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MARGE WAS THE FIRST to poke her head inside the hospital room. Marie was sitting upright in bed wearing a blue nightie, her focus directed toward a standing nurse, who held a baby wrapped in pink. Marge turned back to the others and whispered, “It’s a girl.”
“Are you going to gawk at me, or are you coming in the room and saying hello to Sinful’s newest resident?” Marie called out.
Marge stepped inside. A tear ran from Marie’s eyes as the nurse handed the baby to her. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
Marge nodded. “That’s because you’re her mother. She takes after you.”
“Which is good because Harvey’s family has those weird looking big ears,” Gertie whispered to Marge as she, Ida Belle, Louanne and Gabby stepped in the room.
Marie looked over at them. “I heard that.”
Gertie’s cheeks flushed. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Marie said. “I prayed before going into surgery that my baby would have my ears.” Marie teared up again. “She does.”
“Speaking of Harvey...” Louanne said.
“He’s in St. Charles on business. He’ll be back tonight. If you wouldn’t mind calling my in-laws, Miss Louanne, I’d appreciate it. For some reason, they slipped my mind.”
Louanne began to cringe, but then put on a big, fake smile. “Be my pleasure.” Which of course it wasn’t, Marge knew that. Louanne and Mrs. Chicoron had about as much regard for one another as Marge and Celia.
“But that’s okay. Y’all are here.” Marie positioned her baby to face them. “See, Emily, this is part of your family. Maybe not the kind that’s related by blood, but still family. There’s Miss Louanne.”
Louanne held up her hand to wave. Due to the handcuffs holding their arms together, Gabby’s hand lifted as well. “And that’s Miss Louanne’s prisoner. Miss Louanne is a bounty hunter, so don’t you go breaking any baby laws or Miss Louanne will have to go get you.”
Gabby pulled Louanne with her as she approached the bed and presented Marie with a pair of baby booties. “I’ve been knitting these the past week.”
“Oh, my goodness, they are beautiful,” Marie said as Gabby placed them on the bed. “Is it too forward of me to ask if you’re wanted for anything serious?”
“I whacked off part of my husband’s right buttock with an axe.”
Marie laughed.
“He was not the kind of man you’d want little Emily to marry,” Gabby said.
Marie shook her head. “No kidding. Especially with a right buttock missing. No, we want my little girl to marry someone with a complete set of butt cheeks.”
Marge could tell Marie was still a bit loopy from the medications used to aid the birth process.
“Okay, where was I?” Marie said, turning back to Emily. “Oh, yes. The tall one with the straight blonde hair is Ida Belle. She will be one of your godmothers. She’s quite agile and handy with a gun. Maybe someday she’ll teach you how to shoot because your daddy couldn’t hit the side of a barn if he was standing a foot away from it. And there’s Gertie, the one with the light-brown hair. She is the best cook in all of Sinful. Used to be her mother was, but now that she’s back from Vietnam, Gertie is.”
Marie looked up at Marge and smiled. “And this is Marge. My best friend in the whole world. Her given name is Margarette, and you’ll recognize it because that’s your middle name.”
Marge momentarily felt her breath taken away. “What? She has my name for a middle name?”
Marie nodded. She looked back at her baby. “I hope she teaches you to be kind, yet fierce and brave.” Tears spilled from Marie’s eyes. “And I really hope they all decide to stay in Sinful.” She looked at Gabby. “Even you. Sinful can always use a woman handy with an axe. So who wants to hold her?”
Louanne was the first to volunteer. She and Gabby held her together. Louanne shot an expectant glance at Ida Belle, who suddenly looked like a deer in headlights.
“Me?” Ida Belle asked. She looked at the baby. “She’s cute and all, but... you know I never had any younger brothers and sisters. And I never babysat any kids. I mean, she’s so fragile.”
Marge noticed Gertie backing away toward the door. She was almost over the threshold when Ida Belle pointed to her and said, “Let Gertie hold her.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Marie said. “Gertie was the baby of her family. The only thing she knows about babies is how to be one.”
“I never really felt all that comfortable around babies,” Gertie said.
