hear me? I know how you like to stir up trouble.”
I laughed. “No I don’t like to ‘stir’ up trouble.”
“I ain’t so sure.” She sang the words.
“I won’t say anything to anyone. I promise. But you did say it,” I said. “You said you killed Renmar’s husband.”
“I guess I let that cat outta the bag, huh?”
“Does that mean you killed her husband?”
Miss Vivee bowed her head and closed her eyes. She was quiet for a long moment.
“Not exactly” she finally said after a long sigh. “And not mostly.”
“But?” I held out my hands questioningly. She bit her bottom lip. “What, Miss Vivee? What in the world does ‘not mostly’ mean?”
“Means that the ‘most’ part of him dying I had nothing to do with.”
“You have to tell me what you mean.”
“Only if you take me to Atlanta.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Monday Afternoon, AGD
“We just can’t go to a strip club alone,” I said. I had given up trying to talk her out of it.
“Why not?”
“Look at us. An old woman and an archaeologist. We don’t fit.”
I was sitting on Miss Vivee’s bed watching her as she pulled dress after dress out trying to decide what to wear. Her hair was loose and hung down her back and she was all smiles. She acted like she was going on her first date, no outfit seemed to be the right one. I wondered did she actually think she could find something in her closet that would be just the right thing for a hundred-year old woman to wear to a strip club.
Cat on the other hand liked everything she had pulled out. She barked her approval of each choice.
Miss Vivee’s room was big and filled with antiques. When you walked through her bedroom door it was like stepping back in time. She had a big, four-poster bed, floor and table lamps with fringe hanging from the bottom of them, dark wine-colored wallpaper, and a beautiful mahogany wood vanity with a silk covered stool. And there were pictures of Bay all over.
I wouldn’t have been able to stomach all the “Bay-ness” if she hadn’t been holding information that I wanted over my head. The only way, she had told me, that I was going to find out what she had to do with Louis Colquett’s death was if I took her to Atlanta. And to be sure I didn’t renege on my part, she told me she would only tell me once we got back. Plus, after I realized how much it meant to her, I didn’t have the heart not to take her. What’s a trip two hours up the road? So I was stuck going to a strip club in Atlanta, and suffering through the “Eyes of Bay” staring at me from every corner of the room.
“I see what you mean,” she said and sat down on the bed next to me. “Just the two of us can’t go. We need to take a man with us. Make us look more legit.” she said and bit down on her lip.
Legit? Where did she get that word from?
“We could ask Bay to go with us,” she said, a questioning look on her face.
“No,” I practically shouted out the words. She raised her eyebrows at my outburst. “It’s just . . . you know . . . He won’t let you investigate like you want,” I said. I didn’t want her to know that I was afraid if I was anywhere near that man he would trick me into confessing my crimes. I tried to steer clear of him at all cost.
“That’s true,” she said thoughtfully. “I’ve got it,” she said, snapping her finger. She hopped up and Cat jumped with her, tail wagging on “high.” She grabbed both my hands. “We’ll ask Mac!”
I thought she was going to pull me up and start dancing she was so elated over her decision.
“Who?” I asked.
“He’ll be our cover,” she said beaming. Then we’ll look like we belong.”
“Who?” I asked again. Then it hit me. “You mean the ninety-year old man that was at the diner staring at you? That Mac?”
“Yes. That Mac. I only know one Mac. I’ll call him and tell him to meet us at the diner. We can tell him our plans.” She stopped and squinted her eyes. “I would go to his house, but I vowed I never step foot in there again.” She shook her shoulders and looked at me. “That’ll work fine. The diner. We’ll meet him at the diner.”
I wasn’t as