Miranda’s mouth set in a stubborn line for a moment, then she spoke. “Daddy said he won the money at one of them casinos over in the Delta. I believe him.”
T.J. and Wanda Nell exchanged glances. Wanda Nell shrugged. T.J. reached out and clasped his sister’s arm. “Come on with me, Randa. We’re gonna sit down in the living room, and I’m gonna explain a few things to you.” He pulled her toward him.
Miranda appealed to her mother with a wounded look. Wanda Nell nodded. Miranda’s shoulders slumped in defeat, and she dragged her heels a bit as her brother led her into the living room.
Sighing heavily, Wanda Nell reached for the phone. It rang, startling her. Her heart pounded as she lifted the receiver.
“Hello,” she whispered. She cleared her throat and spoke again more clearly. “Hello.”
“Afternoon, Miz Culpepper,” Jack Pemberton said. “How are you? I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time, but you did say the afternoon was the best time to call.”
He rushed his words, so it took Wanda Nell a moment to figure out what he had just said to her. Then she had to struggle to frame some kind of reply that wouldn’t make her sound like a complete lunatic.
“Afternoon, Mr. Pemberton,” she finally managed. “Actually, I’m afraid I really can’t talk right now. I’m sorry, but something’s come up, and, well, I’m sorry.”
The confusion she had felt earlier, on hearing that Pemberton was interested in true-crime writing, came rushing back to her. On top of everything else, it was just too much. She wanted to tell him to buzz off, but she couldn’t cope with that right now. Maybe he would take the hint and leave her alone.
“Are you all right, Miz Culpepper?” Pemberton’s voice was hesitant. “Sounds like there’s some trouble. I don’t want to intrude, but if I can help in any way, please tell me.”
“Why, so you can put it in a book?” Wanda Nell spoke her thoughts aloud.
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment. “I guess Juliet must have told you about my writing, then.”
“Yeah, she sure did,” Wanda Nell said, “and that made things real clear.”
“I guess I can see why you might be suspicious,” Pemberton said, “but, Miz Culpepper, I promise you, I’m not interested in you because of what happened to your ex-husband. I’m not interested in writing a book about it.” Something in his voice rang sincere to Wanda Nell. She really wanted to believe him. But could she afford to trust him?
When Wanda Nell didn’t reply, Pemberton continued. “Look, I realize you don’t know much about me. But you remember that first night at the Kountry Kitchen?”
“Yes,” Wanda Nell said. “I remember.”
“Well then, you had to realize I found you attractive,” Pemberton said, his voice growing fainter.
Wanda Nell could imagine him, that shy face of his and his eyes, blinking behind his glasses. Her face softened in a smile.
“Yeah, I know you did,” she said.
“The reason I wanted to ask you out doesn’t have anything to do with what happened to your ex-husband,” Pemberton said. “But I can understand that, with everything else going on, now might not be a good time.”
“Yeah, there’s some things going on I got to take care of,” Wanda Nell said. “But I’m hoping it’s all gonna be over real soon.”
“Then maybe I can call you later on?”
“I’d like that.”
“Then I will. And in the meantime, I meant what I said earlier. If you need some help, and there’s something I can do, you call me. Okay?”
“I will,” Wanda Nell said. “And thank you.” She reached for a pen and jotted down the number he gave her.
She set the phone back on the cradle and stared at it thoughtfully. Maybe she had misjudged him after all. She’d find out, when the time came.
In the meantime, she wanted to get rid of the money she was still clutching in one hand. She dropped the bag on the counter and picked up the phone again. By now she knew the number by heart.
“I need to speak with Deputy Johnson,” Wanda Nell said when the dispatcher answered. “Tell him it’s Wanda Nell Culpepper, and I got some real important information for him.”
“One moment, please,” the voice responded, and Wanda Nell waited with increasing impatience.
Finally, Elmer Lee’s voice came over the line. “What is it, Wanda Nell? The dispatcher said you had some real important information. This had better be pretty damn good.”
“It is,” Wanda Nell said, resisting the urge to tell him to stick it where the sun don’t shine. “I found what those guys were looking for, and I think you better get over here right now.”
“Whadda you mean, Wanda Nell?”
