Bay said, an exaggerated sad face showing he empathized. He went and leaned over to Hazel Cobb sitting in the chair and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Aunt Hazel. You doin’ okay?”
Hazel wasn’t Bay’s aunt, she was really a cousin. Best friend to his mother and cousin to his father, Hazel, Renmar and Oliver were a threesome. Other than at the Island, when Oliver was around Renmar, so was Hazel. And it seemed that Oliver, per Miss Vivee, was Hazel’s cousin “by slavery,” as she put it. They shared the same great, great, great grandfather.
“I know that the relations between me and Oliver go back more than a century,” Hazel said dabbing her eyes. “But he was still family.”
“I’ll have to drive up to Atlanta with the body,” Bay made the announcement to the room after double kissing his Auntie Brie on her cheek. He walked over to the stove, lifting the lids he looked inside the skillet and pots.
“No food, Ma?”
“I have a plate for you. I put it in the warmer,” she said and got up to get it.
“And isn’t this Friday? Where is the bouillabaisse? I was counting on having some,” Bay said grabbing silverware out the drawer and taking a seat.
I lifted my eyes over the rim of the cup and looked surreptitiously at Bay.
No bouillabaisse for you, Bay. And I hate to tell you because it just might ruin our relationship, but I think your mother is a murderer. With a capital “M.”
“Atlanta? Why?” Brie asked
“We’re going to do the autopsy there. At the Bureau.”
Cup still up to my face, I trained my eyes on Renmar, watching her reaction to Bay talking about the autopsy.
“Mother told me that that God awful man was going to get an injunction,” Renmar said as she poured Bay a glass of orange juice and set it in front of him. “Put a stop to your autopsy.”
I bet you’d like that, Renmar.
“Ron Anderson won’t win that argument,” Bay said confidently, forking in a mouthful of scrambled eggs that he had covered in hot sauce. “Georgia laws states that an autopsy is legally required if a death is a result of violence or no doctor was in attendance at the time of death. Or,” he pointed his fork at his mother. “If the victim had a suspicious death - sudden like a person that appeared to be in good health.” He cut a slice of fried country style ham and stuffed it into his mouth. “All the above apply to Oliver’s death.”
“He’s at the courthouse. Ron Anderson. I heard it this morning,” Renmar said. “People coming by first thing telling me. Says he’s the next-of-kin and no one’s going to tell him what he can do.”
“An injunction to stop an autopsy might work where he’s from. But it won’t work in Georgia. Here,” Bay took a swallow of his orange juice, “the medical examiner doesn’t need permission from the next-of-kin to perform an autopsy. Any judge in Georgia oughta know that.”
“Evidently, he thinks differently,” Renmar was shaking her head. “He also said you can’t keep him from getting into that house,” she lifted her eyebrows at him. “Says he going to get an injunction for that, too.”
“That man talks a lot, Ma, but that’s all he does.” He wiped his mouth on his napkin. “He has no legal standing to do any of the things he says.” Bay pushed his plate back and folded his arms on the table. “Anyway, I thought it was Charlotte, the wife that was related to Oliver? How is he running the show?”
“Who knows what’s true with those two. She’s so mousy and obsequious. He could probably put her up to anything,” Renmar said.
Ah, was she trying to pass her murderous deeds off on someone else?
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they killed poor Oliver,” Renmar said. She shrugged and raised her coffee cup to her lips. “They’re awful people,” she said before taking a sip.
Uh-huh. She was definitely going on my list of suspects.
Chapter Twelve
Finding out that Ron Anderson had actually gone to the courthouse and a judge might listen to him put Miss Vivee in a tizzy. I had gone up to her room after breakfast to see how she was doing and had told her the latest about what was going on with “the cousins.” And then I told her about Renmar being the possible murderer. When she heard it I thought she was going to faint dead away.
I hadn’t meant on