by Tonya Kappes
Chapter 10
The Sleepy Hollow Inn was crawling with police officers. Granny was in the kitchen hustling around and making coffee in the industrial pots she used for her Sunday brunches. Like everyone else, I was curious about what had happened and Granny was apparently the one to find our small town beauty queen dead.
Beulah Paige had her hand stuck down in a Higher Grounds Café to-go pastry box. She pulled out different petit fours, Danishes and scones, placing each of them on their own five-inch, white, French doilies. Then it was Hettie’s turn to place them on silver serving trays. Poor old Mable Claire was eating every third one that Hettie put on the tray.
“Stop that.” Hettie smacked Mable Claire’s hand away. Mable pouted and scurried over to Granny.
“Tell me again.” I encouraged Granny to tell me exactly what had happened just one more time. “Tell me exactly how you found her and who you called.”
She smacked some dough in front of me on the counter and put the strap of an apron around my neck. I double wound the straps around my waist before tying it into a bow. I tucked my cell phone in the front apron.
“Roll. One inch.” Granny pinched off some and had three homemade biscuits rolled and on the baking sheet before I even got one in the palm of my hand ready to roll. “If I told you once, Emma Lee, I told you a thousand times how I found Jade Lee Peel all laid out upstairs in the bathtub. Now, get to rolling.”
“But I want to go over it one more time.” I plopped the rolled-up dough on the baking sheet and pinched off more.
“Mable Claire.” Granny grabbed the dough out of Mable’s hands and pointed to the table. “You go on back over there and answer the phone if it rings.”
Mable scowled but did as Granny said.
“This is the last time I’m telling you because we will have a bunch of people here and they will be expecting food. My food.” Granny hurried over to the stove and turned down the boiling pot of water.
My mouth watered at the thought of her sweet tea. Granny was right. Whenever someone died, everyone gathered to discuss it over food. But a murder. That was an altogether different gathering. An all-night gathering of assumptions and gossip running wild.
“I had come home from Doc Clyde’s because you know he’s still trying to court me.” She looked at me from under her brows and rolled her eyes. “What on earth does that man think? He’s acting like we are teenagers.” Granny nudged me with her elbow in my rib cage.
“Gross,” I grunted. The last thing I wanted to hear were details about Granny’s love life. Bless her heart—she’d already buried two husbands. If Doc Clyde was smart, he’d run. “Stop hem-hawing around and tell me again.”
“I was getting around to it and so not to get bored, I thought I’d start off this umpteenth time telling you by starting from the beginning of my evening.” She unscrewed the sugar jar and took out the metal measuring cup filled with the tiny granules. “After Doc gave me a kiss to make my toes curls, I came in and did what I always do.”
She held the measuring cup above the boiling water and poured it in. The water sizzled. She filled the measuring cup a few more times and poured those in.
“Which is what?” My phone chirped from my pocket. I ignored it.
“I turned on all the lights because it’s night and I check on all my guests.” Granny’s lip twitched.
“What are you leaving out?” I asked. I could tell she was leaving something out. “You were going to be nosy.” My mouth dropped, my eyes narrowed. “You thought she was out at The Watering Hole for the preparty and you were going to her room to be nosy.”
“Shh.” Granny curled her head around; her eyes grew wide. “I was doing no such thing. And don’t you go around accusing me of such.”
“You were too,” I whispered under my breath so no one else would hear.
“Well, it’s a good thing I checked on her and found her.” Granny spun her tale into a positive like she always did. “When they pack her out of here, you’ll see she’s still all pretty and not gray like most dead people.”
“Granny,” I scolded.
“It’s the truth, ain’t it?” She put her fingers in her short red hair and gave it a little fluff. “And all them cameras are out there waiting on her to come out.”
“They are?” I had forgotten all about the cameras and the people behind them. I pinched another piece of dough and rolled it, pondering what they knew about Jade’s death and why they hadn’t been filming her.
