by Hearn, Shari
“I got us a good one, Granny. About fifteen miles up the bayou. Indoor plumbing.”
“Jenny took the course a couple times, so she was familiar with the grounds and Starlight’s curriculum. Seemed a good place to hide out for a while.”
“Hide out from what?” I asked. “Your abusive husband? Or does he not exist?”
Millie laughed. “Pity the man who would push me around. No, my Frank passed a few years ago. I’m here hiding from the law, of course. Allow me to introduce myself, Miss Gertrude. I’m Connie Palmer, but I go by my middle name of Mildred.” She paused and raised her eyebrows at Gertie, as if she should know her.
“Okay,” Gertie said.
“My name doesn’t ring a bell to you, does it, Gertrude? I don’t blame you. I did a job with you only once, in May of eighty-three. A little bank in Blanchard. I was filling in for one of your regular gals.”
Gertie glanced at me. Millie actually believed Gertie was the notorious Gertrude Roy. But, would that be a good thing or a bad thing? What would keep us alive longer?
Gertie pulled in a shaky breath. “Refresh my memory. Were things good between us?”
Millie nodded. “I harbored no hard feelings that you didn’t keep me on. You had all the crew you could handle. You paid me promptly, and I learned a few things from you, like how to throw people off guard by coming across as a timid, sweet woman.” She nodded her head toward me. “The young thing here was practically calling me grandma,” she said, laughing.
Jenny and Brittany shared in Millie’s laughter. I could feel the heat exploding on my face.
Gertie blew out a relieved breath. “You certainly pulled one over on us. I’m so glad we ended on a good note.”
“You haven’t changed a bit, Gertrude,” Millie said. “Imagine how surprised I was to find you here. At first I thought you might be an impostor, but when I saw those windup teeth in your purse, I knew you were the real deal. I heard you changed your name and dropped out of sight and gave up your ways. I hope I heard wrong.”
Gertie thought a beat. Just keep us alive enough to overpower these three, Gertie.
“You heard wrong.”
A broad smile formed on Millie’s face. “Good. But I have to ask. If you didn’t recognize me, what the hell did you break in this office for?”
“My gun. I felt a little naked without it.”
Millie nodded. “I bet you did. So you weren’t looking for anything else?”
Gertie shook her head. “What do you want from me, Millie?”
“One of my partners in crime died on me right before a scam we’d planned, so I went solo. Big mistake. We’d been doing fairly well separating some elderly men from their money and possessions, but the last one didn’t go off like I’d hoped. He had daughters. And they had shotguns. And damned if one of ‘em was a cop, which is how I ended up in hiding. It’s rough out there, Gertrude, for women our age. Sure we can get in places most can’t because people see us as sweet old grandmas, but physically it’s too demanding hopping around from job to job, even with the occasional help of my granddaughters. So I’ve been planning one last big score. A foolproof one. With enough money to let me live like a queen till my dying days.”
Millie pulled out a faded piece of paper from her purse. “I’ve been putting out feelers for months trying to get a meeting with you, but I never heard a word back. How you landed here with me at the same time is anybody’s guess. The Lord works in mysterious ways, though, doesn’t He?”
“I guess the Lord worked overtime on this one,” Gertie said.
Millie held out the paper. “Go ahead. Take it. I think you’ll recognize it.”
Gertie took the paper and held it out so we could both see. It appeared to be a map of some sort, with odd symbols and words at different points, and squiggly lines and other symbols listed neatly in rows at the bottom.
“Back in eighty-three you spoke about this heist, the one that would allow you to retire to some tropical island. You called it foolproof. Somehow this map landed in the hands of my associate. She was the one who died. Before she did, though, she gave it to me. Great, except for one problem.”
“You can’t decipher it,” Gertie said.
“Well, not all of it. I read your biography and picked up some clues from the chapter on your coded maps, but there are holes, some things I couldn’t make out. Since I was never able to contact you, I put the word out for a meeting with any of your former associates. I felt if I could get a crew together, women who maybe worked with you, we could pool our brainpower and pull it off. However, now that you’re here…”
“You want my help.”
