Soldiers of Fortune (17 page)

“Nah, I just like to mix things together and see what happens. I’ll probably end up working in a lab somewhere or maybe teaching. I don’t know.”

“Like Heisenberg,” Adam said.

“Who?” I asked.

“That science teacher from
Breaking Bad
,” Adam said. “He was awesome.”

“I haven’t seen it,” I said.

Adam’s eyes widened. “Dude, you should totally watch it.”

Mark nodded. “He’s this teacher who gets cancer and starts cooking meth in a motor home to pay for the treatment.”

“Yeah,” Kenny said, “and his shit is like, the best stuff ever and he’s making bank.”

“Really?” I said, pleased that my degree choice had led straight into a meth discussion. “A motor home, huh? I guess that’s one way to stay off the cops’ radar.”

“It works at first,” Kenny said, “but I don’t want to spoil the show. You should watch it.”

“I will. Thanks for the tip.” I glanced around at them. They all seemed relaxed and comfortable, so I went for it. “Hey, nothing like that goes on around here, does it? I mean, with all these bayous and stuff…plenty of places to hide.”

They all looked at one another again, some silent form of communication passing among them.

“Meth, you mean?” Kenny asked finally. “I don’t think so.”

“Nothing interesting ever happens in Sinful,” Adam said.

“Really?” I asked. “Because I got here a month ago and it seems like a whole bunch of stuff has happened for such a small place.”

“Yeah,” Kenny said, “but that’s like murders and stuff. That’s not meth.”

“Got it,” I said. Meth manufacturing was interesting. Murder was not. “I don’t suppose you can tell me the best spot to catch speckled trout.”

They all brightened and started talking at once. As I suspected, fishing was even more interesting than meth manufacturing. I pretended to listen as they pointed and gave descriptions of channels and markers, but my work was done here. These kids didn’t know anything about meth in Sinful.
 

When they started to argue over which bait to use, I made my getaway and headed toward the bonfire. The sun was finally starting to set, but without a breeze, I didn’t hold out hope of it getting much cooler. I spotted Ida Belle and Gertie at a picnic table near the fire and walked over to them. Gertie was sitting at the table, rubbing sports cream on her arms.
 

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s getting worse,” Gertie says. “Feels like they’re on fire.”

Ida Belle shook her head. “I bet she hyperextended them. They’re going to feel a lot worse before they get better.”

“Good thing I still have the medical supplies,” Gertie said and pulled aspirin and Sinful Ladies cough syrup from her bag. She tossed back three aspirin and took a gulp of the cough syrup. “That should hold me until I get home.”

I wasn’t about to ask what she had at home. “Did you guys find out anything?”

They both shook their heads. “What about you?” Ida Belle asked.

“I found out those kids don’t know anything about meth in Sinful,” I said.

“Same here,” Gertie said. “When I brought up the topic, the kids I was talking to looked at me like I was crazy.”

Ida Belle nodded. “And they’re no good at lying. If there’s meth here, I don’t think it’s hit the high school…not if these kids are any indication.”

“That’s a good thing,” I said. “I know it doesn’t give us anything to go on, but maybe that means this was their first lab.”

“It was definitely recent construction,” Ida Belle said. “The lumber was charred, but the inside hadn’t cured completely. It hadn’t been out there for long.”

“So maybe they were just getting started in Sinful,” I said. “Maybe they’ll take the explosion as a sign to move on, especially if they think it may have drawn attention to them.”

“Normally, I would agree with you,” Ida Belle said, “but whoever built that lab knew the bayous well enough to find a good hiding place, which means they’re local or have strong local connections.”

“Which means they’ll know about the Nelson situation and Carter being on medical leave,” I said.

Gertie nodded. “Which means it’s low risk to have another go at it.”

“Crap,” I said. “I hope that finger narrows things down.”

“Me too,” Ida Belle said.
 

“So do we keep checking the kids?” Gertie asked.

Ida Belle nodded. “We’ve got to be here anyway, so might as well nose around. You never know what we might turn up that’s useful.”

The sound of whooping had me looking toward the street. Another wave of teens was arriving in the bed of a pickup truck.
 

