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“So, what did you two do?” Fortune asked.
“I still think old Sheriff Lee was just being lazy... That old coot,” Gertie mumbled.
“Yes Gertie, we both know now, he was being lazy,” Ida Belle sighed. “But, then, we weren’t completely sure. We didn’t know for sure what the Sheriff’s department knew and what they didn’t know. Remember?”
“That’s right,” Gertie said, snapping her fingers. Fortune and Ida Belle could almost see the light bulb suddenly glowing over her head. “I’d forgotten we didn’t have Myrtle back then. She didn’t get that position until later that summer. That case was the reason we asked her to apply for it, wasn’t it? How did I not remember that?”
“You did remember,” Ida Belle chuckled, “it just took a little nudge.”
“So,” Fortune exclaimed, “you knew there was a body in some kind of wooden box that had floated down the channel, and an alligator may have intervened somewhere along the way. What did you do?”
“Well,” Gertie said, “we decided to try and find out where that corpse originated...”
Wednesday, July 28, 1993
“Keep paddling,” Ida Belle urged Gertie.
“Why can’t we use the motor again?” Gertie asked again. She’d complained the entire way up the channel.
“Shhh... You know why. It would make too much noise, and if there’s someone up here, we don’t want to let them know we’re coming.”
The women had started out at first light. They’d decided to follow their best lead, the direction the casket had traveled. Before colliding with their boat, it came downstream from the north of Sinful. There wasn’t much up this way, just swamps, shacks, and stills.
Although a few rugged folks worked hard to make a living fishing up here, most of those shacks were deserted. The stills were another matter.
“There’s another shack,” Gertie stage whispered and pointed way back into the swamp, “the only reason you can see it is because there’s smoke coming out of the chimney.”
“That’s barely a shack,” Ida Belle quietly said, as she slowed the boat and motioned for Gertie to pull over to the shore.
“Why are we stopping?”
“I’m gonna get some pictures of that shack; I can zoom in from here,” she pulled her camera out of her bag and started snapping away.
“Get down!” Gertie gasped. “Be careful Ida Belle. I thought I heard something, raised voices.”
“I am being careful. I think I got some good pictures. Hey, how far do think we’ve paddled? We need to remember this spot. I think we’re about twenty miles north of Sinful now, wouldn’t you say?”
“At least twenty miles,” Gertie huffed. “We’ve been paddling forever. I figure we paddle about three miles an hour upstream, and we’ve been out here at least seven hours. Huh, no wonder I’m hungry.”
“We can have lunch after we check out that shack,” Ida Belle said. “You did remember to bring the sandwiches?”
Gertie patted the little red cooler tucked between her feet, “Of course I remembered.”
“Shhh,” Ida Belle hushed her. “Get down, there’s definitely someone out there. Yikes, there’s quite a few of them,” she whispered, clicking away as she ducked down into the boat. They heard a commotion going on at the shack, and looked back up in time to see the walls being dismantled.
“Hey,” Gertie whispered as she poked her head up, “isn’t that one of the Monroe boys? One of Tilly’s cousins from Mudbug?”
“Sure looks like one, look at that red hair, but who are the other guys?” Ida Belle asked.
“No idea, I’ve never seen any of them before, but they’re up to no good, that’s for sure. You smell that?”
“That’s no still, it smells worse than Number Two island,” Ida Belle answered, lowering her eyebrows and wrinkling her nose. “C’mon, let’s get out of here before they see us.”
Going downstream was easier than paddling upstream and they stopped two hours later, about ten miles from where they’d spotted the meth-shack.
“So, now what?” Gertie asked as soon as she’d pulled out a sandwich. “That’s some seriously illegal business, meth... Right here, in Sinful, I wouldn’t have believed it, but I saw it with my own eyes, and smelled it with my own nose.”
“I’m betting they move that shack constantly, it’ll probably be somewhere else tomorrow. It was just a bunch of boards hammered together. That’s why it looked so rickety, kind of like that pine box, huh? I knew those Monroe boys were bad news,” Ida Belle pondered, “but cooking meth? And murder?”
“So, you think that corpse definitely came from there? Poor Tilly...”
“Quick, lets paddle into those cypresses,” Ida Belle picked up her paddle as they heard a motor boat coming down the channel.
Thankfully, there was a grove of the large trees close by, and they paddled into the middle of them, shoving the heavy wet moss out of the way as they went deeper into the swamp. The women ducked down into their small boat and then peeked out over the edge when the bigger boat passed by. They heard someone on the boat discussing “the product,” and how much this batch would make them.
“That definitely looks like a Monroe boy, but I haven’t seen them forever, so I can’t be sure,” Gertie said, after they were sure no one on the boat had seen them. “I think we need to do a little research at the library.”
“The library?” Ida Belle asked, “why don’t we just ask Tilly about her cousins?”
“Sure, because that wouldn’t look suspicious at all, now would it? I can just hear it, Hey Tilly, how’re your cousins? Have any of them tried to sell you any meth lately?”
“Okay, fine, I get your point,” Ida Belle smirked, “but why the library?”
“The library will have Mud Bug Year books, and that redhead can’t be hard to find.” Gertie answered. “I think we got a pretty good look at them. I bet we could pick out those other boys from a Year book.”
“Those ‘boys’ aren’t exactly boys anymore,” Ida Belle reminded her, “they’re grown men committing major crimes, cooking meth... selling it. Even if they didn’t murder anyone, that’s dangerous stuff, maybe too dangerous for us to investigate outright. We need to be sneaky,”
“All the more reason to go to the library,” Gertie agreed, “we can’t exactly go around innocently asking anyone about them. You know how this town is, word would be out in no time that we’re snooping around.”