Granny nodded her head and turned the gas stove off. The steam of the pot carried the sweet smell of tea throughout the kitchen.
“And you can’t tell me you are mourning the loss. Not that you’d wish death on anyone, but you get my drift.” Granny rolled a few more biscuits before placing the full baking sheet in the oven. She adjusted the knob.
“That is not fair.” My phone chirped again. This time I took it out of the apron pocket and looked at it. It was a text from Jack Henry. “I have never wished death on anyone.”
I untied the apron and took it off, hanging it on the hook next to the door leading out into the Inn so I could take a look at my text in private.
“So much for privacy.” I sighed.
Just like Granny had said, the Inn was packed with members of the community who probably wanted to get a glimpse of Jade Lee’s body as they carted her off to Eternal Slumber. Not that her father had asked me to host her funeral, but the county rented Eternal Slumber’s morgue and the elected coroner, Vernon Baxter, worked for me.
Careful not to make eye contact, I slipped up the stairs to where the guest rooms were and down the hall. Jade Lee’s room was full of officers that blocked the doorway. I rose up on my tiptoes when I passed, mainly out of curiosity. The entire room was silent.
Pastor Brown stood over the lifeless body, his head down, his eyes closed and his lips moving as he spoke a prayer over her. His hand was placed on Artie’s back.
Poor Artie. My heart broke for the poor man. Jade was his only daughter and he sure was proud of her.
“Emma Lee.” Vernon walked up behind me. He whispered, “Dang shame. So much life ahead of her. Did Artie say anything to you about having her as a client?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I guess you drove the hearse over?”
“Yep. Here to pick her up.” Vernon dipped his right shoulder and walked into the room. Everyone looked up at him. A feeling of sadness smothered the air.
They all had the look I’d seen so many times in my career. The look when the undertaker came to your door unannounced. An unwelcome sight.
My phone chirped again. I scurried down the hall.
I smiled when I looked at Jack’s text name come across my phone.
Jack Henry: Can you come down here? I have a few questions for you.
Me: About what?
Why on earth would he have questions for me? While normally it took him a long time to text me back, now he was fast. I leaned my back on the wall between two guest doors.
Vernon walked out of Jade’s room and I could hear his footsteps go back down the stairs. I knew what was coming next. Many times I had helped him with the church cart.
Jack Henry: Come on down and bring me some of Zula’s tea.
Me: See you soon.
I hurried a text back because I needed to help Vernon.
I looked down at my dress. It was not proper attire to drag the heavy church cart up the stairs and I was definitely going to have to change my outfit before I went to the police station.
I pushed myself off the wall and began to walk back down the hall.
“I guess it’s true?” Mary Anna Hardy stopped me in front of the guest room right after the stairs and just before Jade’s room. “I came here to see for myself.”
“The police cruisers and hearse out front didn’t give you an affirmation?” I asked with a brow cocked, knowing Mary Anna had really come just to be nosy.
Both of us turned and looked to see what the loud sound clumping up
the steps was. We stepped out of the way when John Howard Lloyd and Vernon climbed the last step and jerked the church cart, letting the wheels down. They barreled down the hall.
John Howard’s hair was messy and wiry. He wore a pair of faded overalls and a red plaid shirt underneath. His black shoes had a little dirt ring around the thick soles. He’d been a full-time employee of mine for a few months now and he helped out wherever he could with odd jobs like cleaning, mowing, plucking leaves—everything that made the funeral home look nice.
“Why waste the taxpayers’ dollars?” Mary Anna groaned and crossed her arms. “John Howard should just throw her over his shoulder and march her right on over to the morgue.”
“Mary Anna,” I scolded. “She was murdered and no one deserves that.”
Even though I couldn’t fully come to believe my own words because Jade had truly dug her own grave, I had to hide my dislike of her for the good of my job and my Southern manners.
“Emma Lee Raines, I don’t know who you think you’re kiddin’.” Mary Anna’s accent became heavy when she got sassy. “But you hated that woman long before my run-in with her this morning.”
