Bring Your Own Poison

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Wanda Nell's Favorite Recipes

Sergeant Wayne A. Wells of the Madison County, Mississippi, Sheriff's Department cheerfully answered questions about law enforcement personnel and procedures in Mississippi. Any errors in this book are mine, certainly not his. (I would like to say a special thanks to my cousin Vanissa who very thoughtfully married Wayne so I would have such a handy source of information. Aren't family members wonderful?)

My editor, Michelle Vega, continues to offer her enthusiasm, energy, and encouragement, and Wanda Nell and her family couldn't ask for a better sponsor. (Ernie says hi, by the way.)

My usual support team also offered encouragement and enthusiasm as needed: Julie Wray Herman, Patricia Orr, and Tejas Englesmith. I can't imagine trying to write a book without them egging me on.

“Miranda, Teddy's here,” Wanda Nell Culpepper called down the hall to her older daughter. “He just drove up.”

“Tell him I'll be out in a minute,” Miranda yelled back.

Wanda Nell headed for the front door of her double-wide trailer. Dogging her every step and dragging his ragged bunny behind him, her grandson, Lavon, chattered nonstop. Wanda Nell listened to him with half an ear, smiling indulgently. At the moment, he was regaling her with a story about an imaginary adventure he and the bunny had the day before. At twenty-six months, Lavon had a robust imagination and tireless vocal chords.

“That's wonderful, sweetie,” Wanda Nell told him as she opened the door to admit Miranda's boyfriend, Teddy Bolton. “Come on in, Teddy. Miranda will be ready in a minute.”

“Afternoon, Miz Culpepper,” Teddy said. He stepped into the trailer, and Wanda Nell shut the door behind him.

Lavon held his bunny up to Teddy, telling him the bunny was saying hello. Smiling, Teddy squatted down until his eyes were almost on a level with Lavon's. He patted the boy and his bunny on the head in turn, and said, “Hello, Mr. Bunny, nice to see you.”

Lavon giggled, and Teddy picked the boy up in his arms and swung him back and forth. Lavon giggled even more.

Wanda Nell watched them with a smile. When she had first met Teddy several months before, she had been wary of him, worried that he would be a bad influence on Miranda. He was twenty-three, tall, muscular, and extensively tattooed. He had joined the Marines right out of high school, and he met Miranda three months after he left the corps. The tattoos made Wanda Nell nervous, because she thought at first he was a Hell's Angel or something equally terrifying.

Teddy had quickly won her trust, however, because he treated Miranda with care and respect. He adored Lavon, and the boy had already started calling him “Daddy.” Miranda blossomed under his influence, though she still had moments in which she reverted to her old behavior in front of him. Teddy would gently shake his head, a slight frown on his face, and Miranda would stop doing whatever it was she was doing.

Marveling that Teddy had accomplished what she had not been able to in eighteen years as Miranda's mother, Wanda Nell welcomed him into the family. Teddy had extensive family of his own, mostly from around Water Valley. He had one sister who lived in Tullahoma, and for the moment he was staying with her. He had a good job as a mechanic at one of the car dealerships in town, and he was saving up to buy a house. He had confided all this to Wanda Nell not long after he and Miranda started dating, and Wanda Nell took this as a good sign as far as Miranda and Lavon were concerned.

“Here I am,” Miranda announced.

Before she turned to face her daughter, Wanda Nell saw the look in Teddy's eyes when they came to rest on Miranda. He was very much in love, and Miranda was, too. She now confided in her mother more than she ever had, and Wanda Nell relished this closer relationship with her difficult middle child.

Wanda Nell stepped out of the way, and Teddy advanced to meet Miranda. One arm open, the other holding Lavon and the bunny, Teddy embraced Miranda before giving her a quick kiss.

“Where's Juliet?” Miranda asked.

“In her room, on the computer,” Wanda Nell said. “I'll tell her you're ready.” She headed down the hall to Juliet's bedroom.

The door stood ajar, but Wanda Nell knocked on it before entering. Juliet sat in front of the computer monitor, staring intently at something on the screen. She looked up when her mother cleared her throat.

“Hi, Mama,” Juliet said. Her hand tightened on the mouse, and Wanda Nell heard rapid clicking. “I guess Teddy's here.”

