Lily Sprayberry Realtor Box Set

by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

  I took the same seat I’d taken the other day and caught a glimpse of the photo on his desk again. He caught me staring at it. “Is your wife still a nurse?”

  “Yes, she’s up at Northside Forsyth. The women’s center there.”

  “Oh, that’s great.”

  “She just started there a few months ago actually.”

  “Must be fun. Is she working in the labor and delivery unit?”

  “The birth center, yes, but only part time. We have the two boys involved in several activities now, so it’s easier for her to work while they’re at school.”

  I nodded. “Makes sense. Anyway, I had an interesting situation recently, and I’m wondering if you can help me out. I’m not really sure what to do, or even if there’s anything I can do, so I’m appealing to your expertise.”

  He tilted his head. “Okay?”

  “A few of the lacrosse mothers came to my house.”

  “And you survived? That’s good.”

  “It was a little intense.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “And I’ve had a few run ins with Clarissa Mooney, not to mention a talk or two with Ginnie Slappey.”

  “Well, looks like you’re making the rounds, winning friends along the way for sure.”

  “Not by choice for all of them either, I promise.”

  Michael Longley shuffled some papers on his desk and closed his laptop. “The mothers can be a bit on the trying side, that’s for sure. What can I help you with?”

  “For starters, you can tell them to get off my back.”

  He waved his hands from side to side in front of his chest. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not getting involved in that. I’m not man enough to step over that line, and I fully admit that.”

  I chuckled. “Are they really that bad?”

  “Last season I pulled the best player out of the team for initiating a fight during a game. Just for that game, and it was the last five minutes of the fourth quarter. The kid’s mother pitched a fit, went to the principal, and two weeks later your buddy got the head coach job, so you tell me.”

  “Did you want the head coach position?”

  “Not only did I want it, I deserved it.” He pushed his chair back and placed his right ankle onto his left knee. “Lily, I’ve been the interim coach for four years. I’ve built this team since these seniors were freshman. I know these boys. I know how they play, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to best motivate them. I’m their coach. I’ve done the hard work. I’ve made them mad enough they’ve told me to stick it where the sun don’t shine, and they’ve even offered to do it for me. Anyone that would come in now would be getting a strong, winning team. Our record is unbeatable. We were undefeated last year. We should win the state championships this year. In fact, it’s ours to win. A little, barely known county from North Georgia winning the state lacrosse championships with an interim coach? What team wouldn’t hire that guy?”

  “One with uppity parents that control the program?”

  He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “You got that right.”

  “Wow. I don’t recall it being like that when I was a kid.”

  “Oh, I’m sure it was to some degree.”

  “So, what are the odds of you getting the position now?”

  He shrugged. “No program, no coach.”

  “And no scholarships for the momma’s boys.”

  “Bingo.”

  “Do you think someone associated with the team could have killed Carter?”

  “I wouldn’t put it past them.” He rubbed his palms together as if he wanted to warm them. “I’ll be honest though, I don’t think it was Bobby Yancy, and when I’m interviewed by the sheriff’s office, which is in a few hours, I’ll tell them that.”

  “Why don’t you think it was him?”

  “I’ve known Yancy for years. He may fly off the handle a time or two, sure, but he’s not a killer. At least I don’t think so.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “The guy’s like a teddy bear. Like I said, he’s got himself a bit of a temper, but he’s struggling. He’s a janitor. You know what kind of money they make? Heck, I’m barely covering the bills now. I can’t imagine he’s making close to what I am. I just can’t see him taking it to the next level. Now one of the wives though, yeah.” He nodded. “Those women, I’d watch out for them.”

  “There’s talk of something going on between Ginnie and Carter. Had you heard anything about that?”

  “There’s always been talk of something going on between Ginnie and someone, but I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with that one. Ginnie’s got a reputation, but I’ve never seen anything to validate it. If you’re looking for a possible suspect,” he tilted his head and gave me a glance that I read to mean, and we both know you are, and said, “I don’t think Ginnie’s your girl. Maybe one of the other, more aggressive ladies deserve a look.”

  “How are the rest of the boys’ grades? Maybe one of their mothers would be that desperate? Rumors say a few of the kids are struggling and were at risk of being suspended, or I guess should have been. Is that true?”

  He nodded. “I’d talked with Carter. Told him he shouldn’t go that route, but he planned to suspend a good bit of them. It would have killed the team, but he was a rule follower. Said he was going to hold tutoring sessions. Had already set up some agreement with the math and science departments, and I guess had arrangements in process with the literature department, too. His plan was to get the boys in here two days a week after school and on Saturday mornings to study. Thought he could get their grades up and have them improved in no time. You ask me, that would have destroyed any chances of a state championship, but I didn’t have a say in the matter.”

  “So, how many boys are you talking about? Three? Four? More than that?”

  “Seven, maybe eight.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah.”

  “How many players are on the team?”

  “And the team only has fifteen.”

  “But they could have gotten their grades up to play?”

  “No guarantee.”

  “I guess that’s on the kids then, and their parents, too.”

