Finger Lickin' Dead (12 page)

Ben gave a small smile. “I guess you’re right. Anyway, I saw Holden Parsons at the grocery store late in the morning that day Adam was killed. I felt this real evangelical need to tell him Eppie Currian’s true identity. I figured Holden had just as much of a beef with Adam as I did. Hell, he probably had
more
of a beef with him—it was Adam’s fault that Holden lost his job as the paper’s restaurant critic.”

Lulu nodded. “Right. I knew Holden was really torn up about that.”

“And when I was thinking about it later, Holden didn’t look so hot while I was talking to him. He turned red, green, white—just about every color you can think of. But I was just so focused on
telling
him that I didn’t really even notice until later that he was looking sort of sick.”

“Well, sure he looked sick, Ben. Holden had no idea you were going to throw that information at him. And it probably brought up a lot of unwelcome feelings.”

Ben beat the eggs into some shortening. “True. Yes, that’s true, Mother. But then I noticed what he was holding in his hand—a can of baked beans.”

Lulu remembered that Holden’s body was inexplicably covered in baked beans. “Oh.”

“The only reason I remember that is because I said something about it. ‘You should just head over to Aunt Pat’s for your baked beans fix’ or something like that.” He sighed. “And there Adam was—murdered and covered with a bunch of baked beans.”

“So what are you going to do? Have you talked to Sara about this?”

“I sure did. And she wants nothing more to do with this murder. Bad enough having our little girls discover the body. And the cops will probably end up talking to me about the whole thing anyway—I wasn’t exactly spreading a sunshine message about the guy. When they come to talk to me, I haven’t decided if I’m going to say anything to them about Holden. I mean, don’t you think they’ll probably find out on their own?”

“Maybe. Although it’s not like those beans are all that distinctive. But they’ll probably be talking to Holden anyway, since he lost his job because of Adam. I guess they’re more likely to find out about him that way.” But Lulu sounded doubtful. “I usually think that honesty is the best policy.”

“Me, too. But I think I’m going to hold off on being honest for a little while. I’m not
lying
. I’m just not offering up everything that I know.”

 

 

The dining room was already full of customers for the lunch rush and the talking and laughing made the volume really loud in the room. But Lulu could still hear Ben’s wife, Sara, laughing up a storm as she cut up with some of the Graces, Big Ben, Morty, and Buddy. When Sara saw Lulu, she started getting up, “Guess I better help get some orders to the tables,” she said, smoothing down her apron. “We’ve got a real crowd today, thank God.”

“Sweetie, I don’t think we need to do a thing but enjoy ourselves. I had two of the girls call and ask me if they could work today—that they needed more hours this week and wanted to make some extra money. I told them that was just fine . . . which ended up being a good thing since we’re packed. So let’s just have some fun and visit with our friends.”

Sara’s large frame seemed to relax in her chair a little. “That sounds like a good plan, Lulu. It’s been a rough week. Some downtime would be great.”

“Where are Flo and Evelyn?” asked Lulu. “They have docent duty at Graceland today?”

Cherry shook her head and made a face. “No. Well, Flo’s meeting with one of her brides for work. But Evelyn? You’ll never guess where she is.

Big Ben, Buddy, and Morty seemed to view Cherry’s statement as a personal challenge.

“She’s buying a third house?” offered Big Ben.

“She’s buying a fourth car?” guessed Buddy.

“I got it!” said Morty, managing to snap his arthritic fingers. “She’s buying another pair of those fancy shoes that cost more than my car payments?”

“Wrong, wrong, wrong!” sang out Peggy Sue. “She’s out with
Ginger
! You remember Ginger? The wronged woman from hell?”

“I can’t hardly believe it!” said Lulu. “Why on God’s green earth would Evelyn deliberately want to spend time with that woman? The last time they were together, Ginger insulted Evelyn by telling her that Adam was only going out with her because of her money.”

Flo nodded her carefully teased head. “Which ended up being absolutely true. So Evelyn felt like Ginger was trying to give her a friendly warning—one that she should have been heeding.”

“But she
wasn’t
,” said Cherry crossly. “She was giving Evelyn a piece of her mind because she’d just been ditched.” She stabbed some baked beans with her fork.

