I snatched the phone away from her and called Haley.

“Hi, Mama,” she said, “what’s up?”

“Not much,” I said truthfully, hoping my voice wasn’t shaking so much she would notice it. “I’m with your Aunt Sister and we’re running a little later than we planned. Y’all don’t wait on us for dinner.”

“Fine. Tell Aunt Sister that Berry West is here from Birmingham. He and Frances are out on the balcony having drinks. He’s real nice. Jason Marley’s here, too.”

“Your Aunt Sister says that Berry’s an Adonis.”

“Like I said, he’s real nice.”

I said goodbye, handed Sister the phone and smiled pleasantly. “Berry West and Jason Marley are there. They’re on the balcony having drinks with Frances.”

“Snake shit!” Sister grumbled.

The same rescue squad, firemen, and policeman answered this call that had answered the one from the beach.

“What is this?” Lisa Andrews said, stepping onto the balcony. “Y’all made this call, too?”

We admitted that we had.

She called back into the living room, “Buddy! It’s the same women found the body on the beach.”

Buddy stuck his head out. “Y’all ain’t invited to any of my parties.”

“They wouldn’t want to come, anyway.” Lisa Andrews got out her notepad and flipped back a couple of pages. “Okay, let’s see. You’re Mrs. Crane and Mrs. Hollowell. Right?”

We nodded yes.

“And you,” she pointed toward Mary Alice, “Mrs. Crane?” Another nod. “You have a place at Gulf Towers, and you, Mrs. Hollowell, are visiting.”

“We’re sisters,” I said.

“You sure don’t look like it.”

“Well, we are,” Mary Alice narrowed her eyes. “And we came over to find out if anybody knew where Emily Peacock, who happens to be lying in there dead, shot in the head on her own hide-a-bed, might be. We came because Fairchild Weatherby asked us to and his blood pressure is sky high. He was worried she didn’t know about Millicent’s death, and we found her lying in there dead as a door nail. Dead as a door nail.” She caught her breath.

“Wait a minute. I can’t write that fast.” Lisa Andrews flipped over a page in the notepad. “How do you spell Peacock?”

“P-E-E-C-O-C-K.”

“P-E-A,” I said, giving Sister a hard look.

“Thanks. And you didn’t get to talk to her?”

“I tried, but she had trouble answering,” Sister said.

This time it was Officer Andrews who narrowed her eyes.

“Have you touched anything? Moved the body at all?”

“Lord, no, we haven’t moved the body.” I said. “The door was ajar and we called and came on in. I guess we touched the doorknob and my sister was sick in the kitchen sink.” Officer Andrews smiled a little at this piece of news. “Oh, and I called you from the phone. Other than that, we’ve been out here.”