by June Shaw
We both stood, and I gave her a hug. “Thank you. I’ll see you again when I see you.”
“That sounds good enough.”
I was out the door feeling relieved of pressure, much more aware that I could do it. I only hoped that positive attitude and the achievement of that goal worked out.
On my way home, I stopped at our town’s nursery. Since it was the only one, its owner gave it the clever name of The Nursery. Quite a few flats of multi-colored flowers were out and lovely, but I didn’t want to dig in my small flowerbed today. Instead, I went straight to the section of taller plants, the bushes that mainly stood in plastic buckets and weren’t so showy. The few offerings of trees stood just beyond.
“You getting azaleas, Sunny?” The nursery’s owner, burly Big Bub Richards with a small gray ponytail and slim beard, knew without asking that I was Sunny, although he also knew Eve. He was well aware that I was the twin who purchased and planted flowers. With no other business now, he stepped up behind me while I stood near the bushes.
My back went tense with the thought that I was about to do what he asked. “Yes.”
He shook his head. “I heard about all that stuff with Edward Cancienne. Can’t believe they were wanting to pin it on you and your twin.”
I tightened my lips. “They had reasons, but not good ones.”
“Yeah, I heard all about that. I got a neighbor who’s got an old aunt at the manor. Tells him all about stuff that happens.”
“Uh-huh,” I said and pulled two bushes forward, one with a few white flowers and one with pale pink. I didn’t want to hear about my mother and her man friend and all our commotion with Edward at the manor. “I’ll take these.” I pointed. “That one, too.” A few fuchsia flowers bloomed on it.
“I could pick out some nicer ones for you.” Big Bub had come on to me a little in the past, getting too close, making suggestive remarks. Now he stood so close I felt his warm breath on my arm.
I didn’t want to encourage anything other than having him check out my purchases. “No, thanks. These are fine.”
“You want a coral one, too?”
I gritted my teeth. “These are good. Now if you’ll just ring them up, I’ll be on my way.” I reached for one of the little wagons to set them on. Before I could grab a plant, he had juggled them around until he tucked them all in his arms and thick hands.
“I got ’em.” No use to warn him that his clothes would get dirty. His worn shirt and jeans already had their share of new stains. Inside the small building, he set the plants on the counter and used his cash register that printed a small receipt. “You know they do best with dappled light. I’ll put ’em in your truck.”
I handed him my credit card. “That’s very nice of you.”
“And that Edward guy, I can’t believe the cops really thought y’all killed him.” He tsk-tsked, gathered all my plants into his arms, and walked out front with me. I was eager to get in my truck and drive away, and not listen to any more mention of that horrible event Eve and I had experienced. Poor Edward was gone. His death was awful.
Big Bub set the plants in my truck’s bed, close behind the wide tool chest that would give them more protection. I glanced at them again, trying to force down the anger azaleas always brought up when I recalled seeing Mom’s so pretty, moments after Crystal died. “And he knew about those pimps and all.”
“What?”
“That guy Edward who died. The guy’s aunt told him when Edward moved to New Orleans for a while, he knew a couple of pimps and girls they had working for them.”
My head did a little bobble while I tried to imagine this.
He kept nodding. “Yeah, and he almost got his butt ripped off. One girl’s daddy out here found out about it and then learned Edward knew. He was ready to kill that dude right then.”
I stared at Big Bub’s moving lips, barely able to grasp the words coming from them. “And what happened?”
He rolled his thick shoulders forward. “The only thing that kept him from doing it was his daughter begging her daddy to keep it away from the cops so it wouldn’t get all over town with her friends and the rest of her family around here. She promised she’d be good and go on to college like she was supposed to be doing over there.”
“What a horrible thing to happen to your child.”
“Yep, some little ol’ folks from right here. You know what I believe? I believe everybody’s got a lotta secrets.” His eyes appeared hooded while he shook his head, and I could imagine him considering some of the things he had done and kept well hidden.
“People got a lotta secrets,” he repeated like he was springing to life. “Even if this isn’t a big city, everybody hides things.” He nodded, his ponytail bobbing. “Bet you know that girl’s daddy, Tommy Jeansonne. He runs the Best Prices Gas Station up on the other side of the bayou.”
I started to nod, since I had been to that station a couple of times, but then recalled I had pumped my own gas and couldn’t remember ever seeing the store’s manager. I felt sorry for the family while also starting to consider what else this might mean. I stayed so busy deep in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed at first that he had stepped closer to me. Checking his face, I saw a lewd smile.
I yanked on my doorknob and pulled the door so wide open between us it bumped against him. “Thank you.” I slid into my truck and backed away. Then I considered whether I was thanking him for carrying the bushes or the information. I determined it was both. Being polite was our Southern way.
On the road, I called Eve. “Come on, come on, answer,” I said to her ringing phone. What I had to tell her was too important to put off. Frustrated and about to blurt that she should call me right away, I heard her voice.
“Hey, sis. I’ve been talking to Nicole and my adorable little grandson who was babbling away. I put them on hold.”
