by Riley Adams
“I guess detectives have to eat, too,” said Lulu noncommittally.
Lurleen said, “He must have taken it to-go, then. Or else, he’s chucking down his food a little too fast!” She giggled and then added, “I’m surprised the detective wasn’t worried about eating here. After all, he’s investigating a murder, and clearly the victim was poisoned here. It’s awfully brave of him. No offense.”
“None taken.” Lulu felt her blood pressure shoot up. “You know, the police haven’t actually determined where she was poisoned. It could have been after she left the restaurant. This was just one of the places she ate that day. In fact,” Lulu noted sweetly, “I remember that Rebecca left with you that afternoon. Did she follow you back to Hog Heaven?”
Lurleen flushed. She waved a hand with fake-tipped fingernails dismissively. “Oh, that. You know, I was here to narrow down when she was doing her tasting at Hog Heaven that afternoon. I wanted to roll out the red carpet for her, that’s all. She didn’t go back with me. In fact, she took off down the street. I guess to the parking deck.”
Lulu knit her brows. “Didn’t they have a scheduled time to come by Hog Heaven? They did for coming here.”
Lurleen pinched her red lips shut. Then she said, “Well, I’m sure I don’t know, Lulu. Maybe she wasn’t sure how long the tasting was going to take here. Maybe she wanted to leave enough time to go back to the Peabody and brush her teeth before going to Hog Heaven,” she added cattily. “You know—cleanse her palate.”
Lulu had heard just about enough nonsense for one day. And she was very much afraid that her prized self-control was about to come to a catastrophic end right here in the Aunt Pat’s office. “I do appreciate you coming by, Lurleen. Do you really have to go?”
Lurleen gave a tight smile. “Yes, I guess I must. By the way, have you seen Seb?”
Oh, please, thought Lulu, don’t let Seb be messed up with this vixen. That’s all they needed. “Actually, no. I haven’t seen him lately, Lurleen. Why are you looking for him?”
“Oh, I only wanted to talk to him about something. Business related, you know.”
Lulu watched her go. Was everyone looking for Seb? She’d had enough of calling his cell phone and not getting an answer. It was time to have a little face-to-face talk with her younger son.
Seb wasn’t delighted to see his mom’s face when he peeked through the peephole in his front door. “No one’s home!” he said advisedly.
“That’s interesting,” said Lulu. “Because I have a paycheck in my hand for the last week. If no one is here to claim it, I’m going to put it back in the Aunt Pat’s kitty. It’ll prove handy when we hire our new office manager.”
The door opened and Seb, or an unreasonable facsimile of him, leaned on the doorjamb. “Dear Lord. What on earth happened to you?” gasped Lulu in horror. “Did you have a life-threatening encounter with the murderer?”
Seb’s hair stood on end like he had just risen for the day. The hair covering his face was decidedly more than the stubble of a day-old beard. It appeared that he’d slept in his clothes and hadn’t even picked very nice clothes to sleep in. And, Lulu wrinkled her nose, he seemed in need of a good scrubbing.
Seb looked at his mother with bleary eyes. “Nothing, Mom. Nothing happened to me. Can’t a man relax at home without his mama coming to drag his butt out of bed? Jeez.”
Lulu pushed past him into the house. “Not when it’s the middle of the afternoon. What’s going on, Seb? Have you got the swine flu or something? And could you please explain why the police are looking for you?”
Seb raised an eyebrow. “The police are looking for me? They must not be looking very hard because I’ve been right here all along.”
“Right here, but not answering your phone? Or your door? Because they’ve been trying to contact you.”
Seb didn’t answer, just rubbed his eyes.
“And I’ve been looking for you, too. You’ll notice that your paycheck is a little bit smaller than usual. I’ve subtracted out the hours you didn’t work. I’m going to divert that money to Derrick, your substitute.”
Seb snorted. “I doubt Derrick has the ability to do much filling in.”
“Actually, he’s done remarkably well in your absence.” Lulu sniffed. “The computer has never run better. And he’s placing orders to vendors for us. Now the restaurant won’t go under while you’re having your lost weekend.”
