Randi tilted her head and gave me a puzzled look. “Why in heaven’s name would he want to do that?”
I stammered, no good answer coming to me.
“I’m fine, Harlow. Jeremy offered, and I’m kinda happy about that, truth be told.”
“Oh, good. Good.” I forced a smile and nodded.
Will gave me a squeeze, and I grounded myself. I had no solid reason to stop Randi from going with Jeremy. Even if he had killed Delta, he had no reason to do harm to anyone else. So maybe she’d be just fine.
Hopefully.
“I’ll let y’all know how it goes,” Randi said.
Wayne gave a low whistle, and Georgia batted his arm. “Wayne McCarthy Emmons,” she scolded, and to us, she added, “Men.”
Wayne met Will’s gaze, lifting one brow. He directed a sheepish smile at his wife, put his arm behind her and gave her backside a pat. “Aw, come on now, you know you love it.”
“I know your mama taught you manners.”
“Guess I forgot to bring ’em tonight,” he joked. “But I can still watch over you without ’em.”
“Maybe so, but you should bring ’em everywhere,” she chided, but one side of her mouth rose in a soft smile.
“Sweetums,” Wayne said, “I have you. I don’t need no manners.”
“And no good grammar, neither,” she said, mimicking his West Texas twang.
“Oh, Georgia,” Randi said. “Leave him be. He’s fine.”
“That’s right,” he said, “I’m fine. Alls I’m sayin’ is it’s about time Randi found herself a man.”
Randi brushed back her short shimmery hair, spiking it on top of her head. “Getting a little ahead of ourselves? It’s just a ride home, is all.”
“Romance has to start somewhere,” Wayne said, “ain’t that right, Georgia?”
She smiled at him, nodding. “That’s true enough.”
“I gave her a ride home after a pageant about a million years ago. The rest, as they say, is history.” He looked at Will and me. “Where’d you two start?”
“Loretta Mae played matchmaker,” Will volunteered, as Megan and Todd slipped out onto the porch. The party was migrating outside.
I almost added, From beyond the grave, but held it in. They didn’t need the nitty-gritty details. Everyone knew that my great-grandmother got what she wanted, one way or another. No reason to draw more attention to that special Cassidy charm.
“We met in statistics class,” Megan said. “He saw me and made a beeline right for me, like he knew just what he wanted.”
“That’s true,” Todd said, but then he frowned. “Worst class ever, though. You were the only saving grace.”
Megan smiled. “He thinks he’s not very lovable.”
“How did I get lucky enough to have you fall in love with me?” he asked, grinning.
She answered with a squeeze of his hand. “We have a story to tell our children. College is for learning, but also for falling in love.”
Just then, the door to the kitchen opened again and Cynthia appeared, the light from the house like a glowing aura around her. “There y’all are. Jeremy’s looking for you, Randi. And I’m heading out.”
So the evening was drawing to a close, and the murderer, if he or she was among us, had hidden in plain sight. We followed the group back inside. Will immediately excused himself and headed down the hallway. The good-byes would give him enough time to replace the envelope on the clip hangers I’d described in Megan and Todd’s closet, and no one would be the wiser.
Something about the file still bothered me. I kept coming back to what Coco had said about Cynthia and her apron. She could look like a kitchen diva, even if she barely knew how to scramble an egg.
The bottom line was that people were not always what they seemed, and we only let people see what we wanted them to see. This had proven true in the past, and whenever murder was involved, it was definitely the case. People hid out in the open, but they didn’t always show others who they really were. It had happened time and time again. Meemaw always used to say that people reveal themselves if you let them. I had the feeling I’d seen the truth about whoever had killed Delta, I just hadn’t realized it yet.
During the good-byes, I finally had a chance to pull Sherri aside. “How are you holding up?” I asked.
She shrugged. “My outburst aside? Okay, I guess.”
“I wish I could have helped more,” I said. Tears pooled in her eyes, and once again I felt as if I’d failed the Lea sisters. I hadn’t been able to bring them any peace. I only hoped the sheriff would be able to.
