Wedding Belles

“Hey, Wanda Jo. I’m here,” I said to our secretary as I entered.

Harry and I own our little practice together. I had always dreamed of having a husband who could be my partner on every level. Harry was that, and more, when we first opened our office. Now, years later, we barely qualified as reluctant roommates who occasionally inhabited the same space.

“Y’all talk to the mystic this mornin’?” Wanda Jo asked as she brought in my Diet Coke.

“The psychic? Yes, and Vivi is beside herself.” I took a swig of my ice-cold drink.

“Oh, no, what did Myra Jean say? Is it bad news?” Wanda Jo stopped in front of my desk and looked at me.

“She said when it comes to Vivi’s marriage, there is another woman involved.”

“Oh, my Lord have mercy.” Wanda Jo sighed and sat herself down in one of my consultation chairs. “You know, I hate to say it, but Lewis was wild in his younger days. He’s changed, though, I thought, and he loves that Vivi so much.”

“I know. I told Vivi maybe she was having a girl and that was what Myra Jean meant.”

“Did she buy it?”

“Of course not. And guess what? We just went to the courthouse to get their wedding license and it turns out that Lewis is still married!”

Wanda Jo jumped from the chair. “Oh, my God, what do you mean still? That boy ain’t never been married far as I know.”

“Well, yeah, as far as he knew, too—until he remembered a college prank where he married a stripper as part of a joke.”

“Oh, Blake, that poor Vivi. What are y’all gonna do now?”

“Well, I’m gonna pay her a little visit as soon as I can.”

“Vivi is so lucky to have you.” Wanda Jo smiled at me.

“We’ll get this fixed and then we’re gonna have us a wedding to beat all weddings,” I said, smiling back at her, hoping I was right.

“Okay, then. I’ll let you know when the Aarons get here, and then I’m gonna put on the police scanner and listen for news of any new dead bodies.”

I looked at her in confusion. “Dead bodies?”

“Well,” Wanda Jo said with a smirk, “if Lewis can’t get this marriage annulled, it really might be him this time.”

5

Wayne and Wynona Aaron arrived right on time. Wanda Jo got everyone drinks and we headed into the conference room. The Aarons’ third sibling, Walter, had been killed in a barge accident two months ago and his body parts had washed up on the banks of the Black Warrior River. My cop, Sonny, always believed Walter was helped off that barge, but the barge company was trying to say he jumped. Sonny and his assistant homicide investigator, Bonita, were on the case like CSI, looking for clues about Walter’s death on the sequestered boat.

“Hey, y’all, so glad you could make it in today,” I said to them as I took my seat at the table across from them.

The older brother, Wayne Aaron, was a skinny man of average height with dark hair. His face was sad and earnest. “Thanks so much for taking our case, Ms. Heart. We tried to fight this on our own, but we got nowhere fast.”

The sister, Wynona, was the middle of the three children. She was quiet and rounder than her brothers. “We’re simple people. Not used to all this fuss, and we only want this settled as quickly as possible.”

I was trying to make sure I did just that, but I had a feeling this case was about to get really messy. “It’s not going to be easy. The barge company will not admit to any negligence, and since Walter had a perfect safety record, it’s become a battle to prove what happened. The insurance company will not pay out in cases of suicide.”

“Ms. Heart,” Wynona said, “there is no way my brother would ever take his own life. Even though we were somewhat estranged, we knew he was the happiest he has ever been. He was in love and talking about getting married.”

And there it was. The detail that could be the end of the Aarons’ case. “Do you know if he ever did get married?”

“Not that we know of. Why?”

“Because, if Walter did marry, and he changed his will, then the bride might be his new beneficiary. If he died before they officially tied the knot, then you two would inherit.”

“Oh, I don’t like the sound of this,” Wynona said. “People might get the wrong idea.”

“That’s true,” I agreed. “The fact that your parents are dead and your uncle recently left Walter a huge inheritance already has the insurance company questioning suicide for his cause of death, though that’s still their preference. The possibility that Walter was pushed is being investigated by the police now. This new information about Walter maybe having a wife will give the insurance company even more reason to stall.”

“They can’t think we were involved,” Wayne protested. “We’ve already been cleared for the night of Walter’s death. Sure, things got a bit complicated between us since our uncle left the money to Walter, but, as we told the police, we haven’t been in touch with him, except by phone, for several months before he died.”

The open-and-shut inheritance case I had envisioned with the Aarons was quickly disappearing into the horizon. “We need to find out about this woman Walter might have married. See if there are pictures. A name. Something we can check into to clarify the situation.”

Wayne sighed. “I don’t remember him saying much about her other than he had only known her a couple of months. If he did marry that girl, it would have been the spur-of-the-moment. A real whirlwind thing.”

“Well, even so, there’s got to be a record somewhere.”

“We haven’t really gone through Walter’s effects,” Wynona chimed in. “Just kind of packed ’em up and shoved ’em in a storeroom. The thought of looking through all that stuff was too upsetting. There might be something in there, though.”

I perked up. “Well, that’s a great place to start. Go and see what you can find.”

“He sounded so in love,” Wynona added wistfully. “Why would his wife want to kill him if they just got married?”

“Money can motivate people to do desperate things,” I said. “Then again, we have absolutely no proof that she’s had anything to do with Walter’s death at all. Do either of you know if Walter had any enemies on the boat?”

“No,” Wayne said, getting upset. “Everyone loved him at work. He had been working that barge for over ten years. Walter did not jump, but I refuse to believe anyone killed him. I swear that barge company overlooked a safety measure and now they just don’t wanna pay. They are looking for every excuse under the sun to get outta settlin’ his insurance policy.”

“I hope you’re right, Wayne, but regardless, we still have a possible new beneficiary floating around out there. That issue has to be resolved,” I said. “For our next meeting, I will need any insurance papers you can find. Information on his death benefits and all the policies he had with the barge company or anyone else. Whatever you can’t find among his personal effects, I will subpoena. We will get to the bottom of this, I promise.”

I stood up and reached out to shake their hands.

“Thank you so much, Ms. Heart,” Wynona said as she shook my hand. “We couldn’t fight those folks on our own anymore, and things look like they’re getting a lot more complicated.”

I agreed. “Let’s meet in a few days. Call me when you have gathered your brother’s paperwork and we will set up a time. Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can find out anything from the police. I have some pretty good connections down there at the station, and they will assuredly want to talk to you about this mysterious woman.”

I walked the Aarons out to the front lobby and said goodbye. I told Wanda Jo I had to get down to the river.

I was sure hoping Sonny didn’t have another body part to show me. I was still recovering from the last one.

6

I made my way down to the dock, perspiration rolling down my chest. Women in the Deep South don’t sweat. We perspire. But let me tell you, we perspire a lot. One hundred and two degrees, with one hundred percent humidity—that’s the Deep South in August.

The cement walkway stopped just short of the barge, leading me onto a rocky path bathed in red dirt. Sonny and Bonita were hunkered down on the deck of the tugboat that was pushing the barge.

“Hey, Blake, glad you could get here. I heard you have some information regarding the Aaron case,” said Bonita, the gorgeous, plus-sized, African-American spitfire Sonny hired last spring. She had a degree in Criminal Justice from Tuskegee Institute where her parents were both professors. She was smart and highly opinionated and I knew from the start I liked her style.