by Riley Adams
“Hello?” she asked sharply. She didn’t recognize the number on the caller ID.
“Hi,” said an odd, disguised-sounding voice. “This is a friend.”
Chapter 16
Lulu’s heart started throbbing hard in her chest. “What friend? Who is this?”
“Never mind who,” said the strange voice. “Just listen. Stop nosing around in the murders or you’ll be next.”
“Who is . . .” started Lulu, but there was a click, indicating that the caller had hung up.
Lulu was shaking. She didn’t have a clue who’d been on the phone, but she knew one thing—she didn’t want to be alone. The shadows of her home suddenly all seemed sinister. With trembling fingers, she dialed Ben and Sara.
Sara picked up the phone and sounded like she’d been awake. “Lulu? What’s going on?”
The story spilled out of Lulu while Sara listened intently on the other end until Sara broke in. “I’m coming over, Lulu! Just hold on tight.”
In the end, Ben came over, too, after telling Derrick to keep an ear out for the twins. Ben looked rumpled and half awake but concerned.
“I’m sorry,” said Lulu as they hurried through her kitchen door. “This is the one night that we’re not all working at the restaurant late and I’m calling and walking y’all up!”
Sara gave her a hug. “I was still awake actually. Reading a scary book—until you called me with something even scarier.”
Ben said, sitting down at Lulu’s kitchen table, “What I don’t understand, Mother, is why this person called. You haven’t been nosing into anything, have you?” He put both hands palms up, beseechingly. “I mean, tell me you haven’t been getting mixed up in all this.”
Lulu said, “No more mixed up than I was last time, Ben.”
“But last time, Mother, you were mixed all the way up to your neck in it!”
Lulu sighed. “I’ve just been supportive, that’s all, Ben. I’m trying to look out for you and Evelyn. I figured if I could find out who did it, then you and Evelyn will be cleared and we can all go back to worrying about barbeque.”
Ben said, “I can tell you right now that the police are not going to pull me in for killing Adam Cawthorn. Yes, he gave us a lousy review. Yes, it made me mad that he put down my cooking, because that’s the one thing in life that I know I’m really good at. But the reason they’re not going to connect me with his murder or with Ginger’s is because I have absolutely nothing to do with it. And they won’t be able to find a scrap of evidence otherwise. Just because Daddy was a scoundrel doesn’t mean I’m one, too, Mother.”
Sara rubbed her freckled forehead like it hurt. “Remind me again why someone wants to kill you, Lulu?”
Lulu sighed. “It’s probably due to the fact that Evelyn has been telling everybody who’ll listen that I’m such a great friend and that I’m her secret weapon against the police.”
“Secret . . .” Sara frowned.
“Yes. She asked me to act like her private investigator. I guess she thought it up because I solved the case last time and she’s my friend.”
Ben said, “Who exactly has heard her mention that you’re investigating the murder for her?”
Lulu gave a short laugh. “Oh, probably everybody! And whoever hasn’t heard her say it has heard Peggy Sue say it—she’s like the gossip Greek chorus, you know. Always echoing anything you say. I love her, but that’s just the way she is. Chatty.”
Sara pushed her riotous red curls out of her face to look closer at Lulu. “So what do you know? Maybe we can figure out who is trying to scare you off.”
“That’s the thing—I really don’t know all that much. Holden threw baked beans at Adam and took pictures of Ginger, but swears he didn’t do anything. Oliver pushed Adam down the stairs and had a heated argument with Ginger. Evelyn trashed Adam’s apartment, discovered his body, and argued with Ginger the day she died. Big Jack was determined not to pay Adam blackmail money anymore and his office isn’t far from where Adam’s body was found. Ginger could have continued blackmailing Big Jack, but he was out of town the afternoon she was murdered. Tudy was convinced that Oliver was having an affair with Ginger—and she wasn’t where she was supposed to be.” Lulu threw up her hands. “I really don’t know anything!”
But as she said the words, something struck her as a little bit off. She felt like there was something she should be paying closer attention to there. Lulu frowned.
