Deep Fried Trouble (Eugeena Patterson Mysteries) (15 page)

Seems like my daughter wasn’t the only one who had some explaining to do. I invited Amos Jones over for breakfast. For the second time in about six hours, I made breakfast. This time I added a pot of grits. Then I prayed.

Lord, I trust you. I don’t trust me
.

The doorbell rang.

I shuffled out of the kitchen towards the front of the house. Amos smiled, not wearing a hat on his bald head today. His mouth seemed to curve up closer to his ears even more than normal.

“Good morning, Amos.”

“Well, morning to you, Eugeena. I hope you slept well.”

“Oh I slept better than I could have ima
gined.” I truly did.

Amos followed me to the kitchen. The table was set real nice with my best plates. I don’t often use them, but this morning charm was called for so I could get to the bottom of some things.

“Grits,” I asked.

“Sounds good.”

I fixed his plate.

“Aren’t you eating too?”

“Yes, I am.” I needed to keep my mouth preoccupied from saying the wrong thing. I did have a pet peeve about talking with my mouth full. It might serve me good.

We ate in silence for awhile. Soon Leesa e
ntered the kitchen. She went to bed, but like me I’m sure she didn’t get any sleep.

Amos looked up and almost choked. “What...?”

“Oh I meant to tell you, Leesa came back home last night.”

             
Amos looked at Leesa and back at me. “Well, it’s good to see you, young lady. You had a whole lot of people looking for you.”

I raised my eye at Amos, but he didn’t seem to be bothered. “Yes, somebody claimed they saw you when you went to visit Mary. We need to set the record straight with Detective Wilkes.”

Amos sat his fork down and crossed his hands. “That’s right. Leesa, could you tell if anyone was hanging out near or coming in the direction of Mary’s home?”

Leesa sat down at the table and crossed her arms. “I know Mary seemed to be expecting someone. We were talking and then all of su
dden she kept looking at the clock on the wall in the living room.”

“So someone else,
not
Leesa was the last person to see Mary alive.” I stood, scraped my plate and started making dish water. Amos cleaned his plate and stood beside me.

He said,
“Well, we need to figure out the identity of this person.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I stopped the water from running and faced Amos. “Why didn’t you tell me Leesa showed up at my house the night Mary died?”

Amos shrugged his shoulders. “I knew she was your daughter. I assumed you knew she was coming or she left a message.”

Leesa and I looked back and forth at each other. A very logical answer that neither one of us fo
llowed. No need to let Amos know how foolish of a mother and daughter we both were.

He did add, “Besides whoever saw Leesa at Mary’s house, would have had to be near Mary’s house. Remember her house is up on the hill compared to ours. Either someone drove by, walked by or saw som
ething from their house.”

Amos rubbed his chin and looked off into space for a moment.

I asked, “Amos, are you okay?”

He looked at Leesa and then at me. “You know I remember you sto
pping by your mother’s house during the afternoon.”

Leesa nodded, “Yeah, it was around five-thirty because we were back on the road to Columbia around six o’clock.”

I turned to Leesa. “So how is someone claiming they saw you at Mary’s house that night? We need to get you to the detective so we can tell her what you told us and get your face off the news. We will head out as soon as Cora gets here with the kids.”

After Cora arrived, it took us another hour or so to get through the emotional reunions to arrive at the North Charleston police station.

Detective Wilkes’ face was unreadable when we arrived at the police station.

I asked, “Do I need to get my daughter a lawyer?”

The detective replied. “That won’t be necessary, Mrs. Patterson.”

I eyed the detective before walking away. Someone had been tr
ying to set my daughter up. I hoped the detective recognized she had been focusing on the wrong person all this time.

So, while my daughter was being questioned as a person of interest, I kept Kisha preoccupied while I held Tyric.
Poor baby boy!
I suspect Leesa may have been suffering from a bit of postpartum with this child. Wasn’t evident with Kisha, but it’s possible her hormones were making her feel emotionally detached and depressed. When this was all over, I would insist Cedric direct her to some help.

I looked at my precious grandson thankful that God answered prayers. I held a child I possibly never could have met. For that I was grateful. I always prayed for my children to be granted wisdom. Even when they didn’t always understand, I hoped that they would be mot
ivated to do the right thing. 

Tyric’s big brown eyes sparkled and he gurgled. He was a happy li
ttle thing. Going to be a big boy like his daddy too.

Something buzzed in my pocketbook.

Kisha stopped playing with her doll. “Grandma, isn’t that your phone?”

“Oh, you right baby. That sure is.”

I reached in and grabbed the ringing phone from my mammoth handbag.

“Hello.”

“Mama. I wanted to call to tell you, Judy, the kids and I would be there in three hours.”

“What?” Oh then I remembered. Junior me
ntioned he was bringing the family to visit. So much had happened in one week.

