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MY THOUGHTS WERE LIKE race cars buzzing around the international speedway that was my brain. I massaged my temples as Fortune drove back to Sinful in silence. She was more stressed out that I’d ever seen her. Was this because she was as horrified as I was? Or was she perhaps beginning to trust me and didn’t feel the need to put on an ‘I’ve got it altogether’ air?
Either way, she was worried. Which worried me.
When we hit Sinful’s Main Street, she slowed the Jeep to just under a breakneck speed.
“I assume we’re heading straight for the police department,” I said.
“You assume wrong.”
“Then we’re heading to your house and we’re going to call Kase?”
She shook her head without bothering to glance at my way. Perhaps because she’d know I’d be wearing a disapproving frown? Which I most certainly was.
Surely my third question would be the charm. “We’re going to call your friends at the CIA?”
Fortune made a strangled sound. Oh, right. I wasn’t supposed to let on that I knew she was a federal employee.
“Your past co-workers,” I corrected myself. “Surely, they’ll know what to do.”
Instead of answering, she swung the Jeep into an empty parking space in front of Walter’s General Store. She switched off the ignition and turned to face me. “We’re not telling anyone, anything, Stephanie. Not yet anyway.”
“But, that’s not right,” I protested. “We’ve got to do something. Human trafficking is immoral. We need to report it.”
“See, that’s the funny thing about the morality police. They’ll take a report but can do very little about most things. What we’re not going to do is rush around making noise and tipping anyone off. They’ll just move on, cover their tracks, and go further underground.”
I nodded. She was right. “I just can’t believe that Bull is involved in this. He’s such a—” I struggled to find a polite way to call him a pipsqueak but I couldn’t find another word that fit as well. “—pipsqueak.”
“People said that about Hitler. Look what a nightmare it turned out to be when people underestimated him.” She jumped out of the vehicle and motioned for me to alight as well. “We’ve got to be smart about this. Right now smart means radio silent.”
We walked toward Walter’s. “Shouldn’t we at least tell Aunt Ida Belle and Gertie?”
Hand on the door, Fortune hesitated. “Gertie’s the last person who should be told anything. But I did have a quick word with Ida Belle and tipped her off before I interrupted your very fine performance.”
Touched, I fingered my strand of pearls. “You thought I gave a fine performance?”
She nodded. “I did. Now it’s time to give another one. Let’s go.”
Walter looked up as we approached the cash register. The worry in his eyes told me that he knew Aunt Ida Belle had been injured.
“Hello ladies,” he greeted us. “I’m glad to see you two. I’ve put together a box of goodies for Ida Belle that you can take home to her. I just got a shipment of her favorite beef jerky in.” He smiled shyly. “Maybe it’d be better if I stop by her place after I close up. You think she’d like some flowers?”
“I think she’d hate them,” Fortune said. “In fact, I know she would.”
Walter grinned. “Yeah, she’s funny that way.”
I wondered how Fortune wanted to handle this. Were we going to tell him about Aunt Ida Belle’s stay at Bayou Gardens?
The bells over the front door jangled as Carter entered the store. I stole a glance at Fortune. She looked happy to see him, yet weary at the same time. I didn’t blame her. It was time to crank up the lie machine. Again.
“Hello Fortune, Stephanie,” he nodded at us as he reached out to shake his uncle’s hand. “I thought you two would still be getting Ida Belle and Gertie settled into their room.”
Walter frowned. “Their room? Are they staying overnight in the hospital?” He looked between the three of us. “Or are they moving in with you, Fortune?”
“Neither, actually,” I answered for her. “Both Aunt Ida Belle and Gertie are going to spend a month or so at Bayou Gardens.”
Walter’s shock registered on his face. “Bayou Gardens,” he repeated. “But that’s an old folks home.”
“I believe they’re called ‘senior living communities’ nowadays,” I said. “But it’s only temporary.”
I watched Walter struggle to choose his next words. He was such a gentleman that he’d never curse in front of two ladies. But I sensed he was sorely tempted. “I can’t believe Ida Belle agreed to that. Or Gertie either, for that matter.”
Fortune looked at me and raised an eyebrow in a ‘go ahead and lie your way out of this one’ challenge. A challenge I accepted.
“Truth told, we didn’t give them much choice,” I said. “Aunt Ida Belle’s wearing a cast and is under strict orders to take it easy, orders you know she won’t obey. I’m sure you heard that Gertie hit her head. Someone needs to keep an eye on her in case she starts acting odd.” I was now officially rambling but it was hard to know just where to stop. “It seemed a perfect solution to have the two of them rooming together so they could keep an eye on each other.”
Walter folded his arms over his chest. “Seems like they could have done that at your place.”
“Of course,” I agreed. “If I wasn’t going out of town.”
He turned his attention to Fortune. “Why can’t they stay at your place then?”
Fortune started to answer but I rushed in to help her out. “Fortune’s going with me. To a convention. In Boston.”
“You gals are telling me that you’re going to head out of town when Ida Belle and Gertie are recuperating?” Walter looked at his nephew. “How much of this are you buying?”
Carter looked between us. “Precious little, actually. They’re up to something.”
Fortune was going to have to take it from here because I was in over my head and astute enough to realize it.
She held up her hand. “A little less judgment, Carter, if you don’t mind. We’re trying to make the best decisions we can under some trying circumstances. You know Gertie and Ida Belle well enough to know that trying to keep them quiet long enough to recover is no easy job.” She turned to Walter. “Stephanie’s blood kin to Ida Belle. If she thinks her aunt belongs in a facility for a few weeks, it’s not my place to argue, is it?”