  “Not everyone would agree with that.”

  “But it’s the rules.”

  “Some rules are meant to be broken.”

  “Has the athletic association ever cancelled a program like this before?”

  “One down south, but it was years ago.”

  “Did they reinstate it?”

  “Eventually.”

  “That’s good to know. Maybe this is just a scare tactic then?”

  “Who knows? They’re talking fines and permanent termination of the program.”

  “Permanent?”

  He nodded. “Now you get why the parents are up in arms about this. Those D1 scholarships don’t go to kids who don’t play, and they especially don’t give them to kids who play for terminated programs.”

  “D1’s?”

  “Division One.”

  “Wouldn’t the seniors already have theirs by now?”

  “Some, but definitely not all. We were a sleeper team last year. Came out of nowhere. We weren’t even on the radar really, so now these kids have all this exposure, and we’re pulled? Don’t look good for the program here at all, and the kids are the ones that suffer, by no fault of their own.”

  “Except for their poor grades.”

  “May be true, but again, we haven’t let that be an issue in the past, so they haven’t been trained to worry about that.”

  It wasn’t a point worth arguing, and I’d come to realize it wouldn’t do me any good with the mothers of the kids either. They didn’t play by the rules, even if the state athletic association did. I wasn’t sure how that would all play out, but I hoped the meeting later would make a difference. “Are you going to the meeting tonight?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it. And I suspect whoever is responsible for Trammell�
�s murder will be there, too.”

  I’d stood to leave, but his comment stopped me in my tracks. Did he know something I didn’t? And was he trying to give me a clue? “Why do you say that?”

  “Miss Sprayberry, whoever killed your friend did it because they’re invested in this program one way or another. You want to find who did it, you pay close attention tonight. You’ll find your killer.”

  * * *

  Belle sipped her double espresso latte while we sat at Millie’s Café, and I filled her in on my recent events. “Do you think he was trying to distract you from picking him as the one?”

  “I don’t know. It was a little disconcerting, that’s for sure. He made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.” My whole body shook at the thought. “I don’t like that man.”

  “I can tell, and I don’t like him either.”

  “Thank you.”

  Millie brought us our peanut butter and strawberry jam on whole wheat sandwiches with a side of kettle chips. It was the best early before a tense public meeting supper a girl could ask for, and it was on the house, so that made it even better. For reasons I didn’t understand, Millie had taken both of us in as her own, and more and more of our coffee, tea and meals were on the house. I quickly wrote a note on a piece of paper and folded a twenty dollar bill into it and stuffed it into her tip jar. The note read, this twenty is only for Millie because she’s Bramblett County Realty’s favorite. We love you.

  I scooted back to our table before she charged out of the kitchen toward us again.

  “Thank you for doing that,” Belle said.

  “She’s so good to us.”

  “That she is.”

  Millie slid us each a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce next to our plates. I smiled, but Belle groaned. “My hips will never forgive you. My stomach and taste buds on the other hand are loving you like crazy. Thank you, Millie.”

  I finished chewing a bite of my heavenly sandwich, a reminder of my youth when life was so much simpler. A time when my biggest worries were which Spice Girls song was my favorite, or if I’d get to watch Charmed, and what sleazy outfit Alyssa Milano and the others wore in it, and how much of a tizzy my momma went into over them, not escrow, and closing contracts, or how a lacrosse coach was murdered, and who had the motive and means to stab him in the neck with a needle. I missed that easier time. I smiled at Millie, wishing her sandwich and chips could magically take us back there, if even for a minute. “Yes, thank you, Millie. You’re incredible. Best sandwiches in town.”

  “Now don’t go telling your momma that. You know she’ll pitch a fit if she thinks I replaced her cooking.”

  “Hey, she’s the one that up and deserted me. You’re here. Tell her to do the math.”

  “Bless her heart, she raised a sassy one, didn’t she?”

  I laughed. “Just like herself, and she’d say the same thing.”

  “You two going to the meetin’ tonight?”

  “We are, and we’re waiting on our army to show up and come with us.”

  Millie flicked her eyes to the entrance to her café. “Looks like you’re done waiting.”

  Bonnie busted through the door in her standard potato sack dress, a pale pink and light red floral print, and a southern hat straight out of the 80s. A classic dyed white, straw styled beauty with silk flowers in pinks and reds sticking right out of the front for the whole world to see. A doozy of a looker, that was for sure. The whole county would see her coming from Highway 75 in Atlanta if they looked.

  “Oh my. Looks like Bonnie went to Walmart today and done and let someone throw up on her head when she got there,” Millie said.

  “Hush.” I giggled under my breath.

  “When we’re older, don’t ever let me leave the house like that.” Belle kicked me under the table. “Promise.”

  “I cannot make that promise.”

  “You’re a horrible friend.”

  Henrietta came in behind Billy Ray and Old Man Goodson. I made the assumption that meant Old Man Goodson was her man of choice for the evening, but one could never be sure, so I didn’t assume that out loud.

  “Hey y’all. You ready for the big party?” Bonnie asked.

