Five belles too many, p.17
Five Belles Too Many, page 17
“Time,” Flynn called. “Hands down.”
As a cameraman zeroed in on the finished arrangements and the competitors, Sarah looked at Veronica and Heather’s table. They had indeed used their roses to reflect Alabama’s colors. The roses stood at different heights in a red ceramic vase shaped like an elephant, which was Alabama’s mascot. A white ribbon circling the elephant’s neck was tied in a bow. The ribbon’s exposed ends had been cut on a slant and notched. The final arrangement was a simple, but striking, table arrangement.
Contrasting her mother’s arrangement against Barbie and Starr’s disaster, it struck Sarah that when the viewers evaluated the three arrangements side by side, it was more probable Starr, rather than Maybelle, would be voted off the show. From the way Barbie’s mouth dropped and her gaze vacillated from the flowers in front of her to Flynn and then to Sam, Sarah realized Barbie must be sharing the same thought.
In the end, it would be up to the public, but if Sarah was, as Cliff mentioned, a betting person, she didn’t know which would make her more nervous—knowing the Alabama-Auburn even-money bet was no longer safe or wondering what the impact of the dark horse coming up from behind would be on the line.
CHAPTER 23
Once the grooms-to-be joined the Belles to prepare to deliver the flower arrangements, the chaperones were dismissed. Barbie hovered near Starr and Lance, but Heather and Sarah silently walked out of the building together. Sarah realized this might be the only time she’d have one-on-one time with Heather, but she wasn’t sure how to ask her about her relationship with Alan. As she tried to think how to pose her question, Sarah turned toward the parking lot. But Heather started to go the opposite way, as if she was walking back to Jane’s Place.
“Heather, do you need a ride?”
“That would be lovely. I thought, like they made sure all the contestants got to the retirement home, they’d have a way for us to get back to Jane’s Place. Rather than bring multiple cars, I let Trey, who came over early for breakfast, drop Veronica and me off this morning.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t make provision for the chaperones. Once they do the photo opportunity drop-off, I wonder if they’re going to take my mother back to Jane’s Place or leave her at the retirement center?”
“Would you like me to call Trey and have him make sure she gets back to Jane’s Place if that’s where she wants to go?”
“That would be great.”
As they walked to Sarah’s parked Honda, Heather called Trey. Getting into the front seat, Heather told her it was all set. “He was planning on going back to Jane’s Place anyway. He figured grazing at the craft table would give him a free lunch.”
“He’s a growing boy,” Sarah said.
“Only if it stays as muscle. I’m afraid he’s going to have to cut back on his eating now that his football days are over.”
“What does he plan to do now?”
“Finish school and then work. He’s getting a communications degree and hopes to find a broadcasting-related job.”
“He hasn’t finished school?”
“No. When he was playing for the college, he wasn’t taking a full load. After his eligibility ran out, he sat on the bench in Canada for a year before wising up that professional football wasn’t going to be the ticket to what he really wants.”
“What’s that?”
“Marriage, children, and a stable home life. Trey didn’t grow up with much of anything, so he’s thankful football made it possible for him to attend college. He’s practical enough to realize that it’s time to come home, finish his degree, and move on. Trey is only a few courses short of graduating.”
“And Veronica?”
“She wants the same things he does. Since they met in high school, she’s supported his dreams. She even gave up cheerleading scholarship opportunities to follow him to the college of his choice and moved to Canada when American teams wouldn’t take him. She’s ready to settle down too. If things work out, Trey and she will both graduate a year from May.”
“She’s a year behind Starr.”
“In school now, yes, but all the way through high school they were in the same grade.”
“Someone mentioned Veronica, Starr, Trey, and Lance went to high school together, but I guess it slipped my mind.”
“Veronica is only a few months older than Starr. Veronica was a cheerleader while Starr did the beauty pageant circuit, but they’re friends and at one time they thought they’d both end up the wives of professional football players. That is, until the car accident.” Heather clamped her teeth together and was silent.
Sarah turned on the ignition. As she slowly pulled out of her parking space, she decided to try a different tactic, for Jane’s sake, before they reached Jane’s Place.
“When I met Alan at dinner the other night, he made me feel uncomfortable. Later, you mentioned he wasn’t a particularly nice person. I was wondering why you felt that way.”
“I shouldn’t have said that. It’s not nice to speak ill of the dead.” Heather looked out the window as Sarah stopped for a red light.
Now that Heather was being guarded, Sarah realized she didn’t have much time to break down the barrier Heather was putting up. “Well, even though I wasn’t there with the rest of the chaperones, I found the clip he showed disturbing. I thought you defused the situation well. Similarly, even though you were as shocked as the rest of us, it was pretty impressive how you locked eyes and calmed Jane down.”
“Thank you, but it was only a matter of letting my training take over in both situations.”
The light turned green and Sarah turned onto Main Street. “Your training?”
“This week I’m a chaperone. Most weeks, I’m a psychologist specializing in family conflicts.” She crossed her arms over her seat belt. “Why are you suddenly curious about what I thought of Alan?”
