LOVE, HOPES, & MARRIAGE TROPES

by Abby L. Vandiver

  “I think that Chase’s grandmother was involved in the same scam that Miriam Colter and some of the other JOY Club members were involved in.”

  “And Bumper knew who did it?” Auntie Zanne asked.

  “Must have known.” I dug in my purse and pulled out my phone. “But we’ve gotta make sure he’s telling the truth.”

  “And how are you going to do that, darlin’?” Auntie Zanne said. “Make him take a polygraph test?”

  “What?” I looked at her. “No. I’m going to call Alex and find out if Chase really did give him the inhaler.”

  “Have you talked to Alex since dinner?” she asked.

  “That has nothing to do with this,” I said firmly.

  “I just think it would be kind of awkward to call him to ask him questions when you haven’t discussed your relationship lately.”

  “There isn’t anything wrong with our relationship.”

  “You sure?”

  “Oh goodness, Auntie,” I said. “Do you want to investigate this thing or not.”

  “Go right ahead,” she passed her hand in front of me, palm up as if she was serving something up. “I’ll just step back,” which she did, “and get the tissues ready.”

  “Who’s going to cry?” I asked. “Have you ever seen me cry about Alex?”

  “I always have a new travel-size pack of tissues on hand.” She patted her handbag.

  I ignored her and punched in Alex’s number. While it rang I started getting nervous. I glared at Auntie. She was the one making this complicated and me anxious. She was such a troublemaker.

  “Hi, Baby,” he said. “I was just thinking about you.”

  Seemed like he was always saying that when I called, yet he didn’t call. I guess the thoughts were good enough.

  “Hi Alex,” I said. I drew in a breath. “Can we talk later? If that’s okay.”

  “Sure. What’s going on?”

  “Got a question about what happened that day at the house.”

  “Okay. Shoot.”

  “Did the best man—a guy in a military uniform—give you an inhaler right before you got into the ambulance?”

  “Yeah. He did.”

  I let out the breath. He had said it so matter-of-factly, no hesitation in his answer. “You sure?” I said, which I knew was ridiculous to ask, he’d just said he had.

  “Yeah. Of course,” he said. “The guy pulled it out of his pocket and told me Bumper had dropped it when he fell.”

  “Then what did you do with it?”

  “Gave it to the paramedic for him to put with the patient’s personal effects. Remember I’d taken off his bowtie when I first started the rescue? And then, at some point we had to get him out of that jacket, too.”

  “So then what?”

  “I intubated him.”

  “No, I mean with the inhaler.”

  “It went with him in the ambulance. No one thought he’d been poisoned then, so no reason to do anything special with it,” Alex said. “Would have been with all his other stuff.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Is that all you needed?”

  “Yes. I guess that’s all.”

  “Okay. Call me then when you can talk. I’m going back to Chicago tomorrow. I’m not going to get a chance, I don’t think, to get back up there.”

  “It’s all right.” I paused. “Okay, then. I’ll call you.”

  “Okay, baby. Talk to you soon.”

  “What did he say?” Auntie said, before I could even click off.

  “He said that Chase was telling the truth.”

  “What does that mean then?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Probably that I should cross Chase Turner off my suspect list.”

  “Well, that was a waste of time, and now we’re running behind,” she said. “We’ve got to get inside.”

  But then I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks. “Auntie,” I said.

  “C’mon, Sugarplum. We gotta hurry.”

  “Auntie, look,” I said and pointed to the back of a black truck.”

  “What is it?” she said. She kept walking, not even turning around for her inquiry.

  “This is the truck that ran me off the road,” I called after her.

  She turned around, squinted her eyes, and put her hand on her hip. “I thought you said they didn’t run you off the road. You hit something and got a flat tire.”

  “Technically that is what happened,” I said. “I guess I exaggerated a little.”

  “I told you about reigning in your hyperbole,” she said and turned around. She waved her hand over her head and waved. “Come on, now. We’re late.”

  I shook my head. That’s what I get for lying. I should have told her the truth, I just hadn’t wanted her to worry.

  I looked at the back of the truck. The fleur-de-lis, it wasn’t blue, it was purple. And the yellow was gold. There was an eye in the middle. The tags were from Louisiana and the decal I’d seen across the back window, I had been right, was for the state university.

  None of my suspects were from Louisiana.

  I wonder where Mighty Max’s headquarters are...

  Now I just sounded silly.

  Chapter Forty

  I jotted down the license number. Pogue had no jurisdiction in another state, but I’d have to figure out some way to check it out.

  I got to the door, opened it and then stopped. The person who gave me such a scare was inside. Should I go in there? I peeked inside. It was full of people. At least two hundred. That person knew what I looked like, but I didn’t know what they looked like.

  What if they came to get me...

  “Can’t decide whether you want to go in or not?”

  I turned around, already knowing whose voice it was. It was Rhett.

  “I’m considering leaving,” I said.

  “That might not sit too well with Babet.”

  “I’m sure it wouldn’t,” I said.

