Free Coastal Cottage Calamity (A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery Book 2) by Abby L. Vandiver Page B

miss the most.”
    I laughed and
turned back in my seat.
    “Why is she going
to miss people and pie?” Miss Vivee asked.
    I turned my neck
and glanced back at Koryn. Wasn’t sure if I should share her news, but it was
Miss Vivee. I leaned over and said, “She’s moving to Nevada.”
    Miss Vivee glanced
over her shoulder at Koryn.
    “When?”
    I hunched my
shoulders and picked up the menu. “Not sure,” I said. “But soon.”
    “That’s why you
hadn’t ordered nothing, Mac?” Viola Rose asked coming back, order pad and pen
in hand. “You were waiting on Miss Vivee?”
    “A gentleman
always lets his lady order first,” Mac was staring at Miss Vivee as he talked.
    “I’m not your
lady, Mac,” Miss Vivee said.
    “You were once,
and you shall be again.”
    “I do hope that
line was from a Shakespearean play, Mac,” Miss Vivee said her eyes perusing the
menu. “And in the play the person that says it gets stabbed in the heart by the
person he said it to.” She looked up at Viola Rose. “Bring us three iced teas.”
    “Make my iced tea
a coke,” I said.
    “I’m already one
step ahead of you, Logan.”
    “You’ve stabbed me
in my heart more times than I can count, Vivee.” Mac placed his hand over his
heart and dropped his head.
    “Pshaw.” Miss
Vivee said to Mac. She flipped the menu front to back and front again. “Why in
the world would they waste money to have these things printed,” She tossed the
plastic covered menu on the table. “It’s the same thing they’ve been cooking
for thirty years.”
    “Egg salad for you
then, I’m guessing,” I said.
    “If I didn’t eat
the horrid stuff when I come, it would all go to waste,” Miss Vivee said.
    Just then a
light-skinned, black woman walked by our table. Her skin was so fair she
could’ve almost passed for white. She was tall, shapely and had long red hair
and green eyes.
    “Who is that?” I
whispered. The town was small and I’d pretty much seen everyone because they’d
all come to the Maypop for some of Renmar’s cooking, but I hadn’t seen her
before. And far as I knew, Hazel and I were the only blacks in town until Bay
came home and then the total population of blacks spiked at three.
    “I don’t know,”
Miss Vivee said. Then she waved Viola Rose over. Grabbing Viola Rose’s arm, she
pulled her down close to her. “Who was that woman?” Miss Vivee said in a low
voice, forgetting her manners she pointed at her as she made her way down the
aisle to the door.
    “I don’t know,”
Viola Rose said. “She walked in here, ordered a tuna plate and didn’t say
another word. Was pretty interested in the flyer.” Viola Rose pointed to the
paper on the table. “But she’s mysterious, don’t you think?”
    “The Mystery
Woman,” Miss Vivee repeated and turned to look just as I heard the bell on the
door jangle, signaling she’d gone out of it. “I sure do hope that she’s not
another long lost cousin.”

 
    Chapter Fifteen
     
    “So why are we
meeting, Vivee?” Mac asked seemingly oblivious to our Mystery Woman concerns.
“Wanted me to tell you how beautiful you look today?”
    “Mac! Can you ever
just be serious? This is serious.” She leaned across the table. “My daughter
may be in trouble.”
    “Who? Brie?”
    “No. Renmar.”
    “What’s happened,
Vivee?”
    “She may have
killed Oliver.”
    Mac took her words
in with a jerk. He looked around to make sure no one was listening.”
    “You think Oliver
was murdered?”
    “Yes. I do,” Miss
Vivee said and sat back. “And so does the FBI.”
    This time it was
my body that jerked at hearing her words. The FBI didn’t think anything. She
was such a little liar.
    “And you think
Renmar did it?” Mac asked Miss Vivee.
    “Can you please
try to keep up, Mac? Really, my patience is running thin with you. You’re
starting to act just like Logan.”
    How did I get into
the conversation? I hadn’t even opened my mouth.
    “Tell me what
happened,” he said, his