In the Grey (39 page)

“
Sneaky,” Matthew
said.

“
Don’t let her fool you,”
Raz glanced at Alex. “We keep tabs on them because Alex is nosey.
She’d die if she didn’t know how everything turned out.”

They laughed. Raz drove
around a cul-de-sac and parked behind a limousine.

“
Okay,” Alex turned around
to look at Royce and Matthew. “This needs to be super clean.
Glasses on. Weapons apparent. You need to look, walk, talk, and
feel like government officials.”

“
Got it,” Matthew said.
Royce nodded.

“
I know Cee Cee
was . . . well, what he was, but we need to be
respectful with his family,” Alex said.

“
Why?” Royce
asked.

“
They might eat us,” Raz
said.

They laughed.

“
One last thing,” Alex
said. “Keep your eyes open. This maybe our one and only chance to
get a sense of how Buffy is connected to all of this.”

“
If we have to come back,
we’ll need probable cause,” Raz said. “And a warrant.”

“
Look at photos, books, or
anything that might give us a clue,” Alex said. “If you can, take a
picture so we have it. Does everyone remember what Josef Yakovlev
looks like?”

Alex glanced at Royce and
Matthew. They nodded.

“
The team is watching our
backs,” Alex said. “Everyone have their earbuds?”

They nodded.

“
Turn them on now,” Alex
said.

“
You’re sure Buffy has a
connection to this?” Royce asked.

“
Everyone who knows her
thinks she’s at the center of things,” Alex said. “Now, we find out
that Cee Cee was always married to her. I think we have to consider
the possibility that she’s involved.”

“
Do you see any non-white
people going into that house?” Royce asked.

“
That woman’s pretty tan,”
Matthew pointed to a middle-aged woman near the front
door.

“
Spray tan,” Raz said.
“No, I think it’s you and me, brother.”

“
Why don’t Matthew and I
present Cee Cee’s ashes?” Alex nodded. “You and Royce will be
marginalized. You’ll have a better chance of seeing
something.”

“
Who gets to carry Cee
Cee?” Royce asked.

“
I’ll do it,” Alex said.
“Carried him in life; carry him in death.”

With that, Alex got out of
the car. Raz opened the trunk, and she got the box of Cee Cee’s
ashes out of the back. It was a stroke of luck that they had his
ashes. The Chinese government had sent them to her at Buckley.
Patrick had intercepted them and arranged to send them on to Paris.
They had to leave their Parisian mini-vacation to bring the ashes
to Buffy.

“
How is it that Margaret
missed this party?” Royce said under his breath on the way
in.

Alex smiled at the thought
of the feisty Navajo Margaret Peaches with these folks.

“
We have you in range,”
Alex heard Joseph’s voice on her earbud communicator.

“
I can’t believe you would
wish this on me,” Margaret said.

At Buffy’s door, they were
unable to do anything but smile.

“
We’ve got you on the
surveillance cameras,” Joseph said.

Alex raised her hand to
knock, when the door opened.

“
Oh, I’m sorry,” Trixi
Joiner, Cee Cee’s second wife, said. “I . . . Alex?
Oh my goodness, I didn’t know you were going to be
here.”

Trixi hugged Alex and then
looked at the men. She gave Matthew a sultry smile and furrowed her
brow at Royce.

“
I’m sure your driver
doesn’t want to be bothered with everything,” Trixi smiled at
Royce. “Most of the drivers are in the back. You can head around by
the side.”

Trixi took Alex’s arm and
led her into the house. In Alex’s ear, she said, “You always have
the hottest men around you.”

Alex smiled. Matthew
followed on Alex’s other side. Acting like a bodyguard, Raz came in
behind them.

“
You set up Krystal and
Sue Ann,” Trixi turned to look at Alex. “Do a girl a
favor?”

“
He’s taken,” Alex said in
a low voice.

“
No ring,” Trixi gave
Matthew a sweet smile.

“
Most men don’t wear rings
in the military,” Alex said.

