Best Served Cold (A Trailer Park Mystery Book 3) Read online

  “Well, thanks for everything,” Wanda Nell said. “I’m going to try to find her tomorrow.” She was a bit daunted by the thought of calling strangers up on the phone and asking if they knew this girl, but she didn’t have much choice.

  “You’re welcome,” Ruby said. “If you talk to her, tell her I said hello.”

  “I will,” Wanda Nell promised. She hung up the phone, then she leaned against the counter for a few minutes, thinking about the new pieces of information she had.

  A girl named Lily Golliday had come looking for her.

  A girl of mixed race—she had actually suspected as much, based on Melvin’s description of her. She sounded a lot like her own grandson, Lavon.

  And Rusty had been carrying around the numbers for several DNA testing places with him. Did that mean maybe he was this girl’s father, and he was going to take a paternity test? All at once, Rusty’s odd comment about Lavon came back to her. He hadn’t said anything nasty, the way Wanda Nell expected, when he found out Lavon was half black.

  If he was the father of a mixed-race child himself, that might explain his attitude to Lavon.

  But if that’s all it was, why were Bert Vines and Marty Shaw involved? And Reggie and Tony Campbell and Scott Simpson? What about them?

  Wanda Nell couldn’t figure out an answer, but there was one thing that was certain. Something really nasty lay at the bottom of all this, and uncovering the truth was bound to cause a lot of trouble for someone. Maybe for everyone involved.

  Wanda Nell sat down hard in one of the kitchen chairs. Suddenly she felt like everything was spinning out of control. She wanted to go back in time, before all this started. The way ahead was too dark, too frightening, and she didn’t want to have to deal with it all.

  Hands clasped tightly on the table in front of her, Wanda Nell closed her eyes and uttered a prayer. She asked for the strength to endure it all and the strength to keep her loved ones safe. She prayed also for her brother, that he would be found alive and well and that he wouldn’t turn out to be a cold-blooded murderer.

  Comforted now, and feeling stronger, Wanda Nell decided to go next door to see what was going on at Mayrene’s.

  Simply opening the door and walking in, Wanda Nell caught those inside by surprise.

  Elmer Lee scowled when he saw her. He and his fellow officer occupied Mayrene’s couch, and Mayrene, Tuck, and T.J. sat in chairs near them.

  “I thought I told you stay out of this,” Elmer Lee said. Wanda Nell ignored that. There was no point in getting into another argument with him about it. She just looked at Elmer Lee. “What do you think of those numbers?”

  “Right now I don’t think anything,” Elmer Lee said, glaring at her. “I’m going to take this back to the sheriff’s department with me, and we’ll work on it there. You can just forget about it for now. Let me get on with my job.” Wanda Nell had briefly considered telling him about Lily Golliday, knowing that Elmer Lee could probably find her faster than she could. But his attitude decided her. She would find the girl herself and talk to her first. No telling how Elmer Lee might treat her. She probably wouldn’t even talk to him, but she might talk to another woman.

  Elmer Lee stood up from the couch, heading for the door, and the other deputy followed him.

  “Have you got any leads on my brother?” Wanda Nell asked.

  His hand on the doorknob, Elmer Lee turned back to face her. “No, not a sign. Far as we can tell, he vanished into thin air. You heard anything from him?”

  “No, nothing since that one phone call,” she said. Taking a deep breath, she asked the question she had dreaded to put into words. “Do you think he’s still alive?”

  Elmer Lee’s face softened for moment. “I don’t know, Wanda Nell. I just don’t know.” His face hardened again. “But we’ve got to find him, one way or another.”

  Chilled, Wanda Nell could only nod. T.J. had quickly moved from his chair to stand beside his mother. He slipped an arm around her shoulders, and Wanda Nell was grateful for the warmth and support.

  “He’s got to be alive,” she said. “And he’s not a killer. I know he’s not. He couldn’t just kill two men in cold blood like that.” T.J. squeezed her to him again, and she rested her head on his shoulder.

  Elmer Lee cleared his throat. “Take this and go on out to the car,” he instructed his subordinate, handing him the scrap of paper, safely sealed in a plastic bag.

  The deputy nodded and did what Elmer Lee had ordered.