Before I could tell Junior about his sister, he ra
ttled on about frying fish and firing up his dad’s grill. That boy always had food on his mind. Seeing the condition I was facing now, Junior would have to be careful. We had heart disease and diabetes running its course in our family.

When that boy found out about his sister, my son’s blood pressure would surely rise.

No need to give a person more than they could bite off and chew.

By the time we were back to the house, Leesa was off the hook and I had purchased several pounds of fish from the fish market.

Amos met us coming out of the car.

“Well, how did things go?”

I handed him a brown bag. “I think we are good. Still no idea about who killed Mary though.  Do you mind helping me carry these into the house?”

“Sure.” He peeked into the bag. “You got a lot of fish here, planning to have a fish fry.”

“
My son is coming and he has his mouth is ready for some good eating. Why don’t you come join us, that is if you don’t have nothing better to do? I could use some help.”

I tell you I had to be losing my mind or just that audacious to invite a man over to my house. Ralph used to be the one to clean fish, so I was hoping Amos wouldn’t mind helping. Quite frankly, I preferred not to touch them if I could get someone else to do so.

Amos grinned. “You got yourself a deal.”

So, about forty minutes later, we’re in the kitchen, me getting the cornmeal mix ready and Amos hanging out over my kitchen sink scra
ping scales from the fish.

I looked out the window and watched Kisha and Porgy running around. I was pleased to see Leesa holding Tyric.

The doorbell rang. Junior and his family were not due for another hour. I opened the door to find a neighbor.

I put on my best smile. “Carmen, how are you? Come on in.”

The woman looked at me with concern. “How are you? Is everything okay?”

“Girl, it’s a long story, but my daughter is back.”

“She is?”

I had a thought as I examined Carmen’s incred
ulous expression. “Why don’t you come back in the kitchen? I will introduce you two.”

I cleared my throat when I returned to the kitc
hen. Amos turned from the sink. He eyed me and then nodded at Carmen.

I opened the door and called out to Leesa.

“Yeah Mama, what is it?”

Carmen stared at Leesa, almost in awe. “Wow, you really are back?”

Leesa frowned, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

Okay, this was what I was looking for. I glanced over at Amos and noticed he stopped scraping fish scales long enough to watch the intera
ction. I had a feeling we were thinking the same thing. Although for the life of me, I didn’t see any motive that would lead to Carmen killing one neighbor and almost killing another.

“Yeah, I remember now.” Leesa shook her head. “I saw you out with Cedric. Y’all still dating?”

“Dating?” Carmen and I squawked.

As Carmen and I stared at each other, a voice hollered into the kitchen. “Hey, what’s going on back in there?”

Speaking of the devil, Cedric strolled in. All of us seemed frozen. E
xcept for Kisha. She ran into her favorite uncle’s arms.

Cedric lifted his niece up. “Hey boo! What’s ha
ppening?”

Kisha giggled, “Uncle Ceddy, look Mama is here.”

Cedric looked at Leesa, then turned and did a double take at Carmen. For a moment his eyes stopped on Amos who had promptly turned back around to the fish. Cedric’s eyes stopped on me, and then he asked, “You got a party or something going on in here? I guess for the prodigal daughter.”

Leesa threw her hands in the air and huffed. “What? I took a break okay. I did not ask all y’all to lose your minds.”

Cedric placed Kisha on the floor and argued back with his sister. “You should have told Mama where you were going.”

I held my hand to my head. “That’s enough you two? You are adults!”

“Maybe I should be going?” Carmen made a move to leave the kitchen, but was blocked by a larger figure.

Despite his huge girth, my eldest child had qu
ietly arrived and stood in the doorway observing all of us. Junior’s voice boomed, “What’s going on in here, folks?”

Behind my son, I saw my daughter-in-law peeking around Junior’s shoulder. The twins squeezed into the kitchen, one on each side of their fath
er. They headed straight to me.

“Grandma, grandma.”

“Hey babies.” I loved these boys, but even as I hugged them, my energy was zapped. They wiggled and giggled, ready to get into something.

“Who’s that?”

I looked over at Junior, who frowned and stared in the direction of my kitchen sink. There Amos continued to stand, cleaning fish in the midst of the chaos my family had slung into my house.

In less than twelve hours my children and their children, some with questionable love inte
rests had all assembled in my kitchen.

It was almost perfect.

Almost.

Junior glared at Amos and then turned questioning eyes on me. Amos didn’t exactly volunteer, but I invited him and I wasn’t about to take any mess from my eldest. I had enough dealing with my youngest this week.

“Ralph, Jr., I know I taught you better manners than that. You remember Mr. Amos Jones, my next door neighbor. He volunteered to help clean fish.”

