The Miss Fortune Series: Overdue (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  “First days seem to be mighty eventful for you, wouldn’t you say, Sandy-Sue?”

  “Fortune.”

  “Excuse me. Fortune. I seem to recall you found human remains on your first day in Sinful.”

  “The dog found the bone,” Ida Belle said. “And that bone belonged to a man who was murdered long before Fortune arrived.”

  Celia shrugged. “I’m not implying she has anything to do with the rise in crime since her arrival. But it sure would be interesting to see if the crime rate of her hometown has gone down any since she left.”

  “Again, we’re not sure if a crime occurred,” Carter said, before directing his next comment to Celia. “And I didn’t see you complain about Fortune when she helped save your life.”

  Touche’ for Carter. Before Celia’s pursed lips could utter a response, he shifted his focus to Lucy. “I’m going to need the list of any patrons you recall from this morning. I’ll need it sooner rather than later.”

  “How long will the library have to be closed?” Lucy asked.

  “Probably just the rest of the day so Deputy Breaux and I can look for anything out of order, just in case the doctors detect something suspicious. I don’t see why you can’t open your normal time tomorrow.”

  Celia draped a supportive arm around Lucy’s shoulder. “I’ll make you some tea while you’re compiling your list.” As they were leaving she shot a look back at Carter. “And I did thank her. But our town used to be safe. I’d just like it to return to its former glory.”

  “Glory?” Gertie asked after Celia and Lucy disappeared around the row of books. She said to Ida Belle, “Does she realize how hard we’ve worked the past couple of decades to keep this town from sinking under the weight of crazies like her?”

  “I don’t have to remind you three—”

  “To keep out of your investigation?” Ida Belle asked. “You think someone tried to murder him.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “He had a needle mark on his neck,” I said. “Telltale sign.”

  Carter shifted on his feet. “You know that from personal experience?”

  “What?” I asked. He shot me a look. I met his gaze. I whispered, “If you’re asking if I ever jabbed anyone in the neck with a needle…”

  He looked away. My pulse ticked up.

  “Do you need Gertie and me for anything else?” Ida Belle asked.

  “No.”

  “I want to hear this one play out,” Gertie said.

  “No you don’t.” Ida Belle grabbed Gertie’s arm and pulled her away from us. “We’ll meet you up front.”

  Once they had cleared the area Carter whispered, “I’m sorry. I know what you’ve done for the CIA is confidential. I had no right to ask.”

  “Look,” I whispered back, “I do the job I do because I want to keep my country safe. The people I’ve dealt with posed a risk to all of us. And now they no longer do.”

  “You don’t have to explain yourself,” he said.

  “Sure I do. You were wondering how you could have dated someone like me. Someone who’d know how to poison someone.”

  “Fortune, you have no idea what I’m thinking or feeling. Because even I don’t know that. Cut me some slack, would you? I was thrown for a loop by a woman I cared deeply for.”

  Cared? Well, that stung.

  But he quickly added, “A woman I care deeply for. It’s going to take some time for the two of us to learn how to relate to each other… differently.”

  Differently. Another loaded word.

  “As friends.”

  Our eyes locked. That old fluttering in my body reminded me that I was still very much attracted to him. He looked away. I could tell this learning how to relate to one another… differently… was something he hadn’t quite mastered either.

  I was glad Carter had no more questions for me. Even the little time we’d just spent together was enough for my eyes to well up. Hopefully he didn’t notice the stream of tears spilling out over my cheeks as I turned and walked away. I dabbed at my eyes with my shirt sleeve, blinked a few times, and put on my game face before meeting up with Ida Belle and Gertie, who were waiting for me by the circulation desk.

  They were commiserating with Madigan about Waddell’s situation as I approached. Gertie had her arm around Madigan, who was mopping up her tears with a tissue.

  Her teary face almost got me started again.

  “You okay?” Gertie asked, noticing my blinking eyes.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Did you know Waddell?” Madigan asked me, mistaking my own reddening eyes with grief over Waddell. Not that finding him slumped over the desk hadn’t touched me. But I was more intrigued than anything, particularly if someone had tried to murder him.