“Oh, tell them hi for me. I’ll need to tell you about something I just found out about our dead customer.”
“Then I’ll tell Nicole I need to go.”
“No. Let Noah babble to you a little longer. I’m going to hurry and call Detective Wilet and tell him what I know.”
She protested again, but I insisted and almost hung up on her. We disconnected, and I got the investigator. He answered much quicker than she had. “Detective Wilet, this is Sunny Taylor.” The minute I said it, I imagined he’d already known. He must have caller I.D.
“Yes.” He waited.
“I just found out about somebody who might have had a motive for killing Edward Cancienne.”
Maybe I’d hoped he would get excited, eager to discover what I’d learned. Instead, he only said in his bland tone, “I’m listening.” But he didn’t sound interested. Was he doing paperwork while we spoke? Looking at notes about another case? Filing a jagged fingernail and feeling the tips of his other fingers in case they needing smoothing while he had the file out? Possibly he had somebody sitting in his office, maybe in one of the chairs Eve and I had sat in. Would he take calls while he had someone there?
“Do you know Tommy Jeansonne, the man who runs the Best Prices Gas Station?”
He wasn’t saying a thing, so I couldn’t imagine whether he might be shaking his head no or nodding, although I imagined he knew almost everyone in town and the towns around here. I rattled on with my story, pleased to have his interest when he asked a question.
“And who gave you this information?”
Then I knew he’d be writing. While I resumed my statement that should make him look at someone else besides Eve and me as possible suspects, the detective said, “You said this person might have had a motive. Your uncertainty here is because?”
While he waited, I needed to search the thoughts I didn’t want to visit. “I think the person who passed on a lot of this information resides in the manor.”
His exhale was loud. Abrupt. His tone when he spoke
again was different. “You don’t know whether this information you’re passing on is reliable or not. Do you know the resident’s name?”
“No.” Then quickly I added, “But I can probably find out.”
“If you discover anything of value, keep in touch. And stay around town.”
“Wait. Do you still think Eve and I could have killed him?”
Right before he hung up, he said, “Just don’t schedule a long trip.”
Chapter 10
After speaking with the detective, I took a moment to tremble with rage or fear, or probably both. I shook off most of those emotions and got Eve on the line.
“What did he say? What did you tell him? I want to know everything.” She sounded much less calm than before.
I ran through everything Big Bub Richards told me.
“That’s awful.”
It was strange to see the gray clouds that sat low in my vision while I drove. Curlicues of white looked like scalloped potatoes on their edges.
When I said nothing, Eve went on. “What did Detective Wilet say when you told him?”
“He sounded pretty interested—until I said the woman who had passed on at least part of that story lives at the manor.”
“Oh. And so many people still think of it as a nursing home. Maybe he needs to visit the place and realize most of the residents are fully capable of using their bodies and minds. Like Mom.”
Thoughts of our mother’s youthfulness flashed into my thoughts. No, I didn’t want to think of her as being so young at heart as to want to start a new family. One that didn’t include us.
“I can’t believe you bought azaleas. Good for you.”
I pulled into my driveway. “Tell you about it later. I’m home. Gotta go.” With my sunken spirits, I didn’t feel like speaking about my session with Lesley or even thinking about it. I was afraid—a little. Of remaining suspects in a murder. Of having others taking my mother away.
But I also didn’t feel like singing or even letting out a soft hum. Instead, I went to my truck bed and started unloading the bushes I would try to learn to like. A few of the white flowers had flown off during the ride.
I hauled the bushes to my backyard and set them at the right edge of my flowerbed that held snapdragons and tulips in bloom. I retrieved my shovel from my carport’s closet. I remembered what Big Bub told me about a person who might have a motive to kill Edward but forgot what he’d said about dappled light being good for the bushes until after I already had two of the bushes planted in bright sunlight. That’s where they would stay.
“Hello? Are you back here?” Dave’s voice carried while he walked from the side of my house into the backyard. “Ah, there you are.” Since it was late afternoon, he had changed from the dress clothes he normally wore for work into jeans and a Saints T-shirt. As good as he looked all dressed up, he looked even better in his casual clothes.
I stabbed my shovel into the ground. “Where were you looking for me?” I offered my lips for a kiss, and he obliged.
“I’ve been ringing the doorbell. Since I saw your truck was here, I figured you were, too, although you could have walked over to Eve’s house.”
“It’s good to see you. I’m glad you thought to look back here.”
His slow-spreading smile told me he was glad to also see me. “I won’t ask what you’ve been up to, since I can see that.” He picked up the shovel from the ground. “I’ll get this last bush in for you.”
“You don’t need to. I’m already dirty.”
“A little dirt won’t hurt me, either. Where do you want that one?” He nodded toward the final plant. “About a foot away from the other one?”
“That would be fine. Thank you.”
“Should I remove this broken branch?” Two leaves that had turned orange on a small broken branch clashed with the fuchsia flowers of the bush. When I nodded, he snapped off that section.
