by DeLeon, Jana
“I don’t think the roads are clear yet,” I said. “What did you find out?”
“Two of Ahmad’s men were spotted at a casino in New Orleans. A field agent made them at a craps table. They passed off some of the fake hundreds.”
I blew out a breath. I’d been hoping for the best, but I’d gotten the absolute worst. “You’re sure it’s the same money?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Harrison would have made them check the money five times over to be sure.
“The field agent got with the manager and got the bills. They match the ones that were passed off before. I don’t have to tell you how serious this is. Ahmad missing and his men turning up in New Orleans with the counterfeit money…they’re too close.”
I thought about the hundred-dollar bill in my pocket. “You have no idea.”
“What do you mean?”
I filled Harrison in on the windstorm of hundreds that had hit Sinful. I’d barely finished when he started a string of cursing. “You’ve got to get out of there. I don’t care if you leave by boat or on foot. Hell, I can send a helicopter.”
“Because that wouldn’t be noticeable. And where would I go? New Orleans is clearly out, and that’s the nearest big city. The airport and bus station are out. If Ahmad has any idea that I’m here, he’ll have men watching those places.”
“Well, you can’t stay put, either. You’re a sitting duck in that town with only one way out. And despite the fact that we worked carefully on your cover image, you’ve managed to stick out like a sore thumb with all the crap you’ve wound up in the middle of.”
I started to argue, but didn’t have a good comeback. The truth was, he was right. I had done a horrible job of disappearing into small-town America. I’d been in the fat middle of every major crime that had happened in Sinful since I’d arrived and managed to complicate things even more by dating a deputy. It was like I’d never received a day of training in my life. And while I didn’t regret any of the things I’d done, I could totally understand why Harrison was so frustrated.
And then an idea began to form…it was a long shot, but hadn’t my entire trip to Louisiana been just that?
“You’re thinking about this all wrong,” I said.
“I don’t think so.”
“You’re trying to get me to safety, but safety is an illusion until Ahmad is dead. If he’s discovered the counterfeit money, and the presence of his men suggests that he has, then this is a prime opportunity to take him down.”
“No way. It’s too dangerous.”
“How is it any more dangerous than doing it overseas? I have an advantage here. We have no reason to think that Ahmad knows I’m here. We suspected he had new buyers in the area before I ever blew cover. He won’t be expecting me. We can take him down—make this entire mess go away forever.”
“Do you even hear yourself? Mounting an operation would take weeks. We have days at the most. And with that storm that just blew through, law enforcement availability will be at an all-time low.”
“So fly them in. Call one of your buddies at the FBI and tell him this is his chance to put a promotion in the bag. Buy him season tickets to whatever sports team he’s into. Hell, buy him a hooker. Just make it happen.”
Harrison went silent, and I knew he was running through all the possibilities.
“I’m not really a librarian,” I said quietly. “Let me do my job.”
He sighed. “Damn it, Fortune. Let me talk to Morrow and see what he thinks.”
“But you’re with me on this?”
“God help me, but yeah, I am. I’ll text you once I’ve talked to Morrow.”
I disconnected and shoved the phone back into my pocket. Ida Belle must have been watching from the living room, because she pushed the door open and came outside, under the guise of retrieving the hamburger buns. She pulled a garbage bag from the backseat and handed it to me.
“So what’s the news?” she asked.
I filled her in on what Harrison had told me and my request for backup for a takedown. Her expression shifted from concerned to downright worried.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” she asked.
Her tone was inquisitive and completely nonjudgmental, which pleased me to no end. Rather than take the line of the worried friend, which I knew was also the case, she’d chosen instead to be a soldier.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” I said.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t do anything.”
I set the trash bag down and leaned against the car. “It’s not that I don’t trust myself to do the job. I absolutely do, and no one wants this over with more than I do.”
“But?”
“But I have everyone here to consider. I’m talking about bringing the devil to Louisiana so that I can exorcise him.”
Ida Belle frowned and nodded. “You’re worried someone will get caught in the cross fire.”
Yeah. That was exactly what I was worried about. Not so much the regular citizens who were going about their business, completely unaware of what was happening right under their noses. But I knew that despite my best efforts, I wouldn’t be able to keep Gertie and Ida Belle from wanting to help. The only way to keep them out of it would be to lie and avoid, and although I was normally an expert at both, the idea of doing it to them upset me more than I thought it would.
And then there was Carter. I knew I needed to tell him, but was now the right time? He’d totally go all white knight trying to protect me, and the last person I wanted caught up in this was him. Not that I underestimated his ability. Carter would make a fine CIA operative, but his feelings for me might cloud his judgment, just as my feelings for him were doing now.
Tell him or not tell him. That was the question.
If only I had the answer.
###
Ally tossed another hamburger patty into a foil tray. “If I never smell ground meat again as long as I live, it will be too soon.”
I looked around the kitchen. At least thirty more burgers and ten trays of meat loaf remained to be cooked, and there were still another five packs of ground meat to go. Even Merlin, who’d initially been delighted with a raw meat snack, had gotten stuffed and headed outside to collapse in a patch of sunlight. “We look like we’re catering for cavemen.”
