Agent Mayeux pounded on the door. "Open up or I'll kick this thing in."
"I truly have to question your understanding of southern manners, Agent." I had to shout to be heard over the pounding. "Please just exercise a tiny bit of patience."
Expecting him to do nothing of the kind, I decided that my only hope was to dispose of the ankle monitor. Fortune could explain her way out of it—after all, she was the one who was supposed to be wearing the darn thing. I leaned out of the window, hoping to be able to see just how far I had to pitch it.
"Psst, Stephanie, down here."
Startled, I glanced down. Fortune stood just under the window. I didn't know if I was relieved to see her or supremely annoyed. Probably a good mixture of both.
"Hold on," she called in a stage whisper. "I'm coming up."
"There' s no time." Agent Mayeux was going to pop a vein if he caught Fortune climbing in the window. I held out the ankle monitor. "Catch this and then find a way to get in the house."
Agent Mayeux's voice thundered through the door. "I'm going to count to five. If you don't unlock this door, I'm busting it down. One."
I had no time to wait for Fortune to agree. "Heads up." And then I dropped it straight down. How that would look on the F.B.I.'s monitoring system, I had no idea. Frankly, at this point, I didn't care.
"Two."
"Don't you dare kick down that door," I yelled as I slid the window closed. "I'll be right there."
"Three."
I glanced down into the darkened yard but didn't see Fortune. "I'm coming." I ran over to the door just as he reached the count of four. I unlocked it and stepped back. "You may enter now."
Ignoring me completely, he barreled into the room.
I swept my arm out. "As you can see, Fortune isn't in here. Maybe she's having a shower."
Agent Mayeux glowered at me. "No one's in the bathroom. I checked."
"Well then, I hardly know what to think."
Instead of acknowledging my comment, he strode through the room. After a cursory examination, he turned to me. "Where is she?"
I shrugged. "How would I know? I've been with you all evening. Did you ask Ally before you tore up here?"
Before he could answer, Fortune appeared in the doorway, wearing an innocent smile along with her ankle monitor. "Hi guys," she said, looking between us. "I was out in the garage getting a cold beer. Care to join me?"
AS WE SAT AROUND FORTUNE's kitchen table, I had to admit the woman was smooth. She'd commandeered the conversation from the get go and hadn't relinquished control for a second despite the barrage of questions.
"Are you sure you wouldn't like a beer to wash that sandwich down?" Fortune asked.
Agent Mayeux, in the process of scarfing down his second turkey and avocado sandwich, shook his head. At least he had the good manners not to speak with his mouth full. He, like every other person in Sinful, appeared powerless to resist Ally's cooking. I myself was nibbling on my fourth chocolate chip cookie.
"Since you're here, Agent Mayeux, perhaps you could look at my ankle monitor?" Fortune glanced down at it, her expression the epitome of innocence. "I'm not sure it's working correctly. It's been making funny little sounds."
I made a funny little sound of my own as I choked on a mouthful of cookie.
Ally reached over and thumped my back. "Easy does it, Stephanie. Let me get you another glass of milk."
I smiled my gratitude. I was fast coming to adore Ally. She was a lovely person. So uncomplicated and easy to be with. Unlike Fortune.
"Tell me how Ida Belle's holding up," Fortune said. "I've been worrying like crazy about her."
"She's locked up in a cell for a crime she didn't commit. How do you think she is?" As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I cringed at how curt I sounded. Fortune was just playing her part in front of Ally. "I'm sorry."
Fortune waved her hand. "Don't be. We're all overwrought."
His sandwich devoured, Agent Mayeux pushed away his plate. "Tell me what you know about Boris Sidorov."
"Me? Nothing," Fortune said. "Just what I've heard about him from Stephanie. Why do you ask?"
"You've never met him?"
"No."
I shot a sideways look at her. The way she lied without hesitation was downright unnerving. But in fairness, I'd seen Gertie and Aunt Ida Belle do the same.
I decided to jump in and see if we could move this conversation along. "Do you know who 'the blonde one' is?"
