A One-Woman Man

by ML Gamble

  He wanted to say yes, but he wouldn’t admit to the pain shooting through him at that instant. “No, I’m fine. But I think I may have overdone it a bit today. We should be going.”

  Miss Lou and the judge looked at each other. Katie turned her head toward the family room and nodded. “Okay, sure thing.” She looked down at the picture in her hand with a trace of a smile, then suddenly asked, “Who is that?”

  The judge looked down at the snapshot. “That’s my caretaker, Clay Willow. You know him?”

  The doctor took a deep breath and handed the pictures back to Baylor. “No, I guess I don’t. Well, good night you two. Merry Christmas.”

  Tommy Lee was civil, but he wasted no time getting back outside and on the road leading away from Elizabeth Monette.

  After five miles of silence Katie Smiths asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No” was all he said.

  DESPITE HER reservations about the Queen of Midnight Pageant, despite her sadness over Tommy Lee’s behavior, despite her own fruitless attempt to learn her father’s identity, Elizabeth felt grand.

  Outside it was the coldest New Year’s Eve in anyone’s memory, but inside her dressing room in the east wing of the Belle Fleur Municipal Auditorium, wearing her pale blue silk gown, with her hair done up in a cascade of ringlets that fell softly onto her neck, Elizabeth felt like a little girl who had magically become a princess.

  Miss Lou, usually a portrait of serenity and rational behavior, was sitting in the chair beside Elizabeth’s dressing table, crying into her third hankie. Baylor seemed struck dumb, and kept shaking his head and smiling.

  Elizabeth grinned and shook her finger at them. “Will you two please stop! You are both acting like you never saw me dressed up before.” She put on Miss Lou’s mother’s drop earrings, sapphires surrounded by a circle of tiny diamonds, and took a step back. She tried to strike a sophisticated pose, but could not pull it off.

  “Oh, Elizabeth,” Miss Lou cried out, “you are just so lovely!”

  She walked over to her mother and put her arms around her. Miss Lou seemed fragile suddenly, like a china doll. “Mom, stop it. Really, you’re going to a party. Be happy!”

  Miss Lou tried a smile, but dissolved into tears again. “I wish your own dear mother could see you,” she sobbed, bringing tears to Elizabeth’s eyes, as well.

  “She can, darling, she can,” Baylor comforted, wrapping his arms around both women. “Now, let’s pull ourselves together. The music’s started out there and I’m ready to do some dancing.”

  He did a brief two-step for them, his big body as graceful as a young boy’s. Seeing her husband’s foolishness seemed to finally calm Miss Lou enough that they rose to leave. “We’ll be in the audience for the crowning, dear girl. But if I remember right, you can’t see a thing because of the lights. So remember to smile.”

  A sharp rap at the door interrupted Elizabeth’s reply. She opened the door and found one of the young men who served as pages standing there.

  “A delivery for you, Miss Monette.” He smiled a huge smile and handed her a black velvet box, about six inches by eight inches. “And if you don’t mind me saying, you look fabulous.”

  “Thank you,” Elizabeth told him, then shut the door and handed Miss Lou the package. “What’s this, mother? Another surprise? You’ve given me too much already.”

  Miss Lou opened the small white card that was attached to the box. “Maybe it’s from Mr. McCall,” she whispered to Baylor, and they both looked at their daughter.

  “Mr. McCall does not support the Queen of Midnight Committee’s efforts. Besides, as I told you on Christmas Day, Mr. McCall wasn’t a social acquaintance, he was a business acquaintance. And as of a couple of weeks ago, we had no more business together.”

  “Daddy and I think we saw him earlier. Out in the lobby with that nice Chief Foley. He’s wearing a tux!”

  “The chief?” Elizabeth deadpanned, unable to stop the sudden increase in her heart rate.

  Miss Lou raised her eyebrow at Baylor. He was oblivious and still staring at Elizabeth as if she were a dream.

  “Just open it for me, please.”

  “Are you sure, dear?”

  “Yes, ma’am. It’s probably a gift from the committee.”

  Miss Lou slid out a small white card and read the message in an unfamiliar hand aloud: “’From an Admirer.’”

  Elizabeth met the judge’s eye in the mirror. “Did you send this, Daddy?”

  “No. But I wish I had.”