Her friends were pathetic, Marge thought. They spent nine years spying for the U.S. Army, could subdue a man twice their weight with any number of martial arts moves and were now turning to wimps over the thought of holding a baby. Marge stepped forward. “I would be honored to hold little Emily.”
Marge cradled the baby in her arms. She had a couple of younger siblings and had to do her share of childcare while growing up. Though she never wanted a baby, she was a natural around them. She touched baby Emily’s cheek and thought how this girl was being born into a different world than Marge had been. It was changing. Yes, there was war and world tensions, but women were now allowed to help find solutions. “You can be whatever you want to be,” Marge whispered to Emily. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.”
The nurse took Emily from Marge and reminded them that Marie had been through a lot and needed some rest. After being ushered out into the hallway, Marge took one look back and blew a kiss to baby Emily, wishing her a great first day in this world. After closing the door, she turned back to the group and noticed the incredulous looks on Ida Belle’s and Gertie’s faces.
“What? I can’t wish a baby well?”
“I have never seen you blow a kiss to anyone in all the years I’ve known you,” Ida Belle said.
Gertie nodded. “I know. She’s getting soft.”
“Am not,” Marge said. “I just think this baby needs all the best wishes she can get. She has Harvey Chicoron as a father.”
Gertie laughed. “Which means she’s going to be a trust fund baby.”
“There are more important things than having a trust fund,” Marge said.
“Who feels like some ice cream in the hospital cafeteria?” Louanne asked. “You can get me caught up on who committed the murder.”
* * * * *
LOUANNE STIRRED HER ice cream until it became soupy, her jaw dropping when she heard about Dolly’s confession. “Paul and Dolly? What an unlikely duo. Well, you three have my gratitude for solving the crime.”
“Not that you couldn’t have solved it,” Ida Belle said. That was something she didn’t quite understand. It didn’t seem like Louanne to just roll over like that and let someone else do her investigating for her.
“Yes, but I was otherwise occupied.” Louanne tipped her head toward Gabby.
“What are you gesturing at me for?” Gabby asked. “It’s not as if I was creating a lot of work for you. I must be the easiest prisoner you’ve ever had.”
Louanne thought a moment. “The case was too close to me, so it was good I stayed out of it. I had no alibi and Buster Bussey made up the lie about the convertible. An investigator should never investigate her own case.”
Gabby rolled her eyes.
“What’s that for?” Louanne asked, mimicking the eye roll.
“I could have been your alibi,” Gabby said. “I was the one on that boat. And then when I turned around and came back to your compound, I was with you during the time of the murder.”
Louanne shook her head. “Not after you went to the kitchen to start your baking. I could have slipped out to go murder Wade during that time. That’s what a prosecutor would have argued.”
Gabby rolled her eyes again. “The phone rang during the movie and you answered it. I heard your conversation. I could have told them who you were talking to and what you were talking about.”
“Why don’t we just forget about it,” Louanne said. “It’s over and done. How’s everyone enjoying their ice cream?”
Gabby looked at Ida Belle. “She was on the phone with a sheriff in another town about an escaped felon she’d handed over to them last year. I noted the time, and it matched when that Buster fellow said he saw the woman driving away in the convertible. I could have cleared it all up, but she wouldn’t let me.”
Ida Belle sighed. Now everything was becoming clearer.
Marge tapped her fingers on the table. “So a sheriff, a law enforcement professional, called you at your house at the time Wade Guillory was murdered? You wouldn’t even need Gabby to alibi you. You could just refer Sheriff Lee to that other sheriff. He would have said there’s no way you could have committed the crime. Why didn’t you just say that? We wouldn’t have had to get involved.”
“But you had fun solving it, right?” Louanne asked.
“That’s not the point,” Marge said.
Ida Belle laughed. “Actually, I think it is. You wanted us to solve it.”
Louanne slurped a spoonful of her soupy ice cream. “For hospital ice cream, it’s pretty good.”
Marge folded her arms. “You wanted to keep us here. To show us how this hick town needs us.”
Louanne waved her off.
Gertie pointed her spoon at Louanne. “You’re sneaky. And you’re right, this town does need us.”
“What are you saying?” Marge asked.
“Nothing. Just stating a fact. But they can’t have us. We’re leaving after three months. Because we said we’d move, and we will.”