  “No. I’ve never met him.”

  “He’s a bit odd,” Madigan said. “Is that okay to say, even though he’s fighting for his life?”

  Ida Belle nodded. “It’s the truth. He’s a peculiar individual.”

  “But, you know, he’s OUR peculiar guy,” Madigan said, sniffling. “He’s Sinful’s Boo Radley.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Gertie said. “It’s not like he was a shut-in.”

  “I meant that people misunderstood him,” Madigan said. “Oh, I know, everybody says he gambles too much and gets into fights at the Swamp Bar, but he’s always been nice to me. I’ve always felt sorry for him because he doesn’t have many friends.”

  I asked if he was a regular at the library. Madigan nodded her head.

  “He’s always in here doing research.”

  “Research?” Gertie asked. “He never impressed me as the intellectual type.”

  Madigan shrugged. “Me neither. But the past year he’s been coming several times a week with a file folder full of papers that he copies. Called it his ‘research.’ He said he didn’t have a copier at home.” She dabbed at her nose with the tissue. “After he does his copying he usually sits and reads. Sometimes I’ll go back there and find him asleep.”

  Madigan cringed as Celia and Lucy stepped out of the break room, deep in conversation and heading toward our group.

  “All I’m saying is it just doesn’t look good to have a Sheriff’s SUV in front of the library,” Lucy said. “You need to get him to move it.”

  “I’m sure half of Sinful already knows about Waddell,” Ida Belle said. “Moving Carter’s SUV isn’t going to stop anyone from spreading the news.”

  Lucy looked over at us. “I’m shutting down the library for the rest of the day while the deputies gather all their information. We’ll start up bright and early tomorrow morning.” She glared at Ida Belle and Gertie. “You two shouldn’t even be in here now. I hope tomorrow not to see you.”

  Celia and Lucy made their way back where Carter was still investigating, Lucy resuming her complaints about Carter’s SUV spoiling the sanctity of the library parking lot.

  Madigan sighed. “Well, you heard her. We get the afternoon off. Guess I’ll take my lunch home to eat.”

  Madigan headed for the break room to gather her belongings. As soon as she was gone, Gertie turned to me. “Why don’t you take your lunch home, and Ida Belle and I will bring ours over and join you?”

  “Okay, but we’re not getting involved. We’re going to let Carter handle this one.”

  Gertie patted me on the shoulder. “Of course we are.”

  “We’re just joining you for lunch,” Ida Belle said. “That’s all.”

  It was the eye rolls between them that made me worry.

  Chapter Five

  Gertie had one foot in my house when she blurted it out. “Waddell died.” She held up a paper bag in one hand. “Lunch.” Then a covered casserole dish in another. “Peach cobbler. We’ll need the sugar to help us think.”

  Ida Belle followed, also carrying a sack lunch and a large bag of chips. “Myrtle said Carter thinks it was murder.”

  “Did Myrtle say whether Carter liked anyone for it?”

  “No,
but she did say Waddell may have been involved with a married woman. But that’s been rumored about him for years. Myrtle said she’d try to snag a peek at the compiled list of patrons Lucy gave Carter.”

  Myrtle certainly came in handy on a day like today. She was the night dispatch at the sheriff’s office, as well as Gertie and Ida Belle’s spy.

  We set our lunches on the dining-room table and sat.

  “I think we can eliminate all the story time mothers,” Ida Belle said. “I was keeping an eye on them when they arrived. None of them left the children’s area.”

  I tapped my fingers on the table. “Whoever we’re looking for could have also come in contact with Waddell before jabbing him in the neck in the library. Maybe he even tampered with his drink before he came into the building. That way Waddell would be asleep when the killer wanted to inject him.”

  “Why not just make sure whatever he put in his drink would kill him?” Gertie asked. “That way the killer wouldn’t have to be there when it happened.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe the killer wanted to make sure he actually died. Maybe he needed to be there because he wanted to take something from Waddell. There was an empty file folder on the desk.”

