Music City (14 page)

She was impressed with what she saw and the conversation with Noel assured her that Tom was being well taken care of. She would have Derek and Alex investigate f
urther, but she was going to make sure Noel and her children had what they needed, as well. They were good people and Shelly had the means to be there if they needed her.

She discussed it all with Vani on the flight home, and as always, Vani took copious notes.

As they left the airport in Nashville, Vani picked up a copy of
The Tennessean
. Shelly drove away from the airport and headed toward her home. Vani opened the newspaper. In the lower right hand corner, just under the crease, Vani stared at a picture that took up most of three columns and gasped.

“Momma!”

“What Vani? What's wrong?”

“It says: 'Shelly Shepard caught on her way to room in local
hotel. Details, E6, Entertainment'. If this wasn't so absurd, it would be funny. When in the world have you had time to visit a hotel in Nashville lately?"

“Oh for heaven’s sake Vani, look again at the photo, that certainly isn’t me, it’s Dorothy.” Shelly shrugged, “Hmm, she must have taken the money I gave them and left North Carolina.”

Vani wasn’t convinced, “At a glance it looks like you, Mom.” Vani looked at her mother again, as though she were judging a contest at the county fair and her Mother was the champion steer. “But you’re right, it’s not you; she has a bit of a rough edge, don’t you think? You don’t have that.”

“Gee, thanks, it’s good to know that.” Shelly smirked. “Well, we’re going to have to see if Derek or Alex can check on her, see if she is here alone or with her husband. If she is alone, we need to send a car over and invite her for supper.”

Vani shrugged, “I’ll call Derek and see if they can get right on it, but I don’t know about inviting her to our home, Momma.”

Shelly shrugged, “Neither do I, but it’s the right thing to do, and probably the best way for us to find out why she’s here.”

Vani wasn’t convinced, “I understand that, Momma, but why do you have to invite her to our home? Why can’t Derek or Alex just handle this for you?”

Shelly sighed, “Vani, she’s my sister, my half-sister anyway, and I need to find out what kind of person she is. Believe me, Vani, if she is not a good person, I won’t allow her within miles of my life, but if she is a good person, then I feel like it is my obligation to see to it that she finally has a chance. I don’t think she has had much of one in her life.”

“Momma... I’m just saying, don’t borrow trouble.”

Shelly pulled over to the side of the highway, threw the SUV in park and took Vani’s hands in hers, “Just remember Savannah, Dorothy didn’t have any more of a say so in who her momma was any more than you did—you can’t blame her entirely for who she is, any more than you can blame me entirely for who you are. You are your own person, but you had a very good example in your father of how to be a good person, you also had parents who loved you more than anything in this world. You had many tutors and teachers from the time you were born who read to you, who told you stories of
far-away places, and people who simply shared with you. She didn’t have any of that. You could read by the time you were four, you and Tracy both could. Dorothy, most likely, can barely read at all.”

“Momma, I understand, she has had a bad life, but so did you. You got out, she chose to stay. You can make all the excuses in the world, but she still chose to stay there and she chose her mate. All of her problems cannot be blamed on parents or lack thereof, she has to take some responsibility for the way her life has turned out, too.”

Shelly nodded, “I see your point, but I’m still going to help her if she has left that awful man and that is my decision. Now, would you like to call Derek and Alex, or should I?”

When the call came in from Vani, Derek, Alex and Tracy were already looking for Dorothy. Tracy saw the photo in the paper, showed it to Derek and Alex, and they had already called
over half of the hotels in Nashville.

“Found her!” Alex called out. Derek and Tracy both hung up their phones. “She checked in yesterday, is staying a week, she’s going by Taylor, not Thompson, that’s why we couldn’t find her the first time we called.”

Alex came out of his office and looked at Derek, “Do you want to ride over there with me?”

Derek shook his head, “No, you go ahead, I’ll wait to see what Shelly wants us to do, she and Vani are on their way over.”

