Hurricane Force (A Miss Fortune Mystery Book 7) (28 page)

“By that time,” Gertie said, “Gracie had shown up and blown our minds all over again. And you know the rest.”

I looked at Ida Belle. “You saved my life. You know what that means?”

“It means you owe me,” Ida Belle said. “But I’m not ready to collect just yet.”

“Did you get Ahmad?” Gertie asked.
 

“No,” I said. “He was the man who got away in the alley.”

They both frowned. “That’s what we figured,” Ida Belle said. “So what do we do now?”

“We go back to the safe house,” I said, “let those FBI agents loose, and wait to hear from Harrison.”

“Do we have to go back and let them loose?” Gertie said. “They were pretty mad when we left.”

“What about our stuff?” I asked. “All our identification is back there.”

They looked at each other and grinned. “We might have left it all in a closet at the bottom of the staircase when we left,” Gertie said.

“And we might have rented a car right before that,” Ida Belle said. “It might be that Honda parked at the corner.”

I looked across the street and saw the rental car emblem on the white Accord parked in front of the safe house.
 

I smiled. “What the hell? It’s not like we can be in more trouble.”

Chapter Twenty-One

It was close to 3:00 a.m. when I heard a knock at my front door. We were all sitting in the kitchen, recounting every detail of the night all over again.
 

“Gig’s up,” I said and left the kitchen.

I knew it was Carter before I answered the door. Harrison would never risk exposing me, and the FBI agents didn’t know who we were, much less where to find us. He stood there for a moment, just staring at me, then slowly shook his head.
 

“I have whiskey,” I said.

“I bet you don’t have enough,” he said.

“Try me.”
 

I headed back to the kitchen and put another glass on the table. Gertie poured it full of whiskey and Carter sat down and took a long drink. He looked at the three of us, his expression a mixture of admiration, frustration, and slight disbelief.
 

“If anyone had told me the truth about the three of you a week ago,” he finally said, “I wouldn’t have believed them.” He pointed his finger at Ida Belle. “That shot you made…in the dark, from that distance, and with no scope. That wasn’t luck. I know you, and you would never have risked missing and hitting Fortune.”

Ida Belle shrugged. “It’s just a thing I can do.”

Carter nodded. “If that’s how you want to leave it, that’s okay, but I’ve done some things myself, so I know the truth.”

“What happened after we left?” I asked.

“Your partner, Harrison, gave me a cover story. It was simple enough. I was working with the FBI looking for the Sinful connection, Brody was one of the FBI’s suspects, and I followed him to New Orleans. Beyond that, I don’t know and didn’t see anything until he started crying over his dead wife.”
 

I blew out a breath of relief. That left Carter out of things altogether, which meant any connection to us was weakened as well. “Good. I was hoping you’d be left out of the worst of it.”

“Harrison’s a sharp guy,” Carter said somewhat grudgingly. “Makes decisions quickly, and leave no room for questions.”

“He’s really built too,” Gertie said. “I wish we could have seen his face. I bet he’s hot.”

Ida Belle kicked her under the table.

“What about the rest of the men?” I asked.

“Harrison said to tell you that none of Ahmad’s men made it, so there’s no chance your cover is blown since Ahmad never saw you either.” Carter frowned. “I’m sorry he got away. I know you were counting on this…”

“We’ll get another chance,” I said, forcing my voice to sound steady. But the reality was, I was still upset over the lost opportunity and anxious about when the next one might present itself.
 

“Randal and one of his men were taken alive,” Carter said. “Randal was shot but it’s a flesh wound.”

“And the FBI agents?” I asked.

“One casualty,” Carter said quietly.
 

“That sucks.” I hated it when the good guys went down.

“I’ll say a prayer for his family,” Gertie said.
 

“Of course,” Ida Belle said. She looked over at Gertie, then back at Carter. “What about the agents at the safe house?”

Carter stared at her for a couple seconds, then I saw his lower lip tremble. Finally, he couldn’t stand it any longer and broke into a smile. “I have never seen anyone so pissed in my entire lifetime. When they didn’t respond to Harrison’s call, we went over to check, afraid something had happened to you. I should have known better.”

“I agree,” Gertie said. “Maybe from now on, you’ll stop underestimating us.”

“That’s not a good thing,” Ida Belle said. “Carter underestimating us is the only reason we’ve gotten away with most of the things we’ve done.”

Gertie’s face fell. “Oh yeah.”

Carter shook his head. “Anyway, we uncuffed the one agent and let the other one out of the bathroom. Thanks for leaving the key hanging right there on the wall.”

“That door’s an original piece,” Ida Belle said. “We didn’t want you to have to kick it down.”

“They both yelled at Harrison for a while, wanting you two brought up on charges, and claiming the bureau would sue for wasting their time, and a whole bunch of other nonsense.”

“Sore losers,” Gertie said.

“Harrison apologized for the inconvenience and said the CIA would be happy to reimburse the department for any expenses they felt were due. Then he claimed you three were being placed in the federal witness protection program and they wouldn’t be troubled by you in the future. They had barely gotten out the door before Harrison sat down on the couch and started laughing.”

“And what about you?” Ida Belle asked.

Carter smiled. “Oh, I didn’t wait for them to leave. I was too happy to see someone else on the receiving end of your terror besides me.”

Ida Belle blew out a breath. “I still can’t believe Gracie was the counterfeiting contact.”

“Me either,” Gertie said. “And there’s something I don’t understand. Fortune said Gracie said she was cleaning house, but why would she kill Max before he fixed the flaws on the money?”

“Gracie didn’t kill Max,” Carter said.

