beyond the grave 03 - a ghostly demise (17 page)

I cleared my throat to let Digger know that I heard him but couldn’t respond. The Auxiliary women were standing in front of Artie’s with
VOTE FOR ZULA
signs.

“Thank you so much for doing this for Granny.” I had to put differences aside with Beulah Paige for the sake of Granny. These women were her friends and she needed them right now.

“Honey.” Mable Claire rattled up to me. She stuck her hand in her pocket and took out the most awful sight of coins I ever did see. “I know it’s not much, but use this on Zula’s bond money.”

“Bond money?” I laughed and pushed her hand away. “Granny doesn’t need bond money.”

“She don’t?” Sarcasm dripped out of Beulah Paige’s perfectly lined lips.

I looked over the square to see what everyone was looking at.

Granny was on her moped, whizzing through the carnival crowd with her white flag flying high behind her. She was going full throttle. The little red hair sticking out of her aviator helmet blew in the wind and the goggles magnified her eyes.

Wheeee, wheeeee,
the scooter whined.

“Zula Fae, you get back here right now!” Jack Henry was doing his best to keep up with her. He shook his fist in the air. “I’m going to arrest you for not cooperating with the law!” he screamed even louder.

“Good gravy.” I hid my eyes when I saw Granny’s moped fly by Eternal Slumber and Charlotte Rae standing on the front porch.

Charlotte Rae burst out into tears and ran back in the funeral home. I turned to face the Auxiliary women. They had leaned their signs up against the outside of Artie’s.

“We just can’t condone this sort of behavior.” That was Beulah Paige’s nice way of saying they didn’t associate with crazy. “So we are just gonna go on in Higher Grounds for a glass of refreshing iced tea.”

They passed by me one by one, without eye contact.

The cashier at Artie’s had her face planted up against the store window, taking in all to see. She wasn’t above gossip when store customers came in and this little episode would definitely qualify as the headline gossip for the day . . . maybe even the week . . . hell, the month.

My phone chimed in a text. It was Charlotte saying she has gone home to go to bed. Granny had done her in. And that Leotta Hardy had stopped by to see me. I texted her back with a smiley face. She sent back
fuck off and take care of YOUR granny.

Granny deserved to stay a night in jail—that was if Jack Henry caught up with her. She was a sneaky, little, old broad and could fit in the smallest of places.

Besides, Jack Henry would tell me all about it at dinner, which was just a short time away.

I grabbed up some steaks, potatoes, butter beans, corn-bread mix, and a bag of salad for tonight’s dinner. The cashier didn’t say two words to me. If she would’ve, Jack Henry might have gotten a call about me; and then I’d be sharing a cell with Granny.

Besides, my mind was elsewhere. I wondered what Leotta wanted. Was she on my trail? Did Vernon tell her that I asked if she was guilty of murder?

Chapter 22

L
eotta Hardy lived past the old mill in the country. The last thing I wanted to do was drive all the way out there after I had almost been killed.

I recognized the Buick. It was the same one that had been in front of Higher Grounds, Terk’s Buick. The redbrick ranch house had cracks running down the bricks. The black shutters were in need of a new paint job. They had faded to a dull gray and a couple of them were hanging by one nail. A couple of the window screens had slashes down them and a couple more lay in the yard. Maybe that was what Leotta was going for.

She could’ve gotten out and weeded the front bushes or even trimmed them up. They toppled into each other and above the windowsill. Long weeds grew up and around each bush.

Maybe right now wasn’t a great time to see what she wanted, but it was now or never. There was no way I was going to drive back out here. She wanted to talk to me, now was the time.

I knocked on the door for a few minutes before I noticed the dingy curtain in the window on the front door part. I heard the sound of a bolt sliding open along with another click.

I guess when you lived this far out, it was better to be safe than sorry. By the looks of things, she never left the house or even walked out the door.

“Hi-do, Emma Lee.” Leotta’s lips set in a tight line. “You can come on in. I was expecting you.”

She opened the door wide. I stepped in. Terk Rhinehammer was seated at the table that was right inside the door.

I was happy to see that the inside of the house was much nicer than the outside. Maybe nicer was pushing it. Let’s say that I didn’t see anything broken though she could’ve dusted or swept the floor.

