by Jana DeLeon
“But maybe he ran off and that was the story they told so that she could save face,” I said. “Then she retired and moved away so no one would find out the truth. If that’s the way it really went down, it sucks, but I can see why she wouldn’t want that albatross of a past hanging over her head.”
Gertie nodded. “Especially here. When a woman is widowed, she’s treated completely differently by the local women than if her husband left her.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because a widowed woman is grieving,” Ida Belle said, “and isn’t as likely to go after someone else’s husband.”
“Good God,” I said. “Like the men in this town are some big catch.”
“Look at the wives,” Gertie said. “It’s all relative.”
“Okay, so regardless of what really happened with Lucinda’s husband,” Ida Belle said, “she moved here shortly after Ralph got custody of the brothers. I guess she figured he could probably use some help.”
Gertie nodded. “And now, she and Ralph have dinner together once a month at the café like clockwork. He probably sees it as doing his duty.”
“Lucinda probably wishes he’d forget that part of his raising,” Ida Belle said.
I nodded. What little I’d seen and heard of Ralph didn’t give me any indication that spending time with him would be anything but miserable. But it also didn’t give me any indication that he was involved in some big mob plot, even though he clearly had a problem with Hot Rod’s creations.
“Okay,” I said. “So what were the brothers up to after they left Sinful that landed them in prison?”
“Drugs,” Ida Belle said. “The New Orleans police claimed they were moving twenty grand a night in heroin.”
I stared. “That’s a serious amount of product to move standing on the corner.”
“They had an in with a club,” Ida Belle said. “One of those trendy places that the kids with some disposable income frequent. The brothers went up for ten years. No time off for good behavior allowed, according to Ralph.”
“Ten years?” I looked at Gertie. “You said the brothers were twenty-nine. They were busted a year after they left Sinful?”
Ida Belle nodded. “I remember seeing Ralph in the General Store shortly after the conviction. I told him I was sorry, and he looked so angry. Said they were an embarrassment to the family.”
“Can’t blame him on that one,” I said. “What about the club owner? How much did he get? He might be out as well.”
“I believe he disappeared,” Ida Belle said.
“People don’t just disappear,” I said.
“No,” Ida Belle said, “but Ralph said the police couldn’t find him when the arrest order came down.”
“Did they ever find him?” I asked.
Ida Belle shrugged. “I never followed up.”
“Okay,” I said, and opened my laptop. “What we can’t find on the Internet, we can ask about tonight when we take the SUV to the storage facility. No way the brothers were moving heroin through the French Quarter without the Hebert family knowing about it.”
“You don’t think they’ll be there tonight, do you?” Gertie asked.
I absolutely thought they’d be there. In fact, I was counting on it. If anyone could ferret out what might be hidden in that vehicle, it would be the Heberts. I was certain they were pushing their contacts for information. I didn’t believe for a minute that they were sitting quietly in their office, waiting for information to fall into their lap. Men like Big and Little didn’t wait for anything.
I nodded. “I don’t think they’d miss it for the world.”
It was just after midnight when we hit the highway to the storage unit. Ida Belle was driving her SUV, and Gertie and I were following her in my Jeep. I’d done a quick surveillance sweep on Carter’s house before we’d headed out. His truck was in his driveway and all the lights were off. I had a moment of regret that I wasn’t cuddled up inside with him, but I hoped he was getting some of that sleep he desperately needed. There would be plenty of time for cuddling once I was sure Ida Belle was safe.
The highway was a long, dark stretch in the middle of the night, with only lights in the windows of distant houses to pierce the black. A storm circling overhead had produced huge swirling clouds that were blocking any moonlight that might have illuminated our way. The upside was that it would be easy to spot anyone who attempted to follow us. The downside was if anything happened, there was no place to run.
“It’s kinda creepy out here this late at night,” Gertie said, her words echoing my thoughts.
“Yeah. The storm’s not helping.”
Gertie fidgeted a bit, then looked over at me. “Do you think Ida Belle’s in danger?”
I knew the question wasn’t the real question. Gertie had her moments, but her mind was sharp. She knew the score. She was just worried about her best friend and wanted me to tell her that the bad guys would go to jail and Ida Belle would be fine. And I really wanted to tell her just that.
But I couldn’t.
Because I didn’t know if everything would be fine. And I didn’t want to lie to her.
“We’re doing everything we can to protect her,” I said.
“What if it’s not enough?”
“You trust me, right?”
“Of course.”
“Do you really think anyone is going to get to Ida Belle without going through me first? And then ask yourself how many people are capable of going through me.”
She relaxed a bit. “You’re a good friend, Fortune.”
“You’d do the same for me,” I said.
“Not nearly as well,” Gertie said. “Maybe years ago I could have been trained like you were, but those days are long past. I don’t like to admit that age is affecting me, but I’m not so foolish that I’m not aware.”
“I don’t think you’re foolish. At least not about the age thing.”
“So you think I’m foolish about other things?”
“You trapped an alligator with your pants and put him inside your house.”
“Well, when you put it that way.”
