Bullets and Beads

by Jana DeLeon

  “Why would you do that? How can you get the information to Morrow if you don’t have it?”

  “I have it.” I tapped the side of my head.

  “I forgot about your recall. But are you certain you have the names right?”

  I looked down. “They’re hard to forget when you know them.”

  Carter rubbed his head and cursed. “You need to tell me those names.”

  “I can’t. We both know everyone is safer if you don’t know. Right now, no one but me, you, Ida Belle, Gertie, and my father know I have the information. If anyone else thought that, they would have popped me right on the balcony during the parade or in the casino.”

  “Then what was that stunt on the highway?”

  “A kidnapping attempt is my best guess. A plot to draw my father out.”

  “They really don’t know the guy, do they?”

  “Understatement of the year.”

  “They’re going to keep getting bolder,” Carter said. “If your father doesn’t manage to draw them off…”

  I nodded. “I’m not worried about myself. But I am worried about Ida Belle and Gertie. The terrorists will take one look at them and think they’re an easy target to get to me.”

  “That would be a mistake on the terrorists’ part.”

  “It would be, but we don’t know how many they’ll send. I’m having them move in with me until this is over.”

  “That’s a good idea. I suppose if worst comes to worst, it’s all over in ten days.”

  “We can’t let that happen. If their plan goes off, it could seriously cripple the US and our allies. I have to get the information to Morrow.”

  “But how are you going to do it? You can’t go to DC. They’ll shoot you as soon as you set foot off the plane or before you board. I suppose the military could land a helicopter in your backyard and take you to DC by military transport, but I’m guessing Morrow is being watched by more people than the Superbowl.”

  “Trying to deliver in person or by electronic methods aren’t options, but there is a way. I just need some magazines.”

  “Magazines?”

  “Yeah. Stuff a guy would read. Three would work. Current month editions.”

  “I can handle that. Are you going to write the names in the magazines then mail them to Morrow?”

  “Sort of. Just get me the magazines and I’ll explain.”

  “Is there anything else you need to tell me?” he asked. “I probably have a couple hairs left that didn’t go gray while you were talking.”

  “Gertie won a motorcycle at the casino,” I said.

  He stared at me in dismay. “Way to bury the lead.”

  His cell phone rang and he checked the display and frowned. “I have to get to work but I will be back here as soon as I can be. Lock your doors. Turn on your alarm. And watch those cameras. If you see anything moving out there besides your idiot neighbor or that danged alligator that Gertie treats like a stray dog, arm up and call me. In that order.”

  “Can I fire first, if necessary?”

  “I wouldn’t expect any less. But maybe no rocket launchers in the neighborhood.”

  I shrugged. “She only had one rocket.”

  Ida Belle and Gertie returned two hours later and it took us about forty-five minutes to unload Ida Belle’s SUV. If the whole detective thing didn’t pan out, we had enough inventory to open a gun shop. And maybe a bakery. There was a thought. Because who didn’t love guns and pie? When we’d finally gotten everything sorted and positioned in the best location for each weapon, we flopped down in the living room with bottled water.

  “I feel like I’ve lived ten lives in one day,” Gertie said.

  “If you’re talking about some normal person’s life, then maybe,” Ida Belle said. “If you’re talking about yours then this is maybe a week or two of it.”

  Gertie grinned. “We do have some fun, don’t we?”

  Ida Belle shook her head and looked over at me. “She’s the only person I know who went to Vietnam and had fun.”

  “It’s all in how you view life,” Gertie said. “And how you want to feel about it.”

  “I view life from the breathing standpoint,” Ida Belle said. “And so far, so good.”

  “How did your talk with Carter go?” Gertie asked.

  “Better than I thought it would, actually,” I said. “I think he was so happy we were all alive that he didn’t want to say much about the why part of it all.”

  “Make sure he never sees that video Mannie took,” Gertie said. “He’ll have you handcuffed to him day and night…oh, on second thought, maybe show him the video.”

