"Her poor husband. Bless his heart. He's got a tough row to hoe." Bezu dabbed her eyes.

"I'm not even going to ask what you just said. But as for Bert, I bet he killed her. It's usually the spouse that knocks off the other spouse." Annie Mae waved her hands. "Trust me, if Ernie's diet of Krispy Kreme hadn't killed him, I would've."

"You're all talk. You adored Ernie. If you ask me, he was a saint for putting up with you." Jose winked at Annie Mae.

Annie Mae tilted her head and grinned. "What fool thing are you talking about? My Ernie was the most stubborn man who ever walked the earth. Still, it seems that when a wife is killed, the husband did it."

"Not this time. I spoke to Lucy's husband. He's been on a fishing trip in North Carolina with three of his friends," Jose said. "So he has an airtight alibi."

Bezu wrung her delicate hands. "Why are we even discussing this? The law enforcement of this fine city will take care of this."

"Actually, ladies, we've been so overworked, even with a couple new hires, we are still understaffed. I've also been informed that this case will be wrapped up as suicide and closed before the end of the day." Jose took off his sungla.s.ses and wiped his brow.

"My tax dollars hard at work." Annie Mae rolled her eyes.

"Lord Almighty. Poor Lucy." Bezu threw her shoulders back and patted her blonde hair, as if fixing herself up.

"Listen. There's something very wrong here, and we need to find out what." I choked on the words. "There may be a connection to my father's death."

"Cat, don't you have too much going on, taking care of your children, to involve yourself in what is clearly police business and not ours?" Bezu asked.

"Cat's making some good points. I have to agree with her. Lucy's death doesn't feel right with me, either. And maybe Jose is right, which, by the way, would be a first." Annie Mae put on a half grin and turned to Jose.

"If it wasn't suicide, which it seems most of us agree it wasn't, then we have a much bigger issue, don't we?" I looked at each of them one by one. The words caught in my throat as my eyes teared up again. "Who killed Lucy?"

Chapter Five.

One week later Jose plopped in a chair. "Lucy's case has been closed as a suicide. The official investigation said she slit her left wrist with a butcher knife, lost a lot of blood, then fell and hit her head against the wall. There was a contusion on the back of her head."

We sat around Bezu's dining room table, having called together a Chubby Chicks Club meeting. This was the first time we'd seen each other since we'd attended Lucy's wake and funeral last week.

"Well, then, I think we forget any thoughts about it being anything other than what the police said it was." Bezu set a pitcher of iced tea on the table next to a large, red ceramic pot of shrimp jambalaya.

"Bezu, I disagree. I still think someone killed her." I unfolded the cream linen and lace napkin and set it on my lap. "As her friends, it's our duty to find out who did it. It's a possibility that her death may be connected to my dad's."

"Do you really think so?" Annie Mae asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not." I fought back a tear. "Regardless, Lucy is dead, and how it happened is suspicious. Like the mystery around my dad's murder."

"I'm with Cat." Jose began to scoop out jambalaya onto a plate. "It doesn't ring true with me, either. But my hands are tied. It's not my case."

"Why don't we do the investigation?" I took the plate Jose handed me.

"No." Bezu straightened her back.

"Maybe we should just let it go. Let Lucy rest in peace. Poor soul." Annie Mae made a sign of the cross. "Sorry, I still have leftover habits from twelve years of Catholic school. Praise the Lord. Let's eat."

"Now someone here is finally talking sense." Bezu took her fork. "Jose, thank you for serving. Now, why don't we chat about something more pleasant?"

"Annie Mae, I'm surprised you don't want to investigate it," I said.

"I'm educated in theater and the arts, not detective work." Annie Mae put a forkful of food into her mouth. "Plus, the police said it was suicide. And they're professionals. So maybe we should just agree with their expertise."

"Do you think they're right?" I asked.

Annie Mae nodded and then shrugged her shoulders.

I straightened my back. "I bet they didn't even check the other side of the note, where Ina threatened Lucy. Or what about the lipstick on the note? That was not Lucy's color. And I also think that Bert had a mistress. There are people who may've wanted to harm Lucy. And I bet none of those leads were explored."

"They were not." Jose wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"So, you see, we need to, at the very least, examine possible suspects." I looked around at each of them. "Who's with me?"

Annie Mae chewed her food then swallowed.

Bezu looked down at the table.

"We need to find out how she died because she was our friend. And we are the only ones who can make this right." I slapped my hand on the table, hoping to get someone to react. It worked at the dinner table when my kids argued and caused a ruckus.

Jose laid the serving spoon on a plate. "I say we don't do anything."

"That's a good idea," Annie Mae said. "Let's leave it alone."

"Annie, that is a fine idea," Jose winked at Annie Mae.

"I say we don't leave it alone." I cut my eyes to Jose.

The spicy smell of the jambalaya lingered in the air.

Jose shook his head and looked away from me.

"Let's listen to Jose and drop it." Bezu glared at me. "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay under the porch."

"What the heck? Bezu, please translate that from Southern to English," Annie Mae said to Bezu.

"We don't have the law enforcement know-how, so we should stay out of any type of investigation." Bezu held Annie Mae's hand. "Can't we just talk about the festival next week?"

"While a dear friend of ours is dead? I can't think of anything else, festivals or otherwise." I pushed my plate away from me. "C'mon. The note from Ina, the pink lipstick, Lucy's happy disposition. There is so much that is not clear-cut. If any one of you can say for one hundred percent sure that it was suicide, then fine, you're out. But if you even have the slightest doubt, then it's your duty to find what really happened. We owe that to her."

