Sleep edged nearer as Wanda Nell’s thoughts wandered. She was going to have to talk to Miranda about something. What was it? She tried to remember, but she was just too tired. Something Miranda had said, or maybe didn’t say. Wanda Nell tried to concentrate, but the effort was too much for her. She drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 5
Dimly, Wanda Nell became aware of a commotion going on somewhere nearby. Loud voices had brought her out of a sound sleep, and she wanted to resist, to drop back into blessed oblivion. But the voices came nearer and nearer.
The door of the bedroom flew open and thudded against the wall. Wanda Nell jerked fully awake and sat up in the bed. Beside her Juliet whimpered in fright and huddled close. She wrapped a comforting arm around her daughter.
“What the hell is going on here?” Wanda Nell demanded crossly. It took a moment for her eyes to focus, and then she wished she could crawl back in bed and pull the covers over her head.
“That’s what I came to ask you, Wanda Nell.” Lucretia Culpepper, hands on hips and eyes blazing with hate, stood at the foot of the bed. “You get on up out of that bed and face me. I’m going to see your sorry rear end in jail before this day is over.”
Mayrene had followed right behind her unwelcome visitor, and she made a vain attempt to pull the older woman away. Shaking off the hand that grasped at her, Mrs. Culpepper turned and said, “I swear I’ll slap you six ways to Sunday if you touch me again. I don’t know who you are, but you’ve got some nerve sheltering the woman who killed my son in cold blood.”
This was just the reaction Wanda Nell had expected from her former mother-in-law, but she’d hoped to postpone having to face her until she’d had some time to rest. She opened her mouth to protest, but not a sound came out.
Mayrene moved closer until she was face-to-face with Mrs. Culpepper. Taller by several inches, Mayrene also outweighed her opponent by about fifty pounds. Wide-eyed with curiosity and unable to say anything, Wanda Nell waited for Mayrene to lower the boom.
“Now, listen here, you old witch,” Mayrene said, and her tone would have made even the sheriff back down, “you don’t bust in here like some gorilla on a rampage and start insulting my friends. Wanda Nell and her girls are welcome here, and you, old woman, are not. I’ll thank you to take your scrawny carcass out of my house right this minute. Or I might be just tempted to pick you up and throw you out myself.”
Lucretia Culpepper wilted for a moment under Mayrene’s fierce attack, but then she fought right back. “Who do you think you are? You’re nothing but a vulgar piece of trailer trash. Do you know who I am?” She held up her head proudly while trying to look down her nose at Mayrene.
Wanda Nell had to admire the old woman for even attempting to answer Mayrene back. She would have turned tail and run if it had been her who Mayrene went after.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass who you think you are,” Mayrene said, not in the least cowed by Mrs. Culpepper’s grande dame act. “All I know is, somebody who claims to be a well- bred lady wouldn’t push her way uninvited into somebody’s home and act like a no-account streetwalker.”
“Well!” Lucretia Culpepper drew herself up, attempting to gather the shreds of her dignity. “I’m not the one who’s a streetwalker.”
“And just what do you mean by that?” Mayrene asked, her tone growing even more menacing.
Wanda Nell was mortified by the whole scene, but at the same time she found herself wanting to giggle. Just plain nerves and exhaustion, she decided, clapping a hand over her mouth. Or maybe it’s just some kind of bad dream. She pinched herself, then winced. No, it wasn’t a dream.
Evidently Lucretia Culpepper decided she’d better not push Mayrene any further. She stepped back, then quickly scooted around Mayrene and made for the door, faster than Wanda Nell had figured a woman nearly seventy could move.
Mrs. Culpepper paused in the doorway for a moment. “Just you wait and see, Wanda Nell. You’re going to be in jail before the day is over, and I hope to God you rot in there!” She threw Mayrene one last defiant glare, then disappeared. Moments later, they heard the front door of the trailer slam.
In Mayrene’s bedroom next door, the baby began to wail.
Juliet was crying, too, and Wanda Nell patted her absent-mindedly. “Hush, now, honey, it’s gonna be alright. Don’t let your grandmother upset you. She’s just all torn up about your daddy.”
“She doesn’t have to be so nasty, Mama,” Juliet said, sniffling.