“That’s all I’m gonna say for now, Elmer Lee. You just get on over here. This is serious.”
He snorted. “We’re on the way, then.”
Wanda Nell dropped the phone back on the cradle. She stared for a moment at the bag of money. “Bobby Ray, you sonofabitch,” she whispered. Reaching out, she grabbed the bag and stuffed it into one of the cabinets.
In the living room, Miranda was sobbing against her brother’s shoulder. T.J. patted her on the back even as he rolled his eyes at his mother.
“Miranda,” Wanda Nell said. “Pull yourself together. I just called the sheriff’s department, and they’re on the way here. I’m gonna turn that money over to them.”
“Okay, Mama,” Miranda said, turning a streaming face to her mother. “I’m sorry, Mama, I didn’t mean to cause trouble. I really did think it was Daddy’s money.”
“That’s okay, honey,” Wanda Nell said. There was no point in fussing at her anymore than she already had. “I guess T.J. told you everything?”
Miranda nodded. “I never want to see that money again.” Her face turned wistful. “But it sure woulda been nice, wouldn’t it, Mama?”
Wanda Nell just looked at her. The girl was never going to understand that life didn’t work that way. Nothing came that easy, but Miranda probably never would figure it out.
“I’m going to put on some clothes,” Wanda Nell said. “The sheriff’s department oughta be here soon.”
“I better go check on Lavon,” Miranda said. “He’s gonna be waking up from his nap any minute now.”
As Wanda Nell and Miranda disappeared in opposite directions, T.J. headed into the kitchen. Wanda Nell peeked in on Juliet. She was reading a book and listening to country music on the radio and never even noticed her mother at the door. Wanda Nell closed the door softly and went on into her room to change.
She had barely finished pulling on her jeans and an over-sized T-shirt when she heard a thumping at the door. She hadn’t heard a car drive up, but Elmer Lee had said he wouldn’t be long. She padded on bare feet back to the living room in time to see T.J. backing away from the open door, his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.
“What is it, T.J.?” she asked.
T.J. didn’t look at her, just backed up a couple more steps, and Wanda Nell came to a halt.
A tall man, a hood covering his head, stood in the door-way. He had a gun pointed straight at T.J.
Chapter 11
Wanda Nell’s heart raced, and she glanced wildly around for something to throw at the man with the gun.
“Hand it over.”
Neither Wanda Nell nor T.J. moved, and the hooded man brandished the gun again.
“Hand it over, or I’m gonna fill pretty boy here with a few bits of lead.”
Wanda Nell found her voice. “Just hang on a minute, jack-ass. It’s in the kitchen. I’ll get it for you.” Slowly, carefully, she moved in front of T.J. toward the kitchen. The whole time she was praying that Juliet and Miranda stayed in their rooms.
“Just get it,” the man said. The gun didn’t waver.
Moving faster, Wanda Nell made it into the kitchen. Her hands trembled as she pulled open the drawer where she had stashed the bag of money. She was tempted to grab a butcher knife and try to take it
back in the living room with her, just in case. But then the man called out again. “Get in here with it, woman. I ain’t gonna wait all day.”
Wanda Nell grabbed the bag and scooted back into the living room as fast as she could. She stumbled to a halt in front of him and held the bag up. He snatched it from her and stepped back slowly into the doorway.
“Y’all just turn around and face the wall,” he said. “Don’t look anywhere but at that wall for the next five minutes, or I’m a’gonna have to shoot you.”
Wanda Nell and T.J. did as they were told. Wanda Nell’s stomach knotted in fear as she continued to pray that the girls wouldn’t suddenly appear and startle the man. And she prayed he wouldn’t shoot T.J. just for the hell of it.
The door slammed shut, and Wanda Nell relaxed slightly. T.J. started to move, and Wanda Nell hissed at him. “Don’t you move an inch, T.J., and I mean it.”
Wonder of wonders, T.J. stopped and stood completely still. Wanda Nell breathed a sigh of relief.
“We need to see where he’s going,” T.J. whispered, “so you can tell the sheriff’s department.”
“I don’t care where he’s going,” Wanda Nell whispered back. “The sheriff’s department can find him. I don’t care. I don’t want you or me or the girls getting shot, you got that?” “Yes’m,” T.J. said, and from the corner of her eye, Wanda Nell saw his shoulders sag a bit.