“Not just your help, Gertrude. Two of your former crew members contacted me, said they wanted in. I want you to join us, or us join you. I want us to pull off the biggest heist the South has ever known. Then buy some condo on the beach in St. Croix and get old in style.”
Brittany snorted. “Get old. You’re already old.”
Millie shot Brittany a dirty look, then glanced at Jenny, who took the hint and turned and thwacked her sister, Brittany on the side of the head.
“Sorry, Grandma,” Brittany said, rubbing the spot.
Millie turned back to us, her eyes focused on Gertie, her face now beaming. “What’ll it be, Gertrude? You in?”
Gertie pointed to Millie’s gun. “I’d have a better time thinking things through if I didn’t have a gun pointed at me.”
“It’s necessary and you know it. In fact, I believe you’d do the same if our situations were reversed. It’s what you referred to as a ‘healthy mistrust’ when I met you in eighty-three. In time, when I feel I can trust you, I’ll give you back your bullets. Like you did with me.”
Gertie blew out a breath, then flicked her thumb toward me. “I’ll have to consult with my associate here.”
“Be my guest. We’ll give you some space.”
Millie signaled Brittany and Jenny to move back a bit. Gertie and I took a few steps back ourselves and turned away from the happy family.
“I don’t like it,” I whispered.
“You see me doing backflips?” Gertie asked. “I don’t trust Millie or her brood, but I think my cooperation is the only way we’re going to stay alive long enough to get a gun and save ourselves. I’ve studied Miss Gertrude and her codes. I can fake the decoding. Have you ever robbed a bank?”
I stared at her. “Seriously?”
“For your other job?”
To be honest, there’d been many times when I had to break into fortified vaults and compounds to complete my job as a CIA assassin. I nodded. “I could fake it at least. At some point, though, we’ll need to put a wedge between Millie and her granddaughters.”
“Shouldn’t be hard. I don’t detect much love.”
“You’ll have to align with Millie against me. And you’ll have to make it look credible.”
“I could start a fight with you.”
“You’ll have to make it look good.”
“I’m not hitting you,” Gertie whispered, shocked, “if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“You clubbed me with a bataca.”
“Hitting you with my hand is way different from bopping you on the head with a foam bat.”
“You’ll have to if we want the granddaughters to identify with me. When the time comes you have to be as mean as Millie is.”
“What’ll it be, ladies?” Millie called out from across the room. “From where I stand you don’t have any other choice.”
“Gertie, you’re going to have to go for my throat at some point.”
Gertie sighed. “Fine. But I won’t like it.”
“Okay, then. Let’s go be bank robbers.”
We turned around to face Millie and her granddaughters.
Gertie flashed Millie a thumbs-up. “We’re in… Y’aaaall.”
Chapter Nine
We sped along the bayou in an airboat, one exactly like mine, down to the builder’s sticker. Millie steered, while G
ertie and I sat on the bench seat. Jenny sat next to Millie, keeping watch over us. I could probably have created some sort of diversion to throw Jenny off, but with Millie’s gun tucked in her waistband, trying to gain the upper hand on the boat would be too risky.
Brittany led the way in another boat a short distance ahead of us. We’d been going at a good clip for about a half hour when Brittany decreased her speed. Millie slowed as well, following her toward a smaller tributary veering off to the right. About five minutes later we came upon a clearing in the Cypress forest, complete with a small dock. A newly built, two-story wood cabin with large picture windows stood about a hundred yards back from the water. A picnic table and two free-standing hammocks lent a welcoming feel to the place, IF we were on vacation and not there to help plan a bank heist.
Once Jenny docked the airboat, Millie stood and took in the place. “Not bad. You’re sure it’s unoccupied?”
Brittany stepped onto the dock from her boat. “It’s a vacation rental. The calendar I saw online showed the next two weeks available. Not exactly prime visiting time around here. I wouldn’t worry.”
