Chapter 34
“Sit, Bessie, Sit. Good cow.”
-Celia
The wind picked up as we headed toward The Square in Oxford, a stone’s throw from the University of Mississippi. Flint eased the SUV into an empty parking space. The wind blew leaves around the square into little dirt devils. Shoppers pulled their coats a little tighter around their shoulders and walked into the wind.
“A storm’s brewing,” Flint said under his breath.
Crack-A-Back Chiropractic was located right on The Square next to one of the largest independent bookstores in the country. It was the former workplace of Allyson Flannery. Echo’s only friend. And the chiropractor who gave Echo’s first husband an overdose of selenium.
It was close to lunchtime when we entered the lobby. The only living beings in the waiting room were the fish in the giant fish tank. The tank might have been soothing had it not been for the blaring television on the wall. Two commentators yelled at each other from the conservative news network. I had no idea why they were screaming. Nor did I care.
“Can I help you?”
I looked toward the admissions desk and into the faded blue eyes of a beautiful senior citizen. Silver shot through her wavy auburn hair in an Emmylou Harris kind of way.
“Hi, yes,” I moved toward the desk. “I’m Celia Saber and wanted to ask about Allyson Flannery.”
The woman sucked a sharp breath through her nose. “We don’t talk about that.”
I was about to tell her it might be vital to a murder investigation when her eyes caught the movement of Flint behind me. He was his usual broody self in here.
“You!” She pointed at Flint, then slammed the glass window over her desk shut.
I turned to Flint. “What the heck, Flint?”
“Uh, well…”
The woman interrupted us by rushing into the waiting room, sliding to Flint’s side, and punching him in the arm. My eyes widened in shock.
What in the zippety-do-dahis going on around here?
“Flint Mendota! I’m so happy to see you!” The woman motioned for Flint to bend down so she could kiss him on the cheek. “I never thought I’d see you return to these parts.”
Flint blushed. Blushed! Then he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Celia, this is Mrs. Dorsey. Hayden Dorsey.”
I shook her hand. “Any relation to the spitfire Quinn I met earlier today?”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s my son. He tends to blow things out of proportion. Especially things he’s got no idea about.”
Flint nodded but remained silent.
“I take it you two go way back,” I prompted.
“Oh, yes,” Hayden smiled. “Flint almost became my son-in-law.”
You could have knocked me over with a feather. “Say what now? When was this?”
“We don’t need to go gallivanting down Memory Lane,” Flint warned.
“Oh, I think we do,” I told Flint.
“Flint was engaged to my Celeste,” Hayden’s smile dimmed as she made the sign of the cross. “God rest her soul.”
Engaged. Flint had been engaged!
Hayden leaned in and curled her hand around my bicep. “It was an accident. But when the prettiest girl in school dies in a car accident, it feels like an injustice. Like we have to blame someone. That someone, unfortunately, has been Flint.”
