Mrs. Vance thanked him, then stood indecisively.
“What would you like to do first?” Wanda Nell asked her gently. “Maybe get the children’s clothes?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Vance said gratefully. “Let’s start there.” The door to the children’s bedroom opened right off the hall across from the living room. Wanda Nell followed Mrs. Vance into the room. She shook her head at what she saw, thinking of those poor kids having to live like this.
There were two sets of bunk beds in the room, one small closet, a desk, and two chests of drawers. The room itself wasn’t much bigger than Wanda Nell’s bedroom in the trailer. What would Fayetta have done when the children got too old for boys and girls to keep sharing a room? Maybe she’d been planning to find a bigger house with all that money she had.
Mrs. Vance reached into her purse and pulled out a roll of plastic bags. “We can just put everything in these bags,” she said. “I didn’t have any boxes or enough suitcases, so I figured this was the next best thing.”
Elmer Lee kept a close watch on the two women as they began to empty the chests of drawers. Each of the two chests had eight drawers, four on a side, and Mrs. Vance explained that each child had four drawers. To keep things organized, she suggested they empty each child’s drawers into one or two bags, as needed. Wanda Nell did as she asked, noting that most of the childrens’ clothing was old and faded, some of it heavily mended. Each of them had several new pieces of clothing, though, all expensive brands.
The closet contained mostly shoes and toys, along with a few jackets and a couple blankets. All these went into four more plastic bags. They put the bags in the hall near the front door when they had finished in the childrens’ room.
“Is there anything else you need from here?” Elmer Lee asked Mrs. Vance.
“I need to check the bathroom,” she responded. “I could use the extra towels and things for the children. And I guess we ought to look in the kitchen, too. There might be some food, canned goods and the like.”
“Alright,” Elmer Lee said, nodding. “That sounds okay.”
“How about you take the bathroom, Miz Vance?” Wanda
Nell suggested. “I’ll do the kitchen. You think maybe there’s a box or two around anywhere?”
“There’s a small pantry in the kitchen,” Mrs. Vance replied. “There might be some boxes in there. Thank you, Miz Culpepper.”
The one bathroom in the house was between the two bedrooms, and the kitchen was opposite Fayetta’s bedroom at the back of the house. While Mrs. Vance tackled the bathroom, Wanda Nell started on the kitchen. Elmer Lee stayed with Mrs. Vance.
She found the pantry, and in it, several small boxes. There weren’t many canned goods in the pantry, but Wanda Nell packed everything. Mrs. Vance could sort out later what she wanted and what she didn’t Some of the cans looked pretty old, judging from the amount of dust they’d accumulated.
The pantry taken care of, Wanda Nell started examining the kitchen cabinets. She found a few cleaning supplies under the sink, but she left those, figuring they would be needed more here when the time came to clean up Fayetta’s bedroom. The milk in the refrigerator had spoiled, and Wanda Nell poured it down the sink, her nose wrinkling at the smell.
In one of the cabinets over the sink, Wanda Nell found two boxes of cereal. She packed those into one of the boxes, then rummaged through the rest of the cabinets. There was no point in packing up the dishes and the silverware, such as they were, at the moment. Those could wait for another time.
In one of the large drawers under the counter, Wanda Nell found the usual odds and ends: clothespins, a couple screwdrivers, a hammer, nails and screws, and a tape measure. At the bottom of the drawer lay something dark and shiny with gold lettering on it Frowning, Wanda Nell pulled it out of the drawer.
It was a menu from the Kountry Kitchen. Wanda Nell opened it, and on either side, behind the protective clear plastic sleeves, lay menu pages. A few months ago, Melvin had decided to try to upgrade the image of the restaurant with a fancier-looking menu, and this had been the result. The menus had been printed on heavy, good-quality paper, and the front of the menu had been embossed with fancy gold letters.
What on earth had Fayetta been doing with a menu in her kitchen drawer?
Shaking her head over the oddity, Wanda Nell put the menu on the table and finished her search through the kitchen.
“Find anything interesting?”
