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there. The main action would be in the back room, Wanda Nell knew. Jack left then, too, after giving Wanda Nell a quick kiss and a promise to call her if anything came up.
    Wanda Nell and Melvin were busy for a while, bringing trays of food from the kitchen to the back room. Melvin had set the food up buffet-style, and that made it a lot easier. Wanda Nell just had to keep an eye out to make sure the food didn’t run out, occasionally pick up discarded plates and glasses, and dodge a few roaming hands once the alcohol started flowing.
    She recognized a number of the men attending the party. One of them, she knew, was Mayrene’s new guy, Dixon Vance. She saw him in earnest conversation with another cop, a man she didn’t know. Most of the partygoers were in their late thirties and older, but one guest was about T.J.’s age. In fact, Wanda Nell decided, he had been one of her son’s classmates at Tullahoma High School.
    What was his name? She puzzled over it, trying to dredge the name out of her memory. She thought this young man and T.J. had been buddies at some point in high school, probably before T.J. started running wild and getting into all kinds of trouble. This boy looked like the type who never did anything wrong, though. His name would probably come to her later.
    At the moment he was busy drinking and talking to an older man Wanda Nell didn’t recognize. She studied the older man for a moment out of curiosity. He wasn’t very tall, maybe a couple inches under six feet, and his brown hair was thinning. He had a big bald spot on the crown of his head. He was dressed in a suit, and he sported a couple of expensive-looking gold rings, one of them a wedding ring. From the way he held himself, Wanda Nell figured he must be important, or at least he thought he was.
    Dismissing him from her mind, she continued to look around and tick off the names of the other men she recognized. There was young Dr. Tony Crowell, the son of old Dr. Crowell, who had been her mother’s doctor. Wanda Nell spotted the elder man in another part of the room. She would have to make a point of speaking to him. He had done everything he could for Wanda Nell’s mother before her death, and Wanda Nell was grateful to him for that. He had also been her own doctor for many years before he retired.
    She saw several other men she vaguely recognized as cops, and there were at least two men she knew from the sheriff’s department. There was some tension between the city police and the county deputies, and they didn’t always socialize like this. Thinking of the sheriff’s department brought to mind her nemesis, Chief Deputy Elmer Lee Johnson, who had been named acting sheriff a few months ago. He would fill in until the next election. She wasn’t too surprised he wasn’t here tonight. She couldn’t see him as the bachelor party type.
    Someone had brought a box of cigars, and several of the men were smoking them. Wanda Nell sniffed the air appreciatively. Her daddy had been a cigar smoker, and the smell of cigar smoke always reminded her of him.
    The air was growing thick with smoke, because more of the men had discovered the cigar box and were lighting up. Wanda Nell had quit smoking over two years ago, before her grandson was born. Having the cigar smoke closing in around her only made her want a cigarette. She went to turn on one of the fans Melvin had put in the room. The resulting circulation of air cleared some of the smoke away.
    Next Wanda Nell went to the kitchen for more roast beef and ham, and when she returned to the back room, she saw a few of the men gathered around a newcomer. They took turns thumping him on the back.
    The guest of honor, Travis Blakeley, had finally arrived.
    Wanda Nell glanced at her watch as she set down the tray of meats on the buffet. He was only fifteen minutes late to his own party.
    From her vantage point behind the buffet table she examined him. No one was