Southern Discomfort

probably do handstands if Ralph got added to the list.

Cindy followed me out to my car disconsolately. She'd been on the phone all morning with Annie Sue.

'Paige called her late last night.' There was an unconscious tinge of jealousy in her voice that Annie Sue had been called and not her. 'I've tried and tried to call Paige, but nobody's answering the phone. What's going to happen to her?'

I explained the elements of self-defense and how unlikely it was that Paige would be convicted under the circumstances.

'I hate the way everything's turning out,' Cindy said petulantly. 'I wish Annie Sue'd never mentioned that old WomenAid house to us.'

I was getting a little tired of Cindy's attitude. 'Neither Annie Sue nor that house is to blame for Carver Bannerman getting the wrong idea,' I said coldly. 'And if half the things we heard about that man is true, I personally would be over at the hospital asking for an HIV test.'

She drew back as if I'd slapped her, glared at me, then suddenly burst into tears and fled back inside the house.

'Why don't you just go on home and pull wings off flies for a while?' sighed the preacher.

'Sounds like a good idea to me,' said the pragmatist. *      *      *

Aunt Zell and Uncle Ash were gone when I got there. The puppy was wide awake in his box and let me know he wouldn't mind some company. He still didn't have a name.

After a day or two of comedians (Cosby, Seinfeld, Groucho), Aunt Zell had been trying out imperial Roman names lately (Augustus, Caesar, Pompey), but so far, nothing really struck her as appropriate.

I held the squirming little butterball to my face and said, 'So how's it going, Julius?'

He licked my nose.

'Visiting Herman,' said a note held to the refrigerator door by a tobacco leaf magnet. 'Stevie brought over your tape.'

I tucked Marcus Aurelius under one arm and took the video cassette up to my room, stuck it into my VCR, pushed PLAY; then Nero and I settled into my lounge chair to watch. Piled on the low table nearby was a sheaf of rulings that the chief district judge had sent over for all district judges to read. Claudius gnawed on the manila folder while I watched my swearing-in ceremony with only half an eye; especially the part where Ellis Glover was introducing half the county.

Every time I see myself on tape, I vow to quit eating for a week. Much as I love that splashy red print dress, it certainly does emphasize every extra ounce. But I was right, it did make a nice symbolic contrast when I zipped up that black robe over it. I loved the way Stevie had zoomed in on Daddy's face at that moment. He honestly does look like an Old Testament patriarch at times.

I pressed the remote's REWIND and rolled it back a couple of minutes so I could watch his face and Aunt Zell's. She really is very dear. Mother without the wild streak.

Then FAST FORWARD to the reception in the courthouse rotunda. Stevie had gotten there before me and panned over the lace-covered serving table with the silver platters of finger foods, the cutglass punch bowl, the Martha Circle and their helpers—all in readiness before the first guest walked down the row and destroyed the pretty symmetry.

And now, there I am with Frances Tripp, talking, talking every minute. The hugs, the handshakes. Lu Bingham stuffing pecan puffs with one hand and twisting my arm with the other. I found myself smiling all over again.

And there among the dignitaries, guests, and Marthas were Annie Sue, Cindy and Paige, scurrying around to fetch fresh cups of punch and take away the empty ones. How strange to think of all that had happened to those girls in only two weeks!

And look at Herman posing with them, a glass punch cup in one big hand, a plate piled high with cucumber sandwiches in the other. I couldn't bear to think that he might never walk alone again.

Was it possible that his poisoning had been deliberate? The Coffee Pot? Had Bass's leaving—'IF he's left,' said the pragmatist—made Ava or Retha flip out?

I sighed, flicked off the VCR and picked up Judge Longmire's assigned readings.

Heliogabalus fell asleep sucking on my finger.

CHAPTER 20

PLUGGING THE HOLES

'A nail set is used to set (meaning to countersink slightly below the surface) the heads of nails in finish carpentry. The purpose of setting is to improve the appearance of the work by concealing the nail heads.... The small surface hole above the head is usually plugged with putty'

It was one of the fastest exhumations I ever heard of. I don't know if it was a combination of Dwight, Terry, and Gordon O'Connor all pushing, but by midmorning on Monday, Ralph McGee had been dug up, relevant tissue samples had been collected, and his body was back under six feet of dirt again out at Centenary Cemetery where most of the best people in Dobbs were buried.

Results of the tests would take a while. As I understand it, proving arsenic's in a body is a fairly simple reactive test; proving it isn't there is a bit more complicated. Still, we were hoping to hear by Wednesday at the latest.

Rumors were flying all over Dobbs, especially since Bo Poole's office had queried Bass Langley's brother in Georgia and the brother said no, he hadn't heard a thing about Bass supposed to be coming home. 'He hain't showed up here. Y'all ask Ava where he mought be?'