“He is, and they're ready to go,” Wanda Nell said. She frowned at the computer. Lately, Juliet had been spending more and more time with the darn thing, and Wanda Nell was getting slightly worried. She had heard those stories in the news about Internet predators, and she feared Juliet might be a target for one of them.

She had sat Juliet down a couple weeks ago, and they had talked about it. Juliet assured her mother that she was always careful about who she talked to online, and Wanda Nell had to believe that. Juliet had always been the good child, the one who had never cost her mother any sleep, unlike T.J. and Miranda. The problem was, Juliet was very shy, and at an age when girls were usually running around in packs and hunting boys, Juliet preferred to spend time in her room, occasionally going to a movie with her best friend, Jennalee Hill. For a pretty fifteen-year-old, that was not much of a social life.

Juliet hugged her mother when she stood up. “Don't worry, Mama,” she said with a smile. “I'm fine, really.”

Startled that Juliet had read her mind so easily, Wanda Nell smiled uncertainly back. “I know, honey.” She gave Juliet a little push. “Go on, now, they're waiting for you.”

Wanda Nell followed Juliet down the hall.

“Hey, Juliet,” Teddy said. “Ready to go?”

“Yes,” Juliet said. “Miranda, do you have Lavon's bag?”

“Dang,” Miranda said. “Be right back.”

Teddy and Juliet shared a grin as Miranda scurried down the other hall to the room she shared with Lavon. Some things about Miranda hadn't changed and probably never would.

“Come on, let's go get this guy in his car seat,” Teddy said, jiggling Lavon in his arms. He dropped the bunny, and Juliet stooped to pick it up. “We'll see you later, Miz Culpepper.”

“Y'all have a good time,” Wanda Nell said, following them to the door. They were going to have lunch with old Mrs. Culpepper, the girls' grandmother, and her companion, her cousin Belle Meriwether. T.J., their older brother, and his partner, Hamilton “Tuck” Tucker, would be there as well. Wanda Nell had been invited, but she wanted some time to herself. She had to work a private party at the Kountry Kitchen tonight, and she needed a nap. She knew from experience how tiring these bachelor parties could be, and this one surely wouldn't be any different.

Miranda joined her mother at the door and rested her head for a moment against her mother's shoulder. “He's really wonderful, isn't he, Mama?”

“He's a good man,” Wanda Nell said, slipping her arm around Miranda.

“I'm so lucky,” Miranda said. “And Lavon, too. Teddy loves him like he was his own baby.”

“Teddy's pretty lucky, too,” Wanda Nell said.

“Thank you, Mama,” Miranda said. “I wish Daddy could be here. I think he'd like Teddy, don't you?”

Wanda Nell heard the sadness in her daughter's voice, and her heart ached for the girl. Bobby Ray Culpepper hadn't deserved being murdered, and Wanda Nell still missed him sometimes, despite all the pain and distress he had caused her over the years. She'd had to divorce him and move on with her life, but for their children's sake, she wished he was still around. It was hard to believe that a year had passed since he was killed.

“Yes, honey, I think he would like Teddy a lot.” Wanda Nell hugged Miranda once more before giving her a slight push. “Go on, now, they're waiting.”

Wanda Nell watched from the doorway until the car pulled out of sight. She was about to close the door and head to her bedroom for a nap when the door of the trailer across from hers opened.

Mayrene Lancaster stuck her head out. “Hey, girl, you got a minute?”

Wanda Nell didn't have the heart to tell her best friend she really wanted to sleep, so she said, “Sure, you want me to come over there?”

“Naw, I'll be over in a jiff.” Mayrene's head disappeared into her trailer, and the door shut.

Wanda Nell went to the couch and sat down. Suppressing a yawn, she waited for Mayrene. She wondered what Mayrene wanted to talk about. Her best friend had been acting funny lately, and Wanda Nell was pretty sure she knew why. It must have something to do with the new man in Mayrene's life. So far she hadn't told Wanda Nell who he was, and maybe she was finally going to talk about him.

Wanda Nell perked up a little. This could be worth losing some nap time over.

Mayrene appeared about five minutes later, just when Wanda Nell started to nod off right there on the couch. “Wake up, honey,” Mayrene said. “I know you're tired, but I promise I won't keep you up long.”

