As Wendy had said, where were they to go from here?

  * * *

  The invitation was a huge surprise to Wendy, to say the least. She had been in Merleece’s little bungalow on North River Street once before to question her about The Grand Slam Murders a couple of years back, but this was the first time she had been invited to dinner there. She’d just given Ross a goodbye kiss and sent him on his way to Jackson when the landline rang the next morning.

  “Nothin’ against that handsome husband a’ yours or any other man, Strawberry, but it’s just gonna be us girls tonight,” Merleece was saying to her as the conversation proceeded.

  Wendy quickly reviewed the superb calendar she kept in her head and smiled. “I’m definitely free this evening, and I think it was sweet of you to include Mary Liz in your plans. She’s prob’ly not even thinking about going out and socializing with people at this point. Grief can really take over your life until you can hardly breathe.”

  “I heard that. But I wanna get her outta that lonely house a’ hers for a change. Plus, I don’t think she been eatin’ like she s’pose to. I took a casserole over there right after the services, but as I find out later, she just put it up in the freezer ’cause she didn’t feel like eatin’. So, you and me, we gonna try to get some food into her and keep her company for a while. You up to it, Strawberry?”

  “You bet I am. She’s fortunate to have a friend like you. Have you thought about what you’ll serve?”

  “Now, you know me better’n that. I already got the menu in the works,” Merleece told her. “How ’bout some baked chicken, green beans, rice and gravy, biscuits, and then a slice a’ my applesauce pie for dessert? Now, you tell me, who in they right mind can turn that down?”

  “I know for a fact that I couldn’t. But I guess the trick’ll be to get Mary Liz to eat all that.”

  Merleece made a clucking noise. “We gotta try. Otherwise, she gone waste away to nothin’.”

  “Is it really that bad?”

  “Well, maybe not. Sometime, I do exaggerate a little with my friends. But we cain’t let her just fold her petals and give up. Right now, Mary Liz Doxey, she’s my girlfriend from way back and my project, and that’s how you show people you really love ’em—when they in trouble.”

  Wendy suddenly felt as if the two of them could solve all the problems of the world, and her natural reaction quickly followed. “Is there anything I can bring along from my house?”

  “Not a thing. All I need is you to help me with this just by bein’ there. That’ll do it.”

  “Thank you for thinking of me.”

  “They’s nobody else could make it work, Strawberry. We gone do some good. I just know we will.”

  “You and I, we always get the job done,” Wendy said, eagerly looking forward to doing her best to help the bereaved widow find peace.

  After she hung up, she texted Ross about her last-minute dinner plans. That way, he wouldn’t be surprised by coming home to the disappointing silence of an empty house, not to mention that he and her father would know to stop for dinner somewhere if their meeting in Jackson ran late.

  * * *

  It was Wendy’s studied opinion that Merleece had been spot-on about Mary Liz Doxey and her general appearance. As she walked in the front door of Merleece’s home on Wednesday evening, the woman’s cheeks looked somewhat sunken, and she had applied a bare minimum of makeup, which did not enhance things. Yet, she managed a genuine smile as she shook Wendy’s hand warmly during their perfunctory greetings in the living room.

  “I remember you at the services. You had some mighty kind words for me,” Mary Liz said, as the two women sat on Merleece’s cozy, blue afghan-covered sofa together. “So nice to see you again.”

  “I was pleased to hear that our Merleece had included you in her dinner plans,” Wendy said. “I suppose I don’t have to tell you how good a cook she is. Everything she pulls outta the oven tastes like it was made for the gods.”

  “If you mean it’s divine, I agree.”

  The laughter that spilled out of the two women was genuine enough, and Wendy said, “I can tell you and Merleece go way back.”

  “That we do. Our mothers, they wanted us both to know our way around the kitchen, but Merleece, she paid attention. I’m afraid I ended up looking the other way. I wanted to go out and play ball with the neighborhood kids. I was a little bit of a tomboy, you see.”

