“Tell you what, Katie Ann,” Wanda Nell said, her eyes fixed on Deke Campbell, “I need to take care of something. You go on and talk to Ovie—that’s the older lady you spoke with this morning—and she’ll get you started. I’ll be along in a few minutes.”
“Okay,” Katie Ann said.
Wanda Nell barely heard her or felt her walk away. She was intent on Deke Campbell, wondering why he’d shown up here today when he came into the Kountry Kitchen maybe three times a year. Rich guys like him didn’t frequent restaurants like this one. Unless they were running for office, maybe.
Campbell was examining a menu as Wanda Nell approached him. “Afternoon, Mr. Campbell,” she said. “What can I get you?”
He looked up from the menu, his shrewd dark eyes assessing her. Wanda Nell stared right back at him, refusing to let him intimidate her. She noted the long hair combed across a bald spot and slicked down with a strong-smelling gel. His face, florid and heavy, sported a beak of a nose with veins prominent all over it She’d heard he was a heavy drinker, and his nose didn’t lie.
“How about a cup of coffee?” he drawled in response. “And some of that there blackberry cobbler.” He pointed to TJ. who was now working on his dessert.
“Coming right up,” Wanda Nell said. She picked up a cup and saucer, along with utensils ami a napkin and set them at his place. Then she poured him coffee. “Cream?”
“No, thanks,” he said. “Gotta watch the old waistline.” He laughed, patting the belly hanging over his belt. “Got it out where I can see it now.” He laughed again.
Wanda Nell smiled politely. “I’ll be right back with your cobbler.” She went to the kitchen and dished it out herself.
Back at the counter, she set down the bowl. “There you go. Let me know if you need anything else.” She started to move away.
“You’ve worked here a long time, haven’t you?” Campbell said.
Wanda Nell turned back. “Yeah, I have.”
“And you’re the one whose husband got killed a couple months ago.” He spooned some cobbler and stuck it in his mouth, chewing noisily.
“Ex-husband,” Wanda Nell corrected automatically.
“Ex-husband,” Campbell repeated. “Whatever.”
TJ. had given up any pretense of eating his dessert, and was watching his mother and Campbell closely. Wanda Nell caught his eye and moved her head slightly to one side. TJ. frowned, but got up from his stool and walked toward the back of the restaurant, in the direction of the men’s room.
“Yeah, it was my ex-husband who got killed,” Wanda Nell said when TJ. was out of earshot. None of the other stools near Campbell was occupied, so maybe now he’d get to the point
“I heard you kinda stuck your nose into the sheriff’s department bidness,” Campbell said. “I heard they weren’t too happy about that.”
Wanda Nell shrugged. “I can’t help what they thought. I wasn’t going to stand around and let them arrest the wrong person. They put my son in jail, and I knew he didn’t kill his daddy.”
“I reckon you’re dang lucky you didn’t get that pretty little nose of yours in a vise,” Campbell said, his tone jovial, but his eyes indicated an entirely different mood. “It’d be a shame if something happened to it, you nosing around where you shouldn’t. If you were gonna do something like that again, that is.”
“Why should I do that?” Wanda Nell asked, overdoing the innocent act. “They got somebody in jail already, if you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about.” She shrugged. “And you couldn’t possibly have any reason to be interested in that now, could you?”
Campbell grinned. “Nope, not me. Just curious, that’s all. A man like me... well, in my position I like to know what’s going on in town. The bank’s got a right to know if its customers are in some kind of trouble.” He wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Come to think of it, you’ve got a loan with my bank, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do,” Wanda Nell said. She still had several years to go on her payments for her trailer, and the bank in Tullahoma held the note. “What’s your point?’
“No point,” Campbell said, leering at her. “Just want our customers to know we keep an eye out for them. We’ve got their best interests at heart, after all.” He stood up, dropping his napkin on the counter. “How much I owe you?”
“Three-fifty,” Wanda Nell said.
