With great reluctance, Lulu picked up the phone and dialed their Internet provider, World Net. She crossed her fingers that her call would stay somewhere in America. Whenever she was diverted to India, there was a tremendous language barrier—mostly with the technical help not understanding a word she said.
First, of course, she had to make it past the automated customer service representative. “Please tell me why you called today. You can say things like: about my bill or can’t connect to the Internet.”
Lulu hesitated. These programs could never seem to interpret her accent. “Can’t connect to the Internet,” she said carefully.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t understand that. Please tell me why you called today.”
“Internet!” said Lulu.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t understand that,” repeated the robotic voice on the other end of the line. “Could you please repeat why you called today?”
“Human!” It was time to cut to the chase.
“Hold on one moment, and I’ll connect you.” The machine sounded miffed, if that were even possible. Although, thought Lulu, some automated machines sounded more human than some of the people she’d gotten on the line.
Fortunately for Lulu, the call center apparently had a location somewhere in the South. Now the problem wasn’t that they didn’t understand
her.
It was more that
she
couldn’t understand
them
.
“Okay, ma’am. I’m sorry to hear about your problem today. First of all, let’s go to the start menu and click on ‘run.’ Then we’re going to type a command in.”
For a while, Lulu was able to follow, albeit slowly. Unfortunately, this changed not long after that. “Okay, we’re going to see if we can ping the external address interface.”
“Pardon?” asked Lulu.
“Well, it could be your modem or NIC card. Or maybe it’s the signal on our end, although we haven’t had any reports of outages in your area.”
Lulu grunted.
“Or maybe you have a virus,” said tech support.
Lulu was indignant. “I certainly do
not
! I feel absolutely fine. It’s not my fault the computer is acting this way.”
There was a pause on the other end. “I meant that maybe your computer has a virus—a Trojan or malware. Hey, let me ask you—is there anybody there who maybe is a little more familiar with computers than you are?” The tech support man sounded anxious.
“Ben can’t come because he’s working the pit.”
“Umm-hmm.”
“And Seb . . . well, this whole problem is Seb’s fault. And we don’t know where he is at all. I’m about to file a missing person’s report on him,” said Lulu.
“Okaaay.” There was another long pause. “Can you look and see if anybody else is there who can help us out?” This time there was a pleading note to the representative’s voice.
“Hold on just a minute,” said Lulu. She got up from the desk and peered out the office door. She was surprised to see Derrick in the empty dining room, sitting with his head resting in his hands. Wasn’t there school? Ella Beth and Coco were at school, she knew. With no time to really focus on truancy right now, Lulu called urgently to Derrick. There was no response. She called his name again. No response.
Lulu quickly remembered that when Derrick didn’t answer her, it wasn’t a cut and dried case of disrespect. No, it usually meant that he was plugged in.
Lulu strode right up to him and put her fingers to his ear. Sure enough, there was some sort of headphones plugged in there. She unplugged Derrick, and he lifted his head in surprise.
“Derrick? We have a computer emergency on our hands!”
Derrick had a confident air as soon as he sat down in front of the computer. Lulu smiled at his relaxed, self-assured manner. Lulu was sure the tech-support person on the other end of the phone line was relieved to have him there, too. Satisfied that her problem was in expert hands, Lulu focused on getting the dining room ready for the lunchtime crowd. Until, that is, the Memphis police came in. And they didn’t seem to be there for the half-price plates that law enforcement got.
Lulu laid her dishrag back in her wash bucket at the sight of Detective Lyndon Bryce’s freshly scrubbed face. “Mrs. Taylor? Hope you’re doing well this morning. I just wanted to check in with you about your son.”
Lulu’s brow wrinkled. “About Ben? He’s cooking ribs in the kitchen right now. You’re welcome to talk to him while he works.” Her mind spun. What the heck could the police want with Ben? Everything was falling apart around her ears.
Detective Bryce shook his head. “No, ma’am. We’re actually interested in speaking with your other son. Sebastian Taylor.”
Lulu put her hands on her hips. “Well, if you find out where he is, you let me know. I’m interested in speaking with him, too! He’s vexed the life out of me today.”
“He’s not here?” asked Bryce.