Sarah decided honesty might get her further with a psychologist than dodging the issue. She was about to park in front of Jane’s Place when she saw Jane sweeping leaves off the walkway. Sarah drove past Jane, opting for the driveway to the back parking lot. She stopped in a spot near the kitchen door, leaving the motor running, sensing this wasn’t going to be a long conversation.
“Look, for a lot of personal reasons, I don’t much like Jane, but I don’t think she’s a killer. I’m trying to get a handle on what other people knew or thought about Alan.”
“Personal reasons. That’s what I hear every day. There’s not much to add to my story that you didn’t hear in the snide hits Barbie and I took at each other on the tape. I’m sure you gathered that Barbie and I go way back. Way back is high school for us too. I was the head cheerleader, she was the dance team captain and involved in the pageant circuit. At one point we both dated a guy named Jake.”
“The one you called Jake the Snake?”
“That’s the one. He was that playboy every girl in the class wants to go out with. Handsome, witty, the owner of a convertible, and a year ahead of us in school. We dated during the summer of my junior year and into football season of my senior year. At that point, if you ask Barbie, she’ll tell you she moved in on my territory and I sat around pining for him to come back to me. The fact of the matter was that Jake and my relationship already had run its course; he was back to dating around, but as Jake did with all of his girlfriends, we stayed friends.”
Friends? This story was beginning to hit home a little too closely.
“Jake started college during the summer session after our graduation. Alan was his roommate that summer and throughout college. It was during a night of gambling and drinking, after Jake threw snake eyes twice in a row at a craps table, that Alan dubbed him Jake the Snake. It stuck at the frat and became what everyone called him from then on.”
“You all ended up at college together?”
“No. I went to a small private school. It was the summer before I left for school when I met Alan at a frat party in Tuscaloosa that Barbie and I went to together. Alan took an interest in me, but he had too much to drink and got out line. Before anything happened, other than my blouse being torn, Jake came to my rescue. He got some other guys to take care of Alan and he was calming me down when Barbie came into the room. She misread the situation, blew up, and to this day doesn’t believe that what she saw was perfectly innocent between Jake and me. She thought then, and still does today, that instead of the problem being Alan, Jake and I had picked up where we left off.”
Having seen Barbie in action, Sarah could imagine what a firebrand a younger Barbie probably was. She also could believe that once Barbie got an idea in her head, it couldn’t be changed.
“My friendship with Barbie ended that night. I went on to my college, met a great guy, married, and had Veronica. Instead of starting school, Barbie put her energy into the pageantry circuit. She married Jake a week or so after things blew up for her at the Miss Alabama pageant. They divorced when Starr was a baby. Jake moved to New York and is still a high roller. To my knowledge, Jake’s always been a caring, although absent, dad, especially in the past few years.”
Keeping her hands on the wheel, Sarah glanced sideways at Heather. “I gather you know that because Jake and you maintained your friendship?”
Heather laughed. “No, over the years, because of the friendship between Starr and Veronica, what I learned was from things Veronica told me. Although Jake and I parted on good terms, I hadn’t seen him in years, until Saturday afternoon. I was getting us settled into Jane’s Place, while Veronica, Trey, Starr, and Lance were off doing something fun, when I ran into Jake in the front hall. He’d been in Birmingham for business and had popped over to surprise Starr before he met Alan, Sam, and Flynn for dinner. Because Starr wasn’t there, we talked for a few minutes. That’s when I learned he was responsible for Veronica and Starr both being Southern Belle finalists.”
“In what way?”
“When Alan started casting for this show, he was the one who initiated the contact with Veronica and Trey, supposedly after becoming aware of them through an alumni contact. Obviously, he already knew about Starr from Jake.”
“Are you saying Alan deliberately cast the two of them against each other like he did with Jane’s Place and Southwind?”
“Exactly. Jake confirmed it during the few minutes we talked on Saturday. He boasted he was the one who suggested to Alan that our daughters and their boyfriends would be perfect for his show. Not only were they all good-looking, but their existing friendships, Alabama-Auburn rivalry, and the tension between Barbie and me would make for great reality TV.”
“Was he involved in the casting?”
“Not really. Alan and Jake kept in touch all the time. Apparently, during one of their calls, Alan mentioned he was going to be working on a Southern wedding segment. Jake, who’s always liked offering a good joke with a twist, told me he was kidding when he made his suggestion, but Alan was savvy enough to jump on the idea.”
“Neither Starr nor Veronica knew they were going to be competing against each other?”
“Oh, they did. Barbie and I may not get along, but our daughters are friends, despite us, as are their boyfriends. In talking, they realized they both were potential finalists. For different reasons, both couples thought it would be fun to do the show.”
And possibly both mothers did too.
“I don’t understand why, once you knew Alan was involved and what he apparently was doing, why you let Veronica compete, especially with Barbie and you having, shall we say, a hostile relationship?”
Heather met Sarah’s gaze. “Being part of this competition isn’t my choice. I don’t know what he told Starr, but Alan played up the idea to Veronica and then to Trey too, that being contestants would give Trey the opportunity for exposure that he might be able to translate into a media job or they might catch the network’s eye and be offered their own reality show. He didn’t promise them they’d win, but Alan assured them they’d have the potential to be breakout stars.”