They stood that way for a couple minutes more, then T.J. said, “Mama, this is ridiculous. He’s long gone by now, and the sheriff’s department’s gone be here any minute.”
“You’re right,” Wanda Nell said. She turned to her son. “Thank the Lord none of us got hurt. I was afraid that jackass was gonna shoot one of us.”
T.J. grinned. “Well, I’m sure he didn’t appreciate you calling him a jackass, Mama.”
“Oh, my Lord,” Wanda Nell gasped. “Did I really say that?”
“You sure did. You know that temper of yours, Mama.” Wanda Nell sagged against T.J. for a moment, and he wrapped an arm around her and hugged her fiercely. “Lord, me and my mouth. I swear I didn’t realize I said that to him.”
“Can’t be helped now,” T.J. said. “But listen, Mama. We only got a minute or two.”
Frightened by the urgency in her son’s voice, Wanda Nell gazed up into his eyes. “What is it?”
“Just stop and think a second. How come that guy knew to show up right then and ask for that money?”
Wanda Nell’s mind worked furiously, and one answer came to her quickly. Appalled, she stared at T.J. “Oh my Lord.”
T.J. nodded. “Somebody in the sheriff’s department is in on this, Mama. I can’t figure any other way that guy knew to come just when he did.”
Chilled to the bone, Wanda Nell just stood there. “Oh, Lord, T.J., I never thought of that. And that means it’s probably Elmer Lee. What are we gonna do?”
“I don’t know, Mama,” T.J. said, “but do you think you can stand talking to him without me? It might be better if he don’t know for a while I’m anywhere around.”
Wanda Nell didn’t like the sound of that. She wasn’t sure what good it would do to pretend she hadn’t seen or talked to T.J.
Before she could say anything, they both heard the sound of cars pulling in to the trailer park. A moment later, several doors slammed, and then came another pounding on the front door. T.J. disappeared in the direction of Miranda’s room and Wanda Nell stared helplessly after him.
This was exactly the sort of thing his father would have done, and Wanda Nell began to doubt her son had reformed himself as much as he claimed.
The pounding on the door continued. “Wanda Nell, you in there?”
“Just a minute, Elmer Lee,” she shouted back.
She flung open the door, and Elmer Lee stood there with a couple of his men. Elmer Lee stared at her, his eyes hard as granite. “What was so all-fired important that I had to get out here so fast?”
He pushed his way past her into the living room, and she stood aside to let the other men come in after him. One of them tipped his hat politely at her. The other ignored her.
Closing the door carefully behind them, Wanda Nell took a moment to try to cool down her temper. Then she walked around in front of Elmer Lee and stared right back at him.
“I called you to come here because I found something I thought you oughta know about—” she began.
“Well, what the hell is it?” Elmer Lee was too impatient to let her finish.
“I’m getting to that, if you’ll just hold on a damn minute,” Wanda Nell retorted. “I found what those guys were looking for when they broke in here, that’s what.”
“Oh, yeah. And what was it, pray tell?”
Wanda Nell hated the patronizing note in his voice.
“Probably about thirty or forty thousand dollars in cash.” Wanda Nell crossed her arms across her chest and waited for the explosion.
One of the deputies whistled, then reddened as Elmer Lee whirled on him. “I didn’t ask for nothing outta you.” He turned back to Wanda Nell. “Where was it?”
“Bobby Ray’d given it to Miranda,” she explained, “and Miranda hid it in the bottom of the baby’s diaper pail.” She watched him closely for any signs of guilt, but his poker face didn’t change.
“Pretty damn smart,” was all he said.
“Yeah,” Wanda Nell agreed. “One of them even looked in the diaper pail, Miranda said, but he wasn’t about to stick his hand down there.”
Elmer Lee nodded. “Where is it now?”
She started to reply “As if you didn’t know,” but she clamped her mouth shut. It wouldn’t do to say something like that now.
Instead, she took a deep breath before speaking. “Not three minutes after I talked to you on the phone, somebody banged on the door. It was a man with a hood over his face, and he had a gun. He said he was gonna shoot—um, me, if I didn’t hand over the money.”