Seb spun on his heel and tromped into the kitchen. Lulu followed him like a worried mother hen. She was sorry she’d followed when she took a gander at the kitchen. It looked like the home of someone who should be confessing his slovenly habits on Oprah. There was dried up food on plates, dried liquids in glasses, and not a surface to be seen that wasn’t stacked high with tilting piles of dirty dishes and silverware. Lulu put her hands on her hips.
“And what’s the meaning of this? I didn’t raise you to live in squalor.” Lulu took off her rings and put them in her pocketbook.
“What are you doing?” asked Seb suspiciously.
“What are we doing, you mean? We are going to clean up this foolishness. That’s what we’re going to do. Then you’re going to have a shower while I dig up some edible food in this kitchen.”
Seb opened his mouth to protest, but when he saw Lulu’s face, he had second thoughts. He obediently rolled his sleeves and filled the sink with hot water.
Two hours later, the kitchen sparkled and Seb, while in no way sparkly, was at least clean and shaven. He wolfed down a plate of scrambled eggs and a couple of pieces of toast while Lulu unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher.
Lulu was ready to continue her interrogation. She peeked into the den to see if it was clean enough to sit in. After looking, she decided to stick with the kitchen. She sat down at the small kitchen table and smoothed out her floral skirt. Seb smiled at her.
Lulu smiled back and said, “So did you murder Rebecca Adrian?”
Some bit of egg or toast made its way down Seb’s wind-pipe, and he commenced a coughing fit. Lulu waited patiently for the coughing to end.
Since Seb didn’t seem in any hurry to answer her question, Lulu pressed on. “Did you? Because I simply can’t think why the police would be interested in talking to you since you’d never even met Miss Adrian. At least, not as far as I’m aware.”
“I cannot believe,” said Seb with an affronted tone, “that a mother would accuse her loving son of committing such a heinous crime.”
“I haven’t accused you at all, Seb. I’m just asking. What is the police’s business with you? And, on a similar note, what’s happened to make your house resemble a place pigs would be proud to call home?”
Seb looked very tired. Which was odd, considering he’d recently awakened and it was five o’clock in the evening. “I’m guessing the police want to talk to me because my phone number is on Rebecca Adrian’s cell phone.”
“Excuse me?”
“Because Rebecca called me, Mother. Yes, she called me.”
Lulu blinked at him. “Why on earth would she have called you? Did you slip her your phone number on her barbeque plate? What have I told you about fraternizing with our guests? First the Graces, then people well on their way to getting murdered . . .”
“For God’s sake. I didn’t try to pick her up, Mom. I was trying to avoid that snake at all costs.”
Lulu was completely agog. “How do you know she’s a snake? Was a snake?”
“Because, Mother, she was my girlfriend in New York.”
Lulu clutched at her throat. “No!”
“Yes. And she knew that I’d had to serve time in the city on a drug-dealing charge.” At his mother’s look of horror, he added, “You thought I was in Munich for a special finance training seminar.”
“No!”
“Yes. And she called me the night before she died, and I met her at the Peabody.”
“No!”
“And while I was in her room with her, she tried to blackmail me about my drug-dealing past.”
>
“N—”
“Mother, stop! Enough with the nos. Yes, all those things happened. But do you know what?”
“No.” Seb glared at Lulu and she said, “I mean, what?”
“I laughed in her face. I really did. Because if there’s one thing I’ve discovered about coming home, it’s acceptance. Here in Memphis, I’m just Seb. I’m not somebody with a complicated past or somebody who served time. I’m just one of the Taylors. Being a Taylor and growing up at Aunt Pat’s means that everybody automatically knows all about me and how I was raised. Lord, that sounds like something from The Waltons or something.” He shrugged. “I told her where she could go and what she could do with her blackmailing. I left the Peabody. And I didn’t go back.”
“Well, honey, that sounds so sweet with the family stuff and your finding your identity. But—you need to level with me. Because if you really didn’t care what Miss Adrian said and if she really didn’t have any power over you, why haven’t you been to work? Why were you filthy and unshaven? Why should your kitchen have been condemned by the board of health?”