“You’ve sent the location to the other two gals?”
“Yeah, Grandma, I did what you said.” Brittany’s voice betrayed her annoyance.
“Don’t sass me, darlin’.”
Brittany shot a look at Jenny, who returned a slight shake of her head. The tension between grandma and granddaughters would be something Gertie and I could exploit later.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, Granny,” Brittany said. “I found the place yesterday and called Sandy and Dot. They’re both driving in from Atlanta and will be here soon.”
Millie turned to us, smiling. “Well, ladies, this is our first safe house.” She glanced back at Brittany. “Hopefully it will be to our liking.” She nodded to us and gestured to the dock with a sweep of her hand. “After you.”
Gertie and I pulled ourselves off the bench seat and onto the dock. Jenny waved her gun impatiently. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”
“Jenny,” Millie said, “mind your manners. This is Miss Gertrude Roy you’re speaking with.”
Brittany led the way up the beach toward the house. “I jimmied the front door and left it unlocked,” she said, veering off toward a small footpath around to the front of the house.
I took note of any escape route. A road led from the circular driveway and wound its way through a thick grove of trees. No other houses in sight, the road and the bayou out back were the only ways out. On the plus side were the two boats and the thick forest of Cypress and oak, where we could hide during an escape.
When we came to the front door Brittany stepped inside and signaled Gertie and me to follow.
“It’s showtime,” Gertie whispered.
“You two, take the loveseat,” Brittany said, pointing her gun to the loveseat perpendicular to the sofa.
All rooms pose challenges as well as opportunities, and I looked for both as I surveyed our new digs, scrutinizing the main living room. Gertie did the same. We sat in the conversation-pit area of the room, with a sofa and loveseat forming an L-shape, and two recliners opposite us, with a coffee table in the middle. The loveseat sat at one end of the pit, meaning we’d have fewer people to pass to make an exit. Definitely a plus. A large glass vase rested on the end table next to me. A great weapon should I have the opportunity to use it. The coffee table could be lifted and tossed at someone seated across from us. I liked our ability to see the front picture window as well as the back sliding glass door from our position. But that could also be a negative. Should we be able to slip out, it would be hard to pass either window without being seen.
So the room had some pluses for us. The biggest obstacle remained the three women with guns. An unknown were the other two women on their way to our meeting, the ones we hadn’t met. I hated unknowns.
Millie plopped on the sofa and set her gun next to her while she fished around for something in her purse. Putting the gun between her and us was a stupid mistake. Mistakes like that could help us escape. Hopefully she’d make another one when Brittany and Jenny weren’t there with their weapons trained on us.
I had a reason to be optimistic. Once someone relaxes enough to make one mistake, they’ll make another. If Gertie and I could get these women relaxed around us, we had a chance.
Millie pulled out the map from her purse and set it on the table, sliding it to Gertie. She retrieved her gun, but let it rest in her hand on her lap.
That’s it, get relaxed, Millie.
“Recognize it?”
Gertie held the map and studied it. She nodded. “I might. If there’s something in it for me.”
Millie smiled. “Oh, there will be.” She flicked her head to her granddaughters who stood nearby at the archway into the kitchen, their guns trained on us. “Didn’t I tell you finding her was a good thing? Watch and learn, girls. You’ll see how greatness works.”
She looked back at us. “Knowing what I know about your codes, I’ve determined the heist in question is a bank in Creek Town, a few miles across the border into Mississippi. Before she died my associate said a safe-deposit box had been left undisturbed since the fifties, and was probably still there, holding an object worth millions. I’m hoping that’s true.”
Gertie smiled. “Weeeelllll,” she said, stretching the word out as if it were a big line of taffy, “I can see how you’d think it was in Creek Town, Millie. The squiggly probably does look like a winding creek to you. Now, it’s been a while since I’ve seen this map, so give me a minute.”