“Honey, that old woman don’t know any other way to be,” Mayrene said in disgust. “Now, y’all just calm down a minute, and I’ll go see about Lavon, since Miranda can’t seem to manage.”
Flashing a grateful look at her friend, Wanda Nell drew Juliet into her arms. “Come on, now, baby,” she said. “Don’t let her upset you like this. You just have to learn not to pay her no mind.”
“But, Mama,” Juliet said, her tears finally under control, “why does she hate us all so? She won’t even speak to Miranda and me, and she’s never even sent Lavon a present.”
“I know,” Wanda Nell said, sighing heavily. “It’s me she blames for everything, baby. And you and your sister and poor little Lavon just get caught in the crossfire. She’s a lonely, bitter old woman. Deep in her heart, she knows it’s your daddy she should be mad at, the way he treated us all like dirt. But he’s her only child, and she just can’t let herself be mad at him. So she takes it out on us.”
“And now she doesn’t even have my daddy anymore,” Juliet said sadly. “Why can’t she be like everybody else’s grandmother?”
Wanda Nell’s heart just about broke over the forlorn sound of that question. Her own mother had died before Juliet was born, and Lucretia Culpepper had never paid any attention to her, so the poor girl had no idea what it was like to have a loving, gentle, caring grandmother.
“I know, honey,” Wanda Nell said, feeling completely inadequate to offer Juliet the comfort she needed. “Maybe someday she’ll get tired of being so lonely, and if she does, you and Miranda will just have to be ready to forgive her like the Good Book says, if you can.”
“Forgive who?” Miranda demanded from the doorway. “You mean that old witch who’s supposed to be my sweet and loving grandma?” She made a gagging sound.
Wanda Nell was too tired to fuss with Miranda over Mrs. Culpepper. “Let’s forget about her for now, okay?”
“But, Mama,” Juliet protested. “You can’t forget about what she said. You know, about getting you put in jail?”
Miranda dropped down heavily on the end of the bed. “What do you mean, getting Mama put in jail? How the hell is she gonna do that?” Her fingers plucked at the bedspread, and she kept her face turned away from Wanda Nell.
“I don’t know,” Juliet said crossly. “I reckon she thinks Mama had something to do with what happened to Daddy.”
“Well, that’s about the craziest thing I ever heard,” Miranda said. “Mama couldn’t have killed Daddy. She was already at work.” Her body tensed, and she focused more intently on playing with the bedspread.
Wanda Nell regarded her older daughter with curious eyes. “I do appreciate you sticking up for me, Miranda,” she said slowly, “but how do you know I was at work when your daddy was killed? How do you know when he died?”
Miranda, her head still down, turned slightly and cut her eyes over at her mother, then quickly looked away again. “I just know,” she said, her voice low. “Mama wouldn’t ever kill Daddy. Anyway, you went right on to work after Daddy left last night. Didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did,” Wanda Nell said.
“Well, see,” Miranda said triumphantly, risking a glance at her mother.
“Now, Miranda,” Wanda Nell began.
“Lord, I need to feed Lavon,” Miranda said, getting off the bed faster than Wanda Nell had seen her move in years. “My poor little baby. All this noise’s done upset him real bad,” she added piously. Before Wanda Nell could stop her, she scuttled out the door.
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Wanda Nell glanced at Juliet, and Juliet was frowning down at her hands.
“What is it, honey?” Wanda Nell asked gently.
Juliet looked up at her mother, her eyes wide with innocence. “Nothing, Mama.”
Wanda Nell didn’t believe her. Ordinarily, Juliet didn’t lie to her, but she was loyal to her sister. It looked to Wanda Nell like Miranda was hiding something, and Juliet knew it. She wasn’t prepared, at least not yet, to give her sister the lie. Wanda Nell decided she would tackle both girls later. Right now she was still too tired to force the issue.
Mayrene appeared in the doorway. “Miranda’s looking after Lavon now,” she said. “Now, why don’t y’all lie back down and try to get some sleep?”
“I sure am tired,” Wanda Nell said, “but I don’t think I can go back to sleep now. What time is it?” She glanced around the room for a clock.
