Louisiana Longshot (A Miss Fortune Mystery, Book 1) by Jana DeLeon Read Free Book Online

churches sat on opposite sides of Main Street facing each other—like a religious standoff. I looked down the street and saw the sign for Francine’s midway down the block and on the same side as the Catholics.  
    “They have a bit of a lead,” I said, “especially if we have to dodge traffic.”
    “It’s illegal to drive on Main Street when church is letting out.”
      I rolled my eyes. “Of course it is.”
    “And horses aren’t allowed at all on Sunday, due to the, er…mess. There was the incident with the mayor’s wife and a pair of fancy shoes she’d had shipped all the way from France.”
    I nodded. The sheriff’s horse had taken care of business in my backyard the night before. You could lose an entire combat boot in that pile.  
    Suddenly, I stiffened.
    I felt the woman’s gaze upon me before I located her, staring at me from across the block. She was probably Gertie’s age, had silver hair, and wore a tan pants suit.  
    Five foot two, one-ten, possibly born in the past century, a slight limp on the left side.
    We stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street to the Baptist church at the same time the other woman stepped off the curb to cross, presumably, to the Catholic church. As we passed in the middle of the street, she shot an amused smile at Gertie and let her handbag slip just enough from her shoulder so that we could see inside.
    Gertie sucked in a breath and the other woman’s smile broadened as she continued her march to the Catholic church.  
    “Like getting to wear pants to church isn’t enough of an advantage,” Gertie said as we entered Sinful Baptist. “Celia Arceneaux’s bought the new Nikes. We’re doomed.”
    “Don’t worry. I can take her.” Blindfolded and crawling.
    Gertie slid into the back pew and nodded. “I’ll let you take the outside seat to get a better jump. As soon as the preacher gets to the ‘A’ in ‘Amen’ on the last prayer, you make a break for it.”
    She dug in her purse and pulled out a pink bottle labeled “cough syrup.” She chugged back a good bit, then offered it to me.  
    “No, thanks,” I said. “I’m good.”
    And not likely to drink out of the same bottle as someone who’s sick. Didn’t they teach them anything in Sinful?
    I glanced around the church and realized no one else was there yet. A quick glance at my watch let me know we had quite a wait before service began. I yawned and then thought about the reason I wasn’t all that rested—besides the whole church thing.  
    “Hey, Gertie, something strange happened last night.”  
    Gertie patted my leg. “I’m sure it seemed that way, but things in Sinful are never quite normal compared to other places.”
    “No, I mean after all that. I went out at midnight to kill a frog that was keeping me awake, and that deputy was hiding in my bushes.”
    Gertie frowned but didn’t say a word.
    “So I got to thinking, given the alligators and hunting accidents and the fact that all this is below sea level and probably floods in a good hurricane, there’re at least a hundred valid reasons for a human bone to be in that bayou. But I’ve got a deputy hiding in the bushes, and that just doesn’t say accident, flood, or four-legged predator to me.”
    “No, I guess it doesn’t.” She didn’t look the least bit happy about it.
    “To take that one thought farther, if he thinks a crime has been committed, then that means he must have some guess as to whom that bone belonged.”
    “I suppose he might,” Gertie hedged.
    I narrowed my eyes at her and summoned up my limited knowledge of biblical rules. “Are you going to continue to lie by omission? We are in church.”
    Gertie sighed. “I guess not. You’re right that plenty of accidents happen in the swamp. Usually, there’s a bit of something left behind so we know who the unlucky person was. But about five years ago, Harvey Chicoron disappeared without a trace.”
    “Did the police look for him?”
    Gertie nodded. “And a