“Oh, without a doubt. Room 106 every time.”
Sonny kept writing. “Okay, back to the events that led up to
the disappearance of Mr. Heart.”
“Well, I said goodbye to Lewis and hung up the phone. Then I
went upstairs and sprayed my entire body with rose water and told Arthur Mama
needed me at the center and I’d be back in a jiffy. He said, ‘Okay, Miss Vivi,
you tell her I say hello.’ I put the top down on my car and flew to my meetin’
with Lewis. When I got there, Lewis’s red ’72 Corvette was parked outside in the
back. He had already gone inside. I pulled in next to him. We always parked in
the back ’cause both our cars are a dead giveaway. Anyway, I walked to our room
about halfway down the sidewalk. When I got there I stopped for a second to
catch my breath and straighten my dress. When I reached for the door handle, I
realized it was already open.”
“What time of day was this?” Sonny asked, swigging his Dr
Pepper slowly.
“It was at eleven o’clock this mornin’.” Vivi had obviously
returned body and spirit to room 106. Her demeanor had changed. The alcohol had
subdued her normally frenetic pace.
“Go on. What happened next?” Sonny kept up the questioning.
“Well, my God!” Vivi yelped. “You know what the hell happened
next. Dammit, Sonny, just use your imagination!”
“Miss Vivi,” Sonny said, slow and steady, “we have no choice.
The details here are important. It could lead us to Lewis.”
“Vivi, remember,” I said, “the details are what will clear all
of this up and maybe lead us to what happened to Lewis. That has to be your
focus.”
“Okay,” she said. “Lewis was already waitin’ for me in bed. I
kicked the door closed and he revealed himself to me. He was deep into a
fantasy.”
“What do you mean?” Sonny said.
“He had a gun holster on,” Vivi answered directly.
“He had a gun?” Sonny shot back.
“No, no!” she said. “He had on a
holster.
He had no gun. But he did have a little surprise for me
where the gun goes.”
“What was that?” said Sonny.
“A toy,” Vivi answered, swigging her drink a little faster.
“What kind of toy?” Sonny was dead serious as he continued
taking notes.
“A sex toy, you idiot! A ginormous blue penis! We named it
Deputy Dick.”
I threw back the rest of my Bloody Mary in one gulp.
“I’ll have a double scotch on the rocks,” Harry announced once
he’d flagged down the cute bartender.
“It had fiber optic rainbow lighting,” Vivi explained. “Lewis
told me to grab it, so I slipped out of my shoes and pulled up my dress. I had
no panties on and my thighs were still moist from workin’ in the rose garden. I
began to perspire on my neck and the water rolled around and down under my
breasts. I unbuttoned my dress just enough so he could see I had no bra on
either.”
Sonny had a bewildered look on his face. He’d asked for the
details, but by no means was he expecting a play-by-play account of their sexual
escapade. He looked at me helplessly, and I tried to think of a way to get Vivi
to shut up without embarrassing her. But before I’d come up with anything, Vivi
continued to reveal her dirty little story.
“Lewis looked hungrier than ever. He said, ‘Hey, Red, save a
horse, ride a cowboy.’ You know like that song says? So I thought,
What the hell.
I slung my leg over and sat straddling
him with Deputy Dick in my hand. ‘Ride it first,’ he said, so I did. Did you
know that with each little movement that damn thing turned a different
color?”
“Vivi!” I said with my eyebrows up. There was no time to be
polite—I needed to stop her before it got any worse. “Stop! That’s enough. I
think that will do. You’ve said plenty.” I was talking with my eyes bugging out,
trying desperately to make her stop, but Vivi being Vivi and after a few drinks,
she just kept right on talkin’.
“Lewis threw me over on my back and crawled under the covers to
the end of the bed and started suckin’ my toes and lickin’ my calves. His body
was to die for—he had bulked up a little lately, trimmed down some. He was in
amazing shape, and those great big shoulders and that thick black hair… God, I
was so into him.”
“Can’t you stop her?” Harry mumbled to me as he took a big swig
of his scotch. “I don’t think she’ll ever get to the finish line. And this is
making me queasy.”