“You tried,” Sherri said. “You recovered Mother’s Lladrós. You found those notes from Delta. You made us the aprons. You did everything you could.”
She’d opened the door when she’d mentioned the notes, so I walked through, telling her about the note I’d found that she’d written so many months ago.
“When we were kids, we’d play spy,” she said, her voice soft and nostalgic. “That teapot used to be one of the ways we’d pass secret messages. When she wouldn’t listen to me, I guess I thought I’d write it down and put it there, and maybe one day she’d find it and realize that I’d tried to tell her.”
“Tell her what?” I asked.
She looked over her shoulder, as if she were making sure we were alone. “There was something going on between Todd and that girl Rebecca,” she said. “I didn’t know how to tell Megan, so I told Delta.”
My heart stalled in my chest. “You mean an affair?” My mind raced. The idea that Anson was having an affair, the private investigator, pages pulled from the report. What if Delta hadn’t ever thought Anson was cheating on her? What if she’d been looking into the idea that Todd was cheating on Megan?
I remembered the up-and-down look Delta had given Rebecca the first day I’d met her in the Mobley kitchen. She’d questioned how Rebecca could work in the dress she’d been wearing. Rebecca’s flirtatious reply had been that Todd was going to help.
“Did you see them together?” I asked.
She nodded. “At an antique fair in Plano about a month before Megan brought Todd home. Rebecca showed up a few weeks later, and at first I couldn’t place her, but then it hit me. I’d seen them together.”
“What did Delta say?”
“She told me I was imagining things. She said Megan was happy, Rebecca was a good friend, and Todd was the perfect son-in-law.”
“So you dropped it?”
She nodded. “I dropped it.”
“And you never mentioned it to Megan?”
“No, never,” she said, her voice quiet. “If I was wrong, I didn’t want to cause her pain.”
“But if you were right?”
She shrugged. “Rebecca moved out of Randi’s garage apartment, and from what Megan said, she’s not returning her calls, so I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”
I wasn’t sure I believed that. Why had Rebecca vanished?
The Red Hatters converged at the front door, stopping us from talking any further. Jeremy led Randi outside. I watched them go, she still with her half apron on, he with his hand lightly touching her back, guiding her. A pool of anxiety settled in my chest, but I shook it away. She’d be fine. Randi was soft-spoken, but she had the strength and wherewithal to defend herself, if she needed to.
Georgia and Wayne left next. Just like Jeremy had with Randi, Wayne guided Georgia, but his touch was more familiar. Suggestive, even, as his hand slipped over the curve of her backside. She batted his hand away, but the evening breeze carried her giggle back to us.
I wondered about my Cassidy charm and if I’d just seen it in action. Georgia had been flirtatious with Will earlier, but now she was playful with her husband. Maybe her deepest desire had been to strengthen their connection. And Randi had been happy as a clam leaving with Jeremy. I’d lay money down that her hopes and desires centered on finding a soul mate. Jeremy could be it. My suspicions about him could be completely off base.
Cynthia,
Bennie, and their husbands left next, followed by Pastor Kyle and Sherri. “I’ll see that she gets home,” the pastor said. Like the other men, he led Sherri down the walkway, past the RADCLIFFE FOR MAYOR sign, past the Aggie flag and the twinkling lights, but he kept his hands to himself, instead walking slightly ahead of her so she’d follow.
Nana had slipped away out the back door. Her property backed up to my yard, and the Mobleys’. I peeked out the back window and saw her shadowy form trekking through the darkness, Thelma Louise trotting in front her.
Only Mama, Coco, and Delta’s family—minus Anson, of course—remained. “I’ll stay and help clean up,” I told Megan.
Mama slid her arm through mine, and we followed the others to the kitchen. “We both will. My husband’ll be here in just a little bit to pick me up.”
