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THE BACK DOOR BANGED open and then shut. Owen jumped up and assumed a protective stance, Walter pulled a pistol, and Pepper moved behind a shelf full of assorted items for sale. Carter stomped into the store, cursing a blue streak as he headed for Walter. “Where’s Scooter?” he demanded.
“How should I know? His workday is done. I don’t have a GPS unit on the kid, you know.” Walter’s eyebrows were so high, they almost touched his hairline. “And I don’t appreciate you taking that tone with me, young man.”
Carter sighed and said, “Sorry, Uncle Walter. I was out on the bayou, trying to find some sign of who might have been shooting at Owen and Pepper when I got a call. Marty Malloy isn’t who he claims to be, and I need to find him right away.”
Walter nodded. “I did stop in at the garage earlier today and heard Scooter and Marty talking about heading out to the Swamp Bar tonight to ‘scope chicks’ as Scooter put it.”
Pepper just listened. If Fortune had made it to Scooter’s before the men left, she knew they would stay right where they were. Did it make sense to tell Carter that, or let him go check out the Swamp Bar in case the men were there? Deciding Fortune was perfectly capable of handling herself, she kept quiet. If they men really were at the Swamp Bar, then it was better for Carter to search them out there rather than sending any of the ladies in her group. Their track record at that particular establishment was less than stellar.
But first, she wanted to know what they might be dealing with. “Is he dangerous?”
“Probably not to most people,” Carter replied. “But his real last name is Wilcox.”
“Wait a minute,” Owen said, “That’s Courtney’s last name.”
“Exactly. Turns out, Marty is the brother of Courtney’s ex. I think he’s been looking for her. Did Courtney act any differently after Marty started working for you? Was she jumpy, nervous, anything like that?”
Owen pondered the question. “Not exactly jumpy, but she came to me in private and said it was time for her to leave. She said she didn’t want to impose on my generosity any longer. Thing is, she didn’t even realize she’s the best stylist we’ve had since we started touring. I was just about to hire her full-time.”
Carter’s phone rang. He walked away to answer, and then he let loose with a river of curses after he heard what the other person had to say. After he hung up, he turned back to the group and declared, “Bad news. This is now a murder investigation.”
“But the shooter didn’t even hit us,” Owen said.
Carter’s mouth was a straight line, and his lips barely moved when he announced, “The state crime lab just confirmed they identified the remains from the explosion site as Courtney.” He walked toward the front door. “I’m heading out to the Swamp Bar to pick up Marty for questioning. In the meantime, I want the rest of you to watch your backs.”
Owen sat down heavily in one of Walter’s chairs and held his head with both hands. Walter placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, and Carter gave him a contemplative look before he left through the front door.
Pepper felt desperate to talk to Fortune. If her idea to investigate Marty had put Fortune in danger, she would never forgive herself. She turned to Walter and Owen. “Listen, I want to check on Gertie and Ida Belle, make sure they don’t do anything they shouldn’t or put themselves in danger.”
Walter’s bark of laughter didn’t sound amused. “Young lady, believe me, those two are going to do exactly what they want at any time they want to do it. You would probably be safer here with us.”
Pepper figured he was right, but she wanted to do what she could. “Still, I’m going over to the church. Owen, why don’t you stay here with Walter? Either Jaxson or I will swing by later to pick you up.”
Owen didn’t look happy, but he didn’t want to rock the boat and get himself in hot water with Carter. He nodded. Pepper ran out the front door, doing a quick check to make sure Carter was gone and wouldn’t see her disobeying his orders so soon after he had given them. She dashed over to the Baptist church and caught Gertie and Ida Belle just as they were turning out the lights and locking up.
“Where’s Lisa?” she asked.
“Wendy stopped by right after I talked to you and said she wanted to have a girl’s night tonight at Celia’s, so Lisa went with her. It was good timing, too. We managed to unload all the crap... uh, clothes... we collected and sent everything with them. Maybe they can do a fashion show for Celia.” Gertie giggled at the idea.
“Okay, they should be safe at Celia’s—although it pains me to say that. Have either of you been reading my texts? Have you heard from Fortune?”