Seb rubbed his nose in intense irritation. Lulu wasn’t sure if he was irritated with Rebecca or with Lulu or with himself. “Because she does have power over me. Not because of the blackmail, but because I still have . . . had . . . feelings for her.”
Now Lulu looked more stunned than she had during the entire rest of the conversation. “Feelings? For Rebecca Adrian? Like, loving feelings?” Lulu could certainly understand hateful feelings and hurt feelings where Rebecca came into play. Loving feelings she couldn’t begin to grasp. It was like trying to understand quantum physics.
“Yes, Mom. Loving feelings. Or, at least, very complicated feelings. Complex feelings that I’ve been trying hard to work out over the past few days: her sudden appearance back on the scene, the fact she was betraying me, and then the fact that she was murdered.” He gulped. “It’s been a lot to absorb.”
Lulu was still having a hard time absorbing Seb’s attraction to Rebecca Adrian. But she wanted to feel sympathetic. Clearly, he’d had a rough few days. She gave him a hug, and he hugged her back, hard. While his ear was very close to her lips, she said softly, “You know what you need? What would help pull you out of your slump? Going out with Susan Meredith.”
Seb groaned and pushed away from his mother.
“I mean it, Seb! I really do. If you actually knew what a nice girl was like, you’d never waste your time on someone who was going to end up murdered. And at the Peabody, too! Why someone would get themselves murdered in such a classy place is beyond me.”
“Mom!” He buried his face in his hands and shook it from side to side. “This is all a nightmare. This can’t be happening.”
“Susan’s gallery is very sweet. And she’s been really kind to Sara, showing her art and all. She’s a nice girl,” said Lulu.
“She’s a yoga-practicing, meditating, organic-food-growing hippie. And don’t you think ‘girl’ is a bit of an exaggeration? She must be forty-two if she’s a day.”
“Well, you’re no spring chicken at thirty-eight, Seb. You know what—never mind. I don’t want to see Susan get hurt. When you grow up a little bit and are ready for a real relationship, cross your fingers that she’s still going to be around. Because she might be married to Trevor Baldwin by then.”
“Trevor? For Lord’s sake, Mom. Why would somebody smart and pretty go out with that mealy mouthed guy? He doesn’t have a lick of sense.”
“Because he’s a decent man. He works very hard, saves his money, and has a nice mama and daddy.”
Seb rolled his eyes. “Well, if that’s the kind of person she’s looking for, tell her to go for it. He sounds right up her alley.”
This only served to irritate Lulu more. She decided to move on to her next line of attack, which covered something sudden, unwelcome, and appalling. “While we’re on the subject of women, why is Lurleen Ashton looking for you? I certainly hope you know better than to get involved with that vixen again,” said Lulu sternly.
Seb made a sound that was halfway between a sob and a laugh. “Good God, Mother.”
“It’s not me being nosy—she asked about you. At Aunt Pat’s.” Lulu made Lurleen’s inquiry sound like something dirty.
“Mother, she’s on the committee that’s organizing our high school reunion. Remember how she was in high school? She was a cheerleader, homecoming queen, and student body VP—exactly the kind of person who organizes reunions. Not that I have any intention of attending the damned thing. And I have no desire to see her because we had a really nasty and abrupt end to a one- or two-day relationship. So I’m avoiding her. I hope you didn’t tell her where she could find me. When we went out, I was in an apartment at the time.”
“No, I certainly didn’t. For one thing, I didn’t know where I could find you myself. It seemed like everybody in Memphis was looking for you. Besides, the less I see of Lurleen Ashton, the better.” Lulu drew herself up and abruptly changed the subject. “You, on the other hand, will call up the Memphis police department and explain your connection with Miss Adrian and your presence at the crime scene.”
“Well, it wasn’t a crime scene then, Mother. It was just a hotel room.”
