I shot them both dark, scathing looks. Would they shut up? Kency Blount would believe me if the two of them simply sat and nodded as if they were deaf, mute and dumb.
But at the moment I was thinking they would score a one hundred on the dumb part of an exam.
The sheriff pursed her lips. She eyed Alice. “Is all that true?”
Alice sat in front of me. She twisted her fingers behind her back. It was the universal signal that she was lying, but because her fingers were crossed, it was okay.
“It’s all true, Kency.”
Kency gave a quick nod, stared around the room and turned to go. Her boot heels hit the floor hard. She stopped, twisted back. “Do one of y’all care to tell me why I found your card in Xavier’s house?”
“He promised them an estimate on some equipment,” I said.
Her eyes narrowed. She dragged her gaze from me. “Is that true, Ruth?”
Ruth placed a hand over her heart. “May the Lord strike me dead if it isn’t.”
Kency gave another nod and headed for the door. “First thing tomorrow, Miss Breneaux.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The door shut. The three of us stared at one another. Then Ruth jumped up and slipped into the living room. She popped back in a second later.
“She’s gone. Driving off.” Ruth clapped her hands together.
Alice slumped her head to the table. “I lied. I hate lying.”
“You crossed your fingers, didn’t you?” Ruth said.
“Of course. But I still feel bad.”
“Ah, don’t feel bad. Blissful—that’s our new friend’s name—she lied worse. She covered for us.”
Ruth turned her gaze on me. “Why’d you do that?”
What was I supposed to say? That I didn’t want a couple of old ladies to go to jail for a crime they didn’t commit? I knew they were innocent, felt it in my gut. But someone wasn’t. Someone had killed Xavier Bibb and possessed the evidence I needed to get my old job back.
I shrugged. “I was only trying to help you out.”
Ruth rubbed her jaw. She glanced at Alice and then back to me. “I think it’s about time you started telling the truth, Blissful Breneaux. Why don’t you start right now?”
ELEVEN
“What makes you think I’m hiding something?” I said.
Alice shifted her Coke-bottle glasses. “Why would you help us?”
“Call me stupid but I have a feeling you didn’t have anything to do with Xavier’s death. I thought I’d make life a little easier for you.”
Ruth thumbed her chest and then pointed the digit at Alice. “The two of us aren’t town gossips. We let people be who they are. Only a few folks have ever seen the Teenybopper ghost. She certainly doesn’t show herself in daylight. Then Xavier let you go on the hunt with him. He’s never let us do that. Or, he neverdid—may his soul rest in peace. So who are you?”
I swallowed a knot in my throat. I could lie. I really could, but as I studied the two older women, I realized that they might be my greatest assets in this town.
“What did you say you do for a living?”
“We run the ghost investigation service in town,” Alice said. “We try to clean up the ghosts by scaring them off or capturing them. We’re not into that hocus-pocus séance sort of stuff. We’re scientists.”
“Where’d you study?” I said.
