Nobody's Fool Y'all

44

Hadley flicked the flashlight quickly about the room.

"I don't see a phone," Lou Edna said.

"We're in the kitchen," said Hadley. "Maybe it's in the den."

They had just rounded the corner into the cottage's sitting area when they heard a car drive up. Doors on the car slammed. They heard the muffled sounds of arguing.

"Ohhhh, criminy," said Lou Edna.

"Over here," Hadley said.

"That's a closet. Are we going to hide? I thought we were going to get help," said Maury.

"These people are mad. You heard them. They're furious. Probably drunk. What if they're the ones who have been shooting off the guns?" Hadley whispered. "Do you want to explain to some furious drunks why we're standing in the middle of their home dressed like flappers who've been drug through the dirt behind the tractor in the tater rows for the last forty miles?"

There was a loud knock on the door.

"Molly! Gol durn it! Open up!"

"We've got to hide!" said Hadley. "He's going to knock the door down!"

Hadley opened the door. She shone the flashlight into it.

"There's enough room in here for all of us," she said. "Get in."

She shoved Maury and Lou Edna inside.

"Stop squishin', Hadley," Lou Edna said. "We're packed in here tighter than three hippos in a one-inch cube."

Lou Edna was right. The closet was smaller than Hadley thought. It was impossible to close the door completely. Good to hear whoever entered the room, but impossible to see anything. She left the door slightly cracked and prayed no one would notice.

More heavy rapping.

"You think your wicked stepmother will cough up the dough?" someone said.

It was a woman's voice. Gosh, the acoustics were great in this closet, Hadley thought.

"Shut up, Nylette. How the heck do I know!"

"Aw, lover, don't be such a bugger bear," Nylette said. "Brother will think you're mad at me."

"Brother doesn't care one way or the other."

That was Percy Loveless! Hadley would recognize that high-pitched nasal whine anywhere!

"She better hack up a wad," a third voice said. "Otherwise, the auditors are gonna find enough dirt to bury us all."

Male. Hard to say. The voice was familiar. Definitely not Percy's.

"Knock louder," Nylette said.

"Maybe she's croaked," the other man said.

"You better hope not," Percy said. "If there's a will, you know for darn sure I'm not in it. She'd rather leave whatever's left to the sewage company than to her stepson!"

The sounds of loud knocking almost ruptured Hadley's eardrums.

How did that door manage to hold in its hinges?

"Hold your horses!" a deep female voice bellowed from the back of the cottage. "Can't you give a body a second to get to the door! Stop that pounding! You'll awaken the dead! I'm coming! I'm coming!"

Hadley heard the clomp of heavy footsteps on the bare wooden floors.

"Sugar shucks and pig ruts! A gal can't get a decent wink of sleep around here," the lady said.

Hot breath tickled Hadley's ear. She almost jumped out of her skin.