd’nhead there?”

  Richard nodded.

  “Poor Big Bill,” I said, which was not something I’d said often. “What did you tell him?”

  “I told him that Aunt Maggie is having trouble dealing with the changes their sudden marriage has caused. She’s used to doing what she wants, when she wants, and not answering to anybody. It’s going to take her some time to adjust, and if he doesn’t want to frighten her off, he’ll have to give her some space. Eventually, he realized I was right.”

  “Big Bill said he was going to give Aunt Maggie some space,” I said skeptically.

  “To be accurate, he used a horse-training metaphor, but the meaning was close enough.”

  “Well, bless his heart. I’m impressed you figured it all out and came up with a way to explain it to him.”

  “I do have some experience with Burnette women,” Richard said dryly.

  “Are you saying I…?” Then I remembered a couple of incidents from our first year of marriage. “Okay, I see your point.” Then I carefully asked, “That’s not a problem anymore, is it?”

  “Oh, no,” he said. “You’re thoroughly broken to the saddle, now.”

  “I’m going to break something upside your head in a minute!” I said.

  He just grinned.

  When we picked up Alice, Aunt Nellie and Uncle Ruben insisted on our staying for dinner with them and the triplets, and we spent an interesting evening hearing about their latest scheme to make money. Since their idea of sending spam to computers all over the world had been a bust, Aunt Nellie and Uncle Ruben were now trying to decide between opening a cyber-café in downtown Byerly or starting a web site for selling collectible ball caps. I figured either idea was bound to fail, at least with those two in charge, but I leaned toward the ball caps, figuring they’d lose less money that way.

  I’d hoped to ask Idelle, Odelle, and Carlelle about useful gossip from the mill, but Alice got cranky and I never got a chance, so I told them I’d catch up with them at work the next day.

  Chapter 19

  Visiting Walters Mill always arouses mixed emotions in me. On one hand, more family and friends than I can keep track of had worked there over the years, and a slew were still working there. Heck, looking at the dusty framed company photos was almost as good as going through one of the Burnette family photo albums.

  On the other hand, work there hadn’t always been pleasant. Even if I didn’t count the brown lung that had hurt so many workers, I couldn’t forget that most of the workers were considered more easily replaced than the machinery, with only a handful escaping the hard work to make decent money in the upstairs offices.

  Most of all, I remembered how desperate I’d been never to work in that mud-brown building, which had been a large part of my decision to go to school up north. Of course, that had led to my meeting Richard and having Alice, so maybe I should be grateful to the mill for giving me a place to run away from.

  Richard and I got to the mill the next day, several hours before Burt was expecting us. This time, we had Alice with us, both as an excuse to visit with folks and as camouflage. The sailor dress she was wearing had a matching hat, and if that wouldn’t disarm people, I didn’t know what would. As Burt’s secretary, Michelle was in an excellent place to know where the bodies were buried, so we called her from the reception desk at the front door and asked if we could come up. She was waiting for us when we got off the elevator.

  “What are you guys doing here?” she asked. “Burt said you wouldn’t be coming until after lunch.”

  “Are we early?” I asked innocently. “I must have misheard Burt.”

  Michelle grinned. “I get it. You guys wanted to snoop around some before he gets back. Am I right?”

  “Our being here won’t get you in trouble, will it?” Richard asked.

  Michelle made an Italian gesture of unconcern. “How am I to blame if you got the time wrong? Now give me that baby! As long as you’re here, I’m going to show off this little cutie patootie to everybody in the building.”

  “That sounds fine,” I said nonchalantly. “So does the new guy like babies? I think you said his name was Mike.”

  “He does, and it’s a good thing you’re here now. Mike told me that Burt is sending him to take care of some business out of the office this afternoon. If you’d come later, you’d have missed him.”

  “Aren’t we lucky?” I said. I’d had a hunch that Burt was going to try something like that. Not wanting to be too obvious, we let Michelle show us around some of the other offices first, not bothering to remind her that I probably knew the building as well as she did. Besides, I knew most of the people who worked there, at least to say howdy to, and it was fun to let them meet Alice. Eventually, we got to the person we really wanted to see.

  “And this is Mike Cooper’s office,” Michelle announced, tapping on the door before going inside.

  “Mike Cooper?” I said. It was the first time I’d heard the man’s last name, and it sounded familiar. Michelle stepped out of the way to let us inside the office, and that’s when I saw him.

