Hickory Smoked Homicide (20 page)

She decided to take advantage of the opportunity she had at hand—maybe Pink would have a little information. “Pink, I was wondering if you had any more updates on Tristan’s murder investigation.” He raised his eyebrows at her as he chewed a corn muffin, and she said quickly, “Of course I know you can’t talk a whole lot about it, but I was just wondering about
in general
.”

“In general, it’s been a real hard case to nail down. There was a big party going on, so there wasn’t exactly a pristine crime scene.”

Lulu frowned, “There wasn’t a big party in Tristan’s room, though!”

“Whoever was in Tristan’s room had thought ahead, I guess, Lulu. They used gloves, and they’d swiped a heavy brass candlestick that was easily visible and available to anyone who walked into the living room.”

“Wouldn’t somebody have noticed a person walking around lugging a big candlestick?” Lulu gave a little shudder as she thought about Tristan’s body.

“It might not be as obvious as you think. There were lots of people coming and going. Guests were carrying paintings and other artwork around. It could pretty easily be concealed in a bag. Unless someone was acting really suspiciously, maybe they wouldn’t even notice it.”

“No one saw anyone going in or out of Tristan’s room?” asked Lulu curiously.

“Well, but that was a major thoroughfare for the party. Not her bedroom itself, but the guests walked past her bedroom to get to one of the bathrooms. Anyone could have dodged in there really quickly, pulled the candlestick out of a purse or from inside a suit jacket, and clubbed Tristan.” Pink held his hands out in supplication. “You can see it’s not as easy as it sounds.”

“Pink, that Detective Freeman doesn’t really think that Sara’s involved, does he?” asked Lulu, feeling a little sick at the thought. “He sure seemed like he was suspicious of her that night.”

Pink gave Lulu a reassuring smile. “Lulu, if he was sure she did it, she’d already be in jail. That tells me he has no evidence to show the crime had anything to do with Sara. He’s just making educated guesses and seeing what happens when he stirs up the waters a little. Sometimes that’s a good way to get a suspect to confess or to tell an inconsistent story . . . that kind of thing. But you don’t have to worry about Sara, obviously—she’s not a killer.”

Pink suddenly frowned and stood up. “Lulu—Coco and Derrick are back. And Derrick looks as sick as Coco does.”

Derrick did. He was pasty white and shaking. Coco looked even sicker than she had before as they walked across the restaurant toward them.

“Oh mercy! Pink, I should have told Sara and Ben about Coco feeling poorly. She looks even worse.”

“Want me to dial a medic, Lulu?” Pink had his radio out.

“Hold up—let’s see what Derrick has to say first.”

When Derrick went directly up to Pink instead of his Granny Lulu, Lulu knew something must really be wrong. “Pink. I parked in the parking deck off the alley—you know, the big one? I saw . . .” He looked over at Coco, who looked sick and confused, and then looked at Lulu pleadingly.

“Coco,” said Lulu briskly, “let’s go back in the office and let you rest for a minute. And get your Mama.”

Cherry had walked over, looking curiously at Derrick and Pink. “Cherry,” said Lulu quickly, “can you take Coco to the office and grab Sara—Coco’s feeling sick.”

“Sure thing. Let’s get your mom, kiddo.” Cherry bustled Coco off to the back of the restaurant.

Derrick gulped and then took a deep breath. “When I was unlocking the car door for Coco, I looked over and I saw something lying on the floor of the parking deck, in between a couple of cars. It was a dead woman.”

Chapter 16

Pink radioed in for backup while Lulu took Derrick to the kitchen and gave him some brownies and iced tea and stayed with him while they waited for Pink to come back. Derrick really wanted to drive back home, but Lulu said, “Sweetie, they’re going to have that parking deck totally sealed off until they have all the information they need. I’m sorry—we might be stuck here for a little while. I think that’s probably where most of the people at the restaurant parked, too.... It’s the closest deck to Aunt Pat’s.”

Derrick’s face, which so often wore a tough expression, looked especially young and vulnerable. He rubbed his eyes, and Lulu realized how tired he was, too. “It was pretty bad,” he said. “I mean, I didn’t take a really long look because I didn’t want Coco to notice what I was looking at.”

