Delicious and Suspicious (31 page)

The huge policeman had come in for his half-price plate of ribs, slaw, and red beans and rice. When Cherry motioned to him, he came right over.

“Hey, Pink.” Cherry subconsciously flirted with every man who talked to her. “How are things going with the crime-fighting life?”

“Oh, I can’t complain. I surely can’t complain.”

“We had a question for you. Flo is really being badgered right now by this guy . . . her ex-husband, you know.” Cherry gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

Pink raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t even know that Flo had ever been married!”

Lulu thought that there were a lot of things the policeman didn’t know about Flo. And Flo would probably like to keep it that way.

“See, the thing is that she’s terrified. And he’s somehow found out she’s here in town, and now he’s canvassing the neighborhood looking for her. So she’s been wearing a disguise, and now we have to find another place for her to stay until he stops looking for her . . .” Cherry trailed off, sighing melodramatically.

“That’s a tough one, Cherry,” said Pink thoughtfully. “Has he made any specific threats? Was there any bodily injury?”

“No, thank goodness. But not for lack of trying! He attacked Flo at Graceland,” said Cherry. “But she was okay. I mean, he didn’t break anything, and she didn’t have to go to the hospital.”

“Unfortunately, he has every right to be in the city as long as he’s not breaking any laws. And Graceland is a public place, so he wasn’t trespassing—although he did use violence there. If Flo wants to come in and file a restraining order, I’d definitely encourage her to go ahead and do that. Particularly since he’s already tried to attack her once.”

“Thanks, Pink. I’ll let her know.”

Lulu said, “By the way, Pink, how are things going on the case?” Pink made a face like he didn’t want to really talk. “I mean, don’t tell me anything you can’t tell me, but I was just wondering.”

“There are definitely things that we’re trying to work on,” said Pink. “It’s not directly my case, you know, but I’m hearing a lot of talk about it. This is all unofficial, and you’re not hearing it from me, understand.”

Lulu nodded. “I simply can’t think what Mildred would have known to get herself killed. I mean, you knew Mildred, Pink. She was just this little mousy thing.”

Pink said, “She certainly was that, but then she got interested in stuff she shouldn’t have stuck her nose into. As far as we could tell, she was researching a new book. That was a surprise to me since I didn’t know they had murders in romance novels. I mean, I’ve seen her working on that same book since I was a young man, and I never knew her to be interested in murder before.”

“This was a new book, Pink. She was done with her romance novel. Rebecca Adrian had made fun of it, you know, and I think it put a bad taste in Mildred’s mouth. How did you know she was doing research? Were there notes?” asked Lulu.

“There were notebooks full of different notes,” said Pink. “Some of them were a lot more helpful than others. As far as I could tell, she took notes on almost everything . . . weather, people who were nice, interesting names. But it only got helpful for us when we read all her thoughts about Rebecca Adrian’s murder. She made notes of who she thought might be involved and why. And, of course, you know she was interviewing people and trying to find out more information that way.”

Lulu nodded. “But—there wasn’t any information on the killer?”

Pink looked around and said in a low voice, “I think there might have been. I’m pretty sure there was something in that notebook that her killer didn’t want anyone else to find out about. Because those pages were ripped right out.”

The more Lulu mulled it over, the more she became convinced that Lurleen was up to her neck in this murder. And since Seb was apparently Lurleen’s love slave, she was willing to bet that he was somehow involved in the mess.

If Lurleen had assigned Seb the task of hiding evidence, that meant that Lulu should go straight over to W.C. Handy Park right down the street on Beale. If Seb, God forbid, were in charge of concealing evidence, he would most likely revert to his childhood hiding place. Ben and Seb had spent so many summer days playing “buried treasure” there while blues bands played in the background . . . and Lulu didn’t think Seb was creative enough to think of something different.

She stuck her head in the kitchen and told Ben she was going for a walk. Then she headed out the door to the park.

The more Big Ben mulled it over, the more he became convinced. He should buy his own damned bottle of wine. He and Buddy clearly ascribed to different wine-drinking philosophies: to Big Ben,
every
day was a cause of celebration. He was eighty-six, after all.

He called the wine shop right off Beale to see if they had a bottle in stock.

 

 

Lulu parked the car and scanned the park. It had changed a lot in the years since Seb had been little, of course. Now the park had a stage for music venues, a concession stand to the side, and folks sitting on benches while kids ran up to the stage.