  “It ain’t no party, you big ninnie. This is war. They’re going after our Lily and the sheriff. We got to be prepared for battle,” Henrietta said.

  “I think Bonnie’s prepared for battle just fine,” Belle said.

  I kicked her under the table.

  “Ouch.”

  “I said hush, and you didn’t hush.”

  “Technically, you said hush to Millie, and for the record, I was complimenting her.”

  “Underhandedly.”

  “A compliment’s a compliment.”

  “You ain’t prepared for no battle. You’re prepared for Sunday supper at the Golden Corral,” Henrietta said.

  Her dress wasn’t all that better, but her hat did win, if I was being honest. A simple, pale yellow fitting thing, made, I thought, of felt, with a small silk carnation pinned on the side. Very classy, but still traditional Southern through and through.

  Bonnie flared out her dress with her finger tips. “I’m glad you like it.”

  Henrietta snorted. “The dress is fine. It’s the hat I’ve got problems with.”

  I glanced at my watch. “We’ve got fifteen minutes to get to the school. Belle said she’d drive.” I gave them all another cursory once over. “No one brought any weapons, right?”

  Henrietta’s eyes shifted to Old Man Goodson. He bowed his head.

  “Do you have anything on you?” I asked.

  “No, ma’am.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Okay, then. We’ve got to go. Belle’s car is right outside.” I left another large tip for Millie and headed toward the door.

  She grabbed the tip, stuffed it in her pocket, and locked the door behind us. That’s my girl, I thought, because she definitely deserved it.

  In Bramblett County, the whole county shut down for big events like town meetings because any event ended up like a party whether it was a murder, a football game, or a place for people to hoot and holler.

  Chapter 8

  We should have gotten to the high school earlier, and we all realized that when we got there. By the time we arrived it was already standing room only, but that was okay, because Dylan had arranged for us to have special seating behind the podium, near him. The problem was navigating through the crowd of people in the parking lot to our reserved parking spot. But Belle, bless her heart, born and raised in Bramblett County, drove like a New Yorker, and had the patience of one, too, so at least there was that.

  If her momma had been in the car, surely, she’d have had a heart attack. Poor Billy Ray, he white-knuckled it the whole time in the parking lot. He said anyone that drove with Belle didn’t have the good sense God gave them, and after that experience, I was on his side.

  “Well, come on. These kids wouldn’t get their heads out of their phones if Jesus came down and sat in front of them.”

  “These kids wouldn’t know Jesus from the man that sells them cigarettes in the county down the way,” Old Man Goodson said.

  “Times sure ain’t like they used to be, are they?” Bill Ray asked.

  If I’d closed my eyes, I could have sworn I was sitting next to my pawpaw and his bestie, and it made me smile. “They’re just doing what they know how to do. They’ll come around, just like we all did.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Bonnie said. She got out of the car and bumped into one of the kids doing what he knew how to do.

  “Watch it lady,” he said without looking up from his phone.

  She tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey now, your momma hear you talk like that?”

  He turned around and when he saw the fire in Bonnie’s eyes, he cowered. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean no disrespect.”

  “Well, good, ‘cause that ain’t the way a boy treats a girl, no matter
what her age.” She smiled. “But I’m glad you apologized. No, go on. Get outta here.” As the boy rushed away, she hollered, “And put that phone a yours in your pocket, you hear?”

  He did as he was told because nobody messed with an old woman in a straw hat.

  We pushed and shoved our way to the podium, and Bonnie and Henrietta sat in the only two metal folding chairs left. I checked out the crowd, noticed a bunch of familiar lacrosse faces right up front and center, and snuck in a quick conversation with Dylan.

  “Good luck. Watch the people from the team. Longley thinks one of them is your killer.”

  He smirked. “When did he go through the police academy?”

  I shrugged.

  “FYI, we have our killer, remember?”

  “He thinks otherwise. Just be on alert, that’s all I’m saying.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And I hope you can keep the masses pleased, because this crowd will get ugly if you don’t.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “Well then you should be very afraid.”

  And I was right.

  When the representative and legal counsel from the Georgia Athletic Association informed the crowd that the entire school’s athletic program was under investigation, and until that investigation was complete, all sports programs were cancelled, and possibly permanently, from the up rise in the crowd, one would have thought the world was ending.

  Dylan had his entire department on hand, but even they struggled to keep the crowd from rushing the podium. The only thing that stopped the racing mass of angry parents and students was a single gunshot blasting through the gymnasium. The loud boom silencing the angry mob, at least until it sent them into total mayhem.

  That shot Bonnie shot off from her metal seat behind the podium. Right at the ceiling of the school gym. “That’ll quiet ‘em down right quick,” she said.

  But like I said, mayhem had taken over, and people screamed as they made a run for every exit available, pushing their way through the crowd, the crowd of virtually every single person residing in Bramblett County. Howling toddlers begged for their mommas, old ladies were knocked to the ground like dominoes, and teenagers shoved their way through everyone as if no one mattered but them. Like every other day in their lives.