Mayrene pointed to the bedside table behind where Wanda Nell at on the bed. “Nigh on to one o’clock. You managed to sleep for a little over three hours.”
Wanda Nell yawned and stretched. “That’s something, anyway. But I guess I better get on up and do something about cleaning up next door. Is the sheriff’s department gone yet?”
“Yeah,” Mayrene said. “They left a couple hours ago, but I didn’t want to wake you up. And then that hellcat showed up.” She snorted.
Wanda Nell giggled. “I think you settled her hash, Mayrene. I wish I could stand up to her like that.”
“I’ve had better than her try to talk down to me,” Mayrene said. “Ain’t nobody gonna treat me like trash. That old biddy thinks she’s better than the rest of us just because she was married to old Judge Culpepper.” She grinned wickedly. “The way he ran around on her, she’s got no call to stick her nose in the air.”
“Mayrene!” Wanda Nell said, slightly scandalized. She indicated Juliet with a quick tilt of the head.
Mayrene just rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, Wanda Nell. It ain’t gonna hurt your girls to know their high-and- mighty grandparents were just as screwed-up as everybody else.”
Juliet giggled, and Wanda Nell couldn’t help joining in. After all the horrible things they’d been through that day, the laughter was a welcome release. Mayrene guffawed right along with her. It took a minute or two for the laughter to run its course, but Wanda Nell felt a lot better for it.
“That’s enough of that,” she said, getting off the bed. “Now I really gotta get over there and start straightening up.”
“I’ll come and help,” Mayrene said. “But first I think everybody could use a little something to eat. I whipped up some chicken salad, so y’all come on and have some.”
“What are y’all doing?” Miranda, standing in the doorway with her son in her arms, stared at the other three women.
“I was just saying we all need to eat some lunch,” Mayrene told her.
“And then we’re going to start cleaning up next door,” Wanda Nell said.
Following Mayrene, they all trooped into the kitchen. Mayrene already had the table set with paper plates, napkins, and silverware. As Wanda Nell and the girls sat down at the table, Lavon perched in his mother’s lap, Mayrene pulled a large bowl from the refrigerator and put it on the table.
“Who wants a sandwich?” Mayrene asked. “I got some loaf bread, or if you want crackers, I got them, too.”
Juliet and Miranda made themselves chicken salad sandwiches, while Mayrene and Wanda Nell ate theirs with crackers. Lavon entertained himself by smearing chicken salad on his face, occasionally eating a bit of it.
“This sure is good chicken salad, Aunt Mayrene,” Juliet said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “It’s even better than Mama’s.” She grinned.
“Thank you, honey,” Mayrene said. She cut her eyes over at Wanda Nell. “I’m glad y’all enjoyed it. I just like to cook more’n your mama does, but she’s pretty good at it when she wants to be.”
Wanda Nell grimaced. “If I was as good at it as you are, Mayrene, I wouldn’t mind it so much.” She stood up and began clearing away the paper plates. “It always tastes better when somebody else makes it, that’s for sure.”
Juliet jumped up and helped her mother clear the table. When they were done, Wanda Nell said, “Now I guess we’d better go home and get to work.”
“Let’s get to it.” Mayrene pushed away from the table and stood up.
“I’ll help, too, Mama,” Juliet said.
“No, I’ll help.” Miranda thrust Lavon into Juliet’s arms. “You stay here, Sissy, and watch after Lavon. I’ll help Mama.” Surprised, Wanda Nell stared hard at Miranda for a moment. It wasn’t like the girl to offer to lift a finger to anything, but she wasn’t going to say anything to risk getting Miranda’s back up.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Wanda Nell said. “You and Lavon can watch TV, honey, and the three of us’ll have the place cleaned up in no time.”
“Okay, Mama,” Juliet said, bouncing Lavon up and down on her knee. He giggled in pleasure and grabbed at his aunt’s long blonde hair. Juliet rubbed her nose against his, and he giggled again.
Mayrene led the way out of her trailer. The sun was bright and warm, and Wanda Nell squinted as she looked around, pausing at the foot of Mayrene’s steps. The sheriff’s department, or someone, had trampled some of the flowers in the beds around the trailer. She shook her head in disgust. She’d see to them later.
