Page 54 of Blink of an Eye
"Beau must have killed him," Emeril said, nodding wisely. "He was always sweet on Lorraine. Seeing Earl hurt her must have darn near tore him up."
"Yep," Emeril agreed. "And who would blame him?"
"I certainly wouldn't blame him, but he didn't do it," Jack said. "Can this Josie confirm your alibi?"
Emeril shrugged. "Sure. You can find her at Bingo tomorrow, probably. She was planning to bring some of her famous tomatoes if there are any left after the festival."
I felt like I'd fallen into the Twilight Zone. "Josie? Are you saying that you datedGrannyJosephine?"
He grinned at me so widely I could see his entire set of dentures. "Well, sure. But she wasn't anybody's granny back then. This was before either of us were married, of course. Not to tell tales, but—"
"No!" I held up a hand. "Stop. Back to Earl, please."
I did not ever, ever want to think about whatever Emeril Peterson had been about to say about Granny Josephine.
Josie.
Sheesh.
"We fired him because we caught him with his hand in the till, but we sure wouldn't kill somebody over that. It wasn't even enough to call the sheriff. We just wanted him gone."
"Anyway," Jack said with exaggerated patience. "Granny Josephine can vouch for your whereabouts, Emeril, and any number of people can vouch for yours, Harold?"
They both nodded, and I had to admit that their faces shone with sincerity. These were not the type of men given to deception and conspiracy. They even had a reputation for sending customers elsewhere if they could find better prices or products, like Santa inMiracle on 34thStreet,for Pete's sake.
"I think we're done here," Jack said.
I nodded. "I agree. But I still want that flower pot."
I picked out a lovely blue-and-white speckled ceramic pot, but they refused to take my money.
"No, honey, you go on and take that. You've had a hard week, with Vern and being shot at and all," Emeril said.
"Plus, you deserve it for the sheer entertainment value of seeing you roll down the street in that cabbage costume," Harold said, chuckling. "Sure wish I had a video of that."
"I saw one on the YouTube," Emeril said. "I'll send you the link, Tess."
"Wonderful," I muttered. Then I thanked them and took my flower pot and my tiger and left the store.
"Maybe I should have bought a hammer, in case the music box shows up again," Jack mused.
"Oh! I forgot to get it out of the truck after the accident."
He laughed. "It's not like it won't show up again. Unless it's playing songs about cars to Larry."
"So what now?"
"Now we catch a ride back to your place to drop off your flower pot and then head out to Nigel's again."
"That's a good plan," I said, pulling out my phone.
* * *
It turned out to not actually be a good plan.
I reached Uncle Mike to come give us a ride, but nobody answered the phone at Nigel's all afternoon. They were probably at the festival. So we just took a couple of hours out to relax. Jack wanted to watch an exorcist movie in honor of Frank Junior, but I said forget it, so we settled onShaun of the Deadand laughed our heads off.
After that, I fed Lou and freshened up and then we headed out to the festival in my car to see Molly and Scarlett's Letters play. The music was wonderful, of course, and so many of our family and friends were there, and we ate fair food from the final booths still open, and I even got my very own funnel cake.
