Rubbed Out (A Memphis BBQ Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

apparently quietly slipped away and it was only Cherry and Lulu. Lulu took a deep breath.
    “Y’all, this is no way to handle a problem—you know that. Let’s think of another way that we can work around this,” said Lulu in as reasonable a tone as she could muster, considering the scene in front of her.
    Brody said through gritted teeth, “He insulted Sharon. I’m protecting her honor.”
    “Well now,” said Lulu in a determinedly cheerfulvoice, “this should be easily fixed. Reuben, if he can talk with you squeezing his neck, can apologize. Then Sharon can tell Reuben that he’s forgiven. And y’all can go back to cooking and having fun and enjoying this festival.”
    Reuben, oddly, seemed not really to be listening. He stared at something outside the booth. Sharon’s voice quickly brought his wandering attention back, however.
    “He’s not forgiven,” said Sharon with icy eyes. “Why would I forgive someone like him? Nasty, nasty man.” Her voice started rising again as she got herself riled back up. Lulu sincerely hoped that Flo had taken the girls off for a stroll. “And don’t be coming by our house anymore. We’re done with you, Reuben Shaw!”
    Reuben was somehow able to find his voice, although it didn’t sound as strong as it usually did, considering how Brody’s hands were clutching his neck like a vise. “Won’t go to your house. Don’t like it anyway.”
    This wasn’t the effect that Lulu had been hoping for. Sharon apparently took offense that her home was being insulted.
    “The very next time you do make your way to our house to pester us for one thing or another,” hollered Sharon at the top of her considerable lungs, “I’ll kill you!”
    Reuben made a sudden move and pulled away from Brody to lunge at Sharon, who shrieked more and jumped over to a tabletop. At this point, Cherry jumped into action. She hefted the plaster Elvis and hit it hard against Reuben’s head.
    Reuben stumbled and quickly sat down on the booth floor, looking dazed. That was when Pink Rogers, a Memphis police officer and friend of Lulu’s and the Graces’, entered the booth. He gawked at the sight of the blond woman on a tabletop, the stunned man on the floor, and Cherry holding the remnants of an Elvis. He quickly straightened up to his full and imposing six-feet-seven-inch height. “All right. What’s going on here? What’s all the shouting and…hitting? Cherry?”
    Cherry’s mouth comically flapped open and closed a few times.
    Pink sighed and caught Lulu’s eyes. “Lulu? I’m sure you can explain this all to me or make sense of all of this.”
    “We heard a lot of commotion in here while we were visiting next door, Pink. We rushed over and saw that these folks were all having…a disagreement,” said Lulu slowly.
    “A lively one, I’m guessing,” asked Pink grimly.
    “You might say so, yes,” said Lulu, smoothing down her floral dress.
    “I was trying to prevent that Reuben—that weasel of a man there—from attacking Sharon,” said Cherry, still flushed with anger.
    “It looks like y’all have been really going through some beer here,” said Pink, nodding his head at a bucket full of empty bottles. “I need you to calm down, pull your heads together, and stop acting out. If I have tocome back here to arrest somebody, I won’t exactly be tickled pink, you hear?”
    Sharon and Brody nodded, staring at the floor, but Reuben seemed hardly to be listening again.
    Pink stared at Reuben through narrowed eyes. “Look, fella, I’m talking to you, too. You seem to be at the bottom of all this. I need to hear that you’re going to turn things around. A festival is no place for this kind of acting out. There’s kids running around and there’ll be judges heading your way tomorrow or the next day. You’re going to straighten up, right?”
    Reuben’s lip curled back in a snarl. “I’ll do better than that. I’ll clear out for a while. Give these jokers time to see what real work