“Don’t be a misogynist,” Vivienne chided.
“It’s a van, not a commercial jet,” Taylor said, sounding amused. “Harper, do your thing. I have full faith in you.”
What Taylor was full of was Bourbon. He was already loaded. So far, he was a happy drunk so I was just going to hope that lasted.
“Thank you, Taylor.”
I pulled away from the curb, feeling a bit like Sandra Bullock in the movie Speed, Garden District-bound.
Until exactly ten seconds and ten feet later I slammed on the brakes. Everyone in the van hurtled forward with various expressions of shock and dismay.
“Sorry,” I said, glaring through the windshield at Hollis. He’d stepped right out into the street in front of me. I sent my window down and yelled out to him, “Just because your day was slow doesn’t mean you need to terrorize me.”
He rolled his eyes and came around to my window.
“I could have killed you.”
“You were going five miles an hour.” Hollis took in my hair that I had taken pains to curl, my made up face, and diamond earrings. He leaned in the open window to glance down at my dress. “You’re driving in a cocktail dress?”
“This is a gown, not a cocktail dress. And yes. I have an outfit for everything. You should see what I scrub toilets in.”
His eyes narrowed. I had the sudden thought that Hollis Broussard might be picturing me cleaning less than fully dressed, which flustered me.
“Sorry I asked,” he murmured.
That flustered me even more. Did he not want to picture me in nothing but a pair of pearls? That seemed far worse than him being happy about it.
My brain momentarily stopped functioning.
Hollis and I were friends and neighbors and he helped me whenever someone died in my house, but there was always this tension underlying everything between us…
“Let’s get this bus rolling!” Taylor called from the backseat.
That started me out of pointless thoughts.
“I forgot to bring my flask and there’s an open bar with my name on it,” Taylor added.
“Step aside, Detective,” I told Hollis. “You heard Mr. McIntosh.”
Hollis shook his head. “They heard Mr. McIntosh in Chalmette.”
Since Chalmette was a twenty minute drive away I took that to mean he thought Taylor was overly exuberant. Which he was.
But he had good reason to be. “We’re late, Hollis. Have a good night!”
I pulled away with a wave and looked both ways to make sure no other homicide detectives were going to jump out at me without warning.
Fortunately, none of my guests seemed concerned. They were all casually chatting in the van behind me.
It didn’t take long for the conversation in the back to drift toward Evelyn Carrington.
“I’ll say this for the Evelyn woman,” Taylor said, leaning forward between the two buckets seats Vivienne and Allison were in. “She knows how to throw a party. Say what you want about her personally.”
“And clearly you have things you want to say,” Allison said, not looking up from her phone.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You implied it very loudly.”