  When the door had closed behind him, Elmer Lee faced Wanda Nell and said, “I reckon there’s something I ought to tell you, Wanda Nell. I shouldn’t be doing this, but you deserve to know.”

  Her stomach tensing into a knot, Wanda Nell said, “What?”

  “Scott Simpson wasn’t murdered,” Elmer Lee replied.

  “What do you mean?” Wanda Nell couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “It was suicide,” Elmer Lee said. His eyes burned into hers. “He left a note. He said he couldn’t live with himself. He didn’t mention any names, but he made it clear somebody pushed him into it. Some woman, he said.”

  Elmer Lee didn’t wait for a response. He opened the door, walked out, then slammed it behind him.

  Wanda Nell, horror-stricken, could only stand and stare at the door.

  Chapter 18

  Mayrene was on her feet and out the door before Wanda Nell had time to register what was going on. She was still rooted to the floor with TJ.’s arm around her shoulders, trying to take in the implications of what Elmer Lee had said to her. Tuck came to stand with them on Wanda Nell’s other side. Together the two men enveloped her in warmth.

  Moments later, all three of them could hear the sound of voices raised in anger coming from outside. The argument continued for a couple minutes, but it ended with the sound of a car door slamming shut. An engine roared, tires squealed, and Mayrene bellowed.

  After a brief interval, Mayrene came clomping back into the trailer. She had fire in her eyes, and her chest was heaving.

  “What did you say to him?” T.J. asked.

  Mayrene came forward and took Wanda Nell’s arm. “You come on over here and sit down, honey. I can’t believe that jackass said something like that to you. I stripped a few layers of hide off him, let me tell you. The nerve he had, to do something like that. I’ve got a good mind to call the sheriff myself and complain.” She pulled Wanda Nell down on the sofa beside her and started patting one of Wanda Nell’s hands.

  T.J. sat on the other side of his mother. “Are you okay, Mama? Can I get you anything?” Tuck stood, arms folded across his chest, an angry look on his face.

  “I’m okay,” Wanda Nell said, but her voice carried no conviction. She was sick to her stomach. Elmer Lee had basically accused her of being responsible for Scott Simpson’s suicide. If that was really true, how could she ever forgive herself?

  “Now you listen here, Wanda Nell,” Mayrene said, reading her friend’s state of mind correctly. “Despite what that idiot Elmer Lee said to you, you’re not to blame for that man killing himself. You said yourself that he was a lot more scared of somebody else than he was of you.” Mayrene snorted in disgust. “Now if he was afraid of somebody else, why would he kill himself on account of you? That just don’t make sense.”

  “She’s right, Mama,” T.J. said, his voice quiet but confident. “Coach Simpson was involved in whatever’s going on with Uncle Rusty, and none of that’s your fault. If it’s anybody’s fault, then it’s Uncle Rusty’s, in a way. He’s the one who came back here and stirred things up.”

  “That’s right,” Mayrene chimed in. “Listen to T.J. I told Elmer Lee he was just being vindictive, saying that to you, and he didn’t deny it. I asked him if he really thought that man was talking about you in his suicide note, and Elmer Lee couldn’t look me in the face. Now, I don’t think he was lying about some woman being mentioned in that note, but I’d be willing to bet you anything it wasn’t you Simpson was talking about.”

>   “They’re right, Wanda Nell,” Tuck said. “Elmer Lee was just lashing out at you. Don’t let him get to you. But you can bet I’m going to have something to say to him about this.”

  “Thank you,” Wanda Nell said. The more she thought about it all, the more she realized that probably all three of them were right. She hadn’t driven Scott Simpson to kill himself. Whatever was going on with her brother and the other men was the root cause of Simpson’s decision. Still, she felt shaky.

  “But why would Elmer Lee say something like that to me?” Wanda Nell asked. “Does he really hate me that much?”

  “He’s scared about something,” Mayrene said. “I don’t know what it is, honey, but he ain’t acting like himself. He’s lashing out at you because he thinks he can get away with it.” She laughed suddenly. “And let me tell you one other thing, and don’t you slap me for saying it, but I think ol’ Elmer Lee’s sweet on you. He’s got the hots for you, and he can’t stand it.”