“Okay, library it is then. But we’ll have to wait till tomorrow. By the time we drop this film off to get developed, we’re barely gonna get home in time for dinner and “Unsolved Mysteries” as it is.”
“You’re gonna make Walter jealous if he ever finds out about your crush on Robert Stack,” Gertie chuckled.
“Oh stop,” Ida Belle chided Gertie. “It’s not just about him, his good looks and the dulcet tones of his incredible voice, it’s also a very interesting show. Who doesn’t love a good mystery?”
“Dulcet tones?” Gertie laughed. “What have you been reading?”
“I heard it on Bandstand.”
“You know it’ll be a re-run? Chances are, we’ve already seen it.”
“Even a re-run will be better than anything else on TV tonight,” Ida Belle claimed. “You don’t have to come over,”
“I’ll be there,” Gertie interrupted, laughing.
Thursday, July 29, 1993
“Ida Belle!” Gertie whispered excitedly. “Look at this, isn’t that the same image as the tattoo Walter said he saw?” She was pointing to a page introducing the school’s athletic teams. The image was one of many similar logos over a photo of Gordon Baker, who was listed as not only a science teacher, but also the coach of most of the boy’s athletic programs.
“Looks like it, but it’s a Louisiana state wrestling logo? It wasn’t a gang tattoo at all...”
“Nope, sure wasn’t,” Gertie agreed. She turned the page to the wrestling team. “Print that, we’ll show it to Walter, just so we’re certain.”
“He’s still pretty pissed at us,” Ida Belle said, “do we really have to...”
“Yes we do! Walter was the one who noticed it in the first place. Keep looking, do you recognize any of the other boys?”
“I wish we had those pictures back. It would make this easier,” Ida Belle huffed, earning her a stern look from the librarian. “One-day service my foot!”
“Maybe it’s one-day service in bigger towns, but not in Sinful. Three days was the best they could do... Although with the weekend coming up, it might be next week, so don’t get your hopes up.”
Gertie scanned the pictures, “I think the boys we saw all wrestled in high school. They all lettered, the whole team that year, even took third at the state tournament. I remember that. It was a big deal for a school that size. Hey, isn’t that our redhead? And it looks like he’s a twin.”
“Sure looks like him, or them,” Ida Belle claimed, after studying the pictures of the two identical redheaded boys. She’d been pacing while Gertie perused the books. “They’re not Monroe boys, though.” She pointed to a boy on the next row. “That’s the Monroe boy, well, one of them, anyway. How many boys did Tilly’s cousin have?”
“Four, maybe five, no twins, although there was one daughter, I think,” Gertie whispered, her face scrunched up in concentration. “Doesn’t really matter. What matters is we’ve proved it was a local body. Semi-local anyway, at least we know the victim was from Louisiana, and not from way up north like the sheriff thought. We should copy this and show him.” She waved the printout of the wrestling logo and Ida belle quickly snatched it from her.
“Hang on,” Ida Belle said as she studied the page. “Let’s wait till we get the pictures of that meth shack back. I saw a poster on the wall over there. An all-included 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s Mud Bug High School reunion is scheduled for this Saturday. We should go. You could get us in, couldn’t you?”
“Yeah, I could, but why?”
“Those boys all attended that school. I think there’s a chance the all-star wrestling team would show up to the reunion. We have to do something; we might learn something about them.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Gertie sighed. “I do know the coach, but half the town will be there, you really sure you want to go?”
“Yep,” Ida Belle tucked the printout into her purse. “Let’s go show this to Walter, might as well get that over.”
Walter was waiting on a customer when they entered the store. He glanced their way and scowled before turning his attention back to the man looking at fishing tackle. The man was wearing a brand-new, sparkling-white cowboy hat, and what looked like brand-new cowboy boots.
“He’s still mad?” Gertie asked incredulously, shaking her head. “I can’t believe it. It’s not like him to hold a grudge.”
“Closing the store down for a few hours couldn’t have cost him as much as he thinks it did,” Ida Belle said as she scowled back at him.
“I have an idea. That guy looks like he’s itching to spend some money. Follow my lead,” Gertie whispered. She waltzed right up to the side counter where Walter and the man were. “Walter? Sorry to interrupt, but do you have any more of those Pflueger Spinning Reels?” she asked, motioning at the reel he was showing the man.
“I’ll be with you in a moment,” Walter growled back at her.
“I need two, today, if you still have them,” Gertie insisted. “Belated birthday presents, you understand,” she said, “I completely forgot...”
“Oh, the twins!” Ida Belle exclaimed, “I forgot too. Those would be an excellent gift, one of us could give them the reels, and the other could give them the poles...”
“I only have two left,” Walter said, “and this gentleman,” he pointed his thumb at the wanna-be cowboy, “is already thinking about them. I can order more and have them in sometime next week if you’d like.” He raised his eyebrow at Gertie, “That’s the best I can do...”
“I’ll give you ten dollars more for each than what you’re asking,” Gertie said. “It’ll make up for forgetting their birthday if I get them the best present ever. I really need these!”
“Well...” Walter smiled and stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“Fifteen, I’ll give you fifteen over,” Ida Belle piped in and raised her eyebrow at Gertie. “Why not? Maybe I should be the best gift giver this year.” She glared at Gertie first, then the cowboy.
“Fine, twenty over and I’ll take them, along with the poles,” the man said, “if that’s okay with you?” he asked Walter. “Sorry ladies, but we’re only here for the week. And if their birthdays have already passed, what’s a few more days?”
“Well, I guess you’ll need to order more,” Gertie said, “can I pay for expedited shipping at least?”
“I can do that,” Walter said, to both Gertie and the man. “Anything else for you today?” he asked the man as he carried the tackle up to the counter.