“We’re going to figure this out,” I said. “And Carter is going to catch the bad guys, and Ida Belle will be back in that age-reducing death trap before either one of us is ready.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Me too,” I said as I turned off the highway and onto the road that led to Big and Little’s storage facility. Gertie and I were both silent the rest of the drive. I had so many thoughts running through my head, I was finding it difficult to settle on only one. God only knew what Gertie was thinking about, but since she wasn’t carrying a purse, I figured I was on the safer side of things regardless of where her mind was roaming.
Mannie was up front at the gate when we arrived. He punched in a code and waved us through. “Second row,” he said. “Unit 63. Right in the middle. It’s open.”
Ida Belle drove through and we followed her in my Jeep, figuring it was better for it to be hidden behind the gate with the SUV, just in case anyone got curious and came wandering up to the storage facility. The unit was large enough for two cars, but part of the space was already taken up by a lift, a tool chest, and Big and Little Hebert.
“You were right,” Gertie said. “About them showing up.”
I nodded. I just hoped it turned out to be a good thing and not a “fooled you, we’re really the bad guys” thing. I hadn’t gotten that impression when we’d met earlier, and my instincts were rarely wrong, but since I’d come to Sinful, my life had been full of first-time experiences. I just prayed this wasn’t another one of them.
Big and Little nodded to us as we stepped out of our vehicles, and Big lumbered over to take a look at the SUV and motioned to Ida Belle to pop the hood. Mannie opened it and he leaned in to get a closer look.
“Hot Rod does excellent work,” Big said. “I saw this before he went to work on it. I wouldn’t have given ten dollars for it, but Hot Rod swore he could
make it into something fantastic.”
“He certainly did that,” Ida Belle said. “Do you want me to pull it up over the lift?”
Little stepped forward. “Not yet. Given the extent of the work that’s been done to the vehicle, it’s unlikely that anything is hidden in any of the main mechanical areas.”
“Because Hot Rod would have found it,” I said.
“How do we know he didn’t?” Gertie asked.
“We don’t for sure,” I said, “but I’m going to guess that the car thieves questioned Hot Rod before they popped him over the head. If he’d found something and given it up, there would have been no need to steal the other cars.”
Big nodded. “You have a logical mind. Do you know much about cars?”
“Not enough,” I said.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m here. Because cars have always been my passion. And Mannie is an excellent mechanic.”
It was as if saying his name made him appear because at that exact moment, Mannie walked into the storage unit.
“Deuce and Snake are up front,” Mannie said. “I’ve checked all the cameras and repositioned those that shifted during the last storm. You have coverage of every square inch inside the gates. You just need to check the feed.”
Little pulled out his phone and poked at the screen. “It looks excellent.”
“Now that all the newfangled technical stuff is covered,” Big said, “let me show you what us old-schoolers know about vehicles. Mannie, grab that toolbox and we’ll get to work.” He looked over at Ida Belle. “Please don’t worry about the disassembly. I’ll make sure everything is back to perfect.”
Ida Belle nodded and I could see how relieved she was. The instant Big had said the word “toolbox,” she’d stiffened like a parent who’d taken their child to the doctor.
Little and Mannie moved a park bench over next to the side of the SUV and Big took a seat. Mannie pulled the SUV forward into the storage unit and as he climbed out, Big told him to open all the doors.
And the show began.
Chapter Nine
I have to admit, I was impressed. Who knew there were so many places to hide something in a vehicle? Well, besides criminals. Every time Mannie removed a piece of the SUV and passed it off to Ida Belle, Gertie, or I, another cubby was revealed, which was both amazing and depressing at the same time. With this many options for hiding places and the possibility that what we were looking for was as small as a USB stick or a diamond, there was no telling how long it would take to find something. And that was all assuming there was something to find in this particular SUV to begin with.
Two hours later, all the seats, the carpet, and the entire dash had been removed and everything gone over with a fine-tooth comb. Unfortunately, we’d come up with nothing. Big, however, did not seem to be the slightest bit perturbed, and Mannie didn’t show any signs of wear even though he’d been playing mechanic for two hours without pause. I briefly wondered when they slept and for how long, because I was starting to wane a bit and Gertie had finally given up her mechanic’s assistant role and taken a seat on the edge of Big’s bench.
Maybe they had really good vitamins.
“Don’t give up yet,” Big said, apparently cluing in to my thoughts. “There’s plenty of vehicle left to search. If you need to get back to Sinful, I’m happy to continue and let you know if we find anything.”
I didn’t want to leave, and I knew Ida Belle wasn’t about to abandon her SUV until she absolutely had to. Even as tired as Gertie was, I doubted she’d vote for going home. It wasn’t as if we’d be able to sleep anyway. We’d be wondering what was going on here.
“We’re good for a few more hours,” I said. “We just have to get back before anyone notices we’re gone.”
Big nodded. “Then let’s start on the doors. Mannie, remove the trim panel from the driver’s door.”
