Small Town Rumors(4)

“Take a look at these.” Cricket touched a few buttons on the camera and showed the pictures to Lettie.

Lettie flipped through them, shaking her head in disbelief the whole time. “That’s sure enough Jennie Sue Baker, but why would she be sneaking into town on a bus? And why only one suitcase? It takes something bigger than that for Charlotte to carry her makeup kit in when she’s just going to the Walmart store.”

Cricket gasped. “The great Charlotte Baker goes to Walmart?”

“Darlin’, everyone needs toilet paper,” Lettie giggled.

“I figured she’d send Mabel to buy it,” Cricket whispered.

Lettie leaned forward. “I saw her in there with my own eyes. She was buyin’ toilet paper, and there was a bag of prescription drugs in the cart, but I couldn’t read what they were. Probably diet pills. She’s so afraid of gainin’ a pound that it’s downright crazy.”

Cricket glanced around the empty café to be sure no one could hear her. “Lot of good it does her. Dill’s keepin’ company with Darlene O’Malley, and she’s younger than me and Jennie Sue.”

“You mean that little redhead who works at the bank?” Lettie asked.

“That’s the one. She graduated two years behind me, which makes her twenty-six, and that’s younger than his daughter. My cousin who works as a teller says that she’s his new personal manager on a couple of his accounts and has to be ready to go with him when he takes trips.” Cricket flipped through the pictures again.

Lettie dipped into her ice cream. “Well, he better keep a good supply of them little blue pills in his briefcase is all I got to say.”

“I know celebrities go out in public lookin’ like crap, but I’ve never seen Jennie Sue without fancy clothes, makeup, and her hair done perfect,” Cricket said.

Amos Jones pushed into the store and wiped the sweat from his face with a red bandanna. “Hello, ladies.” He waved.

“Wonder if he knows something?” Lettie whispered.

“He might,” Cricket said out of the side of her mouth and then waved. “Hi, Amos.”

“Y’all hear that Jennie Sue Baker is back in town and she came in on the bus just before noon?” He raised his voice. “I just saw her riding in the car with her mama a few minutes ago. Wonder what’s goin’ on?”

“Come on over here and sit with us,” Lettie said. “How’s things at your bookstore?”

“Doin’ right good.” He slid into the booth beside Cricket. “I heard that this new group of kids comin’ up into the world is goin’ back to real books rather than readin’ them on them damned devices that they hold in their hands. Millennium, they call them. Don’t know how they got that name hung on them, but it helps my business. Vinyl could be next. I got to be at the library here in a minute, but wanted to grab some lunch to take with me.”

Cricket bit back a sigh and slipped her camera back into her purse. Like lots of older men, he used too much shaving lotion and talked too loud. Her brother, Rick, said it was because when folks got older, their senses of smell and hearing both deteriorated.

“What have you heard about Jennie Sue comin’ back to town? She hasn’t been here in at least two years,” Lettie said.

Cricket perked right up. Amos had a tell when he had good gossip—he puffed out his chest so that his bibbed overalls didn’t have a single wrinkle in them. And he grinned even bigger than usual, showing off perfectly white dentures in a face that looked like a cross between Andy Rooney and Mickey Rooney.

“Just that she showed up on the bus. I can’t imagine why she’d ride a bus all the way from New York City when Dill has an airplane that he could fly up there and bring her home in style. She’s still married to that fancy-shmancy diamond dealer, isn’t she?” Amos asked.

“Last I heard, but I’ll phone Mabel tonight and see what she knows.” Lettie’s head bobbed up and down in agreement. “Maybe she’s goin’ to work for Dill in the company.”

“Who knows?” Amos’s grin got even bigger. “Right now, Dill is off in his private plane with that business lady from the bank, so he’s probably not thinkin’ about hirin’ Jennie Sue for a job in the oil company.” His phone pinged, and he worked it up from the bib pocket of his overalls. “Got a text from Nicky, that new gardener Charlotte hired. He says the news is that Jennie Sue is here to help plan Dill’s birthday party. You goin’ to it, Lettie?”

“Hell, no! Only way I could get in is if I crashed my pickup truck through the front doors, and I ain’t willin’ to damage my truck. I’ve had it forty years now, and I’m right partial to the way my butt sits in the driver’s seat. You goin’ to ride that tricycle of yours to the party?”

Amos chuckled. “I ain’t holdin’ my breath for an invitation. What about you, Cricket? Reckon Jennie Sue will invite you to the big wingding?”

Cricket snorted. “That ain’t never goin’ to happen. I wonder why there’s never a big party for Charlotte?”

“Never say never or it’ll come back and bite you right on the butt.” He shook a finger at her. “Charlotte hates her birthday because it proves she’s another year older.”