He dropped a ten-dollar bill on the counter. “Keep the change,” he said, winking. He turned and walked out Wanda Nell picked up the ten, wishing she could crumple it up and throw it in his face instead. She didn’t like being threatened, especially by smug bastards like Deke Campbell. Just because he ran the bank he thought he could tell people what to do and get away with it
She rang up the ticket in the cash register and made change, tucking the tip into her apron pocket. What she wanted to know was why he’d shown up there so quickly to deliver his little message to her. How had he known she was involved in this?
It had to be somebody in the sheriff’s department, she reckoned. The story about her sneaking up behind Fayetta’s house was probably all over the department half an hour after it had happened, and someone had let Campbell know.
But why? Who knew he had a reason to be concerned about Fayetta’s murder? This clinched it He had to have been sleeping with Fayetta, otherwise he wouldn’t have tried such a stunt
“Mama, what was all that about?” TJ. asked, reclaiming his seat at the counter.
Wanda Nell stared at her son. “Oh, just some talk, honey. Don’t pay him any attention. I’m not going to.”
“Was he threatening you?” TJ.’s tone was gentle but insistent.
Shrugging, Wanda Nell said, “Maybe. I don’t know. He sure is interested in what’s going on, though. And if he don’t have anything to do with it, why’d he show up here?” TJ. shifted uneasily on his stool. “I don’t like this, Mama. Him threatening you. He’s got a lot of pull around here, and he could cause a lot of trouble.”
“Yeah, he could,” Wanda Nell said. Then she grinned. “I might cause a lot of trouble myself. I don’t like some big shot coming in here and trying to tell me what to do.”
TJ. shook his head. “You don’t like anybody telling you what to do.”
“No, I don’t,” Wanda Nell said. “And I for damn sure ain’t gonna be pushed around by him, even if he is the president of the bank.” Would he try to make trouble over her loan? For all her brave words, she knew Campbell could make her life difficult if he really wanted to.
“We just got to be careful, that’s all there is to it,” T.J. said. “You’ve got to trust Tuck to do his job, Mama.”
“I do, honey,” Wanda Nell said. “And don’t you be worrying about me. I can take care of myself.” The front door opened and she turned to greet the newcomer.
“Hi, Mama,” Miranda said. She plopped down tiredly on the stool next to her brother. “Hey, TJ.”
“Randa,” T.J. said, “you look like you been run over by something.”
Miranda glared at him, then turned the glare on her mother. “I feel like crap,” she whined. “I didn’t get much sleep, and then I had to get up and go to work. I just wanna go home and sleep for two days.”
Wanda Nell regarded her with scant sympathy. “Then you should’ve come home last night when you said you would, instead of staying out late, running around with your friends. You go on home and get some rest, but you need to look after Lavon some and let your sister have a break.”
“Yes, Mama,” Miranda said, her lower lip sticking out.
“Oh, stop pouting, Randa,” TJ. chided her. “Come on. I gotta get back to work myself. I’m gonna take you home.” He stood up, pulling money out of his pocket to pay for his lunch.
Wanda Nell waved his money away. “It’s on me, remember? Thanks for all the driving around you’re doing, honey. If you need some gas money, let me know.”
“I’m fine, Mama,” TJ. said. “Come on, Randa. Drag your rear end off that stool and come
on.”
“Keys.” Wanda Nell held her hand out to her daughter. Sullenly, Miranda dug in her pocket and passed the keys over to her mother.
“Y’all be careful,” Wanda Nell called to them as they went out the door.
Shaking her head over Miranda, Wanda Nell cleared the counter. She found Ruby and gave her a tip for waiting onTJ.
“Thanks, Wanda Nell,” Ruby said. She glanced shyly at the older woman. “Your son sure is handsome.”
Wanda Nell smiled. “He is, and he’s a nice boy.”
Ruby nodded. “Sure seemed like it.” She hesitated. “Well, if you don’t need me no more, I reckon I’ll be going. I got a couple of classes this afternoon.” She gazed expectantly at Wanda Nell.
“You go on,” Wanda Nell said. “We’ll be fine. Long as I can count on you and Ovie to handle the mornings, this new girl and I can handle the rest.”
“Okay,” Ruby said. “If you talk to Melvin, you tell him I asked about him. I don’t believe he did it Wanda Nell.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. That Fayetta was kinda mean and trashy, but I just can’t believe somebody’d do something like that.”
