Last Chance Beauty Queen by Hope Ramsay Read Free Book Online Page A

wait for you?” Miriam said.
    Lessie giggled like a schoolgirl. “You know,” she said, “you don’t want to wait too long, dear. The biological clock just keeps ticking, and if you don’t pay it any mind, you might find yourself an old maid. And besides, everyone knows it’s a blessing to be one of Miriam’s matches. Those marriages never fail. Ever. So you listen to her advice, you hear?”

CHAPTER
4
    C aroline guided her oldest brother’s Ford pickup into the parking lot at the Red Hot Pig Place, a low cinder block structure out on the two-lane state road that stretched between the towns of Last Chance and Allenberg.
    The Pig Place served real barbecue, not that tomato-based garbage that most suburban barbecue places served. The pork hash at the Pig Place was made with vinegar and pepper sauce, the hush puppies were guaranteed to clog your arteries, and the slaw was creamy and delicious.
    For all that, Caroline, who was constantly watching her weight, would have preferred a restaurant closer to Orangeburg where she and Rachel could get a decent salad. But Caroline knew how much Rachel loved barbecue. And Rachel never had to worry about her weight.
    Rachel was acting kind of weird tonight. She insisted that they take the back corner booth, and once they were seated, she kept looking around and jumping every time someone came through the door.
    “Hey, Rache,” Caroline asked once their platters of hash had arrived, “what’s up?”
    Rachel looked down at the checkered tablecloth, her shoulders slumped, her hair down around her face in a way that hid her beautiful peaches-and-cream skin, her incredible topaz eyes, and her amazing bone structure.
    Rachel didn’t think she was pretty. Caroline had been trying to argue her out of that belief ever since she could remember. But then Caroline knew the treachery of looking into mirrors. Somehow they always managed to reflect back every fault.
    She reached forward and patted Rachel’s hand. “Honey, what’s happened? What’s wrong?”
    Rachel pulled her hand back, picked up her fork, and played with the hush puppies on her plate. “They’re cutting corners at the chicken plant,” she finally said.
    “Cutting corners?”
    She nodded and finally looked up with a truly tortured look on her face. “On safety. And I’ve been worried sick about it. I shouldn’t even tell you. You’ll probably tell someone in Columbia, and the whole thing will come crashing down on me. I don’t want to be responsible. I just want my job. But I want things to be right at the plant.”
    “Are you talking about OSHA or food safety?”
    “A little bit of both.”
    “Holy smokes.”
    “Yeah, exactly. What should I do?”
    “You have to call the authorities.”
    “But, Rocky, Mr. Marshall seems really preoccupied these days, and I hate to say it, but he hardly ever shows up for work. I never really thought Hettie Marshall was married to a lazy man but…” Rachel let her voice fadeout and popped a hush puppy into her mouth. She closed her eyes and chewed.
    There was nothing like hush puppies from the Pig Place to provide immediate comfort, and about two thousand calories each.
    “You have to tell the authorities. Lives might be at stake.”
    Rachel swallowed her food and took a sip of her sweet tea. “But if I call the authorities, they’ll close us down, and I’m not sure we’ll ever reopen. And if we don’t reopen, I don’t even want to think about what will happen to Last Chance.”
    The hush puppies in Caroline’s stomach turned to lead. “Of course you’ll reopen.”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure. I don’t think Mr. Marshall is in a very good financial position. I think he took a big hit during the economic downturn a couple of years ago, and the plant is hanging on by its fingernails. To make things worse, Mr. Marshall doesn’t seem to be working very hard at keeping us afloat.”
    “That’s not good.”
    “No, it’s not.” Rachel leaned in and spoke in a