“Miss Vivi, please. That’ll be all for this part. Can we try to
skip to the place where he stopped breathin’. Please?” Sonny tried to redirect
her, but Vivi didn’t hear anything, she was lost in the story, unfortunately
reliving it for all of us like it was a sick skin flick. With all that had
happened to her today, none of us felt ready to be harsh with her. There was
nothing to do but keep right on listening.
“Lewis kept licking—all the way up to my thighs, then I felt
his mouth on my abdomen, sliding his tongue below my navel. Just as he was on
arrival, he slipped the toy out of my hand and flipped me back over on top of
him, and said, ‘How ’bout a ride on the real horse, Red? Let’s go for a trot.’
He was full of the devil! And I loved it. I positioned myself just right. He was
primed and ready. He started buckin’ like a wild bronco. I was bouncin’ up and
down when…when it happened.”
We all sat up, backs straight on our bar stools, bug-eyed,
mouths dropped open. I was afraid to ask, but someone had to do it. “When what
happened, honey?”
“When suddenly, I felt him stop,” Vivi continued. “No sounds.
No movement. No nothin’.” Vivi stopped talking. Her face dropped. She took a
minute and we were all sitting still in the hushed silence.
Then she added, “I looked down at him, and he looked a little
purple. But his eyes were open. So I…dismounted.”
By this time we could tell she was feeling her alcohol.
“I called his name out. ‘Lewis, Lewis!’ I got louder and louder
but he just turned bluer and bluer. I slapped his face and nothin’. So I jumped
up, and buttoned my dress and kept shoutin’ and shoutin’ the entire time. I
shook him and still he didn’t budge. So I reached across his chest to the chair,
grabbed my purse and fumbled for my cell phone and called Blake while running
out of the room to my car. I just started driving aimlessly. Not sure where I
was headed—I just knew I needed to be doin’ something. When I couldn’t get a
hold of Blake, I called Harry.”
“Vivi? You okay?” I said. She looked at me, her eyes drooping.
She heaved a big sigh. We all sat quietly. We had been through all of the
emotions. No one spoke. I could hear the noise of the bar, but the mood had
dropped. We all stared at Vivi. Sadness was hanging in the air like a wet drape.
It was a crushing heaviness suffocating us.
“Okay, Miss Vivi, is that your statement?” Sonny was trying to
remain professional, but I could see even he was shaken. “Would you like to add
anything else?”
I motioned to Vivi to say no, but she couldn’t focus anymore.
With all the Jack Daniel’s she had, she felt she needed to jabber.
“Mr. Sonny,” Vivi said, her eyes brimming with tears, “I never
meant to hurt Lewis. He is my dear friend. I love him. Please find him. He may
be out there confused. Maybe he had a seizure and when he came to, I wasn’t
there. Or he could have forgotten who he is. Please…” Tears now spilling down
her cheeks, she was like a child that needed to be held through the night after
a nightmare.
Harry shoved a hundred-dollar bill at the bartender, stood up
and straightened his tie. “Okay,” he announced. “I think my client’s done all
she can and, personally, I don’t think she’s physically able to do much more.”
He stood up and touched my shoulder. “We need to get her home.”
Harry said he would drive both me and Vivi in my car. We’d
leave his vehicle at the Tutwiler. He shook Sonny’s hand and helped Vivi down
from the stool.
“Thank you, Miss Vivi, you’ve been very helpful. We’ll be in
touch,” Sonny said.
I balanced Vivi on my left side and Sonny leaned down and
kissed my cheek. “Good seein’ you, Blake. Take care of yourself. I’ll be in
touch.” He turned to walk away and his cell phone began ringing. He kept walking
as he answered.
“Officer Bartholomew.”
Silence. Then, “Okay. I’m there in ten.”
He hung up and abruptly turned and looked at all three of us in
the twilight of the Tutwiler lobby.
Sonny cleared his throat and looked Vivi in the eyes as he
announced, “We’ve got a body.”
4
T
he chandelier in the Tutwiler
lobby could have dropped and none of us would have moved. We were frozen. I
looked immediately at Harry. This was possibly his baby brother. And though he
and Lewis had not spoken in years, I could see he was visibly shaken.
“Where is it?” Harry said.
“Washed up at the Cypress Inn out at the river,” Sonny
answered. “Some girl discovered it while taking a walk at the restaurant.”
The Cypress Inn was a longtime Tuscaloosa mainstay. It was
built up high on the banks of the Warrior River, and it had a beautiful walking
path that led down from the restaurant to the water.