Buddy said in a thoughtful voice, “And I keep thinking that Ginger might have killed Adam. Think about it—usually it’s the wife or the ex-wife, right? She probably just got fed up with trying to reconcile with somebody who was out partying with other girls. And so she shot him cold.”

Big Ben shook his head. “Maybe. But I got my own theory on the murderer.” He raised his eyebrows at Lulu and nodded. Obviously, thought Lulu, his money was still on Oliver. That scene at the restaurant had stuck in his mind.

“Maybe,” said Cherry, taking a sip of sweet tea. But Cherry gave Lulu a look that meant she was still worried about Evelyn’s possible role in the murder.

“Hush! Here she comes,” said Lulu, her head swimming with all the suspicions from her group of friends.

Sure enough, in came Ginger and Evelyn, arm in arm as if they’d always been the best of friends. “Hi, girls!” said Evelyn breezily. “Y’all remember Ginger, don’t you?”

“And how,” mumbled Cherry. Flo kicked her under the table and Cherry grunted.

“Ginger and I have had a wonderful talk and really put all our petty little differences aside. And we found out that we have so much in
common
!”

Lulu raised her eyebrows. “Isn’t that nice? What did you find that you had in common?”

“Besides Adam?” said the sullen Cherry. She got another kick under the table from Flo.

“Would you believe we’re
both
originally from Tupelo? And we both lost our moms in our twenties? And we both love to eat barbeque best of all!” said Evelyn, beaming.

“That’s really wonderful,” said Lulu a little flatly. It was hard to garner any enthusiasm for someone who had been yelling at your friend the last time you’d seen her. And who could be a cold-blooded killer.

“You’re practically twins,” said Cherry. She turned to Lulu and rolled her eyes.

Ginger acted like they were all meeting each other for the first time. “You know I love the food here,” she said to Lulu. “This is one of my most favorite places to eat. It’s another great thing about hanging out with Evelyn—I have a chance to eat more Aunt Pat’s barbeque.” She gave a simpering smile and pulled up a chair to join the group.

“The police finished their autopsies and everything,” said Ginger abruptly. “Adam’s funeral is going to be in a couple of days.”

Everyone tried to look appropriately mournful. Big Ben muttered something about being sorry in his gruff voice.

“Evelyn, would you come to the funeral with me? It would really mean a lot to me if you would.”

Evelyn looked cross. “Ginger, you’re forgetting everything we talked about! The whole point was how scummy Adam was—how he did us both wrong! How we’re even
glad
that he’s gone . . . and coming to terms with the guilt from that realization!”

Ginger pouted. “I don’t care what he was. I loved him! I’m going to love him until the day I die, and no one can stop me. In fact, I’m going to get to the bottom of this murder. I’m going to find out who did him in, believe me. Because he was
going
to get back together with me. Besides, I already have some ideas that I’m going to share with the police soon.”

“But we were going to
heal
together, Ginger. Don’t you remember? It was going to be therapeutic for both of us.”

Ginger shook her head emphatically, reddish gray curls bouncing. “No. I wanted to hang out with you because we could both
reminisce
about Adam. Share our memories and stuff like that. It’ll be almost as good as having him around.”

Or
better
than having him around, thought Lulu. He really was a stinker.

Evelyn got very quiet. “If that’s the way you feel, Ginger, I’d rather not discuss Adam around you. Because I’m not in that stage. You’re in some sort of denial phase . . . denial that he treated you like dirt. And I’m in the stage where I’m just trying to deal with the fact that I’m guilty of being happy he’s dead. I need to
heal
. But I’ll go to the funeral with you. I promise I’ll do that.”

To Lulu’s relief, Ginger didn’t want to stay for lunch—she was going to get her hair done so she’d look nice for Adam’s visitation at the funeral home. The way Ginger was determined to keep Adam’s memory alive, Lulu wondered if she somehow thought she was getting dressed up to look nice for him. Lulu shivered.

As Ginger walked out the door of Aunt Pat’s, Sara said, “Evelyn, honey, that woman is creeping me out. What are you doing hanging out with her when you could be hanging out with us instead? We’re a whole lot more fun.”

Peggy Sue said, “And she thinks you want to be her little mourning buddy or something. It’s just weird.”

