by Anita Higman
I needed to think, so I sat cross-legged in front of the fireplace. As I pondered these ladies of the shadows and what must have led them to such an outlaw kind of life, I noticed, for the first time, a speck of light on the south wall, which was focused at the bottom of the wainscoting. How curious is that? I followed the ray of light as it streamed back to the other side of the room and hit a shiny piece of reflective surface, which was a decorative inlay on the mantle over the fireplace.
Then I rose off the floor, my fascination building, and followed the beam through the open French doors. The shaft of light originated from a potent afternoon sun, which poured in through one of the living room windows. Since I had no drapes yet, the light still had a chance to play. And play it did, but in a systematic way. The ladies of the Sisterhood must have been very eccentric to go to this kind of trouble. Perhaps they wanted to leave clues behind in case something happened to them. Don’t get too excited, Bailey. The refracting light could just be a coincidence.
Chance or not, I was about to check out that pinpoint of light on the wainscoting. Like right now.
At that thought, the phone rang. What else could I have expected? Apparently, I’d made a full-time job out of answering the door and the phone.
15 – Flee or Fight
The phone rang a couple more times. It might be Max. I’d hate to miss his call. I rushed in the kitchen to look at the Caller ID. Ahh, it’s my Max. I picked up. “Hi there.”
“I’m looking for a Miss Walker who lives two doors down in Volstead Manor. Have you seen her?”
I swallowed my laugh. “Maybe. May I ask who’s calling?”
“Max Sumner, her fiancé.”
If one could only hear smiles through the phone line. “Well, I can get a message to her,” I said, enjoying our little game.
Max released the slightest seductive chuckle. “Please tell Miss Walker I’ll meet her at the Blue Jazz Coffee House at seven.”
“Blue Jazz. Seven. I’ll tell her, Mr. Sumner.”
“Think she’ll come?”
“If I know her, she’ll be there.”
“Excellent.”
Grinning, I put the phone down. I’d started to tell Max about the peculiar shaft of light, but then I knew I’d have to tell him everything else. And the details were still like a mishmash of confusing minutiae. Besides, I didn’t want to spoil our lovely minutes together by talking about B.J. Ware, Vlad, or what I’d unearthed in my house.
I could barely wait until seven. When the time finally came, I all but flew to the coffee house. But for some reason the parking there was zero. How could that be? It was a popular new hangout, but it wasn’t usually so packed.
I finally found one space still open at the very back of the coffee house, in the dark. Next to the big smelly dumpster. Great. I parked my car, scooted out, and headed toward the front of the shop.
The stars were out, full and pretty, as well as the moon, and a cool front had left a nip in the air. I snuggled my arms around my waist, thinking that Thanksgiving wasn’t far away. And Christmas. What would Max and I do for the holidays? Probably go to his Memaw’s.
I heard the mournful whistle of a train in the distance. And then another noise caught my attention in the semi-darkness. I looked, searching for the source of the noise. A lone leaf, fallen and brittle, scraped its way across the pavement. Funny how loud leaves could be when they were dead. The sound made me jumpy.
A shadow in the shape of a man suddenly appeared. I positioned my purse under my arm, ready to flee or fight. It was times like these I wished I’d followed through with that self-defense class.
The man lumbered in my direction. I couldn’t see his face, but something about him was familiar. Maybe I still had time to get back to my car. Blood roared in my ears. What to do?
The stranger lunged at me. “Hi, Bailey. Ozzie here.”
I gasped for air as I glared at the man “Ozzie?” Dedra’s new boyfriend? I came down off my adrenaline rush and wanted to throttle him. “What were you doing sneaking around in the dark like that?” My voice rose a few notches.
Ozzie gestured with his palms in the air. “Sorry, couldn’t help it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I frowned.
“I’ll just spit it out. I really want you to go out with me.” He sniffed the air. “There, I’ve said it.”
I shook my head, trying to get his words to actually show up in my brain for processing. “What? I hope you didn’t say what I thought you just said.”
Ozzie nodded. “I did.”