  When Wanda Nell failed to protest, both Mayrene and T.J. stared at her in surprise. Tuck just shook his head in wonder.

  “You may be right,” Wanda Nell said finally, refusing to look any one of them straight in the eye.

  “He sure has got a funny way of showing it, if he does,” T.J. said in disgust.

  Mayrene laughed. “Don’t you remember how it was when you was in the fifth or sixth grade, T.J.? If a boy likes a girl at that age, he’s more likely to pull her hair or hit her on the arm than come out and tell her he likes her. Shoot, Elmer Lee’s just a big old fifth-grader when it comes to women. He ain’t never known what to do with a girl.”

  Wanda Nell was finally recovering her equilibrium. She had to laugh at what Mayrene was saying. Elmer Lee was like a big kid sometimes. He was attractive, in his way, but Wanda Nell never could feel that way about him. She wasn’t attracted to him and wouldn’t ever be.

  Unfortunately for her, though, she was stuck with him.

  “I can’t see him as a stepdaddy,” T.J. said jokingly.

  Wanda Nell poked him in the side. “You don’t have to worry about that, believe me. Not if he was the last man on the face of the Earth.” She grimaced in distaste.

  “Good,” T.J. said. “I don’t ever want to have to call him ‘Daddy.’ ” He grimaced right back at his mother, and they both laughed. “And I don’t think Tuck would much care to have him as a father-in-law.” Tuck rolled his eyes, not saying a word. That made Wanda Nell laugh a little.

  “Feeling better now?” Mayrene asked.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Wanda Nell said. “Though I sure wish Elmer Lee hadn’t done that to me.”

  “He ain’t getting away with it,” Mayrene said, and Wanda Nell decided she wouldn’t want to be Elmer Lee when Mayrene got hold of him again.

  “Look, it’s late,” Wanda Nell said, standing up. “We need to be getting on home, and you need to be getting ready for bed. I know you must be worn out. I sure am.” She bent and gave Mayrene a quick hug.

  “I do need my beauty sleep,” Mayrene said, laughing, “but for all the good it does me, I might as well not ever go to bed.”

  “Thanks for looking out for me,” Wanda Nell said, pausing by the door. T.J. and Tuck were right behind her. “Good night.”

  “Night, y’all,” Mayrene said.

  The night air was cool, and Wanda Nell stood for a moment, breathing it in. She had a sudden desire to sit outside for a while and put off thinking about anything serious. How nice it would be just to sit there and look up at the sky. Beyond the faint light from the couple street lights at each end of the trailer park, she could see the stars overhead.

  “You okay, Mama?” T.J. said, his voice low.

  Wanda Nell sighed deeply. “I’m fine, honey,” she said. She would have to stargaze some other time. “Let’s go on in.” She climbed the steps to her front door and opened it.

  “Anything else we can do for you before we go home, Mama?” T.J. asked.

  “Yeah, there is,” she said, “if y’all don’t mind waiting a few more minutes.” She crossed to a chair near the couch and sat down.

  “Course not,” Tuck said. “What can we do?”

  “I need help finding a girl,” Wanda Nell said. “Her name is Lily Golliday.” She told them about the girl’s visit to the Kountry Kitchen and the way they had managed to identify who she was.

  “And you have no idea why she wanted to talk to you?” Tuck asked.

  Wanda Nell shook her head. “No idea at all. I don’t know her. But all I can think, naturally, is that it has something to do with Rusty.”

  “And those phone numbers for DNA testing facilities,” Tuck added. “That puts a really strange twist on everything.”

  “It sure does,” Wanda Nell said. “I don’t know what to think. But I’ve got to find that girl, and I’ve got to find Rusty.”

  “You’ve looked in the phone book,” Tuck stated.

  “I didn’t, but Ruby did,” Wanda Nell said. “There’s a bunch of Gollidays listed, but not this girl, as far as Ruby could tell.”

  “I’ve had a couple of different men named Golliday as clients,” Tuck said. “As far as I know, they weren’t related, but I could be wrong. I could certainly get in touch with them in the morning and find out if they know this girl.”