  Merleece settled into her nearby rocking chair and said, “You just didd’n like cookin’ is all they was to it, Mary Liz. I remember you sayin’ to me way back when, you thought errybody should have a cook in the house but to leave you out.” Then Merleece leaned in expectantly. “Would y’all like a glass a’ good ole Rosalie muscadine wine? I’m ’bout to have me some. Y’all wanna join me?”

  Both Wendy and Mary Liz said they did, and Merleece briskly headed toward the kitchen, where everything was warming on the stovetop or in the oven, while every molecule of oxygen in the house was saturated with all the flavors that would soon delight their palates.

  “Your good friend and mine, Merleece, is a bit worried about you,” Wendy said, hoping her words would continue their promising conversation. “She knows what a difficult period this must be for you.”

  Fortunately, Mary Liz responded by flashing another warm smile. “She’s gone outta her way to hold my hand, and I appreciate all that, but I know I’m just gonna have to give myself a lot more time to get over my Earl Jay. It was like somebody’d dropped a bomb on me when I got the word that night. He was always so careful; he got me to believe that nothing bad would ever happen to him when he went behind the scenes to dig things out—like he was immortal as a comic book superhero.”

  “I know just what you mean. Having a chief of police for a father and a detective for a husband makes me worry all the time, though I try not to show it when I’m around them. It just comes with the territory.”

  Wendy knew at that point that the connection she had made with Mary Liz was a solid one, and that the woman would continue to confide in her. “I didd’n think straight for a while after it happened,” Mary Liz added. “Would you believe I coudd’n even remember the simplest things? The passwords on my computer, an appointment I’d made for the salon to get my hair done, some phone calls I needed to return to friends—they just all went out of my head. I’m slowly beginning to get back to normal, though. I’m at least thankful for that.”

  “Don’t rush things. Take your time,” Wendy said.

  Mary Liz nodded enthusiastically at first, then became more reflective. “I know that only too well. I got my degree in clinical social work at Alcorn and practiced for a while right here in Rosalie before I met Earl Jay. I saw it in all my patients when they’d lost loved ones to whatever it was. That kind of healing is a slow process for everyone, no matter what.”

  Merleece returned from the kitchen with the glasses of clear wine on a silver serving tray, offered one each to her guests, and then settled again into her rocking chair with hers. “Y’all been havin’ a nice talk, I hope?”

  “We certainly have,” Mary Liz said, sipping her wine afterward.

  “We were just comparing notes on what it’s like to have family involved with law enforcement,” Wendy added. “You’re never sure what’s going to happen from day to day. Deep down, you’re always wishing they had another kind of job. But you know you can’t say that to them because they love what they’re doing, so that just isn’t possible.”

  There was a sudden, awkward lull, and Wendy wondered whether it was time for a change of subject. Merleece, however, seemed to have come to the same conclusion and said, “Miz Crystal, she never will tell me much ’bout all those bridge games out at the country club, Strawberry. Is that ’cause of her playin’? She still drivin’ all a’ y’all crazy?”

  “More or less,” Wendy said. “She understands the basics of the game well enough, but she refuses to admit when she makes a mistake, like not following suit or trumping a good trick or overbidding or just about anything else that most other players let go with good humor. The fact is that she remains as stubborn as a mule about it all. Her excuse-making monologues are quite annoying to the rest of us, although I’m sure she thinks they are fascinating. Just this last time we played, Deedah Hornesby, the RCC director, took me aside and said, ‘I’m not sure it was worth it to accept Crystal’s contribution to the country club and then have to put up with this during every bridge game.’ She has a valid point, of course, but we’re just gonna have to weather the storm and hope Miz Crystal eventually gets her fill of always making herself the center of attention.”

  Merleece glanced at the ceiling fan whirring above and laughed with conviction. “You got that right. I can just hear her right now carryin’ on until the cows come home. You know I wouldd’n call her a good sport by a long shot. If she cain’t win, she liable to walk away in a huff.”

