Mellie blinked. "Okay."
Dallas took her hand and they stood. "Tess, I have your computer ready to go. The equipment next to it is just running some diagnostics for a day or two, if that's okay?"
"So long as I don't wake up in the thirteenth century or on Mars," I told him, only partially joking.
"What?"
"Nothing. Yes, that's fine. Here, wait. Let me send some of this food home with you."
A true Southern woman also did not let a guest out the door without food to take home. I had Tupperware in every shape and size.
Aunt Ruby and I loaded them up with eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, and biscuits to take home, and we both gave Mellie a huge hug.
"I really can't thank you enough, Tess," she whispered.
"I'm just glad you're okay. And that Ann Feeney is going to be okay, despite her new obsession with catnip and laser pointers."
She giggled and took Dallas's hand, and then they and Shelley left. I walked back outside and started the job of bringing all the food inside—what was left of it; Jack and Uncle Mike had demolished the bacon, despite Aunt Ruby's dire warnings to my uncle about cholesterol—and everybody helped. We made quick work of the cleanup, with all hands on deck, and then we sat down around my kitchen table with mugs of coffee and tea and faced each other.
Silently.
"Okay, we'll go first," I finally said. I filled Aunt Ruby and Uncle Mike in on what had happened with Lorraine and the ledger.
Jack glanced at me when I stopped talking, short of saying anything about the shooter. "She's the mayor, Tess."
"So?"
"So, she'll read it on the report."
Uncle Mike leaned forward. "What report?"
I sighed. "Okay, it's not a big deal, but somebody took a potshot at us last night. Probably just hunters or something."
"At midnight?" Jack shook his head. "No. I understand you want to protect your family, but I have the feeling that too many people have tried to protect each other too many times, going all the way back to 1970. I talked to Beau, remember."
Aunt Ruby clasped her hands tightly on the table and looked down at them. Lorraine's expression drooped into guilt and sadness. Uncle Mike just looked determined.
Still, they said nothing.
Jack's eyes slowly widened. "Is it possible? None of you ever knew?"
"Knew what?" Uncle Mike said.
"That Beau lied about taking Earl to the bus stop. Beau actually found Earl's dead body at Lorraine and Earl's apartment that day and buried it in the swamp."
Aunt Ruby gasped. Uncle Mike looked like someone had smacked him in the face with a two-by-four. And Lorraine?
Lorraine fainted.
I jumped up and caught her before she could fall out of her chair, and Jack and I carried her into the guest room and put her on the bed.
"This is not good," I muttered. "How could he not tell her? All those years of worrying about when or if he might come back—for nothing. What kind of frienddoesthat?"
"The kind of friend who was covering up. He was sure she was the one who killed him," Jack said grimly. "He claims he found Earl's dead body when he went storming over there to rescue Lorraine from another beating. That was why he hired me when he first heard about a body being found in the swamp."
"Lorraine didn't shoot him," Aunt Ruby said from the hallway behind us. "We didn't even have a gun that day."
I whirled around. "What do you mean, that day? Somebody needs to talk, fast."
