“Mary Alice?”

“Just a minute.” I handed the phone back to Sister. “He wants to talk to you.”

Virgil Stuckey was looking from one of us to the other.

Sister gave in. “I’d better take this in the bathroom.” As she got up she narrowly missed colliding with the waitress who was bringing Virgil’s lunch. “Sorry.”

Virgil watched her walk away from the table. She might not be wearing the purple boots today, but she was still creating a gleam in his eye.

The waitress put the food down and Virgil sprinkled pepper sauce on his turnip greens.

“What happened to Monk Crawford’s wife?” I asked him.

“Something normal, I understand. Something like pneumonia.” He buttered a piece of cornbread. “Tell me about Virginia Nelson, other than she played golf and belonged to the country club.”

I admitted that I really didn’t know her that well. “She must have been desperately unhappy, though, to leave like she did.”

“She and her husband get along?”

“We thought they did. We just see them at weddings and things, though.” I hesitated. “They tend to drink a little too much on those occasions. I don’t know what it’s like at home, the alcohol.” I paused and watched Virgil inhale a whole new potato. “I do know that Luke was truly devastated when he got to my house. I think it’s the last thing in the world he thought would happen.”

“They just have the one child?”

I nodded. “Richard. The representative.”

I sipped my tea and wondered how Richard was taking the news that Mary Alice was passing along. I wondered how much she was telling him.

The restaurant was filling up with the lunch crowd. Several people spoke to the sheriff as they walked by. He called most of them by name, I noticed. I remarked on this.

“I used to know just about everybody in this county and my county, too,” he said. “Then half the folks from Birmingham decided to move out here.” He inhaled another potato. “I can’t say I blame them. It’s beautiful out here. Getting sort of crowded though. I worry about the animals, the deer and the foxes.”

A man after my own heart.

“Even the Chandler Mountain booger?”

He grinned. “Especially the booger.”

Sister sat back down. “Richard’s getting the first flight that he can. He’ll probably be in early this evening. He said not to meet him, that he’d rent a car.”

Neither of us asked how he had taken the news.

Sister eyed the food that was left in front of Virgil Stuckey.

“That looks good.”

Virgil nodded. “Is.”

“Patricia Anne, maybe we ought to order something. We need to keep our strength up.”