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Wanda Nell said. “Elmer Fudd for a brother.” She laughed. “I bet he’d love that.”
    Jack grinned at her. They didn’t speak again until they were outside the Sheriff’s Department. They made their way to the car. Jack had parked in one of the few patches of shade, and the car wasn’t as hot inside as it could have been.
    They sat for a moment, letting the car cool down. The ride to Mrs. Culpepper’s house would take about three minutes. She lived on Main Street, just about three blocks from the town square. Since the library was farther down Main Street, it made sense for them to stop at Mrs. Culpepper’s first.
    “If we’re lucky, Belle will have some cold lemonade or iced tea,” Wanda Nell said as Jack backed the car out of the parking space.
    “I could go for that. This heat is something.” Jack pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to mop sweat from his forehead.
    A couple of minutes later Jack pulled the car into the driveway at the Culpepper house. Every time she saw it, Wanda Nell still felt a bit overwhelmed. She had grown up with two hardworking parents, living in either a trailer or a very modest house, and the Culpepper house was a stark reminder of the difference between her and Bobby Ray’s growing up. A beautiful antebellum mansion, the Culpepper house had been in the family for generations, and the antiques it contained were worth a fortune. All the time she was married to Bobby Ray, Mrs. Culpepper had never let her forget all that.
    The old woman had mellowed in the last couple of years, and Wanda Nell was grateful for that, mostly for the sake of her children. Mrs. Culpepper was their grandmother, after all, and they should be part of her life, especially since Wanda Nell’s parents were gone. Wanda Nell had finally realized, too, just how lonely Mrs. Culpepper had been, and the attention from her grandchildren had worked wonders on her personality.
    Belle answered the door, and her plump face split into a wide grin the moment she saw them. “Howdy, you two. My, aren’t you both a sight for sore eyes.” She stepped aside to let them enter. “I tell you, Wanda Nell, I think you’re looking younger and even more beautiful since the wedding. Lucretia and I were looking at the pictures just the other day, and Lucretia was saying to me, ‘Look at that girl and how pretty she is. I don’t know when I’ve seen a more beautiful bride.’ ”
    Neither Wanda Nell nor Jack attempted to stem the flow. They had both known Belle long enough to realize that nothing short of the Last Trump—or her cousin Lucretia—could stop Belle from talking once she got going.
    Wanda Nell was still blushing and Belle still talking when they entered what Mrs. Culpepper had always called the drawing room. The old lady was sitting in her favorite chair, and she smiled at them as they entered. The smile dimmed slightly as she glanced at her companion.
    “Good Lord, Belle,” Mrs. Culpepper said, her tone milder than usual, “Wanda Nell and Jack will be deaf soon if you don’t stop all that yammering in their ears. Take some pity on their poor eardrums, and hush.” She motioned toward the sofa on her right. “Y’all come on in and sit down, and try to ignore the Tower of Babble, if you can.”
    Belle laughed. “Now, Lucretia, I swear I don’t talk half as much as you say I do. I was just telling Jack and Wanda Nell about you and me looking at their wedding photos the other day, and how you were saying what a beautiful bride Wanda Nell was.”
    “And so what if I was?” Mrs. Culpepper demanded. “I’ve got a right to my opinion, though the good Lord knows I have to take a shovel to the side of your head to get a word in most of the time.”
    Wanda Nell and Jack exchanged amused, but slightly exasperated, glances. This was what any visitor experienced, the constant verbal battle between the two women. Wanda Nell noted, however, the sparkle in Mrs. Culpepper’s eyes and the bloom of health in her cheeks.