Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I silently debated whether or not we should duck out before Morgan and Amanda saw us. After all, how many times could you run into the same people before it was outside of coincidence territory? But then, on the other hand, I’d told them we planned to visit this bar today, and I had the ‘old people have to do things early’ notion firmly in my court.

“The only three seats available in a group are next to them,” Ida Belle said. “I say we take them and see what we can get. They might be willing to cough up more without the others around.”

I nodded.

We wove through the tables and headed around the bar for the back corner. When we were halfway there, Amanda looked over and caught sight of us. She looked a tiny bit surprised at first, then she nudged Morgan and they both looked over at us, smiling.

“I see you made it,” Morgan said as I slid onto a stool next to him with Ida Belle and Gertie taking the next two stools.

“I hope the drive was worth it,” I said. “Might need new shocks on my car. ”

Amanda laughed. “We’ve seen a couple of people dipping already. It’s not nearly as active during the day, but we’ve got the reunion dance tonight and the whole family barbecue thing tomorrow, so this seemed like the best opportunity.”

“The rest of your group didn’t want to come?”

Amanda raised her eyebrows. “We kind of didn’t tell them. After breakfast, Morgan and I were talking outside and he mentioned the bar, saying he hoped you guys found it fun. God knows, this reunion has been a shi—crap show. Whew—almost had to hit the floor on that one. Anyway, we thought we’d duck in and see if we could actually relive something fun from high school. The dance is going to be rough… The news will have made it around by then.”

I nodded. “Well, sounds like he always wanted to be the center of attention, so maybe it’s befitting.”

“Rose!” Gertie said. “Good Lord.”

“What? They said he was a butthole. Is ‘butthole’ cursing? Do I need to dip?”

“You need to get out of your apartment more because clearly your manners have all but disappeared,” Gertie said.

Amanda, who’d been staring in silence during our exchange, started laughing. Morgan only hesitated a second before joining in.

“Oh my God,” Amanda said, wiping her eyes with a napkin. “That might be the most accurate statement about Justin that anyone has made since we’ve been back home.”

“And the tackiest,” Gertie said, still in her role of disapproving aunt.

Amanda shook her head. “Tyler is still firmly in first on the issuance of tacky statements. Well, I suppose second really, because Justin was in first until he died.”

“As Rose so eloquently pointed out,” Morgan said, “Justin always had to be in the spotlight. ”

They lifted the beer mugs and clinked them, then laughed some more. A bartender looked over at us and I pointed to their mugs and held up three fingers.

“So what else is on your agenda for the weekend?” Morgan asked.

I shrugged and inclined my head toward my ‘aunts.’

“There’s some antiques shops we want to check out,” Gertie said. “And definitely the flea market.”

Ida Belle rolled her eyes. “I want to go to the boat store.”

“You have several boat stores in New Orleans,” Gertie said.

“And you have a million antiques shops and the French Market. I know all the boat store people in New Orleans. I want to talk to someone new. Someone whose fish stories I haven’t heard.”

“We can drop her off, then hit the antiques shops,” Gertie told me.

I looked back at Amanda and Morgan and smiled. “There you go. The rest of my weekend I’m the antiques shop, flea market, boat store Uber.”

“You’re also the one with hotel points,” Gertie said. “I hope they give us a free upgrade.”

Morgan and Amanda both grinned, then Morgan sobered. “How were Corndog and Petunia when you left? I’ve been worried about them. That sheriff appeared to be lacking in every way.”

“Please,” Amanda said. “That guy was ridiculous. Barely asked questions, and I swear if you hadn’t asked him about a forensics team and the ME, he would have just dragged the body down the stairs in Petunia’s quilt and heaved it into the bayou.”

I shook my head. “I wish I could say I didn’t believe it, but he showed up right before we left. We headed back to our room as soon as he came in to try to give them some privacy, but I’m afraid we overheard him. You know how the house echoes.”

Their eyes widened.

“What happened?” Morgan asked.

“He told Corndog he’s going to be charged with manslaughter.”

“What?” Amanda said, looking shocked. “That’s outrageous. Where’s the proof? Unless the DA is as lazy and corrupt as the sheriff, that can’t possibly go anywhere. I’m an attorney, by the way. Not criminal but jeez, even our receptionist knows better than that.”

