Tied With a Bow and No Place to Go (Tizzy/Ridge Trilogy Book 3) (22 page)

Kassie’s free hand connected with Deborah’s chin, then clasped
her pearl necklace, sending balls flying into the air like a juggling act.

Blood dripped from Deborah’s chin onto her chest. “You slut!
These spots will never come out!”

Lenard rushed in, holding his cell phone to his ear. “HURRY!
COME QUICK!”

Tizzy hauled Kassie off. Synola restrained Molly. Lenard
bear-hugged Deborah. Rayann aimed the phone.

Jay Roy hit the wall just below a painting of Jesus
ascending into Heaven and the casket lid slammed shut.

“Oh dear Lord, Lord, Lord! You women are crazy!” Lenard
said.

Within a few minutes, the police arrived and took the exes
into custody, putting each woman in a separate patrol car. Tizzy, Rayann, and
Synola exited to the porch and watched the cruisers disappear over the hill.

“Well, now that we have that behind us, what did Jay Roy
tell you?” Synola asked.

Even in the Texas heat, a chill ran down Tizzy’s spine and
back up again. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Ridge heard Bonnie Rae Gathright before he saw her. She came
in humming a peppy tune he didn’t recognize. By the time she got to the
doorway, he’d spread his papers on the table and stood waiting. When she saw
him, she stopped short and held the last note of the song for a few long beats,
then stuck out her hand and smiled.

At the sight of her, he stifled a gasp. Of the women he’d
interviewed so far, she proved to be the biggest surprise. Pencil legs
stretched into black leggings supported her egg shaped torso. Wearing a neon
green smock, she looked like the love child of Humpty-dumpty and the Wicked
Witch of the West. Streaks of hot pink highlighted her long black hair.

He clasped her hand. “Hello, Mrs. Gathright. Thanks for
coming. Please take a seat.” He walked to the other side of the table and sat
across from her. “I understand you live in Oklahoma?”

“Sure do. Right close to the Red River.”

The minute the words left her mouth, he knew what was
coming. Willie Nelson didn’t miss a beat.

“Whiskey River! Whiskey River!”
The bird squawked.

“Sorry,” he said. “We have a bird . . .”

Bonnie waved her hand. “No need to apologize. I’ve heard
everything from the other ladies. They also gave me an idea of what you might
ask. I was never with Jay Roy and kinda regret not being one of his conquests.
I’d be interested in his choice of color for me.”

Ridge couldn’t help but wonder if neon was popular during
that time. He shook the thought away and continued. “When was the last time you
had contact with Jay Roy?”

“Seven years ago.”

“Seven Spanish angels! Flying too close to the ground!”

Ridge shook his head. The damn bird was combining songs.
Maybe if he kept that up, he’d soon run through Willie’s entire catalog.

Bonnie hummed a few bars of each tune and glanced around the
room. “Do you mind if I get a cup of coffee?”

“Help yourself. Tell me, why didn’t you sleep with Jay Roy?
Almost every girl in your class did.”

“I got pregnant my senior year and had to get married.”
Bonnie brought the cup to her lips and hummed as she blew across the surface.
“In those days, marriage was a requirement. The ribbons were a surprise,
though. None of the girls thought he kept those. They were discussing it last
night. Some were even comparing numbers.”

“Interesting. Who was there?”

Bonnie hummed a few more notes, sipped again, set the cup on
the table and counted off on her fingers. “Let’s see. Neely, Janie, Stella,
Kinsey, oh, Kinsey gave us a demonstration of her auctioneering skills. We bid
on a picture she’d taken of Jay Roy riding a mechanical bull at the fair back
in 1980.”

“Who won?”

“Pattiecake. She wanted to display it at the high school.
They have a picture gallery to honor deceased students. She paid two-hundred
dollars for it and the money went to a worthy cause. The Beautification
Committee. There’ll be a brick with his name on the path around the gazebo in
the park.”

Ridge cocked his head at the mention of Pattiecake’s name,
and made a notation in his spiral. “Anybody else there you haven’t mentioned?”

“Oh, sorry. I got off track.” She counted off on her fingers
again, lifted her eyes to the ceiling, mouthed those she’d already named, and
verbally added, “Lavonne, Paula, Vivian, and me. That’s nine. That’s
everybody.”

