Case of the Ragin' Cajun
Page 20
Tori made the mistake of thumping her husband in the gut for speaking with his mouth full. However, since his mouth was full, and she just socked him in the stomach, it meant a white cloud of sugar whooshed out of his mouth, along with little pea-sized bits of half-chewed dough.
“Oh, ewww! That’s gross!” Tori exclaimed.
I was laughing so hard I couldn’t see straight. I held up a hand. “Did anyone else see that coming?”
Jillian had scooted her chair close to mine, so was therefore out of the danger zone. Tori, on the other hand, was now wearing a fine covering of sugar. She quickly excused herself to run to the bathroom so she could get cleaned up.
“I’m gonna get it for that one,” Vance laughed. “Oh, well. Chalk it up as another memory we won’t ever forget. Hey, Zack, listen. Before Tori gets back, I just wanted to tell you thanks for doing this for us. I owe you big.”
“Don’t sweat it, pal,” I assured him. “It’s what friends do. Besides, I’d say all of us are benefitting, wouldn’t you think? I mean, hey, we have an open ticket to fly to London—all expenses paid—whenever we want. We just have to let MCU know so they can set up some type of event.”
“There will be no complaints coming from me,” Vance promised.
“Have you heard from Chief Nelson yet?” I asked.
Vance nodded and grinned. “He’s honoring the bet. Since the dogs solved the case before the local boys, which made PV look amazingly good these last couple of days, I can now say I’m senior detective.”
“Congrats, pal. You earned it. What? What’s the matter?”
“You do realize what I have to do now, don’t you?”
“Hmm? What’s that?”
“I should make you shave your head, too.”
“Your performance of that song!” I chuckled. “I had completely forgotten about it.”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t. Isn’t there enough incriminating evidence about me on YouTube? I don’t need anything else, thank you very much.”
“Aww, come on! You obviously made Chief Nelson’s day!”
“At what price?” Vance groaned.
“Well, you’re a good sport,” I decided. “I’m just thankful I get to be there.”
Vance shook his head. “Nope. I’m doing this by myself. Tori will be the one recording this disaster. No one else is allowed near me.”
“Except me,” I proudly proclaimed. “Chief Nelson gave me the role of videographer.”
Vance groaned and rolled his eyes. “Oh, that’s just great. You could’ve turned him down, you know.”
Tori was back five minutes later. She gave Vance an unreadable look as she slid into her chair. After a few moments, she was looking my way.
“Did that detective fellow ever say anything about the device you guys found in the ladies’ bathroom?”
I nodded. “Yeah, a little bit. It was of a very basic design. It had a cell phone trigger, and it was connected to a mini fan. That’s the funny part. Had it actually gone off, it probably wouldn’t have done a darn thing. The fan wasn’t strong enough to move that much powder anywhere. On top of which, it was nice outside, so the building’s heating and cooling systems were off.”
I snorted with amusement. “Talk about some poor planning.”
“She was just a girl,” Jillian reminded me. “I wonder what her motive was? Yes, I know she preferred going to her comic book conventions, but there had to be more to it than that.”
Vance pulled out his notebook from an inner pocket. “I can help there. A little, anyway. Let’s see. Christina Marie Vallot, sixteen. Lives with her father, no mother. Die-hard comic book fan. Loves superheroes, and dressing up as her favorite characters. Works in her dad’s restaurant. No social life. Looks like going to these comic book conventions was the only thing she did for fun. Take that away from her and what do you get?”
“That poor girl. So much rage for one so young,” Jillian lamented.
“That poor girl is responsible for killing a man,” Tori reminded her.
“What was the story with that?” I asked, as I turned to Vance.
“I asked about that, too,” Vance said. He flipped a few pages in his notebook. “The answer lies with the victim, and what he had been holding. The security team went back through the CCTV footage and saw that his death was just a freak accident.”
“What had he been holding?” I asked.
Vance consulted his notes. “Hang on, I wrote it down. There it is. It’s called a dragon-claw crescent knife. I guess it was used in some movie or television series. Anyway, on the handle part, there were several long spikes. When everyone panicked and fought like crazy to leave the convention center, this guy was holding his knife, but ended up slipping and falling to the floor. Panicked people are a dangerous group. No one helped the guy up. In fact, several people stepped on him, and that’s how we’re figuring he ended up with two puncture marks on his chest. He was killed with his own weapon.”
“What happened to the weapon?” Jillian asked.
“Someone else picked it up and absconded with it,” Vance said.
“I hope that someone gets arrested,” I said, frowning. “That’s thievery, no matter how you look at it.”
“I’d like to know something,” Jillian announced. She looked at Vance and gave him a smile. “What was the link to voodoo? Did Tina ever say?”
Vance looked at me and shrugged. “Sorry. I don’t know about that.”
“I asked that same question of Gregory,” I said. “I can tell you what he told me.” Heads were nodding. Clearing my throat, I attempted my best Tim Curry impersonation. “Voodoo was just a red herring.”
Vance snotted his soda. Tori snorted with surprise while Jillian stared at me, open-mouthed. A few moments later, she began giggling.
“Voodoo is a red herring? Seriously? I can’t believe you just said that.”
“Red herring?” Vance repeated, as he wiped his nose with the napkin Tori handed him. “No one talks like that anymore. Not since …”
“Clue, the movie?” I said, offering Vance a lopsided smile.
Vance snapped his fingers. “Yeah! That’s where I heard it. What’s the line? Communism was a red herring? What made you think of that just now?”
“We watched it in our room last night,” I confessed. “Love that movie.”