Jose put his hands in the air, as if saying he gave up.

Bezu took in a deep breath.

Annie Mae held her thumb and index finger a short distance apart. "I have a smidgen of doubt. So it wouldn't hurt to look into it just a little. Plus, I do have some free time now."

"Great, Annie Mae. I'm glad that at least someone else besides me can see that we need to do something," I said.

"C'mon, Jose and Bezu. The more I think about it, Cat's right," Annie Mae said. "Someone killed our friend, and I want to know who and why. And put them behind bars for life."

"All in favor of looking into Lucy's death say aye." I took a quick look around the room. The afternoon sun shone through the tall windows.

"Aye." Annie Mae fidgeted with a napkin.

Jose checked his cell phone, and Bezu seemed fixated on a spot on the table.

Silence hung in the air.

Bezu sighed.

"I'm out." Jose stretched his long legs. "I'll say it once more. It's not my case. If I got involved, it'd be insubordination."

I held my hand up. "I move for the Chubby Chicks Club to accept this mission, even without Jose."

"Not a good idea." Jose shook his head.

"Jeez." Annie Mae glared at Jose. "Are you kidding me? You're not going to help us?"

"No. I have a bad feeling this is going to be a train wreck." Jose rolled his head side to side as if working out a crick in his neck. He stretched his arms, holding his hands, and cracked his knuckles. "And I don't want to get fired. I also think you should stay out of it."

"Fine. You're out, Jose," I said. "But I think the rest of us should investigate." I raised two fingers. "So far it's Annie Mae and me."

Annie Mae nodded and took another bite of food.

"What about you, Bezu?" I asked.

Bezu let out a deep breath. "Sorry, no. I think y'all even thinking about investigating Lucy's death with no experience is like having only one oar in the water."

"That means no, right?" Annie Mae said.

"Yes, it means no," Bezu said.

"So that just leaves Cat and me." Annie Mae's face twisted into a grimace. "What could go wrong?"

"Don't be so pessimistic," I said. "It's our duty as Lucy's friends to do this for her."

"Right. Let's find her killer," Annie Mae said.

Jose took in a deep breath then exhaled. "Since you're insisting on continuing with this, which I strongly advise you not to, then I can be an unofficial consultant. Just to keep you two out of jail. But that's it."

"Thanks, Jose. Any help from you is better than none." Annie Mae's face softened. "And don't you think it was weird the way Lucy's husband was flirting at her wake? He practically jumped the bones of that redhead."

"Talk about inappropriate decorum." Bezu sighed. "He should be ashamed of himself."

"I saw that, too," Jose said. "Some folks use wakes as pickup places."

"Not us black folk. No, we honor the dead. We cry and carry on for days on end." Annie Mae pounded her chest.

I corralled the conversation back on topic. "Maybe that was his mistress. Lucy had thought he might've been having an affair. Here's what I think we need to do next. I think we need to interview some people who knew her and find out if she had any issues or problems with anyone."

"Like someone who may have wanted her dead," Annie Mae added.

"Yes." I put my napkin on my plate.

"Great. The Chubby Chicks Club goes from misfit social group to amateur southern sleuths. Well, at least half of the group." Annie Mae chuckled. "How in the h.e.l.l did I get involved with this bunch of oddb.a.l.l.s?"

"We needed an African American to round out the group." Jose playfully tapped Annie Mae in the arm. "And you were round."

"Just a little chubby." Annie Mae smiled. "You caught me at a vulnerable time, that's all. My Ernie had just died, so I wasn't in my right mind. Now I'm sort of attached to you all. Kind of like when you fall in love with a homely puppy no one wants."

Annie Mae and I came up with a few strategies to tackle Lucy's investigation. Jose listened and offered suggestions.

Annie Mae and I wanted to talk to Lucy's neighbor, Ina Nesbit, about the fight they had and the threatening note. I also thought that it was important to find out if Bert was having an affair and with whom. We also needed to somehow find out why Lucy's note was written in pink lipstick and whose lipstick it could've been. Annie Mae planned to make a few phone calls, including to Lucy's friends in her Bible study group.

Anne Mae and I intended to stop in at Lucy's favorite stores, the Red and White grocery and Blue Belle's antique store, in order to find out anything we could about her state of mind and if anything seemed amiss in her life.

One thought kept nudging me: either there were two killers on the loose in Savannah, or just one. Could the same person have killed my father and Lucy?

I shuddered. I abhorred either thought.

Chapter Six.

The next morning, I felt groggy. I'd tossed and turned all night thinking about Lucy.

Since it was Sat.u.r.day, my eighteen-year-old sons, Teddy and Timothy, left early in the morning for their jobs. We lived in the Victorian District, close to downtown, so they either skateboarded or rode their bikes to work.

At my husband's and mom's insistence, I was taking a day or two off from the store. They had not been thrilled when I told them that Annie Mae and I were launching an investigation into Lucy's death. But they supported me and knew I was too stubborn and would do what I felt needed to be done.

My five-year-old daughters, Nina and Nancy, were spending the weekend at my sister-in-law's beach house on Tybee. I packed their beach gear and overnight bags then slathered sunscreen and kisses on them.

After dropping off the girls and picking up Annie Mae, we grabbed a cup of coffee at a drive-through while we planned our day.

Annie Mae sipped her coffee. "Whoa. Bitter. Needs way more sugar and a few more creams. Hey I forgot to tell you, I'm going to be a guest professor at UNC Chapel Hill. They have a great actor-training program and have asked me to help out.