The guest door next to us jerked open. A woman with long black hair parted in the middle—who sort of reminded me of Morticia Addams from The Addams Family television show—stuck her head out the door. She made quick eye contact before slamming it shut.
Chapter 11
“Granny,” I busted through the swinging kitchen door. “When did the Addams family check in?”
I glanced around at all the Auxiliary women hustling around the kitchen. The smell of cinnamon, sugar and a touch of nutmeg made my stomach growl. Some people couldn’t eat around death. Not me. I grew up around death and it was natural to me.
“Who?” Mable Claire jingled as she waddled over. She pulled a dime from her pocket and held it out between her finger and thumb. “Stop by and get you a piece of gum from Artie’s.”
“Thanks, Mable Claire.” I didn’t have the heart to not take it and offend her; she still thought me to be a little kid. Her jingle had good intentions behind it. She gave a piece of silver change to every child she’d pass as her day went along.
“I don’t recall no one in Sleepy Hollow with the name Addams.” Mable Claire bit her lip. I could tell she was digging back in her memory for the Addams family. In a small Southern town like Sleepy Hollow, your name meant more than your reputation.
No matter where you go in Sleepy Hollow, if someone doesn’t recognize you, they will ask you your family name followed up by what you do for a living.
“Mable Claire,” Granny fussed. “Emma Lee is making a joke about that girl with all that long hair and sullen eyes that’s staying here.”
“Now, now,” Hettie Bell scolded, waving the doilies at us. “Y’all thought I was a Goth girl when I first came to town. Maybe she needs a friend.” She went back to placing the doilies on the serving tray.
“You know”—Granny jumped around—“she did insist I relocate the guests in that room to a different room because she had to be next to Jade Lee. I don’t make it a habit to find out every single thing about people who check into the Inn. That is illegal, you know.”
“Hmm.” I twisted my lips. I didn’t recognize her as part of Jade’s crew and she was not someone Jade would’ve hung out with. My phone chirped. I glanced at it. It was Jack Henry wanting to know exactly how much longer I was going to be.
“Can I get a to-go cup for some tea? I’m going to take Jack Henry some.”
“You tell him that he got the first glass of the batch.” Cold air and a little cloud of condensation came out of the icebox when Granny opened it. She used the ice pick to get the perfect size cubes for Jack.
“I’m going home, changing my clothes and grabbing the car.” I always told Granny my plans in case she ever needed me.
It wasn’t like I had to. She could just pick up the phone and anyone could tell her where I was or they could find out. Someone was always watching.
She poured the warm tea into the glass. The ice crackled. Granny put a piece of plastic wrap over the mouth of the glass and sealed it. She handed it to me like a precious diamond.
“Perfect.” I smiled and looked at the glass.
The ice wasn’t to make the tea cold; it was to give the warm tea a shock and ignite the sugar granules. I always thought it was the best part of the tea process. Granny said it was in the glass. She never let anyone drink her tea out of a cup.
“Thank you.” I bent over and kissed her.
“Now, don’t you go packing tales about me snooping, ya hear?” Granny warned more than asked.
“Yeah, yeah. I got it.” I walked toward the back door so I could avoid going through the Inn. “Granny, don’t think all of this murder business gives you a pass on the sideboard Charlotte Rae wants and this nonsense about you being cremated.”
Once I stepped outside, I glanced up the side of the Inn. The mystery girl was looking down from her guest bedroom window. She looked down. When our eyes met, the blinds slowly flipped closed.
Quickly I turned away and made a mental note to find out exactly who she was and why she had requested a room next to Jade’s.
Her chilly stare made my hands shake the entire walk back across the town square to Eternal Slumber. Jack Henry was lucky because if it weren’t for the plastic wrap Granny had sealed around the glass, there wouldn’t have been any tea left when it got to Eternal Slumber, much less the police station.
