“That slimy, sniveling, squirming snake!” Dora cried out.
“Nice use of alliteration, Dor. Poetry is a good look on you.” Evie said. “But I can do you one better.” Dora side-eyed her friend when Evie expressed a colorful description for the man that wasn’t nearly as child-friendly as Dora’s.
“What?” Evie asked. “I’m not sure why you’re giving me the look. I used words that all start with the same first letter, too.”
“They didn’t have the same flow,” Dora said sarcastically.
Evie chuckled. “You’re right. But my profanity was way more satisfying.”
“Oh boy.” Dora rolled her eyes. “We need to find out what was in Ri—Raúl’s duffle bag,” Dora said as she glanced around the room for it. “If he was stealing, then we’ve got motive.”
Evie spotted the big black bag in the corner first and went over to investigate. She inhaled sharply and pulled something out of the duffle. Dora saw a sterling silver tea pot in her friend’s hands. “Dora, do you remember this from Myrtle’s china cabinet?”
“It does look familiar.” Dora squatted down to help inspect the bag, too. She lifted up a silver knife that had been wrapped in navy blue flannel. “Oh goodness, this is heavy. I bet it’s solid silver.”
Evie squinted at the handle of a spoon and said, “The stamp on it says it is, and it’s worth a pretty penny if what I got from selling my grandmother’s silver is any indication.”
Dora reached in and pulled out a jewelry box and sat back to see what was inside. She spotted rings first and picked up a gorgeous art-deco style piece with a round blue stone she thought must be a sapphire. The platinum band was cool on her finger as she slipped it on and admired it. She held her hand up for Evie to see. “I bet this is too.”
“Gorgeous,” Evie winked at her. “It would make a lovely engagement ring.”
Dora smiled. She’d always been a traditional girl when it came to style, but something about the vintage ring appealed to her, and she supposed that, like her life, her tastes had become more interesting. When she lifted the velvet ring insert to see what was below it, she spied a drawer with bracelets and reached for one that sparkled with tiny stones channel set in gold. “Wow.” Dora placed the tennis bracelet on her wrist as if she were about to try it on, and it must have caught Sunshine’s eye, because the little dog seated herself before Dora and looked up at her with the sweet face she used to get a treat.
Dora laughed. “Nice try girl, but I’d like to get my diamonds first.”
Evie pulled out a black metal strongbox and set the heavy container down with a thud. She said, “C’mere, Sunshine and help me pick the lock on this. I bet this box contains something good.” Evie definitely had a knack for locks, and she had it open in less than a minute. When she saw what was inside, she let out a long, low whistle and lifted up a wad of hundred-dollar bills. “Talk about money under the mattress.”
Dora peered in the box to see it was stuffed full with stacks of hundreds. “There’s thousands in there.” She gazed at Evie with big eyes. “I think Myrtle was wealthier than she appeared to be in her Crocs and catalog clothing.”
“Well, she had to have had a decent retirement income to live in the building Gertie and she lived in. Real estate in the French Quarter isn’t cheap, and the digs we’ve been staying in are pretty nice.”
Dora thought about the top-of-line appliances and shiny hard wood floor in Gertie’s apartment and the fact Myrtle told them Gertie let a boyfriend steal from her for a while before she cut him loose. Money seemed to be something both older women had had plenty of. “I bet that’s exactly why Raúl decided to befriend the retirees in Gertie’s building.”
Evie gasped. “Dora! What if he has plans for someone else? We have to stop him.”
Dora’s stomach clenched. Evie was right. “Of course, we do. But how?” Dora took a moment to think. “We can’t go to the police or tip them off anonymously because the last thing we need is for them to start investigating Gertie’s murder before we get the Buddha.”
Evie’s brow knit with concern. “I know, but isn’t someone’s life the most important thing? I mean, how do we live with ourselves if not tipping off the police means another woman dies?”
Dora’s heart stopped. “It is. But we have to be smart about how we stop Raúl.”
Dora tapped her chin with a finger as she pondered what to do. They needed a way to make sure nobody ate another one of Raúl’s meals. Her stomach clenched when she recalled how sick a few bites of his shrimp scampi had made her, and a thought came to her.