Elmer Lee spoke from the doorway, startling her as she was peering into the corner behind the refrigerator.
“No. Did you?” Wanda Nell asked.
Elmer Lee shook his head. “Miz Vance is about ready to go. You wanna help us load the stuff in her car?” He stepped forward to pick up one of the boxes.
“Is it okay if I take this back to the Kountry Kitchen?” Wanda Nell picked up the menu and waved it in Elmer Lee’s direction.
“What is it?” he said, the larger of the two boxes in his hands.
“Just a menu Fayetta brought home.” Wanda Nell shrugged. “I can’t imagine why she’d want one, but she did have trouble remembering prices half the time. Maybe she brought it home to study.” It would have been just like Fayetta to bring one home, then stick it in a drawer and forget about it.
Elmer Lee stared at her for a moment. “I don’t see why not. Take it back where it belongs.” He carried the box out.
Wanda Nell stuck the menu on top of the other box. She followed Elmer Lee outside and put the box into Mrs. Vance’s trunk. She took the menu and dropped it into the front seat of her car. Along with Mrs. Vance and the deputy, she carried out the bags of clothes and linens, until the back seat of Mrs. Vance’s car was full.
"That everything?” Elmer Lee asked Mrs. Vance.
“Yes, I think so,” Mrs. Vance said. “Thank you, Deputy.”
“Then I guess I’ll go lock up,” Elmer Lee said. He walked back to the house.
“Would you like me to come home with you and help you unload?” Wanda Nell asked.
“No, thank you. That won’t be necessary,” Mrs. Vance said. “The children can help me.” She stared at the house.
“Would you like to go back in?” Wanda Nell asked after a moment of silence.
“I forgot my purse,” Mrs. Vance said suddenly. She started back up the walk to the house.
Wanda Nell followed her. Something about the way Mrs. Vance had looked at her was bothering her.
Elmer Lee was shutting the windows in the living room when the two women reentered the house.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I forgot my purse,” Mrs. Vance said.
“Where is it?” Elmer Lee asked.
Mrs. Vance didn’t answer. She had already headed down the hall. Wanda Nell was right behind her.
The purse was sitting on the sink in the bathroom. Mrs. Vance hooked it over her arm, then turned to see Wanda Nell standing uncertainly in the doorway.
Wanda Nell stood aside to let the older woman out of the bathroom. Mrs. Vance paused, staring at the closed and sealed door of Fayetta’s bedroom. One hand reached out, faltered, then fell by her side.
“Are you okay?” Wanda Nell asked quietly.
Mrs. Vance turned to her, but though her eyes looked right at Wanda Nell, she seemed to be seeing something else.
“ ‘And the Lord will smite Egypt,’ ” Mrs. Vance quoted, “ ‘smiting and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will heed their supplications and heal them.’ ”
Wanda Nell didn’t know what to say. She recognized it as a quotation from the Bible, but that was as close as she could get. Was Mrs. Vance talking about her daughter? Did she think Fayetta’s murder had healed her and returned her to the Lord?
Wanda Nell shivered. Mrs. Vance finally seemed to see her. Absently patting Wanda Nell on the arm, she started down the hall toward the front door.
Wanda Nell trailed behind her and waited on the doorstep while Elmer Lee locked the front door.
“What’s w
rong with you? You’re pale as a ghost,” Elmer Lee observed.
“I’m okay,” Wanda Nell said. She didn’t want to tell him that Mrs. Vance had just creeped her out. There had been something cold about the way she had said those words. She headed down the walk toward her own car.
“Thank you again, Miz Culpepper,” Mrs. Vance called. “I surely do appreciate your help.” She stood at the door of her car.
“You’re very welcome,” Wanda Nell said. “And if there’s anything else I can do, you just let me know.”
Nodding, Mrs. Vance got into her car, cranked it, and pulled away from the curb. Wanda Nell stared after her for a moment.
Behind her, Elmer Lee was backing his car out of the driveway. Waving at her, he then drove off.
Slowly, Wanda Nell opened her door and sat down. She pulled her keys out of her pocket and stuck them in the ignition. Then her eye caught the glint of the morning sun off the gold lettering on the restaurant menu.
