"I guess you're right."

"I know I am." I thought for a moment. "How about the red crepe?"

"It makes me look fat."

I wasn't about to jump into that.

"I could wear that flowery jacket with it, though. You know the one I mean? The one with the Japanese flowers?"

"Sure. That would look great."

Haley had knelt down and was scratching Woofer behind his ears. "Where's Aunt Sister going?" she asked when I turned off the phone.

I explained about Buddy Johnson's jet and the trip to Atlanta to the opera.

"He's not that ancient guy she was moving around the dance floor with at the reception?"-

"The same. Aunt Sister says he looks like Richard Gere, though, and this is just like Pretty Woman."

Haley laughed. "Good for Aunt Sister."

"I told her to practice safe sex."

I expected Haley to laugh again. Instead, she said, "Good idea." I looked over at her. Her cheeks were turning pink.

"Are you blushing?"

Haley pressed the backs of her hands against her cheeks and grinned. "Woofer needs a bath," she said.

"You are blushing! Good Lord!"

"Philip's a nice man, Mama."

"I'm glad to hear he's a nice man."

"I mean a very nice man."

"I know what you mean."

Mother and daughter, we looked at each other over the tray of flowers. So much unsaid. So much that would never be said. Be happy. I am. Be careful. I will. I don't want you hurt. I know. Be happy. I love you. Words standing in the air between us.

"I'll go get another trowel and help you," Haley said.

"Well, Woofer," I said, watching her cross the yard. "What do you think about that?"

Woofer said it was about time.

Haley came back with a trowel, a beer, and a sheepish look on her face.

"Here," I said, handing her some flowers. "Have you heard Meg Bryan died?"

She looked shocked. "Henry's cousin who was at the wedding?"

I nodded. "Your Aunt Sister and I took her to lunch at the Tutwiler yesterday and she went over to the courthouse and either jumped or was pushed out of the ninth floor window. Maybe the tenth."

"What? She did what? That nice little lady's dead? How terrible!"

"There's more." I told Haley everything I knew from the veal medallions with orange sauce and the meeting with Judge Haskins to the peanut butter and banana sandwich and Trinity Buckalew's disappearance.

"Wait a minute," Haley said several times, making me repeat some details. Finally, "That's incredible. Where is she now?"

"Meg or Trinity?"

"Both, I guess."

"Meg is at Roebuck Chapel. Trinity is God knows where. Out after Judge Haskins, I assume, since she says he's Meg's murderer."

"Because Meg had the papers saying the judge's great great grandfather was a bastard." Haley shook her head in disbelief.