He wrote the names as she recited them. “Is there anything
worth mentioning that I haven’t covered? Somebody who had a long time grudge
against Jay Roy or a score to settle?”

“No, I’m sorry.”

After fifteen more minutes of questions, Bonnie carried her
cup to the sink, rinsed it, and set it on the counter. She headed down the
hallway humming the same tune as when she arrived.

He followed her to the front door, pushed it open and
watched her leave. He turned to Rita. “What song was she humming?”

“Chantilly Lace. The Big bopper did it in ’58. That was
before my time and yours, but Jerry Lee Lewis had a big hit with it in the
seventies. My mom had both records and she used to play them a lot. I loved
watching her dance with my dad to the Jerry Lee version.”

“Do I have anybody else scheduled?”

“Yep. Vivian Burling. After her, that will leave Paula Kay
Burgess and Ginger Beth Newman. They both said they could be here within
fifteen minutes, if you find time today.”

Ridge rubbed the back of his neck. Almost finished with the
list and still no definite suspect, the sooner he questioned everyone, the
better. “Let me see how it goes with this next one, then I’ll decide. I still
have the Pruett boy’s truck to search. And, I have to figure out why Doyle
Patton decided to take a lie detector test.”

While Ridge waited, he made more notes and speculated what
weird job or habit Vivian Burling had. So far, every woman he’d interviewed
proved strange in some way. He flipped to the information pages for each of Jay
Roy’s classmates. Vivian, a school teacher, lived in San Antonio. Normal job,
so how weird could she be?

He walked to the door, leaned his head into the hallway, and
spoke to Rita. “What about the Burling woman? Will she show up in a ballerina
costume or perform magic tricks? Jay Roy was part of the strangest class in
history.”

“She’s an art teacher. That’s it.” Rita went back to her
desk.

A few minutes later, Vivian Burling darted into the room
carrying a canvas with the portrait of a faceless woman. For a second, Ridge’s
mouth hung open. How stupid of him to think she’d be normal. With closer
inspection, the background, painted in hues of blue, green, and yellow provided
a sharp contrast to the subject’s hair of painted peppermint sticks protruding
in every direction. Great, just great. She brought Holiday Medusa with her.

“Hi,” Vivian said and set the artwork in a chair then
dropped into the one next to it. “I hope you don’t mind me bringing my
work-in-progress. But when I’m creating, I find it helpful to have it with me,
especially if I’m having trouble getting my artistic juices flowing. With this
one, I’m not feeling the facial features. Anything come to mind when you look
at it?”

Yeah, welcome to crazy town.
“Sorry, I’m not the
artsy type, so I can’t help you.”

Vivian waved her hands in the air in a circular motion as if
directing a choir. “Inspiration will happen. I just have to be patient.”

“Well, let’s get started. Tell me about your relationship
with Jay Roy.”

“He assigned me the color, aqua. I don’t know how many times
I slept with him, but it was a lot. He was my rebound guy.”

Ridge set his notes aside. He’d already seen her number.
“What do you mean your rebound guy?”

“When I was between boyfriends, I’d sleep with Jay Roy. The
other girls said you have the count. How many times for me?”

“One hundred one.”

“Whoa! That makes me the winner!”

He scowled. “The winner of what?”

“There were nine of us at the Tavern last night and we
compared numbers. Of the women there, Kinsey had the most with fifty-six, but I
didn’t have my count, and now that I do, I win the two-hundred bucks. We agreed
that the remaining eight kick in twenty-five dollars each and give it to the
one with the highest total. I see a spa day in my future.”

“Congratulations. When was the last time you saw Jay Roy?”

“The last reunion. I’d gotten a divorce, so I rebounded with
him. Let me tell you. The man had not lost his touch. He was still . . .”

Ridge held up his hand to stop her. “I don’t need details.
Was your divorce amicable?”

“Oh sure. They all were.”

“How many are there?”

“Three. I’m on husband number four and this one may be my
last. I sure hope so, because now I’ve lost my rebound guy. That’s so sad.” She
wiped a tear away and widened her eyes. “Oh my goodness!” She picked up the
painting and stared at it. “That’s it! I need to make this a tribute to Jay
Roy. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I’ll do a self-portrait, change
those peppermint sticks to aqua ribbons curling out of my head and add a number
to each one. There’ll have to be 101 of them.” She placed a hand to her chest,
and looked toward heaven. “I’ll call it The Rebound Crown. Oh. My. God. I love
it when inspiration happens!”

