Divas Do Tell (5 page)

“Mira Waller,” said Sandra Dobson, “is just as famous as Sandra Brady. And she’s from the South, I heard. Somewhere down around Jackson, I think.”

“She’s a Mississippian? I didn’t know that,” I said.

“Mira hasn’t been around nearly as long as Sandra Brady, but she’s gotten some great character roles lately,” said Gaynelle. “I predict an Oscar in her future.”

“Wouldn’t that be exciting, Dixie Lee?” said Cady Lee. “I mean, going to the Oscars, walking the red carpet, rubbing elbows with the Hollywood elite. Do you think that will really happen?”

“I haven’t seen the script yet. Sometimes they rewrite things so badly that it ruins what was once a good book.”

“Or sometimes they rewrite bad books so well that it changes into a good movie,” Bitty observed with a feline smile that made her look just like a Siamese cat.

I’m not sure what Dixie Lee might have said to that because Deelight Tillman chose that moment to arrive, and the topic was momentarily interrupted.

“Hello, everyone,” she said, and then exclaimed to Dixie Lee, “It’s so exciting to see all these movie people in town again. The last movie shot here was
Big Bad Love,
but my favorite is
Cookie’s Fortune
. I got to see Glenn Close when she came into Budgie’s for a sandwich. She was just like regular people and very nice.”

“Well, they were all regular people once, you know,” Gaynelle said. “Most of them don’t forget that.”

“There was that one actress who was real snooty,” reminded Carolann. “I can’t think of her name now, but she acted like we were all horseflies, bothersome enough to shoo away if we got too close.”

“I see I missed a lot in my years away,” I remarked. “Mama kept me up to date on most things, but she never said a lot about the movie people.”

“Are your parents still going on their cruise?” Deelight asked as I handed her a glass of wine.

I groaned. “Don’t remind me. Not only do I have to worry about them being shanghaied in the middle of an ocean somewhere, I’m stuck feeding battalions of cats and a neurotic dog.”

“At least this time no one has just been murdered,” Gaynelle pointed out. “The last time they went away we had to deal with a lot of trauma while they were gone.”

“No one has been murdered
yet
, anyway,” Bitty said with a thoughtful gaze resting on Dixie Lee. “We never know what might happen next around here.”

While I gave Bitty my sternest look, Cady Lee sucked in a deep breath and blurted out, “Someone has been threatening to kill Dixie Lee.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Bitty replied. “Who is it?”

Cady Lee shook her head while her sister sucked down the rest of her wine. “That’s just it. We don’t know. She’s gotten two anonymous letters. Death threats.”

I poured the rest of the wine from the bottle into Dixie Lee’s glass. “When did all this happen? I haven’t heard a word about it.”

“That’s because I thought it best not to say anything,” Dixie Lee said. “I thought it was probably just someone trying to get noticed. It happens.”

“So this is something real?” Carolann asked in a shocked tone. “Not a publicity stunt?”

“Oh no, it’s real enough.” Dixie Lee took a big gulp of her wine. “Yesterday on my way into the Piggly Wiggly a car just came out of nowhere and tried to run me down. I had to jump up on the curb to get out of the way.”

A stunned silence fell. Then Carolann asked, “Did you see who it was?”

“No. And then I wondered if it wasn’t an accident, just careless driving. That was before I got the death threats, though. One was tacked to the front door, and the other was put under the windshield wipers of my car last night.”

Rayna urged, “Tell the police, Dixie Lee. There’s no telling what nut is out there and may really hurt you.”

Dixie Lee looked around at all of us. “I did. They think it’s a publicity stunt too. That’s the real reason I wanted to come today. I know you Divas have experience with finding killers—can you keep me from being murdered?”

Chapter 3

“OH, I THINK DIXIE Lee’s making all that up to get publicity for the movie,” said Bitty as I steered my car out of the airport parking lot and into a slow-moving lane.

