04 Lowcountry Bordello Read Online Free PDF Page B

Olivia. I didn’t want to go shouting through the house, get arrested for trespassing.”
    “What the hell, Robert? Why didn’t you tell us that to begin with?” I asked.
    Olivia gaped at him.
    “You were there?”
    “Well, yes, and I’m not proud of it. Skulking around strangers’ houses…But as you can see, I’m quite alive.”
    This was getting messier by the minute.
    “This just keeps getting better,” said Colleen. “What we need is popcorn.”
    “Did you go into the front parlor?” I asked.
    “Yes. But I most certainly did not see a body.”
    “So you turned on the light?” I asked.
    “No. I had a flashlight.”
    “You didn’t see anyone else?” I asked.
    “No, but I heard doors opening and closing, footsteps, creaking floorboards, when I was in the back of the house. Other people were there. I just didn’t see who.”
    “How much of the house did you go through?” Nate asked.
    “Just the downstairs. I wasn’t in there more than fifteen minutes, tops. I started to go upstairs. But then I felt ridiculous, following my wife around, going uninvited into someone’s home.” He reddened. “And I guess I was afraid of what I’d find upstairs. Usually that’s where the bedrooms are.”
    “Robert Pearson.” Olivia mustered indignation. “How could you think such a thing?”
    “Well, what was I supposed to think?”
    I said, “So Olivia went in and headed straight upstairs. You came in fifteen minutes later and looked around downstairs. You came back out at roughly seven thirty. Then what did you do?”
    “I was aggravated at myself. Mad at Olivia. I drove back to Isle of Palms and waited for the eight-thirty ferry. The babysitter couldn’t stay past nine.”
    “Getting back to the body,” I said. “Olivia, when you saw it, why didn’t you call 911 right then?”
    Mean Olivia reared her head. “Because then my children would’ve read in the paper that their daddy died in a whorehouse and their mamma owned it.”
    Colleen said, “You mortals would be so much happier if you would get over your obsession with what other people think. What other people do. What other people have. Like my granny always said, ‘Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy.’”
    Why, oh why had I said “no thank you” to that wine?
    “Olivia,” I said, “Campbell and Shelby are six and four if memory serves. I’m guessing they don’t read The Post and Courier much.”
    Olivia straightened, nostrils flared, all puffed up like a cobra ready to strike. “Oh, you know exactly what I mean.”
    I would’ve argued the point further, how somebody needed medical help, could maybe have been saved, except I remained unconvinced there’d been a body. I’d seen no evidence of it. I kept my voice calm. “What happened next?”
    She cut me with a nasty look, then turned to Robert. “I checked for a pulse. Several times. On his neck, his wrist. There. Was. No. Pulse. Whoever that was is as dead as a doornail. There was a gash in the back of his head. A big ole wooden pineapple with blood on it was on the floor beside him. I panicked. I ran out to the car and called Liz. A decision I deeply regret at this moment.”
    “Why didn’t you go get your Aunt Dean?” I asked. “And why didn’t you tell her about all of this afterwards, when we went back into the house?”
    “Aunt Dean has a bad heart.” Something about her tone did not have the pure ring of truth.
    “I can check on that, you know,” I said.
    “Why are you not on my side here?” she practically screamed at me. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”
    “Is she drinking that bourbon?” Colleen asked. “She needs a little more.”
    Robert said, “Olivia. Get ahold of yourself. You’ll wake the children. Besides that, if Liz wasn’t on your side, she wouldn’t have come and gotten you.”
    Nate’s easygoing tone had an edge. “I believe Liz has gone above and beyond the duties of friendship this evening.”
    I knew Olivia well. She