“Hey, what’s going on?” Rhett pulled up short, frowning between them.
Pepper made a “quiet” motion. “You’ve met Cedric Swift. He was just telling me—”
“No, but I’ve seen him around a few times. Talking to you.” There was definite tension to his voice.
She gave him a look. “I did not fly back here like the west wind was at my back to find you only to have you getting all weirdly jealous about the fact I’m talking to this guy.”
“This guy?” Cedric pointed at himself. “What’s wrong with this guy?”
“Nothing.” Pepper gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. “You’re perfectly nice. And brave. And knows who kidnapped the Davy Jones statue.” She stressed the last part of the statement for Rhett’s benefit.
“Who did?” Lou Ellen drew close, emerging from the shadows with Snapper and their four daughters in tow.
“It was that chap with the strange name. Not Kevin Bacon.” Cedric laughed to himself. “Although that movieFootloose, ah, what a classic.”
“Cedric,” Pepper snapped, clapping her hands in his face. “Focus.”
Cedric startled. “Hogg. Yes, the judge with the swine-like surname.”
“Can you be certain?” Rhett growled.
The historian gave a one-shouldered shrug. “As certain as anyone can be who sees a man in the dark. He clocked himself jolly well hard in the face, so if he’s the man I think he is, you should see him sporting a sizeable forehead egg.”
Lou Ellen gasped. “ItwasHogg. Today at Sweet Brew, Maryann Munro mentioned that the judge had taken up boxing. I thought it was strange, but she said he’d come into work with a black eye and a mood worse than usual.”
Rhett cracked a knuckle. “I saw his car by the courthouse when Beau parked. Let’s go have ourselves a conversation.”
Folks streamed out of the auction, catching wind of what had happened. Rhett, Pepper, Lou Ellen, the General, and Cedric found themselves flanked by a large and increasingly agitated mob.
“We need to calm everyone down,” Pepper muttered out of the side of her mouth.
“Good idea,” Cedric suggested. “What do you suggest?”
“Sing ‘Kumbaya’?” Pepper was kidding. At least half kidding.
“Stick by me in case the action gets out of hand.” Rhett beckoned her closer.
Lady Justice watched their approach. God, she gave good RBF. Her stone face watched the crowd with a calm impassiveness, as if she knew righteousness would win the day, and that would be enough.
Sure enough, the judge’s apple-red Cadillac was parked in his designated parking spot.
“I almost feel bad for him,” Lou Ellen piped up chirpily. “If I wasn’t so pleased that rat bag was finally getting his due.”
“I don’t.” Maryann jogged up. “This man has had it coming for years. Do you know how many times he’s made me cry, in the little girls’ room? The lord works in mysterious ways.”
They filed into the courthouse’s marble rotunda. Pepper hadn’t set foot in the courthouse since her unlucky first day. She glanced up at the rotunda as the crowd hustled toward the staircase. It was as if she could see herself in her pencil skirt and poofy hair that fated first day when she was chasing a dream that she’d carried for so long.
A false dream that would never lead where she wanted to be.
Rhett turned to her, an apology in his eyes and something else. Something she hoped she wasn’t hallucinating through heartsick longing. “After this dies down, we need to talk.”
She nodded in assent. “Soon.”
He gave her hand a squeeze. They were at the door with the frosted glass.
“Easy now.” Rhett held up a hand. “I’ll go in alone.”
“Not so fast. I’m coming, too,” Pepper announced.