I nodded, deciding to play my ‘overhearing’ to my advantage. “I’m certainly no lawyer, but it sounded like a reach to me too. Then I heard Corndog and Petunia talking when I brought our bags down—after that sheriff left—and they’re worried about the money to pay for an attorney. And even if they could come up with it, they’re afraid the publicity will ruin their business. I got the impression that the bookings are the only thing keeping them in their house.”

Amanda shook her head, clearly angry. “If I was a criminal attorney, I’d defend them for free. What a load of crap, and just what you’d expect from this small-town nonsense, which is why I got out as soon as I could.”

“The autopsy would show what was in Justin’s stomach,” Morgan said. “If he ate anything besides what Corndog served, then wouldn’t that be reasonable doubt?”

“Sure,” Amanda said. “But that ME declared it anaphylaxis. Unless it’s deemed a suspicious death, there probably won’t even be an autopsy. Not if that’s the way that idiot is running investigations. And it’s not like there’s any family of Justin’s around to push for it.”

I sighed. “So no autopsy if it’s not suspicious, but no way to determine if it’s suspicious without an autopsy. That doesn’t seem right.”

“It’s not right,” Amanda said. “But far too often, it’s an unfortunate reality. Especially with sheriffs. They’re essentially politicians, and too many of them aren’t in it for the job they’re elected to.”

I frowned. “But doesn’t the ME decide if it’s homicide? Or do the TV shows have it wrong?”

“The ME would make the call,” Amanda said. “But in this case, he struck me as not only incompetent but also as kowtowing to the sheriff.”

“Jesus, that sucks,” I said.

“The whole thing is just wrong,” Gertie said. “They’re such a nice couple.”

“I wish there was something we could do,” I said. “I don’t suppose there’s a way to get a second opinion from another ME, is there?”

Amanda sighed. “It’s not like getting a second opinion for your foot surgery or the like. Unless there’s a compelling reason, no one is going to step on toes, even incompetent toes. But I have to admit that if I had that compelling reason, I might start calling around and see who could push buttons. I’d hate for Corndog and Petunia to lose their home. Especially over Justin.”

“It seems he makes just as much trouble in death as he did while he was living,” Morgan said. “If he was going to eat the wrong thing, he could have at least waited until we were at the hotel.”

“Unless he didn’t mean to eat the wrong thing,” Amanda said.

“Do you think Corndog had a mix-up?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Amanda said. “But if he did use the wrong oil, then I’m absolutely certain it was a mistake. There’s no reason to ruin the man’s life over it. It’s simply a tragedy and you move on. At least there was no wife and kids to worry about supporting. Or an elderly parent and the like.”

“So no one loses from his death, except Corndog and Petunia,” I said. “People who didn’t even know him before that night. Seems really unfair.”

Morgan nodded. “Especially when some would say Justin had it coming.”

Amanda’s eyes widened. “I’m surprised to hear something like that coming from your mouth.”

He shrugged. “He wasn’t a good person, even in high school, and he’s only gotten worse. He hit on you, Nicole, and even Brittany the second he caught sight of you all, and continued until Daniel told him to knock it off. Then he transferred his energy to bullying Tyler again, which is exactly why Tyler has been so callous about his death—not that I’m condoning it, mind you, because we should all try to be better humans regardless of what others fling at us.”

“A worthy sentiment,” Ida Belle said, “but not always an achievable one.”

Morgan nodded and sighed. “The reality is, the whole first night was just like we were back in high school, which is the point of a reunion, I suppose, but no one wanted to relive the worst of Justin, and that’s exactly what we got.”

“Yeah,” Amanda agreed. “He was really pushing buttons, wasn’t he? I saw him and Daniel arguing, and Daniel was always the one who could take him the most.”

“I would think hitting on someone’s wife would do that,” I said.

Amanda frowned. “Perhaps so.”

But I could tell by her expression that she thought the arguments were about more than Justin hitting on her sister .

My cell phone signaled an incoming call, and I saw Corndog’s number in the display.

“I need to take this outside where I can hear,” I said and hurried out of the bar.

I barely caught the call before it disconnected, and Corndog was beside himself.

“There’s a man who booked a room for the night,” he said. “I just got back from picking him up at the dock. He walked all over the house, strange-like, you know. Even asked if he could look in the attic, which I refused. Then he says he’d like to make an offer for the place and comes out with a figure that’s half what this place is worth.”