“Afraid not. He was
supposed
to be here yesterday afternoon and this morning. But he’s off gallivanting somewhere, I’m sure. And now we’ve got computer issues out the wazoo!”
Detective Bryce appeared to not want to delve too far into the computer problems plaguing Aunt Pat’s. He handed her his card. “If he does come in today, could you please call me and let me know? Or have him call me directly.” He registered Lulu’s anxious expression and added gently, “It’s strictly procedural, I promise.”
Lulu puffed out a sigh of relief. “Well, I am glad to hear that. He’s mischievous, mind you, but I don’t think he runs around killing people he hasn’t even met. I’ll be sure to give you a call if I see or hear from him.”
A waitress hurried by, carrying a big tray loaded with ribs with all the fixings. The sergeant’s stomach rumbled.
“Sweetie, do you need a meal? Here . . . Pam, can you grab a to-go plate for the sergeant here?”
The sergeant, with a swift, sideways glance at Detective Bryce, shook his head. “Um, no, ma’am, I shouldn’t . . .”
Lulu patted his arm, “Now, hon, it’s not poisoned or anything! You don’t have to worry your head about that. We cook with love here.” After a beat of hesitation, Lulu said, “And a plate for Detective Bryce. Because his stomach is next in line to grumble, I’m guessing. Nobody can resist the sweet and spicy smells from Aunt Pat’s kitchen.”
A few minutes after Detective Bryce and his sergeant had made their departure Derrick poked his head out of the back office. Lulu blinked with surprise at his pleased smile.
“It’s up and running,” said Derrick.
Lulu whooped and gave him a hug that made him gasp. Ben stuck his head out the kitchen door. “What was that noise? Did a wild animal get in here?”
“Just me,” said Lulu, “getting excited over the fact that Derrick is a computer genius. He’s got the computer back online.”
Derrick looked hesitantly at Ben.
But Ben whooped, too, and gave him several hearty thumps on the back. “Excellent job, Derrick! Excellent job! Once I finish getting this takeout order done, I’ll run in there and do some ordering. We’re going to be in big trouble if we don’t bring in some more stock.”
Derrick said slowly, “Uncle Ben, if you like, I could give it a try. I saw the sheet listing the inventory you wanted to order. And the software doesn’t look too hard to figure out.”
Ben’s face had a relieved expression on it. “That would be fantastic, Derrick. I’m . . . uh . . . not sure why you’re not in school, but you’ve saved Aunt Pat’s today. Another twenty-four hours of this and we’d have had to tell everybody we were out of half the menu before they placed their order.” He looked at the wall clock. “I’d better get back into the kitchen.”
Lulu said, “And I’m going to treat Derrick to some milk and cookies before he gets started ordering from vendors. I think he needs a little break.” Ben nodded absently and pushed through the kitchen’s swinging door.
If anybody needed some grandmotherly TLC, it was Derrick. She wasn’t sure what the status on his actual grandmothers was, but she was always happy to step into a role that she really enjoyed. In a few minutes time, she’d settled Derrick in a rocking chair on the screen porch with a plate of chocolate chip cookies, a tall glass of milk, and two very interested Labradors.
After rocking quietly for a few minutes (the better to munch cookies), Lulu said, “I really appreciate your helping us out this morning, Derrick. I don’t know what we’d have done if you hadn’t stepped in. The tech-support people would be ready to shoot me by now.”
“No problem. I like computers. And I was glad to help you out.” He scratched B.B. behind his ears. “I’m sorry I’ve given you a lot of trouble,” he added in a muffled voice.
“Trouble?” scoffed Lulu. “You’ve been no trouble at all.”
Derrick looked sideways at Lulu. “Well, you know. The police fine for that vandalism.”
Lulu arched her brows. “That desire to express yourself artistically? With highway overpasses as your palette?”
“And then I stole those garden gnomes from that lady down the street.”
“A wayward beautification effort,” said Lulu.
“And all the speeding tickets, of course,” added Derrick.
“You have an admirable bent toward punctuality,” Lulu helpfully interpreted.
“And now I’ve cut school the last few days,” finished Derrick.
“Maybe because the shock of the murder has left you feeling sick and upset?” This analysis was apparently more on target, since Derrick nodded in agreement with it.