  “Why don’t you come in with me?” he said and stuck out the crook of his elbow. “I can escort you in.”

  “I just saw the truck that was on the road that night you found me at the ME’s office.” He knew about it, maybe he could help.

  “Really,” he said, and turned back and looked toward the parking lot. “Who got out of it?”

  “I didn’t see who it was,” I said. “It was already parked when I noticed it.”

  “So you think the person is in there?” he asked.

  “That would be most anyone’s logical conclusion.”

  He laughed. “You’re right.” He turned again to look at the parking lot. “Maybe you could have your cousin, Pogue, run a check on it.”

  “It’s from Louisiana.”

  “He can make a call to their state police.”

  “Or maybe you can make a call to your FBI office?” He knew I was still on the fence about his affiliation with the agency. But that was partly his fault, he never gave me a straight answer.

  “Or, I can do that,” he said, a sly smile curling around the ends of his lips.

  “Yeah, right,” I said and stepped inside the door. “I’ll be alright.” I blew out a breath. “I don’t suppose anyone would try to do anything to me in a crowd of two hundred people.”

  “Didn’t stop whoever killed Bumper.”

  “Thanks for making me feel better,” I said.

  “Anything I can do to help,” he said. He put his hand in the small of my back and leaned down and whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. I’ll stay real close and watch your every move.”

  “I don’t want to put you out,” I said.

  “Oh, you won’t. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s what I do all the time.”

  “What?”

  “Watch your ever
y move.”

  I shook my head and sucked my tongue. “I have to find Auntie,” I said, and looked around the room. “I’m sure she needs me to do something.”

  “I’ll come with you,” he said.

  “There you are!” A voice came toward me.

  “Looks like she found you,” Rhett said.

  Auntie came sashaying across the room. Her navy silk dress shimmering as she walked, her arm filled with bangles and bobbles. Her white hair high in the top, not moving one bit as she moved.

  And walking next to her was Delphine Griffith.

  “Hi Miss Griffith,” I said. She looked at me and squinted her eyes, scolding. “I mean Delphine. What are you doing here?”

  “Remember I told you I had family in Roble?” Delphine said. She smiled at me.

  “That’s right you did,” I said.

  “I love to be around when praise is being heaped on family members, or in this case when they are doing the heaping.”

  “That’s nice,” Auntie Zanne said.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” she said, looking around. I want to say hello before the program begins.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  “That’s fine, Delphine,” Auntie said. “Romaine can talk to you after the awards ceremony.”

  “I’d like that,” she said.

  “Don’t be mean to her because she gave me information,” I said to Auntie after Delphine left.

  “I wasn’t being mean. Rhett, was I being mean to her?” Auntie said.

  I watched as Delphine made her way over to the back room where the people in the program were getting ready and pop her head in, seemingly waiting for permission to enter.

  “C’mon,” Auntie said, pulling me and my attention away. “I need to show you something.”

  “What?” I said. “Can’t it wait?”

  “No.” Her voice dropped to a whisper and she started walking. I guessed I was supposed to follow her.

  “Where are we going?” Rhett said.

  “You stay here,” Auntie said pointing at Rhett. “We’ll be right back.”

  Not moving, I looked over at Rhett. “Why can’t he go?”

  Auntie grabbed my hand and gave it a yank. “C’mon, I said.”

  “Can you tell me where we’re going?”

  “I’ve got a witness to the murder,” she said leaning into me.

  “You do?”

  “Well not to the murder, but to the motive for the murder.”

  “What was the motive for the murder?” I asked.

  She huffed. “Really?” She gave my arm another pull to move me along. “Bribery. Gratuities. Conspiracy!” she said.

  “Is this about Coach Buddy and Shane Blanchard?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Who else?”

  “Well then why couldn’t Rhett come?” I said looking back at him as Auntie dragged me in the back of the community center. “I thought it was his sting operation.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” she said. “The other day, he made it seem as if I didn’t know what I was talking about.”

  “Maybe he didn’t want to break his cover.”

  But before she got to answer we arrived at the storage closet where she’d stashed the Mighty Max drinks, and it seemed to stop her in her tracks. The door was standing open and there were only half as many cases of the watery blue-filled bottles as there’d been the first time she showed them to me.

  “Oh no!” she said.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I left King Patterson here.”

  “Who?”

  “He’s a football player. I’m also tutoring him in algebra so he can get a scholarship and play college ball.”

  “You’re tutoring someone in algebra?” I said, surprised.

  “Yes. Why is that surprising? Math is the same as when I was young, I learned it then never forgot it. Now I share what I know. It’s what we all should do. But that’s not my concern right now.”

  “I just never thought—”

  She grabbed my arm and put one finger up to her lips, telling me to keep quiet. Tilting her head, she seemed to be listening for something.

  “Did you hear that?” she asked in a strained whisper.

  “No,” I said in my regular voice.