Vivi started to cry at Sonny’s announcement. I held her still
with my arm tightly around her shoulder.
“No, no, no… It isn’t true, is it? It’s not Lewis, is it? I
don’t know what could have happened to him. Oh, I think I’m gonna throw up. Am I
gonna be charged with murder now, Blake?”
She was breaking down now and crying hard. I held her a little
closer and told her we weren’t even sure who the body was. She was shaking and
going into shock.
“Vivi.” Harry was trying to help her get hold of herself. “The
body has to be identified and the cause of death has to be determined, too.
Nothing is gonna happen until we do the ID. Let’s get over to the Cypress Inn
and see if we can get some answers. I’ll drive.”
Harry had a way of doing that. Taking charge. He was good at
it, especially in a crisis. He could turn off the feelings and purely
think—quite easily, actually. Sometimes I hated that.
We rode back over the bridge, back to the river for the third
time that day and headed to the restaurant. The drive was a total blur, but ten
minutes later we were all in the parking lot of the Cypress Inn.
Dusk is beautiful at the river. The reflection of the sun
shimmering on the water can take your breath away. Flaming pinks and soothing
turquoise draw blurry patterns across the indigo water. A liquid sunset. The
expanse of the river is wide and the bank is thick with trees and snaky roots
and kudzu vines that creep and crawl all the way down to the muddy water.
It’s a fast-flowing river, full of waves and ripples. It’s
thick with underbrush and debris, making it notoriously one of the hardest areas
for police divers to find anything. Or anyone. The Warrior is used for
transportation. Time here is marked by the occasional slow-moving barge pushing
coal up and down the river. Every so often, a speedboat races past, causing
heavy waves to lap against the banks. A beautiful old riverboat called the
Bama Belle
would paddle down past the restaurant till
sunset, when service would stop on the old vessel.
The
Bama Belle
was a sweet part of
the fabric of the river. It was just for show. Tourists and out-of-town family
loved it and kept it in business. But it was one of the main reasons I loved to
eat at the Cypress Inn, especially at dusk. It was beautiful to see the boat in
all her original glory just meandering along the curve of the river, on her way
home, straight toward the setting sun, with her paddle wheel churning the muddy,
ink-colored water below.
The Cypress Inn is built hanging off the hillside. All glass
and old driftwood, it looks like it has been there forever. Two stories and
facing the river, it’s built in a triangle shape so everyone can watch the river
while they eat their catfish and hush puppies.
Hanging baskets of azalea and begonias drip blossoms over the
outdoor porch. And the trees are thick with magnolia blooms big enough to hold
the spoonfuls of occasional afternoon rainwater that was a daily, almost
unnoticeable part of Southern springtime.
It was this gorgeous scene that we all stepped out of the car
to see, though the beauty of it was muddied by the dark reason we were all
gathered there. Harry left us as he jogged ahead to catch up with Sonny. I knew
he needed to see the body for himself. I also knew he wasn’t fully embracing the
possibility of what might actually be waiting for him at the bottom of that
path. But I was.
Vivi was mumbling to herself, “See what horny can do? You see?
If Lewis and I weren’t always so horny, I’d have beautiful roses on my supper
table tonight and Lewis would still be here.” She kept walking and mumbling and
looking at her feet as she stumbled to the path. She looked up at me. “Okay, I
know it’s not possible for us not to be who we really are, but I just cannot
believe that my last vision of Lewis alive will be with that holster on and
Deputy Dick in his hand.”
Vivi and I linked arms like two old women and walked down the
curvy stone walkway to the riverbanks. The footlights along the daffodil-strewn
path twinkled in the encroaching darkness. It led us, roaming, down the hill and
delivered us to the wooden planked bridge that guided us to the gazebo.
I heard the sounds of the sirens coming in the distance.
We located Sonny and found a small huddle of people standing
east of the gazebo and, at the center of the group, with bare shoulders shaking,
stood young Mandy Morrison, Tuscaloosa’s Miss Everything. She was head
cheerleader, Miss Tuscaloosa High School, Miss West Alabama Fair Queen…. She
had plans of moving to New York and launching herself on Broadway.
Seeing how distraught she was, I had a feeling this event might
slow things up a little.