A small frown settled between Fortune's eyebrows. "The blonde one? Is that some sort of code?"
"Yes, Boris said he was going to kill me unless I preferred 'the blonde one' die next," I hurried to answer before Agent Mayeux could speak. "We thought he might have meant you."
"Whoa, hold on a minute." Fortune made a time out sign with her hands. "When did you talk to Boris? What else did he say?"
I realized then that she hadn't heard the story of our visit to the morgue, so I filled her in. I had to choke back tears when I told her about Cat. Ally reached over and laid a sympathetic hand on my shoulder. I smiled my thanks.
"If you're quite finished, Miss St. James, I'll take over from here."
I nodded. "You may have the floor."
He then proceeded to question, no, make that interrogate, Fortune. But if she knew any of the answers to his questions, she wasn't giving anything up. His frustration was palpable. Perhaps I should have felt sorry for him. After all, he'd been exposed to Gertie, Aunt Ida Belle, and Fortune all in one night. That was a lot for any man to handle.
A short while later, when Agent Mayeux was looking at Fortune's ankle monitor to see why it was malfunctioning, I asked Ally if I could have a private word with her in the hallway.
Her expression was full of concern as she waited for me to speak.
"I know this might sound like a crazy question," I began, "but have you ever heard anything through the grapevine about Fortune's line of work before she arrived in Sinful?"
Ally cocked her head as she considered my question. "Are you talking about her pageant career or her work as a librarian?"
"Neither." I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that Fortune couldn't hear us. "I'm talking about her time in the C.I.A.."
Ally didn't try to hide her amusement, but at least she didn't laugh out loud. "C.I.A.? As in the Central Intelligence Agency?" She giggled. "I don't know who told you that but they were just messing with you. You know, making fun of the new girl in town."
I forced myself to smile. "You're probably right. Forget I said anything, and please don't tell Fortune. I'd feel so foolish."
"Of course, it's already forgotten."
We rejoined the others in the kitchen.
"Find out anything about the monitor?" Ally asked. "I think it's really insane that you're even having her wear it. Can't you at least let her take it off at night?"
"No."
If Ally was offended by his curt reply, she hid it well. "Are you two heading back to the jail now?"
I looked at Agent Mayeux. I had no idea what we were doing next, but surely he must.
"No."
I was quickly beginning to believe that the government had a low threshold for the verbal part of the F.B.I. entrance exam.
"Well, if no one objects, I'm going to go upstairs, throw on some clothes, and take some food to Ida Belle and Gertie," Ally said.
Before Agent Mayeux could object, or I could tell her what a lovely gesture I thought that was, Fortune pronounced that this was a brilliant idea. She did so with such gusto that I was suspicious. Why was she so anxious to see Ally leave?
Not long after she'd gone, Agent Mayeux indicated we were going to leave.
"Not without trying some of Ally's world class chocolate cookies, you're not," Fortune protested. "You don't know how long of a night it's going to be, so you might as well be well fortified."
"Wrap them up to go."
"Nonsense." Fortune put a handful of cookies on a small plate. She set them on th
e table in front of him and then poured him a glass of milk. "Here you go, something to wash them down with." She turned toward me. "Do you want any more cookies, Stephanie?"
"No, thank you." I sat back down beside Agent Mayeux. He made short work of the cookies and then drained his glass of milk. But after he wiped his mouth and set his napkin aside, he didn't immediately get up. Instead he frowned and then shook his head from side to side a few times. He blinked rapidly as if he was trying to focus on Fortune, who was sitting across from him. My eyes widened in alarm as he began to lean toward me.
"It's okay. I've got him." Fortune was up and out of her chair in a flash. She grabbed hold of him just before he toppled into my lap. I watched in horror as she eased him back into a sitting position and then gently leaned him forward so his head rested on the table.
I jumped to my feet. "I'll call 911."
She reached out and grabbed my arm. "Don't you dare. He's fine. He just needs to sleep it off."
Okay, that was it. She had officially lost her mind. This time I was sure of it. "Sleep what off? Cookies and milk?"
