The Sassy Belles. Beth Albright

he said. Well, Vivi tends to rub off on people, and I was sure Harry was the one thinking Oh, shit in his own head now.

      * * *

      Clearly, we were all still in a mumbo-jumbo state of shock. We continued to whisper while we watched Vivi fidget.

      “But I’m her attorney,” he said, looking at me in desperation.

      “But you weren’t at the time,” I reminded him.

      “It doesn’t look good, Blake.” Harry’s voice had become firm. He didn’t get angry often, but you knew it when it happened. Harry was feeling trapped.

      I heard Officer Dooley tapping his pen pointedly against the desk. So did Harry, who didn’t want this next bit to be overheard.

      “Excuse us, Officer Dooley, for one moment. I need to confer with my co-counsel,” Harry said.

      “Why don’t I just put my pen down for a second,” Officer Dooley said.

      Harry took me by the hand and pulled me just outside the door of the musty little office. Vivi stayed up front with Officer Dooley, still fidgeting uncomfortably, shifting from side to side, crossing then uncrossing her legs.

      “Blake,” Harry began, “first and foremost, I am Lewis’s brother. Second, I am now Vivi’s attorney. That, in and of itself, is strange, considering my connection to them both. But the idea that, after the…deed…I’m the first one she calls? Me, of all people, who has the worst possible relationship with Lewis? This screams conspiracy! It shouts premeditation if we have a dead body over there. It further implicates her and jeopardizes her. And when it comes out that I haven’t spoken to Lewis in over six years, it begins to implicate me! Blake, this could put my career in question. My eventual run for the Senate will be shrouded in this controversy.”

      Harry stopped abruptly. The depth of the situation had overtaken him.

      “Harry, snap out of it!” I said, squeezing his arm. “Lewis had been charged with investment fraud and you distanced yourself from him. There’s no crime in that—it just proves how respectable you are, not wanting to associate with such a person, brother or not. But your cell phone will register the call from Vivi and what time it came in. All of her missed calls to me will register, as well, with the times they were missed. The truth will be easy to prove, so there’s just no point trying to cover it up. Now, I have been her best friend since third grade. Harry, we both know she didn’t do anything. This was all just a terrible, unfortunate accident if anything—and, well, a bit disgusting.”

      Harry’s face softened and he gave me a little nod. We both hurriedly returned to Vivi’s side.

      Harry cleared his throat and began more calmly, “Vivi McFadden did not call an ambulance right away. She tried to call my wife and co-counsel, Blake O’Hara Heart, and when she couldn’t get her, she called me.”

      “Well,” Officer Dooley said, “then I go back to my original question: Where is the body?” Officer Dooley pushed his tiny glasses up his tiny nose and looked pointedly at Vivi.

      “I left the body at the Fountain Mist motel and that was the last time I saw Lewis. Dead on the bed.”

      “An ambulance was called once we’d managed to talk to Vivi and find out what had happened. It should be there right now,” Harry said.

      Officer Dooley looked relieved. “Well, now. That wasn’t so hard, was it? I’ll send an officer and squad cars over now.” Vivi collapsed back into a chair.

      I sat with Vivi, holding her hand and looking around at the old room we were in, thinking back to my days as a child and visiting my grandfather in his office just down the block. Nothing changes much in Tuscaloosa. It’s a town that thrives on its rich history. And I loved that. I noticed that the decor at the station hadn’t changed since probably 1945. Cracked leather chairs with cotton seeping from their seats were scattered around the office. Slow-moving, black ceiling fans whirred around the musty, damp air. The large windows were just slightly open and the fragrant late Southern spring floated inside, like slow deep breathing. The room became still. Officer Dooley called in the incident.

      “Which room, Ms. McFadden?” he asked.

      “Room 106,” Vivi answered. “It was…our room.” The impact of the moment suddenly strangled her and her voice weakened. Harry squatted down on one knee to face Vivi eye to eye.

      I walked over to the old water fountain and grabbed one of those pointy paper cups. I filled three, one for each of us, and walked to Vivi and Harry and handed them the water.

      “Shouldn’t we head over there?” I said.

      “Yes and no,” Harry said. “Yes, Vivi will need to be there for statements, but no, I’d rather her not talk. But…we don’t have a choice about that.”

      We all took a swig of the water as if it were bourbon in a shot glass, throwing it back like it would stop this nightmare.

      “C’mon, honey,” I said to Vivi. “I’ll be right there next to you.”

      “Okay,” she said. “Let’s get this over with.”

      She grabbed my hand and pushed her red mass of curls from her eyes. I could see Vivi breaking, tears coming quickly now. I squeezed her hand and helped her up.

      “It’s okay, honey,” I said. “We all know you did nothing wrong. You are going to be fine. Besides, you’ve got the two best attorneys in the state.”

      And I was sure hoping I was right.

      2

      “Vivi and I will go in my car,” I said.

      “Okay,” Harry agreed. “I’ll take mine in case I have to leave.” We heard the sirens of the police and emergency vehicles racing ahead of us as we walked to the parking lot behind the station.

      The warmth of the late-spring sun hit my face in the street. God, I so loved this time of year. With the magnolias in full blossom, the smell of the coming Southern summer was overwhelming and transporting. A sweet, pungent aroma lingered in the breeze, reminding me that summer and good watermelon were just around the river bend.

      As though a time portal were drawing me in, I was suddenly eight years old and on my grandmother’s screened front porch. I could smell her roses and honeysuckle and the huge magnolia trees in the front yard. I watched the bees on her camellias. I loved Mother’s, every corner of it. I took in a deep whiff and pulled in as much of the fragrance as I could, held my best friend’s hand and put her into the Navigator.

      As I walked around to get into the driver’s seat, I felt so protective of Vivi. People could call her a lot of things, but they certainly could never call her a murderer.

      As I slid onto the warm leather seat and put my key into the ignition, Vivi looked over at me with her wet green eyes full of insecurity. “Am I goin’ to jail, Blake?”

      I answered her without hesitation. “Not on my life, sweetie. Not on my life.”

      “Blake,” she said. “Thank you.”

      “For what, honey?”

      “For always being my Swiss Army knife.”

      I smiled at her. I knew what she meant. I also knew how much she was counting on me to get her out of any mess that lay just on the other side of the river.

      Vivi would be a person of interest simply because she was the last person to see Lewis alive. She wasn’t guilty of a thing. They were just screwing, for God’s sake. But Vivi is a reactionary. She will think the absolute worst and in the most dramatic way possible. It’s just part of being Vivi. Regardless, I was bound and determined to make sure she would never be charged with anything.

      Vivi broke the conversation in my head. “I’m a nervous wreck, Blake.”

      “Why, honey?”