  “Meaning somebody took whatever it was Waddell was copying.”

  Ida Belle nodded. “We’ll know more when Carter gets the toxicology report.”

  “Which he’ll never let Myrtle see,” Gertie said. “And it’s not like we can go in there anymore and sneak a peek at the report while Fortune distracts him by flashing a little cleavage.”

  “Yeah, not doing that anymore.”

  Ida Belle and Gertie exchanged concerned looks. “How was it between you two today?” Ida Belle asked.

  “Actually, not as bad as I expected.”

  “I still think you’ll get back together,” Gertie said while unwrapping her sandwich.

  “He doesn’t want someone like me. He wants someone who doesn’t need the excitement in her life.”

  “You need excitement?” Gertie asked before ripping open the bag of chips and popping a few in her mouth.

  “Of course she needs excitement,” Ida Belle said. “She’s a CIA agent. If she’s not out solving something and clearing the decks of bad guys, she gets bored. And don’t look now, but you and I are cut from the same cloth.”

  “I don’t need excitement,” Gertie mumbled, wrinkling her nose.

  “You can’t even say that with a straight face,” Ida Belle said. “If we weren’t investigating Waddell’s murder, you’d be looking for something else to get involved with.”

  “Would not.”

  Ida Belle pulled her phone from her pocket and tapped the screen a couple of times. “Here’s your text from last night. Babs Babineaux thinks Cyrille Wallace is stealing women’s underwear again. We need to do a stakeout.”

  Gertie looked at me. “Okay. I need excitement. But not another murder. I wasn’t fond of Waddell, but I hate to think someone killed him. Staking out an underwear thief would have been good enough for me.”

  Ida Belle nodded. “That’ll have to wait. Once we get the list of names of library visitors from Myrtle, we’ll divvy them up and go talk to them.”

  I held up my hands. “Hold on. I said I liked excitement. I didn’t say we should investigate.”

  Gertie was about to bite into her sandwich, but stopped. “What? Why not?”

  “Come on, it was one thing when we interfered with Carter’s investigations when he didn’t know how capable we were. But now… It can’t be good for his ego. I mean, what kind of message does that send to him? That we think he’s incompetent?”

  “I don’t think he’s incompetent,” Ida Belle said. “I think he’s an outstanding deputy surrounded by incompetents. I like Deputy Breaux, don’t get me wrong. He’s a nice man. But he’s not the sharpest gator in the swamp. That leaves Sheriff Lee. Again, nice man. But he chases down leads on a horse. Colorful, I’ll give you that. But there’s a murderer on the loose. One who struck right under our noses.”

  “With a library full of kids,” Gertie said. “If we can’t lend Carter a helping hand, who can?”

  I shook my head. As much as I wanted to join them, I didn’t want to alienate Carter any further. “Look, I don’t want to cramp your style just because Carter and I…” I couldn’t say, “broke up.” It wasn’t like we were committed to one another to begin with, still, I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. “You two have been running Sinful longer than I’ve been alive. You’re more than capable of helping to solve this one without me.” I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I’ll just sit this one out.”

  Gertie’s face dropped. She looked down at her sandwich and began wrapping it up. “I don’t think I’m hungry.”

  Ida Belle wrapped up her sandwich as well and stuck it in the bag.

  “That doesn’t mean you two can’t stay and finish your lunch.”

  Ida Belle shook her head. “And then Gertie and I will start talking about what we found out about the case, and then you’ll feel conflicted. No. We don’t want to put any undue influence on you. We’ll let you sit with your thoughts through the day. If you want to be a part of our investigation, we’d love it. But if you think you should skip this one, we’ll understand. Won’t we, Gertie?”

  Gertie sighed.

  “Won’t we Gertie?”

  She shook her head. “You have to do what’s best for you. We’ll keep you in the loop, though, if that’s okay.”

  “Sure,” I said. Now I felt sad.

