Fortune Furlough

by Jana DeLeon

  “Nope. I still love a medium-rare steak more than life itself,” I said. “I just decided to exchange some of my more strenuous activities for more relaxing ones.”

  He nodded and handed Gertie a rod and a container of bait. “I gave up arm wrestling down at the Shark Bar. Doc said if I broke my arm one more time, he was going to have to replace it with a hook. I mean, that’s kinda cool, but I don’t see how I could cast with a hook for an arm.”

  “Maybe just hang it over the side of the boat and swish it around,” Ida Belle suggested.

  He brightened. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

  Ida Belle closed her eyes and shook her head. “I didn’t realize God had let some of you out of Louisiana,” she mumbled.

  “What?” Dave asked as he cast his rod and stuck it in a holder.

  “Nothing,” Ida Belle said as she sent her bait flying into the ocean. “I was just thinking about how you remind me of someone back home.”

  Dave winked at her. “Bet he’s good-looking.”

  “Definitely reminds me of some people back home,” Ida Belle mumbled.

  “Tell us more about this Shark Bar,” Gertie said as she baited her hook. “We have a bar back home that’s outside the normal fare.”

  “Really?” Dave perked up. “Where you guys from?”

  “Louisiana,” Gertie said.

  Dave nodded. “Louisiana’s kindred sisters with Florida. We do things different than the rest of the country. Better, of course.”

  “Of course,” Gertie agreed. “So, this Shark Bar…”

  “It’s on the mainland,” Dave said. “You turn at the good tattoo parlor and follow the trail into the marsh. The bar’s nothing much to look at but they price alcohol reasonable and they limit the crowd to two fistfights a night. Cuts down on repairs.”

  I stared at Dave, fascinated that the Swamp Bar was apparently a chain. “If they limit the number of fights, wouldn’t everyone show up early so they could be one of the two?”

  Dave grinned. “Real smart of the owner, right? Used to, most people didn’t show up till nine or after. But when he put in the fight rule, everybody started coming around seven. I bet Booger doubled his profits. He’s really smart at the business stuff.”

  Ida Belle frowned. “Booger?”

  “Yeah, he owns the bar,” Dave said. “He got the nickname because—”

  Ida Belle held up a hand. “That’s all right. Sometimes a little mystery makes things more interesting.”

  “That’s what my old girlfriend used to say when she wouldn’t tell me where she was going Friday nights,” Dave said. “I suppose sneaking around with her ex-husband might have been more interesting for her, but I didn’t get it.”

  “Maybe we’ll check out the Shark Bar while we’re here,” Gertie said.

  “No!” Ida Belle and I both responded at once.

  Dave looked a bit confused at our strong reactions. “It’s safe and all, if that’s what you’re worried about. Tourists find it quite a bit and all of them have made it out okay.”

  “That’s not it,” I said, trying to adopt the best worried-female look I could manage. “It’s just that we rarely get away for vacation and then the police were at the resort this morning. One of the maids said a guest was murdered…it’s a little worrisome that someone could be killed at a place like that.”

  Dave scowled. “That was all the talk this morning down at the bait shop. But whatever happened to Otis Baker, he had it coming.”

  I glanced over at Ida Belle, then looked back at Dave. Strong emotions usually came from a bad place, and thinking someone had death coming was a fairly strong emotion. “You knew the guy?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I knew him. He took my mom out for a while. Took her for a bunch of money, too. Then disappeared.”

  I blinked. Nothing about what Dave had just said made sense.

  “Disappeared?” I asked. “You mean he used to live on the mainland?”

  Dave nodded. “Stayed at one of those cheap motels but the manager said he cleared out in the middle of the night. I’ve been looking for him a couple weeks now. I didn’t think to look at the resorts. And here he’s been under my nose all this time.”

  “You said he took your mother for a bunch of money?” Ida Belle said.

  Dave nodded. “Gave her some sob story about not having the money for his chemo treatment. He was gone a lot. Always claimed he was in Naples at the clinic. I told my mom he looked awfully healthy for someone with cancer.”