“Pepper, calm down. What’s got you so riled?”
Pepper explained about Marty’s background check and the crime lab confirmation of Courtney’s death. The older women looked somber, and Gertie sagely commented, “Shit just got real. Marty shot at Owen.”
Pepper raised her eyebrows and waved her hand in the air. “Hello! I was right there next to Owen!”
Gertie patted her hand. “Thank you for being there to take the bullet if necessary.”
Pepper gave up. If Gertie wanted to pretend she was something like the Secret Service, let her. They climbed into the Cadillac and drove to Ida Belle’s house to discuss their options.
“You said Carter is going out to the Swamp Bar?” Ida Belle asked.
“Yes,” Pepper confirmed.
“Okay, he’ll be safely out of the way.” Ida Belle’s fingers flew over the tiny keyboard on her phone. “I’ll let Fortune know what’s going on. It’s strange that she hasn’t contacted us yet. She left for Scooter’s place quite a while ago.”
“I texted her when I was still at Walter’s. No reply. You don’t think—” Pepper couldn’t finish her sentence.
“I think Fortune can take care of herself. If she hasn’t replied, it’s because she’s on to something good.”
“If you say so.” Pepper was skeptical, and she continued to think through the situation. “Do you think Courtney recognized Marty? If she did, why didn’t she just tell Owen? I’m sure Owen would have dropped the guy in a hot minute.”
“Having never met Courtney, I couldn’t presume to guess her motives.”
“Do you think her ex talked Marty into trying to kill her? Why didn’t anyone say he wasn’t with the group after they got off the bus?”
Gertie piped up, “The thing about bus drivers is, nobody really notices them. From what you said, this Marty guy was new to the group. It’s quite likely nobody realized he wasn’t around at first. Then in the confusion, he could have slipped back into the crowd and acted like he had been there all along.”
Pepper nodded thoughtfully. Something wasn’t adding up, but the pieces almost fit. She knew that nothing in real life was as perfectly plotted as the fiction she wrote, so it made sense that there were details that didn’t quite work.
“I think we should head out to Scooter’s and find out what’s going on. If Fortune really has gotten to the bottom of this, she could probably use our help.”
“Good idea,” Gertie said. “I’ll drive.”
Ida Belle and Gertie both pulled handguns out of their bags and checked them over.
“Think we should take some tear gas or smoke bombs?” Gertie asked. Ida Belle nodded.
Pepper was suddenly less sure of her idea to confront Marty the bus driver.
“Where did you two learn how to use all this stuff?” she asked, not positive she wanted to hear the answer.
Ida Belle and Gertie looked at each other. “We’ve played a lot of war games in our day,” Ida Belle said.
“Reenactments,” Gertie added.
Pepper wrinkled her brow. “For which conflict?”
“It’s sort of like a fantasy camp.”
By this point Pepper wished she hadn’t asked. Gamely, she said, “Well, what toys can I play with that won’t kill me or anyone else?”
She felt the immediate approval flowing in waves from both Gertie and Ida Belle. Apparently, she had said the right thing. They gave her a vest with pockets to hold canisters of tear gas and smoke bombs. “Oh, smoke bombs. I know those. Remember, I taught middle school for fifteen years. Smoke bombs in the bathrooms were a regular occurrence. I know what they do. But how do I use the tear gas?”
Ida Belle beamed at her. It was like southern sunshine in the middle of a northern winter. Pepper didn’t think she had ever seen such a sight before. Proudly, Ida Belle showed her how to use the canister and explained how far away she should be before using it.
“Shouldn’t we be wearing gas masks or something if we use this stuff?”
“We won’t actually use it unless it’s an emergency.”
“And you don’t think confronting a possible murderer presents the possibility that there could be an emergency before the night is over?”
Ida Belle and Gertie looked at each other and shrugged. “Doubtful,” Gertie said. “We’re pretty good at this war game stuff.”
