Free The Sassy Belles by Beth Albright

Harry?”
    “I don’t know…I just have a strange feeling.”
    “About what?”
    “About Lewis,” he said.
    We sat down on the step, moonlight drenching the hydrangea
bushes that bloomed on either side, framing the entrance. The humid night air
kissed my skin and I took a deep breath. Lightning bugs dotted the darkness. I
remembered Vivi and me as children, chasing the glowing amber fireflies every
late spring evening when I spent the night there. We call them lightning bugs
down South. They go hand in hand with sultry warm Southern nights when the damp
humidity descends, the sun sets and the twilight sparkles with the flying
magical insects. We’d catch them in old Mason jars and bring them inside and sit
in the dark, telling ghost stories around the glowing jar, then we’d let them
go. I listened to Harry but lingered in the safe memory of my childhood for
another minute.
    “I don’t think that was Lewis tonight, do you?” he asked.
    I said no and asked him what he was thinking. He was rubbing
his fingers through his hair and saying he didn’t know, but he just knew
something was not quite right.
    “It’s just not clicking,” he said.
    “Harry, we’re both tired and we haven’t eaten. This day has
been about as crazy as it could possibly be. Let’s just put this to bed for
tonight, okay?” I was so exhausted all I could think of was a long, hot bath and
my down-filled comforter. But Harry needed to talk and so he did.
    “I don’t think that was Lewis,” he said.
    “I know, honey, that’s what Vivi said.”
    “I know, Blake…but that’s just it. If that’s not Lewis, then
where the hell is he?”
    Harry did not look exhausted like me. He looked wide awake. He
had that look in his eye that he always had when he was pursuing a case.
    “Harry, what are you thinking?” I asked. “That Lewis isn’t
dead?” I waited for a response but Harry was in another place in his head now. I
could see it.
    He looked straight up into my eyes. “Dead men don’t just up and
walk away. Lewis isn’t dead, Blake. I know him and this is typical Lewis. He’s
done so many things in the past and then come running to me for a bailout. I’m
sick of saving his ass. Not this time. He’s up to something again. I’m sure of
it. Somebody must know where he is. And I’m gonna find out who.”

6
    T he next morning, a ringing woke
me from the depths of sleep. It was one of those heavy slumbers that, when you
wake, it takes you a few seconds to realize where you are and what’s going on,
and the night before is still clinging to you and leaving its essence in all the
wrong places. The tired was still stinging all over.
    It took another second for me to figure out that the ringing
was the phone and not the alarm clock. With my eyes still closed, I moved to
reach across Harry and answer when I realized that he wasn’t there.
    The digital clocked glowed 6:47 a.m. in the dim morning
light.
    “Blake?” It was Vivi.
    “Vivi? Hi, honey.”
    “I am just crazy.” She thought I needed a phone call to confirm
this? She continued, “Oh, my God. I am so sorry about last night.” An apology
bathed in embarrassment. “I was so tired I don’t even remember getting up the
stairs.”
    “Don’t you worry, it was a long day for all of us. Are you okay
this morning?”
    “Oh, yeah, honey, I’m always okay…you know, just nervous as a
long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs, that’s all. I don’t know what
to do next. Just pacing everywhere…waitin’ for the other shoe to drop. Any
word?”
    I was still on my stomach with the phone tucked under me,
pushed into my pillow, eyes still closed.
    “No word yet. I’m going to get up and I’ll meet you at Mother’s
at eight-thirty. Okay?”
    “Is Harry there?” she asked.
    “No, he must’ve left early.”
    “Oh…do you think there might be some news?”
    “He would let us know right away if there was. Try not to
worry. I’ll see you in a few.”
    We hung up