Chapter Thirteen
“I’M GOING INTO TOWN.” CORDELIA LEANED AGAINST THE POOL FENCE. The chicks were drinking mint juleps, which were really just shots of bourbon with a few sprigs of mint from Arline’s windowsill herbs. The smell of it reminded her too much of her childhood. “Do any of y’all need anything?”
“Yeah. You can find us some men,” Arline said.
Daisy sipped on her drink. “All three of our clients canceled tonight. Weird, right?”
A small smile played on Cordelia’s lips. “Is that why y’all are drinking gin?”
“Might as well make the best of a bad situation.” Belinda Sue held up her glass in a mock toast, already wobbling a bit in her beach chair.
“Y’all have fun.” Cordelia shook her finger at them. “And try to stay out of trouble.”
Over the last week, their investigation had ground to a halt.
Ever since they found the pastor’s name in Val’s guest book.
They combed through every page, and the pastor was the only one who’d ever bought a single bottle of Dew Valley Cabernet.
The name next to the sale only appeared once as well, which led them to believe whoever had sold him the bottle had been new, done so on accident, and had been let go as a result.
Daisy swore up and down he said it had been a gift.
He had bought it a long time ago and didn’t know single bottles weren’t for sale.
It was possible he’d gifted it to someone, who then gifted it back to him unaware.
But even in that far-fetched scenario, they had no way of knowing who’d been in possession of the bottle when it had been drugged with palytoxin.
Cordelia couldn’t leave when things were still so up in the air, but if she didn’t come up with a plausible suspect within the week, she could kiss her life in Dallas goodbye. She could only be away for so long before her boss would have no choice but to replace her.
Cordelia pulled into town and slowed her car down to thirty-five, a respectable five miles over the speed limit. As she passed the Orb and the dollar store, she could’ve sworn people on the sidewalks stopped their business to watch her drive by. Strange.
Goose bumps prickled the back of her neck as she turned onto Park Street, and this time her imagination wasn’t playing tricks on her.
People stopped walking their dogs or pushing their kids on the swings so they could stare her down.
Was she going too fast? She eased her foot off the gas and brought her car down to the posted limit.
Just as she was about to turn on the street that would be a straight shot across town to the H-E-B, the sheriff pulled out from a side street.
This definitely wasn’t normal. The inside of her car suddenly felt hotter than blue blazes, and she fiddled with the air conditioner, to no avail.
Sweat beaded Cordelia’s brow as she kept a real close eye on her speed, not wanting to give him a reason to pull her over.
This would be fine. She wasn’t doing anything wrong.
But she didn’t make it more than another block before the sheriff flicked on his lights.
The inside of her mouth felt as if it had been swabbed with rubbing alcohol.
She tried to swallow, but her tongue felt swollen and heavy.
She made it a point to keep her record cleaner than her apartment and had no experience in dealing with the law.
The sheriff approached, a swagger in his step as he twirled a keychain branded with O’LEARY DEVELOPMENT. She rolled down her window to greet him. “Good afternoon, Sheriff Maynard. I don’t think we’ve seen each other since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.”
Back when the sheriff was a deputy, he’d stuck her momma in the drunk tank more than once.
The first time it happened, Cordelia had dug up the mason jar in the backyard and taken the crumpled bills down to the courthouse to get her released.
He thought it was the funniest thing. After giving her an honorary plastic sheriff’s badge and a sucker, he told her to sit tight in his office while he went and collected her momma.
He wasn’t laughing now though.
Sheriff Maynard leaned into her window, the scent of cheese and cheap aftershave wafting off him like stink on a beetle. “Real interesting story in the paper this morning.”
Cordelia’s pulse pounded in her throat, making it hard to breathe, but she schooled her features to remain neutral. “I’m afraid I haven’t had a chance to read the paper today.”
“Edna Abernathy gave an interview about some of the strange things she’s witnessed in recent weeks when checking on her husband’s property in the dead of night.
” His grin sent a shudder of panic racing down her spine.