Was the tree still
there
even? There weren’t so many trees in W.C. Handy Park, anyway. At first, Lulu wasn’t sure she could remember where it was. She walked into the park a little ways, looking around her. More people were filing into the park around her, drawn by the crooning blues musician on the stage.

And then she saw it—just as gnarled as it ever had been, but still alive and thriving. Sure enough, there was the hollowed-out spot. Ben and Seb had had to climb up the tree to put things in it when they were kids, but Lulu was able to stand up on her toes and reach high over her head to feel inside it.

Lulu’s fingers brushed against paper, and her heart sank. She carefully lifted out the papers and leaned against the tree for support. She saw the bench nearby was empty and quickly sat down so she could read.

Lulu recognized Mildred’s prim handwriting and girlish, giggly schoolgirl observations, sprinkled with a liberal number of exclamation points. Her words were damning:

An icy voice from behind her said, “Seb, you fool. When I told you to destroy the journal, I meant for you to burn it or flush it or put it in the river. What the
hell
were you thinking to hide it at a public park?”

Lulu froze. Lurleen Ashton had a cold blankness in her eyes as she sat down next to her on the bench. The gun she poked into Lulu’s leg was very, very real.

Seb quickly sat next to Lurleen on the bench. “Lurleen, what the hell? This is my mother.”

“I know who she is,” snapped Lurleen. “And don’t play innocent with me. You don’t want to be caught, either. Did you
enjoy
your time in jail? No? Then shut up while I figure out what I need to do.”

Lulu cleared her throat to speak, since Seb didn’t seem inclined to. “This was all a mistake wasn’t it, Lurleen? I’m sure your mama didn’t raise a killer. But you’ve always wanted to win, haven’t you? I remembered the other day how you’d had a private coach so you could make the varsity squad. You just meant for Rebecca Adrian to get a little sick, right? Then she’d make a derogatory report on our restaurant and be a lot more receptive to the barbeque at Hog Heaven.”

“Sure. We could use more business. Our barbeque is a ton better than Aunt Pat’s, but you’ve been around for so long that nobody even thinks about the quality of the food anymore. All they’re thinking is, ‘Oh, we’re hungry for barbeque. What’s that place we always go to? Aunt Pat’s.’ But if there was some kind of food scare, like salmonella or something, then maybe they’d start looking for someplace else to go. And Hog Heaven is right there waiting for them to wake up.”

“But something happened, didn’t it? A kink in your plan.”

“What happened is that I had no idea the woman had some kind of underlying health issue. I mean, God, look at her—she was in her twenties and looked strong as a horse.” The thought that Rebecca had a weak immune system seemed to irritate Lurleen even more—like Rebecca was guilty of false advertising.

“And your darling Seb was going to be the one to go through with it. We had a plan for him to slip the poison into the food at Aunt Pat’s. But for whatever reason, he chickened out at the last moment. Apparently, he’s more into drugs and fraud than inflicting bodily harm.”

Lurleen curled her lip at Seb’s criminal shortcomings.

“So then you were forced to take matters into your own hands, right? Over at the Peabody.”

“She’d left, but I figured there was still plenty of time to slip her something. After all, I didn’t want her to
die
. The police were never supposed to be involved in this. She was only going to get really sick and think: ‘Oh. Aunt Pat’s barbeque must have done it.’ Then we’d be in business.”

“But nothing really went according to plan, did it?” asked Lulu. “You went in there and were able to mess with Rebecca’s drink pretty easily. But then you saw Mildred there.”

“No, I never did notice her.
She
saw
me
there, though.”

“She made some kind of a comment to Cherry about pigs visiting pigs. I wondered if she’d meant the fuchsia pig you used for drawing customers over to Hog Heaven. I guess she wasn’t a fan of yours. I know what she thought of Rebecca,” said Lulu.

Lurleen made a face. “I didn’t even know the woman. But I guess she was part of that rabid pack of Aunt Pat’s fans who believe I commune with the devil under every full moon or something.”

“And you also saw Flo there, right? At the front desk.”

“Yes, she was there, planning to see Rebecca Adrian. I’d already slipped Rebecca the poison in her cocktail. She took a big chug of it before she could taste how bad it was. She looked like she had an upset stomach right away, so she headed right off to the elevator as soon as Mildred finished talking to her. I was getting out of there when I saw Flo coming in, and I had to make an excuse fast as to why I was there. So I acted like I was checking at the front desk to see if my sister was there. Then I left with Seb.”