“I’d ask you to sit and visit for awhile,” Wanda Nell addressed her ex, keeping her voice as even and calm as she could, “but I got to get ready for my shift at Budget Mart, and I’d appreciate it if you’d let the girls get to bed now.” She hadn’t heard a peep from Juliet’s room, but she was probably at the door, listening. The girl barely knew her father, since he had lit out eleven years ago when she was only three. The few times he did come around, Juliet wouldn’t have much to do with him. She didn’t take easily to strangers.
“How’s that working out for you, Wanda Nell?” Bobby Ray asked. He almost looked like he really cared, but Wanda Nell knew better.
“Just fine,” she said shortly. “I can’t wait to get there every night after my shift at the Kountry Kitchen so I can start restocking those shelves. I just about pop from the excitement.”
“Yeah, well...” Bobby Ray’s voice tapered off. He never had known how to handle Wanda Nell’s sarcasm. He turned to look down at Miranda. “Sorry, Randa, but your old daddy has to get going, I guess. But I’ll be seeing you again, real soon. I’m aiming to stick around awhile.”
Wanda Nell took a good look at him. He was as handsome as ever, his hair thick and dark, with just the tiniest touch of gray at the temples. His face was lean and tanned, though he had the beginnings of a serious beer belly creeping over his belt. He was wearing what looked like brand-new cowboy boots, and expensive ones at that. Whenever he got his hands on some money, he never could hold on to it for more than five minutes. He was always spending it on something that didn’t do nobody but him a bit of good. He sure hadn’t spent it on his wife and children.
Bobby Ray turned back to Wanda Nell, and she would have sworn that, for a moment, she saw regret in his face. But it was quickly gone. He reached into the pocket of his worn jeans and pulled out a wad of bills so thick that Wanda Nell’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
“Bobby Ray! Where on earth did you get that kind of money?”
He smiled at her. “Don’t you worry ’bout that, sugar. There’s gonna be plenty more where this came from.” He peeled off several bills and dropped them into Miranda’s lap. They were hundred-dollar bills, Wanda Nell noted with shock.
Wanda Nell took three steps closer, so that she was only inches away from him. “What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Bobby Ray?” She knew too much about to him to expect that it was anything legitimate.
“It’s none of your goddamn business,” he said, anger flaring in his face. “Now you back off, and don’t mess with me.” His hand curled into a fist.
“You wouldn’t dare hit me, Bobby Ray.” She stood her ground. That was one thing he had never done, thank the Lord. He might have treated her like dirt, but he had never hit her.
He shifted uneasily. “Don’t bet on it,” he said, but his words lacked conviction.
“I want you the hell out of my house,” Wanda Nell said, her temper getting out of control. “You got some kinda nerve, showing up here like this. Since when did you care a flipping thing about your family?” She was going to find something to hit him with in a minute, and then all hell would break loose. At the moment, she didn’t care. Everything just came boiling up. She wanted the bastard out of her life, once and for all. And if that meant a fight, then she was ready for it.
“You are such a bitch, Wanda Nell,” Bobby Ray said, stepping around her and striding to the door. “God knows why I ever married you in the first place, except maybe the fact that you were damn good in bed.”
His hand was on the doorknob when a red haze seemed to pass over Wanda Nell’s eyes. She glanced wildly around her, trying to find something, anything, to aim at his head. She picked up the footstool in front of the couch and pitched it at him, but by then he had the door open and was halfway out of it. The footstool hit the wall to the right of the door and fell with a thud on the floor.
Wanda Nell ran toward the open door and down the steps. Bobby Ray was beating a fast retreat up the road. “Stay away from here, you bastard!” She was screaming, and she didn’t care how many of the neighbors heard her. “Keep the hell out of our lives!”
She stood there, her chest heaving, tears streaming down her face, while Bobby Ray disappeared into the night.
Chapter 2
Wanda Nell let the hot water from the showerhead flow over her neck. She had really lost it with Bobby Ray. No telling what she might have done while her dander was up. That was the trouble with her temper, she reflected sourly. When she got mad, her usual common sense flew out the window.