We’d just taken my parents to the airport for the first leg of their journey to Italy, where they’d then board a cruise ship to sites around the Mediterranean. While I was sure disaster awaited them, they looked so happy to be leaving I didn’t have the heart to repeat warnings about pirates or icebergs. So I’d watched them trundle off to security where they’d be X-rayed in the government’s reminder that people are naked underneath their clothes. They didn’t even seem to mind that horrifying intrusion, although my mother had remarked that she should have worn lead underwear.

Now they were gone, and I was left with dozens of feral cats and a billy goat masquerading as a dog. Brownie is not stupid. The minute he saw their suitcases he knew they were leaving and went into an immediate decline. He’d spent most of the night before in my mother’s arms, a pitiful creature that would recover the moment I got back, only to relapse at first sight of my mother again. They should find a part for him in Dixie Lee’s movie. The dog is an excellent actor.

“I have to ask—you didn’t write those letters, did you, Bitty?”

“No, but I did consider something like that. Then I decided it might be too helpful.”

“I can’t imagine the movie would want that kind of publicity. It’d be negative advertising.”

“Nonsense. Any gossip generated is better than nothing. I wouldn’t put it past Dixie Lee to have invented that story so we’d all be talking about her and fussing over her.”

“You might be right,” I compromised. “I’m not sure there’s anything we can do anyway. Those letters were too vague.”

Bitty smiled. “I liked the first one. ‘Die, bitch’ is very similar to what I feel like saying to her.”

“Good lord, Bitty. You’d think you two would have gotten over that feud by now. It’s only been thirty-something years.”

“Thirty-three years, and I have no intention of forgetting how she lied about me just so she could be Sweetheart of Lambda Chi.”

“Well, she didn’t get Sweetheart either. They chose someone else. Probably because both of you acted like idiots.”

Bitty sniffed her disdain for my version of events. “They chose someone else because Dixie Lee Forsythe was vindictive and mean. I was very gracious about everything.”

That wasn’t at all the way I remembered it. Of course, by then I’d left Ole Miss and gone off to sit-ins with Perry, who ended up as my husband, but I got the entire story from Mama. Bitty and Dixie Lee got into a screaming match in front of the student center and had to be separated before they snatched each other bald-headed. Back then Aunt Sarah, Bitty’s mother, was still alive, and she’d been ready to tear
her
hair out over Bitty’s antics. My dear cousin has always been somewhat of a prima donna.

“I didn’t tell Mama and Daddy about Dixie Lee’s letters,” I said to distract Bitty from the insult of three decades before. “I didn’t want them to worry while they’re gone.”

“There is no point in them worrying for nothing. By the time they get back home maybe all this movie stuff will be over with anyway.”

“I don’t think so. It takes a while to shoot all the scenes. The movie people will be here a month or so, the way I heard it.”

Bitty took out an emery board and sawed at one of her fingernails. “Last time they only shot the outdoor scenes and house scenes here. The rest of it was done out in Hollywood or wherever. So if we’re lucky they won’t be here long at all.”

“It’s good for local retailers,” I said. “Extra people coming in, eating at the restaurants, shopping in the stores, all add up to more revenue.”

She opened her Jimmy Choo purse and dropped in the emery board. “Honestly, Trinket, you act like you’re glad they’re here. I’d think you of all people would be upset. Who do you think is going to play you in the movie? Jennifer Garner? You’d be lucky if your part was played by Hugh Jackman.”

Bitty forgets who she’s talking to sometimes. I rolled my eyes. “So you’d be played by whom? Shorty Rossi?”

“Who’s that?”

“The little person on Animal Planet who rescues pit bulls.
Pit Boss
.”

“Oh. I’ve seen that show. No, he’s too old to play me. He’s not an actor anyway, is he?”

I sighed. Sometimes she deliberately misses the point. “In the first place, I’m not in the movie and neither are you. We’re barely in the book. Most of the action is centered on the events surrounding Billy Joe Cramer and Susana Jones. We were little kids when all that happened.”