  A strange expression came over Mary Liz’s face as she began mouthing a couple of words.

  “What’s the matter, girlfriend?” Merleece said, watching intently.

  Mary Liz continued mouthing for a few more seconds and then said, “I don’t know exactly. I mentioned that I’ve had trouble remembering things because of my sweet Earl Jay’s death. But for a second there, something important seemed to flash into my head. Then it went away just as fast. When that kinda thing happens, you know you can’t rest until you pin it down.”

  “Maybe it’ll come back to you after you’ve had some a’ my good dinner,” Merleece added. “I fixed errything you like, and I happen to know that they all Strawberry’s favorites, too.”

  “You go outta your way to spoil me, Merleece,” Wendy told her.

  “I’m just aimin’ to please, Strawberry.”

  Soon, the three of them were seated around the cozy kitchen table enjoying Merleece’s good cooking, and for a while, everything seemed as carefree as a casual get-together among three friends.

  “You know, it’s my take that there’s a reason they call it comfort food,” Wendy said, eagerly spearing a few of her green beans. “You can almost feel it relaxing you once it goes down. Maybe you couldn’t exactly prove it scientifically or anything like that, but I know it’s always been good for what ails me.”

  “I know that’s right. I always go to it when I cain’t deal with the world,” Merleece said.

  Wendy gave her a knowing grin. “And by that, can you possibly be referring to Miz Crystal?”

  “Lord, help me, yes.”

  “I take it from the both a’ you that I could do without meeting this Miz Crystal person?” Mary Liz said in between bites of her chicken.

  Merleece snickered. “You best believe it.”

  But by the time they started digging into their slices of warm applesauce pie, Mary Liz’s mood had reverted to that peculiar moment when she had started mouthing words a while back.

  “Whatever it was that was on the tip a’ my tongue just tried to pop back into my head again,” she told them, shaking her head. “I mean, one a’ those things I’ve been trying to remember very hard since . . . well, since after it happened. I wish there was something I could do about it.”

  Wendy and Merleece exchanged worried glances, and Wendy said, “That’s the way it works, you know. The harder you try to force it to the surface, the more it resists. Usually, it comes to you in the middle of the night or when you’re busy doing something else entirely.”

  Mary Liz put down her fork and frowned at it as if it were responsible for her confusion. “For some reason, I think it’s very important that I remember whatever it is. I can’t shake the notion that I made a mistake of some kind, and it has to do with my beloved Earl Jay. I know that wherever he is, he would want me to get it right, of course.”

  “Now you know very well where he is, girlfriend. He’s an angel in Heaven,” Merleece said.

  Mary Liz smiled graciously. “Yes, of course.”

  “I’m sure you’re both right, but if I may, what did you mean by mistake, Mary Liz?” Wendy added.

  Mary Liz squinted as she focused even more. “I mean that I think I remembered something wrong. That I was so upset emotionally, I wasn’t thinking straight, as I’ve already mentioned to y’all.”

  “Don’t go crazy on me now,” Merleece said. “You know I’m here for you if you feel like you losin’ it.”

  Mary Liz managed to crack a smile. “I wouldn’t put you through that. If I haven’t gone crazy on you by now, it’ll never happen.”

  “Maybe so, but don’t be so stubborn about this, girlfriend. It’ll come back when it’s good ’n’ ready to.”

  Suddenly, Mary Liz had her gasp of recognition. “Stubborn. . . stubborn.” She repeated the word a third time.

  Wendy chimed in, thoroughly intrigued. “Something about the word, itself, or someone who was stubborn?”

  “Well, it was you who just brought it up,” Mary Liz said, pointing to Wendy. “I believe you said that someone was acting ‘stubborn as a mule.’ That made something click in my brain.”

