Free The Miss Fortune Series: Overdue (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Shari Hearn Page A

helmets, with Sinful Sliders emblazoned across their red shirts and lightning bolts extending down the sleeves. I could tell instantly which women were Ida Belle and Gertie. They looked to be in their thirties. Ida Belle was wearing the helmet that read, “Captain.” Gertie was hamming it up for the photo, holding another woman in a headlock, a woman I recognized from photos in Marge’s house.
    “Is the woman in the headlock Marge?”
    Gertie nodded. “She was Trixie Trample. I was Duchess Danger and Ida Belle was Ida Give‘EmHell.”
    “You two were on a Roller Derby team?”
    “Not just any Roller Derby team,” Ida Belle said. “The Sinful Sliders were state champions seven years in a row.”
    “No team since has been able to beat our record.”
    I handed the phone back to Gertie.
    “So you’d think Andy would have mentioned to one of us that he was going to the skating rink,” Ida Belle said.
    “Unless he was meeting a woman there he shouldn’t have been. He’s married, right?”
    “I agree with Gertie,” Ida Belle said. “I can’t see Andy doing this.”
    “Well, supposedly he’s meeting some woman there tonight. We could go just to see if he shows up and what woman he meets. Who knows, maybe whoever he meets tonight is on the list of people at the library when Waddell died.”
    Gertie clapped. “The roller rink. I haven’t been there in ten years.”
    “Lila Rose didn’t have any idea who this woman was?” Ida Belle asked before eating another piece of pie.
    “Um, she did mention her suspicions about a particular married woman.”
    “Let’s hear it,” Gertie said.
    Francine came out of the kitchen carrying a coffeepot, filling a few coffee cups at a table close to the swinging doors. Cradling a cordless phone to her ear, she tossed out a few “hmm-hmm’s” into the receiver. I flicked my head toward her.
    “Francine?” Gertie asked, stunned.
    Ida Belle began choking on her pie. Gertie reached over and slapped her on her back and held up a glass of water to her lips. “Drink some water.”
    Ida Belle did, chugging a few swallows down. “That’s crazy,” she said. “For one thing, she’s about fifteen years older than he is. And for another, Francine’s wild about her husband.”
    “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Maybe Lila Rose just mistook her. I mean, there are several women in town that could be mistaken for Francine from a distance. But we should at least eliminate her as a suspect and ask her how well she knows Andy or Waddell.”
    Francine made her way to our table and poured more coffee in our cups. She spoke into the phone, her temper showing in her voice. “I’m tired of hearing your sob story. I don’t care that your delivery guy was on a bender. I ordered the catfish and I expect it to be delivered. If I don’t have my catfish in time for my Thursday night fry, I will personally come down to your boat and get it. You don’t want that. Because catfish won’t be the only thing I’m dragging off that boat!”
    Francine cursed and stormed back to the kitchen, advising the man on the other end he’d better make sure his boat was well insured.
    “Maybe we could talk to her another time,” Gertie said.
     
    *  *  *  *  *
     
    I double-checked my surveillance gear while waiting for Gertie and Ida Belle to arrive at my house. Everything seemed in order: binoculars, camera with telephoto lens, a huge thermos of coffee and supply of sugar, creamer and paper cups. I had no idea how long we’d have to wait for Andy to show, or even if he would show, but I knew there was nothing worse than sitting in a car waiting for a target when you have no coffee or food. I was responsible for the coffee. Gertie was responsible for the food.
    Merlin stared at me from his perch on the sofa back. It looked like an uncomfortable position to me, but he seemed to like it. When his ears shot up and his gaze shifted toward the door, I knew my partners in crime had arrived.
    “Crack my