Gertie studied it. She frowned, then held the map toward the light streaming through the patio door. “Uh huh, there’s a water spot. This would be Cross Lake near Shreveport. That squiggly is actually a neighborhood outside Shreveport—Southern Hills. Squiggly in this case refers to hilltops.”
“A bank in the Southern Hills neighborhood,” Millie said, nodding her head. “I missed that spot.”
Gertie shrugged. “Rookie mistake.”
Millie’s hand tightened around her gun.
Don’t push it, Gertie.
“Though an honest one,” Gertie said, also catching Millie’s reaction. “You know, sometimes even I forget to check where I’ve dabbed a spot of water.” Gertie pointed to a triangle-shaped mark on the map. “But it’s not a bank we’re talking about. See this thing shaped like a pyramid?”
Millie nodded. “Looks like an entrance.”
“Nope. It refers to something else. This symbol is a pyramid. And where do we find pyramids? Egypt. And what do you see at the top of this pyramid? A snake. So this pyramid refers to a secret club of women patterned after a secret male Egyptian society. More specifically, the Brotherhood of the Snake. Of course, these women called it a sisterhood.”
I stared at Gertie. From whose butt was she yanking this stuff out of?
“They’re a group of high-society women around the Lafayette area who meet once a month for tea. It’s very exclusive, mind you, and besides being wealthy, they’re also hookie-dookie spiritual. All their teas involve ritual, meaning they trot out little trinkets.” Gertie shut her eyes and tapped a finger against her pursed lips. She played a notorious bank robber as well as Millie had played an adorable grandmother. “If my memory serves me correctly, y’aaaall,” Gertie said, her eyelids snapping open, “the most important symbol for these women would be a chunk of meteorite that landed in the area in the nineteen fifties. A big chunk. They had no idea of its worth back then, but later it was rumored to be appraised at several million dollars. When the ladies of this secret society knew what they were sitting on, they drew up a contract specifying the meteorite would not be sold until the last member died. The money would then be distributed among all the women’s heirs.”
Millie sat on the sofa, mesmerized, her mouth agape. She shook her head. “That certainly changes things. Is the map still relevant? How many of those women are still alive twenty years later?”
Gertie smiled. “Those wo
men were in their late forties, midfifties. Same age as you were then. You’re still alive, right? As for the relevance of the map, they might have updated the security system of the room the meteorite is kept in, but this map would probably still bypass that.”
Millie frowned and tapped her fingers on her thigh. “Excuse me for being skeptical, but if it’s what you say it is, and the map is still relevant, why did you let those millions just sit there? Why, if you knew where the treasure was located?”
“Because you stole my map,” Gertie said.
“But you know where this secret society meets.”
“Yes, but that’s not the rest of the story, now, is it? There’s more to the map.” Gertie pointed to an area on the map, tapping it with her index finger. “See these symbols, the ones resembling staircases? These are entry points to underground tunnels that all crisscross right under the women’s clubhouse. I never could remember where those entry points were.”
Jenny, standing watch by the archway to the kitchen, cocked her head. “So you planned on ambushing the women as they went in the tunnel?”
Gertie shrugged. “Weeellll…”
“With an anvil!” Brittany shouted. “That’s what I’d do. I’d drop an anvil on their heads.”
“An anvil? Don’t be such a smart aleck,” Millie said, shooting Brittany an exasperated look before glancing at Gertie and shaking her head. “Do you see what I’ve had to deal with? The younger generation. Worthless.”
“Don’t I know it,” Gertie said, flicking her thumb at me.
“Who said I was being a smart aleck?” Brittany asked.
“Yeah, an anvil’s as good a plan as any,” I chimed in, flicking my head in support toward Brittany. I needed to align myself with the granddaughters, and I hoped Gertie had the nerve to go all the way. She needed to do this before the two older women joined us and changed the dynamics of our small group.
Gertie glowered at me. “Yep, and if we were pulling a heist in Toontown, using an anvil would make perfect sense. But we’re not, so shut your piehole.”
“I just don’t know why everyone’s jumping all over Brittany and Jenny.”