It was then that I noticed he wasn’t wearing his cowboy hat, but a thing on his head that was supposed to be hair. It looked more like a fur trapper’s pelt. “Well, I’d like to know what kind of fool jumps a woman in a dark parking lot, scares her half to death, and then has the nerve to ask her out on a date?” Ozzie’s outrageous proposition, which made a mockery of his new relationship with Dedra, had put me in a foul mood that was hard to contain.
“That would be me, Darlin’.” He blinked a few times. “But I’m not a fool.”
I crossed my arms. “I beg to differ.”
Ozzie cocked his head. “Uhh, what does that mean?”
“It means you’re an idiot.” Sorry, God, but I know You don’t mince words either.
He tapped his finger on his chin. “So, was that a yes?”
“No. I’m engaged to be married. And Dedra is my best friend. Why would you do that to her? She’d be devastated if she knew you were saying these things to me.”
“Well, I thought I was falling in love with Dedra, but the moment I saw your face, I thought, Ozzie, this is what love is really all about. It’s that first shock when you see somebody. . .like that electric jolt when I jumpstart my car. It’s—”
“Please stop talking.” I put up my hands. “You’re giving me a headache. And this conversation is no longer appropriate.”
Ozzie took several slow steps toward me. “We gotta go with our feelings, Babe. You and me.”
I backed up. His cologne was as appealing as the fresh spray of a skunk. “You have some serious issues here. You need help.” Preferably locked up in a psyche ward on the other side of the planet. Too bad the Space Shuttle wasn’t available.
He grinned. “Maybe you’re the one to help me, Darlin’.”
I saw the snickery look on his face, the one I’d seen earlier when I’d first met him. He must’ve thought he was seductive, but he was only upsetting my stomach.
Ozzie blew out the piece of gum he’d been chewing. The wad made a clean, but gooey landing on my right shoe.
“Uh-oh, I’m real sorry.” Ozzie let out a big horsy laugh. “Guess that makes you a gumshoe. Get it?”
I should fear for my life. How could Dedra be taken in by this loser? His brain tank was definitely idling near empty. I shook the gum off my shoe. “I need to go. Goodbye.”
“Don’t leave me.”
Then I remembered the gum I’d spotted earlier outside the bridal shop. It too had been green and gooey. “Do you always chew green gum?”
Ozzie looked at me funny. “Yeah, it’s my favorite. Green apple. Real spicy, but I like it that way.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
I felt a dry heave. “You’ve been stalking me, haven’t you?”
“No.” He winked. “Well, maybe a little.”
“You followed me to that bridal shop, didn’t you? I saw your gum there too.” Apparently, he left his calling card everywhere.
“You really notice a lot about me.” Ozzie slapped his hands together. “That’s a good sign.”
“Stalking is a crime.”
“Darlin’ if love is a felony, then let them put me in chains.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m walking away now.” I turned to go.
“Maybe I’ll drop by your house later.”
“If you do, then I will call the police. They’re very prompt.”
“Oh, but I’d love a tour.”
I turned on my heel, my
heart picking up its pace again. “What did you say?”
“A tour. I’d like a tour. When I saw your house. . .it looked really. . .interesting.”
I set my lips in a hard line. “Why?”
Ozzie shrugged. “Don’t know.” He scratched his nose.
Hmm. He’s scratching his nose. Not good. “Did Dedra talk to you about my house?”
Ozzie stared at the ground. “Uh, no.”
Can’t look me in the eye, huh? This guy is dripping with lies. I tapped my foot. And why did everybody and his dog need a tour of my house? “Do you know a man named B.J. Ware?” It was a long shot, but suddenly something smelled like a conspiracy.
After staring up at the sky for a moment, Ozzie shook his head. “No, can’t say that I do.”
Ozzie’s hand movements went into overdrive like he was flagging down an airplane. Yep. He was lying. Big time. At least according to the guy behind the counter at the coffee shop. Surely those coffee guys were proficient at that sort of thing. Right? I wanted to bombard Ozzie with a hundred more queries. But I knew he’d continue to lie, so the questions would be pointless. “I’m going now. I don’t want you to follow me again. In fact, I’m going to advise Dedra to never see you again.”
