Read Online miss fortune mystery (ff) - bayou bubba by sam cheever - Free Book Online

she knows where Lyle was when Bubba was killed.”
    I nodded. “See ya later.”
    He reached out and grabbed my wrist. “Be careful, Felly.”
    My gaze caught on his and my stomach jumped a little. The pet name sounded good coming from him and warmth pooled somewhere in the vicinity of my heart. “I will.”
    I climbed into the back seat of the ancient truck and slammed the door.
    Gertie half turned in her seat. “He’s not at all hard to look at is he?”
    I had to smile. “No. He certainly isn’t.”
    Ida Belle backed the truck out and hit the gas, sending a cloud of dust up behind us. I quickly strapped on my seat belt. “You two an item?” she asked me.
    “No. I have no interest in a relationship right now.”
    Ida Belle slapped her palm on the steering wheel. “Smart girl. Men just get in the way of doing what you need to do.”
    Gertie nodded her head enthusiastically.
    “So, what do you really want to see Lena for?” Ida Belle’s narrowed gaze met mine in the rear view mirror.
    I blinked, taken back by her blunt question. “What do you mean?”
    Gertie gave me a knowing smile. “It’s obvious you and Mr. Gorgeous are investigating Bubba’s death. We’d like to help if we can.”
    “I’m just trying to find my father.”
    Gertie and Ida Belle shared a look. Ida Belle’s dark gaze found the mirror again. “Bubba wasn’t your father?”
    I could have kicked myself for speaking without thinking. “Actually, no. He wasn’t. My father called me a couple of hours ago.”
    Gertie grinned. “That’s really good news.”
    “Yes. It is.” I frowned.
    “That’s not exactly your happy face, Felicity,” Gertie probed gently.
    I dithered silently. My gut told me to keep everything we knew to myself. After all, we didn’t know anybody in Sinful and we had no idea who might be after my father. But somehow I didn’t think the two friendly but nosy old women in the front seat were hired guns. And they did know the goings on in Sinful better than Cal or I ever would. So I decided to take a chance.
    As Ida Belle drove the old pickup out of town, in the direction Cal and I had gone that morning to speak to Lyle Borne, I laid out everything we’d learned so far, including the recent discovery of the push pole.
    They listened quietly and then Gertie said. “We really should get Fortune.”
    “We can’t,” her partner in crime said a little more firmly than warranted. The old ladies shared a look. “She has a…thing.”
    Gertie bit her bottom lip and nodded. “You’re right. It’s just that this sounds like it’s right up her all—”
    “So, Felicity, what information do you need from Lena?” Ida Belle interrupted her friend.
    Fascinated as I was by the interplay between the two women, I was relieved to have their help with the investigation. Lena Borne knew them and she would probably open up to them much more quickly than she would to me. “I need to find out where Lyle was at the time Bubba was killed.”
    “You really think Lyle killed Bubba?”
    I shrugged. “Right now he’s our strongest suspect.”
    “I have seen those PVC pipe push poles before,” Ida Belle offered. “I think they come from a shop in Mudbug but Lena sells them in her shop.”
    That probably explained Deputy LeBlanc’s visit to Mudbug. “Add that to Bubba’s boat parked at his dock, the alligator hunting thing, and the fact that he himself admitted he found the body and didn’t turn it in…” I trailed off, letting the women come to their own conclusion.
    “Okay. We’ll find out where Lyle was. Anything else?” Ida Belle asked.
    “We need to figure out…if it was Lyle…why he wants my father dead.”
    Gertie’s eyes widened. “That one might be harder.”
    “Yeah. I know. But there’s some connection between Bubba’s murder and my father. I just need to figure out what it is.”
    The truck rumbled over an old, wooden bridge that I didn’t remember from our earlier drive. A weathered wooden sign was