Rubbed Out (A Memphis BBQ Mystery) (10 page)

“I’m Dawn Brown and this is my son, Finn Shaw.”

She almost acted like she expected them to know who they were. And after studying Finn for a moment, Lulu thought she might. “Oh. You must be Reuben’s son and his…wife.”

“Ex-wife,” Dawn said briskly. “We wanted to talk to y’all for a little while…seeing as how you found Reuben’s body and all.”

The woman didn’t seem to be making any concession for the fact that Finn was there. You’d think that she’d be softening her words around her son. Even though she still
clearly had hard feelings for Reuben, his son might not share them. It was his father who’d been killed, after all.

They invited Dawn and Finn to take a seat and offered them food, which they turned down, and soft drinks, which they took them up on. Once they were settled, Dawn said, “The police were talking to us about what happened. Y’all were over in the booth next door and were messing around in Reuben’s storage area? The police were telling us about it and it didn’t sound right to me.”

Lulu sighed. It didn’t, when you put it that way. It made it sound like she and Cherry had been snooping around. Or even worse, like they were possibly responsible somehow for what happened. “We were. I know that sounds funny, but we were searching for a missing tarp that I wanted to hold over my head while I ran through the rain for the parking lot. We’d seen a lot of tarps coming and going next door, and Cherry said that the things for our booth and the things for Reuben’s booth were right next to each other when they were putting the booths together.”

Cherry nodded. “We thought they might have accidentally taken one of our tarps, so we walked over to the storage area to see if we could find it.”

Or that Reuben had snatched one of their tarps to try to make trouble. And at that point they didn’t really know much about Sharon and Brody and what kind of people they were, either.

Dawn nodded like it made better sense to her. Maybe she was thinking that Reuben might have taken the tarp, too. “And he’d been stabbed,” she said in a conversational tone.

Lulu and Cherry both winced, thinking of Finn. The boy simply seemed tired, though—the harsh words didn’t cause him any change of expression.

“I’m afraid so,” said Lulu quietly. “It was a really terrible evening. We’re very sorry,” she said.

“Don’t feel sorry on my account,” said Dawn, waving a dismissive hand. “There were plenty of times when I’d have liked to have killed the man myself. Especially since he wasn’t pulling his weight with Finn.”

This uncomfortable conversation was abruptly interrupted when Ella Beth and Coco came racing into the booth. “The Graces should have won!” said Coco.

“Y’all had the best ribs here,” said Ella Beth loyally.

Flo and Evelyn gave the girls a hug and Cherry said, “Aren’t y’all sweet for saying so! Are you doing one more walk-through today?”

“Where’s Derrick?” asked Lulu.

Derrick came in, much slower-paced than the twins had. “Here I am,” he said. “Guess I don’t have quite as much energy as Coco and Ella Beth. We were checking in and saying hi.” He gazed curiously at Dawn and Finn, and Lulu quickly made introductions.

“What are y’all planning on doing?” asked Lulu.

“We’re going to check out all the different booths,”
said Ella Beth. “There was one that we saw when we were with Flo that we wanted to show Derrick. It was a triple-decker with a white picket fence with pinwheels stuck in it that sort of resembled a clubhouse. Then there was a booth where you could make crafts, so we thought we’d go by there. And the main stage has bluegrass music playing now, and is going to have a rock band a little later. We also were going to get some cotton candy because Coco said she was dying for some.”

“Blue cotton candy,” said Coco.

Finn was wistful as Ella Beth listed their plans. Despite his height, he was very boyish with gangling arms and legs that he didn’t seem to know what to do with. “Finn,” said Lulu, “have you had a chance to walk around the festival at all? Get a feel for it? It’s really a lot of fun—good food, interesting people.”

Finn shook his head, but watched his mother cautiously, as if not sure if he should admit that he’d been at the festival but not really explored it.

“Why don’t you go with Derrick and the girls for a while? Sounds like they’re going to go have fun. Might be a good chance for you to see what it’s all about,” said Lulu.

