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

whip!” Gertie shouted on the other side of the door before knocking.
    Merlin flung himself off the sofa and shot up the stairs.
    Given all the crazy getups I’d seen Gertie wearing since I met her, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see her squeezed into her old Roller Derby outfit, but I was. Her white hair stuck out from under her old helmet. Her too-tight goggles made the skin around her cheeks puff out, reminding me of a cartoon I had once seen starring a goldfish wearing glasses. Giant padding protected her skinny knees and elbows. An ancient pair of skates that had been tied together with their laces rested over one shoulder, causing her to lean to the right when she walked.
    “I tried to stop her.” Ida Belle followed her in. She was also dressed to skate, though not in her old uniform, opting instead for a pair of denim capris and red shirt. “I left my pads and helmet in the car.”
    “No, no.” I shook my head. “We’re not there to skate; we’re there to do some surveillance.”
    “Everyone in town knows our history as Derby queens,” Gertie said. “If Andy sees us inside he won’t think anything of it. If he sees my car there and doesn’t see us inside skating? Then we’ve got problems.”
    Ida Belle nodded. “Despite my disagreeing about her outfit, I have to agree with her about us skating. He’ll just think we’re there showing off our former haunt to our young friend.”
    “You two just want an excuse to get back on skates.”
    “We want to blend in,” Gertie said.
    “In what decade?” I asked, spinning the wheels on one of her ancient skates.
    “I’ll make her rent new skates at the roller rink.”
    “I will not. These are my lucky skates. These skates made me a champion. I oiled them before we left. They’ll do just fine.”
    Ida Belle rapped her knuckle on Gertie’s helmet. “You should have oiled your head, because clearly it’s not screwed on right.”
    Gertie flipped her the bird and turned to me. “Are we going to stand here and quibble over my fashion choices or are we going to help solve a murder?”
    I picked up my backpack and thermos from the coffee table. “You did bring food, didn’t you?”
    “Food? Mudbug Roller World serves the best hot dogs in all Louisiana. French fries too. Nice and crispy. Not soggy. And tonight is adults-only, which means—”
    “Beer!” she and Ida Belle said simultaneously.
    Gertie pointed to my thermos. “So you can leave the coffee home.”
    I rolled my eyes and put the coffee back on the table.
    “Don’t worry,” Ida Belle said as we left my house, “we can skate and observe all at the same time.”
    “Damn straight,” Gertie said, “because we’re—”
    “Sinful Sliders!” Gertie and Ida Belle pumped their fists in the air. “We’re mean, we’re clean, we’re fighting machines!”
    “You have some Bengay in your purse for later, don’t you?” Ida Belle asked Gertie as we neared her Caddie.
    “Are you kidding? You know I never leave home without it.”
    A half hour later we were pulling into a parking space of the Mudbug Roller World.
    Gertie clapped. “Ida Belle, look. They still have the sign.”
    A giant neon sign gave the illusion of a pink and blue skate whizzing across the sky. Another neon sign spelled out Mudbug Roller World . Both signs sat atop a warehouse-like structure. Though this was a weeknight, a steady stream of cars was arriving to the skating rink. If the arrival rate held steady, this lot would be packed in an hour.
    I was surprised by the number of older people, as in Gertie and Ida Belle old, entering the place. “Seems to be popular with the seniors.”
    “Because it’s seniors-half-off night,” Ida Belle said.
    Gertie gazed up at the sign, transfixed. “We haven’t been to this place in years, but when we were hot young things we practically lived here.”
    “Why’d you stop coming?”
    Gertie shrugged. “Well, you know, we got busy running things in Sinful.”
    “She got