Ida Belle came in the back door with another stack of cooked patties. “This makes seventy. Ally, if you’ll cover up some of those trays, we can haul some of this to the church. Fortune, why don’t you fix up a tray for Carter and Deputy Breaux. I’m sure they’d appreciate a hunk of red meat since they’re working the night shift.”
“I completely forgot about that,” Ally said as she pulled a box of tinfoil from my pantry. “I wonder if they ever found Aunt Celia.”
One of the hospital aides had gotten off shift about the time Marie finished up at the hospital and had given her a lift and a dose of gossip on the way back to Sinful. The aide had overheard Norman trying to call Celia on his cell phone. He’d apparently moved from catatonic to merely scared half to death and regained the ability to talk.
The aide had only overheard one side of the conversation, but apparently Celia had decided to hide out and Norman was less than happy about the decision. I didn’t blame him. He went to do the woman a favor, saw the most horrible thing he’d probably ever seen in his life, and instead of sticking around to hold his hand while he relived it all with police, Celia had totally dropped off the map.
“Who knows if they found her,” I said and placed a stack of buns in a tray alongside eight hamburger patties. “I don’t get that woman. She’s just making things worse on herself.”
“She’s trying to regroup,” Ida Belle said. “She finally ran into a situation that’s over her head. And that useless bunch of biddies that follow her around aren’t going to be any help. If the truth was known, some of them probably think she did it.”
“If they didn’t before, they do now,” Ally said.
Ida Belle nodded. “Celia’s an old fo
ol, but I think there’s more to it this time. This time, I think she might actually be scared.”
Ally turned around to look at Ida Belle, her expression thoughtful. “I’d never really thought about it, but you may be right. I’m so used to Aunt Celia the Ball-Breaker. It’s hard to switch gears and put her in the victim role.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I said. “As soon as she gets over being scared and indignant, she’ll launch a campaign to get Marie arrested for Max’s murder.”
Ally sighed. “You’re right. I won’t bother switching gears. I probably wouldn’t have been there very long anyway.”
I pulled tinfoil over my tray of food and secured it. Ally sat two more containers on the kitchen table as Gertie walked in with another stack of cooked patties. “This is the last one I have outside,” she said.
Ally nodded and assessed the remaining uncooked meat. “I think we can fit the rest in the refrigerator, including the ones I haven’t made yet. We probably shouldn’t cook any more today.”
“Yay,” Gertie said and flopped into a chair. “I’m starting to feel a little charbroiled myself.”
Ally slipped a bottled water out of the refrigerator and passed it to Gertie. “You’ve been standing over that grill for hours. I’m surprised you haven’t melted.”
“There’s a decent breeze—thank God, or the mosquitoes would have been a bigger problem than the heat.” Gertie lifted the bottled water and wiped it across her forehead. “I don’t even feel like eating after all of that.”
“Good,” Ida Belle said. “You can help us deliver these to the church and the sheriff’s department while Ally finishes up with the last of the ground meat. Maybe you’ll be hungry after you move around a bit.”
“Probably,” Gertie said, perking up a bit.
I checked my watch. Marie had reported to Gertie that Deputy Breaux was doing rounds every hour and a half. That meant he should be leaving the sheriff’s department in the next ten minutes or so, assuming he kept to schedule.
Ally stacked two more trays on the table. “Do you think this will be enough?”
“How many does that leave us here?” I asked. I had no problem with being generous, but after all that work, no way was I eating a bologna sandwich while half of Sinful feasted on burgers.
“There’s twelve in this tray,” Ally said. “And then, of course, everything that we haven’t cooked.”
“I think twelve will tide us over until tomorrow,” I said. I slid Gertie’s car keys over to her and grabbed a stack of trays. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
We piled everything into the backseat of Gertie’s Cadillac and headed for downtown. We were halfway there when Gertie’s cell phone went off.
“Crap,” Gertie said. “It’s Marie. Deputy Breaux just left on patrol.”
“He’s early,” Ida Belle said. “How long have the patrols taken?”
“About thirty minutes,” Gertie said. “We need to hurry.”
Chapter Seven
Gertie slammed her foot down on the gas pedal and the car lurched forward. I scrambled to grab the stacks of trays before they fell onto the floorboard. “A little warning next time,” I said.
“Sorry,” Gertie said. “Sharp turn!”
I leaned over the trays as if I were protecting a small child from a bear attack as Gertie wheeled the car around the corner.
“Slow down, you old fool,” Ida Belle yelled. “This won’t work if we don’t have hamburgers to bring to the sheriff’s department.”
Gertie let up on the gas a tiny bit and made the final turn onto Main Street. I relinquished my protective position and looked between the seats and down the street. A handful of people were picking up debris on the street and sidewalks and waved as we pulled up. I recognized a couple of them from the night before at the church and figured they must be some of the people who couldn’t return home yet.
“Looks like they’ve organized a bit of a cleanup,” Ida Belle said.