Sara yawned loudly. “Lulu, I’m with you—I don’t know a thing, either. Ben, why don’t you just run back home. I’ll stay here overnight with Lulu. And I’m so tired and cross that I just dare a murderer to try to mess with me right now.”
“Psst!”
Lulu frowned and looked around. Then she smiled and looked lower. Because only nine-year-old Ella Beth would actually make a sound like that.
Sure enough, Ella Beth was underneath a table. Lulu, who couldn’t quite get down that low, sat down at the booth. “What’s up, sugar?” she asked in a low voice. “Got some information for me?”
“Yes, Granny Lulu, I do. But can we arrange to meet somewhere else? ’Cause right now it looks like you’re talking to yourself and I don’t want you to attract any attention. People will think you’ve gone crazy. I’ll meet you back in the office.”
“Oh, okay.” Lulu looked around a little self-consciously. No one seemed to be looking her way, though.
Ella Beth looked carefully around the office, even under the desk. “You never know when someone might be listening in,” she said.
Like Ella Beth, thought Lulu.
“So what have you got for me, Agent Ella Beth?”
“I’ve heard all kinds of things, Granny Lulu. As my sidekick, I’m going to share a little bit of what I’ve learned. And this is from many hours of hiding under tables, behind chairs, and around corners.”
“Okay, shoot,” said Lulu, settling into the office’s comfy old sofa.
“Well, Cherry dyes her hair. She goes to the beauty parlor twice a month to get it that color. So . . . she’s kind of in disguise.”
Lulu hid a smile. Cherry had hair the same shade of henna as Lucy Ricardo. No one but a child would think it was natural.
Lulu pulled a thoughtful face, stroking her chin. “So you think Cherry might have done it.”
Ella Beth said reluctantly, “Well, no, not really. Because Cherry is just great and I can’t see her doing something like that. Or, even if she did do it, I think she’d march right over to the police station and tell them. She wouldn’t let little kids find a body like that.”
“True,” agreed Lulu.
“And then I also found out what Coco is getting for her birthday! And Mama and Daddy never tell me because they think I can’t keep a secret. And they’re wrong. But that doesn’t really have anything to do with the mystery. I just thought it was interesting.”
“Which it is,” said Lulu. “Maybe you can tell your folks right before Coco opens her presents that you knew exactly what she’s getting and have kept quiet about it the whole time.”
“Great idea! I knew you’d make a good sidekick,” said Ella Beth, freckled face beaming. “And let’s see what else. I heard Peggy Sue complaining about how many bills she had and did the electric company think she was made of money? Should she have to pay an arm and a leg just to keep herself cool?”
“Which is a good question.” Lulu nodded. “It’s so hot in Memphis that it takes a lot of electricity to keep us comfy, I guess.”
“And then I heard Mr. Parsons talking to Cherry about that woman . . . Miz Cawthorn? The one he’d been arguing with the last time. This was right before you went to the lake.”
Lulu leaned forward a little. “Is that so?”
“Well, it started off that Cherry—see, she might be a bad guy—started complaining about Miz Cawthorn. She said ‘I don’t like to talk ill of the dead, but I think she got what was coming to her.’ Or something like that.” She looked reproachfully at Lulu. “You didn’t tell me
she was dead. How can I solve the case if my own sidekick isn’t sharing things with me?”
“I’m sorry,” said Lulu, chastened. “I didn’t want to make you upset, sugar.”
“But I didn’t find her body,” said Ella Beth, calmly looking at Lulu. “I’m only upset if I know the person or if I find a body. Anyway, so Cherry said, ‘Ginger’s whole personality just stank.’
“And then Mr. Parsons, who was eating his peach cobbler the whole time, and Cherry were talking about the pictures he’d taken the day Miz Cawthorn died. And how he thought maybe he could find some clues to the murder in the pictures.” Ella Beth looked at Lulu sadly. “Everyone thinks they can be a detective. But there was something else that was interesting, Granny Lulu. I wasn’t the only one listening in on Mr. Parsons and Cherry.”
