I shook my head. “I thought he was your husband and you were being refreshingly honest with your comments.”
Lucinda laughed, a giant booming laugh that had several patrons looking her direction. “I’ve heard a lot about you. I figured I’d like you, but then my requirements aren’t all that high. As long as you’re not a friend of Celia’s, then you’re pretty much a friend of mine.”
“Then we’re officially best friends,” I said.
“Speaking of which,” Lucinda said, “what is that old bat up to? No one I know has seen her since the announcement and that ridiculous display she made over the keys.”
“We don’t know,” Gertie said. “None of the Sinful Ladies have seen her either.”
Lucinda frowned. “Well, that’s worrisome. I prefer for a boil to be out in the open where I can see it. When it’s hiding down in a butt crack, it can be a real pain in the…you know.”
“I guess it’s too much to hope for to think she’s depressed and drowning her sorrows in some homemade brew?” I asked.
Ida Belle snorted. “That woman doesn’t know the meaning of depressed. She has two modes, mean and asleep. You can bet the only reason she’s hiding in her house is because she hasn’t figured out what she’s going to pull next.”
“Or she’s busy working on it,” Gertie said.
Lucinda nodded. “I don’t know whether to be scared about that or look forward to the entertainment.” She rose from the table and pulled her purse over her shoulder. “I better get going before Ralph leaves me to walk home.”
She put some bills on the table for Ally, then leaned over and whispered something to Ida Belle. As she straightened back up, she patted me on the back. “Nice meeting you, dear,” she said, and headed out of the café.
“What did she say?” Gertie asked.
Ida Belle stared out the café and frowned, then turned back to us, her voice low. “She said the Seal brothers were released from Angola last week.”
Gertie’s eyes widened. “That’s not good.”
“Who are the Seal brothers?” I asked, figuring all the whispering was an indication that I wasn’t going to like the answer.
“Twins whose mother died in a car wreck when they were in high school,” Gertie said. “They moved to Sinful and were raised by their uncle, as best as he could manage them anyway, until they turned eighteen and took off.”
“So you knew them?” I asked.
Gertie nodded. “After I retired from teaching, I still did some subbing when needed. They were students in my class. Sullen, trouble, not interested in anything but getting out of Sinful, but they stayed put until they were legal adults. They were only in town six months or so.”
“But that was plenty enough time to cause problems,” Ida Belle said.
“What kind of trouble?” I asked.
“During that time,” Ida Belle said, “there was a rash of stolen cars. It had never happened before and hasn’t happened since.”
“Until now,” I said.
Ida Belle nodded. “The sheriff didn’t have any proof, but everyone figured they knew the score. Still, with the brothers’ connections, I think the sheriff was afraid to push the issue.”
“What connections?” I asked.
“They claimed they’re distant cousins to Barry Seal,” Ida Belle said.
Okay. That was a name I knew. Barry Seal was a pilot who’d worked for the Medellín cartel. He’d ultimately turned informant and was assassinated while performing his public service work per his sentencing. The Feds had fallen under criticism for failing to provide adequate protection for Seal.
“You said they claim to be cousins,” I said. “Does anyone know if that’s true?”
Gertie shook her head. “I don’t think so, but it doesn’t really matter. They’re bad news regardless of their family ties.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s family ties and there’s family ties.”
“She’s right,” Ida Belle said. “If our theory about what happened at Hot Rod’s is right, then the most likely candidate is organized crime. I saw the way Big and Little looked at each other when we talked with them. I guarantee you that’s exactly what they think.”
“But the Medellín cartel is long gone,” Gertie said. “The Seal brothers are twenty-nine at the most. They could hardly have an association with an organization that was taken out of business when they were kids.”
“They weren’t all killed,” I said. “And I seriously doubt those that got away became honest, hardworking citizens.”
“Exactly,” Ida Belle said. “Which means we need to find out more about the Seal brothers.”
“This uncle that they lived with in Sinful,” I said. “Is he still around?”
Ida Belle nodded. “You just met him.”
Chapter Eight
We worked our way through dinner more quickly than usual and took our dessert to go, anxious to head back to my house where we could talk without being overheard. I grabbed my laptop off the kitchen counter and plopped down at the breakfast table as soon as we walked inside. Ida Belle retrieved three sodas from the refrigerator, and Gertie served up the dessert we’d brought from the café.
“Okay,” I said. “First things first. Tell me everything you can about Ralph. You said he was the boys’ uncle.”
“Not much to tell,” Ida Belle said. “He’s an accountant, a bore, and a blowhole. You’ve seen the blowhole side. It probably comes as no shock that he’s never been married.”
“None whatsoever,” I said. “Was he born here?”
Ida Belle nodded. “Born here, and aside from the four years he attended college in New Orleans, he’s never left. His father was the local accountant and Ralph worked for him. When his father retired, Ralph took over his practice. He passed shortly after retiring.”
“How is he related to the brothers?” I asked.
“His sister, Carol, was their mother,” Gertie said. “I think her husband’s name was Joshua.”
“So they both grew up here, but Carol left and Ralph stayed?” I asked.
Ida Belle shook her head. “Actually no. The big scandal back then was Ralph’s mother. She ran off with another man. She took Carol, who was just a toddler then, and left Ralph with his father. Ralph was maybe four or five. According to Ralph’s father, he never heard from her again after the day she left, and she made no effort to contact Ralph. I think Carol reconnected with Ralph in college or maybe right after when she found out that she had a brother.”
“Wow. That’s unusual for these parts, right?” I asked.
“It happens,” Gertie said, “but it’s far more common for a woman to have her fun on the side and one of the kids belong to her fling. Usually the husbands never figure it out. But the wife usually doesn’t take off with the other man, and it’s also irregular for a woman to abandon all contact with a biological child.”