“They probably got tired of sitting on those uncomfortable pews,” I said.
“Pastor Don got back in town today,” Gertie said. “He started preaching about three hours ago and hasn’t let up since.”
“I hope he stops before tonight,” I said, “or they’ll be sleeping outside with the mosquitoes.”
Ida Belle nodded. “Let’s sneak these in and hope he doesn’t see us.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Gertie said, “and it will save us some time.” She climbed out of the car and whistled. “We’ve got burgers here. Come grab a tray and take them to the churches.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and hurried for the car. I passed out hamburger trays like a dealer at a blackjack table, and a couple minutes later, everything was gone except the tray for the sheriff’s department.
“Time?” I asked as I grabbed the last tray and we hurried for the sheriff’s department.
“Fifteen minutes since he left on patrol,” Gertie said.
“Then we’ve got fifteen minutes, give or take, to get this done,” Ida Belle said.
“I still say the feminine wiles thing would work faster,” Gertie said.
“Not if Fortune’s the one executing,” Ida Belle said.
I suppose I could have been insulted, but there wasn’t really any point given that she was right. “Just get the information and don’t get caught.”
“Stop worrying,” Gertie said. “We’ve got this.”
I wish I felt as confident as Gertie sounded, but I had some experience with executing plans with Ida Belle and Gertie. The only thing consistent is that they never went the way we intended.
I pushed open the door to the sheriff’s department and stepped inside. Carter was sitting at the front desk, as predicted, and gave me a weary smile. “Hard day?” I asked.
He lifted up a stack of paper about an inch high. “Four missing persons reports. Three vandalism reports. Five burglaries, and eighteen reports of missing cats.”
“That’s a lot of missing cats,” I said, glad that Ida Belle and Gertie had insisted on caging Merlin and taking him to church with us. He may be pissed now, but he’d thank me later. Or not. He was a cat.
Carter laughed. “I see where your priorities lie.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling a bit dismayed at my callousness.
“Stop ribbing her,” Ida Belle said. “You know good and well those four people aren’t missing. I bet I can tell you who they are.” She rattled off the names of four men.
Carter nodded. “Got every one of them. You win the big prize.”
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Those four are drinking buddies,” Gertie said. “They also happen to be married to four of the most difficult women in Sinful, excluding Celia of course. Every time there’s a big storm, they pretend they’re going round to help people and then ‘accidentally’ get caught in the storm.”
“So where are they really?”
“Probably sitting at a motel up the highway,” Gertie said, “drinking beer and watching all the HBO they want in peace in quiet. They’ll turn up tomorrow with some story about being stranded while helping a fisherman or a tourist or saving a family of squirrels, and everyone will be happy.”
I tried to fathom choosing a life that required a hurricane moving in for me to be happy but couldn’t make the leap. Besides, we had work to do.
“I came bearing gifts,” I said and put the tray on top of the stack of paperwork.
He lifted the end of it and sniffed. “That smells delicious.” He looked at Gertie. “Did you run over a cow again?”
Gertie threw her hands in the air. “Why can’t I just be a meat hoarder? Why does everyone assume I killed something?” She pointed at Ida Belle. “Don’t answer that.”
Carter grinned. “If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to start on one of these right now.”
“Feel free,” I said. “We’ve been working on them all afternoon and kinda got enough by smell. But then, we had chips and dip
and apple pie to snack on while we were working.”
“You’re killing me, Smalls,” Carter said.
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Sandlot reference,” Gertie said and clapped. “As soon as the power is back on, we’ll watch it. I love that movie.”
Carter plopped a hamburger patty on a bun. While his gaze was directed down at the food, I poked Gertie in the ribs. We were running out of time.
“I need to use your restroom,” Gertie said. “Do you have water jugs in there?”
Carter took a big bite of the burger and nodded.
Gertie set off down the hall. Ida Belle hesitated a couple seconds. “I better go too. Last time Gertie had to pour water into a toilet tank, there was an incident.” She took off after Gertie, Carter and I staring after them.
“I don’t even want to know,” I said. “Especially since they’re bunking with me tonight.”
“Did they have damage?” he asked.
“No. Ida Belle just figured we’d consolidate gas use on one generator and at least get to run a fan inside.”
He nodded. “I wish I knew how long power would be out. I’d kill for a fan right now.”
I pulled my T-shirt from my chest, where it was clinging. “I can imagine. This building is super hot compared to my house.”
“No north-south windows. I can’t get a good draw through here, and then with the humidity from the rain, it’s awful.”
“If it doesn’t come on in a day or two, I imagine we’ll relocate until it does. Assuming we can find a hotel, of course.”
“You might have to go a ways north, but bet your butt I would if I wasn’t stuck here. Roads should be completely clear by tomorrow.”
My cell phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my pocket, figuring it was Harrison. It wasn’t. It was Ida Belle.
Max’s info isn’t on his desk. Must be up front.
Crap. I couldn’t exactly start sorting through his paperwork with him sitting there.
Create a diversion. Then I’ll check the desk.
