Mama Cracks a Mask of Innocence (19 page)

Half an hour later, Mama told Tootsie that she wanted her to give Stone the message that she wanted to talk to him. Tootsie’s eyebrows rose. “Why do you want to talk with Stone?”

“I saw Stone near the Wesmart the night Brenda was murdered,” Mama replied. “He was driving Lizzie’s old man’s car, a white Mercedes. Abe told me that he talked to a woman who saw Brenda get into an expensive light-colored car around seven-fifty-five.”

Tootsie’s eyes opened in surprise. “You never mentioned this to me before now.”

“That’s because I had forgotten it,” Mama told her. “Until just a few minutes ago, I didn’t remember seeing Stone driving Bo Pete’s white Mercedes that night.”

By the time Mama had finished those words, the small plastic bag with the word “viper” written on it, the one she’d just gotten from Stone’s bedroom, had slipped from her purse. Like the seductive lure at the end of a fishhook, it fell to the floor in front of Tootsie’s chair. I watched to see how she’d react.

Tootsie looked at the bag, then back up at my mother, and said, “Stone is a fine young man, you know. He helps me out quite a bit around this place.”

Mama leaned forward and slowly picked up the bag.
She slipped it into her purse and snapped it shut. “I understand he spends a great deal of time visiting you.”

The look in Tootsie’s eyes told me that my mother had just reeled in a drug dealer. “Stone sees to it that the yard is cut, the car is serviced, things like that. I hope you haven’t been listening to the twisted talk of people who ain’t got nothing to do but gossip. I mean, why shouldn’t I have somebody to take care of things I can’t do for myself? When Sonny Boy was alive things got done, but he’s been gone now for a while.”

“I understand how important a male presence can be.”

Tootsie looked up at Mama thoughtfully; it was clear that she’d come to a decision. “Does Abe or that man from Columbia also want to talk with Stone?”

“I’m going to talk to Abe first thing tomorrow morning and suggest that he pick Stone up for questioning,” Mama said evenly.

Fear flickered in Tootsie’s eyes, as if she suddenly understood what Mama told her would mean for the teenager she’d taken into her bed. “I suppose I can get in touch with Stone, tell him you want to talk to him,” she muttered.

Mama nodded, then motioned to me that it was time for us to leave.

“I wonder whether Brenda knew that her mother was sleeping with Stone,” I said to Mama as I made a fresh pot of coffee and she prepared a salad.

“Brenda knew something that caused her to get herself killed,” Mama answered.

“That boy might have killed three people already—It might be a good idea to call Abe to have Stone picked up for questioning tonight.”

Mama nodded, then glanced at the clock. It was nearly ten o’clock. “It’s late, I’ll call him first thing tomorrow morning.”

My father and Cliff hadn’t come home yet from playing cards. While I cleaned the kitchen, Mama took a long hot bath and dressed in a comfortable pair of pajamas. Once I’d done my chores, I did the same thing.

My parents had remodeled the back of the house so that their kitchen and family room, with floor-to-ceiling windows, opened onto a backyard garden. The abundance of glass gave a panoramic view of the roses, azaleas, and annuals that bordered a chain-link fence. My mother and I sat drinking peppermint tea.

The telephone rang.

Mama was sitting on the couch, the chair closest to the phone. She picked it up, listened. A quizzical expression passed over her face. She placed the phone back on its receiver. “There was an odd breathy silence, then the person hung up without saying anything,” she told me.

“Your first obscene phone call,” I told her as I got up to go back into the kitchen to turn on the kettle again. I wanted a second cup of tea.

As I stood, the lights in our whole house blanked out.

The house was plunged into darkness. Fortunately, the moon shone through the window, and in a few seconds our eyes grew accustomed to the dark.

Mama stood, then walked to me. “I suppose we’d better go to bed. The lights will probably come back on before James and Cliff get back.”

The words weren’t out of her mouth when we saw a shadow slip through the gate.

Seconds later, we heard the first gunshot. The glass in front of where we stood shattered.

Mama and I dropped to the floor. My stomach contracted in a tight knot, my heart banged, my hands tingled. I must have leaped quite a distance, because I found myself inside the foyer, not far from the front door. Mama wasn’t at my side.

“Mama!” I called out, my heart pounding out of control.

The shooter fired again, shattering more glass.

“It’s Stone,” Mama called back. “I expected to hear from him before the night was over.”

“You expected that nut to try to shoot us?”

“I didn’t think he’d be this cowardly, but I expected he’d want to get rid of us before I talked to Abe.”

