“Maureen? Hey! It’s me, Holly. Y’all okay?”

“Yes, and what a terrible thing. I mean, nobody liked her, that’s for sure. But, damn! Death from a thousand bee stings? How awful!”

“Is that the story going around? Well, here’s something we don’t know. Maybe it was the bees, maybe it wasn’t, but I can’t imagine that many bees would sacrifice their lives to get rid of her. And if it was bees, and she was allergic, it would only take one. The queen is the only honey bee without a barb on her stinger. She might have done it, but I doubt it, because she doesn’t ever leave the hive except to swarm. Swarming season ended months ago. So I guess we’ll see when the autopsy comes back. And when they examine the findings in my yard. If it was my bees, there’ll be carcasses all over the place.”

“Are you pissed about something?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe. I’m just waiting for the morning papers. Give me a shout if you need me.”

I was sort of pissed that my bees would take the blame when, if her death was the result of bee stings, they were probably only defending their hives. That finding, blaming my bees, could lead to passing laws against beekeeping in residential areas, which would be a terrible thing.

“You do the same,” she said.

I went back out to the front of the house to lock up for the night and noticed that my hammock appeared to have an occupant. It was Archie. He’d made it past my front door but not down the steps. It was a warm night. I took a picture of him with my iPhone and sent it to Mark. I just left him there. Hopefully, by the time I got up in the morning, he’d be gone.

I had a moment then to reflect on how many nights I’d gone to sleep wishing I was in his arms, and I thought I wasn’t so sure about that dream anymore. I wasn’t so sure about anything.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Strut Yo Stuff, Sugah

I was waiting for Char to come out of the bedroom, where she was trying on Momma’s latest creation. It was sensational in muslin, which was phase one to making a custom gown as complicated as the one Momma and Charlie had designed. The entire gown was first constructed in muslin, an inexpensive fabric, to be sure it draped properly. So if it looked good in cheap muslin, I could only imagine what it would look like in celery green metallic lamé.