She shouldn’t let the jerk get to her that way, but every time she thought she had him out of her system for good, he’d turn up and get her going all over again. It didn’t matter that the last two years of their marriage had been sheer hell for her and for their kids, she had loved the son of a bitch with a passion that still scared her.
If she didn’t have some lingering feelings for him, she acknowledged, the sight of him wouldn’t send her into such a tizzy. The trouble was, she had never gotten any kind of closure on their relationship. Back before Bobby Ray had left her and the kids for good, she used to watch some of those daytime talk shows, and they were always talking about closure and other stuff like that.
With a deep sigh she turned off the water and began to towel herself dry. She might barely make it on time for her shift at Budget Mart, but after that little set-to with Bobby Ray, she had to have a shower to relax her a bit. Instead she tried to think of something pleasant, like that nice Jack Pemberton. He sure was a welcome change, but he’d probably take one look at her kids and grandson and head off running in the opposite direction. She pushed that depressing thought out of her head.
Dressed once again, Wanda Nell grabbed up her purse and stepped out into the hallway. She opened the door to Juliet’s room and sneaked a peek. Juliet was on her side, facing the door, one hand stuck beneath the pillow and the other clutching her favorite stuffed toy, a bear named Alexander, to her chest. Wanda Nell stood for a moment and watched her baby sleeping. Thank you, Lord, for Juliet, she thought.
Closing the door, she walked quietly down the hall, past the kitchen, into the living room. Miranda had fallen asleep on the couch. Repressing the urge to pinch the girl, Wanda Nell gazed down at her. She was her father’s child in more ways than one. Like her brother, she had Bobby Ray’s dark coloring and rosy skin. Juliet was the only one to take after her mother, with sandy blonde hair and a tendency to freckle.
Wanda Nell reached down and gently shook her daughter awake. “Wake up, Miranda,” she said, her voice low. “You need to get back there and check on the baby. Come on now, sweetheart.”
Miranda whimpered as she came awake. “What? Oh, Mama, it’s you.” She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What time is it?”
“I’m leaving for work,” Wanda Nell said, exasperated. “That’s what time it is. You need to get on to bed. I expect you to do some cleaning up around here tomorrow.”
“Aw, Mama,” Miranda said, yawning. “With that money Daddy gave me, we can pay ol’ Miz Hicks to come in and clean up.”
“You better be thinking about spending some of that money on diapers and food for Lavon,” Wanda Nell said. “Not to mention the bill you owe the doctor for when Lavon was running that high fever.” She paused, not surprised at the mulish look on Miranda’s face. “How much did he give you, anyway?”
“Five hundred,” Miranda whispered.
Wanda Nell drew in a sharp breath. Where in hell had Bobby Ray gotten that kind of money? She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know. “Before you start making all kinds of foolish plans for that money, Miranda, you and me are going shopping tomorrow after I get up. You hear me?”
“Yes’m,” Miranda said. She refused to meet her mother’s eyes.
“Go to bed,” Wanda Nell said. “I’m gonna be late, thanks to your daddy.”
Miranda mumbled something under her breath, but for once Wanda Nell didn’t call her on it. Her shoulders slumped as she went out the door, locking
it behind her. She hated having to be so hard on her own daughter, but Miranda didn’t give her much choice.
Where had she gone wrong with Miranda, she wondered as she got in the car. She had drummed into the girl’s fool head over and over again how important it was for her to be careful. Wanda Nell knew there was no way she was going to stop a girl as pretty and wild as Miranda from putting out for the boys she dated, but she had at least hoped her daughter would be smart enough not to get pregnant.
Like mother, like daughter, Wanda Nell thought, suddenly ashamed. How could she look Miranda in the face and chastise her for doing the same thing she had done? She hadn’t set such a good example herself.
Wanda Nell had gone only about half a mile when her cell phone started ringing in her purse. Now who the heck would be calling her at this time of night? Her heart racing, worried that something might be wrong at home, she scrambled in her purse with her right hand, trying to find the phone. The only reason she justified spending the money on the dang thing was that the girls needed to be able to get in touch with her right away if the baby was sick or one of them needed something.
