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

someone, I want you to get out.”
    “You’re making a big mistake,” he said. “Whatever these two are up to, you don’t want any part of it.”
    “All they’re ‘up to’ is a cup of coffee.” I waved toward the front of the house.
    Deputy LeBlanc shot one more look of warning at Gertie and Ida Belle and left, slamming the front door behind him.
    “Oh my God—” Gertie started.
    “What the hell—” Ida Belle chimed in.
    “Hold up!” I interrupted before they got too wound up. “Do those looks of absolute consternation and confusion mean neither of you knew Marie was missing?”
    “We had no idea,” Gertie said. “I swear it. I mean, she wasn’t at church on Sunday, but we figured with the bone being found and all, she was just lying low.”
    “This is not good,” Ida Belle said.
    “No shit, it’s not good,” I agreed. “It makes her look guilty as hell.”
    “Well…,” Gertie said.  
    I waved a hand in aggravation. “The fact that she probably is guilty is not the point. The point is that it does no good to divert suspicion to someone else if Marie is running around practically waving banners that say ‘I did it.’”
    “I agree this is not optimal,” Ida Belle said.
    “Not optimal?” I stared. “It’s a friggin’ disaster. Do either of you have any idea where she might have gone?”
    They both shook their heads.  
    I felt my exasperation rise and cursed my father for ingraining the coward challenge in my psyche. My helping Ida Belle and Gertie was all his fault, and not at all what I’d signed up for when I agreed to come here. Knitting would have been a breeze compared with this. I took a deep breath and tried to remind myself that they were old and their only life experience was this God-forsaken town. I needed to do the difficult thinking.
    “Okay,” I said, “if Marie was in trouble, who would she call?”
    “Probably not her daughter,” Gertie said. “She lives out of state and Marie wouldn’t want to worry her. And with her cousin working for the sheriff, well, she could hardly get her involved.”
    Ida Belle nodded. “She’s right. Marie doesn’t have much family. The only people she would have called outside of those two is me or Gertie, and you have my word, neither one of us has heard from her since Gertie talked to her on Saturday.”
    “Well, it is pointless to continue finding suspects until we locate Marie and get her to stop drawing attention to herself. I can come up with some sort of story for her to tell about her disappearance, but it won’t do any good unless we can get Marie back here to tell it.”
    “Harvey had that camp out on Number Two,” Gertie said. “Do you think she went there?”
    “Number Two?”
    “It’s an island out in the swamp north of here,” Ida Belle said. “It’s called Number Two Island because the whole place has a rather foul smell.”
    “And people intentionally go there? Pitch tents there and camp?”
    “Not a tent camp,” Ida Belle said. “Camps are buildings—probably closest to a cabin.”  
    “The fishing is great on Number Two,” Gertie said. “Just dab a little Mentholatum in your nostrils and you’re good for several hours.”
    “I’ll pass.” In no way, shape, or form did my helping them have to include traipsing around in the swamp on a stinky island that was probably surrounded by my only local predatory equal, the alligator.  
    “You can’t pass,” Gertie said. “Even if we find Marie, we’ll never be able to convince her to return to Sinful unless she meets you. You’re our ace in the hole.”
    “That’s interesting, considering I just arrived two days ago. What would you have done to help Marie if I hadn’t come to town?”
    “I hear Brazil is nice this time of year,” Gertie said.
    I sighed. And it probably didn’t smell like crap.
    ###

    Ida Belle insisted that I had nothing suitable to wear to Number Two and that a trip to the general store was in order. I spent a very