“What?” Ida Belle said. “But we thought…”

Carter nodded. “And that’s exactly what I would have thought except that after Fortune told me about your suspicions, I checked Brody’s alibi for that night. He and Gracie were two hundred miles away at her sister’s house for a wedding. It was an all-night party. There’s no way she could have gotten back to Sinful, murdered Max, then back to her sister’s house without someone missing her.”

“Then who?” Gertie asked. “One of Randal’s men?”

I looked down at a pile of coins on my kitchen table and like magic, it all fell into place. The coins, the original artist comment Gracie had made, Max’s oddly timed return to Sinful.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I have an idea…it’s going to sound strange at first but hear me out.”

And then I told them my theory.

###

It wasn’t even dawn the next morning when Harrison called. Ida Belle and Gertie were still asleep, and since Ally was still at Emmaline’s, I took the call in bed.
 

“Are you just getting away?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Harrison said, and I could hear the exhaustion in his voice. I knew that exhaustion well. So many hours without sleep piled on top of a huge adrenaline rush. Then when all that adrenaline left your body, you were ready to collapse.
 

“Why don’t you head to a hotel and get some sleep. Carter told me everything he knew. You can fill me in on the rest later.”

“There’s not much more to cover,” he said. “The FBI offered Randal a deal if he testified against Jamison. They’re pretty sure he’s going to take it.”

“What happened to Brody Sampson?”

“I actually felt sorry for him. That man was a wreck. Last I saw, he was alternating between telling the FBI everything he knew and crying. Apparently, Gracie and Randal had been tight since they were kids, but given Randal’s line of work, they’d kept it on the down-low as adults.”

“Did he say how she got involved with Max?”

“He said she gave Max the money to leave Sinful and hooked him up with Randal for work. That doesn’t make sense to me, but maybe you get it.”

“I do.” Gracie was Max’s financial ticket out of Sinful. Her way of getting back at Celia for sleeping with Brody.

“Anyway, Max did odd jobs for Randal until Gracie came up with the idea for him to make the coin dies. Brody found a bag of coins. He had some uncle who was a collector and knew they weren’t real. He confronted Gracie and she admitted involvement, but said she’d quit. Until he saw Max in Sinful, he thought she had.”

“That much might have been true, until her cousin was in the market for a counterfeit artist.”

“And Gracie figured she and Max could move up the food chain,” Harrison said. “That would make sense.”

“Except Max wasn’t quite good enough and had someone else do the work. I wonder if Gracie knew who the original artist was.”

“I don’t suppose we’ll ever know, but if I was Max, I damned sure wouldn’t have told her. If she had someone better, she wouldn’t need him.”

“Yeah, she was scary,” I said. “If you would have met her before the alley, you would have been really dumbfounded. I was.”

“Speaking of dumbfounded, I guess Carter told you about the agents at the safe house?”

“Oh yeah. We had a good laugh over it. I hear you did too.”

He chuckled. “I owe you an apology, Redding. I know you told me that the things you got into with them weren’t your fault, but I couldn’t believe there were people out there more hardheaded than you and who would take even bigger risks. I was wrong.”

“God broke the mold when he made Ida Belle and Gertie.”

“Nah, he just modified it and we got you. I feel sorry for Carter. He’s a cool dude. He doesn’t deserve being saddled with the three of you.”

I felt my stomach clench. “About that…what’s my situation now?”

“I was waiting to call you until I could talk things over with Morrow.”

I sucked in a breath. “And?”

“Given that he lost men here and the FBI is looking hard at Jamison and anyone he did business with, neither one of us figures Ahmad is going to maintain a presence. In fact, we both think you’re safer there now than you were before.”

The breath I’d been holding came out with a whoosh.
 

“I didn’t tell Morrow everything,” Harrison said. “I left out the stuff about you and Carter…the personal stuff. If you want to stay, Morrow is happy to leave you there, but if you want to go, I’ll figure out something.”

Relief, excitement, and also fear coursed through me. I hadn’t expected to have a choice, and now, I wasn’t certain what to say. I knew it would be easier on Carter if I left. Out of sight, out of mind probably made the whole broken heart thing go faster, and my heart wasn’t doing all that well either.
 

But…

And it was the but that stopped me from packing my bags.

Maybe two butts.

“If it’s all the same,” I said, “I think I’ll stay put.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

After a morning celebration because I was staying, Gertie and Ida Belle had gone home, exhausted but happy. Ally was back in residence with me, sworn to silence and tickled that everything had turned out all right. Except for Emmaline, who’d been told the same story Ally heard, no one else in Sinful was the wiser for our latest escapade. We’d explained our sudden return from our Florida vacation as a screwup at the hotel where we had reservations and claimed we’d reschedule for later on.

Ally had gone to meet her contractor, and I had just settled down in my hammock with a beer and a book when Carter walked into my backyard. I sat up on the edge of the strings, watching him as he walked. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since the night before and wondered if he’d taken action on what I’d thrown out at him.

His expression was resigned and sad and I instantly knew that my theory had been correct. He pulled a lawn chair over and sat down facing me.

“You don’t have to say it,” I said. “I can see it in your face.”

He sighed. “Belinda confessed before I even started questioning her. Everything you guessed was the truth. When Max couldn’t get the design for the money right, he tracked down Landon in the group home in New Orleans. He’d been terrorizing Landon for almost a year before the poor boy finally broke down and told Belinda what was happening.”

“Did she know it was Max?” I asked.

“Not until Landon had that little fit in the General Store. She got suspicious and asked Landon if Max was the man he was afraid of. She’d been trying to get it out of him, but every time she asked, he cried and refused to speak for days at a time.”