“Can’t blame me for trying,” Louanne said. She slurped another spoonful of soupy ice cream. “So Ida Belle, did you speak with the lawyer yet?”
Ida Belle could feel her jaw drop. “How did you know about that?” She shook her head. “Why do I even bother asking that question?”
Louanne smiled. “Your great-aunt called me before she died and told me what she was going to do.”
Gertie turned to her. “Lawyer? I knew there was something you’ve been holding back.”
Ida Belle sighed. “Not really holding back. I was going to discuss it with you both once we solved the case.”
“Which is now. Spill it,” Marge said.
“My dad gave me a letter from my great-aunt’s attorney when I went to talk to him about Buster. She left me something in her will.” She opened her purse and pulled out the letter. Gertie ripped it from her hands. Marge leaned in and they both scanned it.
“Old lady Mabel was your great-aunt?” Marge asked.
Ida Belle nodded. “I almost forgot we were related. My dad cut ties with my mom’s side of the family after she’d died.”
“The lawyer said to call him,” Gertie said. “Did you?”
“I called yesterday.” She took a breath before continuing, still dealing with the residual shock over the contents of her great-aunt’s will. “She left me her house and a couple of oil wells.”
Gertie’s and Marge’s eyes widened. For the first time in all the years Ida Belle had known her best friends, they were speechless.
“The oil wells won’t make me rich, but they will provide me with a nice income.”
“Then why don’t you look thrilled?” Gertie asked.
Marge nodded. “Yeah, I’d be dancing down Main Street if I had a house and two oil wells.”
“I am, it’s just... Now I have a decision to make,” Ida Belle said. “About the house. The attorney said he knows a buyer who will give me top dollar for it. Said the guy will even let us live in it for three months for a reasonable rent.” She paused, trying to get a read on them. “It’s what we wanted, right? A house to stay in for three months before moving to New Orleans?”
Gertie nodded. “That is what we said.”
Marge began drumming her fingers on the table.
Louanne sighed. “I know Principal Rogers down at the high school will be disappointed you won’t be teaching there, Gertie. I guess Miss Granger will have to come out of retirement.”
“Miss Granger?” Gertie said, slamming her spoon into her ice cream. “That old bat? She’s terrible!”
“The worst!” Marge said. “I made it a point to read every book she had banned from Sinful High Library.”
Ida Belle could feel her face heating up. “Remember when she found me reading one of those books and had me rip out every page so she could burn them?”
“Yes,” Gertie said. “And I remember the swat she made the principal give you when she realized you switched books on her and it was some romance novel she kept in her desk.”
Louanne smiled. “Now she can influence a whole new generation. Oh, that reminds me, I guess I should be calling Mrs. Chicoron soon to tell her of the birth of her granddaughter. I was hoping to put it off until little Emily went off to college.”
Ida Belle caught Louanne’s eye. “You’re doing it again. Trying to show us why this town needs us.”
“The thing is,” Gertie said, her eyes glistening, “it does, don’t you think? I could share so many new books and authors with the kids. Probably have more of an impact than if I taught in New Orleans.”
Marge tapped her spoon against her ice-cream bowl. “And that little Emily. If we’re not here to counterbalance the Chicoron influence, she could end up like Harvey’s mother.”
“Can’t let that happen,” Louanne said. She shrugged. “The way I look at it, you have ready-made lives just waiting for you here in Sinful. Gertie has a job if she wants it. Marge has a job managing my photo store, if she’d like it. I know her mother would like to retire. And if I’m not mistaken, Pete Sanders is retiring and closing up shop. Now there will be no other accountants in the area. All the business owners will have to consult accountants in Mudbug and beyond.”
Louanne gazed at Ida Belle. “I believe you’re working toward your degree in accountancy. You can have a part-time accountant business and work part-time with me in the bounty-hunting business.”
Her head pounded. “I don’t know,” Ida Belle said.
Gabby reached her free hand over and touched Ida Belle’s hand. “I think you do. Sounds like that buyer the attorney knows is giving you a good deal. You strike me as a girl who knows what you want and goes for it. If you had a great desire to live in New Orleans, I bet you would have said ‘yes’ right then.”
