Rubbed Out (A Memphis BBQ Mystery) (11 page)

“Most notably the trumpet,” said Evelyn. “Morty can sure play some trumpet.”

Finn’s eyes lit up. “I play the trumpet, too. Not great,
but I’m trying. Mom can’t afford lessons and I can’t get them at school because I’m too old to start an instrument in the high school’s music program.”

“Why don’t you come by Aunt Pat’s restaurant after school on Monday or Tuesday and I can give you some tips?” said Morty. He took on an expression of false modesty. “Not that I’m the best trumpet player of all time or anything…”

“Very nearly!” said Lulu loyally.

“But I’d be delighted to share my knowledge with the next generation. I had lots of folks helping me on my way to being a musician. It would be nice to sort of pay them back.”

Finn said eagerly, “That would be awesome. I’m sure I could come by next week. Thanks, Morty.” There was a spring in his step as he took off to meet back up with his mom.

Lulu was about ready to head back to Aunt Pat’s when Brody stuck his head around the side of the Graces’ booth. “Hey there. Okay if I take a break from taking the booth down and talk to y’all for a minute or two? I know our conversation got cut short earlier.”

“Sure thing,” said Cherry. “I’m about ready to take a break myself.”

The chairs hadn’t been packed up yet so Brody dropped down into one in relief at getting off his feet.

He said, “I know I thanked y’all for being friendly to Sharon. She’s been so stressed out about the way Reuben
was acting and then the murder—you’ve really helped her out by listening to her and just being there.”

“We’re happy to do it,” said Cherry. “Sharon is a great person.”

Brody said, “I was wondering if maybe you could keep on being her friend. Now that the festival is over, even. You might not know this, because I don’t know if we mentioned it, but we recently moved to Memphis. Sharon doesn’t know a soul here but me, and of course I’m working most of the time.”

“You just moved here?” echoed Lulu in surprise. “But y’all knew Reuben so well.”

“That’s only because I’ve known Reuben Shaw for ages. He and I went to college together and kept in touch pretty well. We didn’t see each other much, but once every summer, we’d go on a trip together—just guys. Sometimes we’d go hunting, sometimes fishing. Sometimes we’d even do stuff like skydiving. That’s how I kept up with Reuben and what was going on with his life, and how he kept up with me.”

“What made you finally decide to move here?” asked Cherry.

“Well, I’d been at a bank in Atlanta for ages, but then they made a lot of cuts and I didn’t have a job. Since they’d made big cuts, there were a lot of other folks in my shoes, looking for a banking job in Atlanta. When I couldn’t find anything for a while, I called Reuben up. I thought he was still his old self, from the way he got
right on it. He scouted around and found me a job in Memphis.”

Lulu said, “He knew people in banking?” It didn’t seem to jibe with Reuben’s background.

“He did, actually. Reuben had worked on tons of homes as a contractor. He knew some very wealthy and connected people. Before I knew it, he’d set me up an interview. When the bank made me an offer, we moved right over,” said Brody.

Lulu said, “You mentioned that you thought Reuben was his old self. But he wasn’t?”

Brody shook his head. “That got real clear, real fast. He did help Sharon and me with moving in and gave us advice on where to buy a house in the area. But after that, it seemed like whatever demons were chasing him had finally caught up with him. Of course, Sharon and I had known that he’d gotten divorced—we’d talked on the phone about it when it was going on and I’d offered to come to Memphis to support him. He didn’t want me to come, though—acted like it was something that he wanted to deal with himself.”

“The divorce seemed to really affect him?” asked Lulu.

Brody shrugged. “I guess it was the divorce. Something really affected him, but not being in town at the time, I don’t know what it was. It must have been something big. I figured that he either felt real guilty about his own part in the divorce or else he missed Dawn and Finn more than he’d thought he would.”

“Dawn and Finn actually came by to talk to us,” offered Cherry. “She wanted to hear from us about discovering Reuben’s body. She was saying that he hadn’t been treating them right since the divorce. She thought he wasn’t sending them enough money.”

