Kathleen blew out a breath. “Thank you. Now I should go help our hostess.” She turned away from the group.
“Kathleen, got a minute?” I asked.
She looked toward the doorway and actually edged in that direction, but I followed her. “Tell me about Sunny Crenshaw.”
“Oh, Sunny comes from money. Big money. She was fabulously wealthy before she married Bart. Once his real estate business got going, they were set. They’re just wallowing in greenbacks. Everything Bart touches turns to gold.”
“I’ve heard he’s got the magic touch with real estate.” I just wanted to keep the conversation going. The quicker I got my bearings in Columbus society, the sooner I would solve this case. “Clarissa Olson said she worked with him and he’d been very helpful to her.”
Kathleen rolled her eyes. “She thought she was going to break up Bart and Sunny’s marriage, but Bart gave her the heave-ho. That whole real estate thing she goes on and on and on about is just to save face.”
“So Clarissa was really into him? She made it seem like a long-ago fling.”
“She plays it off like it was just a game of the beast with two backs, but he knew how to light her rockets, and she couldn’t get enough of him. She was reckless, forcing public displays on him. She wasn’t smart enough to keep the details to herself.”
“How did Sunny take that … affair?”
Kathleen slowed to a stop. She frowned. “I never really thought about it. She never let on like she knew anything was happening between them, but she had to know. Like I said, Clarissa couldn’t keep her lip zipped. She did ridiculous things like show up at his real estate office dressed as a gift box and naked as the day she was born inside the box. Everyone in town knew about it.”
“Did Sunny retaliate with her own affair?” I wanted more than anything to make some notes, but I knew if pulled out a pad and started writing, Kathleen would flee as if her hair were on fire. Around Darla, Kathleen had a certain bravado, but she was timid alone.
“Sunny would extract her pound of flesh, and there was talk that she had had an affair not long after they were married. You can believe that or not. But she made Bart pay, I’m sure. I don’t know how she did it, though. She may have had an affair and just been more discreet. Or she may have a nice offshore bank account plumped up by condo sales in Oxford, Mississippi. Now that’s a hot real estate market.”
“Did Sunny go to Ole Miss?”
“Vanderbilt. Her family is related to the Vanderbilts and she always felt she was a bit superior to all of us here in Columbus. She rubbed Bart’s nose in her aristocracy.” Kathleen had regained some of her pluck and was more comfortable talking to me. “I don’t blame him for looking for affection somewhere else. She’s a cold fish.”
“Is she capable of attempted murder?” I was curious what she’d say.
“I think so. In my opinion, the only thing that would hold Sunny back from committing a felony would be fear of getting caught. If she thought she could pull off a murder and get away with it, she wouldn’t blink.”
“Tell me about Bricey Presley.” If I had a gushing fountain of information, I was going to stay awhile and drink.
“Bricey runs around with Tulla and a few others. They’re minor-league homewreckers compared to Sunny or Clarissa.”
“Is everyone in town having an affair?”
She thought a minute. “Probably not. Just the ones with time on their hands.”
I thought about that. It did take a lot of time and energy to sneak around. Women with children and jobs could do it, but it would put a crimp in their style to have to juggle schedules and free times. “Who dumped that cement in Bricey’s car, do you know?”
“I thought it might be Bart. I heard they had a nasty breakup, and Bart knows a lot of guys with heavy equipment because he develops subdivisions and such. But so does Sunny. And Clarissa. It could be anyone.”
“Only someone who hated Bricey.”
“That means it could be anyone,” Kathleen repeated. “Now I have to go. I’m tired of this Christmas foolishness. I’m ready for this week to be over. Most days, Darla and I take care of her guests and we meet new and interesting people and don’t give a thought to what’s happening in Columbus. It’s just at Christmas that we kind of have to dive in headfirst.”
“I’ll see you back at Darla’s,” I said as she took her leave.
Tinkie was still chatting with a group of men, and from a distance I watched her work them. Tinkie had them eating out of her hand. When she saw me, she gave them a flirtatious wave and joined me. “Let’s go to the hospital to check on Bart,” she said.
This was really the first time I’d had a chance to chat with Tinkie alone. “I saw Bricey Presley on the second floor just seconds after Bart took that tumble. He gave her the Cadillac when he broke off his affair with her.”
Tinkie’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “Whew!” Tinkie motioned Oscar over to join us. “We’ve got a new case.”
When Oscar started to protest, Tinkie merely kissed him. “It’s a domestic about to go bad. We’ll finish before it’s time to go home to Zinnia. No murders, no guns, no danger. Just a bunch of foolish people determined to trash their own lives.”
“Tinkie, you’re in a delicate way,” he reminded her.
“I’m pregnant. I haven’t turned into glass. This is a simple case, really. Nothing to worry about. The baby is my first priority, and you’re my second.”
I took note of her gentle response to Oscar and her quick moves to alleviate his fears. Tinkie was compassionate, and she was also very smart.
“We were just headed over to the hospital