“Like you and the other ladies at the Chickadee driving the pastor’s car off the property the night he was poisoned. ”
Cordelia’s blood burned hot enough to fry pork crackling.
Edna had no idea who she was messing with.
Cordelia wasn’t the socially awkward daughter of the town drunk anymore, and she wasn’t about to be bullied by the likes of that woman.
“I didn’t realize it was the sheriff’s job to pull people over for unsubstantiated rumors. ”
“We’re investigating a murder here. We’ll look into all leads, unsubstantiated or not.” He straightened and knocked his fist against the roof of her car. “I’ll be by the Chickadee tomorrow to have a chat with Daisy.”
“You do that,” Cordelia said. “Then you’ll see we’ve got nothing to hide.”
“I certainly hope that’s the case. The Chickadee may be an institution in this town, but there ain’t nothing more important than the church.” The sheriff walked back to his car whistling Reba’s “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.”
“We’re in Texas, fool,” Cordelia muttered under her breath as she drove off and pulled into the H-E-B parking lot.
She took a few moments to steady herself before getting out of the car and grabbing a cart like all eyes weren’t on her.
Walking calm as could be into the grocery store, she held her head high and her eyes straight ahead.
Let them talk. It’s not like she’d never weathered the storm of town gossip before.
It would only be a matter of time before someone slept with someone else’s wife or someone put ground turkey in a potluck chili and a whole new controversy would start. She just had to survive this week.
Most people shopped by aisle, but Cordelia preferred to do her shopping by size and weight of the items on her list. Heavier stuff at the front of her cart and lighter in back.
That usually meant a whole lot of backtracking and going up and down aisles several times, but she’d never once had a cracked carton of eggs.
That was how she’d ended up running her cart smack-dab into the she-devil herself, Edna Abernathy, in the baking aisle.
Cordelia thought about plowing into her again for good measure.
Especially when Edna gave her that little smirk, like she’d pulled out in front of Cordelia on purpose.
Cordelia had never met someone she hated on sight. Until now.
“If it isn’t the madam of the Arsenic and Old Lace motel.” Edna’s mole stretched across her temple as Edna smiled at Cordelia like they were old school friends chewing the fat. “I would’ve thought you’d be too ashamed to show your face in town after what y’all did to the pastor.”
Cordelia’s spine stiffened, as she became aware of all the people who slowed their carts in the outside aisles hoping to catch a show with their dinner. “I’m surprised you’d be so bold as to lie to the newspaper. Didn’t they teach the meaning of libel in school?”
“It ain’t libel if it’s true.” The smug jut of Edna’s chin sharpened her already harsh features. “And now the whole town knows y’all ain’t so high and mighty.”
“Does the whole town also know the only reason you went to the paper with those false accusations is because you’re mad that Corbin is spending all his free time with Arline?”
A buzz of chuckles and titters swept through the adjoining aisles as word about Corbin’s nonexistent extracurriculars went around. Edna’s cheeks flushed with color. “Corbin would never take up with that kind of trash.”
Cordelia shrugged. “It’s my word against yours.”
“And you’re an accomplice to murder who was raised by a drunk who spent more time on her back than she ever did upright taking care of her family.” Edna looked around, making sure she still had the right amount of attention. “It’s no wonder your daddy abandoned her.”
Edna thought she’d won that round, and it was clear there was no level low enough for her to sink, but Cordelia had been raised in the shadow of her daddy’s abandonment, and it fit her like a wool coat.
A little itchy and uncomfortable at times, but it was hers and she’d done just fine for herself living with it.
It was only a weapon to Edna because she wasn’t a survivor and she’d never be able to cope with a life like Cordelia’s.
The thought bolstered her. “Those kind of petty remarks aren’t doing you any favors.
Everyone knows you and Corbin got your sights set on Great-Aunt Penelope’s land, but I’d sooner do business with the devil himself than sell you a single square foot.
Haven’t you cheated enough people in this town?
Maybe you ought to cut your losses now.”
That sent the aisles whispering again, but this time the buzz sounded angrier.
