Wedding Belles

by Beth Albright

  But the minute that election was over, my life would begin again.

  “Hey, handsome,” I said. “I hope you’re having a better day than we are.”

  “Well, it’s a hard day for a cop, too. We’re at the boat, and we’ve turned up some pretty substantial evidence on the Walter Aaron case.”

  “Oh, my God, Sonny, I forgot to tell you. I have a meeting with them in just a few minutes!”

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Well, it’s a bit much to go into over the phone. If you’re going to be at the river for a while, I could meet you after the Aarons leave.”

  “Okay, beautiful, I’ll be here.” He hung up.

  I loved how Sonny treated me. I know he couldn’t go into a lot of detail on an ongoing case, but, as much as it was allowed, he was willing to mix business with pleasure. He was able to work with me on some things, but he never demanded all the credit for something that I discovered. He always let me shine, too. So completely different from Harry.

  “Vivi, sweetie, I gotta run out to the river for this case I’m working on. You and Lewis are still okay as far as time to file for the wedding license goes. We will get this girl to sign the annulment papers, and everything will be all right. I promise. We’ll go up to Birmingham as soon as we can. Just hang on tight. I’ll call you later.” It was already late in the day and I still had my real job to get to.

  * * *

  I arrived at my office and parked in the back, as usual. Heat rose up in shimmering waves from the pavement. I hated to leave the cold air-conditioning of my car even for the few seconds it would take to walk inside.

  “Hey, Wanda Jo. I’m here,” I said to our secretary as I entered.

  Harry and I own our little practice together. I had always dreamed of having a husband who could be my partner on every level. Harry was that, and more, when we first opened our office. Now, years later, we barely qualified as reluctant roommates who occasionally inhabited the same space.

  “Y’all talk to the mystic this mornin’?” Wanda Jo asked as she brought in my Diet Coke.

  “The psychic? Yes, and Vivi is beside herself.” I took a swig of my ice-cold drink.

  “Oh, no, what did Myra Jean say? Is it bad news?” Wanda Jo stopped in front of my desk and looked at me.

  “She said when it comes to Vivi’s marriage, there is another woman involved.”

  “Oh, my Lord have mercy.” Wanda Jo sighed and sat herself down in one of my consultation chairs. “You know, I hate to say it, but Lewis was wild in his younger days. He’s changed, though, I thought, and he loves that Vivi so much.”

  “I know. I told Vivi maybe she was having a girl and that was what Myra Jean meant.”

  “Did she buy it?”

  “Of course not. And guess what? We just went to the courthouse to get their wedding license and it turns out that Lewis is still married!”

  Wanda Jo jumped from the chair. “Oh, my God, what do you mean still? That boy ain’t never been married far as I know.”

  “Well, yeah, as far as he knew, too—until he remembered a college prank where he married a stripper as part of a joke.”

  “Oh, Blake, that poor Vivi. What are y’all gonna do now?”

  “Well, I’m gonna pay her a little visit as soon as I can.”

  “Vivi is so lucky to have you.” Wanda Jo smiled at me.

  “We’ll get this fixed and then we’re gonna have us a wedding to beat all weddings,” I said, smiling back at her, hoping I was right.

  “Okay, then. I’ll let you know when the Aarons get here, and then I’m gonna put on the police scanner and listen for news of any new dead bodies.”

  I looked at her in confusion. “Dead bodies?”

  “Well,” Wanda Jo said with a smirk, “if Lewis can’t get this marriage annulled, it really might be him this time.”

  5

  Wayne and Wynona Aaron arrived right on time. Wanda Jo got everyone drinks and we headed into the conference room. The Aarons’ third sibling, Walter, had been killed in a barge accident two months ago and his body parts had washed up on the banks of the Black Warrior River. My cop, Sonny, always believed Walter was helped off that barge, but the barge company was trying to say he jumped. Sonny and his assistant homicide investigator, Bonita, were on the case like CSI, looking for clues about Walter’s death on the sequestered boat.

  “Hey, y’all, so glad you could make it in today,” I said to them as I took my seat at the table across from them.

  The older brother, Wayne Aaron, was a skinny man of average height with dark hair. His face was sad and earnest. “Thanks so much for taking our case, Ms. Heart. We tried to fight this on our own, but we got nowhere fast.”

  The sister, Wynona, was the middle of the three children. She was quiet and rounder than her brothers. “We’re simple people. Not used to all this fuss, and we only want this settled as quickly as possible.”

  I was trying to make sure I did just that, but I had a feeling this case was about to get really messy. “It’s not going to be easy. The barge company will not admit to any negligence, and since Walter had a perfect safety record, it’s become a battle to prove what happened. The insurance company will not pay out in cases of suicide.”

  “Ms. Heart,” Wynona said, “there is no way my brother would ever take his own life. Even though we were somewhat estranged, we knew he was the happiest he has ever been. He was in love and talking about getting married.”

  And there it was. The detail that could be the end of the Aarons’ case. “Do you know if he ever did get married?”

  “Not that we know of. Why?”