She pulled me around the table before she let go of my arm. "I promise you that he's fine. He'll just be out awhile. Now, if you have to use the bathroom before we go, get a move on."
"Go where?" Panic had turned my tone of voice into a decidedly unladylike shriek. "We can't leave him like this! And just where do you think you're going with that thing still around your ankle?" But no sooner had I finished the sentence than she was holding it in her hands. I stared incredulously. "How did you do that?"
She opened the pantry and tossed it on the cereal shelf. "A little trick I picked up."
"Where? On the beauty pageant circuit?"
But she didn't answer because she was too busy man-handling Agent Mayeux. My mind raced with questions as I watched her rifle though his pockets—no easy task considering how fitted his jeans were.
I gasped as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. "Fortune, you drugged him, didn't you?"
She stopped rifling through his pockets and looked up at me. "Sometimes it's impossible to believe that you and Ida Belle are related."
"But what about—"
She held up his truck keys triumphantly. "Got 'em. Let's go."
"We're going to steal his truck?" I backed away in horror. "Surely that's some sort of federal offense? No way. I'm not going to prison. Not for you, not for anybody. That's grand theft, isn't it? I think that's a felony."
"Calm down, we're not stealing anything," Fortune said. "We're just going to hide the keys in case he wakes up. It'll slow him down, not hurt him." She pulled out the garbage can from under the sink and dropped the keys into it. She then gave it a good shake so the keys would be covered in rubbish before she put it away. "Let's go."
"How? Where?" I didn't have a chance to get to "why" before she propelled me out of the back door and down toward the bayou.
"But—but—" I tried to string together an objection but before I could, she pushed me onto a waiting airboat.
My protests were drowned out by the sound of the engine roaring to life.
Fortune turned back to look at me. "You'd better buckle up, Stephanie. Things might get a little crazy from here on out."
Chapter Nine
FORTUNE SPED THROUGH the night as if the hounds of hell were on our heels. The darkness was so pervasive that I lost what little bearings I had. What time was it? How much longer before the sun would come up? I didn't dare let go of my seat long enough to sneak a look at my watch. I shouted my question, but Fortune either didn't hear me or was ignoring me. Probably the latter.
She had to know that I had a million questions for her. Topping the list was where were we going. Why couldn't she have gone alone and left me on land? What if Ally came back to the house and found a drugged federal agent slumped over the kitchen table? Oh, yes, let me add this doozy to the list: did she know that we were likely going to end up incarcerated once we were caught?
I was on number twenty-six of a long list of questions I wanted answers to when the boat began to slow. My relief slowly gave way to revulsion as a stench of...I couldn't even say it out loud...reached my nostrils. I released my tight grip on my seat and covered my nose and mouth with my hands.
Fortune glanced over her shoulder at me. "Pretty horrible, isn't it?"
I nodded emphatically but didn't risk speaking because that would have required inhaling tainted oxygen. It wasn't going to happen. I'd rather pass out.
"It's Number Two," she told me. "That's the name of the island." She motioned for me to come and join her up front.
Reluctantly, I did. By this time we had slowed considerably. The night was still. I'm not sure a word like "quiet" could ever be applied to any part of the Louisiana bayou. Plenty of assorted critters contributed to creating an ambient backdrop of sounds that, quite frankly, unnerved me. I wasn't even fond of the sound of crickets through a screened window five stories off the ground. My pesky dependence on oxygen required me to drop my hands and inhale. I did—and promptly gagged.
"Just try not to focus on it," Fortune said. "You'll get a little more used to it."
"Never," I managed to choke out. "Why are we here?"
She looked around, although at what I couldn't fathom. The sounds and smells were overwhelming. The view, not so much.
"I received a tip that Boris is hiding out here."
Among the foul stench in gator filled waters? I thought not. "You don't know him, Fortune. He's, well, he's soft. He likes his creature comforts. He's certainly not the rugged outdoor type. If he's still here in Louisiana, I'm sure he's in a luxurious penthouse suite in New Orleans."