While he dug, I unwound the garden hose I kept connected to the faucet behind the house and gently sprayed my flowerbed, starting at the opposite end, making sure not to create mud that would splash on him. In no time, he dug the hole. He set the bush into it and filled in the dirt, patting it down once he finished. Then he stepped away so I could water that bush and spray more on the two other azaleas plants.
“Nice,” he said, admiring my garden.
“Now you’re dirty, too. Come on, we can wash our hands with this.” I changed the setting on the hose to get a gentle cool sprinkle to do the trick. “Thanks for your work, now come on inside.”
“Not with my shoes like this.” A little dirt coated the edge of his tennis shoes.
More dirt than that coated the bottom of mine. “Let’s just leave them out here,” I suggested. We sat outside my backdoor, tugged our shoes off, and walked into my kitchen in our socks.
Dave stepped close to me. “I wanted to ask you out for supper.” He glanced down at his clothes and gave me a smile. “I thought we might just go to the diner. Josie makes the best crayfish poppers. Or if you’d like someplace nicer, I could go home and change.” He clasped my hands. “I’d just like to be with you awhile, Sunny.”
I gave him a tight hug. Right that minute, I didn’t want to think about Nelson or Emery Jackobson, the two men I had seen together at the diner. After a sigh, I drew back. “Tell you what. I have the best shrimp jambalaya in my freezer. I could warm some for us. And I’ve got French bread and a little bread pudding that I made.”
He placed his hands together over his heart. “You are a woman I could grow to love.” His face became solemn, his eyes intense. “Maybe even more than I already do.”
My heart stopped. As tempted as I was, I wasn’t ready to say I loved him. With one sister dead and Eve still caring for him so much, I was striving to keep myself from feeling quite so intensely yet.
He insisted on helping. While I took a package of jambalaya out of the freezer and defrosted it in my microwave, he gathered our utensils and plates and glasses that I directed him to. Once our entrée was almost ready, I grabbed a long loaf of French bread and sliced some, getting butter from the fridge. “Beer, wine, soft drink, or milk?” I asked, holding its door open.
“A beer would be fine.”
“Me, too.” I set them on the table next to the place settings he’d set out nicely in front of two chairs beside each other. I smiled at our paper napkins he had folded into triangles. “Good job.”
He moaned and praised my food as though it were the best he had ever eaten. When I served the bread pudding, his eyes opened wider with his smile of appreciation. He took a bite, set his fork down, and looked at me.
“I do love you.” He gave me a kiss on the lips that was quick. Then, keeping his gaze away from me, Dave resumed eating.
That kiss and his sentiment might have been done playfully, but I was still tied up from the feelings of both. We didn’t speak for the rest of the meal, but once we were done, he insisted on helping with dishes.
What a sweet man, I thought, watching him set each glass and plate gently into the warm soapy water. He gave me a smile that was also warm and handed each item he washed and rinsed to me so I could dry them and put them away.
As soon as we were done, he said, “You must be really relieved you’re not a person of interest in a murder.”
“How do you know that?” I was excited about this wonderful news.
“I’ve told you to let me know if you had any more problems connected to finding Edward dead. I wanted to help.” He gave me a tight grin. “Since you haven’t mentioned anything about it again, I figured the police are homing in on who killed him. They’d know it wasn’t you or Eve.”
My relief was short lived. If he was a detective or anyone connected to police work, I might have told him all that happened, and that my sister and I were still suspects. His concern and offer to assist us were comforting. But he
owned a company that installed security systems in homes and businesses, and apparently did it all very well. Also I did not want to think about murder or the troubling situation with my mother.
“How about a movie?” I asked, changing the subject. “I have a few recorded ones that I haven’t seen yet. Maybe you’d find one that you’d like.”
“That sounds fine.”
He settled himself on the sofa, and I found the remote. I sat a little away from him and channel surfed through my recorded shows. It didn’t take long before we agreed on one. The movie was a mystery with some romance. Dave scooted closer and wrapped his arm around my shoulder with his hand resting on my arm. He made me feel relaxed, comforted.
I snuggled my head against his chest, and he drew me closer. The music on TV intensified, drowning out the sound of the heartbeat I felt against my ear. And then a phone rang. It must have been in the film. But the scene changed to a prison escapee charging through a forest. The man was alone and without a phone.
“Sorry,” I said and reached beside me for my cell phone. I had brought it into the den out of habit, especially since there was always the chance Mom might need me. “Hello.” I hadn’t checked to see who the caller was.
“Hey, sis, what are you doing?”
I pulled farther away from Dave. “Just watching a movie.”
“Is it good?” She was crunching on something, probably a diet rice cake.
“Pretty good.” I eyed Dave, who was watching me.
“Okay, then I won’t keep you. I was just checking in. Anything new happen?”
I looked deeper into the warm brown eyes of the man next to me and swallowed. “Nothing I can’t tell you about tomorrow.”
She did a little cough. “Just choked a pinch, but I’m okay.”
I made her insist that she was fine before I let her go. We agreed to catch up with each other in the morning. Once we hung up, I set the phone down.
“That was your sister, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, that was Eve.” I lifted the remote. “Ready to watch this again?”
