In Hell: When Love Kills A Small Town Mystery

Chapter 31

"Hon, you look about as washed out as a gully during monsoon season," said Rosie when Cash entered the café.

"I've been talking to some of the old-timers," Cash said. "You don't look too busy. Gotta few minutes?"

"Cash Matstock. Don't you even insinuate I'm one of them. I've got decades to go before you'll be able to put me in that category. These aren't wrinkles. They're just laugh lines that got drunk and partied a little too hard. And don't you forget it."

Rosie was smiling. Her cheerful banter was one of the reason's the café's business had been good for all of these years.

"Never, Rosie."

"Always for you. What were you talking to white-haired-girdle-and-truss brigade about?"

"The night Mama died."

"Oh," Rosie said softly.

She wiped the counter with mechanical motions, slowing to a stop. Her face grayed. Her eyes widened incrementally. Cash couldn't be sure, but he thought her hand started shaking. She quickly jammed her painted nails into her uniform pocket. Her posture became rigid, and she nervously bit her lower lip.

"Can I get you a soda or something, Cash?"

"No, thanks."

Cash picked at the corner of a paper napkin that he'd pulled from the silver-colored holder.

"So, what do you remember ... about that night?"

"Well," she said, "it's not something I like to dwell on. It was horrible. Just awful."

"What do you remember?"

Rosie stared at the counter. Her voice was flat.

"The siren sounded, and I woke up. I just knew the plant was burning up. A place like that is nothing but a conflagration stew just waiting for one little spark. I got dressed as fast as I could and drove down there."

Rosie shuddered.

"It was over by the time I pulled into the gates. Course, there was a crowd. There was talk. I remember it struck me as the oddest thing. Everybody was speaking in whispers like we were all in church or something. People were being told to go home. Nobody knew anything much except that Maddie had been murdered.

I remember standing there. Numb. Unbelieving. Tears were pouring down my cheeks. Nothing like that had ever happened around here, Cash. At least not in my lifetime.

I remember looking up into the vast night sky and wondering what could possibly happen next. Virgil had already been carted off to jail. I stood there until one of the deputies told me there was nothing to see. That I should go home. I felt all hollow inside. I don't even remember driving back home. But I do remember a heavy weight bearing down on me. I knew it wasn't over. The next morning, the headlines screamed what had happened. It was just awful. Just awful."

Cash's face was a blank mask.

"What were they saying?" Cash asked.

Rosie looked away.

"Come on. Tell me what were they saying?"

"That Virgil did it," she said. "I'm sorry, baby, but that was the general consensus of everybody back then. We all came out for your mama's funeral. They put her away real nice. Real nice. The preacher had the kindest words for her. And the flowers. You've never seen such bouquets."

Cash was silent for a moment.

"Everybody loved your mama, hon. Everybody. I remember when, oh this was years ago, your mama and daddy had just got hitched. Just a few weeks, and Miss Dixie took sick."