Killer Cousins

by June Shaw

  “Babs,” I said, placing both hands in her view, “do you come here behind Cajun Delights often to smoke? And do you always bring a gun?”

  She looked at me curiously. She glanced at my purse, still open. “What are you doing?”

  I turned toward her. “I need to know why. I understand you got pissed off at Gil and wanted to hurt him, probably since you’d already killed Pierce Trottier. So what was another dead body, right? But why Trottier?”

  “He cheated my mother. They were second cousins, so she trusted him and let him keep the books for her gift shop in Alabama. She thought her funds weren’t coming out right, but he promised he’d take care of the problem.” Her gaze fell to the ground. Swung to me. “He did. She lost everything.”

  My heart lightened. “But it’s just money.”

  “My dad always told Mom she was so dumb. She bought that gift shop to prove he was wrong.”

  “She can still show him. She can get back on her feet.”

  Green eyes viewing me widened. “She killed herself.” Babs straightened her arm, taking aim at my forehead.

  “Don’t do it,” I said, legs shaky. “Your mother wouldn’t want you to kill again.”

  “It’s too late.” Her knuckles tightened on the gun.

  The back door burst open. “There you are.” Stevie stood on the top step.

  “Squash her!” I yelled.

  Stevie’s eyes swung toward Babs and widened. She threw herself at Babs.

  Striking her side, Stevie made her wobble. The gun went off, the bullet going wide.

  I slammed my own body against Babs’s opposite side. We all tumbled to the ground.

  I scrambled on my knees and grabbed the loose gun. Babs fell on her back.

  Stevie plopped down, sitting on her chest.

  “Get her off me!” Babs cried. She looked especially frail under my cousin’s wide hips.

  Gil came rushing through the gate we’d almost gone through. “What the hell?”

  “Long story,” I said and kissed his lips. I leaned against Gil’s chest for his strength, waiting for my trembles to stop.

  Sirens wailed. They came nearer.

  I held onto Gil and shook.

  Chapter 34

  “I was pulling up to Cajun Delights when I heard the gun go off and then your yell,” Gil told me. “Your voice registered before the gunshot.”

  Police took Babs away. I answered many of their questions during the afternoon, with Gil and my cousin close by. Stevie seemed shocked that Babs was such a horrid person. Gil hadn’t known the terrible things she’d done, but instinct had told him she wasn’t a good person. It was one of the reasons he’d threatened to let her go if she didn’t straighten up soon. He hadn’t hired her. “But soon I’ll need to hire someone to replace her.”

  “My neighbor,” Stevie said, standing straighter.

  “April?” I said. “She can manage a restaurant?”

  “That’s what she used to do. She made good money back in Alabama.” Stevie leaned to speak into my ear. “And her name’s really Molly. Molly MacRae.” She grinned.

  So she knew.

  I smiled back at her. “And her child’s Angel,” I said, and Stevie smiled wider.

  I faced Gil. “You might hire Stevie’s neighbor, Molly. She’s great. And I know exactly who might keep her child all summer.”

  Stevie beamed.

  The police were finished with us for a while. Gil drove us to Stevie’s house.

  “Stevie,” I said, remembering the day I arrived and fell. “What about the dog? Who has a large one that might have come in your yard?”

  Her cheeks reddened. “Did you notice the guy at the gym?”

  “Mac? Hard to miss him.”

  “He runs the place at night. He came over a couple of times. With his dog.”

  Ah, a romance brewing? Or had it blossomed, and my arrival messed it up? Well I would leave soon, and they could catch up where they’d left off.

  Gil stayed with us a while. Stevie admitted that what changed her so much recently was she could no longer deny to herself the signs that April was not who she said she was. Like me, Stevie noted clues over time and figured it out. But she’d come to love her neighbors so much and feared something bad was going to happen and she’d lose them. That was the real reason she’d wanted me here. She’d hoped that, together, she and I could figure out the problem and keep her neighbors here.

  How sweet that she’d thought so highly of me. And how surprising.