She brought the car to an abrupt halt as she peered at the little screen on the cell phone. “Oh, hell,” she said, recognizing the number of the incoming call. “Hello.”
“Wanda Nell, is that you?”
“Yes, Miz Culpepper, it’s me,” Wanda Nell said, trying not to grit her teeth at the sound of her former mother-in-law’s voice.
“I called that place you work, and they said I should call this number. What are you doing with a cell phone?”
“It’s for emergencies,” Wanda Nell said pointedly. “Is there anything I can do for you, Miz Culpepper? I’m on my way to work, and I don’t have a lot of time to be chatting with you.”
Lucretia Culpepper sniffed into the phone. “I don’t know how you can live with yourself, going off and leaving those girls in that trailer at night, all by themselves. No telling who might break in on them.”
True to form, the old bat hadn’t said a word about her great grandson, whose existence she had yet to acknowledge. Wanda Nell felt like throwing the phone out the window and driving the car back and forth over it, pretending that it was Lucretia Culpepper lying in the road instead.
“Since your beloved son can’t be bothered to pay his child support, Miz Culpepper, somebody in the family has to earn a living.” She might have added that her children’s paternal grandparents had never lifted a finger to help them either, but she wouldn’t give the old biddy the satisfaction. It was enough to be nasty about Bobby Ray, because she knew Mrs. Culpepper would get riled up.
“If Bobby Ray had fathered either of those girls of yours,” Mrs. Culpepper said, “then he might be expected to do his duty by them.”
Wanda Nell refused to be baited this time. She had heard it all before, many times. No matter that Miranda was just like her father, the old witch used any excuse she could think of to ignore her family’s responsibilities to Bobby Ray’s children.
“What is it you want, Miz Culpepper? Was there some reason you called me?” Wanda Nell put the car back in gear and drove slowly down the road. She hated to talk and drive at the same time, but there was very little traffic on the road this time of night.
“Have you seen Bobby Ray?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Did he... did he say anything about coming to see me?”
At times Wanda Nell felt almost sorry for the old hellcat. Her only child didn’t treat her any better than he treated his own children. Old Man Culpepper had died five years ago, and since then she had lived by herself in her fine, big house on Main Street.
“The subject didn’t come up,” Wanda Nell said. She had reached the highway, and she turned onto it and sped up. Budget Mart was on the other side of Tullahoma, but at this time of night, she should make it in about seven minutes. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. She’d be only about five minutes late.
“If you see him again, you be sure and tell him his mother wants to see him.”
Wanda Nell winced at the sharpness of Lucretia Culpepper’s voice. “I’ll surely do that.”
“I really need to see him.”
Miz Culpepper seemed awful persistent about it, Wanda Nell thought. Downright desperate, in fact. Otherwise she never would have called a woman she despised as much as she did her former daughter-in-law.
“I’ll tell him,” Wanda Nell said, even as she hoped that she wouldn’t have the chance. “Good-bye,” she said, before Miz Culpepper could exhort her to do anything else. She disconnected and put the phone back in her purse.
She concentrated on driving the rest of the way to work, but she couldn’t help thinking about Bobby Ray and his mother. Bobby Ray treated her like dirt, but she took it and then some. Like me and Miranda, I guess, Wanda Nell thought. No matter what your kids do to you, you’re still their mama.
Depressed, Wanda Nell pulled into a parking space in the lot at Budget Mart and turned off the car. She sat for a moment, staring blindly out into the night, determined not to cry. Then she got out of the car, locked it, and sprinted for the door.
She apologized to the coworker who let her in, but he waved away her apology. “Who gives a flying flip if you’re late once in five years, Wanda Nell?” He grinned at her. “Even Ricky can’t get mad at you. No matter what he says.”
“Thanks,” Wanda Nell said, smiling back. She wasn’t so sure Ricky Ratliff, her supervisor, wouldn’t be mad. He was always a bit rough on her. He was a crony of Bobby Ray’s from way back in high school, and he had never liked her all that much. He blamed her for Bobby Ray’s problems, but Wanda Nell had figured he was just jealous.
Before she got to work, she knew she had better face Ricky head on, get it over with right away. She tracked him down in the office, where he was sitting with his feet up, leafing through the kind of magazine he shouldn’t be looking at while he was at work.