“And eat cotton candy!” said Ella Beth.

Finn gave his mother a hopeful look.

Derrick said, “Sure, that’s fine, if he wants to hang out with us.” He cast his eyes down, a little shy, but Ella Beth and Coco were already chiming in. “We can show
you the best places to get food here,” said Ella Beth. “And where there’s some fun stuff to do,” said Coco. Clearly, they were going to be competing with each other to see who could show Finn the festival better.

After Finn left with the kids, Dawn stared after him for a moment. Then she gritted, “I guess I should feel sorrier than I do. About Reuben’s death.” She cleared her throat and stared at the temporary flooring that made up the bottom of the Graces’ booth. “He did give me a beautiful son. We had some good years and good times together.”

The bitterness was never very far away, though. “The reason I sound so uncaring is because he basically abandoned us. He changed overnight. Next thing I knew, I was searching for a place to work…because I wasn’t going to be able to make it as a preschool teacher single mom. He never did send along the child support he was supposed to. How was Finn going to go to college on
my
salary?”

She dropped into a brooding silence and the other women gazed uncomfortably at each other. Lulu said, “That’s real hard, Dawn. But Finn seems to be a fine young man, so you must be doing something right.”

Dawn’s small eyes gazed at her blankly as if unable to see where she could possibly have done something right. “Well, that’s what we call a miracle,” she said finally, “because between Reuben and me, I’d say we’d messed that boy up.”

Flo said, “Were you able to end up finding a job and keep your head above water, then?” It was said in the tone of someone who really wanted to know how the story ended. Flo had gone through tough times of her own, and she was a sucker for an inspirational story.

“I found a job, but I wasn’t really qualified to
do
anything. Ended up working a few part-time jobs. No benefits and I’ve got health problems, so it’s been real rough. Rough on Finn, too. Wouldn’t have been so bad if Reuben had helped us out some.”

“This might sound crass,” said Lulu, slowly trying to think through her words before saying them, “but do you think…well, the will…”

“Do I think that we might get money from Reuben’s will? I’d be surprised if he even had a will at all. That’s one guy who thought so much of himself that I bet he never thought he would actually die. My grandpa never had a will, either, and when he passed, his estate had to go through probate court—which was a nightmare for my mama. I bet it’ll be the same thing for Reuben. After it makes its way through court, there won’t be much of his ‘estate’ left—but maybe Finn will at least get something.”

“Having a booth at the festival is pretty expensive,” said Evelyn. “If Reuben didn’t have a lot of money, how would he have managed it?”

Dawn shrugged. “How would I know? I guess he either charged it to a credit card or the other teammates footed the bill.”

Lulu said, “You mentioned that Reuben changed overnight. Do you know what made him change? Was it really overnight?” This wasn’t the first time she’d heard that Reuben had turned into a different person in a short period of time.

“It really, literally was overnight. One day he was fine and dandy. We even went out with friends that evening. The next day, he wouldn’t look me in the eye and everything started going downhill from that.” Dawn shrugged. “I figured he must have met a woman when he was out that night. Why else would he change that much and that quick? But I never have seen or heard of another woman spending time with Reuben. Maybe it didn’t end up working out for him. I hope it didn’t. Maybe she messed up his heart like he messed up mine.”

“How did y’all end up at the festival?” asked Cherry. “Did you know that Reuben was going to be here?”

“The head of the preschool where I work has a booth—he has one every year. He likes to have a lot of team members so that one person isn’t spending all their time cooking. He was kind of pressuring us all to sign up, so I went ahead and did it, and signed Finn up, too. Lately, it seemed like we weren’t doing any fun stuff at all, so I thought it would be a good way to do something different. I didn’t know Reuben would have a booth here, too.”

“Is that something he usually did?” asked Flo.