“And so I guess you just handed it over,” Elmer Lee said. Wanda Nell nodded, relieved that he appeared not to have noticed her slip.
Elmer Lee laughed. “Lord, but that’s a good one, Wanda Nell. I got to hand it to you.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Elmer Lee kept on laughing, and soon the other two deputies were laughing with him.
“What the hell is so damn funny?” Wanda Nell stamped her foot on the floor in frustration. That only made Elmer Lee and his deputies laugh harder.
“Oh, come on, Wanda Nell,” Elmer Lee said, when he could finally get enough breath to speak. “I mean, I believe you found that money. But do you really expect me to believe some masked man came up to your door in broad daylight and made you hand over the money?” He snickered. “What’d he do then? Did he hop on his horse and head for the hills?” That set him off again.
Wanda Nell was so furious with him, she couldn’t speak. She just stared at him.
“Okay, Wanda Nell,” Elmer Lee said, after wiping his streaming eyes, “where is it? Where’s the money? Surely you don’t think you can keep it? I mean, if I was dumbass enough to fall for this story of yours, I guess you thought you could just hang on to it. But I wasn’t born yesterday.” He shook his head. “That dog ain’t gonna hunt, no way, no how.”
Wanda Nell finally found her tongue. “I swear, Elmer Lee Johnson, I have known some stupid men in my life, but you must be the stupidest man the Lord ever put on this green earth. I am telling you the truth, and you damn well better believe me. You can rip this trailer apart, and you ain’t gonna find that money.”
Elmer Lee reddened under the onslaught. “You listen here, Wanda Nell, you better be careful how you talk to an officer of the law. I got witnesses here.” He jerked his head to indicate his two deputies.
“That dog ain’t gonna hunt, either, Elmer Lee.” Wanda Nell refused to be intimidated. “That man came in and took that money away from me. And that’s that.”
“You got any witnesses to that?” Elmer Lee shook his head. “Did those gir
ls of yours see any of this? Not that it matters, of course. They’d say anything you told ’em to.” Wanda Nell caught herself in time. She’d been about to say that her son had been a witness, but she held back. Instead, she stood mute.
“Pretty clever, Wanda Nell,” Elmer Lee taunted her. “Pretty damn clever. But it just ain’t gonna work.”
“Then tell me this, Elmer Lee, and I wanna know what you think.” Wanda Nell braced herself. “How come that man turns up on my doorstep not three minutes after I called the sheriff’s department and talked to yon? How come? You answer that one.”
“I don’t think I like what you’re saying, Wanda Nell.” Elmer Lee almost growled at her. “If you’re implying what I think you’re implying, then you’re not only stupid, you’re plumb crazy, woman.” His face reddened with every word out of his mouth, until Wanda Nell thought he was going to have a stroke, right then and there.
“I ain’t implying nothing, Elmer Lee,” Wanda Nell said. “I’m just telling you the God’s honest truth. That’s the way it happened, and I been trying to think of some explanation.” She paused for a deep, steadying breath. “But I can’t think of but one explanation.”
Elmer Lee stepped forward, his hand raised, but Wanda Nell stood her ground. Her eyes dared him to strike her. Elmer Lee faltered, and Wanda Nell’s eyes glittered in triumph.
His chest heaving, Elmer Lee didn’t speak for a moment. When he finally did, his voice rasped. “Since I reckon you’re lying about ever’ damn thing you just told me, Wanda Nell, I’m gonna let this pass. You’re just trying to blow smoke so’s nobody’s gonna figure you got that money stashed away somewhere.” He threw back his head and laughed. “I got to hand it to you, Wanda Nell. I shoulda just hauled your ass to jail right off the bat, and then we wouldn’a had to go through all this shit of yours.”
Wanda Nell’s hands clenched tightly at her sides. She was breathing hard, trying to control the urge to reach out and slap Elmer Lee as hard as she could.
“Come on, Wanda Nell,” Elmer Lee cajoled. “Why don’t you confess, right here and now? Then I’ll forget all this other mess. There ain’t no money, there ain’t no men been breaking in here, ain’t nothing like that. You killed Bobby Ray ’cause you was jealous or something, and that’s all it was. Right?”
Flamingo Fatale (A Trailer Park Mystery Book 1) Page 15