  “Was he losing his hair?” I asked. Otis had sported a receding hairline, like a lot of men in his age group, but I was pretty sure it was his own hair. I mean, if you were going to get the fake stuff, wouldn’t you get more of it?

  “He had thin hair on his head, about like every other guy his age,” Dave said. “But his back looked like a carpet. He was always sitting on his butt at my mom’s pool. Grossed me out. It was like bigfoot was squatting there, you know?”

  That explained why Otis was wearing a T-shirt in the water. I was going to hazard a guess that Dave’s revulsion was partially the back hair but mostly that Otis was running a con on his mother. And I had no doubt it was a con because the story he’d given Dave’s mom was completely different from the one he’d given Gertie. My guess was Dave’s anger came from trying to warn his mom off, in his own charming, ineffective, redneck way, and he’d been shot down. Unfortunately, lonely senior women were easy targets for a charmer like Otis. But more importantly, we now had a motive for Otis’s murder.

  And a suspect.

  Granted, Dave didn’t rank high on my list of people who could have pulled off a murder, but then Benton wasn’t high on my list of cops who were good at solving homicides, so it might be a draw. Which meant if we didn’t get involved, Benton would make his case against Gertie and wash his hands of the entire affair until a defense attorney picked it apart. But now it wasn’t going to be that easy. What we’d just learned cast a dark shadow over the victim.

  “Dave?” Ida Belle asked. “I don’t suppose you have heavier weights? I think I’m going to try for something larger.”

  He’d been scowling at the water, and Ida Belle’s question seemed to draw him out of his thoughts. “I think I’ve got some up front. I’ll go get them.”

  As soon as he was out of earshot, Ida Belle and Gertie stepped over beside me. “If what Dave said is true, what are the chances that his mother was the only one Otis took to the cleaners?”

  “Slim to none,” I said. “All those cancer trips to Naples were probably time he was spending working other women.”

  “But he didn’t give me the cancer line at all,” Gertie said.

  “Maybe he was working a different angle at the resort,” I said. “Hard to work the ‘broke and dying of cancer’ routine when you’re staying at an expensive resort and partaking of fruity drinks on the beach all day.”

  Ida Belle nodded. “I’m sure you’re right. Which gives us an unknown number of suspects. I don’t know whether that makes me happy or tired.”

  “Both,” I said. “It gives Byron a reason to argue Gertie didn’t do it, at least. She didn’t know Otis long enough to give him money.”

  “Nor would I ever be that foolish,” Gertie said. “I can be intentionally silly about a lot of things, but no man is ever going to take me for my hard-earned money.”

  “Dave’s coming,” Ida Belle said, and glanced over at Gertie. “Give him a sob story about your date with Otis to get more out of him. Fortune and I will play dumb on the dinner date.”

  They hustled back to their rods as Dave stepped back out on the deck. “Here ya go,” he said, and passed Ida Belle the heavier weights.

  “Thanks,” Ida Belle said as she reeled in her line to make the replacement.

  “Is everything all right?” Dave asked Gertie, who’d been staring out at the ocean and frowning.

  “What?” Gertie turned around and gave him a blank stare before zeroing in on him. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m a
bit distracted. And somewhat aggravated with myself.”

  “Fishing is all about relaxing,” he said. “Don’t let it stress you out.”

  Gertie waved a hand in dismissal. “It’s not the fishing. It’s just that when you said the dead guy was Otis, I was stunned. I met him on the beach yesterday. He was really nice and invited me to dinner with him last night.”

  I gasped. “That’s who you went to dinner with last night? Good Lord!”

  “In my defense, I didn’t know someone was going to kill him,” Gertie said. “I was just trying to have a bit of fun on my vacation.”

  Ida Belle shook her head. “Wow. That’s some kind of timing you have.”

  “It’s really disappointing,” Gertie said. “Not that he was killed, although I suppose I should be upset about it. But I guess I’m more bothered by the fact that I thought he was interested in me. I should have known it was all a setup. I haven’t had a man chasing me since Reagan was president.”

