“It’s something I remember Violet saying about Chet. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but he was married to another woman. He had a son.” I looked at Rick’s blank face. “Maybe she encouraged him from the very beginning. Violet did have a big ego, and Chet fed it. He made her feel special and glamorous, even at the darkest times in her life. He was great at that. He also had the perfect opportunity to make her fall in love with him.”

“Huh? How does that work? Please tell me, Oracle.” Rick rested his hands on the steering wheel, eyebrows raised.

“Violet suffered abuse from Tolly for years. He beat her down mentally as much as physically, to the point where I think he destroyed the Violet everyone else had known. So, she comes back to the comfort of her parents’ house and maybe begins to recover a little bit. And there Chet is. He adores her, he’s warm and safe and familiar and gorgeous...”

“He was gorgeous, huh?”

“The most beautiful man she’d ever laid eyes on. And she saw the child in him, the one she tried to help and protect. It’s like their roles were reversed. She always told me she felt safe with him, even in her eighties.”

“What a man. I’m warm and safe and usually presentable in public. You’re the gorgeous one in this relationship. I love you, you brilliant woman.” He started the car and grabbed my hand.

“And I love you.”

“Why are you staring at me? Is it my great beauty?” Rick asked.

“Yeah, that’s it. Let’s get something to eat before we head home.”

“Deal. Since we’re in Atlanta, is Mary Mac’s okay with you?”

“Always,” I laughed. I could taste the Georgia Peach cocktail already, and needed it after twenty minutes of pure haughtiness from Bettina Hughes, the former CeeCee, Urchin of Alabama.

“You know,” Rick mused, “I’ve been thinking a lot about Dr. Tolliver Thompson’s death. It seems so strange to me that he’d fall down the same stairs he used almost daily for over thirty years.”

I turned to look at him. “What are you saying?”

“Nah, it’s crazy.”

“What? What’s crazy?”

“The whole drunk falling down stairs thing doesn’t add up to me. Maybe it was a freak accident, but Tolly was a heavy drinker for so long, he had to have a pretty high tolerance. And honestly, Chet had every reason to hate him for abusing Violet.”

“You don’t seriously think Chet murdered him?” My mind was racing, and I didn’t like the destination.

“Probably not. But I’m going to call an old friend with the Birmingham PD and see if I can get a look at the case file.”