Free Louisiana Longshot (A Miss Fortune Mystery, Book 1) by Jana DeLeon Page A

echoed in my mind.
    I started to shake my head.
    The worst kind of person is a coward.
    That voice from the grave ripped through me, completely overshadowing Morrow’s plea, and twenty years fell away in an instant.
    “I’ll do it. But I’m going to need information. I’m not going in cold.”
    Gertie tossed the dishrag on top of the spilled coffee and started clapping. Ida Belle broke out into a smile for the first time that morning.
    “We can start with why the bone washed up in my yard. After all this time, why now, and where did it come from?”
    “That’s the easy part,” Gertie said. “It was Edgar that dug it up, and when they flushed the water out of the freshwater pond a couple of weeks ago, it drifted down the bayou until Bones found it.”
    Ida Belle nodded. “I agree.”
    “If this Edgar dug it up, why the hell didn’t he turn it in?”
    Gertie laughed. “Edgar was a hurricane that blew through here late last year. Flooded the whole area. Couldn’t even step off Marge’s back porch for over a week or we’d have been right in the bayou. Caught some good bass sitting right there in the wicker chair, though.”
    Ida Belle nodded. “All sorts of things rose out of the ground during Edgar. Why, my mother’s coffin popped straight up out of the grave and cruised down Main Street. I always said you couldn’t keep Mother down.”
    “And your mother always did love Francine’s pudding.”
    I sighed. I was going to need a lot more coffee.

Chapter Seven

    “The first thing we need is another suspect,” I said as I poured one more cup of coffee. “Someone that a jury would believe could have killed Harvey. Juries come with their own prejudices, so we should play to them. Pick a man that’s scary looking, slightly odd in behavior, and has more firearms than any one person should need.”  
    Unless they were CIA agents.
    Gertie and Ida Belle looked at each other, then back at me.
    “Is there a problem?” I asked.
    “That describes pretty much every able-bodied man in Sinful,” Ida Belle said.
    “Seriously?”
    “Well,” Gertie said, “except for Carter. He’s got the firearms, but he’s kinda cute, in an aggravating sort of way.”
    “The aggravating part, I’ve noticed,” I said. “You lost me on the cute.”
    “Give it some time, honey,” Gertie said.
    I was just about to tell her I didn’t have that much time when someone knocked on my front door.  
    “Are you expecting anyone?” Gertie asked.
    “Who would I be expecting? You’re the only people here that I know except—”
    Ida Belle sucked in a breath as I stalked out of the kitchen and to the front door.  
    Deputy LeBlanc stood on my front porch, but rather than wearing his usual semi bored/amused expression, this time he looked angry.
    “I need to speak to Gertie and Ida Belle. Are they here?”
    I stepped back and waved one hand at the kitchen. This did not look good for the home team.
    I hurried behind him as he stomped down the hall and into the kitchen. He stood there in the middle of the room, glaring down at them.
    “Where is Marie?”
    Their eyes widened.  
    “At home?” Gertie said.
    “No. She’s not at home, or I wouldn’t be asking, and no one has seen her since Saturday. Tell me where you’re hiding her now, and I’ll let it all slide.”
    “But—” Gertie started to reply, but Ida Belle put a hand across her mouth.
    “You have got some nerve,” Ida Belle said, “marching in here and accusing us of such a thing. And even if Marie isn’t at home—even if we knew where she was—explain to me how that’s a crime.”
    “You know darn good and well why it’s a crime.”
    “Actually,” I said, “unless Marie is under arrest, it’s not a crime to know where she is and not tell you.”
    He shot me a dirty look. “This is none of your business.”
    And that pissed me all the way off.
    “You’re threatening my guests in my house,” I said. “So unless you’re planning on arresting