  “How does he feel about our slumber party?” Ida Belle said.

  “It’s the same call he would have made,” I said. “I know everyone around here looks at Carter and sees the genuinely nice guy with sometimes unlimited patience and a huge heart, and all of that is true. But he was still Force Recon. And no matter how you try to distance yourself, the training is there first, before anything else.”

  Gertie cast a nervous glance at the window and I knew what she was thinking.

  I got up and walked over to the window. “While you guys were gone, I rigged up a little something to help with our audio concerns.”

  I lifted the blind and pointed to the window seal. “Didn’t you notice that annoying rattle when you sat down?”

  “As a matter of fact, I did,” Gertie said. “I thought maybe a storm was coming up and you needed to check into replacing your windows up here.”

  “You’re partly right,” I said. “See here in the corner? I have the windowpane tethered to that fan. I removed some of the caulking so the movement of the fan causes the window to vibrate. That distorts the sound that a laser can gather.”

  Ida Belle gave me a nod of approval. “We’re going to make a solid redneck out of you yet.”

  Gertie got up and walked over to the window for a closer look.

  “The boat!” Ida Belle said, almost jumping in her seat.

  “Did you hear back from Walter?” I asked.

  “Yes. But he didn’t know the boat,” Ida Belle said. “But then I had an interesting conversation with Myrtle, and she said one of the petroleum engineers who is new to the area came into the sheriff’s department this afternoon to report his boat stolen.”

  “Let me guess,” I said. “He owned a white ski boat with blue and red stripes.”

  “You got it,” Ida Belle said.

  “Well, there’s our answer,” I said as I texted a message to Carter to let him know that it was better if law enforcement didn’t try to stop that boat. No telling what kind of firepower it held.

  “So I was right,” I said. “Someone was checking up on us. Let’s hope none of them are as bold as our friend in the casino.”

  “I’m hoping that guy is bird food on the highway,” Gertie said.

  Ida Belle nodded in agreement.

  “So it’s safe to talk in here now, right?” Gertie asked, and tapped the window. “This is so cool. Did you do the kitchen?”

  “Yep,” I said. “I’m glad Marge was hot-natured. She had fans everywhere.”

  “She wasn’t hot-natured,” Gertie said. “She had horrible gas. Eating all those greens has side effects besides good health.”

  I grimaced. “I’ll file that under things I never wanted to know.”

  “Gertie’s full of things you never wanted to know,” Ida Belle said. “Most of them about herself.”

  “Did Mannie bring your special order yet?” Gertie asked.

  “No. He should be here any minute though,” I said.

  “What about Carter?” Ida Belle asked.

  “He got held up by the state police,” I said. “They wanted his take on a mysterious car explosion on the highway.”

  “He probably has a cold sore from biting his lip,” Gertie said.

  I nodded. “By the time he got back to Sinful, he still had paperwork to do for a case going to trial next week that he had to f
inish today. He’d barely sat down in his office when he was summoned to the Swamp Bar. Apparently, there was a problem involving a boat, a keg of beer, two goats, and a naked woman.”

  “That sounds interesting,” Gertie said.

  “That sounds like some more things I don’t want to know about,” Ida Belle said. “Well, if history is any indication, Carter will be sorting that mess out for a while.”

  “That’s what I figured,” I said. “So I thought after Mannie leaves, maybe we could do a little surveillance ourselves. You know, get back to being the spies, not the ones spied upon.”

  Gertie looked excited for a moment, then sobered. “Do you think it’s safe?”

  “I don’t see why not,” I said. “We’re going to enlist Phyllis’s help, so all it will look like is three people going to visit a friend.”

  “Carrying a large case,” Ida Belle said.

  “Right,” I said. “Which is why we’ll also be carrying food and a bottle of wine and we’ll be putting something extra on the case.”

  I went to my office and returned with a colorful sticker for an essential oil company.

