To Live and Die In Dixie Read Free Page A

thing.”
    I repeated the words after him, while Edna’s fingers began to fly over the adding machine keys. I winced. “We can handle it,” I said, “but since this is a rush job and we’ll have to have several girls, we’ll have to charge our deluxe rate.”
    â€œWell, how much?”
    â€œLet’s see, four girls, plus myself supervising, figure six hours, rush rate…”
    â€œDoes he sound desperate?” Edna asked in a stage whisper. I shook my head yes. “Tell him nine hundred and fifty. We start at six and we’re out by midnight or he pays a two-hundred-dollar-an-hour surcharge.”
    â€œThat fee will be nine hundred and fifty dollars,” I repeated dutifully, “we’ll be there at six and—”
    â€œFine,” he said. “Have your people here at four P.M. , twenty-seven eleven Jasmine Way. I’ll be out but the florist will let you in. I’m assuming your people are bonded. There are a good deal of very valuable collectibles in the home. I don’t know if you know this about me, but my specialty is in Civil War artifacts. In fact, I’ve just acquired an old diary that may prove to be the finest thing in its field—”
    â€œWe’re bonded,” I said, cutting him off. I wasn’t really interested in hearing about some rusty pile of old guns and knives. “And my girls have never had any problems with breakage or pilferage. Good-bye.”
    I hung up the phone. Neva Jean beamed. “Nine hundred fifty bucks. That’s some job. Do I get a finder’s fee?”
    â€œYou get paid one fifty for four hours of work if you show up,” I told her. “Otherwise, you know the rules. If we get a callback from Littlefield, you get first shot at it.”
    I turned to my mother, who had pulled the phone back toward her. “Call Ruby right away before she goes to her missionary society meeting,” I told her. “I’ll get Jackie on the house phone in my bedroom. What about Baby and Sister? They could help with some of the dusting and the silver polishing.”
    Neva Jean snorted. “Ruby’s church choir left on a bus trip to Jesus World up in Charlotte last night. Remember?”
    â€œDamn,” Edna said. “That’s right.”
    â€œAnd Jackie’s a good worker, but she’s too scrawny to push big furniture around or deal with that floor-waxing machine. No way ya’ll can clean a house that big in only four hours. Tell you what. The ball don’t start till eight o’clock. I’ll work from four till seven. Edna, you can comb me out there, and Swannelle can pick me up on the way. He’ll want to leave by ten anyway, he always bitches that dancing aggravates his old softball injuries. I’ll have him drop me off at Littlefield’s on the way home.”
    â€œAnd?” Edna said expectantly.
    â€œAnd I get paid two hundred. In cash.”
    Edna and I exchanged glances. Neva Jean had us over a barrel and she knew it. With Ruby gone we’d need Neva Jean’s muscle. Jackie is fast and hardworking, but she only weighs about ninety pounds, and the Easterbrooks, Baby and Sister, who are both in their seventies, can only do so much. Sister’s legally blind and Baby’s almost stone deaf.
    â€œAll right,” I sighed. “But don’t you dare tell the other girls how much you’re getting paid. And you better be back from that ball by ten o’clock or I’ll come hunting for you myself.”

3
    E AGLE’S KEEP IS AN ATLANTA landmark: a Victorian Gothic behemoth that commands an entire block of Inman Park, dwarfing the not inconsiderate houses around it. Like every other crime buff in Atlanta, I’d read all about the mansion, its eccentric owner and the sensational murder that had occurred there in the late 1960s.
    Elliot Littlefield had been convicted of the murder of a young runaway girl he’d picked up on