Wanda Nell grinned, awake again, and patted the couch beside her. “Sit on down and talk to me.”

About a dozen years older than Wanda Nell, who was forty-one, Mayrene was generously proportioned. She insisted there were plenty of men around who preferred women they could hold on to. If a man wanted a stick for a girlfriend, she had once told Wanda Nell, then he could go to the store and buy himself a broom and be done with it. She didn't hold much with dieting.

Air whooshed out of the cushion as Mayrene dropped down on the couch. “Well, you know I been dating somebody, and I reckon we could be getting serious about one another.”

Wanda Nell nodded. “Yeah, I know the signs.”

Mayrene's eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, ‘signs'?”

Keeping a straight face, Wanda Nell replied, “For one thing, you get real secretive, and another thing, you start humming. I guess you don't realize it, but you hum a lot when you've got a new man on the line.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Mayrene said, thinking about it for a moment. “I guess I do hum more than usual.”

Wanda Nell decided not to mention the fact that Mayrene's humming was decidedly off-key. Instead she said, “The other thing is that you change your hair every other day. I never know from one day to the next what you're gonna look like.”

Mayrene was a beautician, and a very good one. She was by far the most popular stylist at the beauty shop where she worked. Her own hair was always perfectly done, and she rarely varied the style—except when she was dating. Then she just couldn't seem to leave her own head alone. Wanda Nell stared at the mass of blond ringlets Mayrene wore today. Shirley Temple she was not, but Wanda Nell couldn't tell her that.

Laughing, Mayrene said, “You got me on that one, honey.”

“Enough of that,” Wanda Nell said. “Tell me who this new man is. I been dying of curiosity.”

Mayrene's expression turned coy. “Well, you know I've always liked a man in uniform.”

“Yeah,” Wanda Nell said, trying not to get impatient. She knew from experience that Mayrene would draw this out as long as she could.

“I've had my eye on this one for a long time,” Mayrene continued. “We almost had a thing going a few years ago, but he was going through a real messy divorce at the time. I just couldn't deal with that, and we stopped seeing one another.”

Wanda Nell cast her mind back. That must have been before she moved into the trailer park, about six years ago. The first person she met was Mayrene, who lived in the next trailer. From the beginning, they got on real well, and ever since they had been as close as sisters.

“No, that was before we met,” Mayrene said, like she had just read Wanda Nell's mind. “But not too long before, as I recall.” She shrugged. “Anyway, we parted company. Then his wife got real sick. She had cancer in her ovaries, and it was real bad. So they ended up not getting a divorce after all. He took care of her until she died.”

“I see,” Wanda Nell said. “He sounds like a good man. If it had been me and Bobby Ray, who knows what he might've done. He didn't like being around sick people.”

“He is a good man,” Mayrene said. “He did the right thing. But we didn't run into each other much there for a while, and when we did, well, I guess we both felt maybe it was too late or something.”

“But obviously something changed your minds,” Wanda Nell said.

Mayrene nodded. “Yeah, I ran into him at a dance out at the VFW about three weeks ago. Him and me got to talking and, well, I guess you could say we kinda picked up where we left off.” She smiled broadly.

“Maybe this time it's the right time,” Wanda Nell said, happy for her friend, but still a little wary. Mayrene had consistently bad luck when it came to men, and Wanda Nell hated to see her hurt yet again.

“That's what I'm thinking,” Mayrene said. “I really do think it is.”

“You still haven't told me who he is,” Wanda Nell reminded her with a poke in the arm.

Mayrene laughed. “No, I guess I hadn't got around to that yet.”

Wanda Nell rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Mayrene, you could be a politician, it takes you so long to get to the point.”

Mayrene had another laugh at that. “Okay, okay, I get it.” She leaned a little closer to Wanda Nell. “His name is Dixon Vance, and he's a policeman.”

The name rang a faint bell with Wanda Nell, and she thought about it, trying to put a face with the name. “Oh yeah,” she said, nodding when the memory surfaced, “I know him. He used to come in the Kountry Kitchen, but the cops hang out at the Holiday Inn these days. We don't see them that much.”

From what Wanda Nell could remember, Dixon Vance was Mayrene's age, give or take a couple of years. Good looking, in a tough-cop kind of way. Gray hair, stocky but muscular, and tall.