  “Because, if Walter did marry, and he changed his will, then the bride might be his new beneficiary. If he died before they officially tied the knot, then you two would inherit.”

  “Oh, I don’t like the sound of this,” Wynona said. “People might get the wrong idea.”

  “That’s true,” I agreed. “The fact that your parents are dead and your uncle recently left Walter a huge inheritance already has the insurance company questioning suicide for his cause of death, though that’s still their preference. The possibility that Walter was pushed is being investigated by the police now. This new information about Walter maybe having a wife will give the insurance company even more reason to stall.”

  “They can’t think we were involved,” Wayne protested. “We’ve already been cleared for the night of Walter’s death. Sure, things got a bit complicated between us since our uncle left the money to Walter, but, as we told the police, we haven’t been in touch with him, except by phone, for several months before he died.”

  The open-and-shut inheritance case I had envisioned with the Aarons was quickly disappearing into the horizon. “We need to find out about this woman Walter might have married. See if there are pictures. A name. Something we can check into to clarify the situation.”

  Wayne sighed. “I don’t remember him saying much about her other than he had only known her a couple of months. If he did marry that girl, it would have been the spur-of-the-moment. A real whirlwind thing.”

  “Well, even so, there’s got to be a record somewhere.”

  “We haven’t really gone through Walter’s effects,” Wynona chimed in. “Just kind of packed ’em up and shoved ’em in a storeroom. The thought of looking through all that stuff was too upsetting. There might be something in there, though.”

  I perked up. “Well, that’s a great place to start. Go and see what you can find.”

  “He sounded so in love,” Wynona added wistfully. “Why would his wife want to kill him if they just got married?”

  “Money can motivate people to do desperate things,” I said. “Then again, we have absolutely no proof that she’s had anything to do with Walter’s death at all. Do either of you kno
w if Walter had any enemies on the boat?”

  “No,” Wayne said, getting upset. “Everyone loved him at work. He had been working that barge for over ten years. Walter did not jump, but I refuse to believe anyone killed him. I swear that barge company overlooked a safety measure and now they just don’t wanna pay. They are looking for every excuse under the sun to get outta settlin’ his insurance policy.”

  “I hope you’re right, Wayne, but regardless, we still have a possible new beneficiary floating around out there. That issue has to be resolved,” I said. “For our next meeting, I will need any insurance papers you can find. Information on his death benefits and all the policies he had with the barge company or anyone else. Whatever you can’t find among his personal effects, I will subpoena. We will get to the bottom of this, I promise.”

  I stood up and reached out to shake their hands.

  “Thank you so much, Ms. Heart,” Wynona said as she shook my hand. “We couldn’t fight those folks on our own anymore, and things look like they’re getting a lot more complicated.”

  I agreed. “Let’s meet in a few days. Call me when you have gathered your brother’s paperwork and we will set up a time. Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can find out anything from the police. I have some pretty good connections down there at the station, and they will assuredly want to talk to you about this mysterious woman.”

  I walked the Aarons out to the front lobby and said goodbye. I told Wanda Jo I had to get down to the river.

  I was sure hoping Sonny didn’t have another body part to show me. I was still recovering from the last one.

  6

  I made my way down to the dock, perspiration rolling down my chest. Women in the Deep South don’t sweat. We perspire. But let me tell you, we perspire a lot. One hundred and two degrees, with one hundred percent humidity—that’s the Deep South in August.

  The cement walkway stopped just short of the barge, leading me onto a rocky path bathed in red dirt. Sonny and Bonita were hunkered down on the deck of the tugboat that was pushing the barge.

  “Hey, Blake, glad you could get here. I heard you have some information regarding the Aaron case,” said Bonita, the gorgeous, plus-sized, African-American spitfire Sonny hired last spring. She had a degree in Criminal Justice from Tuskegee Institute where her parents were both professors. She was smart and highly opinionated and I knew from the start I liked her style.

  She looked amazing in a cream-colored suit trimmed in black and big, dangly earrings. No one else would dress like this searching for evidence except Bonita. But she’s a former pageant winner herself, and it was just her style. Her makeup was done to perfection, and not melting like mine was, even in this unbearable heat. Note to self: find out how she does it.

  “Yes, I just saw the Aarons. They are the sweetest people. They just want to get to the bottom of this.”

  I glanced up at Sonny. He was looking at me with a silent grin in his eyes. Hiding our feelings was always more difficult in person.

  “Well, the Aarons may have to wait a little longer to settle this case,” Bonita said. “We still have a lot of investigating to do.”

  “Can I come aboard? I’ll tell you about the new little wrinkle in this case.”

  I joined them on the tugboat, but had to stay well back from the cordoned-off area. Once there, I related the Aarons’ refusal to believe Walter was suicidal. That in fact, he had sounded happy when they spoke to him and was contemplating marrying a girl he’d recently met.

  Sonny’s gaze narrowed. “Did they say when they talked to him?”

  “Shortly before his death.”

  “Well, this certainly complicates things,” Bonita said, hands on her ample hips. “We’re going to have to interview the Aarons again. Do they know anything about the woman?”

  “No,” I said, “but we have another meeting coming up and they’re gonna bring whatever they find after going through Walter’s effects.”