“And how did you plan for us to handle him?”

“I expected James and Cliff would be home before now.”

I came up on my knees, trying to see her. “Well, we’re on our own. He’s got a clear shot from all the glass in the windows and the sliding door. Come into the foyer with me.”

“I don’t dare move.”

“Where are you?”

“Behind the couch. If I move, he’ll see me and hit me for sure.”

Another shot, this bullet tearing through another window. We were trapped. If we didn’t do something soon we would die.

“I’m going to try to get outside, go get help.”

“For God’s sake, Simone, be careful.”

“Yeah,” I said as I scooted backward to the front door, eased my hand along the doorframe until I touched the knob. Before I opened the door, I heard a growl and then a scream. My father’s dog had attacked the shooter and was tearing at his flesh. Midnight had saved our lives.

W
hen the wind blew in a certain direction, the aroma of spareribs on the charcoal grill overpowered Mama’s zesty coleslaw, corn on the cob, baked beans, sliced tomatoes, sweetened iced tea, and deep-dish apple pie.

Six weeks had passed since Stone tried to kill us, since my father’s dog, Midnight, had attacked the boy and saved our lives.

When he was arrested, Stone admitted that he’d killed Brenda, although the physical evidence Lew Hunter had collected was enough to convict him even if he hadn’t confessed.

Stone also killed Kitty Sharp, he told Abe and Lew, because she was the person who told Brenda that he was the school’s drug pusher. Kitty was a casual user who allowed her habit to become known
to students, kids who told Brenda that she partied with them. Brenda wrote the letter to the school board. Kitty, out of fear, had told Brenda that Stone was the person she needed to finger. Brenda called SLED, and under Lew’s direction, she’d tried to get him to reveal where he got the drugs.

Stone also confessed to killing old man Elliott because he started telling people that he thought it was strange that Stone spent so much time at Tootsie’s house after Brenda was killed. Tootsie tried to get Stone to go home to keep people from talking and it angered the boy.

Tootsie’s story was that she knew Stone was the killer, that she tried to stop him, that she feared for her own life, that Stone vowed he would kill her too if she turned him in.

She denied supplying Stone with drugs. A search warrant of her house and garage found the black Jaguar and a little cocaine, but nothing that suggested the level of drugs Stone was involved in pushing.

A few weeks later, however, fate took a hand.

Victor Powell, Stella Hope’s stepfather, was fingered by a police informant as a big-time dealer who was trying to set up a gang of students in a town about the size of Otis not twenty miles outside of Columbia. Powell was arrested and when SLED searched his house they found letters from Tootsie, letters that kept him updated about the murders Stone was committing in Otis. Faced with
this evidence, Tootsie admitted that she was the one running drugs in the high school and that Victor was her supplier.

Mama never got an opportunity to talk to Clyde Hicks, the boy everyone initially suspected was Brenda’s murderer. The young man died when he hit a deer, riding his motorcycle without a helmet only a half mile from his home.

Midnight became a permanent houseguest. When it’s time to go to sleep, he now has a very nice bed made for him in our kitchen.

The reason for the barbecue tonight was a celebration for Mama cracking the mask of innocence Tootsie adopted, a mask that hid how the woman used Stone to sell drugs to high school students.

Cliff and I came home for the occasion. Festive colored lights designed to keep bugs at bay were strung across the entire backyard. The windows shattered by Stone’s bullets had all been replaced. The night was warm with only a slight breeze.

The guests were: Abe, Rick, and Lew; Hattie; Pepper and Zack Garvey; Agatha and Gertrude; Carrie, Annie Mae, and Sarah; Ray Raisin; and Coal and three or four more of my father’s buddies.

Daddy, a beer in one hand, and a brush in another, spread his secret sauce on the meat. The sound of soft jazz permeated the air.

The rest of the food was on the table. Finally the
ribs were ready. My father lifted the pan of ribs and sashayed with them past our noses.

It was heavenly.

Daddy looked at my mother and winked. “Candi, baby, your old man has done his thing this time!”

Mama smiled.

Thanks to the many readers who contacted me to share their delight in becoming acquainted with Mama. I am pleased so many people enjoyed visiting Mama (Candi), Simone, James, Cliff, and their family and friends in Otis, South Carolina. My sincere desire is that Mama will continue to provide her fans with years of delightful and intriguing mysteries.

N
ORA
D
E
L
OACH
is an Orlando, Florida, native presently living in Decatur, Georgia. She is married and the mother of three.