Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Don’t you dare leave!” I screamed and took off running toward her. “I have questions!”
I planted myself in front of her car so if she moved, she’d run over me.
“I heard you were crazy, but I didn’t think you were this crazy!” she yelled out the window. “Move! I don’t have anything to say to you!”
“Then why are you running if you don’t have anything to hide?” I lowered my voice when she turned off the engine. “I just wanted to know if you heard anything at the fundraiser that can help me prove my friend Tex didn’t kill Florence Sparks.”
Liz’s shoulders moved up around her ears then drooped down after she sighed.
“Fine,” she said over the sound of the locks in her car unlocking. “Get in.”
“Thank you,” I said as soon as I got in because I knew not only from Mary Elizabeth but Florence Sparks herself that you could get more information if you were nice, or as Dottie would say, catch more flies with honey.
So I was going to lay it on thick.
“I know you were only doing your job, but my good and dear friend Tex is the kindest and most giving person I know. He’s the sheriff’s number one suspect in Florence Sparks’s murder,” I said, almost tearing up just thinking about what Tex must be going through.
“And even though the sheriff doesn’t believe Tara Kelly and Alice Charles aren’t suspects, I sat at that table with them, and you were there too. ”
Liz shifted in her seat, but she didn’t look as frazzled as when I first started to chase her.
“Can you please just think back and try to recall if you overheard anything that would maybe help get my friend off this suspect list?” I practically pleaded with her.
Liz looked out the windshield toward Lypsnk and sucked in a deep breath.
“Please,” I begged when it looked like she was trying to decide if she was going to say something. “Anything.”
“It wasn’t at the tea party,” she said, really getting my ears to perk up. “Though I did see where Florence grabbed Queenie French by the arm. It had to have hurt her.”
“What did you see that wasn’t at the fundraiser?” I asked.
“I’ve been doing side work as a waitress for a long time now.
Good money. Great tips.” Liz gnawed on the inside of her cheek for a second or two before she continued.
“Last year, my friend, who works at Trails Coffee, was doing the Governor’s Ball.
All Kentucky society was there. Naturally including Florence Sparks. ”
I remembered Gert telling me how one of her employees had told her about the governor’s affair with Florence Sparks.
“Yes.” I nodded. “Alice Charles?”
“Yes. Everyone who holds any sort of board on any committee. It was huge and was in Frankfort,” she said. “I went to the bathroom, or really, I was on my way to the bathroom, and I got a little nosy to see some of the mansion the event was held in.”
“Naturally, we all have that side,” I said, giving her the pass as I tapped my nose.
“And I walked in on the governor and Florence Sparks,” she finished.
“Walked in on?” I asked. “Talking?”
Liz shook her head.
“Kissing?” I tried again.
She shook her head, clearly not going to tell me.
“Like home run?” I couldn’t even bring myself to say the words she was holding inside, so I did it the sixteen-year-old way.
She nodded.
“Did they see you?” I asked.
“Florence did, and she just smiled.” Liz made the yuck face.
“She didn’t care, and afterward, she didn’t say a word to me.
Instead, she hired me to do an event for her, but years earlier, when I was in high school and a Girl Scout Ambassador, she wouldn’t give me my patch for manners when she taught a class. ”
“Florence bribed you?” I asked to clarify.
“She did, but I turned her down because I didn’t want anything to do with her or to be around her. I’d rather be poor.” Liz frowned. “I could’ve used the money, too, but I’d never forgive myself if I let down my morals coming from Miss Manners herself.”
“I’m so sorry that happened.” I felt the need to apologize.
“Trust me, when we locked eyes the other day, both of us about died because I saw the First Lady there, and she probably thought I was going to say something, but I wasn’t.
That’s why I got so nervous and spilled the tea.
” Even now, her voice shook as she recalled the interaction she'd had with Florence.
“I’m sorry for your friend, but I didn’t hear anything other than that,” she confirmed. “I tried not to listen or even make eye contact with her the rest of the fundraiser.”
I glanced up, and Betts was bebopping out of Lypsnk with a big smile on her face as she looked around the parking lot for me.
“Thank you for your time,” I told Liz. “I know this is a big ask, but it would be great if you could go tell Sheriff Al Hemmer what you experienced because I’m not so sure Tara Kelly is as innocent as he thinks.”
“I’ll think about it, but I’m just living my life, and I don’t want any problems,” Liz said, not surprising me. “The governor? They could make me disappear without a trace.”
“I’m not sure about that. I do think that’s in movies, but he sure does know folks,” I said and kept the fact secret that his men had come to the campground.
I opened the car door and got out. “Let me know if I can help,” I told her as I held the door open and waved an arm in the air so Betts could see me. “Thanks for talking to me.”
Liz simply nodded her head.
“I’m sorry I took off like that. I am just scared that the governor knows I saw them, but hopefully, his secret died with Florence.” She gulped. “Since I’m the manager here now, I was able to just walk out for a few.”
Died with Florence?
“One quick question.” I bent down to see inside the car and continued, “I did overhear Tara on the phone, and she was mad about being seated with Florence. She mentioned an affair. Do you think she knew?”
Liz’s eyes grew very big.
“Gosh, I hope not. I sure hope they don’t know that I saw it.” She blinked rapidly. “Maybe I should go to the sheriff.”
“That would be great,” I said with an exhausted sigh. Tex might just get exonerated after all.
I closed the door and met Betts over at her van.
“That was fun, and now we have new memories.” Betts always saw the good side of things. “You didn’t get held at gunpoint by a killer or kidnapped. See, new good memories.”
I wasn’t so sure about the good-memories thing because the information I found out about Florence and the governor was still connected to a murder.
Florence’s murder.
I just wasn’t sure how all those pieces fit together yet.
My phone buzzed with a text message from Hank.
“Oh, good, he’s safe,” I told Betts before she got into her van and I got into my car. “He was hiking Tipping Ridge Trail, and I told him to message me as soon as he got service.”
I flipped it open to read it and send a heart emoji back.
“Oh no.” My eyes scanned the text.
“What?” Betts held the door open and stopped herself from getting in.
“Hank said the woods beyond the Old Train Station Motel is on fire,” I said. “On fire,” I whispered, and it hit me. “Tex!” I looked over the hood of my car at Betts, since we were parked next to each other. “Someone has set Tex’s backwoods camp on fire.”