Mandy, her mom, dad and younger brother were all at the Cypress
Inn celebrating her high school graduation and acceptance into a small liberal
arts college in New York when Mandy and her dad went for a little
father-daughter stroll along the river. They had stopped to smell the wandering
vines of honeysuckle when Mandy spotted the body—well, part of the body.
Right there, bobbing against the bank, was someone’s leg and
the lower half of their torso.
Vivi and I pushed into the little crowd of people just as Mandy
was recounting her unfortunate vision.
“I was just giving my dad a hug and, like, I looked over his
shoulder and I saw a leg! At first I thought it was, like, a log….”
Mandy kept talking…enjoying the attention even though she was
somewhat “grossed out.” As she kept up the frenetic, breathless encounter of her
graduation dinner surprise, Sonny took notes and the officers collected the
evidence.
Vivi and I peeked over the crowd of people now gathering at the
banks.
“For God’s sake!” she hollered. “It’s not even the whole entire
body! But
this
is the half I know best. No. No way
is this my Lewis.” Vivi could not keep it to herself.
Harry jumped in immediately. “This is not a good time to share
your opinions unless someone asks, okay?” He was clearly on edge.
Vivi looked up at me with her half-drunk eyes. She was purely
exhausted and it was showing. She pulled me down the bank away from Mandy and
the crowd and headed toward the river. “C’mon, Blake, I’ve got to get a better
look.”
“Vivi, say nothing unless it is in a whisper directly to me.
The last thing we want is to get you any more involved than you need to be. This
is critical.”
“I’ve got it, Blake. But if there’s a chance in hell this is my
Lewis, don’t you think I ought to at least try to identify the half of the body
that just washed up?”
“Honey,” I said, “I’m right behind you.” My curiosity had taken
over, too. I just had to see it, not that
I
would
recognize the half that just washed up. But down to the muddy riverbank we went.
I knew that with Sonny nearby, he would make sure we were able to slip through
the crowd without a problem.
We reached the edge of the river and there it was. Big and
hairy, it was definitely the leg of a man. Sonny joined us. We were on the
slope, and he was above us in the crest of the bank. At six-three he was a big
presence anyway. But up on that riverbank he loomed like a superhero there to
save us all. Vivi moved a little closer to him and leaned in as if in
secret.
“Sonny, it’s only half a body,” she said quietly.
“Yes, Miss Vivi, we’ve got that part figured out.”
Vivi stood between us, her head moving from side to side in
slow motion, in disbelief. Silence fell over us. The three of us stood there on
the banks of the muddy Warrior River under a darkening Southern sky.
Vivi broke the silence. “Well, thank God this is the half I
know best, huh? This is not my Lewis.”
She leaned in and squeezed Sonny’s arm and tears rolled down
her cheeks. We stood on the bank and watched the river roll. I looked at Sonny
and noticed his face had softened in the moment. He looked at me full on and
gave a little grin. I knew with his help we would all be okay.
Harry walked toward us in his determined, deliberate way. He
looked exhausted but still pulled together. His white oxford shirt still looked
as starched as it had been that morning, the silver wire frames sitting on his
nose sparkled along with the silver hairs sprinkled throughout his dark
hair.
“Well, the body part is already causing a problem.”
“Why, Harry?” Vivi asked. “’Cause there’s no dental record for
you?” Vivi smirked.
Harry then told us the police would perform the DNA tests in
the morning, and would try to match what they swiped at the motel room. He
wanted to talk to me alone. Then Vivi said she wanted to talk to both of us
alone.
“Well, I know when I’m a third wheel,” Sonny said and winked at
me.
“Do you have anything else for us?” I asked Sonny before he
walked off. I didn’t realize it, at first, but I was touching his arm.
“No, Blake, I’ll get in touch with you in the morning,” he
said. Something came over me. I squeezed his wrist and, I don’t know, but a
feeling of comfort swept in and it made me feel warm and calm. I looked up at
him and he was looking right through me. I let go and looked forward to the
morning.
“Okay, ya’ll. Listen to me,” Vivi began after Sonny headed back
up the banks. “That is not Lewis’s lower half. There is no way in hell. I would
bet my life on it.”
Harry and I were silent and looking at each other.
“Dammit! I
know
him. This is not
him! Believe me…that little thing would have
never
kept me coming back!”