A couple of cats darted about, knocking the lid to a twenty-ounce Coke bottle between them. They darted under the table and knocked off a picture frame.

I bent down to pick it up and put it back. I was expecting to see a picture of one of her children or even Cephus. Wrong. It was Marilynn Monroe’s infamous picture of the dress flying up as she stood on top of the grate.

“Damn,” Cephus ran his fingers through those thick curls of his. “She’s let them nasty cats in. I never would’ve let that happen.”

“Hello.” I smiled and sat in the seat next to Terk.

Leotta cha-chaed over to the refrigerator. She pulled the door open, bent over and looked in.

She wasn’t dressed as conservatively as she was at Higher Grounds. Today she was dressed more like Mary Anna. Tight short cutoffs and a V-neck wife beater. Her breasts tumbled over the top. No wonder where Mary Anna got her fashion sense.

Over her shoulder, she called, “Anyone want a beer?”

“Yep.” Terk threw his finger in the air, then drew it down to me. “You?”

“No thank you.” I shook my head.

There was no way I was going to drink anything that might impair my ability though one drink wouldn’t. I had to be on alert at all times.

“Oh no,” Cephus cried out when he saw Leotta take out a can of PBR. “She’s lost her mind since I’ve died.”

Ahem.
I cleared my throat, giving him the signal to hush.

Cephus paced back and forth, his white, patent-leather shoes clicking with each step.

“Them sum-bitches,” Leotta spat, and sat in the open seat across from me. “Vernon Baxter did not kill Cephus.”

“Though he did have reason.” Terk patted Leotta’s hand.

I noticed she jerked away and took a swig of beer.

“I came to see you today to let you know that.” Her beady black eyes zeroed in on mine. It was hard for me to not look away.

“Go on, tell her,” Terk encouraged her. “I know that you took that piece of paper off my table when you came to campaign for Zula Fae.” His eyes lowered.

He was onto me.

“Well, Mary Anna has been worried about her mom and she really wanted to know Cephus’s whereabouts. That’s all.” I tapped my fingers on the table. “I was just trying to help her.”

“That’s why I hired Terk.” Leotta pointed the bottle at Terk before she took another swig.

She got up and squeezed past Terk’s chair and the wall, giving Terk some eyelash fluttering. I swear there was a little drool in the corner of his lip.

“I’ll take another one, babe.” Terk held up the empty bottle.

“Don’t call me babe,” she warned Terk, and pulled out two more beers before she sashayed back to her seat. “Terk has been hot on the trail of Cephus’s bookie. But you seemed to have gotten that list. Plus Beulah Paige Bellefry asked me if Cephus was back because you told Doc Clyde he was.”

I kept my mouth shut.

“I want you to know about me and Vern.” She took a deep breath. Her lungs filled. Her boobs inflated and pulled the wife beater tick tight. “Vern is a good man. There was nothing between us then. In fact, I had set him up on several dates with Bea Allen. But that didn’t work out. Lucky for me because now me and Vern are a different story.” She held the bottle up to her lips as she talked. “A girl has needs and Cephus isn’t here to give me my needs.”

There was a whole lot of ewww in my head. My nose curled at the thought of what she was trying to tell me.

“Hmm.” Terk’s displeasure was apparent. He rolled his eyes. “Keep going, let Emma Lee decide.”

“Decide what?” I asked.

“Cephus threatened Vernon the day he went over there. He was going to blackmail him,” Terk blurted.

Leotta smacked him in the arm. He winced and put up a shoulder barrier to her.

Blackmail was a pretty good reason to kill someone. I didn’t say it out loud but she wasn’t helping Vernon’s cause.

“I wasn’t going to really blackmail him. Just a warning.” Cephus huffed like a little baby.

“What do you mean by blackmail?” I asked, encouraging Leotta to tell me.

“Cephus had it in his mind that I was cheating on him with Vernon.” Her eyes hooded. “I wasn’t. I just want to make that clear.”

“You have made it very clear.” I nodded.

“Cephus had dug into Vernon’s past because he said that someone as young as Vernon just doesn’t move to a place like Sleepy Hollow because they retired.” She tapped the table with the bottom of the beer bottle. “Cephus was pretty good at knowing the strangest things. He was right. Vernon had been brought up on charges at his last job as a county coroner in Tennessee.”

