Killer Realty (Chapter 2)

Chapter 3

Chapter Three


“Hey sugar plum!” Her dad greeted her this way for years.


“Hey Daddy.” She replied pulling her laundry hamper out of the back seat of her small car.


He walked over and took the hamper from her, always a gentleman. Her Daddy was the best.


“So I see you’re getting stuff ready for the tournament?” She nodded toward his work table that was covered in an assortment of strings and lures, tackle boxes and small tools.


“Yeah, guess you could equate it to my needing to go shoe shopping. Gotta get some new lures and maybe string. I don’t know how any of these old reels are going to hold up so I might even get me one of those.” He bought new equipment every year but rarely discarded the old pieces.


Lexianne laughed at her Dad. “Yeah I guess that are last years’ style, wouldn’t hurt to have some new ones. You know I could order you something online if you want?” She offered, knowing already what his response would be.


“Now you know as well as I do that these things need to be tried on for size.” He smiled at his only daughter knowing her love for shoes made her understand.


“I remember when you were little how much you loved to go fishing with the old man. You sure you don’t want to be my partner for this years’ tournament?” He grinned at her showing all of his teeth. Cheeky thing was trying to get his way.


“Dad you know I am too busy with trying to get this real estate business off the ground. I really have to make some sales or the broker I’m working under is going to think I’m not worth having around.”


“Yeah I heard about what happened earlier. You doing okay? I didn’t want to bring it up unless you wanted to talk about it.” He watched her face, but continued pulling string from his old reel.


“Yeah, it was pretty awful. I don’t think there’s really much to talk about though. Mr. Mizell got me out of there before I really had time to freak out. Thank you again by the way for sending him to me.” She tinkered with a few of the items on the work bench, not wanting o get emotional in front of her father.


“No problem sweetie, hey, hand me those channel locks would ya?” He pointed with a nod of his head.


She passed them over to him, watching as he was tightening the fishing string down with his teeth.


“I’m going to run and get this laundry started, you need anything else?” He shook his head no and she left for the laundry room.


“Hurry back.” She heard him yell as the door closed.


She started her laundry using her favorite soap with Lavender scent. The same brand her mother had used for years. It made her feel clean and safe all at the same time.


After the wash was going, it was a quick stop by the fridge for a bottled water then back out to help her dad get things ready for his trip.


Handing him a bottle, “So who is your partner for the upcoming Liars Festival?” She watched as her father smiled at her fishing joke.


“Mayor Thompson. He claims it would do his campaign some good if he were to get out and mingle.”


“That man ever even been on a bass boat?” She shook her head at the choice of partners.


“Well…” He shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “I didn’t pick him. He asked me. He said he really would like to go to this thing but didn’t want it to seem like a political move. So since I’m about the most uninvolved person there could be in the politics department he wanted to team up with me.” He reached out as she handed him another tackle box, without being asked.


“You are too involved in political circles. You have a lot of say in this county.”


“Yeah I have say, but I don’t let ‘em know I do.” He winked at her. “That’s the key to it all you see. So I told the feller yes.”


She smiled at her father and picked up a pole to start helping with the rigging. Her mother pulled up from the grocery store.


“Y’all come grab some stuff. Lexianne I thought we’d make that key lime pie since you love it so much. But then I got to thinking it was already so late so I bought one already made. I hope you don’t mind.” Her mother disliked buying anything premade. Lexianne actually preferred it.


“Mama you know I am trying not to eat that kind of stuff now.” She grabbed bags as they spoke.


“You’re withering away to nothing honey. One little ole pie won’t hurt a thing.”


Her mom was right she did love key lime pie and could probably devour one by herself, but she was wrong about Lexianne withering away. She still weighed 145 lbs. She was happy with it; at 5’8” she carried the weight well. She was comfortable but sure didn’t want to put on anymore. She had been on a strict diet since buying her home. The “I have no money diet”. It seemed to work in her favor. Sometimes she would opt for Starbucks instead of a meal. She knew it was bad budgeting but a girl has to live. And a Venti Chai Tea Frappacinno with no whip is living in this heat.


Lexianne and her Dad helped carry all the bags inside and placed them on the counter. “Help your mama,” he dad told her as he went back out to the garage to play. It was nearly dark he said but they had plenty of lighting. They could light the entire property up as if it were daylight. But her Dad had his ways.


“So…” her mother began; placing cold items in the refrigerator. “I heard you had a rough day. I thought you’d want to talk about it so I hurried back. Do you want to talk about it?” Her mom acted as nonchalant about it but Lexianne knew her mother. She wanted details. Lexianne was thankful to have someone she could talk to about it. She wasn’t quite sure she was allowed to. The police had not told her specifically that she couldn’t say anything but she was cautious due to the gossip line in this county. What if she told one other soul what she had seen? Then five minutes later it’d be plastered all over Facebook or Twitter. Nope she couldn’t talk to her friends about this. Her mother didn’t use social media and she had always been a faithful secret keeper for Lexianne. She knew that most moms were harder to talk to than hers and she was grateful for that blessing.


“Mom it was awful.” Lexianne had begun putting away random items. She placed the boxes in the pantry in rotation just the way her mom did. She placed the paper products on their shelf. Keeping her hands busy seemed to allow her to talk more freely. “I went in there with Mr. Mizell and his new wife. She isn’t so much younger than him like I would’ve thought. I really liked her.”


“Good,” her mom said, wiping off the counter for invisible specs of dust.


“Then I smelled something awful. I thought something had gotten in there and died but I had no idea it would have been a person. Somebody had flipped the breaker and it was hot as blazes in there and the smell was coming down the hall. I could not even breathe when I opened that door. He was all gross and nasty and I don’t even know who he was. He was dressed like a construction worker but I don’t know. I was about to freak out when Mr. Mizell came in and got me out of there. It was insane. I hope I never see another thing like that in my life.”


“I hope not either sweetheart. Would you like some tea?” Her mother had let her speak without interruption. She didn’t ask questions or offer advice, just listened; another thing to be grateful for because she didn’t know how to start over if she had stopped. The words just erupted from her and she thought she could smell the dead man again.


“Honey if you decide you need to talk to somebody about this I can give you a number, somebody besides me I mean” Her mother pulled her to her in a hug. Lexianne wiped away the tears that had started to fall and smiled at her mom.


“Let’s get into the pie.”


“What about that diet you like to watch?” Mom smiled.


“I’ll let it watch me enjoy the pie tonight.” That’s my girl, her plump but beautiful mother said.


Dinner was wonderful as it usually is at her mothers’ table. The pie was even better. Lexianne left about ten thirty with intentions of going to meet her friend for a drink but made a call on the way home to tell Becky that she was just too exhausted and beg to do it the next night.





“Of course, anything for you. Tomorrow is actually better for me anyway. Todd wanted to do a movie tonight. I’ll let him come over and enjoy my company.” LA laughed at her friends’ comment because she knew Todd was just one of several guys Becky had been stringing along. Becky was her nickname, Rebecca Strickland was a beauty and there were lots of men after her. She enjoyed the game too much to settle down anytime soon. She was exotic looking and well educated. She had a great income and her own life. She didn’t need another soul to make her feel complete. Lexianne was a little jealous, secretly. Plans changed.