He chuckled behind his hand. “It was actually very quiet in here when you were gone.”
I gave him the side-eye. “Are you saying that it was better in here—less drama, with the women gone?”
“Yes, I am saying that.”
I studied the engagement ring on my finger. “Are you sure that’s what you want to say?”
He circled his arm around my shoulder and tugged me into the hollow of his chest. “You know I’m only joking. Sort of. It was quieter.”
Demurely, I purred, “So was the kitchen.”
Then out of nowhere, Lemon started screaming. “What! This isn’t right! This isn’t right! No, she never would’ve changed this. What did you do to her?”
She threw herself at Luis and started to scratch at him. Luis raised his arms to block Lemon’s attack.
“Get her away from me! She’s an animal!”
Traylor reached her before Roan or I could. He tried to pull Lemon away, but she kept cursing and hitting Luis. “I’ll kill you,” she screeched.
Roan was at Traylor’s side, helping restrain Lemon. It took the two of them, but they finally pried her from Luis. He, however, had four long scratch marks running down his face.
“Am I bleeding?” he said to me. “Tell me I’m not bleeding.”
He was, a little bit. I found a Kleenex and handed it to him. “Go wash up.”
Traylor and Roan held Lemon as she continued to scream. Traylor glanced at me.
“In her purse. Right-hand pocket, there’s something for her nerves.”
I rushed over and found the vial he meant. I took a quick look at the label and saw that it was an anxiety medication prescribed and often abused by patients. I rushed into the kitchen, made a glass of water and returned with it and the pill.
By the time I got back to the séance room, Traylor and Roan had Lemon on the couch. I handed Traylor the water and pill, which he pushed in front of Lemon.
“You’ve had a shock,” he murmured lovingly. “Take this. It will help.”
She threw the pill into her mouth and swallowed some water. Lemon looked up at Traylor with glassy eyes. “Why? Why did she change the will? I don’t want the money.”
He stroked her hair. “I don’t know, but she did.”
A few minutes later Lemon was lying still on the couch. She was awake but calm enough that I felt like I could walk away.
I heard Tex murmur as Roan and I made our way to the love seat, “Yep, those two fought just about as badly as me and my dead wife, God rest her soul.”
Well, that would be true if Tex hadn’t shot and killed his dead wife, which made Lemon and Luis’s arguments just a touch less lethal.
Chapter 12
Roan and I took a blanket into the front hall to cover Zelda’s body.
“I know we’re tampering with evidence, but it seems like the right thing to do,” he said.
“I agree. Let’s do this.”
Roan and I draped the blanket over her, and then I glanced at my watch. It was only one a.m. This was turning out to be the. Longest. Night. Ever.
Roan tapped his fingers on his hips. “What should we do now? Charades?”
“Yeah, let’s play ‘murderer’ with the folks in there.”