The back entrance of the funeral home was the residence entrance into my little apartment. Before Charlotte Rae and I took over, there had been an entire family unit where we grew up. But we knew we had to remodel and upgrade. I only wish I’d done the sound system now that I’d been to Hardgrove’s Legacy Center.
The door opened up into a small hallway with a little table and mirror. The room on the right was my bedroom and the room on the left was a little television sitting room with a couch. There was a communal room in the funeral home with a microwave and refrigerator if I need to heat up something or store perishables, but mostly I ate with Granny at the Inn or out with Jack Henry.
It was a great place to live and it was perfect for me.
I flipped on the light switch inside the door and stepped in. I put the glass of tea on the little table and glanced at myself in the mirror and looked at all the makeup I had applied. More than usual, but all the fashion magazines I’d read in line at Artie’s Meat and Deli stated that you need to apply heavy makeup in photos and I had really planned on Fluggie snapping that photo.
“Just one more thing you ruined,” I whispered thinking about Jade Lee.
I pulled the dress over my head and headed into the bedroom. I took my jeans and sweatshirt off the dresser and slipped them on. Comfort. A happy sigh escaped me. It would take too much time to wash all of the gunk off my face, so I swiped my lips with some cherry-flavored lip gloss and took one last look in the hallway mirror.
“If he was mine, I’d always be dressed to the nines so he’d always go gaga.” The familiar voice was hidden in the darkness of the television room. “Or I’d slip on a little lacy number to jog his memory on how much he loves being a boy.”
I peeked in to see if I had accidentally left the television on or if Jack Henry had. It wasn’t unusual for Jack Henry to stop by when he had a free moment to relax and watch TV, even when I wasn’t home.
“Seriously, you looked so good in that dress. You should probably put on a tighter shirt or something.” Jade Lee glowed in the darkness. There was a sparkling tiara like a cake topper on her head. “Your Walmart bra kinda makes me sad.”
I gulped.
“Wait.” Her jaw dropped; she slid a little closer leaving a little path of glitter behind her. She came into the light. Wisps of blond hair stuck out from underneath a pink turban that matched a long silk kimono loosely tied around her waist. She wore a pair of heels with a pink pom-pom on the open toe. The tiara glistened on top of the turban.
“You can see me, can’t you?”
Ahem, I cleared my throat and pretended not to see her.
No, no, no, the voice in my head begged. Anyone but her, the little voice kept talking to me. Anyone but her. Anyone.
The sound of some rattling around in the basement of the funeral home meant that Vernon was here, Jade’s body was in the basement and the hearse was back in the driveway.
I picked up the glass of tea and grabbed the hearse keys off the table and walked out of the funeral home slamming the door behind me.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, my feet carrying me a mile a minute. I had to get out of there. “Oh God,” I said it again. “I knew I had heard her talking to me earlier on my way to the restaurant, but noooooooo.” My lips formed an O as I dragged out the word no. “I thought I was hearing things.”
I got into the hearse and slammed the door. I looked in the rearview mirror and no Jade-ghost was there. I looked out the windshield and my window. Relief settled in my heart when I didn’t see her.
“Thank you, Lord.” I let out a deep sigh, put the glass of tea in the cup holder and turned the ignition.
“That’s exactly what I told the big guy when this here tiara was waiting for me when they were trying to get me to walk down the golden pageant aisle in the Great Beyond.” Jade Lee sat next to me in the passenger side and gently touched the tiara. She stuck her hands up in the air. “Thank you, Lord!” she screamed and nodded her head. “I said it just like that. Thank you, Lord!” she repeated.
“I got it the first time,” I groaned, and planted my head on the steering wheel.
“Well.” Jade Lee turned in the seat toward me. “I’ll be a yellow-bellied sapsucker, you can see me, hear me and help me.”
“Yes.” I sat up and looked at her. “I can see you. I can hear you. But help you? Never.”
“Creepy . . . um . . . Emma Lee.” She flashed her pretty pageant smile. “We go back a long way. You wouldn’t do a friend this way would you?”