Ida Belle was still smiling widely, which disturbed Pepper more than the fact that she was loaded down with smoke bombs and tear gas. She thought it likely that the ladies were simply looking for a reason to use equipment they probably shouldn’t have in a place where they could be fairly certain Carter would not arrest them because he was in an entirely different location. What have I done? Pepper asked herself before climbing into the backseat of the Cadillac.
“Maybe we should take the Corvette. It’s faster,” Ida Belle said.
“No way,” Pepper replied. “I’m not squeezing myself into that miniscule aftermarket backseat ever again. You did that to me once, and it was one time too many. This body needs space, ladies.”
Ida Belle sighed. Pepper didn’t care. “If anything, we take my Camaro,” she offered.
“I’ll drive,” Ida Belle shouted. “Gertie, get us to Pepper’s place fast. We’ll switch cars there.”
Telling Gertie to get anywhere “fast” was a mistake, as far as Pepper was concerned. Gertie had two speeds when driving—turtle and rocket. She seemed to take Ida Belle’s statement as a challenge. “I can get us anywhere we need to go faster than one of those newfangled cars,” she insisted before launching out of the driveway and down the street.
Pepper closed her eyes and tried to hold on. “How far to Scooter’s?” she asked.
“At this speed? About five minutes,” Ida Belle replied. Then her strangled voice shouted, “Gertie, watch out for the—”
Pepper squeezed her eyes tighter, bracing for an impact. But it never came. Instead, the massive Cadillac gave a mighty swerve, rolled up over the curb, and took out a small tree before bouncing back down onto the street.
“Good Lord, Ida Belle, keep your mouth shut when I’m driving! You could have caused an accident!”
“Me? You’re the one who nearly ran over Carter’s dog. Imagine what would have happened then?”
“Why is Carter’s dog out of the yard?” Pepper asked.
“Elmira Brevort got a new rescue dog a couple of days ago. She’s a pretty yellow lab and Tiny is in love with a capital ‘L,’” Gertie explained. “And for your information, Ida Belle, I knew darn well he was in the road. Damn dog is always in the road now, no matter where you go. It would serve Carter right if someone called Animal Control on him.”
Pepper said, “Really, Gertie? Don’t you think we’ve done enough for tonight? We’ve already allowed Carter to drive out to the Swamp Bar even though we’re almost positive Marty isn’t there.”
Gertie shrugged. She didn’t look worried. “That’s on you.”
As Gertie drove like a bat out of hell, Ida Belle’s phone pinged with a message. “Thank heavens,” she said, “Fortune is okay. She said she’s at Scooter’s place with Scooter and Marty. They’re in the backyard, roasting hot dogs over a fire. Apparently, Scooter pulled out all the stops to impress her. He even used the fancy paper plates that don’t soak through.”
“Tell her we’re coming in hot,” Gertie instructed.
“Has she found out anything?” Pepper asked at the same time. “And why did it take her so long to text us?”
“Marty and Scooter are both well on their way to being drunk enough to spill every secret they’ve ever kept in their lives. She didn’t want to cause suspicion by running off every few minutes to use her phone to update us. She finally told them she needed to use the bathroom, so she’s away from the fire and the men but she can still see them. They’re still drinking. I gave her our ETA, and she’ll be ready.”
“Wait, Marty hasn’t confessed anything? Maybe we should just give them more time.”
“I’m telling her that we’ll be there for backup. I want to be there and listen for when Marty confesses, but we won’t move in unless Fortune needs help. Or in case we need to make a quick getaway.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Pepper said. Just listening, not using weapons... that worked for her.
Gertie eased up on the gas, and they coasted to a stop just down the road from Scooter’s house. Dark was settling, and Pepper worried about the older women tripping in the gloom, but they seemed to be able to see in the dark. She brought up the rear, stepping hesitantly, afraid of encountering a snake or other creepy creature.
“Come on, slowpoke,” Ida Belle said. “If I knew you couldn’t keep up, we wouldn’t have brought you.”
“Hey, this was my idea!” Pepper whispered.
“Hush,” Gertie said. “It’s recon time.”
Those must be some realistic war games, Pepper thought. The women crept down Scooter’s drive, past Fortune’s Jeep, and around the side of the house, getting as close as they could without being seen. They could just barely make out what was happening.
