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“Do you know what you want off the menu?”Mimi asked.
“Could you give us a minute?”
“Sure,” Mimi smiled.“While you’re waiting, would you like coffee or tea?”
“Tea, please,” both ladies answered at the same time.
Mimi left to fetch their drinks.
Lucas leaned over the table toward Felina.“Are you doing the flowers for these two ladies?”
Felina nodded, lifted a finger to her lips and whispered, “The one in peach is Lola Dupuy of Magnolia Blossom Estate.The other is Martha Gentry of Harmony Grove Plantation.All are on the Colonial Day tour map.And, yes, I’ve got all their places.If anyone knows anything, it would be these ladies.Their sources are deeply entrenched in the community.”
Lucas nodded his understanding of what Felina was saying without saying it.Now would be a good time to shut up and listen.
Mimi returned with a tray containing two teacups, a teapot full of hot water, a small creamer and a container filled with packets of sugar and sweetener alternatives.She laid the items on the table along with an assortment of tea bags.“Colonial Day is just around the corner.I love seeing the old places turned out like they were when they were originally built.I’m sure it takes some planning.Are you two ready?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be.”
“Could I get the club sandwich without bacon?”Martha said.
Mimi nodded.“Do you want potato chips or fries?”
“Neither.”Martha smiled.“Just the sandwich.”
“I’ll have the French onion soup,” Lola handed the menu to Mimi.
“Colonial Day is exhausting and gets a little more competitive each year,” Martha Gentry said, continuing the conversation as if it hadn’t been interrupted.“I’ll never understand why there’s such a big deal.”
“Because we have the four finest historic homes in the parish, and the most beautiful one gets a full-page spread in the Southern Homes magazine.”Lola shook her head.“Personally, I could care less about the magazine article.No one buys magazines anymore.It’s all silly how many hoops we jump through each year just for one day.You don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to sell the place, find an apartment in New York City and never again set foot inside the smelly, sweaty, bug and alligator-infested state of Louisiana.”
“Now, you’re sounding like Brenda,” Martha said.“Which blows my mind.I thought for sure she’d sell as soon as Thomas passed.”
Lola nodded.“I thought the same.Lord knows she’s had enough investors knocking on her door.And it would serve the bastard right if she sold it.She stuck with him all these years when she should’ve divorced him a long time ago.She had to know he was cheating on her for practically her entire marriage.”
Martha wrinkled her nose.“His business meetings in Baton Rouge were convenient.”She lifted the teapot and poured steaming water into her cup and then Lola’s.“My son, Ryan, the one who lives in Baton Rouge, swears he saw Thomas at Fleming’s one night, several years ago.And he wasn’t alone.He had a woman with him who wasn’t Brenda.The maître d' seated them in one of the secluded tables at the back of the restaurant.”
Lola dropped a teabag into her cup of hot water.“There was a time, perhaps a decade ago, he made a pass at me.”She patted her short, silvery hair.“He’d had a little too much whiskey at the country club.I shut him down immediately.Brenda herded him out and drove him home.”
“I wouldn’t blame her if she was the one who killed him,” Martha said.
“Me either.”Lola dipped a teabag into her cup and then set it to the side on the saucer.“But I can’t see her stabbing him.Too messy.Poison?Now, that would be more her style.”
Martha nodded.“She won’t even putter in her own gardens because she doesn’t like to get her hands dirty or destroy her manicure.Still, she was lucky that her gardener could vouch for her whereabouts.The police always look to the people closest to the victim, and Brenda had plenty of motive.”
“I can’t believe it’s been six months,” Lola lifted her teacup, “and they still don’t have a suspect.”
Martha tore open a packet of sweetener and poured it into her cup.“You’d think that with all the people around him at that parade, someone would’ve seen it happen.”
Someone had, Lucas thought.And had withheld evidence.Why?
Lola poured cream into her tea.“Now, Brenda has that big old house to deal with.It was Thomas’s pride and joy.Not hers.She’s probably waiting for the best offer.”
Martha frowned.“Then why, for heaven’s sake, did she enter it in the Colonial Day tour this year?”
“To spite Missy?”Lola suggested.“You know how much Missy wants that spread in the magazine.She’s gotten it almost every year since God knows when.I thought about jazzing up Magnolia Blossom just once to get her goat.”Lola’s smile twisted.“Then I thought of all the money I’d waste just to prove what?”She shrugged.“Not much.I spent the money on a trip to the French Riviera.It was much more satisfying than playing games with the locals.”
Martha chuckled.“I’m with you.”