Lulu said, “Or
any
money, maybe.”

“That’s the thing, though,” said Brody. “I don’t know how much money he even had I’m not saying that he didn’t treat Dawn and Finn wrong, because it sounds like he did. But when Sharon and I moved to Memphis, I could tell that his business was off. And the person Reuben contacted to get me a job was asking me about Reuben, too.”

“What did he say?” asked Lulu.

Brody said, “He was saying that Reuben had been a top-notch contractor for him and he couldn’t have been more pleased. But he wasn’t sure he’d hire him today if he needed work done. He’d heard a bunch of people talking about Reuben, and the Better Business Bureau was poking around, too. I could tell that Reuben had started drinking a lot and wasn’t going to work most days. But I didn’t know if it was because he didn’t have any jobs or whether he was being lazy and not going to the jobs that he had.”

“So his customers weren’t happy with him,” said Lulu.

“Not a bit. They said he was using shoddy material…real cheap stuff…to cut corners. And he wasn’t showing up on the site or hitting his deadlines. Sometimes
their kitchen would be in total ruins and there was no end in sight—he wouldn’t have even placed the order for the counters or the cabinets that the homeowner had decided on,” said Brody.

“So maybe he wasn’t bringing much money in, after all,” said Cherry. “Although that probably wouldn’t have satisfied his ex-wife. She’s working a bunch of part-time jobs apparently, to make ends meet.”

“She wasn’t real sympathetic, no,” said Brody. “Reuben said she was after him all the time to send them money. Called him a deadbeat dad, that kind of thing. Said if he’d get his rear end out of bed and go work that then he’d be able to help them out.”

“Sounds like a reasonable assumption,” drawled Flo.

Lulu said, “Sharon talked about one customer who was really harping on Reuben—actually, it was someone who’d been hanging out with us here at the booth. His name was John.”

Brody’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t Sharon tell me this? He was here at the festival? And that close to Reuben without killing him?”

“I guess that remains to be seen,” said Lulu, rather worried. “What’s the story there? Did you know anything about it? How did Sharon know, since y’all haven’t been in town that long?”

“Even though Reuben had been acting out, we’d still try to be friendly. We didn’t know what was causing him to behave the way he was, but he and I had been friends
for so many years that I was still reaching out to him. After all, he’d even helped find me a job here. I’d go by after work and visit Reuben—try to snap him out of his funk sometimes. Without any luck, of course. But one time Sharon and I were over there—Sharon had doubled a recipe and we took it over to Reuben for supper so he wouldn’t be eating Beanee Weenees that night—and we saw Reuben screaming at this man at his door. Really screaming at him.”

Brody stopped for a moment, remembering. “I’d never seen Reuben like that. He was mad. Like he was the other day at the booth. Furious.”

“Why was he so mad when it sounds like it was the customer who should have been mad at him instead?” asked Lulu.

“The customer was furious at him,” said Brody. “He had a knife in his hand as a matter of fact. But the guy was that icy kind of mad. Scary. Very, very calm, very measured kind of voice. The way he was talking to Reuben was cutting. He basically said that Reuben was totally incompetent at his job—that he was the worst contractor ever. That’s the kind of thing that really got Reuben’s goat. You saw how competitive he was. It made Reuben flip out.”

“And this guy was John? The man who was over at our booth?” asked Cherry, eyes opening wide.

“He must have been. I mean, I didn’t see him or anything, but Sharon would have recognized him. He’s the
only dissatisfied customer that we knew about,” said Brody.

Lulu realized she’d been holding her breath. She inhaled and said, “What happened after that? Since John had a knife and everything, it seems like it could really have gotten ugly.”

“The guy—John, I guess—backed off when he saw me coming up to him and saw Sharon sitting in the car. He must have realized he didn’t need any witnesses. Reuben wasn’t exactly being reasonable at this point, so I was the one who told John that it was time for him to leave. He’d already shoved the knife in his pocket, so I grabbed him real firm by the arm and marched him off to his car.”

