If Catfish Had Nine Lives(11)

            “Jezzie, you okay?” I said.

            She was still dressed in the period costume she wore for the skit—a yellow dress with a starched white apron. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a low bun and her pleasant face was free of any makeup. I didn’t think she ever wore any, which was only one of the things she and I had in common. We’d also both tried law school and both found that it wasn’t for us, and we both adored Cliff, though her adoration was strictly cousinly. Just the day before, she told me that Cliff was her favorite relative and that she was grateful he’d found his way back to me and to Broken Rope. I told her I was, too.

            “I’m fine, sweetie, just shaken up. The whole thing was so shocking. The skit happened, and then when Norman was supposed to be shot, he really was. Golly, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

            “I’m sorry,” I said.

            “No need for you to be sorry at all. Unless you were the one to pull the trigger, I suppose.” Jezzie laughed and then put her hand to her mouth. “Good gravy, Betts, why in the world would I laugh about anything at all right now?”

            “Stress, Jezzie. It happens. Don’t be hard on yourself for that.”

            “I’ll try not to be.” She sighed. “He was a nice fella.”

            “Did you get to know him?”

            “Only a little. We did the skit together, but I also saw him over at the campsite last night. I was going to talk to him, but he was busy with the ladies, if you know what I mean. Oh! And he was hanging out with Teddy, too.”

            “My Teddy?” I said, meaning my brother, Teddy.

            “Yes, that one,” she said.

            “I haven’t seen him today. Have you?”

            “No.”

            There was no reason to be concerned about Teddy just because neither Jezzie nor I had seen him today, but the circumstances did make me wonder about his time at the campsite with the murder victim.

            “What was he doing last night?”

            “I’m not sure. I saw him with Norman, but I also saw both of them flirting with the girls.”

            “Teddy and the girls,” I mumbled. Teddy’s ways with girls had frequently caused issues, both when he was paying attention to them and when he was ignoring them.

            “Yeah, he’s adorable,” Jezzie said. There was no added weight to her words, as if she wanted me to fix the two of them up—which was something I frequently dealt with. She was only stating a fact.

            I nodded.

            “Oh my, and the girls were so darn pretty,” Jezzie said. “One had the reddest hair I’d ever seen, and the other looked like a young Elizabeth Taylor.”

            Her description fit the two women I’d met at Stuart’s. I craned my neck to look for them so I could point them out to Jezzie, but I couldn’t find them anywhere.

            “Were they all together? I mean, were the girls together?” I thought back to the two women. Esther had said that she and Vivienne met only the night before. I hadn’t sensed any sort of bond between them, but I wondered about the logistics of them both potentially vying for the attention of the same guys.

            Jezzie seemed to be thinking about her answer, but I didn’t learn anything further from her, because Jim called her over to a spot next to one of the holding cells. Apparently, it was her turn to answer some questions. Once again, I was left to my own thoughts amid the bumps and excuse mes of the crowd. I pulled my phone out and called and texted Teddy, but didn’t make immediate contact either way. He’d call or text back when he got the messages. It wasn’t unusual not to reach him on the first ten or so tries.