By the time Ridge finished with Bonnie Rae, and made phone
calls to former classmates, Lorna Garmon and Selene Dyer, it was almost six
o’clock.

He noted results from the phone interviews. Lorna Garmon
wasn’t attending because her daughter has a baby due anytime and she wanted to
be close to home. She admitted to being with Jay Roy and claimed her ribbons to
be silver. The color meant intelligence, maturity, and reliability. Logical,
since Lorna had been salutatorian of their class.

Due to a recent surgery, Selene Dyer couldn’t travel. Jay
Roy had assigned her turquoise which conveyed calm and sophistication. Again,
along with Lorna, Selene had no motive. With those two additions, the
interviews left to do were Ginger Beth Newman and Paula Kay Burgess.

He walked to the front. “Hey, Rita, I’m going to head home.
Isn’t it time for you to go too?”

“I’m finishing paperwork. I’ve already switched the calls to
the sheriff’s office. Any luck today?”

“No. Tomorrow, I’ll interview the last two women and search
the Pruett boy’s truck. That will give us time to get the warrant, and I’m
still waiting for the exes phone records. Once that’s done, hopefully something
will shake loose and I’ll get an idea of who to pursue.”

“Do you want me to set the two women up for morning or
afternoon?”

“The earlier the better. Oh, and get Doyle Patton back in
here.”

“You want to chat with him about the lie detector test?”

“Yeah. I figure he’s trying to stay one step ahead of me,
and by taking one he thinks it will shift suspicion off him, but it works the
other way. Makes me think he’s trying awful hard to steer me in a different
direction.”

He reached for the door and the phone rang. “I’ll see you
tomorrow.”

“It’s the non-emergency line,” Rita said and answered it.

Ridge waited.

“Oh, okay. I’ll tell him.” She clicked off, and looked up at
him. “That was Dan. Jay Roy’s three exes are in jail.”

Ridge blinked. “What?”

“They got into a fight at the funeral home. Didn’t do enough
damage for it to be a felony charge, so they’ll be out by morning.”

“Must not have happened while Tizzy was there, or she would
have texted. She’ll be sorry she missed that.”

The door swung open and Bubba stepped inside laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Ridge asked.

“Y’all take a gander at this. It’s Redneck Exes Gone Wild.”
He held out his phone. “Look, Molly’s going to stomp the flowers. Whoa! Now
Kassie’s pissed, so she sides in with Deborah and tries to take Molly’s
bouquet. Watch what happens. Roses go everywhere!”

“Oh no! The casket’s moving!” Rita said. “Oh no, did she
just rip out Molly’s earring?”

“That had to hurt,” Bubba said. “Keep watching, because here
comes Jesus. Bam! Jay Roy hits the wall. The casket slams shut and the crowd
roars! Man, this has more action than a football game, not to mention the
tackles Molly made. I’d hate to get on her bad side.” Bubba glanced at his
watch. “Hey, it’s time for the six o’clock news. Let’s see if they’re using the
footage Synola sent.” He turned and headed to the break room.

Ridge followed. “Synola sent footage?”

Close on his heels, Rita said, “Duh. You bet she did.”

Bubba flipped on the TV. The news announcer said, “An
altercation at an area funeral home lands three women in jail. Details after
this commercial break.”

“In the jailhouse now! In the jailhouse now!”
Willie
screeched.

The newsman came back on screen. “Three ex-wives of the
deceased got into a fight over whose floral arrangement should be displayed on
the casket. Love makes us do foolish things, folks. Those arrested were, Kassie
Shields, of Tyler, Deborah Hessler and Molly Hix, of Brownsboro. And as they’re
hauled away in handcuffs, they do not look happy.”

“Miss Molly! Love makes a fool of us all! You took my
happy away!”

“Did y’all hear that?” Ridge asked.

“What? The bird? How can I not hear it? He’s babbling more
song titles,” Rita said.

“But he’s stringing several together now. That’s crazy. He’s
getting better.”

“Once he got away from that nursing home and started
listening to the radio, his vocabulary expanded. He’s a quick study,” Bubba
said.

“I guess. I wonder why Tizzy didn’t text me.” Ridge said.

“You can ask her yourself. Rayann sent me a message saying
they’re going to the tavern for a drink. As soon as Earl Dean gets here, I’ll
meet you there.”