“
Shoot,” Trixi
said.

“
How are you
with . . . everything?” Alex stopped walking to give
Matthew and Raz a chance to look around the dining room.

“
I’m broken up, of
course,” Trixi said. “It seems kind of mean to shoot him, don’t you
think?”

Unable to come up with a
suitable answer, Alex gave her best compassionate nod.

“
You probably want to see
Buffy,” Trixi said.

“
I need to give
her . . . ,” Alex gestured to the box she was
carrying.

“
Is
that . . . ?” Trixi asked. “Here I am trying to
pick up a man, and you’re holding poor Cee Cee in your
hands?”

Trixi’s hand went to her
mouth to cover what might have been a laugh or a sob. She leaned
into Alex.

“
Buffy’s on the warpath,”
Trixi said.

“
More than usual?” Alex
said out of the side of her mouth.

“
She found out we all get
part of Cee Cee’s estate,” Trixi said. “She didn’t realize that Cee
Cee didn’t have any . . .”

Trixi moved
closer.

“
Oil stock,” Trixi
nodded.

“
Do you?” Alex
asked.

“
We each got a little
bit,” Trixi said. “For the kids . . . their
education and all. It’s part of his momma’s estate. Even Sue Ann
got some, and she doesn’t have kids anymore. ‘Course, she doesn’t
need it with her helping out at the company and all.”

“
And Buffy?” Alex asked.
“What about Tristan and Kacy?”

“
They
inherited the stock because they’re older,” Trixi
said.

Trixi gave Alex a sincere
nod.

“
She’s going to be fine,
of course,” Trixi said. “She got most of his actual money, plus
those secret accounts she kept for him.”

“
Buffy kept secret
accounts for Cee Cee?” Alex asked.

Trixi nodded.

“
Why, Alex!” Becki Joiner,
Cee Cee’s fourth wife said. She glanced at Matthew and winked at
Raz. “It’s so nice that you could make it. Can I take
your . . . ?”

Becki looked down at the
box in Alex’s hands. She glanced at Trixi to confirm what she
suspected. Trixi nodded. Becki gave Alex a sweet smile, turned in
place, and walked out of the room.

“
Ignore her,” Trixi said.
“She’s always been a little . . . special. She
thinks she’s psychic. She’s always going to ghost hunting
investigations and crazy stuff. She probably thinks she heard Cee
Cee tell her to leave the room.”

Trixi laughed.

“
And Belinda and Missy?”
Alex asked about the remaining mothers of Cee Cee’s illegitimate
children.

Trixi’s eyes got big. She
leaned in again.

“
They got all lawyered up
after . . . you know, what happened,” Trixi
said.

“
You mean when Cee Cee
almost killed their children?” Alex asked.

“
Well . . .
Marvin was killed, so I don’t blame Jenni-June for killing
herself,” Trixi nodded. “Her parents sued Cee Cee’s estate, which
means they sued Buffy or, as Buffy says,
all
of us. Missy and Belinda are
just so . . . hateful.”

Trixi squinted to indicate
something. Alex wasn’t sure what.

“
What did they do?” Alex
asked.

“
They sued Cee Cee’s trust
for medical expenses, suffering, and stuff like that,” Trixi said.
“Buffy got a restraining order against them. They weren’t even
allowed at the funeral.”

Raz made a slight noise,
and Alex glanced at him. He gestured to his ring finger.

“
I couldn’t help but
notice your gorgeous ring,” Alex smiled at Trixi. “Did you get
married again?”

“
Nope,” Trixi said.
“Married once, married for life. Even if it’s to that no-good Cee
Cee Joiner. But I’m always available for . . .
whatever.”

Trixi smiled at Matthew.
He smiled and moved to the other side of the room.

“
I’ll go get Buffy,” Trixi
said.

She gave them a little
manicured wave, a flip of her long blonde hair, and swished away on
her stilettos.