  Miss Lou handed Elizabeth the package. “You open it.”

  She sat down and stared at the package as a sudden flood of anxiety pushed some of her gay feelings away. It was as if she had seen the box before. Carefully she felt for the tiny brass catch on the lid, and the top flew open. “Oh my, oh my,” she said in a shocked voice.

  Her parents rushed to her side, and they both gasped. “Will you look at that gorgeous hunk of shine,” the judge said.

  “But who sent it?” Miss Lou asked, turning to Elizabeth.

  She shook her head and stared at the obviously very old brooch pinned against the red satin backing. It was a miniature tiara, set in platinum, with a band of five rubies outlined by hundreds of diamond chips.

  Someone rapped three times on the door. “Hello, in there,” Katie Smiths called out. The door opened and the lovely physician, stunning in gold silk, peeked around the door. “Miss Hattie is here for a final dress check.” Her eyes widened when she caught sight of Elizabeth. “Oh, honey, I think Mama outdid herself this year!”

  Miss Hattie, all ninety pounds of her, resplendent in black bugle-beaded silk, darted in. She looked at Elizabeth without smiling, then ordered her to stand, turn, and walk toward her. The elderly seamstress noted the brooch in her hand.

  “What’s that, child? I don’t think this gown needs much dressing up!”

  Elizabeth opened her hand and presented the brooch for Miss Hattie’s inspection.

  “Elizabeth! Where on earth did you get that?” Katie asked. “Is it yours, Miss Lou?”

  “No, no, it’s not—” she began, but was cut off by Miss Hattie.

  “Let me see it here, Miss Elizabeth,” Hattie commanded. Elizabeth handed her the brooch and watched as Hattie turned it over several times, then held it up to Elizabeth’s dress. “Wear it, darling. It suits.”

  With a swish of skirts and a whiff of lavender, Miss Hattie was gone. Katie Smiths remained behind, an oddly serious look on her face. “You know, Elizabeth, I think I may recognize that jewelry.”

  “You do?” Miss Lou and Baylor said in unison.

  “Where did you see it?” Elizabeth asked, nervousness growing in her like choke-weed.

  “I think it’s in a painting. A painting of a past Queen.”

  Elizabeth’s heart raced. “Who was in the painting?” She knew the answer before Katie spoke.

  “Bennett Heywood’s mother.”

  There was a loud knock at the door, which immediately opened. Tommy Lee McCall, a dangerous look in his brown eyes, walked in. “Elizabeth, I have to talk to you before you go with the group to be introduced.” He nodded a greeting at the judge and Miss Lou, but from his stance everyone could see he wasn’t about to be put off.

  “What’s wrong, McCall?” Judge Monette demanded.

  “Nothing. Yet. But I need to talk to Elizabeth in private for a moment, if you folks don’t mind.”

  “I’m staying,” Baylor started, but Miss Lou cut in.

  “Now, Baylor, let’s leave these two alone. You heard Elizabeth say their relationship was just professional. Haven’t you always said ‘Business is business’?”

  “I’ll see you after the coronation,” Katie said, linking arms with Elizabeth’s parents and leading them out before the judge could protest anymore.

  Elizabeth stared at him, and Tommy Lee looked right back at her.

  “Just business between you and me, huh?”

  “Isn’t that the way you wa
nt it?”

  “Does what I want matter?” he countered. “It seems to me what you want is ruling the day.”

  “What do you mean?” she retorted. “You told me you didn’t love me that night in the hospital, Tommy Lee.” Elizabeth’s voice cracked but she raised her chin. “What more is there to say?”

  His jaw fell open and he took two steps toward her. Tommy Lee took Elizabeth in his arms, pain and incredulity clear in his face. “I said what?”

  Despite the makeup and the excitement and her pact with herself that she wasn’t going to go into this with him, she started to cry. Tommy Lee crushed her in an embrace, kissing her hair, her ears, her mouth.

  “Elizabeth, you foolish girl. I never said that. I would never say that I love you! You’re the one that sent me the Dear John letter. I thought you wanted no part of any kind of relationship with a broken-down cop—”

  “Shut up,” she said, a smile beaming through the tears, her hands on his dear face. “This is crazy, Tommy Lee. But I do love you.”