Alex grinned, “Gotcha, you want to wait for Vani.”

Derek reddened. “I did not say that, I’ll go with you if you want me to, Tracy can hold down the office.”

Alex laughed, “It’s cool, I was just teasing you. I’ll see who she brought with her and let you know as soon as I find out anything.”

Vani and Shelly arrived a few minutes after Alex left, just as Derek had hoped. He figured they would have a little bit of time before Alex called in and told them if Dorothy was alone or with her family. As he had planned, he pulled Tracy into his office, “Now’s your chance to tell them about Cheryl, they’re both so upset about Dorothy that Cheryl won’t be a big deal.”

Tracy gulped, “Are you sure I shouldn’t wait?” he asked.

Derek shook his head, “Definitely not, you need to tell them before Cheryl does something stupid. It is always better to be on the offensive than the defensive, and here you are on neutral ground, it won’t be as difficult as telling them in your home.”

Tracy nodded, “I know you’re right. Will you come with me?”

Derek nodded and they walked out of his office to face Tracy’s family.

Shelly’s reaction was better than Vani’s. Derek thought Vani was ready to go challenge Cheryl to a fist fight, but she finally calmed down enough to allow herself to think and she came up with a couple of different plans. Both plans involved Vani going directly to Cheryl and affirming that since she seemed to be ignoring Tracy’s requests, Vani would be addressing her, not just as his sister, but as his attorney as well. Tracy insisted Derek go along, if nothing else, to keep Vani from becoming violent.

As they were working out a plan for
Cheryl, Derek’s phone rang and the display on the screen revealed it was Alex calling. He took the call and listened silently. He nodded a few times, as the three other people in the room waited anxiously to hear what Alex had found at the hotel. After hanging up, he told them Dorothy had indeed come to Nashville alone, with a very small bag. She arrived in a Taxi and the clerk reported that she was very naïve when trying to obtain her room. She told Alex that it was almost as though she had never done it before.” Derek said.

“She probably hasn’t.” Shelly said. “Has Alex gone to her room?”

Derek shook his head, “No, he got everything from the clerk. She hasn’t left the room, she had pizza delivered last night, but nothing today so far, that was according to the day clerk.”

Shelly shook her head, “She must be scared to death. Okay, I’m going to go over there and talk to her.”

“Momma, no!” Vani and Tracy said in unison. Vani continued, “I’m sure the press is watching the place like buzzards waiting to hone in on road kill.”

Derek held up his hands, “Why don’t we have Alex bring her here?”

Shelly shrugged, “I’m not sure she’d go with him.”

“Do you think she would go with him if you called her and told her you were sending a friend over to pick her up?” Derek asked.
  “ I mean, she has met Alex so it’s not like he’s a complete stranger to her.”

“She might, it’s worth a try. But if she refuses, I
will
be going over there.”  She said with a pointed look at her children, “I’ll just put on my blonde wig and sunglasses.”

Derek nodded, “She’s in room 317, Tracy, have you got the number on your desk?”

Tracy walked to his desk, picked up the phone and dialed the number. After a brief pause, he asked for room 317 and handed the phone to Shelly.

Dorothy had not left her room since she arrived. It was nicer than any room she had ever been in her whole life. The bed was the biggest she had ever seen, the most comfortable she had ever slept on—it was like sleeping on a fluffy cloud. No springs poking her already aching back, enough blankets to stay warm and cozy... she had surely landed herself in heaven.

If that wasn’t enough, there was a little refrigerator that even had a freezer, a microwave, a coffee pot, an iron and ironing board, a real hair dryer, they had even put shampoo and mouthwash in the bathroom. She had a beautiful recliner, a small couch that looked brand new and a television with more channels than she had time to watch. As far as she was concerned, she could happily stay here until the money she had was gone.