“I heard that Billy Joe tried to sue the book publisher and the movie producers. He didn’t get very far, of course. His name isn’t used, and things were changed just enough that no one can say for sure that it’s about him and Susana. I’m sure he’s pretty upset about that. I mean, we all know who Dixie Lee is talking about, but most of the world doesn’t have any idea.”

“He should have known better. Publishers and producers can afford the best lawyers.”

Bitty nodded. “Billy Joe tried to hire Jackson Lee, but not only did he not have enough money, if he had a million dollars Jackson Lee still wouldn’t have taken the case. Last I heard, Billy Joe decided to just boycott the movie and anyone who had anything to do with it.”

“So that means he’s going to boycott the entire town, I guess.”

“Probably. He never was the brightest bulb in the pack.”

“Do you want to stop somewhere for lunch before we go back?” I asked as I nosed my car onto I-240. “It’s your turn to pick a place.”

“Showboat Barbecue. I love their barbecue sauce and their fried okra.”

I headed for the Mt. Moriah exit. Once we were sitting at a table in the barbecue place, me with a huge pulled pork sandwich with slaw and delicious sauce and Bitty with a plate of pulled pork, sauce, beans and fried okra, we didn’t talk much about anything for a few minutes. Photographs plaster the walls behind tables, mementoes of trips the owners took to places all over the United States. A huge showboat is painted on the outside window, a reminder that Memphis is a town founded on the Mississippi with a long history of riverfront commerce.

By the time I finished my sandwich I had barbecue sauce on my chin and blouse. Bitty sighed and handed me a napkin. “You’re wearing your food again.”

“I know. I can’t help myself. Besides, who eats barbecue without getting messy?”

“I do. That’s why I get the plate. This blouse is dupioni silk, and I don’t want to ruin it.”

“I’m assuming that means it’s expensive.”

“Not really. But it is one of my favorites.”

“Not expensive to you and not expensive to me are two terms worlds apart,” I said. “You wear shoes that cost more than my car.”

“Oh Trinket, you always exaggerate.”

“Just a little. Your cars cost more than the last house I bought, though.”

“That’s understandable. The last house you bought was twenty years ago. How did you stand all that moving around so much?”

“It wasn’t like I had a choice. Perry would quit one job and have another before I knew anything about it. In retrospect, buying that house wasn’t the smartest thing I ever did, but I was trying to keep him in one place for a while.”

Bitty shook her head. “You can’t change someone who doesn’t want to change. I learned that in my first marriage.”

“Which does nothing to explain your next three marriages.”

“I’m an optimist. You’re a pessimist. Have you ever thought about remarrying?”

“No. Not seriously. Why mess up a perfectly good relationship with community property issues?”

“But you could have a lovely wedding if you and Kit got married. And I’d pick out your dress for you. Think of the fun we’d have trying on satin dresses down to the floor. And veils sheer enough to be a mist around your head. How lovely.”

“Perish the thought. Besides, I think you just like wearing wedding dresses. You could start your own resale shop just with the ones you’ve worn.”

“If you’re trying to annoy me, Trinket, you’ve succeeded.”

“Good. Stop trying to marry me off. Kit and I are perfectly happy with the way things are now, thank you very much. And I don’t see you and Jackson Lee rushing to the altar.”

“We’ve decided to take things slowly, is all. He works so much. Which reminds me—his new partner in the Ashland office is single. I wonder if Dixie Lee is seeing anyone since her last divorce.”

I was flabbergasted. “You’d set her up on a date? I thought you don’t like her.”

“I don’t. Jackson Lee’s new partner is one of the dullest men I’ve ever met in my life. He’d be perfect for her.”

“Honestly, Bitty. You’ll do anything to infuriate Dixie Lee, won’t you?”

“Just about. What I won’t do is spend one minute of my time worrying about someone sending her death threats. It’s all a crock, and I don’t believe it for a second.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said. “If not, the next month or so is going to be very interesting.”