Evie must have been reliving the same horror she experienced with the étouffée because she grimaced as she held a hand on her stomach. But her expression quickly changed. “Dor, what’s the fastest way for a restaurant to get shut down for health code violations?”
Having been an accountant for a restaurant chain, Dora was familiar with what Evie was asking. “Well, you get a warning first for the usual minor infractions like shelving being pushed too close to a wall or a floor tile that’s cracked. But something like a communicable disease is a big deal. I remember we had a scare once when one of our cooks was seen not washing his hands after using the bathroom. Fortunately, our head chef was a stickler for gloves, but he was fired just the same.”
“Oh my god! That’s brilliant. You can get a staph infection from not washing your hands after going to the bathroom.”
“You can?” Dora asked wondering how the heck Evie would know and then wondered if she should have asked.
“Yes. I saw it on an ER rerun. They were known for being very factual on that show.”
Dora chuckled. “If it’s good enough for prime time…”
“My point is, I think we need to start a smear campaign against Raúl, and I know the exact krewe of women to get it done by the end of today.”
Dora smiled because her friend was definitely on to something. “I like how you think.” She glanced at her watch. “Today’s meeting starts in a little over an hour.”
The women began to return Myrtle’s items to the duffle bag so they wouldn’t tip off Raúl that they’d been there, but when Evie lifted up the strong box, Dora said, “We can’t leave that cash here for Raúl to spend. There’s no way we’ll ever get it back for Myrtle’s heirs.”
Evie nodded, opened up the box, and removed the contents so she could lock it up empty, while Dora found a used grocery bag under Raúl’s sink to carry the money. As Evie, with Sunshine in her arms, and Dora, holding the bag of money, approached the flame-covered convertible, Dora notice the two very large bags of donuts in the back seat and groaned. She really didn’t want to try to figure out how they were going to discretely leave them out in the hall of Gertie’s building for garbage day. “What are we going to do with all of those?”
“Return them to the Dumpster they came from on the way home?” Evie asked.
Dora considered it and chuckled about returning to the scene of the crime. “Sounds like a plan since I can’t think of anything better.” She climbed behind the wheel of the car and shoved the bag of money under her seat.
They continued to drive with the top down, and as they made their way through town, loud music drowned out the city noise. Evie pointed to the right at the street they were about to cross. “Look, a parade.”
Indeed, it was. New Orleans seemed to find any reason to have a parade, and Dora was about to slow down to let it pass when she glanced in her rearview mirror. A silver sedan had pulled up rather close, but it wasn’t the tailgating that bothered her; it was the driver. Her heart stopped. Peach filling was still smeared on the passenger side of his windshield, and she didn’t have to get a clear view of the driver to tell he was still mad. His blaring horn was enough.
“Ah, Evie. We’ve got a problem.” Dora gunned the engine. “Hold on!” She swerved to the right to narrowly miss the leader of the parade coming from the left and eked her way across the street before leaving the angry driver stuck waiting for the parade pass. “Whew,” she said. “That was close.”
Evie turned around and let out a groan. “We’re not in the clear. That’s a really short parade.”
“What?” Dora glanced over her shoulder to see she didn’t have much time before the driver could follow her again. But when she turned her attention back to the road with the intention of speeding up and taking a few quick turns to lose him, she realized she was stuck. Another parade had begun to travel down the next side street, and there was no way they could cut it off in time. “Crap!”
“Stop the car, Dora. We’re going to join that parade.”
“What?” Dora slowed down, and Evie jumped out before she came to a complete stop. “Help me peel off the flames!”
Dora wasn’t quite sure what Evie had in mind, but since her friend had already begun to peel off the flame-patterned vinyl on the passenger side of the car that camouflaged the purple convertible, she jumped out to help. Even Sunshine managed to latch on to the slick that covered the hood and tore it away.
When the car’s disguise was all gone, Evie ran up to the parade and inserted herself in the middle to hold up her hands in a stop motion. She cried out, “Hold on! We brought the donuts!”
Dora laughed when she realized what Evie had in mind, and she inched the now completely purple convertible into the parade line. Evie and Sunshine hopped in the car just as Dora reached back and grabbed a donut to toss to the crowd. She turned to Evie. “I do love a parade.”
Evie smiled back as she tossed a chocolate glazed donut behind her shoulder. “So do I.”
Sunshine yipped in agreement, too.