  “Yes, I did say that, and that would have been our very own Miz Crystal Forrest at the bridge table. You have no idea just how stubborn and defensive she gets about making the same mistakes over and over. She’s trying the patience of Deedah and Hollis Hornesby, just to name two of our Bridge Bunch, I can tell you that. I’d give anything to substitute any of the newbies I’m teaching for Crystal Forrest. They at least would go out of their way to follow the rules and not make a fuss all the time—assuming that I’ve taught them well so far.”

  The excitement in Mary Liz’s voice grew. “Yes, you said this Miz Crystal was being stubborn about the way she played bridge. Or rather, the way she refused to own up to those same mistakes. That was what finally triggered it for me.”

  Wendy shot her a quizzical glance. “You’ll have to forgive me, but I can’t imagine what Miz Crystal would have to do with your husband, though. I highly doubt they ever met.”

  “I know, I know. I’m sure it seems like I’m not making much sense to you right now. But the deal is, this isn’t about Miz Crystal Forrest the way you’re probably thinking,” Mary Liz continued. “I guess I’m still not making myself clear, but the fact is that you said she was being stubborn as a mule. So I’ll repeat the word—mule. That’s the key here that I’m trying to convey to you. I was in such terrible shock after the fact that I said I remembered Earl Jay’s phone conversation as being about a donkey. But that was totally wrong. I’m positive now that I was misremembering it. It’s very clear to me at this point that the word he kept repeating over the phone to somebody was actually mule.”

  “I thought a donkey and a mule was the same thing,” Merleece said. “Is they really a difference?”

  “I don’t think that’s the point here,” Mary Liz said. “It’s not all that much about the animal. It’s just that I gave the police the wrong word, and I believe they need to know that now. Maybe it won’t make a difference, but it could. I don’t know one way or the other. But it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders just remembering the right word. I know y’all have had that happen to you. You’ll tell your husband about all this, won’t you, Wendy? Otherwise, I’d have to go down to the station, and I just feel more comfortable letting you handle it.”

  “You know I’ll be more than happy to do just that. He and Daddy are out of town today, but they’ll be back soon.”

  Mary Liz continued to look and sound very stressed out. “The thing is, I’ve had more than my share of the police station lately, and I’m sure you can understand that the memories are very unpleasant for me. I’m not sure how I ever got through all that.”

  “I don’t blame you for feeling that way. I understand completely.”

  Over coffee in the living room after they had finished their dessert, however, Wendy could not get Mary Liz’s revelation out of her mind. It distracted her so much that she had to fake paying attention to the effortless conversation that flowed between Merleece and Mary Liz. A simple nod of the head there and an easy smile here more than did the trick, and the two old friends never knew the difference as they traveled down memory lane together.

  Was there anything of significance in changing a single word? As Merleece had asked straightforwardly: Was there any difference between a donkey and a mule? Could that possibly have a bearing on the progress of the two murder cases? Was this the break they had all been hoping for? Or was it just another of the seemingly endless red herrings these cases had presented to everyone involved?

  CHAPTER 18

  Things had gotten completely out of hand emotionally for Merrie Boudreaux now. She had gone from being needlessly protective of Milton Bagdad to falling hopelessly in love with him. If he happened to be straight, she desperately wanted to bed him; if he turned out to be gay, she wanted somehow—the conventional wisdom on the subject be damned—to “turn him around” and expertly show him what it was like to pleasure a woman. That option particularly appealed to her, even though there was a part of her that whispered she was indulging an unlikely fantasy.

  As a result, she wasn’t eating much these days, had taken to an extra martini before dinner in the evening, and imagined that it was Milton who was making love to her in bed instead of her own very vigorous husband, Rex, with whom she had never had the least little complaint in that department.

  She believed he suspected nothing of her inner turmoil so far—at least she hoped that was the case. She kept up a placid front at all times, but each succeeding day was becoming more and more difficult for her to navigate. The fear kept growing within her that she was reaching some sort of breaking point, and that things would not end well as a result. Was there any conceivable way out of this torture?