Lily Sprayberry Realtor Box Set

by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

  “Bonnie, I really appreciate what you’re doing for me, but you don’t have to do this. Really.” I gently took the sign from her, and the one from Henrietta, too. “I’m fine. This will all get worked out. We have video, and if necessary, my attorney will show that video in court. I’ll make sure of it.” I smiled. I couldn’t help myself. “And honey, defecate means to relieve one’s self, like they would in the potty. No one did that on my lawn. At least not that I know of.”

  Henrietta and Bonnie busted out laughing. I stood there for a moment and then I laughed, too. Millie had crept back outside to listen, but her face was stone cold, until finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore, and she laughed.

  She grabbed a sign from me, held it up and waved it at passersby. “Our Lily’s the one that got criminalized by a bunch of snooty women and their kids. She ain’t done nothing to these people, ya hear? They’re the ones breaking the law. You don’t support law breakers now, do ya?”

  The onlookers shook their heads. One of them even said no.

  “Well then you best be coming inside and buying yourselves a cup of coffee and showing Lily that support, because that’s what we do here in Bramblett County. We support those that do right by the good here in town, and that’s people like you, and me, ‘course, and Lily Sprayberry here. She’s all sugar, spice and everything nice, you hear me? Now get on inside and get yourself a cup of coffee, ya hear?”

  The onlookers nodded and walked into the café.

  “Dang Millie, you know how to work a crowd,” Henrietta said.

  “Darn right, I do.”

  Belle pulled up, got out of her car, and walked up. “What in heaven’s creation is going on here?”

  I wrapped my arm around her shoulder. “It’s kind of a funny story. Let’s grab our coffee, and walk Bo to day care, and I’ll fill you in.

  * * *

  “You’ll need to come down to the station to fill out the paperwork.” Dylan heard my heavy sigh over the phone. “It’s the process, Lily.”

  “I know. I just don’t like the process. The process is going to make my life even more miserable right now.”

  “The process is designed to make your life easier, Lily Bean.”

  “Tell that to the hundreds of other victims who disagree.”

  “I didn’t make the laws, I just work them to the best of my ability, and that’s all I can do.”

  “I know, and I appreciate it. When do I need to be there?”

  “I’ve got Matt and two other deputies on their way to get the good for nothing criminals now.” I could feel his smirk through the satellite across the sky. “So, maybe thirty minutes?”

  I laughed. “Those good for nothing criminals are going to pay.”

  “Darn straight they are.”

  “Wait, aren’t the boys in school?”

  “Yep.”

  “Do we really need to take them out of school for this? They might miss something important, like a test or something.”

  “They committed a crime, honey. Several, actually. It’s called consequences. Don’t be getting all soft on me.”

  “You’re right.” I tightened my core and pushed away the softer side of my emotions for the tougher side. “I am strong. Rawr.”

  Belle heard that comment from across our office. “Have you been listening to your mother’s CD’s again?”

  I held the phone away from my mouth. “Maybe.”

  “Bless your heart.”

  Dylan laughed. “I heard that. See you in a bit, Helen Reddy.”

  “It might be a little longer. I’m working on a listing, but I’ll be there soon.”

  “Don’t wimp out on me, Lily Sprayberry.” He clicked off the call.

  “He totally knew the song,” I told Belle.

  “Of course he did. He loves you.”

  I hummed the rest of one of my mother’s favorite songs under my breath. It was one that always empowered her, and I needed to feel empowered. I sat in my office chair and stared out the window, watching people sneak peeks at me sitting at my desk staring at them. I wondered what they were thinking, and if they were curious about the situation. “This doesn’t make sense.”

  “What?”

  “What they’re doing to me.”

  “Sure it does. They don‘t want their program cancelled, and they can’t make an impact by bullying the sheriff because that’s illegal, so they’re bullying his girlfriend instead.”

  “But that’s illegal, too.”

  “Only if they get caught.”

  “But they did get caught.”