Ben had stopped cooking for a moment to listen to Derrick. “What is this world coming to?” he asked, shaking his head. “Did it look like the woman had been mugged or something? Was there an empty purse nearby?” He rubbed the side of his face in agitation. “See, Mother, this is why I don’t like you walking out of the restaurant by yourself at night.” Lulu could tell he was still thinking happy thoughts of Gordon MacDonald being her personal escort from Aunt Pat’s every night.

Derrick shrugged, uncomfortably. “I don’t know if she was mugged or not. She’d just fallen facedown, it looked like, and there was a puddle of blood.” He stopped, shaking his head. “And there was something else.” He hesitated, like he didn’t want to say the words. “There was a painting there next to her. It was all torn-up looking. It had lipstick or something smeared all over it, too. And it looked like one of Aunt Sara’s portraits.”

Lulu drew in a shaky breath and looked over at Ben. “It was ripped up?” Ben asked, confused.

“Yeah. I mean, it might not have been one of Aunt Sara’s. But it looked a lot like one of the frames she likes using. I don’t know—I only saw it for a second or two.” Derrick stopped, miserably.

“What was it doing out in the parking deck?” Lulu felt like her head was whirling. “Derrick, you didn’t recognize the dead woman?”

“I only looked at her for a second,” he repeated. He looked as if he was glad he hadn’t had to look at her for any longer than that. “I couldn’t really tell.”

“Here’s Pink,” said Lulu, with relief, as the door to the kitchen opened up.

“You okay, Derrick?” asked Pink in a gentle voice. “That was a rough thing for you to have to go through. You did a good job not letting Coco know what was going on. She’d have had nightmares for sure.”

Derrick shrugged again, but his face flushed with color at the compliment.

“I’m afraid,” said Pink with a sigh, “that the plot has thickened.”

Lulu froze. “It wasn’t just some random mugging gone wrong?” But she’d known it couldn’t have been—she’d known that as soon as Derrick mentioned the portrait.

“No. It was Dee Dee.”

“Oh no.” Lulu stiffened. “Murdered?”

“Yes.” Pink turned to look at Derrick. “I want you to think really carefully, son. Did you see or hear anyone leaving the parking deck while you were either arriving or when you were leaving with Coco?”

Derrick was quiet for a moment and looked like he was thinking hard. Reluctantly, he finally said, “No sir. I mean, yes, I heard people when I was arriving, but it was like a group of people partying or something. They were being loud and just sounded like they were leaving after having fun on Beale Street.”

“Nothing else?”

Derrick shook his head. “I’m sorry, Pink. When I got to the deck, I was in a hurry to go to the restaurant and get Coco. Then when I had Coco with me, I was paying attention to her and trying to make sure that she was okay and not going to puke everywhere. Then, when I saw . . . when I saw
her
, I was just thinking about getting Coco and me out of there without Coco seeing anything. I didn’t know if the guy was still around or not. And I didn’t want to scare Coco. So I made stuff up, like I’d locked my keys in the car. Coco believed me.”

Pink must have been able to tell that Derrick didn’t know anything else—and didn’t, as Derrick was able to assure him, even know the victim at all. Dee Dee wouldn’t have crossed paths with a teenage boy, and she wasn’t a regular customer at Aunt Pat’s. “Thanks, Derrick,” said Pink, patting the boy on the back. “I appreciate everything you’ve done. Why don’t you go join Coco in the back office now?”

Derrick looked relieved to adjourn to the back office, where the TV was sure to be on, even if it meant hanging out with a nauseated little girl.

Pink rubbed the back of his neck like it was sore. “Here Pink,” said Lulu, quickly pushing a stool toward him. “Have a seat for a minute.” He plopped down and they looked at each other. “This is a mess, isn’t it?”

“It’s a mess. I hate to say it, Lulu, but chances are that one of your guests murdered Dee Dee.”

Lulu nodded sadly. She’d figured as much. All of the suspects were there, and Dee Dee sounded like she’d been doing some snooping—and some blackmailing, too.

“Unfortunately, I had my face too deep into a plate of barbeque most of the night to be able to give a whole lot of information on your guests’ comings and goings.” Pink looked a little disgusted with himself. “How about you?”

Lulu thought for a moment. “The drama with poor Coco kept me from being able to notice anyone’s movements really closely. I know I saw everyone here who I think is a suspect in the case. I talked to all of them—Loren and Pepper, Colleen and Pansy, Steffi and Marlowe . . . and Dee Dee.” She took a deep breath and said, “But you know that Sara couldn’t have done it. Even though it sounds like something weird is going on with the portrait that she made.”

