Wrongful Accusations - Chapter 4
My new secretary
Aunt Essie opened the door when Jerry and I arrived at her house. She had a very revealing black dress that showed a donkey butt that I never knew she had.
“Professor, what have you been doing?” I asked checking her out.
“You're not the only one with a StairMaster, Sandra. How are you, Jerry?”
“Very well, Ms. Essie, you look very nice. Congratulations on your retirement.”
“Don’t be trying to hit on my auntie.”
“Oh, Sandra, stop. You’ll never guess who’s here.”
“Your sister.”
“How did you know?”
“She’s standing right behind you,” my mother said, looking at me.
I hadn’t seen my mother since last Christmas, even though we lived not even 10 miles away from each other. She didn’t call me and I didn’t call her. We only got along because Aunt Essie insisted on it. I knew why I didn’t care for my mother but I had no idea why she didn’t like me.
“How are you, daughter? Jerry, I can’t believe you haven’t been able to talk Sassy into having kids by now.”
“Hello mother, and it is not up to Jerry to ‘talk’ me into having a child. Just because you and your other daughters decided to have football teams does not mean that I have to.”
“Sandra, you will not be disrespectful to your mother in my house. Will you please refrain from issuing such insults?”
“Yes, ma’am, I don’t want to ruin your party,” I said, hugging my aunt.
I turned to my mother and kissed her on the jaw. There were no more words exchanged between us. I grabbed Jerry’s hand and went in search of Harmonye and Melodye. I had seen Harmonye’s car in front of the house so I was hoping to see both of them. The twins were sitting on the couch in front of the plasma TV watching those bad kids on South Park.
“Haven’t you girls outgrown that mess yet?” They both turned and jumped up when they saw me.
“Hey, Sassy, how are you? Did you get our invitation? I love your hair. Did you just get it done? I love that nail polish, can I borrow it?” they simultaneously bombarded me with questions.
“Hold on, one at a time. First I’m fine, and yes I did get your invitation. I will see if I can work my schedule around your party. I’ve had this hairstyle for about a week and I’m surprised that it’s still holding up. After I got my hair done I got a manicure so I don’t have this color at home, sorry.”
“Okay,” they both said and turned their attention back to the TV. Wow, to be young again.
I drank martinis until Jerry looked at me with that look, and decided it was time to go. Then I went in search of my aunt to tell her good night.
She was in her bedroom sitting in a chair in the corner. Aunt Essie looked so sad and lost that it nearly brought tears to my eyes.
“Don’t just stand there, Sandra, tell me I’m making a mistake. Tell me that I’m going to be bored out of my mind if I leave the university. Tell me young people don’t want to read books written by a sixty-year-old woman whose life has been as uneventful as a cockroach.”
“Well, you’ve already said it for me.” She rolled her eyes at me. “If you want, you can come to be my secretary, I hate filing.”
“Thanks, sweetie,” Aunt Essie said, holding open her arms for me. “I’m sorry but I think you would be a terrible boss.”
“That’s what Cole Slaw said,'' I said, laying my head in her lap.
“Don’t pout darling, it doesn’t become you.” We both laughed.
My appointment with Mrs. Ayers wasn’t until 4, so I located the phone number of Ms. Alma Jackson, little Nedra’s sitter. Nedra went to preschool, so she wasn’t always in Ms. Jackson’s care. I wasn’t sure if there were other kids that she looked after but there was only one way to find out.
“Hello,” a young girl answered.
“Good morning, may I speak with Ms. Alma Jackson?”
“Who is this?” Rude little something isn’t she?
“This is Ms. Johnson, I’m a friend of Shannon Heard.”
“Then why are you calling here, Shannon lives down the street,”
“Well, Shannon told me that it was all right to contact Ms. Alma concerning an important matter. Can you please tell her I’m on the phone?”
“Oh, so you’re the lady that’s trying to see who killed the African booty scratcher.”
“Um, yeah. I don’t think calling him that is a very nice young lady.”
“So what, he was never nice to me.” I wonder why? Before I could respond, she was yelling at her mother that I was on the phone.
“Good morning, Ms. Johnson, is it?”
“Yes, ma’am. I assume that Shannon has told you that I may need to ask you a few questions concerning Mr. Bendele’s murder.”
“Yes, she has. I’m getting ready to drop my daughter off at school right now, but I could come to your office right after.”
“That would be fine.” I gave Ms. Alma directions to my office and ended the call.
Ms. Alma was my aunt’s age but from the large number of missing teeth, I could tell she was nowhere near as refined as my aunt.
“Good morning again, Ms. Alma. Is it all right for me to call you that or would you rather be referred to as Ms. Jackson?”
“I ain’t choice-y, baby, Alma is fine.”
“Okay, Ms. Alma,” I couldn’t just call a sixty-year-old woman ‘Alma’ unless I didn’t like her.
“What would you like to know about the African booty scratcher?” I held back a giggle.
“How well did you know Joshua Bendele?”
“Not too good. I just saw him every other Friday, when he came to my house to pick up Nedra. I tried to talk to him, but he wasn’t much for chit-chat so I said what I had to say and left it at that.”
“Do you have any idea why Mr. Bendele was so aloof?”
“A – who?”
“Not too friendly.”
“Well, why didn’t you say that at first?”
“Do you know why Mr. Bendele was not friendly?”
“I don’t know. He just always looked sneaky, like he was up to something. That’s why I used to try to talk to him to see what he was thinking, but I couldn’t get anything out of him. He was just rude if you ask me. I didn’t know what Shannon had seen in him other than…well, I don’t want to put Shannon’s business out in the street.”
Apparently, Shannon hadn’t told Ms. Alma about her ex’s tool-using inability. “Did you babysit Nedra the day that Mr. Bendele’s body was found?”
“Yes, I did and I ain’t killed him if that's what you’re getting at. He was a mean old so-n-so but that didn’t matter to me as long as it didn’t affect my pay.” I decided that I did in fact like Ms. Alma.
“Ms. Alma, you live down the street from Shannon, is that correct?”
“Yes, across the street, three houses down.”
“Were you home when the police were called to the scene?”
“Yes, I was, they woke me out of my sleep with all those sirens and folks talking loud on the speaker phones.”
“Was Shannon allowed to bring Nedra to your house or did you go get her?”
“That gal, um, what’s her name? Mallory brought Nedra down. She said that she would come back to check on her once she found out what they were going to do with Shannon.”
“Well, those are all of the questions I have, Ms. Alma, would you like to add anything?”
“Do you need somebody to help you with all this filing? I don’t see how you're not scratching yourself silly from paper mites.” I realized that I loved Ms. Alma.
“Can you start Monday?”
Check out the rest of the story. Wrongfully Accusations