Ida Belle sighed. Not only was Gabby good with an axe, she was good at reading her.
“What would make you happy?” Gabby asked. “What kind of life do you want?”
Ida Belle thought a moment. Most of all, she needed to live a life filled with challenges. She thought New Orleans would fulfill that need. But seeing Walter the past couple of days made her realize something. She wasn’t moving to New Orleans for a challenge, but rather, she was running away from one in Sinful.
“I think you want the same thing we want,” Gertie said, “but you’re afraid if you stay here, you’ll give in to Walter and get married and be trapped.”
Ida Belle shook her head. “Not really. I mean, I’m attracted to Walter, but I’m pretty committed to staying unwed.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Gertie asked. “Because I’ve known you all my life. Gabby’s right. If you had to think about it, then you’re torn. You want to be here, but something’s keeping you away.”
Marge cleared her throat. “You’re afraid you’ll one day see Walter with another woman.”
That Marge was the one who knew what she’d been feeling didn’t surprise her. It had been obvious over the years to Gertie and her that Marge was holding a torch for someone–someone unavailable. Today it became even more obvious who that unavailable someone was.
“I don’t blame you,” Marge said. “Being around someone you love and seeing them with someone else... That would be a hard thing to do day in and day out.”
“But we can’t let that keep us from returning home, right? We can be each other’s support.” Gertie sniffed back her tears. “They need us here. All of us. But more important, we need to be here. Together. Sinful’s in our blood. I know we all felt it the past week. But none of us wanted to be the first one to back out of the plans we made”
“At least give home a try for a while,” Louanne said. “Give it a year at least. If it doesn’t work out, then think about heading to greener pastures. You can finish up your studies at a college close to home. The commute’s not that bad. And, you have a house.”
“It’s a huge house,” Ida Belle said, suddenly feeling energized. “Maybe needs a bit of work. But it has four bedrooms, a big porch, big kitchen for Gertie to cook in. A porch swing for Marge.”
“I always wanted to go in that house,” Gertie said.
“Now you can live in it,” Ida Belle said. She felt relieved she’d made a decision. She also knew that there may come a time she’d enter the Sinful Café and see Walter with another woman. Or someday see Walter and his wife pushing a stroller. She’d have regrets if that happened, she knew that. But she also knew she’d have regrets if she didn’t live her life exactly the way she wanted.
Louanne opened her purse and retrieved a set of keys. “Well, Gabby, looks like it’s a day for celebration. What better way to celebrate than for you to escape?”
She unlocked the handcuffs and slipped the pair in her purse. Gabby wasn’t budging.
“I took the liberty of making you a phony ID,” Louanne said, “and I slipped you some cash. Go make the kind of life you deserve, because you’re not going to get that in the justice system. Not with your husband being a judge with connections.”
Gabby remained in her seat. Stoic.
“For heaven’s sake, I’m making it abundantly clear you’re free to go,” Louanne said. “You haven’t taken my many hints over the past few days. What more can I do?”
Gabby drew in a breath and released it. “What if I like it in Sinful? Reminds me of the crazy town I grew up in, before I met my husband. Before my spirit was broken. What if I want to stay and live in your guesthouse and cook for you and Cole? And come over to the main house and watch Bonanza with you and gab about the show?”
“You did say you’d love to have Gabby stay.” Marge directed her gaze at Gabby. “She said you get her whites whiter than white.”
“I do,” Gabby said. “But that’s not all I can do. In addition to running a household, my husband had me work at the courthouse and jail. Unpaid, of course. I have knowledge of the court system, and I can worm my way into a criminal’s heart. I did it all the time when I would cook for the inmates at the jail. And I learned all the tricks they use to evade the law.”
Gabby turned to Louanne. “Give me free room and board for cooking and cleaning and hire me part time for your bounty hunter business.”
Louanne smiled. “You’re hired. You can have the guest house.”
“And introduce me to that handsome widower we saw on the street the other day.”
“Chuck Leger? The one who winked at you? He’s a nice man.”
Gabby nodded. “I think it’s time I find a man I’m worthy of.”
“I do too,” Louanne said. She lifted her ice-cream spoon in a toast. “To new beginnings.”