miss fortune mystery (ff) - bubba dub dub (3 page)

Gertie dropped heavily into her chair. “Again?”

“He skipped out on witness protection,” Cal told them.

Ida Belle shook her head, the steel gray poodle curls on her head dancing with the movement. “Men are just stupid.”

Fortune and Gertie nodded in obvious agreement.

Cal lifted a midnight eyebrow and Ida Belle shrugged.

“Until proven otherwise,” she amended.

I figured that was the biggest concession Cal was going to get from her.

“What can we do to help?” Gertie asked.

“You don’t really think he’d be dumb enough to come back to Sinful?”

I scanned Fortune a look. “It’s hard to explain.”

Ida Belle grabbed a chair from the table next to them. “Sit. Explain. If Swamp Team 3 is going to leap into action we need more information.”

Fortune looked for a moment as if she would argue but apparently decided against it, slamming her mouth closed.

Cal took a chair at the table next to theirs and, when Francine came over to take our order, ordered coffee. I ordered a diet cola and then I attempted to explain my reasoning for coming to Sinful. I followed up by telling them about the coin Cal and I had found at the cabin. I looked at Ida Belle. “Do you remember seeing anything on the floor before you turned that gator container over?”

She shook her head.

Gertie frowned. “I’d have remembered seeing a gold coin on the floor. Maybe it was inside the aquarium.”

Cal sipped his coffee and settled it back to the table. “Given its location, I doubt the coin was in the aquarium when it was turned over. It had to have been put there afterward.”

“So you were right.” I looked at Fortune. “About your dad coming here.”

Though I still had my doubts I nodded. “I think he’s been here and I think he’s trying to lead me to something. I just need to follow the trail and hopefully I’ll find him again.”

Gertie smacked her hand on the table. “Treasure hunt!”

Fortune’s lips quirked up in a grin. “Sounds like more fun than our usual missions.”

Ida Belle pursed her lips thoughtfully. “He left you a gold coin to tell you what exactly?”

I had a palm to face moment. “Ugh! I totally forgot.” Reaching into my gator purse, I pulled out the manila envelope. “We went to Gordon’s because that’s where Bubba always pawned father’s coins for him.” I laid the envelope on the table. “He gave us this.”

Fortune leaned forward, her hands stretched out in front of her. “Don’t open that.”

We all stilled, blinking at her like she was an escaped vampire bat from the rodent house at the zoo.

She flushed a little. “I mean. I read somewhere that you should never open an envelope that had a vague or missing return address on it.”

Cal’s dancing eyebrow did another high kick. “You think there’s a bomb in there?”

Ida Belle and Gertie shared a look. “She’s right. You just never know when terrorists are gonna strike.”

Fortune shrugged. “You always think it’s gonna be fine until someone starts shooting.”

“Or bombing,” Gertie added helpfully.

I cleared my throat. “I think we’re okay. This doesn’t feel heavy enough for a bomb.”

“It could be Ricin or Anthrax.”

Cal narrowed his eyes. Gertie covered her lips with her hand and Ida Belle cleared her throat.

I grinned. “Really?”

Fortune shrugged. “I read a lot of thrillers.”

I picked up the envelope and shook it. It didn’t sound like granular, horrific death to me. “I think it’s just paper.”

Fortune lifted her hands as if to say,
I tried. You’re on your own now.

I ripped the top off the envelope and everybody at the corner table slowly leaned away as if expecting something horrible to shoot out of the envelope. I reached inside and tugged a thin, yellow piece of paper out of it.

Swamp Team 3 leaned back in. “What is it?” Ida Belle asked.

I scanned it quickly. “It looks like a receipt for boat repair.”

The ladies shared a look. Gertie leaned in to see the receipt. “It’s not for
Hebert Swamp City Airboats
by any chance…is it?”

I glanced at the bold black lettering on the top. “It is.” Lowering the receipt, I looked at Gertie. “How’d you know?”

Fortune sighed. “Because that’s just how things roll in our lives.”

“I don’t understand.”

Cal’s phone rang. He stood up. “I’ll be right back. I have to get this.”

I nodded, my gaze scanning from one swampster to the next. “Tell me.”

“The Heberts are Sinful’s own version of mobsters,” Fortune explained.

I felt my eyes widening.

“Small time of course, but yeah.” Gertie nodded.