“Lord no, Sara couldn’t have done it! She was busting it going back and forth from the kitchen to the buffet table all night. She’s someone I
did
keep track of because I visited the buffet line every time she brought fresh food out.”

Lulu released the pent-up breath she’d been holding. “Derrick couldn’t be a suspect, could he? Even though he discovered the body?”

Pink said, “They’ll ask him a couple of questions I’m sure, but why on earth would Derrick kill Dee Dee? To him, she was just some old lady who he didn’t know. There’s absolutely no motive there. Her purse wasn’t stolen—her money is there. Why would he have killed her?”

“I wish I could help you out more with where people were, Pink. I hate to say it, but anybody could have left and come back in. People were moving around a lot—going out on the porch to listen to the band, then walking to their table in the dining room, then going to the buffet line at the back. It would’ve been easy for someone to have gone to the porch and kept on walking.”

Pink said, “I think it would have been tougher for Steffi and Marlowe to leave, though, don’t you?”

“I do think so. Every time I saw them, there was someone talking to one or both of them. Still, I guess it’s possible. Surely they slipped off a couple of times to go to the buffet, or the restroom, or to sit down and eat.”

“And why,” asked Pink in his deep drawl, “do you think someone would have wanted to kill Dee Dee?” Lulu hesitated, and he added, “All I know about her is that she has a boutique and a lot of the pageant people shop there.”

“And me,” said Lulu. “She had clothing for . . . mature ladies there, too. I think she was simply trying to keep her shop afloat, so she had a little bit of everything there.” Pink still looked like he was waiting for some sort of an answer, so Lulu sighed and said, “Dee Dee was snoopy, Pink. She liked to know what was going on in everyone’s lives.”

“And nosiness isn’t a good trait to have when there’s a murderer running around, trying to cover his tracks,” said Pink with a matching sigh.

“Well, she wasn’t
just
nosy. For Dee Dee, it was sort of a sideline business.”

“Blackmail?” asked Pink, perking up. “How did you find out about this?”

Lulu winced apologetically. “From being a little nosy myself, Pink. I’d seen Dee Dee consult this black notebook when I was at her shop—she was messing with it one day when Tristan was over there. Tristan was paying her off for some pageant insider information, and Dee Dee was reading from her notebook, making sure she had the information right.”

Pink frowned. “Pageants have insider information?”

Lulu put her hands on her hips. “Pink, pageants are a
big deal
around here! I didn’t realize
how
big of a deal until I started going to them with Coco. Anyway, so I was dying to take a look at the notebook. Dee Dee had all
kinds
of information in there—not only what dress a pageant contestant was wearing and what her talent was, but other things, personal things that people probably wouldn’t want to get out. And she even had some pictures in there, too—like evidence.”

“She probably used the store as the meeting place to get money from the people she was extorting,” said Pink in a grim voice. “And to show them exactly what she’d pinned on them.”

“Right,” said Lulu. “It wouldn’t even look that suspicious because people go in and out of shops quickly all the time.”

“So we need to search her home and business for a black notebook,” said Pink, making a note in a notebook of his own.

“Her shop is the best place to look. It should be on that shelf under the cash register.”

When Pink glanced up again, he looked reproachful. “Lulu, you should have told me about this earlier.”

“Well honey, you didn’t ask me! And that other fella was in charge of the case, and he’s about as approachable as a cactus. That Detective Freeman.” Lulu made a face.

“That’s true. Okay. But if you find out anything else, would you please call me up and tell me? I don’t want anything to happen to you. . . . Where would I go eat barbeque?” he asked teasingly.

Lulu smiled at him. “Oh, I’m sure Aunt Pat’s would continue on without me. It wouldn’t be as
fun
, though, would it?” Pink started leaving the kitchen, and Lulu said, “Any ideas how long before that parking deck opens back up? I’ve a feeling most of my guests are probably parked over there. And poor Coco needs to get home and in her bed, too.”

Pink said, “That’s going to end up being a problem. It depends on what level of the deck they parked on. Most of the folks will be able to leave unless they parked on the second level of the deck. If they parked on the second level, then it’s going to be a while.”