  We all determined the threatening note under Stevie’s gate had surely been shoved there by Pierce Trottier and meant for her neighbor. He must have gotten confused since their fences were the same.

  The police had discovered how Trottier found out where April lived. She’d been cleaning people’s homes and offices. He saw her leaving an office with cleaning supplies and later called that office’s manager, saying his cleaning lady had quit and he needed to hire someone good to clean his office. The manager told him April did an excellent job. She didn’t have a phone number listed but said where to locate the house she rented. It seemed the police had been doing an excellent job of trying to find a killer.

  We were all exhausted. Gil invited me to join him but understood I wanted to stay with Stevie, especially tonight. At the front door, he and I hugged. I clung.

  When my new bout of shaking was over, Gil touched the tip of my nose. “You’ll get over this,” he said. “We all will.”

  I nodded. Held onto him. We kissed. Our kiss deepened.

  “Are you sure you want me to go?” he asked once our kiss broke. “Or that you don’t want to come with me?”

  “Uh-uh.” I stepped back. Dropped my arms to my sides.

  He planted a warm, lingering kiss on my forehead. “Good night. Call if you need me. I love you.”

  My eyes misted. I bit my tongue. Nodded. Gil went out the door. I locked it. Sighed.

  Stevie was down the hall, the door to her candle-room open. She saw me and said, “This room’s a bunch of crap.”

  I considered the ring of candles. The makeshift altar. “There’s carpet on that floor. Maybe you could change it into a workout room.”

  She eyed me.

  “Somebody could probably give you help,” I offered. “Then you could exercise more at home. But you wouldn’t have to stop going to the gym, too.”

  She ran her hands down her hips. “Then one day I might get this figure back the way it was, it seems, not that long ago.”

  “I understand. If I don’t stop eating so much rich food and start exercising, soon my stomach will become a shelf for my boobs.”

  We laughed. “But this troubles me,” I said and led her to my bedroom. I opened a dresser drawer and yanked up the magazines.

  “Cealie, that’s horrible,” she said in disgust, looking away from them.

  “Then why do you have them here?”

  A moment of hesitation, then, “I have them?” She tapped her forehead. “A young substitute teacher needed a place to stay for a week. I let her stay here. I changed the sheets after she left and checked the closet to make sure she didn’t leave anything.”

  “She left one magazine under a stack of your sweaters. And a bunch more in the drawers.”

  “Oh, throw them out. That’s disgusting.”

  “Right. Disgusting,” I said. We carried all of them out and tossed them in a large trash can.

  “You’re welcome to stay,” Stevie said. “For as long as you’d like.”

  “Thanks. I can’t. I have a business to run and places to go before my life is done. People to see.”

  “Where?”

  “Who knows? But if I stay around Gil much longer, I probably wouldn’t be strong enough to leave again. And I have to. I need to rediscover Cealie.”

  Stevie squeezed my hands. “I understand.”

  I went with her to the next Quitters Group meeting. Received harsh stares from most members. I stood and apologized for treating them so poorly. �
��I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was only trying to find out what happened to the people who died. You were the only connection I knew.”

  “You’re forgiven,” Jenna said, getting to her feet. “You were only trying to help.” She glanced at all the other members. “Right? Right?”

  “That’s right.” Father stood and faced me. “I know you came snooping around me and my lady friends, but I believe your intentions were good.” He squeezed my hands.

  Kern Parfait sat, shaking his head. He looked up at me. “You have no idea what you’ve done to my business.” He got to his feet. “Ever since you came and made all that commotion, my place is filled every day. Mostly older teens, maybe wanting to see if you’ll come back. I hope you will.”

  I hugged him.

  Ish cleared his throat behind me. “Detective Renwick came over again. He said he felt so bad for me the night you all came over, and he heard me putting myself down so much. He brought me some books on positive thinking. I’ve been reading them and perking up about myself. Yesterday I got up the courage to call a woman and ask for a date. She said yes!”