  Then came a quick rap on the door and the words, “Ten minutes, Miss Monette,” broke their embrace. Elizabeth accepted the handkerchief Tommy Lee extended and glanced in the mirror. She might be a bit smudged, but she thought she looked happier than she ever had. “I’m so glad you’re here. Walk down with me and you can watch the ceremony from the wings.”

  “Hold on. Now that you’ve made me the happiest guy I know, I can get back to what I needed to see you about. You’re in danger here tonight, Elizabeth. I don’t want you to go out there to the ceremony.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I know who your father is. He’s here. I saw him drive up, and everything fell into place. Remember the night Ray Robinson and Cracker Jackson were killed? The old woman who called the cops saw a pickup truck with a tailgate wired shut.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “And Katie mentioned to me she saw those pictures your dad had of the horse—”

  “Tommy Lee, I don’t know where you’re going with this!” Elizabeth finally shouted in frustration. She heard the ceremonial music outside and recognized the Queen’s march. She was supposed to be lining up in the corridor, getting ready to walk in the candlelight procession onto the stage.

  Tommy Lee draped his arms around her and held her close. Despite his certainty that disaster was about to strike, he was nearly undone by Elizabeth’s beauty. “Clay Willow’s fingerprints are all over the shotgun recovered at Luvey’s house, Elizabeth. We don’t know if they are from twenty years ago, when your mama was murdered, or from a few days ago when Luvey was, but he’s obviously up to his neck in this.”

  “Clay?” she replied in a dazed tone. “But he’s a handyman. He’s my father’s friend…”

  “No, he’s not, darlin’,” Tommy Lee was forced to reply. “He’s Bennett Heywood’s younger brother, Tyler Heywood. And unless I’m mistaken, Tyler Heywood, who disappeared from Belle Fleur when you would have been just five years old, is your biological father.”

  ELIZABETH SEEMED TO Tommy Lee to be in a state of shock as they hurried through the maze of utility tunnels under the auditorium. She had listened to his summary of how he had worked during the past week piecing together the last bits of information they had, and all the reasons he believed she was in danger.

  Despite all that had happened, though, she didn’t seem willing to believe that her blood kin would really try to kill her.

  “Are you sure he’s here?” she asked as they ducked down the hallway behind the kitchen and raced, her high heels clattering, for the service elevator that would take them up to the parking garage.

  “Yes. I saw him myself, but there was too much of a crowd between us and I couldn’t catch up to him. I think he has a gun with him.”

  “What?” She stopped suddenly, and Tommy Lee had to pull her along with him. “You mean he came in here toting a gun in plain sight?”

  “No, but I saw the outline of the holster against his tux. I don’t know how he thinks he could get away with anything in front of all these people.”

  Tommy Lee pulled back the heavy door of the service elevator. “Go ahead. Jump in.”

  Elizabeth stared at him. “Stop being such a cop. All you’ve done tonight is give orders.” She crossed her arms and refused to budge. “Tell me why, Tommy Lee. Tell me why you think my father killed my mother and those other people.”

  “Because he and your white-trash mama had a little baby that threatened to ruin the Heywood family, just like your white-trash grandma ruined my mama’s family,” said a female voice from the shadows.

  Elizabeth and Tommy Lee whirled to face the young woman stepping into the light, her face frozen into a look of hatred and fear. “So I think old Uncle Tyler just killed that little tramp, Marylynn. She was going to sue him, make the whole story public. Ruin Daddy’s career. It was bad enough she stole my grandmama’s brooch, Elizabeth,” the woman said, light glinting off the barrel of the gun she held pointed at them. “It didn’t belong to her. And it sure doesn’t belong to you.”

  Elizabeth cried, “Rosellen!”

  Tommy Lee started to move and put himself between Rosellen Heywood and Elizabeth, but she shouted, “Stay still or I’ll kill you, Mr. McCall! I just smacked you last time we met. This time, I’ll let the business end of the gun do the work.”

  “You killed Luvey, and Petey Connor?” Elizabeth gasped. “But why, Rosellen, why?”

  “Because I hired Cracker and his bum friends to make sure you were out of the competition. If my mama knew you were Marylynn’s little girl, and you beat me out for Queen, it would kill her. Luvey was just in the wrong place at the wrong time the other night.” She shrugged. “Course, the fact she was sleeping with my boyfriend and his daddy didn’t help her case when she asked me not to shoot her.”

