A Penny Urned
Chapter One
Lula Mae Wiggins drowned in a bathtub filled with champagne. She was fully clothed. It happened on New Year's Eve.
Though someone had sent me a letter, I wasn't informed of her death until a full three months had passed, thanks to my ex-husband, who returns all my mail unopened. Fortunately the delay was no cause for added grief. Lula Mae was my daddy's second cousin, or something like that and had never been a part of my life. Frankly, her name didn't even ring a bell.
"It was cheap champagne,- Mama said that day we got the fateful call from Savannah. "The kind you kind buy from Food Lion for $3.75 a bottle."
"How do you know?" I asked. We were playing Hearts with Wynnell and C.J., two of my closest friends and coworkers. I had just been passed the queen of spades and was trying to maintain my cool.
Mama grinned. It was she who had passed me the queen.
"The coroner said so. He said the taste was sweet enough to set your teeth on edge"
"Did he taste it?" C.J.. asked.
"Yuck ," Wynnell said. "Did he?"
"I don't rightly know," Mama said, and passed me the ace and king of hearts. "I didn't s ... read full excerpt from Penny Urned, A ebook