  “Because they were stupid and didn’t realize you have security cameras on your house.”

  “I don’t think so. I think they’re trying to distract me, at least one of them is. The killer.”

  “Distract you from what?”

  “From the truth.”

  “Oh no. Not again.”

  “What?”

  “You know what. The killer’s already in jail. Bobby Yancy is the killer.”

  I tapped into my laptop. “Maybe, but I don’t think so.”

  Belle rolled her chair to my desk. “What’re you doing?”

  “Looking for something.”

  “I know that much. What exactly are you looking for?”

  I pulled up Facebook. “Ginnie Slappey’s sister-in-law is a nurse, and Michael Longley’s wife is a nurse.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m checking Clarissa’s account.” I typed in her name. “I don’t know much about her family. Do you know if anyone is in the medical field?”

  She shrugged. “No clue. In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m not a big fan of hers.”

  I smiled. “I had no idea.”

  “Don’t you have to go to the sheriff’s office?”

  “That can wait. Dylan already knows what happened. He probably just needs my signature or something.”

  She raised her eyebrows, and I knew she thought I was full of cow dung, but I didn’t care. I was on a mission. “Okay. If you say so.”

  I perused through Clarissa Mooney’s friends list looking for anyone I knew or might have known. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize all that many people. She wasn’t from Bramblett, but Forsyth County, so her people weren’t our people, and though I knew some of them, she’d yet to fully integrate herself into our world. That may have sounded strange, but even though there is a hominess to small towns, and we did tend to welcome people easily into our fold, sometimes we got a bit judgmental. I wasn’t immune to doing that, especially when it involved murder.

  I went through every single person with her last name as well as everyone with her married name, but not one person that allowed public access to their account had a medical background, if any job information was shown. When I explained that to Belle, she acknowledged the obvious.

  “Some people don’t share their private information on Facebook for creepy stalker people like you, Lily. You’re just going to have to find out the old fashioned way.”

  “First of all, I’m not a creepy stalker person, and how do you suggest I go about finding out?”

  “Like you find out everything else. You ask.”

  My cell phone beeped with Dylan’s text sound.

  “You’re in trouble now.”

  I hit the silencing button on the side of my iPhone and kept searching through Clarissa’s friends, hoping I’d find someone that would lead me down the right path. It beeped again.

  “Lily, you need to go. He’s going to send someone for you if you don’t.”

  Matthew popped into the office just then.

  My mouth dropped open, and I grunted. “Uh, what are you psychic or something?”

  “Or something.”

  Matthew stood straight as an arrow with his arms behind his back. “I’m here to escort Ms. Sprayberry to the station.”

  “Oh, bless your heart. You’re being all official and stuff. That’s so adorable.” Belle popped out of her seat and ran to her beau, slopping his fac
e with kisses. Matthew tried desperately to stay all official like, but he couldn’t.

  He smiled and laughed. “Stop it, Belle. If I go back with lipstick on me, the guys won’t let me live it down.” He wiped his face.

  She winked at me.

  I got back to Facebook and my investigation.

  Belle marched over and pulled me from my chair. “Lily Sprayberry, you get your little booty up out of that chair, and get yourself to the sheriff’s office right quick, you hear me?”

  “But, I have to—”

  “Stop it. You have to do what the sheriff says. Now scoot. I’ll take care of things here. I’ll have some homes for us to look at for the B and B when you get back. You’ve got to give yourself a break. Let the boys do their job, you hear?”

  “What are you, my mother?”

  “No way. I wouldn’t wish that on your own momma.”

  “Nice.” I packed up my things. “I can drive and meet you there,” I told Matthew.

  “No, ma’am. The sheriff requested I drive you. Apparently, he doesn’t trust you. You were supposed to be there a while ago.” He smirked.

  I hung my bag over my shoulder. “The sheriff is so untrusting sometimes.” Waving goodbye to Belle, I headed out the door with Matthew. “How long is this going to take? I have a lot of work to do.”

