1 Target of Death (8 page)

I exchanged the money for the hot cocoa and
left after handing Dixie her cup. As we headed over toward the warming tent, I
said, “Roxie hardly looked old enough to be a teacher.”

“Did you see all the makeup she wore?”

“Yes, I noticed. Her name sounds like a
stripper.”

“I agree, but I doubt she’d moonlight as one
in a small town such as this.”

We wandered into the warming tent and
positioned ourselves near the doorway so we would see when Roxie came in. There
were tables along the walls of the rectangle tent, with vendors hocking goods, including
outdoor winter supplies such as gloves and hats. They even had furry hats that
resembled bears and wolves with long scarves; these were meant to appeal to the
children, I guessed, but teenagers were wearing them, too. My ears were
practically ringing from the Country music that was blaring.

I bought pairs of dark sunglasses for Dixie
and me. When I handed the sunglasses to Dixie, she said, “Thank God. I don’t
think I could take that glare from the sun another minute. I never thought I’d
say this, but I didn’t expect the sun to bother me so far north.”

I donned the glasses and said, “I think
it’s the magnification off the snow. My eyes have been on fire since we left
the restaurant today.”

“Of course, it might be that you’re
basically a vampire.”

“That’s so not the case, but I must admit
that I’m a night owl.”

“That’s putting it mildly. You spend all
your time on Facebook, doing what I don’t even want to know.”

“Besides playing Candy Crush, you mean?” I asked
with a sly smile.

“I know it hasn’t been easy since you lost
your job, but things will get better soon.”

She had to remind me why we came up here in
the beginning, besides wanting to kick me some northern rear end. I had lost my
job at the restaurant back home, mainly on account of the owner’s son, Phil
McMurphy. He had hand issues—like, he didn’t know enough to keep them to
himself. The owner fired me when I broke ol’ Phil’s big fat nose. I had tried
to avoid the jerk, but he had other ideas. When he cornered me in the cooler, I
socked him, but good. It was self defense, but his dad didn’t see it that way. That’s
why I needed this prize money from the competition to keep a roof over my head.
Luckily, Dixie had helped me out to finance the trip. I had some money, but not
nearly enough to float me for another year.

Dixie waved a hand in front of my face.
“Earth to Sassy. Roxie is here.”

I positioned the sunglasses on my head as I
greeted Roxie. “Thanks for meeting us,”

I said.

Roxie didn’t walk in more than a few steps
before backing up. “Let’s go someplace else to talk.”

We followed Roxie out to a supply shed
located next to a gift shop. She opened the door and Dixie walked inside,
encouraging us to follow with a wave of her hand. I hesitated for a moment, but
Dixie shrugged and walked inside. I still didn’t move, though, not until Dixie
shot me a look.
Oh, what the hell
, I
thought as I walked inside. Roxie shut the shed door and dropped down to sit on
an overturned milk crate.

“Is there a reason we can’t talk out
there?” I asked.

“People like to talk in small towns. I’d
rather not let anyone know my business.”

Yeah, right, like they won’t gossip about
her talking to us in a closed shed. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re here to ask me about Marilyn Percy,
right?”

I kicked the floor of the shed, before
saying, “Folks in this town are sure mysterious.”

“The less people know about you here, the
better it is for you.”

“What are you afraid of?”

Roxie ignored my question and said,
“Marilyn’s husband was a brute. Not only has he beaten her, but he refuses to
give her any money.”

“She told us he gave her fifty dollars a
week.”

“That’s no kind of money,” Dixie gasped.
“Have you ever seen Clayton abuse his wife?”

“She’s showed me some bruises before.”

“And did she tell you what happened?”

“They had an argument about his
extramarital affairs.”

“Oh, so she did know about his wandering
ways?”

“It would be hard not to, in this town.
It’s all folks in town talk about. Well, that and—”

“What are you not telling us?” I asked in
exasperation.

“Clayton began spending money like he was
printing it.”

“Where would he have to spend money around
here? It looks like a run of the mill small town. I can’t imagine there is even
anywhere he could be dropping enough money for it to be noticed.”

“He has a sports car parked in the garage
of Hank’s Tool and Die,” Roxie volunteered. “There is also a strip club in
town. From the way the girls there talk, he spent plenty on lap dances. He even
bought one of the strippers a diamond necklace.”

The gears in my head started to turn. “Does
this stripper have a name, like Roxie, perhaps?”

She gasped. “I’m not a stripper. I-I’m a
teacher. I teach first grade.”

Dixie tugged on my coat. “Don’t let her get
to you. Tammy is just trying to be funny. We sure could use the name of the
stripper, so we can check out your story.”

“Cindy. She might be working tonight at
Hank’s Hotspot.”

“Hank’s Hotspot is a strip club?” I asked,
surprised. “I thought it was a restaurant.”

“That what most folks think. They run it
like a regular restaurant during the day and open the back room after six.”

“Is there anything else you could tell us
about Marilyn? Like, why didn’t she just leave her husband if he treated her
that badly?”

“She didn’t have any options. Her sister
lives in Iowa, but she has her hands full with seven children. Clayton made
enough money at Hank’s Tool and Die to support them and Marilyn didn’t have to
work.”

“That’s what happens when you count on a
man for everything. There is just no way I’d ever do that. When you don’t have
a job or work, you’re dependent on a man for everything. Even if the man makes
enough money to support the family, you just never know if he’s going to up and
leave one day. It sounds like Marilyn would have been better off if he had left
for good.”

“He left for good now,” Dixie said with a
chuckle.

“Has Marilyn ever gone hunting?”

“Not likely. It’s hard enough to get that
woman out of the house, little alone traipsing through the woods.”

“Does she know how to shoot a bow?”

“I can’t see Marilyn touching a bow. I’m
sure she doesn’t know how to shoot one.”