“What!?”

There was absolutely, positively no way this was a coincidence.

“He gives me a business card and says he can make an all-cash offer and we can close in a couple weeks. That he’s heard about the trouble we had here but since he’s wanting the place for his personal residence, that ‘unpleasantness,’ as he called it, won’t affect him. He says with the money he’ll pay that we can find another place—something smaller and easier to maintain and that way, I can still take care of my wife. I swear, if I were forty years younger, I would have punched him right in the mouth, just like you did that gator.”

“I probably would have helped.”

“I’m not selling my house. And even if that’s what it comes down to, there’s no way I’d sell it to the likes of him.”

“Is he still there?”

“No. He asked me to take him back over. Tried to pay for the night he booked, but I refused to take it.”

“Take a picture of his business card and send it to me. And this goes without saying, but don’t you dare do or sign anything without talking to me first. I’m going to get my attorney involved. This has gotten completely out of hand.”

“So does that mean you’re not looking into it anymore?”

“Not at all. In fact, I’m on the case right now. We’re in Houma inserting ourselves into the friends’ circle, looking for clues. I’ll let you know if I come up with something. But regardless, I’m going to fix this.”

“I believe you will.”

I disconnected and huffed. I’d gone and made promises. Jesus, I was getting bad about that crap. Now I had to figure out a way to make this all right. And dumping it on Alexander wasn’t going to solve everything. It would keep the DA from bringing charges—something I still wasn’t convinced he’d do anyway—but it wouldn’t fix the reputation end of things. And solving this for Corndog and Petunia meant saving their business as well.

And now I had this fool trying to scam them into selling their home at a huge discount. There was no way the timing was incidental. And since I hadn’t seen a single post by the friends about Justin’s death, I had to assume they’d all agreed to keep it off social media. Lord knows, Petunia and Corndog hadn’t been spreading it around, so that meant the tales out of school had to have come from Bryce or Simpson.

My cell phone signaled, and I saw that Corndog had sent a pic of the business card. As soon as we were out of the bar, I’d dig into that. But at the moment, I had to decide whether I used this new bit of information to prompt Morgan and Amanda into further outrage and potentially revealing more or keep it to myself. And if I did use it, how did I present it as someone who was supposed to have only just met the couple the day before?

I rolled around scenarios for a few seconds, settled on the best one, then called Corndog back .

“If anyone from that group calls and asks you about an earring, tell them the person who lost it contacted you.”

“Huh? You’re going to tell them about the earring?”

“No. I’m just going to tell them you found an earring in case any of them lost one to see how they react.”

“Oh! That’s smart.”

“Tell Petunia, if anyone calls asking about it, you found the owner already. Make sure she knows to assure them the earring belonged to someone else.”

“You really think the person who dropped it will call about it?”

“No. But there’s always a chance. I like to cover all bases.”

I disconnected and headed back inside.

“Is everything all right, dear?” Gertie asked as I settled back on my stool.

“Yes, I thought it might be my landlord as he’s supposed to fix my sink this weekend, but it was actually Petunia.”

“Petunia?” Gertie asked. “Why would she call you? Was there a problem with your credit card? I told you we were happy to pay.”

“Nothing like that. I left my earbuds in my room is all.”

“Do we need to go back and get them?” Ida Belle asked.

“Not necessarily. She said if we don’t have time to meet Corndog at the dock before we head back to NOLA that she’ll drop them in the mail for me.” I looked over at Morgan and Amanda. “Oh, and she said they found an earring. I thought I’d tell you in case any of your lot lost one.”

Morgan shrugged. “Not my arena.”

Amanda pursed her lips. “I haven’t but I’ll ask the others. What did it look like? And where did they find it?”

I frowned. “Sorry, they didn’t say and I didn’t think to ask since none of us were wearing any. I was kind of distracted by the heated conversation in the background. ”

“In the parking lot?” Gertie asked.

“No. At Corndog and Petunia’s. When I was talking to Petunia, I heard Corndog and another man talking. Corndog sounded angry, which isn’t the norm, so I asked if they were okay. She said it was nothing—that some fool had booked a room, but when he got there, he started trying to convince them to sell their house for half of what it was worth. Corndog was ‘setting him on his ear,’ as she put it.”