  “Laura, Richard,” Michelle was saying, “this is Mike Cooper. Mike, this is Laura and Richard Fleming, and their baby, Alice. Laura is one of Thaddeous’s cousins.”

  “Another one of the Burnettes?” he said with a smile, standing up and holding out his hand to Richard. “And I thought my mother had a lot of relatives.”

  Richard shook his hand, then turned to me. We’d agreed before that I would take the lead in the conversation, with Michelle taking Alice out as soon as it started to get heavy. But I couldn’t say a word. I just stared at Mike.

  Realizing that something was wrong, Richard made small talk while Michelle looked confused. Finally, I managed to choke out, “Michelle, where did you say the ladies’ room is?”

  “I’ll take you.” She handed over Alice and said, “Richard, you keep this little girl busy.”

  Michelle waited until we were safely locked in the ladies’ room before saying, “Laura? What’s with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Not a ghost,” I said shakily. “A ghost’s son.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “That man. Mike Cooper. I’ve met him before. He was going by Michael when I talked to him, but it’s him.”

  “How do you know him? He’s not from around here.”

  “No, but his father was.”

  “So? He said his father was dead.”

  “Yeah, he’s dead, all right. I’m one of the people who found his body. I’m surprised nobody’s made the connection, but Cooper is a pretty common name.”

  “Okay, Laura, start explaining. From the beginning.”

  “I can’t,” I said, and when she opened her mouth to argue, I said, “I would if I could, Michelle, but I can’t. I promised.”

  She didn’t look happy, but I couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry—”

  “I know, I know. I’m not officially in the family yet.”

  “That has nothing to do with it,” I said. “There aren’t many Burnettes who know about this, either. Just Richard and I, and Aunt Maggie, and—and one other aunt.”

  “You can’t even tell me which aunt?”

  I shook my head. “I can tell you one thing. Burt is not Mike Cooper’s lover.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Trust me. I’d be willing to bet that Burt honestly wants him to take over here at the mill, and I know why.”

  She looked very dubious, but I knew doggoned well Burt wasn’t sleeping with Mike Cooper. Maybe Burt or Mike was gay, though I doubted that as well, but even if they were, there was no way Burt Walters would have slept with his own nephew.

  Chapter 20

  Richard and Alice were waiting for us outside the bathroom. “Did he recognize you?” I asked Richard. “I don’t think so. I used Alice to distract him as best I could. Then Tavis Montgomery came in to give Mike an assignment, and I beat a hasty retreat.” />
  “Good,” I said. “We have to talk to Burt. Michelle, when did you say he’ll be back?”

  “Not until after lunch.”

  “Rats!” I said, even though we’d come early for the sole purpose of avoiding him.

  “Since we’re here, why don’t we go ahead and talk to some other people?” Richard suggested.

  “I suppose it beats sitting around and waiting,” I said.

  “You want me to show you around?” Michelle asked.

  “That’s okay, you’ve got work to do. Richard and I know our way.”

  We spent the next couple of hours visiting with people around the mill. Uncle Buddy, Thaddeous, Linwood, and the triplets were all on duty, so we got to see them; and I had some old friends working there, too. At noon, we got sandwiches out of the machines so we could chat while eating. It was nice catching up with people, but nobody knew anything that would help us find the person trying to kill Big Bill. Oh, we heard the rumors about Burt and Mike Cooper repeated a number of times, and the latest speculations about office politics, and complaints about quotas, but nothing useful.

  Once the lunch bell rang, we headed back upstairs.

  “Burt’s not back yet,” Michelle said when she saw us. “Why don’t you wait for him in his office?”

  Burt’s office was nearly as plush as Big Bill’s at the mansion, but had the added glory of a full-length portrait of Big Bill on the wall behind the desk. Personally, a painted face looking over my shoulder all day would have made me nervous, but I guess Burt was used to it.

  By then, Alice was ready for a snack and a nap, and managed to combine the two by falling asleep while nursing. Once she was thoroughly out, Richard and I put her in her carrier and left her by the couch, and then moved chairs to a corner of the office so we could talk without disturbing her.

  “That really was Michael Cooper, wasn’t it?” I asked him, but didn’t wait for an answer. “I can’t believe Burt brought him here. Do you suppose Mike knows who he really is?”

  “I assume that’s what you wanted to ask Burt.”