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“Good heavens, no,” Anemone said.
I closed my eyes. “You want George in as president.”
“Well, he’d be wonderful in the position.”
“He’s police chief and he already hates being on the council,” I said. “Why are you torturing him?”
“If he was running the council, he could change things. Then he wouldn’t hate it anymore,” Anemone said, and I could see George’s future now: police chief, president of the town council, and in November, she’d make sure he defeated that jackass O’Toole for mayor. I wasn’t sure he could actually legally be all those things, but I was sure Anemone would get them for him. So, I finished my eggs and turned to the other person I had questions for: Molly.
“How did Cash get his hands on the factory?” I pushed my empty plate away. “What is he going to do with it?”
Marianne came out of the kitchen and dropped a loaded plate in front of Molly.
“Thank you, Marianne,” Molly said, looking at the largesse spread out in front of her. “I love you, Marianne.” She picked up her fork and pointed it at me. “I’m going to tell you something, but you will not freak out, do you understand?”
“What?”
Molly sighed and cut into her eggs. “Cash is turning part of the factory into a Burney museum.”
“Why would I freak out over that?”
Before she could answer, Peri’s grandmother, Faye Blue, swept into the room in a low-cut black lace negligee and peignoir and plopped herself down between Molly and me.
“Would it kill you to get dressed before you come downstairs, Elvira?” I said to her. “We’re eating here. We do not need your boobs with breakfast.”
“I see the riffraff has arrived.” Faye turned to the head of the table. “Anemone, you are simply going to have to talk to Marianne.”
“I talk to Marianne every day,” Anemone said. “Liz is right, nobody should have to look at black lace breasts at breakfast.”
“Marianne put a lock on the refrigerator,” Faye went on, ignoring the black lace bit.
“Yes, that was to keep you out.” Anemone was frowning, probably because Faye was speaking, but then she cut into Marianne’s eggs and tasted them, and her face smoothed out.
“She locked me out of my refrigerator,” Faye said. “Fire her.”
“Myrefrigerator,” Anemone said, still smiling at her eggs. “If you don’t like it, leave.”
“This is my house—”
“It was never your house,” I told her, tired of her whine. “You were living here with Peri’s dad’s permission, and when it became Peri’s house, Anemone rented it from her mother, who then sold it to her when your brother tried to burn it down, so right now you are squatting and being a real bitch about it, and I’m betting your ass will be out at the end of the driveway by the end of the week.” I looked down the table to Anemone. “Although what’s with a lock on the fridge? What did she do?”
“She kept going through the food in the middle of the night so that Marianne didn’t have what she wanted to cook with the next day,” Anemone said. “The woman is a raccoon. I told Marianne to put the lock on.”
“Grandma ate my ice cream, too,” Peri said.
“Well, you’re going to hell,” I told Faye. “Stealing from your own granddaughter.”
“It’s okay,” Peri said, trying for noble while she chewed her bacon.
“Really?” I said.
“No,” Peri said. “She’s going to hell.”
“Periwinkle!” her mother said from the doorway, and Peri sighed as her mother came into the room, looking a little rocky still but better than she had before rehab. And she was going to continue to look better because Anemone took being a sober companion very seriously.
“It’s my fault, Margot,” I told her as she sat down between me and Peri. “I’m leading your kid astray. That’s what you get for leaving her with me for a month.”
“I should be with Liz a lot,” Peri said to her mom. “I learn things.”