“You didn’t stop them?”
“I’m a counselor. Making them question their actions and think them through, I can do, but I can’t make their final decisions. In this case, I came along as Veronica’s chaperone because that’s what a mother does. Plus, I thought she might need some protection from Barbie and Alan.”
Heather got out of the car. Rather than close the door, she leaned slightly back in. “Alan was a conniver. We had our run-ins, but sorry, none of us killed him. Remember, Veronica, Trey, and I have the perfect alibi.” She slammed the door.
Sarah sat in the car thinking about Alan and Jake. If Jake had helped get his daughter and her friend on the show, which seemed like another example of rigging things behind the scenes, could he also have been involved somehow in gambling on the show’s outcome? If he was, as Heather put it, a high roller, she doubted he was betting with Chef Bernardi. With Alan? Or simply running his own line on the side?
She pulled out her cell phone and started Googling Jake Babbitt and Alan Perrault. After scanning articles about Jake making political and charitable donations or discussing him in broad strokes, she hit the mother lode. She found one article talking about him being a sports handicapper and another, from a few years ago, alleging Jake had been cleared from allegations relating to an offshore gambling scheme. As Sarah started to look for more articles, her cell phone rang.
For a moment, all she could think of was “What’s next?” When she saw Cliff’s name come up on screen, she truly was confused. Good or bad? He hadn’t called her in months.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Sarah. Cliff here.”
“I see that.” That was dumb, she thought, but he didn’t laugh or pick up on her comment. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, I thought it might be what I could do for you. Now that you’re finished with the floral arranging competition—”
“How did you know that?” Either she was more tired than she thought, or she was getting a bit paranoid.
“Because I just dropped Uncle George off at the florist.”
If her head wasn’t already hurting, she’d have hit it for her own stupidity. Nothing sinister here. “Oh.”
“Anyway, as I was saying, now that the competition is out of your way, would you like to take that last boat ride tonight after work?”
“That sounds wonderful, but wait a minute.” She reached into her purse and pulled out the day’s call sheet. Chaperones were listed as being part of the floral arranging competition, but they weren’t on the call list as being required to be at dinner. In fact, they weren’t listed on the call sheet at all between the morning’s competition and Jane’s Place bedtime duties. “I’d love to.”
“Perfect. Why don’t you go home and take care of RahRah and Fluffy when you get off work, and I’ll pick you up at the carriage house around six?”
“I can drive out to the bluff.”
“No need. I’ll be in town all day. It’s just as easy for me to swing by and get you.”
“But then you’ll have to bring me home.”
“Not a problem.”
Considering how often she’d driven the road back and forth from the bluff, something was up. “Cliff, what’s going on?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. She could picture him standing in the middle of a jobsite running his hand through his already tousled hair. Sarah waited. She wasn’t going to let him off the hook. Although she couldn’t see him, she envisioned him shifting his weight and slightly shuffling his feet when he finally confessed.
“When I dropped my uncle off, your mom came out and told me about the craziness of last night and how little sleep you got. I figured if your evening was free, you could use bluff time, but I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to drive home if we share some wine. I’m not trying to control you or anything like that.”
At some other time, Sarah probably would have been irked Cliff was manipulating what she could and couldn’t do behind her back, but this time it didn’t bother her. Her friend’s kindness at offering her the bluff and making sure she was safe was sweet. “No offense taken. I’d love to take you up on your offer. What can I bring?”
“Nothing. I have wine, cheese, and I’ll either grill steaks I have here or pick up sushi or something we both like before I get you. With the week I think you’ve been having, you need a break. And knowing how you find being in the kitchen more frightening than murder, I don’t want to complicate your life any more than it already is.”
CHAPTER 24
Her headache, which had come and gone all day, eased completely after a few bites of the eggplant parmesan Cliff had picked up from Little Italy. Because he remembered it was one of her favorite dishes, she bet he also had picked up tiramisu for dessert.
Sitting back in the wooden chair on Cliff’s front porch, she stared out over the bluff at the calm water. The work he’d done on his cabin, from its unobstructed placement to the intricate wood pieces he’d made to furnish it, all added to her sense of peace when she visited.
Cliff refilled her wineglass, put the bottle on the table between them, sat in the matching chair, and pulled the tab back on a can of Coca-Cola. “How did the floral competition go today?”
“You won’t believe this, but I think there’s a very good chance my mother and your uncle may be one of the two finalists.” In between more bites, she told Cliff about the floral arranging and how Maybelle knew exactly what do, but Barbie and Starr couldn’t get it together. “Anyway, it’s crazy. They entered on a lark, but I think Maybelle and George have a fifty-fifty chance of winning the wedding of their dreams.”
“That would be wild,” Cliff agreed. He took a bite from the Italian hoagie he’d ordered for himself. “I wonder how they’re feeling tonight.”
“What do you mean?” While she drained her wineglass, she watched him sip his. That was something she respected about Cliff. His rule was not to drink if he was going to be driving a boat.