Wait, what was that horrible sound? Oh, right, the sound of me being thrown under the bus. Apparently, Fortune wasn’t the world class liar I’d thought her to be if she was resorting to hiding behind me. Fine, I could take one for the team. “It’s just until we get back,” I mumbled apologetically.
Ten minutes later, with several days’ worth of ramen noodles and a couple of six packs of beer stowed in the back of the Jeep, we headed back to Fortune’s house.
“What’s with all the ramen noodles?” I asked, for lack of a better place to start with my litany of a thousand-and-one questions.
“Well, we’ve got to eat something. Gertie’s casseroles won’t last forever.”
I pulled a face. I didn’t drink bear. And ramen noodles weren’t a delicacy I’d yet ventured to try.
“Don’t look at me that way,” Fortune said. “You’re the one who keeps talking about some convention in Boston. Talk about painting us into a corner. How’s it going to look if we don’t leave town now? Like we didn’t want to take care of Ida Belle and Gertie at home, that’s what. Not a good look for either of us.”
Oh. She had a point. “Sorry.”
“On the other hand,” she said, her voice now more thoughtful than recriminating, “it might actually work in our favor if Bull doesn’t think we’re around. We’ll just have to lay low somewhere while we figure out what he’s up to.”
I issued a swift and fervent prayer that we wouldn’t end up on Number Two. I couldn’t handle the stench. “In that case, we’ll need to ask Ally to watch Priscilla for a couple of days.”
“What we really need to do is get in touch with Big and Little.”
My eyes widened. Big and Little Hebert were Sinful’s contribution to organized crime. They’d proven to be helpful to us on more than one occasion, and were actually somewhat gentlemanly. Still, their involvement meant that our troubles were escalating to a whole new level. “This wouldn’t happen to involve another air boat ride, would it?”
Fortune shook her head. “Nope. It’s not transportation we need from them.”
I really shouldn’t ask. I knew I didn’t want to know. I blew out a long breath. “What do we need from them?”
“Weapons. Lots of them. And remember, not a word to your boyfriend about this.”
***
“TELL ME HOW YOUR DAY was, darlin’.”
The warm rumble of Kase’s voice should have made me feel cocooned and safe. Instead, my end of our conversation felt like a tightrope walk between two very tall buildings, sans a safety net. “Oh, you know, just another typical day in Sinful,” I hedged.
He laughed. “That could involve anything from machetes to a boxing match.”
“Hmmm,” was all I said.
“Okay, let me make a few guesses. Did your day involve any high-speed chases?”
I pictured Fortune’s Jeep tearing up the road between Mudbug and Sinful. But even though she’d been driving a good thirty miles above the speed limit, no one had been technically chasing us. “Sorry, that’s a no.”
“You have a conversation with any interesting characters?”
“I wouldn’t say interesting exactly.” There’d been the bartender at Spanky’s, not to mention the whole rodent sighting discussion with the Bayou Gardens manager, but those were technically more bizarre than interesting. “Fortune and I chatted with Carter and Walter at the general store but that’s about it.”
Kase observed a moment of silence. Not a comfortable silence either. Did he know me so well that he knew I was lying?
“How was your day?” I decided to flip the question on him. As an FBI agent, surely, he’d have done something interesting.
“Nothing that I’m free to talk about, you know that, darlin’.”
An awkward quiet filled the air space between us. I was curled up in a chair in my bedroom at Aunt Ida Belle’s, dressed and ready for our visit to see Big and Little. Anxiety gnawed at my nerves like a little mouse with a hunk of cheese. I understood Fortune’s directive not to confide in Kase about what we’d found out, but she didn’t know what she asked of me. Silence and I weren’t comfortable for long periods of time.
“How are Ida Belle and Gertie doing?” Kase asked.
Now, you would think this would be a simple, straight up question that I would be grateful to hear but it wasn’t. How to introduce the topic of Bayou Gardens? Kase was likely to be as suspicious as Carter and Walter had been. My best bet was to say as little as possible. “They’re both going to be fine. In time, and with plenty of rest.”
“They there with you now?”
Something in his tone of voice warned me that he knew about their new living arrangements. Which meant I shouldn’t lie, at least not about this. I never knew how exhausting it was to be duplicitous.
“No, actually, they’ll be staying for a short while in a convalescent facility.” Before he could pepper me with questions, I launched into a whole song and dance about how this was the best thing for them. I was out of breath by the end of my spiel, but I think I’d managed to convey that everything here in Sinful was normal. Well, as normal as things ever were in Sinful.
“Stephanie,” Kase surprised me by using my Christian name instead of his pet name for me. “Whatever you and Fortune are up to, you’d better be careful. You hear?”
I neither agreed nor disagreed, nor did I divulge or deny anything. Instead, I wished him a goodnight.
Guilt needled me as I made my way out to the living room. Fortune looked up from her laptop. “What’s wrong?”
I plopped on the sofa beside her. “I’m such a liar.”
“Good. There’s hope for you yet.” She got to her feet and motioned for me to do the same. “Let’s go or we’ll be late for our meeting. Now, I want you to put on your proverbial dancing shoes so you can tap dance around the truth when we’re talking to Big and Little. We’re only going to tell them as little as we can in order to get what we want from them. I want you to play it cool, got it?”
I nodded. Play it cool. This I could do.