  “Shhhh!” she said and pulled me away from the closet and toward the back door. It was made out of glass and led out to the back parking lot. She peered through the door, let out a whistle and said, “The nerve! Will you look at that?” And with that she turned, went back to the storage closet and grabbed a broom. I didn’t venture over to look out the door, whatever was out there, as far as I was concerned, could stay. But Auntie had other ideas for me. On the way back she clutched my hand and pulled me out the door behind her.

  “What the...!” I said, faltering at her show of strength.

  “I gotcha!” Auntie said, pointing her broom at Shane Blanchard who stood in the parking lot behind a truck, the bed filled with the missing cases.

  He chuckled when he saw Auntie. “The wicked witch of Roble. Where you off to on your broom?”

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she said.

  “I’m taking back my drinks. You don’t seem to want to do anything with them.”

  “You’re not taking those anywhere,” she said. “They’re evidence.”

  “Evidence of what?” he said. “Of a booster club president who doesn’t know how to take care of the local football team?”

  “Football?” she said, her eyes squinting. “Where is King?”

  “I’m right here, Mrs. Derbinay,” a boy said coming from around the truck.

  “What are you doing out here?”

  “I was just helping Mr. Blanchard,” he said, his eyes were big and he held out his hands like he was pleading. “It’s okay, Mrs. Derbinay,” he said. “Really it is.”

  “Leave the boy alone,” Shane said. “He doesn’t need anything from you, we’ve got him covered.”

  “You don’t have anything covered,” Auntie Zanne said and rushed Shane Blanchard with her broom.

  Chapter Forty-One

  It took King and I more than a minute or two to subdue Auntie and get the broom from her. King grabbed her around the waist and pulled her away, her feet kicking and her yelling, while I snatched the broom out of her tightly fisted hands. Still we couldn’t get Shane Blanchard to leave. Football player King dug up some defensive basketball moves—hands up in air, feet shuffling around Auntie to keep her from attacking Shane again—while I dug my phone out of my purse to call Pogue.

  “I’ll be back,” Shane said. “With lawyers. Those drinks are my property,” he shook a fist at us as he drove away. “And you can’t keep them.”

  “Auntie!” I said after hanging up from Pogue. “What in the world was that about? Causing a scene at the banquet. Attacking folks with a broom.”

  “Those drinks were evidence.” Auntie leaned against me, so tired she couldn’t hold herself upright. She wiped the sweat from her brow. “And no one saw me back here.”

  “Still,” I said and shook my head.

  “I told you Shane Blanchard gave me those cases of that Nasty Max as a bribe so I’d point Roble’s football players to him.”

  “You don’t know that for sure.”

  “I do now,” she said, huffing out of breath and pointed to King. “He was my witness. I told you I was going to look into it.”

  “I still am, Mrs. Derbinay.”

  “You were helping him take the evidence away,” she said, trying to raise her voice at King, but didn’t have enough breath.

  “Whether you have the drinks or not, it’s not stopping me from telling what I know,” King said. “I owe you that as much as you’ve helped me. And I told you I would.” He came over and stood by her, putting h
is hand in hers. “I just didn’t want him to hurt you.”

  “It looked like she was the one doing all the hurting,” I said.

  “Well, he better not come back,” Auntie Zanne said.

  “I’ve got Pogue on the way,” I said.

  “What’s going on?” It was Rhett. He was standing at the door holding it opened. “Something told me to come back and check on you guys.”

  “Well something told you too late,” I said. “Auntie just attacked Shane Blanchard.” I pointed to King. “With a broom.” King held it up and wiggled it back and forth.

  “Babet,” Rhett said and shook his head. “Didn’t I tell you to leave that man alone?”

  “He’s a no good scoundrel and somebody had to do something about it, plus he was stealing my Mighty Max.”

  “You don’t even like that stuff,” I said. We started walking back toward the door to Rhett.

  “On top of all that,” she said once we got inside, “he’s the killer.”

  “Killer?” Rhett asked.

  “She thinks he killed Bumper,” I said.

  “Mr. Blanchard killed Bumper?” King asked. “Oh man!”

  “We don’t know that,” I said.

  “I do,” Auntie said. “He and Coach Buddy.”

  “Oh yeah, I’m definitely telling on them,” King said. “Bumper was a legend around here.”

  “I guess he is now that he’s dead,” Auntie Zanne said. She looked at King. “I’m sorry you had to see that. But that man is hurting my boys.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I only helped him so he wouldn’t hurt you, but I see you don’t really need any back up.”

  Auntie shook her head and blew out a breath. “We’d better get started,” she said and nodded her head toward the front of the center.

  “Don’t you want to wait until Pogue gets here so you can make a report?” I asked.

  “No,” Auntie Zanne said. “I can do it after the banquet. King’s right, I don’t need that Deadly Max drink to get Shane Blanchard if I’ve got King. And trust me, he’s going to get it for trying to interfere in my boys’ hopes of going to school and playing ball.”

  “And for killing Bumper?” Rhett said, a smirk on his face, I knew he was just egging her on.

  “That’s not funny,” I said. “You see how out of control she gets.”