“Not at all. He’d talked about doing it for years, but it
never happened. Sometimes, during happier times, we’d come to Rock and Ribs together and we’d sample the food at different booths…Reuben always managed to get us an invite into booths. When he wanted to be, he could be real charming. But after we’d taste the food, Reuben would always be scornful about it—not in front of the people who gave it to us, of course. As soon as we left, though, he’d be saying how much better his own ribs were or his own special sauce. Reuben could really brag, and he was very competitive. He was a good cook, too. I guess this year he finally decided to enter,” said Dawn.

“Did you run into him here?” asked Lulu.

“I didn’t. Too bad, because I’d have been able to give him a piece of my mind. He wasn’t real good about returning the messages I left on his machine. The police, of course, were interested to hear where I was when he was killed. It wasn’t our shift, so Finn and I were taking in the festival and all the booths,” said Dawn. “Too bad for us. Now we don’t have an alibi except for what we can give each other.”

“Well, I guess I should be heading back. I’m supposed to help with the booth cleanup now that the festival is wrapping up. Seeing as how it’s my boss, I’m trying to be especially helpful.” Dawn gave a pained smile to show that she didn’t really feel like being helpful. “Do you mind sending Finn to our booth when he comes back? Thanks for offering to have your kids take him around. He doesn’t get to do much that’s fun.”

After Dawn left, Cherry said, “What do you make of all that, Lulu? She sure is a sourpuss, isn’t she?”

“I guess she has reason to be. It sounds like Reuben really gave her a rough time—especially with her being sick and all. And with trying to raise a son all by herself,” said Lulu.

“Do you think she could have done it?” asked Flo.

“Why would she have, though?” asked Evelyn. “What would she get out of it? She said that the man didn’t have any money. And if he was dead, he wouldn’t have the opportunity to start working again and make the money she needed to get for child support. It sounds to me like Reuben was worth more alive than dead to her.”

“Unless that bitterness of hers caused her to lash out at him. The need for revenge can be a powerful thing,” said Lulu.

“Now we know she had the opportunity to do it,” said Cherry. “And she had the motive to do it, too—she clearly couldn’t stand the guy.”

“So what’s left?” asked Flo. “Motive, opportunity…”

“And means,” said Lulu with a sigh. “I’m thinking that getting her hands on a butcher knife at a barbeque competition wouldn’t have been hard for Dawn at all.”

About forty-five minutes later, Finn did come back with the kids. He was a lot more relaxed than he had when he left, although his eyes quickly clouded with worry when he asked where his mom was.

“She’s headed back to your booth to help clean up,” said Lulu. Then she added gently, “The last couple of days must have been really hard on you.”

Lulu saw Finn’s lower lip tremble for half a second before he steeled himself again. “Yeah. It’s been harder than I’d have thought it would be. Of course, Mom says Dad totally shafted us and we shouldn’t care that he’s gone.” But his words came across more as a question than a statement.

Cherry said stoutly, “Well, of course you’re going
to be sad about your dad. He was your
dad
, no matter what.”

“And you shouldn’t feel disloyal to your mom for feeling that way,” said Lulu.

Finn smiled gratefully at them. “Thanks,” he said gruffly.

Finn shifted, and Lulu was trying to think of a way to change the subject when Morty came over from the booth next door. Ella Beth and Coco, who had busily been telling the Graces about their time wandering around the festival, ran over to give Morty a hug. “Whoa!” said Morty, taking a couple of exaggerated steps backward. “You girls have gotten so big that you’re gonna topple this old guy over. What’s your mama feeding y’all? You’re growing like weeds!”

“Lots of barbeque, I think,” said Lulu with a smile.

“And you’ve got a new young man with you, too?” asked Morty.

“His name is Finn. We showed him all around the festival,” said Coco.

“And we ate cotton candy,” said Ella Beth.

“Indeed you did! I see cotton candy stickiness right there on your sleeve,” said Morty.

“Morty is a musician,” said Lulu to Finn. “He sings and plays several different instruments.”