Grasping the knob, Wanda Nell opened the door and stepped inside. It was all as horrible as she remembered. She couldn’t stand the thought that strangers had come into her home and done this and assaulted her daughters. She’d like to kill the bastards for violating them all in this way.
Miranda pushed past her. “I’ll start in my room,” she said. “When I’m done there, I’ll come help you in here, Mama.”
“That’s fine,” Wanda Nell said absently. She was still staring at the mess. What on earth had those men been looking for?
As soon as Miranda was out of the room, Mayrene gave Wanda Nell a little push. “Come on, girl, let’s start in your bedroom.”
“Okay,” Wanda Nell said. She followed her friend down the hall to her room.
“This is some ungodly mess,” Mayrene announced, and Wanda Nell, surveying the damage, had to agree. Listlessly she began to pick things up and put them in their accustomed places, while Mayrene went to work on folding her clothes and putting them back in the drawers of the bureau, or hanging them back in the closet.
“What the hell were they looking for?”
Wanda Nell wasn’t aware that she had spoken aloud until Mayrene answered her. “Hanged if I know,” she said. “But I reckon it must’ve been something they thought Bobby Ray left here.”
“Yeah,” Wanda Nell said. “I sure can’t imagine I had anything they’d want. But what could Bobby Ray have left here?”
Even as she spoke the words, a picture formed in her mind. She saw Bobby Ray flashing that big wad of money and peeling off hundred-dollar bills like they were ones. She sank down on her bed.
“What is it, honey?” Mayrene asked.
Tersely, Wanda Nell explained. Mayrene whistled. “How much money you reckon he had?”
Shrugging, Wanda Nell said, “God knows. If they were all hundreds, he could’ve had six or seven thousand dollars on him.”
“Where the hell did Bobby Ray come by that kind of money?”
“I have no idea,” Wanda Nell said slowly, “but you can be damn sure it wasn’t anything legal.” She got up from the bed and went back to work.
Mayrene had hung the last of the clothes back in the closet and had finished with the bureau when she turned to Wanda Nell with a hesitant look on her face. Wanda Nell was staring down at a smashed picture frame on the floor. Someone had stepped on it and shattered the glass. The picture inside, a picture of Wanda Nell and her three children, taken when Juliet was about a year old, had been scratched and torn.
“Damn them!” Wanda Nell said, dashing angry tears from her face wit
h the back of her hand.
“I know, honey,” Mayrene said in sympathy. “I hope they catch those bastards and nail their balls to the wall.”
Wanda Nell gave a shaky laugh. “Only if they let me have the hammer.”
“That’s the spirit!” Mayrene stepped forward and laid a hand on Wanda Nell’s arm. “Wanda Nell, I got something I need to ask you.”
“What is it?” Wanda Nell was surprised by the look of discomfort on her friend’s face.
“Well, honey,” she said, “I guess I just oughta come right out and say it.” She paused, then plunged ahead, “Do you think maybe Miranda’s lying about something?”
Troubled, Wanda Nell turned away. “Why do you ask that?”
“I hate to say it, Wanda Nell, but that girl acts like she’s got something to hide. While y’all were all asleep, I was working in the kitchen. I guess Miranda thought I was off somewhere taking a nap myself. She came sneaking into the living room and was about to head out the door when I poked my head out of the kitchen, and she about jumped out of her skin.” Mayrene frowned. “When I asked her where she was going, she said she just wanted to get some air.”
“Did she go out?”
Mayrene shook her head. “No, she just slunk on back to the bedroom, and that was the last I saw of her, till that old biddy showed up and started her shenanigans.”
All the time Mayrene had been talking, Wanda Nell was remembering Elmer Lee Johnson’s interview with Miranda and Juliet. At the time, she had thought Miranda was lying about something. She hadn’t wanted to question her daughter about it then, but maybe now was the time.
“I’m not sure,” Wanda Nell said, “but I think Miranda knows something she’s not telling.”
“Like what?”
Wanda Nell stared at her friend while her stomach commenced to doing flip-flops. “Like maybe,” she whispered, “Bobby Ray came back last night after I went to work. And maybe he left something here, with her, and that’s what those men were looking for.”
Chapter 6
Flamingo Fatale (A Trailer Park Mystery Book 1) Page 6