Read Louisiana Longshot (A Miss Fortune Mystery, Book 1) for Free Online

feet from the bank. As the moonlight passed over them, I caught a flash of the white of the eyes before the shadows took over again.
    I positioned myself directly in front of the humps and lifted the shovel above my head. But as I began my downward pummel, a hand reached out of the hedges and grabbed the shovel, stopping my swing. An arm hooked around my waist and yanked me a good five feet away from the water before releasing me.
    “Coming back to bury the rest of the body?” a deep voice asked.
    I let out a sigh. Deputy Charming.
    And I was standing in the middle of a potential crime scene, at midnight, trying to regain possession of a shovel. Even with forensics on my side, this had to look a bit suspicious.
    “Actually, I was going to kill that frog so I could get some sleep. Do you guys give them amplifiers or something?”
    “That’s no frog.”
    “I may not be from here, but I think I know a frog croaking when I hear it.”
    “Ah, it’s a frog making all the noise, but that’s not what you were about to hit.” He released his grip on the shovel, flipped on a flashlight and shined it on my target. It was two humps of eyes all right, connected to a mouthful of teeth and a long body and tail.  
    The alligator, apparently resenting the spotlight treatment, spun around in the water faster than I would have thought possible given the length of the creature and disappeared beneath the murky surface.
    “Well,” I said, not about to let him catch on to the panic that coursed through me at my near miss, “maybe I’ll luck out and he’ll eat the frog.”
    He shook his head. “You’ve got some attitude, lady. I’ll give you that.”
    Suddenly, it occurred to me that I was standing next to a stream of killer-creature-infested water, in the middle of the night, barefoot and wearing my pajamas, a pink, fluffy garment that Harrison had picked out to match the luggage. But that wasn’t the part that interested me. I knew why I was there, but why was Deputy Charming there?
    “So, you mind telling me exactly what you were doing hiding in the bushes?” I asked.
    “Bird watching.”
    “Bull. You think that person was murdered and someone might come here looking for more pieces.”
    “I thought it might be interesting to see if anyone turned up here after word about the bone spread around town.”
    “How can you be so sure it has?”
    He laughed. “The Sinful Ladies met tonight at seven. Likely, the entire town knew by eight.”
    “Uh-huh, and does that nice bunch of little old ladies know you’re using them to flush out the guilty party?”
    “Ha. Nice bunch of little old ladies. That’s a good one.” He turned his flashlight across the back lawn toward the street. “Well, since you’ve likely scared away any of the guilty or the innocent, stalking around in your pajamas and brandishing a shovel, I guess I’ll head home.”
    I stared at his retreating figure as he crossed the yard and disappeared around the front of the house. I had no earthly idea what brand of crazy was being sold in this town, but I was going to make every effort to stay away from it.  
    Right now, I was going to go back to bed, sleep in until I couldn’t sleep any more, and wake up tomorrow pretending this day had never happened. I clutched the shovel with one hand and covered my yawn with the other, my body itching to crawl back on that fabulous mattress.
    Croak.
    # # #
    I awakened the next morning to a repetitive dull thud coming from downstairs. I pulled the cotton balls out of my ears and realized someone was banging on the front door.  
    At eight a.m.  
    On a Sunday.
    Whoever was assaulting that door was lucky I hadn’t been able to travel with my guns, or brought the shovel into the house last night, but that wouldn’t stop me from improvising. If they didn’t go away quickly, I could probably find something to work with in the kitchen.
    I forced myself out of bed, trudged downstairs, and flung open the front door. A