“What?” I shook my head. Before Vernon Baxter was hired at Eternal Slumber, there was a background check on him that turned up nothing.

“Yep.” Terk’s lips pushed out like a duck’s. “Criminal.”

“He’s not a criminal. It was the people working for him. They were taking the organs out of the dead and selling them to labs all over the United States for research.” Leotta let it all roll out of her mouth. “He didn’t know a thing about it until the Feds showed up and arrested him.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Betcha one thousand dollars I’m sure.” She stuck her hand out like I was going to take her up on that bet.

And who had the gambling problem?

She drew her hand back. “The Feds didn’t find anything on Vernon and he cooperated with them by going undercover and getting his employees to let him in on the action. After a few months, they let him do a drop of a heart. That’s when it all went down.”

“He didn’t get charged with anything?” I wanted to make it one-hundred-percent clear so I could tell Jack Henry.

“Not a thing. He didn’t do nothin’; I told you.” Leotta’s words were starting to slur. Her body slumped back in the chair. “It gets my goat every time I think about Cephus trying to blackmail Vernon. Vernon told Cephus to tell the world that he wasn’t charged. But if I know Cephus, he probably kept on and on.”

“Did not.” Cephus folded his arms in front of him and looked away. His words weren’t so convincing.

“Vernon said that he and Cephus had words in the garden because he was gardening when Cephus stormed over there. The phone inside Vernon’s house rang and he went inside to get it. When he came back out, Cephus was gone,” Leotta said.

“Did he tell you who called him?” I asked.

“He said it was a hang up.” She drank the last bit of beer in the bottle, which looked like backwash to me.

“Are you in love with Vernon Baxter?” I asked.

Leotta drew back. “Why Emma Lee Raines, I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“If Cephus was right and there was something between you and Vernon like you alluded to, then it gives you motive to get rid of Cephus.” I stood up because I knew what I was about to say was going to get me kicked out on my ass. “Cephus spent all your money on his ice-cold Stroh’s and if there was anything left over, he used it to gamble. Are you sure you want to find his bookie to see if he did anything to Cephus or do you want to see if Cephus had any money coming to him? Where is Cephus, Leotta?”

“I don’t like what you are implying, Emma Lee.” Leotta pounded her fist on the table. “I think it’s time you let yourself out.”

I did what she said.

“I told you she wasn’t going to help you,” I overheard Terk say when the door slammed behind me.

My mind hurt when I left Leotta’s. She had said a lot in a little bit of time. It was true that the information Cephus had on Vernon wasn’t anything to blackmail him over. But it did give motive for Leotta to do something and it was definitely something more for me to look into before Leotta got in touch with Mary Anna.

Mary Anna and her momma were tight. If I accused Leotta of something she didn’t do, Mary Anna would be all piss and vinegar on me. That was a headache I didn’t need. But it was information Jack Henry could use.

I was past the point of exhaustion by the time I pulled into Eternal Slumber, so I stuck the steaks on the small portable grill on the outside of the funeral home and grabbed a beer from the fridge. Tonight, Cephus and Digger’s murderer was going to have to wait.

There was no room left in my head to fit any more nonsense and clues that didn’t add up. I needed a night off and that was going to be spent with Jack Henry.

“Aren’t you going to ask me about your granny?” We almost made it through dinner without either of us talking about it.

“Nope.” I picked up the empty beer bottle, threw it in the trash and grabbed another out of my minifridge.

I unscrewed the top and took a nice long swig.

“Too bad that’s not an ice-cold Stroh’s.” Cephus smacked his lips next to me.

“Nice of you to show up in this little investigation of ours.” I had reached my tolerance limit with my Betweener clients or I had reached my alcohol-consumption limit. Either way, I was done with them for the night. “I’m sick and tired of your disappearing whenever you feel like it. I need answers. I need them now and if you don’t produce some soon, then I’m all done helping your ass!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“Emma Lee, honey.” Jack Henry got my attention. “Are you talking to me? Or them?”

“Them.” I glared at Jack Henry. He knew that meant to hush up. I turned back to Cephus and Digger. “I’m not going to work on either of your cases tonight. I need a break from both of you. Do you understand me?”

They didn’t bother to respond; they both just disappeared.