I turned to look at her. She’d been driving since she was thirteen, starting with a hardship license back when Nana and Granddaddy were barely making ends meet with their goats and she’d had to help by driving to the next town for farm supplies. Mama and her pickup truck were about as inseparable as my granddaddy and his cowboy hat. Which is to say they were rarely apart. Something was fishy, and I suspected it had to do with my mother wanting Sheriff Hoss McClaine to be in close proximity in case Delta’s murderer decided to take out another victim. Not that that made a lick of sense, but Mama often didn’t operate using logic. She felt her way through life using flowers and plants as her guide. Hoss kept her feet rooted even when she tried to flit away like an impatient butterfly.
Will had reappeared, nodding to me. I breathed a sigh of relief. The envelope was back where I’d found it. “Scotch?” Todd asked him. When Will agreed, they went back into the dining room.
“Aren’t you going to help?” Megan called after him, but he didn’t answer. Which was fine with me. I was happy for Will to keep him distracted while I dug a little deeper about Delta and the Red Hat ladies. Rebecca and Todd stayed in the back of my mind.
If Delta had actually believed Sherri and questioned them, could one of them have killed her to keep their secret quiet?
But I shook my head, not believing that motive. Why would Todd marry Megan only to continue a relationship he’d already had going on with Rebecca? No, Sherri had to be mistaken. There had to be something I was missing. Some clue about someone that would crack everything wide open and let me see it in a new way.
“You don’t have to help clean up at a party you didn’t attend, Tessa,” Jessie Pearl said.
Mama waved her hand like she was flitting the words right out of the air. “I’m not one to sit around when there’s work to be done,” she said.
Jessie Pearl held her crutches out in front of her where she sat at the kitchen table. “That’s a good quality,” she said, sending a pointed glance toward the dining room where Todd and Will had gone. “A mighty good quality.”
“Come on, Granny,” Megan said. “Todd worked hard all week doing up the yard, helping out around here, sorting through the antiques.”
“I’m sure Granny doesn’t disagree,” Coco said, “but the point is, we’re not done.”
Megan’s chin quivered. “That’s not fair.”
“He needs to find himself a lawyering job,” Coco said.
Megan just shook her head. “He’d rather work with his hands.”
“Waste of an education, if you ask me,” Jessie Pearl said. “Three years in law school, how ever many in that culinary place, and he wants to do yard work.”
As I listened, something Wayne Emmons had said to Georgia out on the back porch came back to me. I’d been spinning in circles since Delta died, focusing on each of the people in her life, but not really understanding what she might have done to propel someone into killing her. But what if I looked at things from a different perspective? What if she had been trying to watch over someone, and she’d gotten in that person’s way?
The only people she’d protect were her family members, and once again, I thought the most likely was Megan.
Mama had parked herself at the sink and had her arms submerged in soapy water as she washed the coffee cups and dessert plates. Megan brought in the rest of the treats from the dining room and Coco packaged up the leftovers. Jessie Pearl sat at the table watching the movement around her, a deep frown pulling the sides of her mouth down.
I felt a tingle at my hairline where the tuft of blond sprouted, and my skin pricked with apprehension. The threads were tangled and knotted, but the answer was there. For the first time since Delta died, I knew I was close to learning the truth, if only I could grab hold of an end thread and pull it free.
Mama flinched, bringing her arm up to her head and pressing her bicep against her hairline. Just like me, she had a streak of blond. It was a touchstone between us, all the Cassidy women.
She tossed a questioning look over her shoulder. In response, I straightened my glasses and darted a glance at Megan. I didn’t know what Delta might have been protecting her from, or what trouble she might have encountered. And other than coming right out and asking her, which didn’t seem like a good idea if she’d killed her mother over it, the only way to get answers was through her husband.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, and I scurried off in search of Will.
Chapter 25
Will and Todd were in the living room, each cradling a tumbler of scotch, the bottle on the table between them. I sat next to Will, and he took my hand, leaning close to give me a kiss on the cheek. “He’s pretty buzzed,” he whispered.