“You weren’t, honey?”
“Guess who else was listening to them.”
“Coco?”
“No!” said Ella Beth. “It was Big Jack. He was sitting in the next booth, right behind them. He was sitting really still and listening to every single word.”
Lulu chewed over her conversation with Ella Beth while she packed up to-go boxes in the kitchen. She bet Big Jack had really perked up when he heard Oliver’s name. She’d noticed how protective he was of his cousin when they were talking about him at the lake. She remembered his easy assurances that Holden had misinterpreted what he’d seen. Since Big Jack had eavesdropped, he’d had a heads-up that Holden had seen Oliver and what he thought about it.
Lulu wondered what Oliver would do when he found out. Could he have possibly killed Ginger? And why? Was he really having the affair with Ginger that Tudy was so certain about? Or maybe . . . Pink had said that Ginger and Adam were in on the blackmailing gig together. Did Ginger have something to blackmail Oliver over? But Oliver hadn’t had any contact with Adam until he found out Adam was the critic who he blamed for his restaurant’s failure. Had Oliver killed Adam—and Ginger knew about it? But then what would he do when he found out about Holden?
Could Oliver have returned to the parking garage to make sure that Adam was as dead as he’d looked? Then, when he saw the body was gone, could he have tried again—and been successful? Ella Beth’s mention of the pictures reminded Lulu to ask Holden to e-mail her the photographs so she could take a closer look at them.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Derrick came slouching past Lulu, headphones firmly entrenched in his ears. Lulu reached out and held his arm. He unplugged himself and gave Lulu a small smile, and she said, “Sugar, I just wanted to ask you how everything went the other night with Peaches. Did y’all have a good time at the movie? It looked like things were going okay over dinner.” Well, thought Lulu, besides Jeanne swearing up and down to Oliver that she’d seen him with the murdered Ginger.
Derrick shrugged and looked around the dining room uncomfortably.
“Let’s talk in the office,” said Lulu. “I think the girls are playing with the Labs on the porch.”
The office was quiet enough for Derrick to open up a little more. “It was okay, I guess. She was real nice and . . . well, she was pretty.”
“She sure was,” said Lulu, nodding.
“The only thing was that I didn’t really know what to say, you know? I felt like I was real boring.”
Lulu squinted at him. “She didn’t look bored when I saw her, Derrick. She looked like she was having a real nice conversation with you.”
“Yeah, but she had to start the conversation every single time! I was like a bump on a log. I don’t know—I just felt panicked or something.”
“But teenage girls are used to that, honey. Believe me! Teenage boys aren’t known for being great conversationalists. The girls always have to carry the weight of the conversation.”
“I guess.” Derrick’s scowl looked far from certain.
“She’s interested in you, Derrick. You know how women love those strong, silent types. She wants to find out more about what you’re all about.”
Derrick gave a short laugh. “Good luck to her, then. Because I don’t really know what I’m all about, either.”
Lulu wanted to give him a big hug, but she had a feeling that a hug wasn’t what Derrick was in the mood for right now. “Honey, we all felt that way as teenagers. Maybe she’s interested in finding out more about you with you. You have so much promise and potential—don’t ignore all the things you’ve done right. Just look at the website for Aunt Pat’s that you’ve put up online . . . you’ve single-handedly moved this restaurant into the twenty-first century!”
Derrick looked doubtful, but at least Lulu got a smile from him. “Thanks, Granny Lulu. Sometimes, you know, you just don’t feel like you’re doing anything right. But I like Peaches a lot. I just hope she sticks around long enough to catch me doing something I can be proud of.”
Lulu looked sadly after him as he walked out of the office to get a snack from the kitchen. Derrick still felt like he had to earn everyone’s approval. She cursed his mother for the hundredth time for doing that to him.
The scene with Derrick had made her feel down. A surefire way to cheer herself up was to visit with her guests in the restaurant dining room. On any given day, half the people in the room were regulars she could greet by name. And the dining room itself, with its old brick walls, dark wooden booths, and creaky hardwood floors was comforting in itself—it took her back to a simpler time when Aunt Pat was the one laughing and cutting up with her guests.
