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A FEW DAYS LATER, FORTUNE called Mary-Alice.
“Carter’s here with some news about Ida Belle,” she said. “How soon can you get here?”
Fortune met Mary-Alice at the front door and led her into the kitchen. Gertie was already sitting at the table, along with Deputy Sheriff Carter LeBlanc. And someone Mary-Alice hadn’t expected to see.
“Ida Belle!” Without thinking Mary-Alice rushed over and smothered Ida Belle in a hug. “Did you get bail?”
“Better than that,” Ide Belle said. “I’m free. And I hear you were a big help. So I thank you kindly, Mary-Alice.”
Mary-Alice sat down and Fortune placed a steaming mug of coffee in front of her.
“Did the coroner already do the autopsy?” Mary-Alice asked.
Carter nodded. “There was water in Victorin Lowery’s lungs. Blood alcohol level of .3 percent. And no obvious indications his body had been moved. It seems Victorin Lowery lost consciousness while intoxicated and drowned in the bayou.”
“It’s such a shame,” Mary-Alice said. “He’d just been through rehab, too.”
“Rehab?” Ida Belle exclaimed. “Well, no wonder.”
“Why no wonder?” Mary-Alice asked.
“Ida Belle’s right,” Carter said. “When an alcoholic stops drinking, his tolerance goes down. When he started drinking again, it would’ve hit him harder than he was used to.”
“So someone shot Lowery after he was dead?” Fortune asked. “Who? And why?”
“It was Leonie Blanchard,” Carter said. “She wasn’t cooperative at first. But once we told her Lowery was already dead, she told us everything. When she got out of jail that morning she was still mad, and probably still a little intoxicated. She went home, got her truck, and decided to go for a drive. That’s when she saw Lowery lying next to the bayou. Her first thought was, and I’m paraphrasing, look at that lazy cheating SOB sleeping it off, didn’t even try to bail me out of jail. Leonie pulled over, got her shotgun from the back of her truck and shot him. She went for the head because she knew about his body armor. I have no doubt she intended to kill him, but she was too late.”
“So no murder charges?” Mary-Alice asked.
“No. But it is a crime to mutilate human remains without authority of law. She’ll probably have to pay a fine.”
“Ida Belle, darling, how is your shoulder?” Mary-Alice asked.
Ida Belle started to unbutton her shirt.
“No, it’s okay,” Fortune said quickly. “You can just tell us.”
“It’s not too bad. It was a shallow wound, so it’s healing up pretty good. There’s just a little scab now. Almost like it never happened.”
The next morning, the women celebrated Ida Belle’s freedom with breakfast at Francine’s. Mary-Alice was a little late, and had just gotten seated when Celia approached their table.
“Just go with it,” Gertie whispered to her. Mary-Alice had no idea what Gertie was talking about.
“Why Ida Belle,” Celia cooed, her voice as sweet as syrup. “How wonderful to see you’ve gained your freedom at last. Our Sheriff Lee has become a little overzealous in his old age, I’m sorry to say, but I’m happy to see everything’s been straightened out.”
“Thank you so much for your good wishes, Celia,” Ida Belle simpered back. “I’m certain the letter my attorney sent over to your office this morning had nothing whatsoever to do with your improved attitude.”
Celia’s eyes flashed daggers at Ida Belle, but her smile remained frozen in place.
“And Cousin Mary-Alice, darling, how is our town history coming along? Dorothy tells me she hasn’t seen you down in the records room of late.”
“Mary-Alice has been making amazing progress.” Fortune plopped a folder stuffed with papers onto the table, and gave Mary-Alice a quick wink. “She was just showing us some of the fascinating family history she’s found. Celia, I think you’d be interested in this. You might want to sit down.”
Warily, Celia pulled up a fifth chair and sat at the end of the table. She looked at the folder and then at Mary-Alice.
“You found all this?” Celia asked. “May I ask where?”
“Oh, here and there,” Mary-Alice stammered.
“There’s so much information available on line now.” Fortune opened the folder and fanned out the contents. There were land deeds, birth records, newspaper clippings, personal letters, and a number of other documents. “Museum archives, university libraries. It’s amazing what you can find.”
Fortune might be the most unusual librarian I’ve ever met, Mary-Alice thought, but my goodness, her research skills are amazing.
“May I have a little peek?” Gertie asked.
Fortune slid the folder over.
“Ooh, look at this.” Gertie’s eyes were wide. “Why, Celia, were you aware that your daddy was once arrested for bigamy?”
Celia reddened. “That is not true, Gertie.”
Gertie shrugged and handed Celia a copy of a newspaper clipping. Celia stared at it and went pale.
“Oh, and just look at this, won’t you?” Ida Belle chimed in. “Celia, it says here that your great-grandmamma served time for extortion. She spied on people when they went to confession. It says right here that she ‘secreted herself behind the confessional booth and thereby gained knowledge of her fellow parishioners’ most intimate secrets.’ My, Celia, what a colorful family history you do have!”
Celia snatched the paper from Ida Belle and stared at it with fury.
“I thought a history of Sinful would be boring,” Gertie said. “But this looks like best-seller material. And just looky here, Celia, there’s more. Your great-great grandfather was a bounty hunter.”
“Well, that sounds quite dashing,” Ida Belle said.
“He captured escaped slaves and returned them to their owners,” Gertie said.
“Goodness,” Ida Belle said. “I can just imagine how people would be fascinated to hear that bit of history.”
“It’s not all scandalous,” Fortune said. “When I was looking through it I found a World War I war hero who was related to Ida Belle. And did you know Gertie’s great-aunt founded the teacher’s college we now know as Mudbug Technical?”
“How delightful for both of you.” Celia was stone-faced. “Mary-Alice, do you truly intend to publish this?”
“Me? Oh. I see. Well, in fact, I have been having second thoughts about the project, Celia.”
“You have?”
“Yes. I’ve become rather inclined to allow Sinful to keep her air of mystery. As any proper Southern Lady should.”
Celia fairly glowed with relief.
“A wise decision, Mary-Alice. You won’t mind if I take these for safekeeping, then.”
Celia snatched the folder and hurried toward the exit.
“No bother,” Ida Belle called after her. “We have the originals”
“Fortune, however did you find all of this?” Mary-Alice marveled.
Fortune shrugged.
“You should thank Gertie.”
“Give me a little time and a little Photoshop, and I can do anything,” Gertie preened.
“I’d like to know why you were so late arriving here, this morning, Mary-Alice,” Ida Belle demanded. “I mean, fortunately you caught on, but I was afraid you were going to mess up the whole thing.”
“Oh, there were some details I had to attend to with the remodel,” Mary-Alice said vaguely.