If Todd was on his second, or even his third, maybe his tongue would wag a little more loosely than normal and I could find out if Megan had some sort of problem she was trying to deal with. From the investigator’s report, her days all followed the same pattern. Yoga or running, classes at the university, helping at the church tag sale or running errands, then home with her family. Could she have suspected something between Todd and Rebecca? An old fling? I thought back to the flirtatiousness. Rebecca called Todd “George” because he reminded her of a blond George Clooney.
A thought tickled at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t pull it forward. Not yet anyway, but I’d keep trying. George . . .
Will and Todd finished their conversation about college sports teams. They were rivals, Will a Texas Longhorn and Todd an Aggie, but they kept the conversation civil. “I can fit in anywhere,” Todd said, taking another drink. “Ask Delta.” He sputtered, half laughing as he realized what he’d said. “Well, you can’t actually ask her, but if you could, she’d have told you that I’m like a chameleon. I blend in.”
“That’s a good trait,” I said, glad that Todd was a happy drunk and not an angry one. “It’ll serve you well.”
He raised his glass. “It already has,” he said. “I can go from the garden to the church, to the city, to a law office and fit in at each of them.”
“Are you still looking for a law firm to join?”
“Nah. Plenty to do with all Megan’s antiques,” he said, his words slurring just slightly. “Delta had a good collection of her own. And Jessie Pearl? There’s a fortune in the curio cabinet alone.”
“After all that schooling and taking the bar exam, don’t you want to practice law?” Will asked.
Megan came in and perched on the arm of his chair as Todd shrugged. “I’ll just stay here and be a kept man.”
He nudged her leg and she smiled. “I don’t mind that.”
He tilted his head back to look up at her. “Your mother did.”
“You can be a bookkeeper or a lawyer or a gardener or a garbage man. It doesn’t matter to me. She’s not here anymore to judge.”
I held my breath, squeezing Will’s hand. It was hardly a confession, but the conversation had just taken a turn in the right direction. “You didn’t get along with Delta?” I asked Todd.
He lifted his shoulders again. “Eh. It doesn’t matter.”
“She didn’t understand why you didn’t practice law, that’s all,” Megan said. “To
dd’s got, what, three degrees?”
He nodded, and she continued. “But it’s a tough economy. Hard to find a job right now.”
He nudged her again, and she threw her hands up. “What? It’s not like you haven’t tried. It’s not a secret, is it? I’m proud of you.”
“Three degrees is impressive,” I said. And it explained why he’d been taking a statistics class at the local university when he already had a law degree and who knew what else. “What are they in?”
He looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole, but he answered. “Political science. An MBA. History.”
“And the culinary certificate,” Megan added.
“And the law degree,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s a crazy world when someone like you can’t get a job.”
“He applied to Reynolds, Childs, and Briggs law office in town,” Megan said. “Turned out they didn’t have any openings, but—”
Todd threw back the rest of his scotch and interrupted her. “It’s doesn’t bother me. I like what I’m doing.”
“My mother really tried to help him,” Megan said. “She passed his resume around to everyone she knew.” She squeezed his shoulder. “Something’ll work out.”
“I don’t need charity,” he snapped, but he quickly relaxed, correcting himself. “I like the antique business. There’s a ton of money in it. People don’t realize.”
“Rebecca sure did,” she said. To me, she added, “They knew each other a few years back when they both were in Plano. How long ago was that?”
But Todd waved the question away.
I pressed the subject, anyway. “How did you meet Rebecca?” I asked, going off what Sherri had just told me a short while ago.
“At the college here. What, about a month after I met you, right?” she asked Todd.
“Sounds right,” he agreed, but even through his glassy eyes, his gaze had turned dark, and I could tell something was off. “But she bailed. We had a good business going, and she just up and left.”
This time, Megan’s eyes teared. “Why would she leave like that?”
Like a bulldozer in my mind, one of my conversations with Jeremy Lisle suddenly came back to me. He’d been the one to tell me about Anson having an affair, but something surfaced that I hadn’t thought of before. Pastor Kyle had told him, but Delta had told Pastor Kyle. The way he’d relayed it stuck with me. Some husbands can’t be trusted.
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