  Rosellen was a surreal figure to behold. Her green eyes glittered in the dim light of the corridor, her silver dress glowed as if it were lit from within. “You two just step back into the elevator and shut the door. I’ll send you up to the parking lot.”

  Elizabeth followed Tommy Lee’s upward glance and saw the frayed cable above the gears of the elevator mechanism. The Belle Fleur Civic Auditorium was the biggest in the state, outside of New Orleans. It had four stories below ground, six above. If Rosellen got them even five stories up, they wouldn’t have a chance.

  “I worked on that a little every day, the past week. Used my daddy’s gardener’s shears. They work real good. I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell you all this or not, Elizabeth, us being blood relations and all, but when Miss Hattie told Mama she thought you had a brooch just like the one Dr. Heywood’s mama wore in the painting, well, I knew I had to, darling. ‘Cause, of course, my mama didn’t raise no fool.”

  “But, if what you say is true about Tyler Heywood, why would he send me the brooch, Rosellen?” Elizabeth asked. She was trying desperately to think of a way to distract the young woman just long enough for Tommy Lee to make a grab for the gun.

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t make too much sense, now that you ask. Maybe he was just trying to apologize for things.”

  A searing pain behind her eyes made Elizabeth gasp. She raised her hands to her face. “What?” Tommy Lee asked. “What is it?”

  Suddenly Elizabeth could see it all.

  She was five years old, waiting in her bed for her mama. She heard a loud popping noise, and a woman scream, and glass shatter. Even though she had promised her mother she wouldn’t, Elizabeth went back downstairs. And saw…no, not her kind-faced father standing in the kitchen, a huge, smelly gun in hand. Not Tyler Heywood, whom she knew as Clay Willow. He had not killed her mother.

  “Oh, my God!” Elizabeth cried out “It was India Heywood. India killed my mother!”

  Tommy Lee moved toward Rosellen, supporting Elizabeth with his shoulder. He heard applause above him. The orchestra was playing. “This is sick, Rosellen. Don’t do this to your family. They covered up what India did, God knows
how, but they can’t cover up this. Put the gun down. There’s still time for you—”

  “Stop it!” Rosellen raised the gun toward Elizabeth. “All Mama ever wanted was to be Queen of Midnight. Your grandmama, Elaine Gibbs, snagged my grandpa. All the good it did her. Her lover killed her husband and she ended up with no one, and my mother ended up losing her chance. What was Mama supposed to do when Tyler came home saying he and Marylynn Gibbs were going to get married and that she had his child? Poor Mama.” Rosellen shook her head, her glassy eyes shining even brighter with the movement.

  “Your poor mama?” Elizabeth suddenly yelled back, lunging out of Tommy Lee’s grasp. “What about mine? She was the one wronged, she was the one murdered! And your mother is a murderer, Rosellen. And now you’re just like her!”

  Rosellen began to laugh—a demented, animal sound. “And now you’re going to be just like your mama, Elizabeth. Dead!”

  Tommy Lee dived headlong at the woman. The gun went off in an earsplitting burst of fire and smoke while the ceiling plaster above them exploded like a grenade. Elizabeth screamed and Rosellen cursed.

  He wrestled the gun away just as Chief Foley and Clay Willow came running down the hallway, followed by a small band of Belle Fleur cops. India and Bennett Heywood brought up the rear.

  “Rosellen, baby girl, what have you done?” India cried, but Bennett held her arm. He was staring at his brother, Tyler, whom he hadn’t seen since that night twenty years before when he had broken the news that India had killed Marylynn.

  But Tyler Heywood was staring at Elizabeth. His face was white as the plaster floating like ashes in the air. The full grief of what he had lost, what he had agreed to cover up for the sake of his family, what it had cost him, showed in his eyes.

  “Elizabeth, I’m so sorry. Please, forgive me.”

  Elizabeth looked at him and shook her head. She was shaking, and thought she might scream if she had to talk to him. When Tommy Lee’s arm came up protectively, she buried her head against his shoulder. “Please, go away.”

  “I will. But just know, I had to put you up for adoption. There was no way we could let India go to jail for what she did to your mama. She was sick—”