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Had Poppy really been that careless, that conscienceless? I had never crossed Poppy. I had never had anything she wanted. Melinda, I noticed, did not look shocked at all.
I was dismayed and a little mortified by my lack of acuity.
"So you just pulled up to the house ..." I said, hoping to prod her into a more complete account of her actions.
Liza
Liza
"No thanks," we said in chorus. She laughed, and we all relaxed a little.
"I pulled up to the house, and the boys were in their car seats in the back of the minivan," she said. "I knew Bubba was going to be giving a speech that day, out of town, so there wouldn't be any danger of him driving by and seeing me. John David would be at work. I figured it would be a good time to talk to Poppy. I just wanted to let her know that I knew all about... them, and that I wasn't going to divorce Bubba without as much stink as I could raise." Liza
A little stu
"The second I learned about this affair, I started taking the kids to church every single Sunday. I wasn't so consistent before, but I haven't missed a sermon in five months. Wednesday nights, too. And Bubba hasn't gone with me twice, I bet."
Liza
"And I go to the same Sunday school class as Terry Mc-Cloud." Terry was another attorney in Lawrenceton. He was my mother's lawyer, so he would be conservatively excellent. "I speak to Terry every Sunday. I make a point of it."
By this time, I was gaping at the woman I'd thought I'd known. I didn't know if I admired her or if I was horrified. I didn't dare look over at Melinda.
"But I don't really want to get a divorce," Liza
"And did you go into the backyard?" I asked, sitting on the edge of the kitchen chair.
"Oh, no," Liza
"There was someone there," I repeated.
"Yes, I could hear them talking."
"Them?" Melinda said in a croak.
"Yes, them. Poppy and someone else."
"Who was it?" I felt as if the air in the kitchen were vibrating.
"Oh. I don't know. The radio was on, so I couldn't hear very well, but I could hear two voices, and the louder one was Poppy's."
"What did you do?"
"I went back and sat in the car. After about ten minutes, I went and knocked on the door again. But she still didn't come. So after a little bit longer, I threw the straps out of the van and drove away." Liza
"You heard her killer," Melinda said.
"What?"
"You heard the voice of the person who killed Poppy," I said.
"Oh, that's..." On the verge of saying "ridiculous," Liza
"I could have saved her," Liza
"Or," I said, not liking the way her color had changed, "you could have gotten killed right along with her, and your children would have been left out in the van all by their lonesome selves."
Liza
"Oh," she said, and that was all, but it spoke volumes.
I'd been sure that Liza
"Could you make out who it was?" I asked after a pause to let Liza
"No, I was so wrought up, and the radio was playing, and I was so angry..."
"Could you tell if the voice was a man's or a woman's?"
Liza
"Look at how angry you were," I said. "Do you think you were the only angry woman?"
"No, I reckon not," she said. "I assumed at the time it was a man's voice. Poppy's radio was on so loud—she was listening to NPR, like my daddy used to. Remember, Roe?"
Truthfully, I didn't remember what radio station Liza
"So, I guess I'll have to go to the police," she said after a moment. "I mean, if I really did hear..."
"You ought to," Melinda said, trying to make her voice gentle. Davis squawked, and Liza
"I guess I wouldn't be telling anyone anything they didn't already know," Liza
There were probably people in Lawrenceton who hadn't known that Cartland Sewell and Poppy Queensland had been having an affair (me, for example). But while I told myself that I enjoyed juicy gossip as much as the next person, this wasn't entirely true. Illnesses, inheritances, land transactions, job promotions—I was interested in all these bits of information. But sexual misdeeds, no, I didn't want to hear about them. I only knew the cast of John David's couch because Melinda had told me one afternoon when we were driving to Atlanta to shop, and I couldn't get away.
"Do you want Arthur to come here?" I asked, trying to sound offhand.
"That would be good. I have a lot of cooking to do; plus, I don't want to take the boys down to the police station," Liza
"Yes, I bet so," I said. Melinda handed me the phone, and I placed the call. Arthur didn't sound very glad to hear from me, which I could understand. I explained as neutrally as I could.
As I expected, he was angry with me. "You knew all along that Liza
"Well, we suspected." I was trying to sound mild and intractable, but that's hard to pull off. I just sounded stubborn.
"You're lucky I don't put you both in jail for obstructing an investigation."
Melinda was leaning close enough to hear that, and she looked at me with alarm written large in her brown eyes. I shook my head. No way was Arthur going to do anything like that. "On the other hand," I said, still trying for mild, "we happen to be over at Liza