  “Genius,” Ida Belle said. “They’ll think we’re having a hen party.”

  “That’s pretty smart,” Gertie said. “But you should have made it something cooler, like one of those sexy toy companies.”

  “That would be the biggest mistake ever,” Ida Belle said. “This town likes to pretend it disdains such things, but you know as well as I do that if anyone saw Fortune with a case with that sort of label, the race would be on to get a peek inside of it. Everyone runs when someone mentions essential oils. Now, there’s an idea. Maybe I should become a salesperson. Would cut down on all that social stuff people keep inviting me to.”

  “So we’re really going to do this?” Gertie asked.

  “Of course,” I said. “Why wouldn’t we?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I just figured with everything else you’ve got going on, you might just leave this thing with Katia to Carter.”

  “Carter has so many law enforcement irons in the fire right now that he doesn’t have the time he needs to devote to that case. If it turns out something shady is going on with Larry or with this questionable coworker of Katia’s, we’re in a better position to find out than Carter.”

  “And since we aren’t hindered by things like the law, we can do it quicker and more efficiently,” Gertie said.

  I cringed a little at her comment about the law, but she wasn’t too far from the truth. I certainly didn’t mind skirting it or outright jumping over it if it got the job done.

  “We do have an advantage,” I said. “All we need to operate on is speculation and we’ve got plenty of that. Carter needs hard evidence to make certain moves.”

  Ida Belle nodded. “Besides, Carter’s attention is split right now with trying to do his job and worrying about you.”

  “Worrying about someone else is far worse than being the one worried about,” Gertie said.

  “So we’re agreed,” I said. “We visit Phyllis and see if we can get anything from Larry and Natalia. If we get something that Carter can use to make a move on, then we’ll fill him in on the what and the how.”

  “Maybe you can handle that one,” Gertie said. “And then I can avoid him for a while afterward.”

  “That’s going to be hard to do when you’re sharing the same coffeepot,” Ida Belle said.

  There was a knock on my front door and I got up to let Mannie in. “I’ll handle Carter. Let’s just concentrate on getting him enough information to put the person who killed Katia behind bars.”

  Mannie came in and we gathered in the kitchen as he placed the case on the table.

  “It has instructions,” he said. “They’re all basically the same but I’d scan them for the few differences that equipment sometimes has.”

  “I will. What do I owe you and how do you want me to get you the money?”

  “35k but I’ll get with you later on the money.”

  He glanced at the window, and I knew he was thinking that someone could be outside with the same equipment, listening to everything we were saying. I walked over to the window and lifted the curtain to show him my additional makeshift window dressing.

  “Clever,” he said. “Have you seen or heard anything since you’ve been back?”

  I told him about the boat and he frowned.

  “I figured they would move in soon,” Mannie said. “But I still don’t like it. I think I’m going to stick around Sinful tonight. Keep watch on things.”

  Gertie shook her head. “I don’t think there’s any room left at the inn.”

  Mannie smiled. “I doubt the good deputy would approve of my taking up residence here. But I’ll be fine. I’ve managed in far worse.”

  “Nonsense,” Ida Belle said, and pulled her keys out of her pocket. “Here’s the keys to my house. It’s sitting empty and at least you’ll have a place to eat, shower, and sleep if you want to.”

  “Thanks,” Mannie said, and took the keys. “That gives me a base for operations. I’ll probably patrol tonight and perhaps I can get a few hours of sleep tomorrow. I’m going to head out now. You might want to let your neighbors know that your third cousin is visiting.”

  “Good idea,” Ida Belle said, and pulled out her cell phone. “God knows, I don’t want anyone accosting you with a gun, trying to play hero.”

  “I promise not to kill any of them,” Mannie said as he opened the front door. “It’s bad manners unless your name is on the deed.”

  After he left, we took my new toy and scanned the instructions, then ran a few tests with it in the house as well as the backyard, checking first for unwanted visitors. The clarity was really amazing. Somewhat unfortunately so, we found when we turned it on the back window of Ronald’s house and got a blast of him singing opera.

