The Sassy Belles Read Online Free

lost, like Little Orphan Annie. Harry looked
exasperated, but there was something else hiding behind his frustration. At that
moment, Vivi picked up on it, too. Then, “Oh, Harry! Are you thinkin’ he could
have still been alive?”
    “My client did not call an ambulance right away,” Harry
answered officer Dooley. “Instead, she called my wife, Blake O’Hara Heart.”
    Oh, shit, I thought to myself, now
using Vivi’s vocabulary. With his statement, I knew that I would definitely be
dragged into the investigation. I also knew that I would never forget my tenth
anniversary.
    I turned to Officer Dooley. “Yes, Vivi was trying to call me.
But my husband, Harry Heart, was the first to speak with her.”
    “One moment, Officer Dooley, would you, please? All of this is
so sudden that we haven’t had a chance to speak with each other,” Harry
said.
    While Dooley crossed his arms impatiently, we moved to the back
of the little office and I leaned in and whispered to Vivi to keep quiet for a
second. That would take a miracle all its own! I then looked at Harry and
discreetly said, “You remember that you were in fact the first one to speak to
our client after the fact? Remember? I was still at the school.”
    “Yes,” he said. Well, Vivi tends to rub off on people, and I
was sure Harry was the one thinking Oh, shit in his
own head now.
    * * *
    Clearly, we were all still in a mumbo-jumbo state of
shock. We continued to whisper while we watched Vivi fidget.
    “But I’m her attorney,” he said, looking at me in
desperation.
    “But you weren’t at the time,” I reminded him.
    “It doesn’t look good, Blake.” Harry’s voice had become firm.
He didn’t get angry often, but you knew it when it happened. Harry was feeling
trapped.
    I heard Officer Dooley tapping his pen pointedly against the
desk. So did Harry, who didn’t want this next bit to be overheard.
    “Excuse us, Officer Dooley, for one moment. I need to confer
with my co-counsel,” Harry said.
    “Why don’t I just put my pen down for a second,” Officer Dooley
said.
    Harry took me by the hand and pulled me just outside the door
of the musty little office. Vivi stayed up front with Officer Dooley, still
fidgeting uncomfortably, shifting from side to side, crossing then uncrossing
her legs.
    “Blake,” Harry began, “first and foremost, I am Lewis’s
brother. Second, I am now Vivi’s attorney. That, in and of itself, is strange,
considering my connection to them both. But the idea that, after the…deed…I’m
the first one she calls? Me, of all people, who has the worst possible
relationship with Lewis? This screams conspiracy! It shouts premeditation if we
have a dead body over there. It further implicates her and jeopardizes her. And
when it comes out that I haven’t spoken to Lewis in over six years, it begins to
implicate me! Blake, this could put my career in question. My eventual run for
the Senate will be shrouded in this controversy.”
    Harry stopped abruptly. The depth of the situation had
overtaken him.
    “Harry, snap out of it!” I said, squeezing his arm. “Lewis had
been charged with investment fraud and you distanced yourself from him. There’s
no crime in that—it just proves how respectable you are, not wanting to
associate with such a person, brother or not. But your cell phone will register
the call from Vivi and what time it came in. All of her missed calls to me will
register, as well, with the times they were missed. The truth will be easy to
prove, so there’s just no point trying to cover it up. Now, I have been her best
friend since third grade. Harry, we both know she didn’t do anything. This was
all just a terrible, unfortunate accident if anything—and, well, a bit
disgusting.”
    Harry’s face softened and he gave me a little nod. We both
hurriedly returned to Vivi’s side.
    Harry cleared his throat and began more calmly, “Vivi McFadden
did not call an ambulance right away. She tried to call my wife and