Mama Cracks a Mask of Innocence (8 page)

Stella’s dark complexion was smooth. She was a bit overweight, had high cheekbones and wore a dark lipstick. She was wearing a white Polo shirt, a pair of jeans and white sandals. Her nails had acrylic tips, on her left index finger was a class ring.

“That’s a lovely class ring,” Mama told Stella.

Stella held her hand so that the light could illuminate the ring’s topaz stone. Irritation crossed her face. “I wanted Mama to get the money from Victor to buy the ring with the diamond in its center, but she wouldn’t do it!”

Her words made me wonder whether this was the tone she’d used when her stepfather slapped her face. If it was, I understood his anger.

We sat down. “Come sit next to me,” Mama suggested.

Stella eyed Mama suspiciously, then crossed over to the window. “I’m okay standing here,” she replied.

“Before we get started talking about my reason for this visit, Stella, I need to tell you that my daughter Simone is not a part of the agency. If you choose, she doesn’t have to be present while we talk. Would you like Simone to leave?”

Stella turned and stared at me. Then she shrugged. “I guess it’s okay if she stays.”

Nothing about her gave me the impression that she was the type who could be taken advantage of by her stepfather. Then, like the fall of a curtain, her
hostility vanished and Stella’s eyes filled with tears. “I spent hours with Brenda trying to convince her to call Miss Russell and tell her that she’d made a terrible mistake.”

Mama nodded kindly. “I’m here to help you get that straightened out,” she assured Stella. “I’ve already talked with your mother and she assured me that Victor never tried to molest you. If there’s nothing to Brenda’s accusation, there’s no reason that the investigation can’t be dropped.”

Stella wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice now signaling that she’d decided it was in her best interest to tell Mama what she wanted to know.

“Let’s start from the beginning,” Mama urged her. “Tell me exactly how this rumor got started.”

Stella bristled slightly. “I had a fight with my mama’s husband. Victor’s always on my case, always trying to make me do one thing or the other. I was mad and said something that made him slap me.”

Mama looked the young girl in the face. “Stella—are you afraid of Victor?”

Stella waved dismissively. “No way! That big ape is ugly but I ain’t scared of him.” She picked up a leather pocketbook from a nearby chair and took out a pack of chewing gum. She offered me and my mother a piece. We shook our heads, she unwrapped a stick and doubled it into her mouth, biting down. She wadded up the gum wrapper and dropped it on the floor. “Victor ain’t dumb. He’s left
mama and I don’t think he’s ever coming back to her. The only reason she married him was because he gave her plenty of money. All I asked her to do was to get money from Victor whenever I needed it, but my mama was greedy, she told me it’s to our advantage if she puts the money Victor gives her into the beauty shop!”

This girl has a serious problem
, I thought.
She doesn’t mind using her mother to get money for her
. I was glad Lurena refused to give in to her childish demands.

“When did Victor leave?” Mama asked.

“From Wednesday night when he learned that there was going to be an investigation, until Sunday, Victor was cursing about how he didn’t want nobody digging into his business. Mama tried to tell him that she’d get it straightened out but he was still carrying on like he was crazy until we got the news that Brenda’s body was found. That’s when he calmed down. I thought he’d decided that now that Brenda was dead, the whole thing about his so-called molesting me would be dropped. I guess Mama thought the same thing as I did because, on Monday evening when Victor didn’t come home from work, she called his boss. Boy, was she surprised when the owner of the trucking company told her that Victor had quit his job early Monday morning and told him that he was leaving town for good.”

“Let’s get back to when you last talked to Brenda?” Mama asked, her voice giving away that
she wasn’t interested in the way Victor had slipped out of town like a coward.

“Thursday afternoon,” Stella told her.

“Where?” Mama asked.

“Here, in this room.”

“Tell me about that.”

“I’ll have to tell you about Wednesday night. I saw Brenda and told her that I wasn’t going to Orlando with the class because my mama wouldn’t get more money for me to buy new clothes. The next morning, I ran into Brenda leaving the cafeteria. She told me that she’d decided not to go on the class trip too and that she thought it would be a good idea if she came over to my house after school so that we could talk in private. She knew my mother would be at the beauty shop and Victor would be working.” Stella paused. “When we got to the house I went into the kitchen to get cold drinks. When we finally sat down and began talking, I tried my best to convince Brenda that it just wasn’t true, that Victor or nobody else had messed with me. I couldn’t make her understand. God, she was hardheaded.”

I wondered whether she thought that her mother could very well describe her demands and stubbornness in those exact words.

“Anyway,” Stella continued, “I got her off my case when I told her that if they had an investigation I’d have to be examined by a doctor. I told her a doctor can tell when a girl has had sex and that after one examined me he’d confirm that I’d never
messed with a man and everybody would see that the whole thing was a lie. That finally got Brenda’s attention, when I told her that she stared like she’d been hypnotized. You’d think a smart girl like her would have known that already.”

“Let me make sure I understand,” Mama said, as if she was trying to put something together in her mind. “You told Brenda that you weren’t going on the class trip on Wednesday night.”

“That’s right.”

“And you told her your reason for not going was that you didn’t get the clothes you wanted.”

“Right.”

“Did Brenda tell you why she decided
not
to take the trip?”

Stella rolled her eyes. “She said something about staying in town to help a friend.”