Evelyn said, “I know y’all think I’m nuts, but it’s part of my healing process. This has been a really traumatic time for me—going from feeling like I was the Queen of the Universe when I was with Adam, to getting cheated on and scammed out of money, to having Adam be murdered, and then to having the police peg me for a suspect. Hanging out with Ginger makes me realize that I’m emotionally healthier than I thought I was.”

Cherry grinned. “Always nice to feel superior, isn’t it?” Evelyn said, “Will somebody go along with me and Ginger to Adam’s funeral? That wasn’t anything I’d planned on doing, but I want to be supportive of Ginger, and going to the funeral might help with closure.”

Lulu wasn’t wild about going anywhere with Ginger, but she knew she wanted to be there for Evelyn. “I’ll go, honey,” said Lulu. “And I’ll get Ben to drive me.”

Cherry said, “I’ll go, too. Oh, I don’t care a fig about Ginger, but I want to be there for you, Evelyn.”

Buddy said, “Do y’all mind if I change the subject? Too much dwelling on death at my age gets a little depressing.”

“Hear, hear,” said Morty. He pointed an arthritic finger at Peggy Sue, who paused while applying lipstick. “Weren’t you telling me something nice about your granddaughter and Derrick? I do love the young people.”

“I’d like an update on that situation, too,” said Sara. “Derrick is one boy who definitely deserves a fun date.”

Peggy Sue put the lipstick back in her purse and leaned forward. “Yes, honey, they are going
out
! And Peaches is just
thrilled
.”

Lulu shifted a little uncomfortably on her wooden chair. “Have they talked, then? Did Peaches call him up?”

“She’s giving him a buzz after school this afternoon.” Peggy Sue lifted up a plump arm to look at her wristwatch. “In a couple of hours, I guess. But Peaches is one determined little cuss, so I can go ahead and promise you that they’ll have a date. They’re going to go see this cute movie that just came out—
An Evening in Heaven
. It’s supposed to be a great date movie.” Peggy Sue gave a trilling laugh.

Big Ben said in his booming voice, “I don’t know that I’ve seen Derrick go out on any dates since he’s been here.”

Lulu shook her head, endangering the loosely wound bun on the top of her head. “No, he hasn’t had a single one, as far as I’m aware. I hope the date goes okay, Peggy Sue, I really do. Because I just don’t know if the boy will even open his mouth. He can be that shy sometimes.”

“I don’t think he’s all that shy,” said Buddy. “I’ve seen him really open up lately.”

“But that’s the thing. You don’t know which Derrick you’re going to see—insecure, shy, quiet Derrick? Or engaged, helpful, smiling Derrick? It makes it hard. I feel sorry for him—he’s had such a rough life already and he’s just starting out.” Sara’s eyes looked misty.

Lulu wondered a little about Peggy Sue’s granddaughter. She certainly sounded really outgoing if she was calling up a boy she’d never met in a town she’d just moved to for a date. Was she outgoing? Or was she desperate?

Lulu’s worries were interrupted by Flo’s sudden appearance. Lines creased her face and she seemed to be in a near panic. Flo said, “I need your help brainstorming, y’all. I’m in desperate straits!”

There was a general murmuring from everyone that brainstorming would commence.

“You know that crazy bride I’ve been dealing with?”

Lulu’s mind reeled. There had been so
many
crazy brides. Brides who smoked during the ceremony. Brides who ditched their intendeds ten minutes before the ceremony. Brides who had screaming hissy fits with their mamas because they wanted the Spode china pattern, not the Wedgewood. “Um. I’m not sure, Flo. I remember you talking about a crazy bride, but I can’t for the life of me think who she was.”

Flo waved her still nicely manicured hand around. “Actually, who she is isn’t really important. What’s important is what’s happening to her wedding. She and her mama planned this really la-di-da wedding. It’s at the most historic church in Memphis, the reception is at the Peabody, in the Continental Ballroom. Top-notch, you know? Serving prime rib to two hundred and fifty seated guests. Then the bills for that started rolling in—just the bills for the
deposits
, you know? And the bride and her mama were still really gung-ho about their plan. But the daddy? He went absolutely ballistic. Raging, didn’t we know that money isn’t growing on pine trees out in W. C. Handy Park? His first
house
hadn’t cost this much money. . . . Well, you can just imagine.”

Morty said, “Those weddings can run into the hundreds of thousands, y’all. It’s like these folks want to show off for everybody they know—the finest of
everything
.”