“Oh, dear lord,” Gertie whispered.
“Are you kidding me?” Ida Belle commented.
Next to the campfire sat three figures. Scooter was sipping from a cough syrup bottle while burning marshmallows on a stick and making googly eyes at Fortune. Marty was hunched over, crying like he’d just lost his mama. Fortune awkwardly patted his shoulder, encouraging him to tell her all about it.
“Obviously there’s been a breakthrough,” Pepper said.
As they listened, Marty started talking. “I can’t believe she’s gone,” he blubbered. “I loved Courtney. I wanted to rescue her from my brother after I heard how he was treating her, but she was gone by the time I got to town.”
“Did Courtney know how you felt?”
“Naw. She didn’t even know who I was. We never met. I was, uh, detained as a guest of the state while she was married to my brother. He sent me pictures, though. Then when I got out and went home to visit mama, she told me Courtney wasn’t being appreciative of everything my brother did for her. She’d gotten uppity, and he had to knock some sense into her.”
Marty took a deep breath before continuing. “Now I don’t hold none with beating a woman, no matter what. She was so beautiful, and I knew I could treat her better than my brother. I went to their house, but she was gone. I promised my brother I had friends who could help me find her, which is true, but I didn’t say I would tell him about it when I did find her. It took a long time, but I finally tracked her down after some of my old buddies saw her backstage at an Owen Bryce concert.”
“I didn’t say anything to my brother, just lit out of town and went to get her. I knew we could have a good life together. But first I had to get in with the tour group, let her get to know me, show her what I could do for her and how I could protect her.”
“How did you get in with the tour group?”
“I, uh, put a little something in the bus driver’s food one day when they were eating at a restaurant. Nothing that would kill the guy, mind you, just a few herbs that would make it so he needed to take some time off.”
“Glad to hear you didn’t really want to hurt anyone.” Pepper could almost see Fortune rolling her eyes. “So how did Courtney respond to having you on board?”
“She was polite enough, and my plan would have worked if she hadn’t found my wallet with my real ID in it. Once she knew who I was, she said she had to leave ‘cause she knew my brother would find us eventually. I told her I could keep her safe, but she wouldn’t listen. That damn pansy-ass Owen had her head filled with ‘security’ and ‘you need money to stay safe’ and a bunch of crap like that. Jerk. If it weren’t for him, Courtney would be alive and we would be together somewhere right now. Instead, thanks to Owen Bryce, my beautiful, sweet Courtney is dead.” Marty’s wails increased in volume. Fortune winced, her eardrums under attack. Pepper no longer worried about night critters, as anything in the area would certainly have scattered by now.
“Is that why you blew up the bus? To try to hurt Owen? And then you shot at him?”
Marty’s head popped up, a look of total confusion on his face. “What? NO! I didn’t do either of those things! I think Courtney did something to the bus to distract everyone, and it blew up before she could get away. And I didn’t even know anyone shot at Owen. When did that happen? Scooter and I have been together all day.”
Scooter nodded in confirmation.
“Didn’t you go out on the bayou earlier? It looks like you had just pulled up to the dock when I got here.”
“Yeah, but we were just fishing. We didn’t see anyone else, much less shoot at anyone. Like I said, I’m not out to really hurt Owen, even though I’d like to punch him in the face.” Overcome by emotion, Marty broke down and sobbed again. Fortune looked like she was on the verge of panic. It seemed emotional situations were not her gig, and she didn’t know how to respond to Marty’s outburst.
Unbelievably, Scooter came to the rescue. He moved his chair closer to Marty, patted him on the back, handed him a bottle, and slurred, “Dude, I know ‘xactly how you feel. Back in high school, Emmajean Thomas broke my heart when she ran off with Bobby Collins and got married after senior year.”
“Emmajean and Bobby had been engaged since something like second grade,” Gertie whispered to Pepper.
