“You didn’t. He asked if I knew anyone who in the RV park would want Paul dead. Trust me, you’re not the only one. I told him that someone got to Paul before me.” Both of us laughed. “I’m sorry.”
“If you wanted to know about the conversation, I’m more than happy to tell you,” she said and put the cigarette out on the edge of the curb. “He came by once a month to collect any lot fees and I gave you the printout. A few of the people on the list, I paid their fee with what little money I’d got paid from Paul. He must’ve known something was coming down the pipeline with all his dealings because the last time I heard from him, he told me that he was going to come live here and take over. When I asked him about my job, he said and I repeat, ‘Toots, times are hard. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.’”
“She didn’t take too kindly to being called Toots,” Queenie said in a matter of fact way with a hard nod. “I was there. Me and Henry. She had a good comeback.”
“I’m afraid that comeback just might be what will get me trouble.” Dottie twirled the edge of the curl around her finger. “I told him which way was which and how ashamed he should be about taking people’s money. I wasn’t stupid. I watch them big news channels. When I started talking to people around here, they started telling me how he’d been investing their money or something like that. I’m not gonna lie no more. I was the one who called the FBI. I gave the tip and I even warned Paul, telling him that I was gonna get him back.”
“Do you think he was on his way here after he broke out of jail to come confront you?” I asked.
“I don’t know why he came here. I figured it was for you, but then I wondered if like you, he had no other place to go.” She shrugged.
We all looked up as we heard a car approaching, Hank’s car. We stood up and waited for him to park.
“You didn’t tell the FBI who you were?” I asked.
“No. I called anonymously. I even did it from a pay phone in another town.” She put her hand over her brows to shield the sun. “He looks like he means business.” She dropped her hand and greeted him after he made it over to us.
“Dottie. Ladies.” He looked at me last. There was a bit of a smirk on his face. “Dottie, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure, Hank.” She walked over to the side where he’d pointed and he followed.
“Hey, you two.” Betts walked up with a couple of bags in her hands. She leaned to look around us. “What’s going on?”
“We don’t know. Well, we have an idea.” Queenie cocked a brow. “We won’t even bother giving you a free guess.”
“Paul West?” She asked.
“Mmmhhhhm,” My nose drew a big line up in the air and an equally big one down to my chin. “Let’s go inside and give them some space.”
Queenie held the door open for us to walk in.
“I’ve got some good stuff for you.” Betts held the bags up a little when she walked into laundry mat. “I went back to the Tough Nickel after how he treated you this morning. I told him how ashamed he should be treating you that way when I see him every Sunday sitting in the front pew next to his wife.”
Queenie nudged me. “That’s why we keep her in the group. She’s good at using what we like to call our mama’s God guilt.”
She pulled out twinkly lights, flower necklaces, some blow up palm trees and beach-themed paper cups with napkins along with a couple of those flamingo lawn ornaments. They’d seen better days, but wasn’t all the chipping looking stuff coming back in style?
“I’ve got tons more in my car.” She beamed with pride. “I told Lester what you were doing and how you were going to bring back the tourists to Normal and how good it was going to be for the community to see you in church. We had a lot of leftovers from our beach-themed vacation bible school, that Lester donated it all.”
“Did you say see me in church?” I pointed to myself.
“Why, yes. You are now part of the community.” Her smile faded when she realized I wasn’t smiling. “You do believe in church, right?”
“I. Um.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “Yeah, but I’ve not been in a long, and I mean long time, so maybe you should take it all back.” I gulped.
“Don’t be silly. We will see you in church on Sunday.” She patted my arm and headed back into the door that read office in rectangle, uneven letters.
“You just got mama God guilted.” Queenie drew her hands up over her head and tipped over at the waist, bending down to touch the ground. “I’ve got to go to class. You want to go? Good for stress.”
“No. I want to talk to Dottie and get a jump on cleaning up the RV park.” I watched out the door when I saw that Hank was walking back to his car and left Dottie standing there with her shoulders slumped.
“Strike class is in the morning.” Queenie did some sort of move that I think was supposed to resemble her hitting a punching bag, but it looked more like a wet noodle to me. “You should come.”
“Maybe one day.” I was promising a lot of one days to people around here. One day church, one day Jazzercise. I wondered if that one day would come. I pushed the door open and poked my head out. “Are you okay?”
Queenie pushed past me and gave a wave over her shoulder. “I’ve got to get to class, but I’ll call after Dance Mix.”
Dottie acknowledged her.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Queenie said to Dottie, only this time she kicked her leg out to the side.
“I’m going to head on back home.” Dottie let out a big sigh. “Do you need a ride?”
“I was hoping you’d ask.” I offered a peace offering smile.
“Then we can talk about it on the way.” She dug her keys out of her pocket.
“Let me grab the stuff Betts brought and tell her goodbye. I’ll be right back.” I swung the door open and walked over to Betts’s office door, knocking on it.
She called for me to come in.
“Hey, I’m heading back home with Dottie. Do you want me to grab the stuff from you?” I asked.
“I can bring it over in the morning when I give you a ride to the library, that is if you need a ride.” She was sorting through some paperwork on her desk.
“That sounds perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I looked at Betts for a moment longer before I headed out to meet Dottie’s old pickup truck.
“Hank said I’m a suspect.” Dottie spoke with the unlit cigarette stuck between the corners of her lip. She jerked the gearshift that was on the neck of the steering wheel down into drive. “He said that he had some folks come forward with some information about my conversation with him. I actually thought Paul and I were friends up until the last time he’d called.”
“I’m sorry. He made everyone feel like they were important in his life. Just look at all the people who invested with him and gave them all their money.” I looked out the window as we headed out of town.
“I’m one payment away from my camper being taken away from me.” She curled her lips together. “Like Henry, I had some savings. My husband and son were killed in a car crash.”
I looked over at her. She swallowed, hard.
“The trucking company that hit and killed them gave me a real big settlement,” her voice trailed off.
“Please don’t tell me that you. . .” I didn’t have to finish my sentence. By the look on her face, I knew the answer to my question. “Can you stop?”
Dottie brought the car to a halt in the middle of the street right in front of Normal Diner.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I forgot I was going to meet someone about the fundraiser at the diner.” I planted my palm on my forehead. “I’m forgetting a lot of things lately.”
“Do you want me to wait?” she asked.
“No. You go on home and get some rest. We’re going to figure out who did this to Paul.” I pinched a smile. “You aren’t the only one in Normal that wanted to kill Paul.”
TEN