“Dork,” Vance laughed. “So, before we sign off on this adventure, are we all agreed? Video of them goes up on YouTube?”
“Just make sure you add the appropriate hashtags,” Jillian said. “That way, everyone will know who is competing and where they work.”
“You’re a master of social media, too?” I asked, as I turned to Jillian. Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, we turned to look at the next table over. “How are our pals doing? Hey, Martins? Mr. Plinth? Having any trouble?”
Two humungous bowls of half-eaten ice cream were in front of the men. Each, I might add, looked as though they were going to barf should they eat another bite. Martins looked my way and gave me a feeble thumbs-up. Laughing, we turned back to our own table and began to gather everything together so it could be thrown away. As I dumped the first load into the trash receptacle, I heard Jillian’s phone chime, announcing the arrival of a text message. That’s when I heard her gasp.
Dropping the tray onto the stack of empties, I turned to see my fiancée clutching her phone so hard that her knuckles were turning white. Tori and Vance made it to her first and quickly guided her into the closest chair.
“What is it?” I asked, growing alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
Jillian held up her phone. “It’s from Joshua. Oh, Zachary, he’s in trouble!”
Taking the phone from her trembling hands, I read for myself the message my future brother-in-law had sent.
OUT OF TIME. HEADNG UNDER. REMBR CHST.
“What does it mean?” I cautiously asked.
“It’s code,” Jillian sobbed. “Out of time must mean he’s being pursued. Heading under? He’s going
into hiding.”
“And that last bit?” Vance gently asked. “What does that mean?”
“Remember, what?” I wondered aloud. “Remember Christ? Chest? The silver chest from Ireland?”
“Zachary, we have to help him!”
“Isn’t he in the military?” I asked. “Why would he even need our help?”
“Haven’t I told you?” Jillian said, between tears. “Joshua has been on loan to MI6 for the last couple of years!”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
There, that wasn’t too bad, was it? I mean, I don’t like dropping cliffhangers, but this one was pretty close. Besides, I’ve been asked over and over when I was going to get the dogs over to England, to be thanked by the queen, of course, and I thought, why not? I saw a story brewing, so I’m glad I’m finally able to get it started. Zack will finally get to meet Jillian’s long-absent brother, Joshua!
I hope you enjoyed reading about New Orleans. If you ever have a chance to make it out there, trust me, it’s worth seeing. Many of the descriptions don’t do the city justice. Those shops along Bourbon Street? Walking through the French Quarter? It must be experienced to be truly appreciated.
So, up next we have Case of the Missing Marine. We get to find out why Joshua sent the silver chest to Zack in the first place. We get to learn about his involvement in MI6, and yes, Sherlock and Watson will be able to meet the queen. With this one story, I get to tie up several loose ends, so I hope you plan on sticking with me for the next adventure!
I will be releasing my latest fantasy story by the end of summer. If you enjoy reading about dragons, and like light-hearted adventure stories, I would encourage you to give it a try. I’ve had a lot of fun with it.
That’s it for now. Summer is in full swing here, and as I look at the outside temperature, it is a sweltering 113°F. Ugh. I hope it’s cooler where you are!
Happy reading!
J.
June, 2021
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Case of the Ragin’ Cajun. If you enjoyed the story, please consider leaving a review wherever you purchased the book. Authors love reviews, and the more reviews they can get, the easier they can be found at the large online retailers.
Until next time!
J.
Zack and the dogs will return, in Case of the Missing Marine (Corgi Case Files #14)
Fall, 2021
Sherlock and Watson have been invited to Buckingham Palace, for a meeting with the queen herself. So, Zack, Jillian, and the dogs head across the Atlantic. There, Jillian is shocked to learn her US Marine brother has been working with MI6, and is currently missing. They soon discover Joshua was working on a top secret project, and nearly every foreign government wants to get their hands on him.
Can Zack and the dogs figure out what Joshua has been working on? Will they be able to find him before someone else does? Will Zack be able to wrap this up in time so that he doesn't miss his own wedding?
Preorder it now!
The Corgi Case Files Series
Available in e-book and paperback
Case of the One-Eyed Tiger
Case of the Fleet-Footed Mummy
Case of the Holiday Hijinks
Case of the Pilfered Pooches
Case of the Muffin Murders
Case of the Chatty Roadrunner
Case of the Highland House Haunting
Case of the Ostentatious Otters
Case of the Dysfunctional Daredevils
Case of the Abandoned Bones
Case of the Great Cranberry Caper
Case of the Shady Shamrock
Case of the Ragin’ Cajun
Case of the Missing Marine
If you enjoy Epic Fantasy, check out Jeff’s other series:
Pirates of Perz
Tales of Lentari
Bakkian Chronicles
Case of the Ragin’ Cajun
Published by Secret Staircase Books, an imprint of
Columbine Publishing Group, LLC
PO Box 416, Angel Fire, NM 87710
Copyright © 2021 Jeffrey M. Poole
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this book we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any inconsistency herein. Any slights of people, places or organizations are unintentional.
Book layout and design by Secret Staircase Books
Cover image © Felipe de Barros
First trade paperback edition: July, 2021
First e-book edition: July, 2021
* * *
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Poole, J.M.
Case of the Ragin’ Cajun / by J.M. Poole.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1649140562 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1649140579 (e-book)
1. Zachary Anderson (Fictitious character)--Fiction. 2. New Orleans, Louisiana—Fiction. 3. Amateur sleuth—Fiction. 4. Pet detectives—Fiction. I. Title
Corgi Case Files Mystery Series : Book 13.
Poole, J.M., Corgi Case Files mysteries.
BISAC : FICTION / Mystery & Detective.
813/.54