Sure enough, as soon as she walked into the dining room, she started smiling. Some of her favorite people were sitting there together. The Graces and the Back Porch Blues Band were all sitting at a corner booth with a table pulled next to it. They all called out a greeting to her as she walked up.
“Where’s Flo?” she asked. “Didn’t y’all invite her to join in?”
Evelyn said coolly, “Working on the wedding from hell, of course. I firmly believe that union is cursed from the very start.”
Lulu said mildly, “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far, Evelyn. You know, weddings are stressful times for everybody. That little girl is probably a lot easier to deal with ordinarily than she is now.”
“Well, she sure is more like Bridezilla than Cinderella. And her mother really is a piece of work.”
Buddy said, “At least we’ve all got a little work from it, though. I even had the Back Porch Blues Band some business cards made up, in case anybody at the wedding wants us to play a gig for them.”
Peggy Sue chirped up, “Now that’s something I need to be doing, Buddy. Maybe I can get some cards made up for our flower-arranging business.”
“Here comes the lady of the hour now,” said Evelyn in a dry voice as Flo fluttered up.
“Who’ve we got here?” she said without even saying hi. She started counting heads. “Peggy Sue, Evelyn, Buddy . . . Good! Group meeting! Group meeting!”
Evelyn made a face. “Aren’t you getting kind of wound up about this wedding business? Anyone would think that you were the one getting hitched.”
“God forbid!” said Flo. “It’s bad enough dealing with someone else’s nonsense. I’m just trying to get this wedding set up so that these people are happy and we all end up looking good, that’s all.”
Morty said, “It should be a slam dunk, Flo. You’ve got the best help in town. We’ll rock the reception with our tunes, the flowers will beautify the room, and you’ve got the best barbeque in Memphis for the guests to enjoy for the reception.”
Big Ben bellowed, “And the reception is at Graceland in the car museum. So you got all Elvis’s toys in the room for decoration. Man, those guests are going to be in hog heaven.”
Flo waved her hand impatiently. “I know all that, y’all. But I’m still trying to make sure that everything goes perfectly. Even if you have the absolute best people, in the absolute best venue, things can still go wrong unless you organize so everybody knows what everybody else is doing.”
Evelyn said, “Honey, it’s self-evident.
Peggy Sue, Jeanne, and I are helping with the flowers. Ben and Oliver and Lulu are doing food. Sara’s going to hold things down at Aunt Pat’s while we’re at Graceland. Buddy, Morty, and Big Ben are in charge of the music. Cherry is the general dogsbody. Easy-peasy.”
Cherry said, “General dogsbody? Can’t I be something else?”
“You’ll be indispensible when Flo needs an extra set of hands,” said Lulu soothingly.
“I was thinking,” said Morty in a mulling-over voice, “that I would get a small token of appreciation for the bride and her mother. For giving us the gig, you know. Do you know the kinds of thing they like, Flo?”
Flo was used to trains of thought that got derailed by this group. “I don’t know them very well personally, but I know that the stores the bride is registered with are listed on her website. And Cynthia—the bride’s mother? She’s even got a link on the bride’s site—you know, for the guests who want to give her a hostess gift and things like that.”
There was a heavy silence. “You mean to tell me,” said Big Ben in his loud voice, “that this young lady is telling people what she wants them to give her? And her mother is, too?”
Flo explained patiently, “She’s not making people give her certain things, Big Ben. Just making it easier for people who want to give her something in her china pattern. She also mentions that she accepts cash or checks if someone doesn’t want to mess with the registry sites.”
More stunned silence.
“Now you all know that times have changed! Y’all should be well aware of all that,” said Flo, putting her hands on her hips.
Peggy Sue said, “I knew times had changed, but I didn’t think people had. Does the bride carry around a credit card machine in case a guest wants to whip out their card?”
Flo sighed. “No, there’s nothing crazy like that going on.”