Alex wondered if she
should have worn her padded bra. Raz cleared his throat and pointed
to the pictures on the mantle in the next room. They went into the
living room. While the men moved to look around the room, Alex set
Cee Cee’s ashes down on a table and poured herself a drink. Her
hand was hovering over the whiskey when she heard Buffy say, “Alex
is here?”

“
Better stick with the
wine,” Courtney Joiner, Cee Cee’s fifth wife, said under her
breath. “There’s plenty of
whine
here.”

“
Good thinking,” Alex
said.

“
That him?” Courtney
asked.

Alex nodded. Courtney took
a small vial out of her pocket and opened the box. She scooped out
some of Cee Cee’s ashes with her long, blood-red index fingernail
and tapped it into the vial. She closed the vial and stuck it in
her pocket. She had the box closed before they heard
Buffy.

“
Alex?” Buffy said from
the next room.

Alex glanced at
Courtney.

“
Make sure he stays in
hell.” Her eyes burning with fury, Courtney nodded. She turned
around to Buffy. “Can you believe Alex made all this effort for
us?”

When Alex turned, Courtney
was all smiles, blonde hair, and beauty. Alex was too taken aback
to respond. Buffy hugged her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw
Raz take his phone out of his pocket. He held it to his ear to
disguise taking a picture of something on the mantle.

“
Alex, honey, how
are
you?” Buffy
asked.

“
I wanted to make sure Cee
Cee reached you,” Alex held out the box to Buffy.

Buffy’s eyes welled with
tears, and she took the box.

“
I just can’t believe he’s
gone,” Buffy said. “I can’t . . .”

Buffy used her free hand
to hold a tissue to her eyes. Alex noticed that Trixi had followed
Buffy into the room. Becki appeared from the kitchen.

Alex’s heart skipped a
beat. She realized she was surrounded by Cee Cee Joiner’s ex-wives.
Her eyes cast around the room for Raz and Matthew. Noting her
panicked look, Matthew walked over to her.

“
You were there, weren’t
you?” Buffy asked.

Alex wasn’t sure how Buffy
knew that. She smiled.

“
What do you mean?” Alex
asked.

“
I heard you had time with
him before . . . before . . .” Buffy
used the tissue to wipe her tears. “I’m so sorry. I’m just broken
up about . . .”

While she collected
herself, Alex looked for Raz. He’d moved into the bookshelf-lined
office next to the living room and pulled a photo album off a
shelf.

“
I was granted a few
minutes to speak with him,” Alex said.

“
Did
he . . . say anything . . .
about . . . ?” Buffy’s hand moved to her heart.
As a second thought, she gestured to the other ex-wives.

“
He said to tell you that
he was sorry,” Alex said. “And that he never could get things
right.”

“
Oh,” Becki began to cry
into her hands. Trixi put her arm around Becki’s shoulders to
comfort the young woman.

“
He also said to tell you
he was sorry he let him down.” Alex watched her words register on
Buffy’s face. Buffy gave a slight unconscious nod before bursting
into tears.

“
I can’t believe
he’s
sorry,” Buffy said.
“I’m just so sorry, and now I can
never . . .”

Her cosmetically unlined
face became a mask of muted misery. She held the tissue to her eyes
to keep the moisture at bay. She cried, and Trixi comforted
her.

“
Did you bring the book?”
Buffy asked.

“
The Chinese took his
possessions from him,” Alex played along. She touched her hand to
Buffy’s shoulder. “I know it’s important to you.”

“
He took my copy and
never . . . never . . . Oh my
God . . .”

Buffy made a show of
wailing. She fled with Cee Cee’s ashes through the den where Raz
was snooping and to the back of the house. Trixi and Becki followed
her.

Alex turned to look at
Courtney. She shrugged.

“
There’s always that kind
of drama here,” she said.

“
How is your son Jayden?”
Alex asked.

“
He’s beautiful,” Courtney
said. “Smart and loving. He’s truly the light of my life. Cecil has
been very kind, a real grandfather to Jayden. Thanks for
remembering.”