She felt so fortunate that Kimmy Sue Connor traveled occasionally to Pittsburgh and Charleston and had told her they always ordered pizza in their room to save money. She was starving when she got there, had immediately looked in the phone book and knew it was her lucky day when she found a Papa Isimo’s. Papa Isimo’s served her favorite pizza. There was only one in Raleigh, but whenever they could afford to splurge and buy pizza, she always wanted one from there. Lucky for her, BJ and Billy Joe liked their pizza too. When she called, they had a special, and she got two medium pizzas and two big bottles of soda pop for twenty dollars. She could eat for at least three or four days on that.

When the phone rang, she was afraid to answer it, what if it was Billy Joe or BJ? She decided she would answer it, but not the way she usually answered the phone, maybe they wouldn’t recognize her voice. She picked it up, “Yes?” she said
pleased with herself to have thought to say that.

“Dorothy?” The woman’s voice on the other end of the line
asked.

“Who’s calling please?” Dorothy asked, pleased with herself that she didn’t think she sounded anything like herself.

“Dorothy, it’s Shelly Shepard.”

Startled, Dorothy forgot about disguising her voice, “Look, I didn’t take all of that there money you left, no matter what Billy Joe done told you.”

Shelly closed her eyes and squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Dorothy, Billy Joe didn’t call me.”

Dorothy wasn’t convinced, “Then how did you know I was here?” she asked.

“Your picture was in the newspaper this morning.” Shelly answered.

Dorothy’s heart sank, “Why in the world would anybody be puttin’ a picture of me in the newspaper?” she asked.

Shelly laughed, “They thought you were me.”

“But I don’t look nothin’ like you. You’re beautiful and I’m...”

Shelly smiled, “Thank you, but you do look a lot like me, Dorothy, that’s why they took your picture, they thought you were me.”

Now Dorothy laughed, “Now Miss Shepard, I know when someone is a pullin’ my leg—and you are a doing it right now.”

“Dorothy, I’m not pulling your leg, but I did have a reason for calling. I would like for you to come and spend some time with me this afternoon, then have dinner with me. Do you think you could do that?” Shelly asked.

Dorothy thought about this for a moment, she didn’t have anything to wear to see someone famous. “I don’t know, Miss Shepard, I didn’t bring my Sunday clothes with me, alls I got are jeans and t-shirts.”

Shelly wasn’t taking no for an answer, “Jeans and a t-shirt will be fine Dorothy, truly. I’d really like to have some time to talk to you. I’ve got on jeans and a t-shirt too,” she lied as she glanced at Vani, who was staring wide-eyed at her mother who was dressed in a short dress by Gucci and nine hundred dollar Prada’s. Vani rolled her eyes and Shelly turned her back to Vani to continue the conversation. “It would be nice to visit with you, I think.” Dorothy was saying.

Shelly wasn’t giving her a chance to change her mind. “Great, I’ll have a friend of mine come over and pick you up and bring you to my
house in about an hour. Would that be alright? His name is Alex. You met him when we were at your house.”

Dorothy really had no choice but to agree.

When Shelly hung up the phone, they all looked at her expectantly. She threw her hands up in the air. “If I bring her to the house, it will scare her to death.”

Derek looked at his watch, “Where do you want Alex to bring her?”

Shelly tapped her lip with a beautifully manicured pink nail. “The farm. She won’t be intimidated at the farm. Vani…” she turned to Vani, who cut her off as she was dialing her phone. “Already on it Momma.”

Derek looked at Tracy, confused. Tracy laughed, “Vani and Momma have a kind of telepathy, Vani knows what Momma wants before the words come out most times.”

“What do I tell Alex?” Derek asked.

“I’ll text the directions to his phone, tell him to pick up Dorothy in an hour.” Shelly called as she and Vani ran out the door.

Derek was confused, he looked at Tracy, “Told you telling them about Cheryl was a good idea right now.” He laughed.

Tracy laughed too, “Yes, it was a good idea. Do you want me to fill in the blanks for you?”