  All of us enthused with him.

  “One other thing you all need to do,” I said to everyone, “is change the name of your group.”

  Ish nodded. “I’m realizing that now.”

  “The Quitters Group needs an apostrophe,” I said, “but that name also has a negative connotation. How about calling yourselves The New Life Group?”

  All of them smiled.

  Once Stevie and I were back at her house, I said, “I have another favor to ask before you get rid of all your psychic stuff. I’ve heard of love potions. How about anti-love ones?”

  “Because?”

  “I’m trying to remain strong. Oh, and maybe you could also teach me to meditate, especially on pure thoughts.”

  My cousin grinned and nodded.

  * * *

  A few days later I knew whatever she’d done then had not worked well. When I shielded myself in my mantra, I needed to envision it in all caps. I AM WOMAN. I CAN DO ANYTHING—ALONE!

  I had to get away from Gil soon, or it would be too late. We snuggled more than once. Mmm, how much harder it became to stay away from him. I could easily have tried to keep him always in my sight.

  To surprise him, one evening when the joke contest started, I ran up. I stood onstage and told everyone my joke. I gave it a twist, making it B and T: “Boudreaux told Thibodaux he’d started a new church with a drive-up confessional. He had put up a sign—Toot and tell, or go to hell.”

  Everyone laughed. I didn’t win the contest but felt fine afterward, glad I’d done it. So was Gil. “I challenge you,” he said. “Keep telling them until you win.”

  I was a winner. I had him at my side.

  We still had Molly’s problem to contend with. Stevie and I convinced her to use my cell phone to call a friend she trusted back in Tuscaloosa. While she spoke to the woman, hope sprang into her eyes. They were teary when she hung up. “My ex had an accident,” she explained. “He broke his back. He’ll live in a wheelchair.”

  “So he can’t hurt you or your daughter,” Stevie said, and Molly shook her head, tears flooding her cheeks.

  “I want to be who I am,” she said. “Molly McRae.”

  “Nice name,” I said. “And Angel is an adorable name for an adorable child.”

  The little girl I’d known as Cherish stood next to her mom, giving me a broad smile.

  * * *

  I phoned Dr. Marie in New England and gave her the details of what had happened. She was surprised to hear that Babs had soaked two packs of cigarettes in water, cooked that mixture down until she had a mega-strong nicotine tea, and injected that into the three nicotine patches she’d slapped on Pierce Trottier’s back. She was not surprised that the ache in my shins was minimal. “It should be totally gone soon,” she said. “Take care, and come and see me soon, Cealie.” I promised I would.

  Molly went to work for Gil, managing Cajun Delights during the day. He also hired the waitresses we suggested: Lark and Clark and Lois and Sue. They all looked attractive in their non-sensual outfits and would soon have opportunities to move up in the business.

  I bought a gift certificate to a lingerie shop for Molly and a toy store certificate for Angel. I left them with Stevie, asking her to give them to the pair when the time was right. I handed a wrapped gift to Stevie. “For you.”

  Looking curious, she peeled the wrappings. Burst out laughing like a hyena. She gasped, and I ran behind her. Got my arms around her, ready to pull off the Heimlich.

  “I love them!” she cried, and I backed off. She draped her wrist with the pink plastic bracelets and shoved the matching barrette into her hair. The cheap ring fit her pinkie finger. She wound the metal key on the jewelry box, and a ballerina spun on it.

  “You needed your own,” I said.

  We chuckled and hugged. Stevie gripped my hand. She turned it over. “Oh, no.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Your life line. It’s cut in half.”

  I gasped, staring in my hand.

  “I’m playing,” she said with a grin. “Cealie, I’d like to buy you another cactus.”

  “I might get one later. Not now. Another one wouldn’t be the same.”

  “Are you still going to Acapulco?”

  “No. I had looked forward to going with Minnie and maybe finding some others like her. Now I’m not sure where I’ll head.”

  Da-dunt, da-dunt, da-dunt. I kicked my feet and answered, “Hello, Cealie here.”