Mama looked surprised. “Ah, now, do you know who that friend was?”

“It wasn’t me,” Stella said, her tone once again going back to that of an unruly teenager. “Do you know the kids at school are calling me one of those nasty girls who sleeps with one of her kinfolk.”

Mama cleared her throat. “How long did you and Brenda talk?”

“We got to the house at four o’clock. Brenda stayed until around seven-thirty, just about the time Victor came in from work. She said she didn’t like being in the same house with him, and she had an appointment at eight o’clock. I dropped her off.”

“Where?”

“Wesmart.”

“You drove straight to the store?”

“Yeah, but when we saw Clyde there, Brenda had me drive around the block a few times before I dropped her off. That was the first time she told me that when Clyde was in prison, he’d written her crazy letters, some threatening ones, and others begging her to forgive him. Brenda wasn’t scared of Clyde, she just didn’t want to see or talk to him.”

“Stella, this is important. Clyde told Abe that he was out of town on Thursday, the day that it’s been determined that Brenda was killed.”

“He’s a bald-faced liar—I saw Clyde Hicks on
Thursday
evening. I saw him and Brenda saw him.”

“What happened after you dropped Brenda off?”

“Nothing.”

“I mean, what did you do?”

“I went to Mama’s shop.”

“Did you tell your mother that you’d spent the afternoon with Brenda?”

“No way. Besides, it wouldn’t done any good.”

“It’s quite possible that you were the last person to see Brenda alive,” Mama said, as if talking to herself.

Stella didn’t say anything.

“Did you tell Abe what you’ve told me?” Mama asked.

“He never asked me.”

“I’ll have to let him know what you saw,” she told
Stella. Then Mama reassured the young girl that she would tell Hattie Russell that Victor hadn’t had sex with her and that she was sure that the investigation would be dropped.

When we left Stella’s house, Mama gazed out of the window for a while, like she was trying to get a fix on things. “There is something knocking around in the back of my head, but I can’t figure out what it is,” she confided.

“It’ll come to you in due time,” I told her. “One thing’s for sure, Stella busted Clyde’s alibi wide open when she saw him near the Wesmart on Thursday night.”

“I suppose we should tell Abe that he was near Wesmart.”

“Want me to stop by Abe’s office before we go home?”

Mama nodded absently.

When we got to Abe’s office, he wasn’t in. The county council had finally approved the hire of a young lady to work in the sheriff’s office as a dispatcher and secretary. Queenie was a perky young woman in her early twenties, with a wide smile and fiery red naturally curly hair. Mama left a note for Abe with Queenie saying that she had some information for him.

When we pulled into our driveway we were surprised to find Sarah, Annie Mae, and Carrie on our
front porch. The fierce rocking back and forth told us that our three visitors weren’t happy campers.

I was so hungry, I was beginning to get a headache. The sight of these women added insult to misery. “Oh, no!” I moaned.

Mama looked at me sympathetically. As usual, she seemed to read my mind. “There are slices of pot roast, and sweetened iced tea in the refrigerator. Slice a tomato and have a cup of orange sherbet. That should hold you over until dinner.”

I moaned again, but Mama ignored me this time and slipped out of the car. “Ladies,” she said in greeting to her three confidantes.

“Where in the world have you been?” Sarah Jenkins snapped. “We’ve been sitting here more than an hour waiting for you. You know I suffer from high blood pressure. Sitting and waiting could make it go up in no time at all.”

“I didn’t know you were waiting for me,” Mama said smoothly.

“It’s about the clothes drive,” Annie Mae jumped in forcefully. “You are supposed to distribute those things to people, you know. Clothes ain’t doing nobody any good sitting up in the community center.”

“You’re using our space at the center,” Carrie continued in the same agitated tone. “We can’t get in to do our sewing, or have our lunch, or to play bingo until you get rid of those things from the middle of the floor!”

“Besides that,” Sarah interjected, “Ray Raisin
been looking for you. He told us three or four times that he’s prepared to deliver those things to people if you just tell him who to give them to.”

“And we promised to help him and he’s anxious for our help.”

“Can’t help the poor folks of Otis or Ray Raisin if the clothes that were given for their use are locked up in the center, now, can we?” Carrie demanded.

Oh, boy
, I thought as I put the key in the lock and opened the front door.
Those three are here to lynch Mama
.

“Why don’t you ladies come in and have a glass of iced tea?” Mama invited graciously. The sound of her voice made me conclude that she had already come up with a plan to defuse their anger. “I’ve got a sour cream pound cake that hasn’t been touched.”

That’s it
, I thought.
She’s going to seduce them with something she’s baked
.

The women immediately got up from their rockers and followed us into the kitchen like puppies who had been to obedience school.

Mama walked over to the sink to wash her hands. I headed for the refrigerator. Mama reached into the cabinet and took out three large drinking glasses. Then she slipped three dessert plates down, took the top from her Tupperware cake plate and revealed the prettiest sour cream pound cake you’d ever want to see. It was perfectly golden brown. When Mama cut the first slice, the moist cake looked as if it beckoned you to it.

Now, you know that I was hungry, so you might think I’m going overboard in coveting this beautiful piece of baking. And whether Sarah, Annie Mae, and Carrie shared my hungry state, I don’t know. I do know that all three pairs of their eyes zeroed in on that cake.