  “I’d sure appreciate it,” Wanda Nell said. “Otherwise, the only thing I can do is start calling people up and asking about her.”

  “That would probably work, too,” T.J. said. “I can help you call, Mama. We can take the list and divide it if neither of those men Tuck knows can’t help us.”

  “We can do that,” Wanda Nell said, “though I’m not sure what people will think, some stranger calling up and looking for a girl.”

  “Some of them will probably be suspicious and not talk to you,” Tuck said, “but others will talk. You’d be surprised how much people will tell you sometimes.”

  “We’ll see,” Wanda Nell said. “But there’s one other thing you can do for me, besides call those men.”

  Tuck nodded. “Sure, what is it?”

  “I’ve been thinking about where Rusty could be,” Wanda Nell said. “I just have to believe that he’s alive, and he’s probably being kept somewhere.”

  Tuck started to say something, then evidently thought better of it.

  “I know,” Wanda Nell said. “I know he might not be alive, but I’ve just got this feeling he is.” She paused for a moment, because she had to blink back sudden tears. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking about where he might be, like I said.”

  “Where do you think he could be?” T.J. asked.

  “If somebody kidnapped him,” Wanda Nell said, “it had to be Bert or Marty, probably. And I really doubt they would be keeping him in one of their houses. They’ve got to have some other place where they’re hiding him. And I thought maybe you could find out where that could be.” T.J. turned to Tuck. “I could go over to the courthouse first thing in the morning and start looking through the property records.”

  “That’s fine,” Tuck said, “as long as what we’re looking for is in Tullahoma County. If it’s not, then you’ll have to get on the Internet and see what you can dig up. But we’ll deal with that if we have to. We’ll get the information, one way or another.” He paused for a moment “But say we do find that one of them has some property elsewhere, what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going there to look for my brother,” Wanda Nell said.

  “That could be dangerous,” Tuck said.

  “I know,” Wanda Nell replied, “but I don’t see much else to do. Can you see me telling Elmer Lee he’s got to go looking for Rusty at some place out in the country belonging to Bert Vines or Marty Shaw? He’d laugh his head off.”

  “Maybe,” Tuck said. “But you’ve got to be really careful, Wanda Nell. We need to think about this and come up with a plan.”

  “We will,” Wanda Nell said. She knew Tuck meant well, but he was a lawyer, after all, and he was a lot more cautious about thing
s than she tended to be. When she saw something that needed to be done, she did it. Especially when there was as much at stake as there was here. This was her brother’s life they were talking about, and she had to take action, even if it was drastic or dangerous.

  Tuck didn’t make any further issue of his point. He knew Wanda Nell well enough by now to know how stubborn she could be. He stood up. “Time for us to go home, T.J. We’re both going to have very busy days tomorrow by the looks of things.”

  T.J. followed him to the door, and Wanda Nell came to see them out.

  “Have you moved in yet?” Wanda Nell asked her son.

  “Pretty much,” T.J. said.

  “And your grandmother’s taking it okay?”

  T.J. grinned. “Pretty good, surprisingly. But she and Belle are getting on like a house on fire. Grandmother’s having such a good time ordering Belle around and telling her to stop talking so much, I don’t think she even misses me.”

  “Hallelujah,” Wanda Nell said. She gave them each a kiss and a hug and locked the door behind them.

  Before she went to her room, she turned off the TV set. Then she went to check on Miranda and Lavon. Both were sound asleep, and Wanda Nell stood in the doorway for a moment, watching them.

  Quietly she moved back through the trailer to the other end where her bedroom and Juliet’s were. Juliet’s door stood slightly ajar, and Wanda Nell pushed it open a bit. Juliet too was sound asleep, her teddy bear Alexander keeping her company. If all the ruckus earlier had disturbed either of the girls or the baby, there was no sign of it now. Wanda Nell watched for a moment, reassured by the quiet breathing of her youngest child.

  In her own room, she slowly changed into a nightgown and cleaned the residue of her makeup from her face. Then, turning out the lights in bathroom and bedroom, she climbed into bed.

  Though she was tired, she wasn’t sure she would be able to sleep. Normally at this hour she would be at work at Budget Mart. Plus she had so much on her mind that sleep might not come easily.