  Ida Belle coughed. “Lincoln.”

  “I’m really sorry, ma’am,” Dave said and gave her a sympathetic look. “Did you give him any money?”

  Gertie shook her head. “Nothing like that, but I suppose that’s where it was all going, right?”

  “I’m afraid that’s probably the case,” he said. “I talked to a lawyer about it after Otis pulled a Houdini and Mom finally fessed up to giving him the money. The lawyer said based on what I told him, this guy Otis was a professional con man. That guys like him make a living that way. Probably has a bunch of identities and a whole book of sob stories that he uses. He said the guy we knew as Otis was probably long gone with my mom’s money and using it to set up his next target.”

  Gertie let out a long-suffering sigh.

  Dave shook his head, clearly angry. “He shouldn’t have done the things he did. Taking advantage of women that way. I mean, all guys try to work an angle at times, but it’s because we want to get in a woman’s pants, not her wallet.”

  His face reddened. “Sorry. That was kinda crude.”

  “We’re old,” Ida Belle said. “We invented crude.”

  Gertie sniffed. “It is rather disheartening, but I can see why women would fall for it. He really has his romance routine down pat. Your attorney is probably right. I bet there’s more women than just your mother with lighter purses because of him.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure that’s the case,” he said. “I suppose I should just be happy that he can’t do it anymore, but I’m still too pissed that I wasn’t the one who got to put him out of business.”

  “Your mother is much better off that it was someone else,” Ida Belle said.

  “I know you’re right,” Dave said. “But there’s times when a man just needs to be a man, you know?”

  “You’re a good son,” Ida Belle said. “That makes you a good man in my book.”

  Dave looked slightly embarrassed and headed back for the cabin. “I’m going to grab some chips. You guys want anything?”

  We all shook our heads and he disappeared inside. I glanced over at Gertie and gave her a thumbs-up. Ida Belle gave her an approving nod.

  I had to give the old girl a solid ten on her acting job. She’d played up the disenchanted senior part so well I almost bought it myself. Except that I knew Gertie. She would have never lent Otis money. And if he’d managed to take advantage of her in another way, I had no doubt she’d have made fire rain on him like something out of the Old Testament.

  Dave came back out and sat on the side of the boat, eating his chips. I could see him out of the corner of my eye. His expression was somewhat morose as he stared out over the ocean. But then he turned away and for an instant, I thought I saw the flicker of a smile. I looked down at my e-reader, pretending I was into my book, but my mind was racing.

  Was Dave the good ole boy he seemed to be? Or was it an act to conceal something else? He wouldn’t be the first person I’d come across pretending to be something he wasn’t for his own gain. My guess was the local-boy personality got him more satisfied clients than the corporate offerings that were sprinkled among the local fare. More importantly, had he really been unaware that Otis was staying at the resort? Or was he covering his butt since he had motive up the wazoo?

  Maybe the smile was nothing. Or maybe he was just happy Otis was dead. Still, we only had his word for it that he hadn’t known where Otis was and hadn’t killed him.

  His word wasn’t enough.

  The morning turned into the afternoon and stretched out quietly as everyone but me reeled in fish after fish. Finally, Dave called it quits because we’d run out of space to house any more, but the haul had definitely perked him up from his earlier mood. They reeled in their lines, packed up the gear, and then we all sat on the back deck, drinking soda and passing around a bag of chocolate chip cookies.

  A pod of dolphins started surfacing near the boat and Gertie got all excited.

  “Look!” she yelled, pointing as one jumped out of the water and did a twirl. “You don’t see that back home.”

  Even Ida Belle looked pleased. “No. You certainly don’t.”

  I watched as they poked their heads up and rolled around in the surf. “Are they eating?” I asked.

  “Nah,” Dave said. “They’re just fooling around—probably were riding the wake of that boat over there. It pushes a pretty big one. They like to surf on the wake of the big boats.”

  I looked over and saw a yacht about fifty yards away. “Wow! That is some boat.”

  Dave nodded. “Best boat around. Looks like something that belongs in Miami, right?”

  “Who does it belong to?” I asked.