She picked it up and opened it. The sun hit the cream-colored paper behind the clear plastic, causing a bit of glare. Wanda Nell tilted the menu slightly as she read.
As Wanda Nell scanned the list of dishes, she frowned. When she looked closely, she could see some odd splotches that seemed to have bled through the paper.
Her fingers trembling slightly, Wanda Nell removed the paper from the left side of the menu. Turning it over, she saw that someone had written on the back.
Her eyes widened in shock as she began to realize what, it meant. As the significance of what she was reading sank in, Wanda Nell reached for her purse and dug in it for her cell phone. Her fingers closed on the phone, and she pulled it out. She had forgotten to turn it on before she left the trailer that morning, and she punched the on button.
While she waited for the phone to be ready to use, she stared at the back of the menu page. She recognized Fayetta’s handwriting. She also recognized most of the names the dead woman had written there, though most of them were only first names followed by an initial. Like “Deke C.” and “Billy Joe E.”—Deke Campbell and Billy Joe Eccles. Those names weren’t a surprise. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw “Hector P.”
Why did Fayetta have the name of Mayrene’s new beau on her list? Surely there couldn’t be more than one “Hector P.” in Tullahoma?
Chapter 14
The names Wanda Nell recognized were all those of men prominent in Tullahoma. One of them was even a clergyman. She counted quickly. There were forty-seven names on the list Wanda Nell blanched. Surely Fayetta hadn’t been blackmailing forty-seven different men?
Beside each of the names Fayetta had written various figures. Some of them looked like dates, others like amounts of money. Some names had stars beside them, others didn’t A few names didn’t have any other notation. The clergyman’s name didn’t and Wanda Nell wondered what that meant Did it mean Fayetta hadn’t blackmailed him?
Wanda Nell pulled the paper out of the other side of the menu and turned it over. There were a few more names listed on this page, but only about a dozen. They were marked in similar ways.
Wanda Nell put the sheets inside the plastic menu covers and dropped the menu on the passenger seat She picked up her cell phone, but instead of punching in a number, she sat staring out the window. Should she call Elmer Lee right away, or should she let Tuck see this first?
While she sat and mulled it over, she noticed that a car drove by a couple of times. It was a sleek, foreign-looking car, and a woman was driving. After the woman drove by a third time, Wanda Nell acted on a hunch. She started her car and drove off. She turned right at the next intersection and passed a couple blocks before turning right again. She drove a block and made another right turn. This put her on the street that ran by the side of Fayetta’s house, the place where Mayrene had dropped her off the other day so she could sneak up on the house from the back.
She parked about half a block away and, locking the car and bringing her cell phone and keys with her, walked casually toward the house. Her steps slowed as she reached the corner, and she turned to see the woman’s car sitting in Fayetta’s driveway. Pretty brazen, Wanda Nell thought, pleased she had been right about the woman’s intentions.
She didn’t see the strange woman at the front of the house. Slowly, Wanda Nell walked down the sidewalk and glanced down the heavily tree-shaded space between
Fayetta’s house and the next-door neighbor’s. She was just in time to see bright pink legs wriggling through a window into the house.
Wanda Nell stood irresolute for a moment. Should she call the sheriff’s department and report a break-in? She knew it was the right thing to do, but curiosity got the better of her. She walked through the grass to the window the woman had entered. It was the children’s bedroom.
Peering in the window, Wanda Nell could see the woman rummaging through the closet.
“What are you looking for?” Wanda Nell called.
The woman’s head jerked up and hit the clothes rail. Swearing loudly, the intruder whirled around to face Wanda Nell. “What the hell do you mean creeping up on someone like that? Who the hell are you?”
“I’m not the one breaking in to a dead woman’s house,” Wanda Nell pointed out mildly. She brandished her cell phone. “Maybe I ought to call the sheriff’s department and let them come check you out.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” The woman moved a few steps nearer the window and stared at Wanda Nell. “This is none of your business, and I’ll thank you to keep your nose out of it.”