Like wasps before a swarm. Edna swiveled her head in panic, knowing she was losing the crowd.
As if everyone was just reminded of the fact that they didn’t like the Abernathys any better than someone accused of killing their beloved pastor.
They’d swindled too many good folks out of their hard-earned legacies.
Edna’s expression grew darker than a black bear stuck in a smokestack. “You have a lot of nerve saying I should cut my losses when you’ve hitched your wagon to a murdering old whore who isn’t worth the piping on the sewer she crawled out of.”
Cordelia squeezed her fists tight enough to raise a blister.
She’d had about enough of Edna disrespecting Daisy when she wasn’t half the woman.
She took a step forward. It gave her a sick sense of satisfaction to see Edna pale to a sickly yellow, like mustard without the bite.
If she wanted to crow about murder, Cordelia would’ve been more than happy to show her a murder.
The clang of metal and squeaking wheels screeched in the air as folks who’d crowded the baking aisle to watch the confrontation began to make room for a fight.
“I’ve got ten on the new madam,” Vinner Mendez hollered.
“I’ll take that bet,” a man with a braided beard said. “Abernathys don’t fight clean.”
Shouts filled the air as people began pulling bills out of their change purses and pocketbooks.
Cordelia would’ve found it amusing if she weren’t intent on making Edna pay.
Not only had she publicly accused Daisy of killing with no evidence, but she’d been trying to cut her down as a woman.
There were few things Cordelia hated more than a bully.
“Whoa, there.” Before Cordelia could take more than two steps, Archer appeared and laced his fingers with hers, bringing her to a halt. “Let’s step outside and cool off for a minute.”
Cordelia’s hand jerked in his. Was this a joke? Just who did Archer Reed-Smythe think he was? This was her fight and he had no right to step in where he wasn’t wanted.
“What are you doing?” The crowd parted as Archer strode out of the aisle, and, with his hand still firmly holding hers, Cordelia had no choice but to trot along beside him. “I wasn’t finished with her yet.”
“You sure about that?” He continued to keep a grip on her hand, though she was reticent to admit she could’ve let go anytime she wanted. The fight had already gone out of her, but the principle of it remained.
Once they stepped outside, the hot Texas air blowing through the thin linen of her trousers like an oven baking an eye of round roast, she brushed her hands down her front and straightened the lapels of her jacket.
Wisps of honey-brown hair got tangled in her eyelashes, and she batted the loose strands away with her hands.
Doing her best to look every part the unflustered schoolmarm, she narrowed a single eye on him.
“Just who do you think you are dragging me out of the store like a sack of feral alley cats?” She shoved her hands against his chest, but she might as well have been pushing at a brick wall. “You humiliated me.”
“We both know that wouldn’t have ended well for you.”
“I could’ve taken her.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and his amusement infuriated her.
Did he possess another expression, or did he just consider her to be his personal jester?
“But do you think if you’d given Edna the right hook she was frankly asking for that she wouldn’t have found a way to spin it in her favor? ”
“I don’t care.” Cordelia stuck out her bottom lip, knowing she was pouting like a toddler, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “Did you hear what she said about Daisy?”
“Daisy’s a grown woman who can hold her own, but if you’d gone off and walloped Edna, you think she wouldn’t have sued the socks off you?
” He put both of his enormous hands on her shoulders, shooting warmth straight down to her toes.
Looking her square in the eye, he said, “Come on now, darlin’.
You’re supposed to be smarter than that. ”
Now that her temper wasn’t running as thin as a thrift-store rug, she could see his point.
It still chafed that Archer Reed-Smythe, the boy who would glue pennies to the sidewalk just to watch people try to pick them up, was now giving her a lesson in maturity.
“I see your point. That’s all you’ll get from me. Now I need to finish my shopping.”
As she passed, he gently grabbed her elbow and pulled her back to him. “You could do that. Go back in and face all the whispers. Or we could do something else.”
She ignored the way her skin tingled under his touch and eyed him with suspicion. No good could come from that kind of glint in the eyes of a man born for trouble. “What did you have in mind?”