  He rubbed my shoulder without a bag hanging from it. “It’s going to be fine, Lily. We’re not going to let them do anything more to you. I promise.”

  As if I was afraid of a bunch of lacrosse moms. Okay, I was because they were pretty darn scary, but really, who wouldn’t be? That was a lot of toilet paper they’d flung all over my trees, and the words they’d spray painted on my driveway? No lady ever used those kind of words. The ugliness was uglier than any ugly I’d ever experienced, and that was a lot of ugly.

  * * *

  I signed the paperwork and watched them all being processed in a matter of minutes. They paid their own bail, and Dylan and I waited for the women in an interrogation room before they were allowed to leave.

  “Exactly why are we here again?”

  “Because you’re going to have a talk with them.”

  “Are we allowed to do that?”

  “You are.”

  “But I don’t want to.”

  He pulled his chair close to mine. “Yes, you do Lily, and you know that as well as I do. So, here’s your chance. I can’t be here, but you’ve got this.” He kissed my forehead and walked out before I could think of an excuse to leave with him.

  Because, the truth was, he was right. It was my chance to talk to them. In a controlled environment, with trained law enforcement officials close by in the event someone tried to slice my head off with a lacrosse stick. Seriously, those things looked like they’d hurt.

  Four lacrosse moms walked into the room, one by one, escorted by Matthew, the traitor, as I’d decided to officially call him. He nodded, gave me a slight smirk, and left the room.

  The women sat, each of them offering me their own particular hoity toity expression, Ginnie Slappey’s being the most nervous one of them all. That caught me off guard, so I decided to start with her.

  “Why? What was the reason for doing this to me, Ginnie? What purpose did it serve? You’re obviously the pack leader, so you tell me.”

  She winced and chewed on her left forefinger’s nail. “Why would you think I’m the pack leader? I’m the booster club president, that’s all. I’m not a pack leader.” She rubbed her arms and glanced around the room. I took note of her quick look at Clarissa Mooney, which surprised me. Could I have been wrong about the pack leader?

  “Okay then, Clarissa, what about you? I mean, I wouldn’t call us friends or anything, but come on. What’s the deal here? You heard it straight from the athletic association people. This isn’t something Dylan can control, so why are you all harassing me? Lord knows you can’t get blood from a turnip.”

  She sat there, arms crossed over her chest, tight lipped, and refused to say a word.

  I drew in a long, frustrated breath and released it after feeling calmer. “Right. We’re going to play it this way.” I stood up and walked from one side of the room to the other. “Let me tell you what I think. I think there’s something going on, and y’all are trying to cover it up, or distract me or the sheriff from finding it out.” I wiggled my finger at Ginnie Slappey. “But see, that’s not how this is going to work.” I walked over to her and pointed directly at her ring finger. “Where’s your wedding ring, Mrs. Slappey? Things not going well between you and your husband?”

  Beads of sweat formed on her forehead. “I…I—don’t be rude, Lily. It’s not ladylike.”

  I slammed my hands down on the table. “And T-Ping my house and spray painting cuss words on my driveway with your teenage son for no reason is?”

  The four women jerked back in their chairs.

  “It was a prank, Lily, that’s all,” Clarissa said.

  “T-Ping is a prank. The spray painting crossed the line into criminal intent, and involving your sons? Well, now. My momma says that beauty is only skin deep, but that ugly? Well, ugly goes clean to the bone, and what y’all did to me, that right there was some kind of ugly for sure. So there you go. You tell me what that says about you in your pretty little designer jeans and fancy tops, with your spray tans and department store make up. Oh, and what it says about your boys and their fancy, overpriced cars they’ll never be able to afford on their own if they can’t get their grades up and get into good colleges. Y’all know I got a business and marketing degree from Georgia, right? Where’d y’all get your MRS degrees? Community college? How’s that working for ya, Ginnie? And Ginnie, Is T-Ping houses how you want your boy to treat women? With that kind of disrespect? Is that how your husband treats you? Or wait, I bet he up and left you, didn’t he?” I sat in my chair across from them so they wouldn’t see my legs shaking like leaves falling from a tree, that’s how nervous I was. “Tell me about that.”

