Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
With a full belly and a whole lot of regret, I stared at the skyline of a few buildings as Swamp Canal came into view.
Like I’d said, it wasn’t too far from Normal, and knowing this was where I could find Liz, I was already out and about, so I just headed there as soon as I finished my burger.
I pulled up to Lypsnk and parked, staring at the mural of vibrantly colored lips and microphones painted on the outside brick wall.
A chill ran up my spine as I recalled the last time I was here, when I nearly got kidnapped by a killer.
But that’d been years ago, and Liz was in no way going to kidnap me.
Nor did I believe she was going to hold me at gunpoint, which someone had also done to me at Lypsnk.
“You’re here,” I told myself and shut off the engine. “Let’s get this over with.”
I looked around the parking lot for Betts Hager’s white cleaning van because I’d called her on my way to let her know what I had found out and to tell her just where this investigation had led me back to.
That was when she told me she was done working for the day and would meet me, so I didn’t have to go in there alone.
Betts pulled in and got out of her van. “I truly appreciate you coming,” I told her on our way to the front door, where I recalled a bouncer sitting on a stool before. He wasn’t there now, but it was still light outside, and I guessed most kids under twenty-one tried to get in at night.
Not during the day.
“Are you kidding?” Betts asked, swinging open the door. “I would never want you to come back here alone, and we have to do it for Tex,” she screamed over the horrible singing coming from a group of what appeared to be hikers on the stage, singing a song I couldn’t even make out.
We looked at each other, and I could tell we were both wondering why we let ourselves get into this mess.
“It’s for Tex,” she said, squeezing my arm.
Before I could answer her, I heard someone scream out, which got my attention.
“Hey! I know you.” The woman rushed over, and her cat costume jarred the memory of the last time I was here and asking questions that she answered. “It isn’t every day someone comes in here asking about murders. Wait!” she hollered. “Are you here about a murder?”
At just the moment she said “murder,” the music cut off.
The word echoed around the bar, and now all eyes were on us.
“Murder?” we heard people murmur through the joint.
“Yeah, isn’t that what ‘Goodbye Earl’ by the Chicks is about?” Betts thought quick on her feet. “We want to sing that one.”
The cat woman looked a bit confused.
“Get on up here!” the DJ called out, and the spotlight suddenly was pointed toward us. “We love a good rendition of ‘Goodbye Earl’!”
Before Betts or I could decline, the DJ had already cued up the music, brought up the words on the screen, and placed two microphones out so Betts and I could take the stage.
“What have you done?” I said to her between the gritted teeth of my smile as we weaved our way through the rowdy crowd cheering us on.
“I don’t know,” Betts said with a nervous laugh. “I was just trying to take the heat off of us.”
“You did the opposite,” I told her, even though I didn’t need to. “You first,” I said, waving her to go up on stage in front of me.
Once we got up on stage, I immediately started to gaze out into the crowd and look around to see if I could see Liz. The neon-blue lights began to move up and down, shining on Betts and me, making it hard to see.
Betts grabbed a microphone, and I walked up to one that was on the stand. The music was going, and the group at the table closest to the stage was bebopping their heads.
Betts sang confidently while walking around the stage, which got immediate cheers from the audience. When I looked at her, even I was shocked.
Then I jumped in half a beat late, only because I was trying to get an eye on Liz. Betts gave me that hard look Mary Elizabeth would give me, the one that meant I should pay attention. But I was paying attention—paying attention to the crowd to see if I could spot Liz.
Betts must’ve gotten sick of me singing off-key because she literally took over all the lyrics while I swayed, until I noticed Liz behind the bar and my body stopped.
She noticed me, too, and that was when Liz shoved the bar towel in her hand beneath the counter and started to move quickly toward the door.
Instinctively, I started to move too.
“Where are you going, Mae?” I heard Betts question me over the lyrics and the speakers. “Don’t you leave me up here alone,” she warned, speaking into the microphone.
I couldn’t wait for Earl to die, so I jumped offstage.
Betts continued to sing about the black-eyed peas tasting all right.
The cheers behind me were fading as I ran out the door to follow Liz.
For a brief moment, the late-day sun blinded me after I’d been in the darkness of Lypsnk, and fighting through the blindness, I caught sight of Liz in the very back row of the parking lot, fiddling with a key fob to open a car door.