“And they’re going to look at your past and judge you against it. I knew you never should have left Memphis. Here you’re around people who love you, but as soon as you left, all the vultures of the world swooped down on you out of the heavens.” This flight of her fancy intrigued Lulu, and she mulled over her own imagery.
Seb gave a pained sigh. “Is this interrogation over? Because I think I’m ready to take some Advil and crawl back in bed.”
“Which you can absolutely do—the first part, anyway. Take some headache medicine, and then we’re calling the police. They need to hear this right from the horse’s mouth.”
Where Detective Bryce had been willing to see a troubled youth in Derrick, he wasn’t nearly as understanding with middle-aged Seb. In fact, he positively glowered at him the whole time. Lulu thought a glower looked really funny coming out of Bryce’s sunny, boyish face.
Lulu had been all about calling Jed back and having him come to be Seb’s mouthpiece, but Seb would have nothing to do with it. “Mom, think about it—I didn’t have a motive anymore. When I told her to go ahead and tell everyone about the drug stuff, I really didn’t care. Why would I have killed her?” Lulu agreed that she couldn’t think of a reason, but she hoped that Detective Bryce wouldn’t have more imagination than she did.
“But you did have a motive, didn’t you?” Bryce finally asked.
Seb frowned questioningly at him.
“Your motive was to keep her quiet. To keep her from saying anything about your past to your family.”
“But,” said Seb, “I just finished telling you that I didn’t care whether she said anything or not. I told her to feel free to spill the beans.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that?” asked Detective Bryce.
“Why not? It’s the truth,” snapped Seb. Lulu hoped he wasn’t about to blow his top. She wondered if that’s what Bryce wanted to see happen. It could be a ploy to get more information out of him.
“Why didn’t you go right to your mother and fess up? It seems to me that you’d have immediately told your family about your prison time in New York. After all, you wanted to make sure they heard it from you first. Instead, the woman who is threatening to blackmail you is murdered, you disappear, and no one finds out a thing about your background until your mother pulls it out of you.”
Seb only glared at him.
“He didn’t disappear, though, Detective Bryce,” said Lulu. “He was right here all along, filthying up his house. Peek in his den if you don’t believe me.” Seb rolled his eyes at her.
Lulu continued, “If he’d killed Miss Adrian, wouldn’t he have run off and tried to build a new life somewhere else? Why would he be hanging out in Memphis? And he didn’t have to tell me today about her attempt to bla
ckmail him and his prison time. I wasn’t going to find it out now that she’s dead. He could have just told me that Miss Adrian got his phone number because she thought he was cute.” Both Bryce and Seb looked at her blankly. “Well, she could have thought that! He’s not a bad-looking boy, just a little rundown.”
Seb broke in before the conversation turned into a litany on what he should do to spruce himself up. “Look, have you got any evidence against me? Because really, that’s what this all boils down to. And I don’t think you have it.”
Apparently, Detective Bryce didn’t think he did, either. His blue eyes looked tired for a second, before he briskly stood and moved toward Seb’s door. “If you think of anything to add to your statement, call me.” His tone suggested he was far from finished with Seb.
Lulu looked at her watch. “Heavens, I’ve got to get back to the restaurant for the dinner rush!” She clucked. “Tonight’s band should be arriving any minute, too.” Thank goodness her car was in working order again. Right now, she loved Seb just as much as always, but she sure didn’t like him very much.
“Hey, Mom, do you want me to come in to work? Get some things done in the office?” asked Seb hesitantly. He didn’t seem to want to go in but more like he thought he should go in.
Lulu looked at him severely over the glasses she wore to drive with. “Not a bit. I don’t think you’re customer-ready right now. You’re not even back door ready. You look like you’ve been run over by a Mack truck, frankly. Your original plan was a better one—go to bed. Go directly to bed. Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars.”
Seb gave a faint smile. “I used to love it when we played Monopoly.”
“That’s probably because you usually won. Even when you were a little guy,” said Lulu.
“Well, I was always good at figures,” said Seb with an attempt at a modest tone.
“You were always good at robbing the bank.” Lulu sniffed. She held her head high as she walked out the door—but turned to wink at Seb.