  “Bonita and I are going to be in on that little search,” Sonny added.

  “Why? Did you find something?”

  “Can’t go into specifics.”

  As we walked toward the front end of the boat, I saw the crime scene tape.

  I looked around nervously. A tugboat pushed a barge up the river. That much I knew. Was that where they thought Walter fell off, in between the boat and the barge?

  I stopped, staring at the area where the two boats hitched together.

  I took in the gouges in the wood and the scrapes and scratches in the paint, which didn’t look to me as though they’d come from the normal tug and push of the equipment. Dark spots dribbled down the side. My heart sank.

  “Do you see something?” Sonny asked, already knowing I did, although he hadn’t shown me anything.

  “It looks like there was a struggle of some sort in this area,” I said haltingly, noting exactly how far along the front and side of the boat the crime scene tape extended. “A big struggle, like somebody didn’t want to go overboard, but maybe someone else had a different idea.”

  Bonita just stared at me, remaining silent.

  I turned to Sonny. “The coroner’s report said there was bruising on Walter’s forearms and shoulders.”

  Sonny looked grim, but unsurprised. He’d obviously seen that report long before me.

  “What do I tell the Aaron family, Sonny?” I asked. “I need to update them so they know why the barge company won’t settle.”

  “Sorry, Blake. This investigation is ongoing,” Sonny said. “We’ll need to talk to the Aarons again and go through all of Walter’s effects ourselves. I’ll call his siblings when I leave here and set up a time.”

  “Who do you think did this? The new wife?” I asked. “Walter’s been working here for over ten years and was apparently well liked.”

  Bonita raised her eyebrows and shot Sonny a meaningful glance. “Looks like we got us a tugboat captain to talk to again. That story doesn’t quite mesh with my notes about Walter’s last day.”

  “The poor Aarons,” I said. “They’ll be so upset.”

  “Well, the poor Aarons better not leave town,” Bonita added. “I suspect everybody until proven not guilty.”

  This time, my eyebrows raised at the investigative team in front of me. “Okay, then.” It was definitely time for a subject change—they were clearly in business mode, and I didn’t want to be defending my clients to either of them right now. “You coming by Vivi’s for dinner tomorrow night after the station’s dedication ceremony, Bonita?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  “Why don’t you come, too, Sonny? It’s gonna be great. Arthur and Vivi are cooking together.” I smiled at him.

  “I’ll walk you back to your car,” Sonny offered. “You can give me the details.”

  “I’m gonna stay here and take a few more pictures. I’ll see you up there in the parking lot in a few minutes,” Bonita said, then walked back toward the front of the boat with her camera.

  Sonny and I headed back up the hill. Once out of view, he slipped his arm around my waist. “What else is going on, Blake? You said you were having quite a day. Anything I can help you with?”

  I told him all about Lewis and the Tressa Mae situation. And how Vivi was just coming undone over the whole thing.

  “Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to track her down,” Sonny said. “Sounds like you have a good start.”

  “Yes, Vivi and I found someone that matches her name in Birmingham. I’m gonna try to get up there by the end of the week,” I said as we reached my car.

  “I’ll help, if you need me,” he said. He bent closer.

  I knew he wanted to kiss me, but we were in public, and I was still the senatorial candidate’s wife. I wished I had never agreed to play that role. I hated all this secrecy.
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br />   “Will you be at the big ground breaking tomorrow?” I asked. “I’ll be there to support Vivi and Lewis.”

  Lewis was holding a media day at the Brooks Mansion, a huge, historic landmark in the center of town where he’d set up his new radio station, and it seemed everyone was going. The restoration of the mansion was starting so the station would be ready for the big Crimson Tide kickoff game the first weekend in September.

  “I’ll be there for sure.” Sonny grinned at me. “I’m not gonna pass up a chance to be with you, for no matter how short a time.”

  “And of course there’s tonight,” I teased, reminding Sonny of our plans later.

  “I wish you could just spend the night every night,” he said.

  I gave him a wink. “See you later, Officer.” I opened my car door, then slid in over the warm leather seats. I slipped my legs in, brushing my bare skin against his pants. He inhaled sharply, and I peered up at him and smiled my best bad-girl smile.

  He laughed, shook his head and shut my door. I was perspiring again, but the heat I was feeling had nothing to do with the hot summer’s day. The plan to spend the night at Sonny’s excited us both.

  I was trying desperately to hang on to whatever tiny part of the good girl that was left in me, but the bad girl was winning the battle, and I was slowly but surely losing all control of her.

  7

  It was just after 9:00 p.m. when I arrived in front of Sonny’s house. I sat looking at the front door, amber light glowing on the huge front porch, contemplating the changes that were taking place by this one, seemingly innocent act.

  I’m just going for dinner, I told myself. But I knew me all too well. It was late, we would have a drink, and his arms would be warm and delicious. I’d been so lonely for so long that my heart ached just at the thought of him holding me.

  Today had been hectic and stressful with the shower plans underway, and the Aaron case developing, not to mention the new search for Tressa. I just wanted to relax and make the world go away.