“Al and Anna Small do belong to Abundant Hope,’’ I told Marty. “Why do you ask?’’
“Anna’s in the book group I run at the library. She’s been bad-mouthing her husband in between discussion questions. She says she wants a divorce. Al’s been cheating.’’
I couldn’t imagine anyone writing “dearest darling man’’ to portly, balding Alvin Small.
“What about Pastor Bob?’’ I shifted in the chair. “Y’all heard he hit on me. Then, he just about devoured poor D’Vora, even with Delilah sitting right there in the beauty shop chair.’’
Henry shoveled some green beans onto his fork. He stopped it midway to his mouth. “Naw. It doesn’t fit, Mace.’’ He gave his head a firm shake, as confident as a defense attorney who just caught the prosecutor’s key witness in a lie. “First of all, if the pastor went after you and D’Vora, then Emma Jean’s too old for him. He likes ’em younger. Second, she’s not hot enough.’’
Maddie looked like she accidentally ate the lemon slice out of her iced tea. “Eww, Henry. I hope you’re not implying you think Mace is ‘hot.’ First-cousin hanky panky is almost incest.’’
Henry swallowed the fork load of beans. “Calm down, Maddie. I’m not saying I want to jump Mace’s bones. Though any red-blooded male who isn’t her cousin might.’’ He swiped a biscuit through a pool of gravy on his plate. “I’m just speaking objectively, as a man. Mace is a fine-looking woman with a beautiful build.’’
“Ewwww,’’ Marty and Maddie said in chorus, as I blushed.
Henry polished off the biscuit, then eyed the final meat loaf morsel. My sisters had waited on me to order lunch. But Henry claims his blood sugar gets screwy if he doesn’t stick to a strict meal schedule. Charlene was so busy she could barely breathe, let alone get back to take our order. So, as we waited with empty stomachs, we were treated to the spectacle of Henry plowing through lunch.
He speared the meat loaf sliver and pointed his fork at us. “And how do you know the note is from Emma Jean, anyway?’’
He didn’t wait for an answer.
“Find another woman with the initials E.J. at that church … hell, in the whole town, or just about anywhere, really. That’d be enough for a good attorney to establish reasonable doubt. ‘Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that note could have been in that hymnal for years. Maybe a church-going woman named Elaine Johnson worked at the music-book company and slipped it in there for safekeeping. Maybe one of the teenagers at Abundant Hope did it as a prank. Anyone with a computer could have produced that note, ladies and gentlemen.’’’
Henry looked at us, pleased with his performance.
“You’ve got a point, Henry.’’ Maddie handed him a napkin. “But you might want to check your chin first for a glop of gravy if you ever do that bit for a real jury.’’
___
Charlene finally delivered the orders we gave her: A cheeseburger and extra-crispy fries for me. Chicken-fried steak for Maddie. A vegetable plate with biscuits for Marty. Henry couldn’t decide between the cherry and coconut cream pie, so he got a slice of both. I pitied the unfortunate client whose Friday afternoon appointment coincided with Henry’s crash from his sugar high.
He waited until I had a mouthful of burger to say, “Maddie told us you have some suspicions about Jeb Ennis, is that right, Mace?’’
“Wuuuhh,’’ I said.
“Why am I asking, or why were you suspicious?’’
Maddie slapped his shoulder hard, nearly knocking a clot of coconut pie off his fork. “Hell’s bells, Henry. Can’t you see Mace’s mouth is full of food? Just tell us what you know about that devil, Jeb.’’ She shot a look full of meaning at me. “I can already predict, it’s gonna be something bad.’’
Marty glanced at me with a guilty look on her face. We hadn’t told Maddie about our trip to the livestock market, or about what Old Jake had said about Jeb.
“One of my clients did a little work for Jim Albert,’’ Henry began. “Let’s say his line of work is ‘enforcement,’ and just leave it at that.’’ He spiked a quarter of the cherry pie slice with his fork and gobbled it down. “Anyway, this man says Jeb was into Jim Albert for quite a bit of dough.’’
The hamburger turned to dust in my mouth. “That’s old news, Henry. Jeb himself told me he’d borrowed from Jim Albert.’’
I still felt protective, even as the evidence mounted against Jeb. For some stupid reason, I didn’t want my family, and especially Maddie, thinking badly of him. Did I harbor some fantasy that we’d end up together, riding off into the sunset?
“So he talked about the loan, huh?’’ Henry said. “Did he tell you he owed more than $250,000?’’
Marty’s eyes went wide. Maddie let out a low whistle. I tried to conceal my shock.
“That gives Jeb two powerful reasons for whacking Jim Albert,’’ Henry lectured. “Number one: money. He couldn’t possibly pay that much back, not and keep his ranch. Number two: self-preservation. It’s as strong a drive for us as it is in the animal world. Jim Albert was a dangerous man. Kill or be killed.’’
I stirred my coffee, which had gone cold. I still hadn’t said a word.
“I know you loved the guy, Mace.’’
I started to protest, but Henry held up his fork. “Don’t deny it. I kid around, but you’re like a sister to me. It broke my heart to see how bad Jeb hurt you. You loved him, young or not.’’
“That’s what I told her, Henry. Any man that could do Mace like that might be capable of much worse.’’ Maddie leaned over and patted my arm. It was such a rare gesture, it almost made me cry.
“You want Jeb to be innocent.’’ Henry’s voice was soft, his eyes kind. “But you have to face the facts, Mace. This sordid romance or affair or whatever it is that might have been going on at Abundant Hope? That’s just a distraction. Your ex-boyfriend takes the prize as the likeliest killer in Himmarshee, Florida.’’
Each of my sisters grabbed one of my hands and held on.
Henry pushed his pie plate away, even though there was almost a half a piece left. He looked into my eyes: “Let’s put it this way, cousin. I’m a damned good lawyer. But I wouldn’t want to walk into court right now with Jeb Ennis as my client.’’
“Warm you up again, hon?’’
I put a hand over my ceramic coffee mug. “No thanks, Charlene. I’ve already had enough to be peeing like a racehorse all afternoon.’’
My sisters had to return to work. Henry was back at his law office, probably terrorizing his teen secretary with bad jokes and the sounds of bodily functions. I was alone with the afternoon Himmarshee Times on the table and a third cup of coffee sloshing around in my gut.