“But now,” Scooter continued, “I’ve got another chance at the love of my life.” He gazed adoringly at Fortune while offering sage advice to Marty. “I know you’ll find someone new to love. How ‘bout we head out to the Swamp Bar? I hear Sweet Tiffany LaBeau’s sisters are back in town, and they are some mighty fine women who have extensively studied the art of pole dancing.”
“‘Experienced’ is definitely the word I would use,” Ida Belle remarked. Pepper thought maybe that was exactly what Marty needed right now, but it wouldn’t do to have the men operating either a car or a boat after they had imbibed a fair amount of spirits.
“We need a distraction,” Pepper said. “Something to keep them from driving. Unless maybe Fortune could drive them out there.”
“No!” Gertie and Ida Belle said at the same time, catching Pepper by surprise.
“Uh, okay.”
“It’s just that, well, Fortune’s had a couple of unfortunate experiences out there,” Gertie explained.
Just then, Scooter’s words floated toward them. “We don’t wanna drive drunk, so we’ll take the boat.”
It was obvious Fortune was torn between keeping the men away from motorized vehicles, and her overwhelming desire to extract herself from the entire situation. She must have figured out how to text without looking at her phone, because Ida Belle’s phone pinged. She held it up for the others to see the single word: HELP.
“Game on,” Gertie said.
Before Pepper could move, Gertie grabbed something out of her vest and tossed it toward the fire area. Pepper wasn’t sure what she had thrown, and she watched in fear as the object flew through the air. What if it landed in the fire?
“Incoming!” Ida Belle yelled. Fortune dove away from the fire, while Scooter and Marty looked up just in time to get a face full of smoke as the smoke bomb did its job, obscuring the area to allow Fortune to make an escape and meet the other women at the side of the house. Pepper was just glad nothing had exploded. She knew that was always a possibility when spending time with these women.
Her relief was short-lived as gunshots rang out.
“Crap,” Fortune said. “I didn’t disarm them when I arrived. Now Scooter’s gone all crazy. Probably thinks he’s defending me even though he can’t see a damn thing.”
As if to confirm her words, Scooter started shouting, “Get away! You won’t kidnap my lady! I’ll getcha first!”
“At least he’s shooting away from us,” Gertie said.
“But that means he’s shooting toward the bayou,” Ida Belle replied.
“So?” Pepper said. “The only thing he could hurt out there is an alligator.”
“And his boat,” Fortune said, almost as if she could predict the future. Marty kept shooting wildly, and one of his bullets must have hit something on his boat. As the four women watched, an explosion lit the night as the gas tank ignited.
“He must have had a full tank of gas,” Ida Belle said in awe.
“And a spare,” Gertie said when there was another explosion.
Scooter’s boat flew into the air, flipping several times before falling and landing on the shore, mangled nearly beyond recognition. The smoke was dispersing, and it was evident that neither Scooter nor Marty were hurt, but they were obviously in awe of what had just happened. Flaming pieces of oars and flotation vests fell around them, but they were transfixed by the burning boat.
“Wow, man, you really know how to put on a show,” Marty said. The amazement in his voice made Scooter’s chest puff out with pride.
“It looks like our work here is done. Time to go!” Ida Belle ran back toward the Cadillac, and the other women followed.
They stopped next to Fortune’s Jeep when Pepper asked, “Don’t you think we should collect any pieces that might be left of the smoke bomb? Won’t Carter be able to trace that back to you?”
“Not a chance,” Gertie said. “It’s from Scooter’s own stash.”
“Seriously?” Fortune gave a deep belly-laugh at that.
“Yep. I might have confiscated a couple of them the last time I came out here to deliver his personal order of cough syrup.”
“But won’t he wonder where Fortune went? And where that smoke bomb came from?”
“I don’t think he’ll even remember shooting his own boat by the time Carter gets here. Which should be in about thirty minutes unless he was already on his way back from the Swamp Bar. Doubtful, since even though Marty wasn’t there, I’m sure there were plenty of violations happening that Carter needed to deal with.” Fortune seemed pretty confident in her statement. Pepper decided one of these days she needed to visit the Swamp Bar. There was no way it could be as bad as the women said. Then again, this was Sinful.