  They stood from the table and made their way to the front door. Ida Belle turned her head and winked at me. “Talk to you later.”

  And then they were gone and the room felt strangely empty, except for Merlin, who ambled in from the kitchen and planted himself a couple feet from the table.

  “Don’t even think about jumping up here. You know your furry butt’s not allowed on the table.”

  Two seconds later Merlin was on the dining-room table and making his way over to my lunch. I’d love it if someday that cat learned English. I stood and picked him up. I could feel a mix of emotions stirring inside. Angry that I was right there when someone was being murdered and I couldn’t stop it, and sad that I wasn’t going to help find who did it. I also felt lost, which is how I felt when I first went into hiding in Sinful. I remember feeling like I had lost my purpose because I couldn’t carry out my duties as a CIA agent. Then I met Gertie and Ida Belle. As much as I hadn’t wanted to become involved in their goings-on in Sinful, I had to admit, they gave me my purpose back. And Carter? He gave me something else entirely.

  “I lost them both, Merlin,” I said, rubbing under his chin. “A purpose and a boyfriend.”

  But Merlin didn’t care. He just cared that I rubbed him at just the right spot on his neck. I couldn’t help it. I thought of Waddell’s neck. The puncture wound. I was sure Waddell hadn’t injected himself. Madigan had said he would come into the library regularly, sometimes falling asleep at the desk. Did someone know this? Did that someone wait for him to fall asleep, then come and position the needle over an artery and inject him with something? Or maybe slip something into his drink to knock him out so he couldn’t fight the needle off? That was pretty cold and calculating. And at the library. Where there were children settling in for story time.

  And under our noses.

  And that person was walking around Sinful.

  And people were going to blame me.

  “I know Carter can handle things, Merlin, but if I helped, maybe this person would be caught earlier. Before he could commit another murder. I mean, maybe Waddell isn’t supposed to be the only victim. Breaking the case a week earlier, an hour earlier, hell, even a few minutes earlier could save another life.”

  Merlin squirmed in my arms and jumped to the floor. I raced for the front door and flung it open, expecting to see Gertie and Ida Belle pulling away from the curb in the Caddy.

  “Wait!” I yelled at Gertie’s car, before realizing
that they were sitting calmly on my patio chairs.

  They knew me too well.

  “I’m joining under one condition,” I said. “This is Carter’s investigation. All good leads and evidence we turn over to him so he can investigate further. We don’t sit on anything.”

  “Deal,” Ida Belle said. “So can we go back inside and eat? I’m hungry.”

  I nodded and held the door open for them.

  “Took you long enough,” Gertie said as she passed me.

  Chapter Six

  I gently scraped the—whatever disgusting stuff constituted the hardened blob—from page 27 of the recently returned children’s book. Unlike my challenging first day as Librarian Sandy-Sue, day two was shaping up to be a huge snore. There were few visitors. Apparently the rumors of a potential murder scared off all those except the most dedicated library patrons. That would include Gertie and Ida Belle, who were scouring the library for any clues regarding Waddell’s death.

  All evidence in the vicinity of the “death desk,” as it was now being referred to by the library staff, had already been collected by Carter. Since there was no blood, a simple removal of the desk and a vacuuming of the area were the only steps needed to restore that part of the library to its original state. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t evidence lying around somewhere, and if Carter missed it, Ida Belle and Gertie were sure to find it.

  Lucy hadn’t been happy to see them, so, as punishment, she assigned me the task of preparing books to reenter circulation. Checking books for anything stuck inside, whether literally stuck or loose between pages, was part of my new duties. Shake and Scrape is what Lucy called it. First shake out the loose items, then scrape out the stuck-ons. So far I’d shaken ten returned books and had amassed quite a little mound of loose items, including a recipe for crab balls, a training bra stuck inside a young adult book, a used Kleenex, and a strip of bacon. The hardened blob I was now extracting with a knife was my first scraper.

  “Kid’s book?”

  I looked up and saw Gertie approaching my desk. I nodded.

  “What do you think it is?” I asked.