Wanda Nell patted her arm. Ruby looked like she was going to start crying. “I’ll tell Melvin,” she promised. “He’ll appreciate it honey. Now you go on to your classes and don’t even think about it. Hear?”
Ruby nodded and left
Wanda Nell surveyed the room. Only one table with customers left. She checked to see if they needed refills, then went to the back room to find Ovie and Katie Ann.
The two women were chatting as they moved from table to table, filling containers with packets of sugar and no calorie sweetener and checking the salt and pepper shakers. Wanda Nell interrupted them. “Ovie, I’ll take over from here. Why don’t you go on home and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Ovie handed over her tray with a smile. “Sounds good to me. I’m ready to rest these old feet of mine and maybe give ’em a soak in some hot water.”
“Katie Ann, I’ll be back in a minute,” Wanda Nell said, setting the tray down on a table. Katie Ann nodded and continued her work.
Wanda Nell followed Ovie into the front room. “What do you think?” she asked in a low voice. “Think she’ll be okay?”
Ovie nodded. “Yeah, she seems like a good worker. And she knows what to do. You don’t have to tell her much.”
“Good,” Wanda Nell said, relieved. She gave Ovie a quick hug. “Thanks, Ovie. You’re really saving my bacon, you know that?”
Ovie smiled and returned the hug. “I’m glad to do it, hon. I can always use the money, and it gets me out of the house. You just be careful you don’t overdo.”
“I’ll be okay,” Wanda Nell said. “You go on home.” Ovie went to the back to retrieve her purse, and Wanda Nell went to the cash register to take money from the last customers. When they and Ovie had gone, she returned to the back to find that Katie Ann had finished all the refills. “Thanks,” Wanda Nell said. Katie Arm just smiled.
In the front again, Wanda Nell directed Katie Ann to make a fresh pot of coffee and check that all the tables were cleared and wiped clean. “It’s usually pretty slow in the afternoons till about four-thirty,” she said. “And on Monday nights it’s not too busy.”
“That’s fine,” Katie Arm said. “You just tell me what you want me to do.”
Wanda Nell left her to her tasks, explaining that she needed to take care of a couple things in the office. In the kitchen she paused to chat for a few minutes with Margaret, the cook working the evening shift that week. Wanda Nell explained what was going on, Margaret expressed her sympathy for their boss, and Wanda Nell, feeling mighty relieved that everyone was sticking by Melvin, went on down the hall.
She needed to start checking supplies to make sure they’d have enough for the next couple days. As she walked down the hall, she paused for a moment by the closet. As far as she knew, no one had checked to see if Fayetta had left anything on her shelf. Wanda Nell decided to investigate.
All the waitresses kept a few odds and ends on their shelves, a few cosmetics for quick repair jobs, maybe a spare pair of hose, some perfume.
Wanda Nell bent to examine Fayetta’s shelf. Not much to see—the expected packets of hose, a big bottle of cheap smelling perfume, a couple different lipsticks, a small mirror. She was about to stand up again when something caught her eye. Getting down on her knees, she peered up at the underside of the shelf above Fayetta’s. There, stuck in the back corner where the corners met and flat against the shelf, was a small book. Fingers trembling a little, Wanda Nell grasped it and pulled it loose.
She examined it. It was a savings account passbook from the bank, Deke Campbell’s bank. She opened it Fayetta’s name and address were written in it. Wonder why she kept it here? Wanda Nell asked herself.
Eyes widening in surprise, Wanda Nell kept turning the pages. What the heck had Fayetta been up to?
Chapter 11
The first entry in the savings account passbook was about three years old. Fayetta had opened the account with a deposit of five hundred dollars. From that point on she had made deposits at least once a month, sometimes twice. The smallest deposit she had made, as far as Wanda Nell could tell, was for three hundred and fifty dollars. There were a few withdrawals, but not many, and the most recent deposit had been made a week ago, on Monday.
Fayetta hadn’t kept a running total, but Wanda Nell was pretty good at doing math in her head. She started at the beginning and worked her way through the book. “Good Lord,” she whispered when she was done. Fayetta had about twenty-three thousand dollars in her account, not counting interest.
