Read miss fortune mystery (ff) - bloodshed in the bayou for Free Online Page A

anything.
    “There now, you see, Margaret? That wasn’t so bad.” Gertie patted my hand.
    “Are you okay?” Fortune asked. She was sitting in the back seat with me.
    I nodded. “I’m fine.”
    “You look terrified! Poor thing!” Gertie said. She handed me a medicine bottle labeled ‘Cough Syrup.’ I knew what that was. The Sinful Ladies made some mighty fine moonshine. Normally, I would’ve refused (although I’d be lying if I said I’d never had it before). After a solid swig, I handed the bottle back.
    “Thank you.” I said.
    Gertie pushed it into my hands. “You keep it. You might need more before we’re done.”
    I stuffed the bottle into my purse, wondering what Peggy Sue would do when I gave it back to her in the purse she’d loaned me. No self-respecting Catholic saint would be caught dead with Baptist distilled ‘shine.
    “So what happens now?” I asked.
    “We wait.” Fortune said. “At some point, Big and Little will send a courier with an envelope that tells us what we want to know.”
    “What do we want to know?” I asked.
    “Who wanted your father dead,” Ida Belle spoke up. “Or better still, who killed him.”
    I stared out the window and thought about that. I was really doing it – Peggy Sue’s bidding! She told me to investigate the murder and now I was.
    “So we just wait for word back from those…men?” I asked.
    “Oh no, dear.” Gertie said. “We need to talk to your mother. Check out the site where Walter found the body. That kind of thing.”
    “But I did that.” I protested. “And I found nothing. Mom isn’t lucid most of the time. She’ll be a dead end also.”
    The car pulled into my driveway and stopped. Ida Belle turned around to look at me.
    “Have a little faith, Margaret.” She said. “Gertie and I will take your mother some pecan pralines tomorrow. Fortune will talk to Deputy LeBlanc.”
    I got out of the car. “What about me?” I asked through the open window.
    Ida Belle smiled. “You are going to take a couple days off of work for mourning. And tomorrow you need to go through anything your mother had about your father that might help us.”
    I shook my head. “Mom only had that one picture.”
    “No,” Ida said. “She had more. You just need to know where to look.” And with a wink, the woman threw the car in reverse and drove away.
     
     

Chapter 7
     
    The next morning, I called the office and told them I was taking my bereavement days. I hung up thinking what a strange word that was. Bereavement. I guess technically, with my father dead, I was bereaved. Huh. I didn’t feel sad. That seemed weird too. After all, he was my dad. Well, he’d contributed half of my DNA, at least. It didn’t seem right to feel nothing.
    No, that wasn’t quite true. I did feel something. I felt sad for my mother. Scared for her, actually now that she was facing arrest. And I felt bad for Peggy Sue and the kids. But I didn’t feel bad for me. Maybe I should see a therapist once this was over. That seemed like a good idea and it felt like I was doing something just by making the decision. I could worry about my lack of emotions later.
    After a bowl of cereal and a quick shower, I threw on shorts and a t-shirt and walked around the house. Ida Belle had been convinced Mom had a stash of stuff about Hugo somewhere. And she’d said it with enough confidence, that I believed it. Which was strange because my whole life I’d thought there was only that one photo.
    Well, I was off for a few days and there was nothing else for me to do. My house had been Mom’s. It was the house we’d grown up in and I’d always loved it. A little, two-story bungalow. I kept it clean, and took care of the garden. I was happy here. It was like my own little shell. Like I was some bizarre human turtle.
    Except now, there was this irritating sense of worry. The idea that Mom had something hidden in our house this whole time, about Dad, really started to bother me. It made me