I unfolded my arms and plonked down on the couch arm next to him. “Baby, what is it you trying to say?” I asked.

I could tell by the way Willie Frank was shifting in his seat that he was getting agitated. He didn’t give Milton time to answer my question. “Milton, who would they mention it to? And, before you ask, I didn’t mention it to nobody neither. And why is it important where the sheriff got the call at?” Willie Frank said.

“Because if Sheriff Potts, and you and your uncle, didn’t tell nobody else where that call came in at, only the person who made it would know. Am I right?” Milton dipped his head and gazed at Willie Frank so hard, he stood up.

“Look, the main thing is, y’all got off. That’s all we need to be concerned about,” Willie Frank pointed out. Then he got a faraway look in his eyes. He bit his bottom lip and suddenly looked real sympathetic. “What is it you ain’t telling me and Yvonne . . .”

“Joyce knows Sheriff Potts got the call at his house,” Milton blurted out through clenched teeth.

CHAPTER 14 - YVONNE

CHAPTER 14

YVONNE

THE ROOM GOT SO QUIET, YOU COULD HAVE HEARD A GNAT SNEEZE. My head started spinning and my tongue felt like it had blew up twice as big as normal. I didn’t know what to say. “Joyce?” me and Willie Frank hollered at the same time. If Milton had told us she had tried to shoot President Roosevelt, I couldn’t have been more shocked. She was a odd duck, but there was some things I never expected to hear her say, or even know.

I sat stock-still with my heart beating against my chest like a mallet. “Milton, what did you say?” I asked, slapping the side of my head as I gazed at him with my eyes bugged out.

“You ain’t deaf. You heard what I said,” he replied.

When my head stopped spinning and my tongue shrunk back to its normal size, I got up off the couch arm and went and stood next to Willie Frank. Me and him both stared at Milton with our eyes wide and our mouths hanging open. A split second later, my head started spinning again. I got so woozy, a baby bird could have blew me down. If Willie Frank hadn’t held me in place, I would have slid to the floor. “Baby, who told you that?” I asked.

Milton didn’t waste no time answering. “That big-mouth heifer said so herself while she was rattling on and on last night. I was so outraged, I wanted to slap somebody.”

Willie Frank waved his hands in the air and shook his head. “Milton, I’m in a tizzy. What I want to know is, who in the world told Joyce a detail like that?”