“Improving your mind, I see,” Wanda Nell said before she stopped to think about it. She was really in a mood tonight. Bobby Ray always had that effect on her.
Ricky slapped the magazine down on the desk and shifted some papers on top of it. He scowled at her, his face flushing just slightly. “How come you’re late? You’re never late to work.”
“Sorry about that,” Wanda Nell said. “But I had unexpected company when I got home from the Kountry Kitchen.”
He shifted his bulk in the chair. Wanda Nell and the rest of the night crew had bets on how long that chair could survive under his weight. The way it groaned every time he moved, it couldn’t be much longer, she reckoned.
He didn’t ask her who the unexpected guest was. He always knew when Bobby Ray was back in town, took great pride in the fact that he was always the first to see and talk to his good buddy.
“He’s looking good, ol’ Bobby Ray.” Ricky leered at her.
“He still looks like the jackass I divorced,” Wanda Nell said, deliberately provocative.
Ricky’s face got even redder. “Getting hooked up with you was the biggest mistake he ever made.” He muttered something under his breath, words that would shame his mama if she ever heard him talk like that. If he’d had the guts, he would have said it to her face. But Ricky was mostly hot air.
Wanda Nell stared him in the eye. She waited a moment, but he just looked at her, a stupid grin on his face. One of these days she was gonna kick him where his manhood was supposed to be, for the hell of it. No use acting like a lady around Ricky.
“Bobby Ray was flashing around a big wad of cash,” Wanda Nell said. “Did he tell you how he got his hands on it?”
“Ain’t none of your damn bidness,” Ricky said. “Bobby Ray, he’s on to something hot, and you ain’t getting your hands on it.”
Unimpressed, Wanda Nell shook her head at him. “It’ll all be gone. He can’t hold on to money to save his life.”
Ricky laughed. “Plenty more where that came from.”
“Next ti
me you see your good ol’ buddy Bobby Ray, I want you tell him something for me. You hear me, Ricky?” Wanda Nell had stepped closer to him, looked down at him, at his grubby T-shirt, trying not to breathe in his smell. The man sure didn’t spend much money on soap and deodorant.
“What?”
“Tell him to keep away from me and the girls,” Wanda Nell said. “He’s nothing but trouble, and I’m not gonna have him bringing any of his crap around my house. I’ll make sure he regrets it. You hear me?”
Abruptly, Ricky pushed his chair back and stood up. “You better watch your mouth, Wanda Nell. You wanna keep this job, you better not be talking to me like this. Why don’t you trot your skinny ass back out on the floor and get to work?”
“You mind what I said, Ricky,” Wanda Nell told him, refusing to back down. “You tell him, you hear?”
She turned and stalked out of the office. This time Ricky’s insult was more audible, but he still didn’t have the guts to say it to her face. She wasn’t worried about her job. Ricky might bitch about her to the store supervisor, but Mr. Tompkins knew she was a hard worker and wouldn’t fire her just on Ricky’s say-so.
For the rest of her shift, Wanda Nell restocked shelves and checked prices with her mind only partially on her work. Mostly she fretted and fumed over the problem of Bobby Ray’s turning up again like he had. Every time in recent years he had deigned to grace them with his presence, something unpleasant had happened. Last time, he had gotten T.J. all riled up, and the boy had ended up in jail yet again. Wanda Nell’s heart was heavy every time she thought of her firstborn. That boy had packed a whole lot of trouble and hard living into just twenty-two years. She wondered if he would even live to see thirty.
She thought back over that scene in the trailer. For the first time, she wondered how Bobby Ray had gotten to the trailer park. She frowned, remembering. She hadn’t seen a car anywhere, at least not a car that didn’t belong in the trailer park. Surely Bobby Ray hadn’t walked the couple of miles out there from town?
Somebody must have dropped him off, she figured. But had that person come back and picked him up? Maybe he had just gone and hid in the bushes until she was gone, then slunk back to the trailer to talk to Miranda some more.
Flamingo Fatale (A Trailer Park Mystery Book 1) Page 2
