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

search party from town combed the swamp. Of course, Carter was still off in the Marine Corps at the time, but he would have heard all about it from his mother. Emmaline has always been a huge gossip.”
    My self-preservation radar clicked on. Marine Corps, huh? I was going to have to watch my step around Deputy Charming. He was turning out to be more complicated than he appeared. “So, what did everyone think happened to Harvey?”
    “Some thought a gator got him and dragged him under with a death roll, so there was nothing left to find. Some thought he ran off with another woman as there was a sizable sum of money transferred to an offshore account around the time he disappeared. He was always cheating on Marie, so running off with another woman wouldn’t exactly surprise anyone.”
    Gertie shook her head. “But mostly, no one cared. Harvey was the meanest, most disagreeable man in Sinful. After the initial surprise at his disappearance wore off, pretty much everyone was just happy he was gone.”
    “Even Marie?”
    “Oh, especially Marie. Her mother had been a tyrant when she was alive, and then she practically sold Marie into indentured servitude with that jackass the way she pressured her to marry him.”  
    Gertie sighed. “And now I’ve gone and said ‘jackass’ in church. Five years past and that man still brings out the worst in me.”
    “I’m sure God knew he was a jackass.”
    Gertie nodded. “That is a fact. Poor Marie went from living with her mother to being married to Harvey, who was even worse. After he disappeared, Marie actually had the freedom to think and act as she wanted for the first time in all sixty-nine years of her life.”
    “Sounds like it worked out well all the way around, so then why all the worry? What do you think happened to Harvey?”
    “Why, Marie killed him, of course.”

Chapter Five

    Before I could even fire off the hundred or so questions that had flashed through my mind, the back doors to the church opened wide and a choir entered, singing. Good grief. Sitting here for an hour was probably going to add another couple hundred questions to the list.
    The first of which was exactly why did Gertie think her doormat of a friend had killed her husband? And a close second was, why didn’t that thought seem to bother her much? Even the murder of the king of jackasses should have brought a twinge of something—guilt, maybe—to a woman who insisted on being in church every Sunday.
    Gertie elbowed me in the ribs and I realized everyone was standing and singing. I sighed and rose along with the rest of the attendees. Civilians were so confusing. The CIA was made up of career agents and ex-military. Everything was structured, and emotion was forbidden during an operation, for good reason. Having a civilian-like emotional moment is exactly what had landed me in church in Sinful, Louisiana, contemplating some doormat of a wife becoming a murderer.  
    CIA agents didn’t share their fears, thoughts or dreams—assuming they even had any—and they didn’t have layers to uncover. If they did, they were so well hidden, they were having a beer with D.B. Cooper. Everything at the CIA was about the work, and while the work itself might be complicated, everything surrounding it was black and white.
    Sinful, Louisiana, was so many shades of gray, I was going color-blind.
    Once the choir finished their somewhat off-key song, the preacher started talking and my mind faded away from his voice, thinking about my current situation and wondering exactly how long I’d have to stay in Banana Pudding World. Occasionally, the preacher pounded his hand on the pulpit, breaking me out of my thoughts. Finally, he finished dooming everyone to hell, and everyone rose to sing again.
    When the preacher started praying right after the song ended, Gertie leaned over and whispered, “Get ready.”
    I pulled my tennis shoes out of my purse and happily pulled off the heels I’d been wearing. Twenty seconds