Ida Belle took the receipt from my hand. “If your daddy’s sending you to Hebert’s that means he’s taken up with a bad element, Felicity.”

Despair swirled through me, making my pulse spike. “Great.”

Fortune leaned forward, her gaze softening. “Look, Felicity. You seem like a nice person. You’re not your father’s keeper. Maybe you should just walk away now. Leave him to pay for his own mistakes.”

Tears burned my eyes and I blinked them away, shaking my head. “I know it’s not logical. But love is rarely logical. And I just need to see him. Make sure he’s all right. Then he’s on his own.”

Fortune held my gaze for a moment and then nodded. “Okay. We’ll help you do that. Maybe if we run interference you won’t get sucked down into the quagmire with your dad.”

Ida Belle and Gertie nodded.

The front door closed with a soft bang and we turned to find Cal striding toward us. His impossibly handsome face was filled with worry. “We’ve got to go back to Indy.’

I immediately rejected the idea. “I’m not leaving.”

He expelled a breath. “I don’t have a choice, Felly. An old friend has been arrested for murder and he needs me to come find the real killer. I can’t leave you here by yourself. It’s too dangerous.”

“That’s not your decision to make,” I told him with a frown. “You go on, help your friend. I’ll be fine.”

“Felly…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll watch out for her,” Gertie assured him.

Cal’s sexy dancing eyebrows arched upward. “Yeah, why doesn’t that make me feel any better?”

###

We bumped along some back roads that I was pretty sure led directly to Mexico while I clutched the shoulder strap of my seat belt, looking for gators on the road ahead.

Fortune glanced over at me and cocked a brow. “What are you looking for?”

“Gators crossing the road.”

Fortune snorted. “I’m pretty sure gators don’t do that, Felicity.”

Ida Belle turned around. “You’d be wrong on that.”

Gertie turned too, and grinned in my direction for an over-long period of time. “Felicity had a bad gator-crossing experience the last time she was here.” While she had her eyes off the road, the big Caddy started swerving toward the swamp.

“Swamp!” I yelled.

Gertie swerved back to her lane, sending all of us bobbling around in the car like we had weighted bottoms and air-filled heads.

Completely ignoring my Louisiana Tourette’s, Fortune eyed Ida Belle, “Why would a gator cross the road?”

The old woman stared hard at Fortune for a beat and then her lips ticked up. “To get to the other side?”

Gertie and I chuckled.

Fortune shook her head. “Keep laughing, but don’t forget you need me to handle Big.”

I frowned, “Big what?”

“Big Hebert. Father of Little Hebert.”

I chuckled again, reasonably sure she was pulling my leg. But she didn’t appear to be laughing with me. “You’re serious?”

“Unfortunately.”

Gertie slowed the ancient Cadillac and turned into a lot filled with trailered boats covered in tarps. We headed toward a long building that was fronted in a lot of glass. Through the glass I could see a shallow-bowed boat with a giant fan on the back. I thought it might be an airboat but I’d only ever seen them in pictures.

Gertie turned the caddy around so that it faced the entrance and shut it off.

“What’s the plan?” Fortune asked.

Ida Belle eyed Gertie. “Gertie should stay in the car so she’s not tempted by any more inflatables.”

Gertie glared at Ida Belle. “I’m not gonna buy any more inflatable alligators. Been there, crashed that.”

“That’s comforting,” Fortune responded. “It wouldn’t be a bad idea though if you stayed with the Caddy, just in case we need a fast getaway.”

Since we were staring back the way we’d come I figured we were already perched on the cusp of a fast getaway. “Aren’t we going to just ask about the receipt? Why would we need a fast getaway?”

Ida Belle opened her door. “It’s not what we
need
…but unfortunately it’s usually what we get.”

Fortune opened her door too. “But Gertie’s staying in the car so maybe we’ll be able to saunter back at a leisurely pace this time. We’re way past due.”

“Uh-huh.” Ida Belle looked at Gertie. “Keep the motor running.”

I put my hand on the door handle, tempted beyond words to just stay in the car with Gertie. Fortune and Ida Belle had me seriously spooked. But in the end seeing the two of them start bravely toward the showroom building shamed me into following.

That, and the fact that Gertie had turned the radio up and was bellowing, “I like big butts and I cannot lie” as if she were auditioning for
American Idol
.