Mannie went to work on the door and a minute later, laid the black panel that contained everything you see on the inside of the door on the ground next to the SUV. Without the trim panel, the metal interior of the door was exposed and I was surprised to see a bunch more nooks and crannies. Slowly and deliberately, Mannie poked his fingers into every opening on the door, making sure nothing was occupying the space but air. When he slipped his fingers in the bottom of the door shell, he froze.
“I feel something here,” he said. “It’s hard and plastic.”
Big shook his head. “There shouldn’t be anything contained in that spot. Can you pull it out?”
Mannie jammed his entire hand inside the shell and pulled out a small black plastic box with magnets on one side.
“It’s a key hider,” Ida Belle said. “You stick a spare key in it and attach it under a wheel well in case you lock yourself out of your vehicle.”
“Well, it certainly wouldn’t do the driver any good to hide it inside the SUV behind a panel that has to be removed to gain access,” Gertie said.
Big gestured to Mannie, and he handed over the box. Big shook it, but it didn’t make any sound. I was about to grab the box from him and open it myself when he pushed the top off and pulled out a square of folded paper towel. We all crowded around as he unwrapped the paper towel and exposed a solid black key.
“He wrapped it to keep it from making noise,” Big said.
“That’s not a vehicle key,” Gertie said, going straight for the obvious.
To be honest, it looked like something out of an old movie, where the interior doors on homes were all opened and closed by iron keys. This one wasn’t as large as in the movies but it looked like a scaled-down version.
“What does it open?” Mannie asked.
Big stared down at the key, frowning. “I don’t know,” Big said. “It’s definitely not something new.”
“It looks like a skeleton key,” Mannie said.
“Maybe someone put a curse on the owner of the SUV,” Gertie said.
“I think he meant it was an antique,” Big said. “A skeleton key, by definition, is a master key or passkey, regardless of its manufactured date, but around here, a key that looks like this is called many things.”
“So I could be right,” Gertie said.
Big smiled. “This is Louisiana, home of the mysterious, so anything is possible. But I doubt anyone would have gone to such trouble to hide a cursed key. It would have been simpler to slip it under the carpet in his floorboard.”
“I can do some research,” I said.
“Given the situation,” Big said, “I doubt it would be safe to show this around.”
“I meant on the Internet,” I said.
“You aren’t afraid of being monitored?” Little asked.
“I know how to reroute things. I can search all I want and it would never be tracked back to me.”
Little nodded. “When this situation is resolved, I’d love to speak to you about that if you wouldn’t mind taking the time.”
Big sighed. “Damned computers are going to ruin the world. Always something new.”
“Speaking of computers,” I said, “I think we need to know who owned this SUV before Hot Rod acquired it. That might tell us everything we need.”
Little nodded. “We know a guy…I’ll get that information.”
“Great,” I said. That was the beauty about Big and Little. They always knew a guy.
Big handed me the key. “I’m entrusting this to you because you have a vested interest in finding answers. I also have an interest in those answers, just not as personal as yours. I’m allowing you to take the lead on this because of your personal interest and your skill set, but I want you to promise me four things.”
“Okay,” I said, a bit hesitantly. It was four chances that I wouldn’t want to agree to something, but at this point, what option did I have?
“First,” Big said, “you’ll secure the key somewhere that it can’t be found.”
“I can do that,” I said
“And two,” Big continued, “if you figure out what it unlocks,
you allow me to provide you protection when you go there.”
“I would appreciate any backup you are willing to provide,” I said. Why would I turn down hired guns? They might save me a whole lot of trouble.
“Three,” Big said. “You leave the police out of this for now. I know that’s difficult given your involvement with the deputy, but I won’t help if I’m on law enforcement radar.”
“I don’t have any desire to tell Carter about any of this,” I said. That definitely wasn’t a lie. The last thing I wanted to cough up was my involvement with known Mafia. “What’s the fourth thing?”
Big leaned forward and looked me straight in the eyes. “If you figure out who did this, you let me handle it.”
It wasn’t the right thing to do. If I figured out who the car thieves were, the right thing to do would be to turn that information over to Carter. But then, turning over information to Carter would mean explaining how I got the information in the first place, which got me right back around to things I didn’t want to explain to Carter.
“I will tell you what I find out,” I said, “but I can’t control what the cops discover themselves. So if they get there first…”
“Then the problem is eliminated either way,” Big said. He stuck out his hand and I shook it.
I’d just made my deal with the devil.
It was 3:30 a.m. by the time we pulled into my garage. We’d dropped Gertie off at her house just before, and I could practically hear a cold shower and crisp clean sheets calling to me as I walked into the kitchen through the garage door. When we made it to the living room, all dreams of shower and sleep disappeared in an instant.
Carter was sitting in my living room, staring directly at Ida Belle and me.
“Glad you could make it,” he said. “Is there anything you’d like to tell me?”
I have to give Ida Belle credit. No matter the situation, she always manages to keep a straight face. I was good, but Ida Belle had me beat hands down. But then, she’d been at it for far longer and she wasn’t in a relationship with Carter, so that might have a little bit to do with it.