“Okay. But I’ll be watching.” He rocked his head back and forth, cracking his neck.
I walked away. This time Ozzie’s words didn’t threaten to upset my stomach. They gave me chills.
My stride turned into a run. I swung open the Blue Jazz Coffee House door in a whoosh. A few of the patrons glanced up at me. I calmed myself and tried to look normal again.
Max hadn’t arrived yet, so to give myself something to do, I went ahead and ordered a latte. Then I got all settled in to wait for him. But I wasn’t sure if even the magic of the Blue Jazz could keep my hands from trembling. That parking lot encounter with Ozzie had been too weird. I’d need to warn Dedra. He was a childish man, but also a self-indulgent, creepy man—capable of anything. Ozzie had blatantly lied about not knowing B.J., and he’d wanted a tour of Volstead Manor. Could he too be after something in my house? Well, you’d better get in line. I wondered what else Ozzie had done. Could he have killed B.J.? Naw. That time I’d gone too far. Too many bits and pieces again—a mosaic with no real image. And it was driving me crazy.
After a cautious sip from my cup, I spotted the same strange lady I’d seen before. Was my life going to be forever inundated with lunatics? I softened my attitude as I watched her from a distance. Except for her cheerless eyes and purple lipstick, she almost looked professional in her clean slacks and poncho. She certainly didn’t look like anyone who’d recently been out on the street wielding a gun and mumbling to the oleanders.
As if my thoughts could somehow draw her towards me, the woman rose, even though she hadn’t finished her beverage, and walked in my general direction. Too late to hide. Surely she wasn’t going to single me out.
She did.
I looked up as the woman stopped smack dab in front of my table and gawked at me. I could only hope she hadn’t come to shoot me. Or embarrass me. Or drug me. “Hi.”
Without an invitation, the woman sat down across from me. Her smile was lopsided. “Sorry to bother you, but I need to talk.”
“How may I help you?”
“You recognize me, don’t you? That’s why I saw you cringe just now when I walked over to your table.”
“I don’t know your name, but I remember seeing you on my street a couple of weeks ago.”
She raised her chin. “My name is Eunice Musgrove.”
I reached out my hand to her, but she held tightly to her cup. “I’m Bailey Walker.”
Eunice coughed and then cleared her throat. “I came over to say I was sorry.”
I returned my hand to my lap. “Okay.”
She fiddled with the charms on her bracelet. “I know I scared you all with my gun that day.”
“I have to admit it made my heart skip a beat or two, especially since I was already upset that my neighbor had died.”
Eunice winced then. “It was a bad day for all of us.”
I wondered what the woman could mean. “Oh? What was the point in scaring us?” I felt a little anxious about how Eunice would react to my query.
“I’d gone missing that day. In my mind.” Eunice chuckled.
I was falling deeper into this woman’s life by the second. I wondered what the Christian quota was for listening to the down-and-out. How far were we expected to go with this entertaining angels unaware thing? I had no idea since I had so little practice at it. “Do you want to tell me why you were so angry?”
“My fiancé. . .he’d dumped me the night before he died. I had a good life planned with him. He’d promised me the moon. Said he was coming into some money, and he was going to treat me like a queen. But they weren’t real promises. They were lies.” She yelled the word “lies” so loudly a few of the patrons gave us a bemused look.
“I’m so sorry.” I wondered why Max was running late. I glanced at my watch and then immediately regretted it.
Eunice gave me a dark look and gave her bracelet a jangling shake. “Betcha got places to be. Important people to see.”
“I’m sorry. That was rude of me. Please continue with what you were saying.”
After a moment or two, Eunice leaned closer to me. “Have you ever been crazy in love?”