Wanda Nell stared right back at her, not flinching. She didn’t know who the woman was, but she could guess. She had to be the wife of one of Fayetta’s playmates. She looked a bit familiar, so Wanda Nell figured she must have seen her picture in the paper at some point.
The woman continued to glare in defiance at Wanda Nell, and Wanda Nell cataloged her from head to toe. Her clothes, pink slacks and a lime-green blouse, were expensive and screamed it She had on enough jewelry to choke a horse, and her skin had the appearance of old leather. She had spent way too many hours out by the pool or, judging from her build, out on the tennis court. Her blonde hair was puffed up and out to about three times the size of her head, giving her an oddly unbalanced look. Wanda Nell had never liked what she called the “pumped up to Jesus” style favored by some women. She was some rich man’s wife, with the attitude to boot.
“Do you really want me to know who you are?” Wanda Nell asked. “I don’t have to know your name, but I can imagine why you’re here.”
“And why is that?” The woman practically spat the words at her.
“Because your husband was stepping out on you with the woman that used to live here.”
The woman paled a bit at that and seemed at a loss for words.
“If you’re looking for something that might incriminate your husband, whoever he is,” Wanda Nell continued blithely, “I figure you’re a little too late. The sheriff’s department has been all over this place, and I’m sure they found everything there was to find.” She didn’t feel the least bit guilty about the lie. She’d see that Elmer Lee got the menu pages when she was ready to turn them over. “Besides, you’re in the children’s room.”
“Are you some kind of deputy?” the woman asked, suddenly nervous. Her right hand fidgeted with three of the heavy gold chains around her neck.
“No,” Wanda Nell replied. “I knew the dead woman, though.”
“Oh, you did, did you?” The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Then you knew what a no-good bitch of a slut she was. Getting her claws into other women’s men. She didn’t have the decency to leave married men alone.”
Wanda Nell couldn’t argue much with this assessment of Fayetta, but something perverse in her made her point out, “Well, she couldn’t do it by herself. The men had to cooperate.”
With a cry of rage, the woman launched herself at Wanda Nell. Startled, Wanda Nell stepped away from the window.
The woman came flying through it and landed on the gr
ound, the breath knocked out of her.
Wanda Nell was so astonished, she just stood there for a moment. The woman groaned, and Wanda Nell squatted beside her. “Are you okay? Do you need to go to the doctor?” The woman’s hand snaked out aiming for Wanda Nell’s face. But once again Wanda Nell was too quick for her. Front her squatting position, she leaped backward out of the woman’s reach, almost toppling over when she landed. Getting her balance, she stood and prepared to run, in case the woman got up from the ground.
“Listen, lady, you keep away from me,” Wanda Nell said, her exertions causing her to breathe jerkily. She held up her cell phone. “I’ll call the police right now if you try anything else.”
Groaning slightly, the woman got up and brushed herself off. The knees and legs of her expensive slacks had green streaks on them and her hands were dirty from where they had sunk into the ground. She limped by Wanda Nell without saying another word.
Wanda Nell stood and watched her as she made it to her car. She opened the door and almost fell inside. Moments later, the engine roared and the woman slammed backward out of the driveway, almost taking the mailbox with her. She sped off, her tires squealing against the pavement.
Shaking her head at the stranger’s bizarre behavior, Wanda Nell went back to the window. It suddenly dawned on her that Elmer Lee had forgotten to lock it when he had gone around the house earlier, closing all the windows. That wasn’t like him, but maybe he’d been distracted by Mrs. Vance coming back for her purse. She couldn’t imagine him leaving it unlocked deliberately.
For a moment, she thought about crawling through the window herself and poking around a bit but she quickly nixed that idea. So far none of the neighbors had appeared, wondering what was going on. Maybe they were all at work or else just too busy to notice. She decided she didn’t want to take the risk of running into another crazy wife or an inquisitive neighbor. She pulled the window closed from the outside. Maybe no one else would try to break in before someone from the sheriff’s department came back to lock it
Murder Over Easy (A Trailer Park Mystery Book 2) Page 12