She shook her head. "No, my source is rock solid reliable. If they tell me that Sidorov is here, he's here."
Her source? She said this as if getting a tip to the location of a dangerous Russian mob boss were a normal part of her life. No sooner had I processed that thought than alarm bells begin to ring in my mind. I took a step backward. Fortune was a C.I.A. agent. In her own mind. This was my first up-close experience with someone who was clinically delusional. It certainly wasn't an experience I wished to prolong.
"I don't like that look on your face, Stephanie." Fortune frowned. "I need you to hold it together."
Me? I wasn't the one who had lost touch with my true identity. I was Stephanie St. James, Miss Prim and Proper, and I belonged in a building. With doors. Not in a floating tin can in a murky swamp. To my utter shock, I realized that the person I wanted beside me right now more than anyone else in the world was Kase Mayeux. He wasn't friendly, he wasn't especially charming, but he was made of tough stuff. He had to be if he'd endured having that huge snake tattooed into his skin. And then a chilling thought occurred to me. "Did you kill Kase?"
"Kase? You mean Agent Mayeux? No, of course not. I just gave him a little something to drift off. He'll wake up in a few hours and then the only thing that will be wrong with him is that he'll be angry that he slept through the fun."
The fun? I swallowed hard. Now I found myself wishing that she'd laced my milk, too. I'd much rather be asleep at the kitchen table than here in the most foul smelling place on earth. "Can we go back and check on him?" I suggested. "In fact, why not leave me there at the house? I can handle things when he wakes up."
She stared at me a long moment. "You're afraid, I get that."
Yes, I was. Afraid of her. But what was I supposed to say? Not the truth. I don't think my options had ever been more limited. It wasn't like I could swim for the shore. I couldn't even see the shore. Not to mention the filthy water, and then there was the whole issue of gators. Clearly, I was sticking with Fortune until I was back on land. Heaven help me, I would just have to play along.
"Why are we stopped?" I asked.
"I just wanted a moment to fill you in before we get to the island."
"Island?"
"Number Two."
Our conversation was starting to feel like a game of "who's on first".
I wanted to weep with frustration, but the thought of Aunt Ida Belle sitting in the Sinful Jail kept my tears at bay. She was doing her part, so I had to do mine. It was too late to help poor Catriona, but Boris had to be found so he could be held accountable. But I'd bet my pearls he would never come near a place like this, even if Fortune's imaginary source told her otherwise. I didn't know what else to do but play along until she tired of this charade and wanted to go back home. "If you're sure he's here, why not call Carter and let law enforcement handle his arrest?"
"I can't do that," she said. Her voice sounded a tad forlorn. "Believe me, I wish I could."
"I see. So, let me get this straight. You have intentionally left a capable sheriff's deputy out of the loop and you've sedated an F.B.I. agent, all because you believe you and I are the ones who should capture a known criminal. Have I got that right?"
Fortune nodded. "You've got it." She surveyed the darkness. "We'd better get a move on before there's any sign of daylight. Just follow my lead and do exactly as I say. Don't improvise, don't hesitate, and don't give in to fear."
Without a word I retook my seat, because really, what was there to say? I sat quietly as Fortune guided the boat through the darkness. Roughly ten minutes later she slowed down until we were barely moving. Just what she was looking for, I didn't know, but somehow she found it. She took a long aluminum rod from the boat's floor and stuck it into the swampy water. We must have been near enough to land that it hit bottom because she managed to pull us close to shore. After she secured the boat to a low-hanging tree branch, she beckoned for me to stand beside her.
"Stay right behind me, Stephanie. Just be my shadow until we get to the cabin," she said in a whisper so low I wasn't sure if she was really speaking or if I was imagining it.
"But what about alligators?"
"We're okay, I've got a gun."
Somehow this didn't reassure me, but I jumped off right after she did. Fortune grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me along beside her as we moved ahead. I didn't resist because it was too dark for me to see on my own, and she had a gun. It took all I had not to gag from the stench of the island. This, I realized, was truly the lowest point of my life. I was at rock bottom.
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