  “Where do you think they are?” Gertie asked as we stepped back into the kitchen.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Watching the highway for sure. The only other way in is by boat, so all they’d have to do to cover the bayou behind my house is keep both ends in view.”

  “That’s not going to be as easy in stolen property,” Gertie said.

  “I let Carter know not to approach them,” I said. “He sent me a thumbs-up, so he understood the message.”

  “Hopefully, they’ll stay on land, and no one sent for your father will draw the attention of Deputy Breaux or Sheriff Lee,” Ida Belle said.

  “Carter instructed them to report any strangers directly to him and said I had been notified of a potential problem due to my previous line of work,” I said.

  “That probably scared Deputy Breaux into staying inside the sheriff’s department unless absolutely necessary,” Gertie said.

  “He’s better off there,” I said. “Everyone is better off staying out of this. So, the sun’s down. If you guys are ready to get this show on the road, I’ll pop on that sticker and we can get to work.”

  “Do you want me to give Phyllis a call and let her know we’re coming?” Gertie asked.

  “No,” I said. “It’s harder to say no when people are standing in your doorway.”

  Ida Belle grinned. “You’re getting good at this small-town thing.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The lack of notice turned out to be unnecessary. Phyllis was thrilled to see us. Her forty-six cats were not. At least it seemed like forty-six. She claimed it was her baker’s dozen, which Gertie explained to me meant thirteen, but I wasn’t convinced. Every item that could hold a cat on top of it or under it had eyes glaring at us. I only had one cat and barely made it out of the bedroom every morning without physical damage. I was surprised Phyllis was still alive.

  “Come in, come in,” Phyllis said, dithering all the way back to the kitchen. “I just made a batch of sweet tea, or if you’re dieting, I have some unsweet tea or water, or if you’d like, I can make coffee. While you’re thinking on that, let me put out some goodies.�
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  Phyllis began shoveling food from her refrigerator and her kitchen counter onto the table at an alarming rate. “Let me just grab a few more things out of the utility-room pantry,” she said, and hurried off.

  “She has more food here than a hotel buffet,” I said. “All that can’t be just for her. Does anyone else live here?”

  Ida Belle shook her head. “Her second husband died about ten years ago.”

  “Diabetes?” I asked.

  “Because he wanted to,” Gertie said.

  Ida Belle elbowed her as Phyllis came hurrying back into the room with boxes of crackers.

  “I have plain and wheat and some kind of three-grain thing,” she said. “I haven’t tried them but I saw on Facebook that they are great with cheese. Anyway, sit, please, while I pour the drinks and we can catch up. It’s been a while since you came for a visit.”

  “Wasn’t planning on coming again until her wake,” Gertie said under her breath, and Ida Belle elbowed her again.

  “Actually,” Ida Belle said, “we didn’t come for a chat.”

  Phyllis froze and her face fell. “No?”

  “No,” Ida Belle said. “We came about your neighbor, Larry.”

  Phyllis flushed. “What’s he done now? The man is a menace. He yelled at me the other day for standing in my own backyard.”

  “You were just standing there?” I asked.

  “I might have been on top of the picnic table,” Phyllis said. “But that’s just because I was checking my roof. You never know when you might be missing a shingle.”

  “Uh-huh,” Ida Belle said. “Anyway, I’m not sure if you’ve ever met one of our new residents, Fortune Redding.” She pointed at me.

  “Not officially,” Phyllis said. “But, of course, I’ve heard all about you—CIA. So exciting! Next time one of my cats is missing, I know who to call.”

  I just nodded and Gertie coughed, holding in a laugh.

  “Well, Fortune is now a private investigator and opened her own firm recently,” Ida Belle continued. “She has a client who needs information on Larry and we were hoping to enlist your help.”

  Phyllis’s eyes widened. “You want my help?”