  Every one of the four women flinched.

  “We have it all on video you know. What you did to me? Clear as the moon in the midnight sky, yes we do.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Emm hmm.” Dear God, I couldn’t believe I’d pulled off that act. I deserved an Emmy. I was half ready to cry from fear and pride.

  The two women I didn’t know flicked their eyes at each other, and I knew I had at least two of them more scared than a church mouse.

  “You didn’t expect that, did you? You thought you’d go along with your buddies here, right?” I nodded for them. “Thought you’d be part of the popular crowd. Figured nothing could happen? I mean really, it’s okay. You’d be safe. They’ve got your back. Just like all your friends in high school did, right?” I laughed because we all knew that was a pipe dream then, too. I’m dating the county sheriff. The sheriff.” I said sheriff with added intent. “Did y’all think you’d get away with this? Really? I got some great security cameras all over my house, and my neighbor, he even saw you doing what you did, so the gigs up ladies. You’re done.”

  One of the women fidgeted, and I knew she wanted to say something. She finally opened her mouth and began to speak, but Ginnie Slappey coughed, and she hushed right up.

  I sat in my chair. Annoyed and losing my patience, I didn’t know what else to do, or what else to say to get the women to tell me what was going on, but it sure felt good having the say that I’d had.

  “I don’t know what’s going on here, but it stinks to high heaven.” I stood and walked to the door. “And you can bet those designer handbags of yours I’m going to find out.”

  Chapter 9

  “Come on, you’ll love it, I promise.” Belle dragged me to see an old beat up cabin style home in the mountains after my visit with the trespassing criminals. I didn’t want to go, but at least I was able to tell her about my talk with them on the way to the place.

  “They are worse than snakes in the grass, I swear. If my granny was there, she’d have tied them to a tree and beat them w
ith the clothes line, I can promise you that.”

  “And I would have watched just for giggles.”

  “I might have too,” I said, and I didn’t feel one ounce of guilt for saying it, either. “But I will say, I did a mighty fine job of acting all Belle-like, and brave, and putting up a good front. It was scary.”

  “Sweetie, you showed them you’ve got gumption. Matthew said he watched from the other side of the glass and you were fabulous. I bet you could be on your very own crime TV show.”

  “Lily Sprayberry, Failed Interrogator Extraordinaire.”

  “Now don’t you go and do that to yourself. You put them on warning, and that’s what matters.”

  “I told you, something is going on, and I’m determined to find out what. The key is Ginnie Slappey. I don’t know why I think that, but I do.”

  “Why just Ginnie Slappey though? Didn’t that Yancy guy warn you about all of them?”

  “He did, yes, but I feel like Ginnie is the key to this. I don’t know how or why, or even if she’s controlling it, but I think she’s the key. Maybe. Though she did kind of falter at first, but only a bit.”

  She nodded slowly. “Okay, you’re not making an ounce of sense, but whatever you say.”

  I knew she didn’t quite get it, but that was okay, because I didn’t either. It was just a feeling.

  We pulled up to a charming, if not run down, cabin at the top of a hill in the woods.

  “Isn’t this adorable?” Belle asked.

  “Okay, I’ll give you that. It’s adorable.”

  “Now, don’t get all snooty when you walk in. I’ll admit it needs some work, but I think it’s totally us, and no, it’s not a B and B thing. I’m over that, I promise, but I do think we could keep it, rent it out maybe, and use it ourselves.”

  “What’s it cost?”

  “One-twenty-five.”

  “That’s well under our budget.”

  “I know, so we can put extra into redoing it.”

  “That’s the part I struggle with, the redo.”

  “Just go inside and check it out. I promise, you’ll love it.” Belle got out of the car and all but ran up the porch steps and to the front door. “Come on slow poke, get a move on.”