  “Hey, Cealie! It’s your favorite Jane from high school.”

  “Jane!” I shrieked. I hadn’t seen her since we graduated.

  “And I’ve missed you. So have our other buddies. We’ve wanted to call you but didn’t know how. I just cleaned out a drawer and found the scrap of paper I’d written your cell phone number on.”

  “I’m glad you did. It’s great hearing from you.”

  “Let’s get together. A few of us will spend time catching up on a cruise. Tetter’s having major problems we’re going to help her with. We have an extra bed. You’ll be joining us, right?”

  Tetter, super sweetheart. And all of the others I hadn’t seen since we were girls. We were so young then. What interests would we share? Who were they now? I had no idea how they’d look.

  Surely no relatives of mine would be on that cruise ship. And Gil would not be opening another of his Cajun restaurants on a ship and tempting me.

  Would he?

  I tightened my grip on the phone. “Count me in.”

  * * *

  NEXT UP: Sail with Cealie aboard a cruise ship in Alaska during her next adventure in Deadly Reunion.

  As a bonus, she’s convinced Gil to share some of his Cajun recipes with you below. Enjoy!

  www.juneshaw.com

  CAJUN DELIGHTS

  Chicken and Sausage Gumbo à la Bob

  Ingredients:

  3 lbs. chicken

  1 lb. smoked sausage

  1/3 c. oil

  2 lbs. cut okra (frozen)

  1 can whole tomatoes (cut up)

  1 lg. onion

  ½ lg. bell pepper

  1 t. sugar

  Salt and pepper to taste

  2 qts. water

  Step 1—Cut up skinned chicken and season generously with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees until you can easily take the meat off the bone, possibly 45 minutes.

  Step 2—While chicken bakes, smother the okra:

  In a heavy pot, combine vegetable oil, okra, tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers. Cook over medium heat about 45 minutes or until slime of okra disappears, stirring constantly.

  Tip: Cajuns usually cook large amounts and freeze in quart bags for future gumbos.

  Step 3—In a large pot combine smothered okra, de-boned chicken, cut-up sausage, sugar, and water. Cook over medium heat for approximately ½ hour. Serve over cooked rice.

  Umm-umm, good!

  Bob’s Spe
cial Lima Beans

  1 lg. pkg. (3 lbs.) frozen small lima beans

  1 lg. onion

  ½ bell pepper

  1 t. sugar

  Salt and pepper to taste

  1 lb. cut-up salt pork (optional)

  In a heavy pot, sauté onions and bell pepper until onions are clear. Add frozen lima beans and cover with water that extends 1½ inches above beans. Add sugar and cook about an hour, or until beans are soft.

  If salt pork is used to enhance the flavor, cut it into small cubes. Wash off to remove some salt and place in a pot of water. Bring it to a boil. Drain water and wash the meat again. Add salt pork to the lima beans while sautéing the onions and bell pepper.

  Eat as is or over rice. Enjoy!

  Feng Shui Basics

  Here are a few things Cealie learned from her cousin, Stevie.

  Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of improving your life by enhancing the harmony and energy flow between you and your physical surroundings. Feng means wind and shui means water.

  Wind (or air) and water are natural elements that circulate everywhere on Earth and are basic for human survival.

  Following Feng Shui principles in the home and office can help you design working and living environments that allow more energy to flow through your whole being.

  Feng Shui should provide comfort, safety, and living with things you love. You can Feng Shui your home, office, and even your desk. Change is good!

  Ask yourself these questions about items in your home:

  Why do I have this?

  Do I need this?

  Do I love this?

  Does it help me?

  If I moved tomorrow, would I take it?

  Does each thing in each area feel like the right anchor for a fantastic now for you, or an amazing future? Identify things that deplete or drain your energy and those that make you feel happy and alive. Keep only the good things.

  Everything in your environment is considered alive. Wind chimes bring in energy. Take them inside. Store nothing just because.