  Dave shrugged. “I don’t know the guy. Seen him a time or two. Some suit with a two-hundred-dollar haircut. A friend of mine works over at the airport and said he flies in on a private plane. The manager at your resort is friends with him or at least knows him well enough that he gets to go out on his boat.”

  “Maybe it’s the resort owner,” Ida Belle said. “It’s not part of any big conglomerate. At least not the usual names.”

  “That would make sense,” Dave said. “Ain’t no one around here with that kind of money, that’s for sure. But that resort has to be making bank. I heard they charge five hundred a night in the summer.”

  “Yep,” I said. “Which is why we’re taking advantage of off-season pricing. Also fewer people.”

  “It’s a good time to do it,” Dave said. “I lower my prices when the hotels do. Got to go with the market, you know?”

  “Well, we absolutely got our money’s worth,” Gertie said. “That’s the best haul I’ve had fishing in a long time.”

  “It will take me about an hour to clean your catch,” Dave said. “So we need to head back in by five if you’re wanting to take those home tonight. Otherwise, you can pick ’em up tomorrow. I can package them all up for you.”

  “Oh, you can keep the fish,” Ida Belle said. “We’re not interested in cooking on our vacation.”

  Dave’s face brightened at his good fortune. “Seriously? You don’t want none of ’em?”

  “I’m not putting fresh fish in that rental car,” Ida Belle said. “I’d never get my deposit back.”

  “Thanks, guys,” Dave said. “That’s supercool.”

  “You’ll be eating fish for a month,” Gertie said. “That was quite a haul.”

  “I’ll give some to my mom but I’ll sell the rest,” Dave said. “A lot of what we caught brings good prices down at the fish market. And I’ve got connections with a couple of the restaurants around. They like the fresh stuff for the daily specials. Don’t get me wrong—I love me a fish fry, but selling fish pays the rent. Eating ’em doesn’t.”

  Ida Belle nodded. “We live in a bayou town near the Gulf. Lots of professional fishermen and shrimpers. When the market’s up, you sell fish and eat steak. When the market is down, you eat fish.”

  Dave grinned. “I like that. You ladies have been great customers. It don’t always work out that way.
”

  His marine radio went off, sending static out so loud Dave and Gertie both gave a start. He didn’t seem to notice that neither Ida Belle nor I even flinched. He started cursing about the radio and hurried up the ladder to the top.

  “Come in Dave,” the voice on the radio said. “This is Garfish.”

  “Yeah, Garfish,” Dave answered. “Why the hell you yelling on my radio?”

  “You out today?” Garfish asked.

  “Who’s asking?” Dave answered.

  “That deputy, Benton, was here,” Garfish said. “Said he’s looking for three women, two of them seniors and one young hottie. You take anyone out fitting that description?”

  I grimaced. Hottie?

  Ida Belle caught my expression and grinned.

  I shot a worried look over at Gertie. This was it. Benton had tracked us down and it was too early for Byron to have arrived.

  “Nope,” Dave said. “Got two old men and a pit bull with bad breath. And if I had a hottie on board, I wouldn’t be telling that butthole Benton about it. For that matter, you never even would have raised me on the radio.”

  “Roger that,” Garfish said.

  We all remained silent as Dave climbed down the ladder.

  “I guess you heard that,” he said.

  We all nodded.

  “Any reason I should know about that you got cops looking for you?”

  Chapter Seven

  We all looked at Dave and shook our heads, feigning innocence.

  “Oh,” I said, sitting up straight. “I bet he wants to talk to Gertie—you know, since she had dinner with that scammer Otis last night.”

  “I bet you’re right,” Ida Belle said.

  “What in the world do I have to tell them?” Gertie said. “We were sitting right smack in the middle of the resort restaurant, surrounded by a hundred other vacationers. Even if Otis planned on telling me all his secrets, it wouldn’t have been in public. And it’s not like I knew he was a scammer until today.”

  “That might be the case, but I wouldn’t recommend talking to Benton about nothing without a lawyer,” Dave said, looking a bit worried.