“Well, I’m in love, but I’m not sure I’d word it quite that way.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the way I was with my fiancé. I loved him so much that I wouldn’t let nobody come between us. I just never dreamed he’d be the one to break us up.” Eunice rubbed her hands as if they were cold. “All that everlasting love business didn’t amount to nothing. Just dirty rag talk as my mother used to call it.”
“That must have been very hard.” I reached out to her, but she pulled away. I saw a coldness in her eyes that scared me. I wanted to think well of this woman, but she was making the process rather tricky.
“I learned something, though.”
“What’s that?” I tried to take a nonchalant sip from my cup, but my trembling hands betrayed me. I set the cup back down.
Eunice narrowed her eyes. “That the lines between love and hate are close. So close they are breathing their hot breath on each other.” She looked around at the sprinkling of customers and hollered, “Hot breath.” Then she leaned toward me, freeing a heavy dose of her body odor in the air.
I willed myself not to cringe. Customers started to stare. Not the bold kind of stare, but the nervous side glances. One couple got up and slipped out.
What could I possibly do for this woman? Was talking about her miseries helping her or merely getting her dangerously stirred up? Maybe I could move the conversation onto softer ground. Didn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that I was supposed to offer her a cup of cool water? Maybe instead, I could offer her something to eat. “Maybe you’d like to share a sandwich with me.”
Her expression heated up again. “I ain’t no homeless person, if that’s what you think. I still have a house. Small, but it keeps me off the streets. And I got jobs off and on. So, I don’t need your charity.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I was starting to get mighty uneasy around this woman, and her constantly jangling bracelet was driving me mad. Where was Max?
Eunice drank the last of her beverage, leaning the cup back to get the last drop, and then said, “That gun I had. . .it was loaded.”
“Really?” I swallowed. Hard. I frowned, hoping it wasn’t the truth. “But you could have killed one of us. Why did you do it?”
“You don’t have to get so all fired up. I’m just pulling your leg. You should have seen your face.” She laughed. “The gun wasn’t loaded when I pointed it at ya, but I did have some bullets on me.” Eunice sighed. “I was in the middle of some serious wrath, and I guess I just needed to scare somebody. Then when I saw the police coming, I realized. . .somehow I knew, he was already dead. I’d walked all that way for nothing.
I mean, how could I shoot him if he was already dead?”
“Wait a minute.” Surely not. “Are you saying that my next-door neighbor, B.J. Ware, was your fiancé?”
Eunice nodded.
16 – My Oratorical Disaster
Flabbergasted, a word my Granny always used, was a totally inadequate word to describe my internal landscape. But flabbergasted was all I could come up with. What should I say to this woman who was clearly disturbed? I had no idea. I mean, this woman was a murderer. Or more precisely put, the heart that beat within Eunice was murderous. Now I really felt uneasy. “I’m sorry B.J. was so cruel to you, but killing him wouldn’t have been the answer,” I said without really thinking.
Eunice rocked her head back and forth. “And so, you think you got all the answers?”
“No, I don’t.” I crossed my arms, wondering what made this woman think she could be such a freewheeling vigilante. I knew I should let the matter go and make a fast track out the front door, but another part of me had to understand what made her tick. Maybe even change her mind. “There are reasons that the law supports the commandment thou shall not kill. Otherwise, we’d all be too afraid to leave our houses in the morning. I mean, what if we all had certain times of the day we could legally gun down somebody in the streets? We’d always be terrified that somebody could take potshots at us on the frozen food aisle.”
I was on some kind of a roll and couldn’t stop myself. “Think of the ramifications. Husbands would be calling their wives and saying, ‘Sorry, darling, I’ll be a little late for supper. I’ve got another hour to kill.’” I didn’t know where in the world my oratorical disaster had come from, but when I came up for air, I sincerely hoped Eunice wasn’t hiding a .38 Special in that carpetbagger-sized purse of hers.
Eunice tightened her purpley lips, and just when I thought she might throw a few expletives my way, she instead threw her head back and howled with laughter. “Gotta love it. You are one loose canon. Just as crazy as me. I like you.” She slapped me on the shoulder. “We’ll have to meet for coffee again sometime.”
