Authors: Gary Gusick
Officer Elvis (22 page)
A Three-Course Meal
Shelby decided they'd celebrate. His two favorite detectives had brought honor and recognition to the Central Office of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, via another front-page story in the
Jackson Crier
. This one with an above-the-fold photo of Darla and Rita flanking their boss.
OFFICER ELVIS MURDER AVENGED
, the headline read. Despite his general distaste for public relations, Shelby had penned the press release himself, quoting himself saying that he had personally requested the MBI be assigned to the Reylander murder, as Tommy had worked under Shelby when Shelby was with the Hinds County Sheriff's Department. “I told Detective Cavannah this was like Humphrey Bogart in
The Maltese Falcon
. When your partner is murdered, you're obliged to do something about it. And we did.”
The celebration amounted to dinner on the reservoir on Shelby's paddleboat. Shelby, Darla, Rita, and Uther Pendragon Johnson were invited to dine on a regional delicacy, meaning a crawfish boil, nice and spicy, Cajun-style. The rule of thumb on crawfish is ten pounds per person. Shelby had forty pounds of the red-orange mudbugs spread out on newspapers on the deck's fold-up table. Mixed in among the crawfish were new potatoes, ears of corn, and deer sausage.
“You could interpret this as a three-course meal,” said Shelby. “The deer sausage is an hors d'oeuvre, with the ears of corn as an appetizer, and the crawfish and new potatoes as the main course.”
“Spoken like a true Mississippian,” said Uther, who saluted Shelby with a bottle of Lazy Magnolia Summer Pecan Beer.
“You mean spoken like a true Mississippi politician,” said Darla.
“Now that you mention it,” said Shelby, “I'm strongly considering running for the vacated seat in Congress. That is, if I can figure out how to mask my general indifference to most of the political issues that are on the hearts and minds of the people of this great state.” Shelby smiled broadly, a man who appreciated his own brand of humor. “What about you, Miss Darla? You got any big plans for yourself?”
“Now that the case is behind us,” said Darla, “I thought I might bring home a bottle of wine, tell Stephen to put on one of the Elvis CDs Rita gave me, and see what happens.” She looked at Rita and shrugged her shoulders. “Well, who'd you think I was going to listen to, Sting?”
“Sooner or later, Elvis gets to every woman,” Rita said triumphantly.
“You're next, Detective Gibbons,” said Shelby. “What are you going to do now that you're back in the detective end of things?”
“I'm fixing to go on over to Bass Pro,” said Rita, “and pick myself out one of those six-shot .380 Tauruses like the detective wears. Only I think I'll get a pink one.”
“That leaves you, Mr. Pendragon Johnson,” said Shelby.
“I don't as a rule discuss personal matters,” said Uther, “but since everyone is being so candid, I am proud to announce that I have initiated a courtship with a certain young lady.”
“And I'm the certain young lady,” said Rita.
“Big surprise there,” said Darla.
“Well,” said Shelby, raising his bottle of Lazy Magnolia. “Here's to the late detective Tommy Reylander, even though he wasn't much of an officer, and wasn't much of an Elvis.”
“Maybe not,” said Darla, raising her bottle. “But he was our Officer Elvis.”
PHOTO: NICOLE STOWE
G
ARY
G
USICK
is the author of
Officer Elvis
and
The Last Clinic
, the first of the Darla Cavannah mysteries, and is at work on the next novel in the series. He currently divides his time between Mississippi and New Orleans.
Every great mystery needs an Alibi
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