“So, you’re not positive then?”

“I’m quite positive she’d never try. She’s
an animal lover and hated it when Clayton went hunting. She really hated being
left alone so much.”

“If he was as abusive as you say, you’d
have thought that Marilyn would have preferred it.”

Roxie glanced down at her watch. “I really
should be getting back to the hot cocoa stand.”

“Be my guest.”

Roxie stood, stretching her limbs for a
moment, then whipped open the shed door and disappeared between the pine trees
bordering the yard of the gift shop.

I slipped my sunglasses back down. “So,
what do you make of that?”

“That it’s no wonder Hank’s Hotspot is
stealing Margarita’s business. But it’s so surprising that there’d be a place
like that in a town such as this.”

“Well, you just never can tell. We should
touch base with Margarita before we decide where to go next.”

Dixie strolled along the sidewalk with a
sway of her hip, earning a wolf whistle from Daniel Adams, who was walking by.
I just shook my head. Instead of the whistle riling up Dixie, it riled me up
instead.

“That’s kinda immature don’t you think?” I asked.

Daniel smirked. “If you girls don’t want us
men to whistle at you, then why do you walk like that?”

“Oh, so just because a woman walks like a ...
girl, it gives you permission to treat her like a sex object?”

Dixie giggled. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it
that way. Did you?”

Daniel took a sip of the hot cocoa he held.
“Naw, but I just knew it would make you mad, Sassy. It’s so easy to push your
buttons.”

“He’s got you there, Tammy, but for the record,
it’s not the wisest thing to make her mad. She’s wicked with a right hook.”

“Oh? I can’t see that. Women aren’t strong
enough to put a drop on a man. Not a real man, that is.”

My brow arched sharply. “And I suppose you
consider yourself a real man ... because?”

“You might walk all over those men back
home, but it won’t happen here, I can assure you. The last woman who tried to
hit me landed on her backside.”

I glared at him. “Oh, so you beat women, is
that it? Is that how you boys up north handle yourselves?”

“Not hardly, but a man does have a right to
defend himself.”

I brushed past him and he flipped me onto
the ground. As I laid on the cold snow, I saw red. I scrambled to my feet, but
Daniel had distanced himself from us. “What in the hell did you do that for?”

“To prove that I can. Something to think
about before you tangle with me again.” Daniel turned on his heels and strode
away before I could scream or attack him.

Dixie bit down on her lips until a trickle
of blood escaped. “What on earth is your problem?” I asked her.

She bent over as a belly laugh escaped.
“Sorry, but I about tossed my cookies when he flipped you. Good thing it was
only into a pile of soft snow.”

I brushed myself off and glared at Dixie.
“Oh, and you don’t see anything wrong with that man doing that to me? It was an
unprovoked attack.”

“Well, you did almost skewer the man just
yesterday. I think he paid you back, is all.”

I straightened to my full height of five
foot two, and strutted away with my head held high. Once I got to Hidden Pass,
there was a long line extending down the sidewalk with a pickup truck that had
a red flashing bubble light. The words on the side of the truck read ‘fire
marshal.’

I made way toward the door, but a man with
a long coat barred our way. “The restaurant is filled to capacity. You’ll have
to wait at the back of the line.”

I couldn’t imagine what was going on until
Dixie nudged me in the ribs. “That’s a good thing. Our Cajun cooking must have
taken off.”

Margarita ran from the restaurant and
ushered us around to back and in through the back door. “You girls are a couple
of geniuses. No sooner had we served our first few customers than the place
packed up with patrons. So far, the Gumbo seems to be a crowd favorite. I had
to send one of the cooks back to the market for more supplies.”

The gumbo pot that was cooking outside was
half empty. It’s no wonder the customers came so quick. They smelled the Cajun spices
in the air.

“So, I suppose that means you’ll be busy
most of the day?”

“Of course. What were you girls up to
today?”

“We got the chili entered, but I just
wonder if the contest is fixed. I mean, Nancy tried to reassure us that it was
going to be fair, but as soon as we walked away, that Milton fella was back at
the stand.”

“I can’t say if it’s rigged, but that Milton
will stop at nothing to win that contest.”

“I don’t understand. The winner only gets a
trophy, right?”

Margarita snickered. “Oh, no. The winner
receives five thousand dollars. It’s sponsored this year by a restaurant in
Detroit. They’ll be paying a cash prize for the winning recipe.”

I frowned. “Why would you hand over the
recipe to them instead of serving it at your own restaurant?”

She buried a finger in her chin. “I never
thought about it that way, but five thousand is quite a prize, isn’t it?”

“They’d be hard pressed to follow any
recipe of ours,” Dixie said. “All we did was toss in a bunch of spare
ingredients.”

I nodded. “You got that one right. And
besides, I have no intention of letting some fancy restaurant get ahold of my
smarts for cooking.”

Margarita threw up her hands. “I just don’t
understand your reasoning. You don’t have to give them the real recipe, just a
version of it,” she said with a wink.

“How well do you know this Nancy?”

“She works at the sheriff’s department and
she plays bingo every Thursday night at Saint Matthew’s.”

“I mean, is she trustworthy? I almost got
the impression that she was holding back on us when we questioned her.”

“What did she tell you?”

“Just that we should keep quiet about the
murder in town.”

“I’m sure she just didn’t want to worry
folks around here, that’s all.”

“I suppose. She also mentioned that we
should talk to Marilyn’s friend Roxie Roxx.”

“I didn’t know Marilyn had any friends, but
I suppose she might have met some at Curls and Cuts.”

“Oh, so you don’t know Roxie, then?”

“That name’s a new one on me. What’s your
point?”

“It’s a small town and I just figured you
might have heard about her. She claims to be a teacher.”