Where the heck had she been getting that kind of money? Wanda Nell shook her head. Fayetta sure hadn’t made it working at the restaurant.
Had Fayetta been blackmailing somebody?
She must have been, Wanda Nell reasoned, to accumulate that kind of money in her savings account. Melvin had said he thought Fayetta was blackmailing someone, too. But who? Deke Campbell came quickly to mind. He had to be involved in this somehow.
Fayetta had been pretty clever, Wanda Nell thought. She’d never given any hint she had this kind of money in the bank. Instead, she was always grousing about how poor she was, how hard she had to work to take care of herself and her kids. She let it be known she wasn’t getting any child support. But now that Wanda Nell thought about it, the few times she’d seen Fayetta’s kids, they were always wearing clothes that were a lot better than what they sold at Budget Mart. She’d always figured maybe Fayetta’s mama was helping her out but after seeing the way Agnes Vance lived, she realized that was unlikely.
“Wanda Nell!”
The sound of her name brought Wanda Nell out of her reverie. Stuffing the passbook into her apron pocket she stepped out of the closet to find Margaret hovering near the door.
“What is it Margaret? Something wrong?”
“No, but they’s somebody asking for you out front.”
“Thanks,” Wanda Nell said. She stepped around Margaret and hurried through the kitchen, wondering who could be looking for her.
When she saw who it was, she almost turned around and went right back into the kitchen. Instead, she paused for a deep breath, then said, “Well, this sure is an unexpected pleasure, Elmer Lee. What can I do for you? You want something to eat? I think maybe we’ve still got some of the chicken-fried steak from today’s special left.”
Elmer Lee regarded her with a sour expression. “No, I ain’t come here looking for something to eat. I need to talk to you, Wanda Nell. Somewhere private.”
Wanda Nell glanced around. Katie Ann was busy sorting silverware down at the other end of the counter, and there weren’t any customers at the moment “Come on back here,” she said, jerking her head to the right. She walked down to the end of the counter, telling Katie Ann to mind the front.
“Sure,” Katie Ann said, regarding her curiously. She smiled broadly at Elmer Lee before sashaying off to the front
of the restaurant.
“Who’s that?” Elmer Lee asked. “She’s new around here, ain’t she?”
“Name’s Katie Ann Hale,” Wanda Nell said. “I hired her to work the evening shift with me.” She led the way to a table at the very back of the restaurant. “Now put your eyes back in your head and tell me what this is all about.”
“She sure is good-looking,” Elmer Lee said, sitting down with his back to the wall. He had a clear view of the front of the restaurant and Katie Ann.
“You wanna ask her out?” Wanda Nell said, getting increasingly annoyed with him. “She ain’t said anything about being married, and maybe if she’s desperate enough, you might have a chance.”
Elmer Lee scowled at her. “Cut the crap, Wanda Nell. I don’t need your help asking women out thank you very much.”
“Yeah, you having such nice manners and all.” Wanda Nell couldn’t resist another dig. She figured Elmer Lee owed her a few, the way he had treated her after her ex-husband was murdered.
“Ha-ha,” Elmer Lee said. “Now if you’re through fooling around, I need to talk to you about something serious.” Wanda Nell could feel Fayetta’s passbook burning a hole in her apron pocket. She ought to show it to Elmer Lee, and she would. But first she was going to see what he had on his tiny little mind.
“Talk, then,” she said.
Elmer Lee shifted in his chair and looked away from her. “This is a pretty touchy situation we got on our hands.” He squirmed some more. “And I want you to think twice about butting in, Wanda Nell. I know you, and I know how dang hardheaded you are. I want you to take this as a friendly warning. You understand?”
Instead of getting angry at him, the way she normally would anytime he tried to tell her what to do, she calmly sat there and stared at him. What was going on here? She thought about it for a moment. Then she spoke. “You don’t think Melvin did it, either. Do you?”
Elmer Lee wouldn’t look at her. “I’m not saying that. I’m just saying it’s a real complicated situation, and it’ll be a helluva lot easier for me if you don’t put your oar in and try to row the boat. Let me do it.”
Murder Over Easy (A Trailer Park Mystery Book 2) Page 9
