tea.”
“I’ll have a Pepsi, please.” I said. “Lots of ice.”
“It’s a fountain drink, is that okay with you?” she asked.
“Yep,” I said and picked up the menu. “You want egg salad, Miss Vivee?”
“Oh my God, no! Why would you think that?”
“I thought you liked my egg salad, Miss Vivee.” Viola Rose frowned up her face.
“Just bring us our drinks, Viola Rose. Give me a chance to see what else you got.”
“If you want answers from her,” I leaned in and lowered my voice after Viola Rose left. “Seems like you’d be a lot nicer to her.”
“I’m going to need to you to run over to Hadley Drug store,” she said ignoring me. “It’s right there on the corner. See.” She pointed out the window. “I want one of those small notebooks that the detectives use. You know it has the spiral wire on the top.”
“I haven’t ordered yet.”
“Well order. Then go get me a notebook, please. And three No. 2 pencils. Already sharpened.”
“Okay,” I said. I sat and perused the menu for awhile. Everything looked good. I remember Renmar telling me they had good food here. “What are you having?” I asked Miss Vivee.
“An egg salad sandwich,” she said impatiently tapping her fingers on the counter. She hadn’t even looked at her menu. “Now. You tell me what you want and I’ll tell Viola Rose while you go to Hadley’s.”
“Didn’t you just say you didn’t want any egg salad?”
“Are you going to tell me what you want so I can get it ordered for you?”
Geesh.
I let out a groan. “Okay. I’ll do a cheeseburger and French fries.”
“Okay then. Now go. Shoo. And hurry back.”
Luckily Hadley’s Drugstore had the notebook Miss Vivee wanted, but they didn’t sell pencils that were already sharpened. I considered getting her a mechanical pencil, but when I said who it was that wanted it to the sales clerk that was helping me, she wouldn’t let me get one. She said she’d sharpen the pencils for me.
Miss Vivee controlled people with just the mention of her name.
“We should make a list of suspects,” Miss Vivee said when I got back.
“That’s a good idea,” I said taking a sip of my coke. Viola Rose had waited to bring it to me until I got back. Miss Vivee had downed half of her cup of coffee. “Did you order my food, Miss Vivee,” I asked.
“Of course I did. You think I was just over here twiddling my thumbs?”
Miss Vivee pulled the notebook and pencils out of the plastic Hadley Drugstore bag. She opened up the notebook and licked the tip of her pencil.
“Okay. Who we got so far?” she asked. Her shaky hand perched over the paper.
“You want me to write?” I asked.
“Why would I need you to write? I’m heading up this investigation. These should be my notes.”
Before I could say anything, Viola Rose brought our food over.
“I put extra egg salad on there, Miss Vivee. “I knew you were only kidding when you said you didn’t want any.”
“I don’t kid, Viola Rose. But I realized my outburst wasn’t nice so I decided to eat some.” She looked up at the waitress. “For the sake of your feelings.”
Viola Rose shook her head.
“Okay, you two enjoy.”
I put some ketchup on my fries, and on my burger with a little mustard. I bit into it and the juice from the meat ran down my arm. “Oh man. This is good,” I said through a mouth full of food. “You like your egg salad, Miss Vivee?”
“It’s okay,” she said.
“You want more coffee, honey?” Viola Rose came to the table with a steaming pot in her hand.
“No,” Miss Vivee said and placed her palm on the top of the cup. “But I do want to ask you something.”
“Anything you need.”
“It’s about Gemma Burke.”
“Poor thing. I heard about what happened. Terrible thing that it happened at your place. I reckon that Renmar was just beside herself. ‘Specially with the Sheriff having to confiscate her famous bouillabaisse.”
“Sheriff ruffled her feathers with that one,” Miss Vivee said. “She wants to make sure no one finds out her secret ingredients. And the thought of the county lab examining it practically sent her off her rockers.”
Viola Ray set the coffee pot on the table, put her hands on her hips and let out a laugh. “Renmar’d kill over somebody trying to get her recipe. Come to think of it, sort of a coincidence, Gemma asked me did I know how to make Renmar’s bouillabaisse. She said she’d