“Did Reuben say anything about John or what had happened after John had finally left?” asked Lulu, leaning forward and listening intently.

“Not a whole lot. But he did say that he was the angriest customer he’d ever had and that he wouldn’t leave him alone—he was always getting phone calls and e-mails and texts from the guy about finishing his house.” Brody shrugged again.

Lulu and Cherry exchanged a glance. “Doesn’t it seem like a coincidence that the same fellow would show up at our tent? Right next door to Reuben’s? And that he would cut out of there as soon as he thought he might be recognized?” asked Cherry.

“Life is full of coincidences,” said Lulu. “But this one does seem suspect, doesn’t it?”

Brody said, “What do you think he was doing? He knew that Reuben’s booth was next door, didn’t he?”

“I think he did know that Reuben was next door,” said Lulu. “But to find out what he was doing requires us talking to John about it.” She paused, then asked Brody, “One more question. Did y’all put up all the money for your booth? Or did Reuben? And if Reuben did, where did he get the money?”

Brody flushed. “Well, that’s a good question. And what I told you was totally correct—Reuben didn’t seem like he had much money. In fact, he’d borrowed some from us, once or twice. When he was signing us up in March for the festival, he sure seemed like he was broke. I figured maybe he was putting the registration costs and other stuff on a credit card. But the last couple of weeks, he seemed to have come into some money somehow. His annoying behavior has stressed me out to the point where I didn’t want to give him an opportunity to brag, so I didn’t ask him about it. Maybe Sharon knows. She talked to him more than I did in the days leading up to the festival.”

“We’ll ask her later,” said Lulu. “And don’t worry—we’d love to keep Sharon as a friend.”

Lulu helped clean up the booth as much as she could before the Graces shooed her away. “This is our mess, so
we’ll
clean it up,” said Evelyn, far more industrious about cleaning than she ever had about the cooking.

“Besides,” said Flo with a sigh, “there’s more rain
coming over, according to the radar. You may want to get out of here before you turn into a Mud Person like we’re sure to be.”

So Lulu drove back to the restaurant. Now that the barbeque festival was over, it had slowed down at Aunt Pat’s, too. She knew she should feel sorry about that, but the truth was that the restaurant was still plenty busy…and she was wanting a spot to sit and be quiet and think things through for a few minutes.

She rocked on the front porch and greeted diners as they came in. The Labs, B. B. and Elvis, were on the porch, once again snoozing in the afternoon heat and not even bothering to lift their heads when people came and left.

Then sometime, and she wasn’t sure exactly when, she apparently dropped off to sleep in the rocking chair. The combination of the buzzing fans, the snoring of the Labs, and the white noise of conversation drifting from the dining room helped her nod off.

The sound of torrential rain woke her up with a start and for a moment she wasn’t sure where she was or what time of day it was. Then Sara poked her head around the porch door and smiled when she saw that her mother-in-law was waking up. “You must be worn out to be able to sleep with everyone stomping through the porch,” said Sara.

Lulu laughed and rubbed her eyes, “I guess so. I wouldn’t have said I was that tired, but all the excitement
must have taken its toll on me. How are things going here? And what time is it?”

“I’m fixing to head out, as a matter of fact…but don’t worry, it’s early. We’re still in the middle of the dinner rush. We have enough help for the rest of the evening and it’s slowed down some,” said Sara.

Lulu said, “That’s good. You’ve spent enough time at Aunt Pat’s the last few days. We all need a break. And I know the girls will be glad to have you home. Derrick, too.”

Sara smiled. “You know you’ve been away for a while when even a teenager is happy to have you around!”

“Before you head out,” said Lulu in a low voice, glancing swiftly around her, “I was wondering if I could ask you about something real quick.”

Sara perched on the edge of a rocker. “Sure thing.”

“It’s Tim, one of our waiters,” said Lulu, eyes still on the door, in case he suddenly popped out.

Sara nodded. “I know which guy you’re talking about. He’s not here, by the way, so you don’t have to worry about him overhearing us. He worked the morning and lunch shift today.”