To keep from having to answer any further questions, I shooed the li
ttle ones and the men outside to the backyard.  I’m sure it was a shock to both of my sons having another man around me. Certainly, my children didn’t expect me to not move forward with life.

Not that I was looking for anything further with Amos.
Aren’t we too old?

After the chaos had settled a bit and everyone had eaten, Cora stopped by and joined me in the kitchen with the younger women, Leesa, Carmen and Judy.

As Cora fixed her plate, my daughter-in-law commented, “I can’t remember the last time I cooked a meal.”

Cora piped up, “What do you feed your husband and children? Child, you can’t survive on McDo
nald’s food, you know?”

I had to agree with Cora, but I couldn’t talk. My two grandsons were on the chubby side the same way Junior was when he was their age. Unfortunately, the weight never seems to quite go away but i
ncreases the older you get.

Judy appeared to be tired. “With those two ra
scals out there, just to get them settled down so I can cook is a chore. I hate to admit it, but I feel like such a failure as a mom when it comes to feeding my kids.”

Leesa joined in, “Kisha can be such a picky eater. Now I have two mouths to feed. At least you have my brother to help you.”

Judy rolled her eyes. “Your brother is not much help.”

I glanced over at Judy. Junior was starting to sound like his late f
ather.  I cleared my throat. “Well, I had my two sons, two years apart mind you. I was barely twenty-one when I learned how to crank out all those meals. I can understand where you are coming from, but we have to pay attention to what the kids are eating.” Then, I smiled. “You know Leesa, remember when Mary’s family and ours would trade nights?”

Leesa smiled. “Yeah, I remember. I would sit with Jennifer and talk outside. Mr. Fleming made the best burgers. So much has changed.”

There was a bit of silence as Leesa and I reminisced. Carmen and Judy seemed to understand what we were thinking.

Leesa leaned forward on the table. “Mama, who do you think killed Mary? I still can’t believe all the Flemings are gone. Just like Dad.”

“Not gone for good honey.” I knew Leesa still struggled a bit with her faith. “You know we will see them all again. I have been trying to figure out who would harm Mary.”

Cora chimed in, “Sounds like the biggest issue is motive, because you said she wasn’t robbed.”

“That’s awful.” Judy shook her head.

I had noticed for about thirty minutes Judy rubbed her belly quite a bit.

“Judy. Is there something you need to tell me?”

Her eyes grew wide. “What do you mean?”

I didn’t want any more surprises and I had a sneaky feeling Judy wasn’t tired just from the three-hour drive. I sighed, “So when you due?”

“How did you know I was pregnant?”

“Just a guess. Believe me.” I glanced at Leesa. “I don’t always figure these things out.”

Leesa grinned sheepishly. “This is great. Tyric will have someone close to his age. Do you know what it is?”

Judy shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “No. To be honest I just found out a few days ago. I’ve been tired, but I didn’t think it was... anyway I haven’t told Junior. So you can’t say anything.”

What is with this family and secrets?

“Well, you can’t keep that type of information for too long.”

“Wow, that’s wonderful. I can tell all of you really love your chi
ldren,” Carmen commented as her bright face turned red around the cheeks.

I’d almost forgotten Carmen was in the kitchen. She’d been so qu
iet. The way she sat in the chair reminded me of the time I saw her in the hospital cafeteria with the headphones in her ears. Carmen’s eyes had begun to water. “Honey, you okay?”

“I’m fine. Sorry. Don’t mind me. I really like your family, Mrs. Patterson. Growing up, my family moved around a lot. Then when I was about thirteen I found out I was adopted. I’ve no doubt they loved me, but I always wondered about my birth mother.”

“Have you ever thought about looking for her?”

“I did once, but I saw how it bothered my ado
ptive mother so much, I stopped.”

The things you don’t know about folks. I looked at Carmen, exami
ning her face, now that I know she was adopted. I’m not sure why, but the spirit stirred inside me. I did tend to fly off the handle thinking the worst of people when I didn’t quite understand. This woman might be what my Cedric needed in his life.

My thoughts were interrupted by squealing and yapping. Kisha and Porgy burst through the kitchen door. “Okay, you two take it outside. That dog is not to be in my kitchen.”

Judy asked, “Eugeena, when did you get a dog?”

“It’s my neighbor Mary’s dog. I felt sorry for the poor thing after ... finding her. Besides he makes good company.”

As I guzzled down the rest of my iced tea, my mind fixated on one thought. The night of her death, Mary hadn’t brought the dog back in. What would have caused her to leave Porgy outside? Maybe the pe
rson who came by the house that day really didn’t like dogs. But Mary could have left the dog in another room. Was Mary outside when the visitor came by?

“Mama, you okay?” Leesa nudged my elbow, interrupting my thoughts.

“I’m fine. Just thinking.” If only the little four-legged creature could talk. He would be what this case really needed. A solid witness.