They rocked quietly again, Lulu waiting on him to speak first. “Aunt Sara is worried about me,” he said slowly. “She knows something else that I did, but she didn’t want you to worry. I’d rather if you knew about it, though. The day Rebecca was killed”—his face flushed angrily as he said her name—“I didn’t go to school that day, either.”
“No?” prompted Lulu as he paused.
“No. I lurked around the restaurant for a while, watching from a distance. I don’t know why I was doing that. At first I told myself I only wanted to know how the barbeque tasting went.”
Lulu nodded. “Maybe we should have taken you out of school early that day anyway. To let you be part of it. Ella Beth and Coco, too.”
Derrick’s eyes shifted away. “That was only part of it, though. The other part was that I wanted to get back at Rebecca.” He reddened again.
Lulu stopped rocking. Would this turn into a full-fledged confession? Had this troubled boy done something to haunt him the rest of his life? “What
did
happen that night?” she asked. “The night before Rebecca Adrian was killed.”
He hunched his shoulders forward in his familiar slump at the memory. “It’s like she set me up to humiliate me. The Graces had left the Peabody and Tony wandered off, I guess to his room. Rebecca flirted with me and said she’d like to go out on Beale Street and see what it was like at night. So we walked to a blues club. People were dancing near the band, and I asked her if she wanted to dance. Then she started ripping into me. She had this weird look in her eye—like she loved every second of me being embarrassed.”
Lulu nodded. “That’s
exactly
how she was, Derrick. She also humiliated your Aunt Sara, Flo, and Miss Cameron, the writer and bookseller. That was her hobby—putting down other people to make herself feel good.”
Derrick considered this while he gulped down another cookie. Lulu bided her time, knowing he’d talk again when he was ready. Lulu was thrilled that Derrick was finally opening up to her. Ever since he’d arrived, he’d looked like the most miserable teenager that ever lived. But anyone abandoned by their own mother would have to feel that way. It made Lulu feel weepy just thinking about it.
She was fighting tears, thinking Derrick would not appreciate her pity, when she heard an ominous snarl. The Labradors edged back from them, and Lulu looked down to see tiny Babette growling at her with teeth bared. Lulu growled back, and Babette exploded in yipping, running behind Derrick’s legs. He scooped her up and held her, crooning until she calmed down.
“Well, I’ll be,” said Lulu. “Who’d have thought it?”
He shrugged it off. “Babette and I are buddies.”
“I wish I knew your secret. I keep having nightmares that Babette’s going to murder me in my sleep.”
“Yeah. It’d be a lot better if everybody liked me this much. That’s why Rebecca got under my skin so bad. I’d had enough of it. I get bullied at school since I’m new and don’t fit in. I’m not even sure how I fit in with Aunt Sara and Uncle Ben. They had me dumped on them and already have two kids of their own. Then, when Rebecca made fun of me . . .” He worked to get control of himself. “I’d had enough. I decided to get back at her. I followed her Cooking Channel truck to the Peabody. When she went inside, I slashed her tires.” He gave a huge sigh as if a large weight had been taken off of him.
“How did Sara find out about it, Derrick? Did you tell her about it?”
“No. Well—but she called right afterward, checking to see where I was. So I came out with it.”
Lulu gave him another cookie. It was amazing how fast they disappeared. And that Derrick stayed beanpole thin. “I think,” said Lulu slowly, “this is a good place to turn things around for you. We
want
you here, Derrick, and are happy to have you as part of the family. You don’t know what a huge help you were today.”
She took a deep breath, “But to move ahead, we’ll put the past behind us. Do the police know you slashed Miss Adrian’s tires?”
He shook his head.
“I’m guessing Sara is completely overwhelmed and doesn’t know what to do. We should let the police know,” said Lulu firmly, “as soon as possible. They’re bound to find out anyway, and it’ll be much worse if they have to come to you first about it. Is there anything else you need to let the police know?”
Derrick shook his head, and his long bangs flopped into his eyes, covering them. Lulu watched him wearily. The secrets everyone kept exhausted her. “Just you running around with a killer on the loose gives me the chills.” Lulu was being literal—she rubbed her hands against her arms to warm herself up. “Now listen, because I want you to be sure—how about the murder scene? Is there
anything
you saw at the hotel? Anything that the police need to know to help them solve this case?”