Morgan shot a concerned glance at Amanda, who frowned.

“The vultures have moved in quickly,” Amanda said. “That’s not good.”

I shook my head. “Man, I wish there was something someone could do. You’re sure none of you had something with peanuts in it that Justin could have got a hold of? Just someone saying that was the case might be enough to make all of this go away.”

Morgan stared ahead, a grave look on his face, and shook his head. “Tyler had a convenience store bag with snacks, and his favorite candy bar was Snickers. I know he claimed he didn’t bring any, but I’m sure he’d never admit otherwise given the circumstances. I suppose if he’s not willing to fess up one of us could lie—at least it would muddy the waters enough to get Corndog off the hook. I could do it.”

“No,” Amanda said. “That would just put you on the hook with Sheriff Stupid, and you’ve got security clearances to consider. It could cost you your job.”

“But it could cost Corndog and Petunia their home.” He blew out a breath and ran one hand over his head. “This whole thing is a disaster. I wish Brittany had never put this pre-reunion together. Justin is still ruining lives.”

He slid off his stool, mumbling something about the men’s room, and walked off. Amanda watched him go, a pensive look on her face .

“He’s very buttoned up, our Morgan,” Amanda said, and I could hear the concern in her voice. “But he’s always trying to make things right in the world. He’s worried about that couple, because that’s the kind of person he is. It’s the kind of person he’s always been. Kind, caring, and so morally upright.”

She pinned her gaze on me. “Tyler wasn’t the only person Justin bullied. He went at Morgan hard for a while in high school before Daniel found out and put a stop to it. Morgan wouldn’t defend himself. Not back then. That’s probably why he can’t stand the thought of Justin costing the couple their home and wants to help.”

I nodded. “So Daniel didn’t stop Justin from picking on Tyler as well?”

“Sometimes he did,” Amanda said. “When Justin took things too far. But for the most part, Tyler is hard to offend and could hold his own. The only way that Justin could really get to him with was through Nicole.”

“Nicole? Her and Justin were a thing?”

“No way. Nicole’s too smart to go down that dead-end road. But Justin was always trying his luck with her. He kept bragging that they hooked up at a party before graduation, but no one believed him. He just did it to get Tyler riled up. In case you hadn’t noticed, Tyler has a thing for Nicole. Always has. Apparently ten years of being apart hasn’t changed his feelings any that I can see. I don’t know whether that’s romantic or sad.”

“Romantic if there’s a happily ever after in it,” Gertie said. “If not, then sad.”

Amanda nodded. “Sad then. Because Nicole has only ever loved one person and I don’t think that’s going to change.”

“Then why isn’t she with him?” I asked.

“Because he’s living that happily ever after with his wife, the only woman he’s ever loved. But Nicole, poor thing, never moved on. So this is definitely a tragedy and not a romance. At least where Nicole is concerned.”

“Oh, wow. Do that man and his wife know?”

“Doubtful. I don’t think anyone knows. Nicole’s very good at hiding things. I’m just better at seeing them.”

“Maybe you should consider that move to criminal law.” I said.

“Too depressing.” She left some money on the counter and jumped off her stool. “I’m going to grab Morgan and head out. We need to get ready for tonight. Brittany wants to meet to cover what information about Justin we should share and I think she wants us to all say something tonight. I’m hoping she nixes the idea but if not, I’m going to tap the kind and proper Morgan to help me out.”

I nodded. “Good luck.”

“Thanks. Enjoy the bar.”

I watched as Amanda intercepted Morgan on his way back to the stools. She leaned over and said something. He didn’t look happy, but he nodded, then lifted a hand to wave at us. We all waved back and they headed out.

“What the heck is going on with Corndog and Petunia and this house buyer?” Gertie asked. “Please tell me you were making that up.”

“Only the part about the earbuds, and it was Corndog I talked to, but the guy and the offer is no joke.”

Ida Belle shook her head. “I smell Bryce all over this.”

“So do I,” I said. “But the only thing we know for sure is that Bryce didn’t kill Justin.”

“So this guy is an opportunist, scavenging off the bad luck of seniors,” Gertie said. “Not surprising if he’s a friend of Bryce’s. What a piece of?—”

And she said the word.