I leapt out of the car and ran to catch up with the others. “Hey, wait for me!”

CHAPTER FOUR

A big man with dark eyes and hair strolled over and nodded at Fortune and Ida Belle when we came through the door. He gave me the once over. “You ladies having another adventure?”

Fortune eyed him carefully as I’d noticed she did with just about everyone when they first approached. “We need to speak to Big.”

He kept his gaze locked on me until I glanced away guiltily.

“Where’s the third Musketeer? She take some youth serum or somethin’?” He laughed at his own joke. Mostly because nobody else was going to.

“This is Felicity. Gertie’s out in the lot.” Ida Belle told him. “We thought it was best after the inflatable alligator episode.”

The big guy grew serious, nodding. “You aren’t wrong on that one.”

Fortune lifted a brow. “Big?”

“He ain’t here.”

“You wouldn’t lie to us about that, would you Mannie?”

He placed a hand over his heart. “You wound me with your words.”

Fortune glanced around, her gaze stopping at a door with a sign on it that read, “Office”. “Big will want to talk to me. It’s important.”

Mannie cocked his dark head. “Mr. Little is here. You want I should ask him?”

Fortune glanced at Ida Belle and the older woman nodded.

While we waited for Mannie to fetch his boss, I wandered over to check out the airboat. Running my fingers over its shiny, aluminum surface, I pondered what it would be like to ride in one.

“They’re fun.” Fortune placed her hand on the side of the boat, a wistful look in her eye.

I blinked. “Did I say that out loud?”

“No. But you had the same expression on your face I was probably wearing when I first saw mine.”

My eyes widened. “You have an airboat?”

At the wonder in my voice she grinned. “Yeah. Maybe we’ll take it for a flight later.”

I laughed. “Flight, that’s funny.”

“Not really. Ida Belle will be driving.”

“Ladies. How nice to see you again.”

We turned to find a diminutive man wearing a shiny suit and a wide smile strolling toward us. He gave me a quick, full-body scan and his eyes widened. “New recruit?”

Fortune shook her head. “Temporary alliance. Felicity is looking for her dad. We thought maybe you’d seen him.”

Little’s small face folded into a frown. “Why would you think that?”

I pulled the boat repair receipt out of my pocket and showed it to him, along with a picture of my father. “He was apparently here. Do you remember seeing him?”

Little handed the two items back to me after barely glancing at them. “I don’t. But then I can hardly remember all of our customers.”

“Felonius Chance is not your everyday customer,” Ida Belle told him.

I realized I was going to have to fess up if we were going to get anywhere. Lowering my voice, I stepped closer. “He’s on the lam. Running from the police and the Russian mob.”

For a couple of beats Little seemed torn between smiling and frowning. Finally a frown won out. “Why would you think we’d know anything about a guy like that?”

Oh oh!

Fortune glanced around and lowered her voice. “We thought he might be interested in one of your other…erm…services.”

“He’s looking for a loan?” Little shook his head. “We wouldn’t loan money to somebody we don’t know. Even at twice the rate we usually charge.”

“Protection?” Ida Belle asked. “Maybe Big spoke with him.”

Little thought about this for a beat. Then he jerked his head toward the receipt I still held in my hand. “I tell you what, since you’re a friend of these ladies, I’ll take a look.” He stuck his hand out for the receipt. “Wait here for a minute.” Little Hebert took the receipt and returned to his office. Mannie followed him in and shut the door. A few minutes later Mannie returned with something clutched in his big paw. He handed it to me. “I have no idea what this means but the boss told me to give it to ya.”

I took the empty plastic cough syrup bottle and looked at Ida Belle.

She shrugged. “That’s not one of ours. Isn’t that the kind you found on Number…”

The front door crashed back on its hinges and Gertie came flying in, her hair sticking straight up in the air like she’d styled it with a cement mixer. “We have to go!”

Fortune and Ida Belle sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Ida Belle asked.

Gertie slid Mannie a look, her eyes widening. “We…um…we have to go, now!” She turned around and ran out the door, leaping into the driver’s seat of the Caddy, which I noticed was percolating right in front of the door.

I followed Fortune and Ida Bell toward the Caddy, my heart pounding so hard in my chest I thought I might pass out. I’d barely pulled my foot in and closed the door before Gertie slammed her foot down on the gas and laid rubber out of there.