“Football team,” Gertie said.
 

“The popular kids,” I said. “Looks like I have work to do.”

Chapter Ten

I trailed a bit behind the new group of teens as they carried an ice chest and lawn chairs toward the bonfire, assessing them as I went.
 

Seven guys, three girls. The guys were the typical stocky jock types. The girls all had on cheerleader skirts. No threat to me, but they were probably hell on the other students.

As they arranged the chairs and passed out sodas, I sauntered up. “Mind if I have one of those?” I asked, and pointed to the ice chest.

One of the guys gave me a look up and down. He must have liked what he saw, because he gestured for one of the girls to hand me a can. She gave me a look up and down too, but I got the impression she wasn’t as impressed as he was.
 

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Fortune. I’m visiting for the summer.”

“I know you,” one of the other guys said. “Didn’t you kill some dude?”

The girl rolled her eyes. “If she’d killed someone she would be in jail, not hanging out in the park bumming a soda. God, you’re so stupid sometimes.” She whirled around and stomped off to where the other two girls were standing, then the three of them huddled close to one another, alternating whispering and glaring.

“She didn’t kill him,” another guy said. “They found some dead dude in her yard, right?”

“Sort of,” I said. “The house belonged to my aunt, and the bone was in the bayou behind the house.”

“Oh.” The first guy looked slightly disappointed. “That’s something I guess, but not as cool as killing him yourself.”

“So you’ve killed someone?” I asked.

“Me? What—no!”

“Then how do you know it’s cool?”

“I, uh, it’s not cool for me to kill someone. I mean, unless he’s hurting my dog or using my duck blind without permission…you know, serious shit.”

“Of course,” I said. I could get on board with the dog part. Jury was out on the duck blind. I might have to live in Sinful longer before that one kicked in.

I motioned to the cooler. “I don’t suppose you have some beer hidden in there.”

“Nah, we’re not much for drinking.”

“Oh, you go for the harder stuff then?”

He stared at me for a moment, his brow wrinkling, then he finally got it and his expression shifted to one of slight disgust. “Drugs? No way!”

I checked out his biceps. “Not even steroids?”

“That crap will shrink your balls. And get you banned. A college scholarship to play football is the only chance we have to get the hell out of this town. We’re not about to blow it on something stupid.”

“Good for you,” I said, and meant it. “A lot of players aren’t nearly as smart.”

“A lot of players aren’t trying to get out of Sinful.”

“Hey, look!” One of the other players pointed to the street. The food vendors that had been at the Fourth of July celebration the day before were unloading their trailers at the curb and setting up shop. Hot dogs, pretzels, funnel cake, and snow cones. Yum!

“Oh!” One of the cheerleaders ran over to grab the arm of the player I’d been talking to. “I want a snow cone.”

“Sure, baby.” He gave me a nod. “Nice talking to you.”
 

The popular kid crowd, along with half of the other teens, made their way over to the food vendors. I headed back for the picnic table to regroup with Ida Belle and Gertie.

“Anything?” Ida Belle asked as I slid onto the bench.

“No. Apparently, they don’t even do steroids because they could lose their chance at a scholarship, also known as ‘getting the hell out of Sinful.’”

Gertie frowned. “That’s completely logical and a little surprising coming from them, but hey, who am I to question one’s motivation for getting out of here. If I had been a normal teen, that might have been my goal as well.”

“You did get out of here,” Ida Belle said. “We went to war, remember?”

“What about after the war?” Gertie argued. “We could have gone anywhere, but the three of us parked ourselves right back in Sinful.”
 

I knew the “three of us” referred to Ida Belle, Gertie, and Marge Boudreaux, the woman whose niece I was pretending to be. They’d served together in Vietnam in a capacity that no one but me and their commanding officers knew about. Assuming their commanding officers were still alive, which might be a stretch.

“Where else could we be in control?” Ida Belle said.

Gertie shook her head. “How’s that working out for you?”

“Right now, it’s a bit troubling,” Ida Belle agreed, “but we’re going to get it all straightened out.”

“I hope so,” Gertie said. “Retirement wasn’t supposed to require this much energy.”

I pointed to the food vendors. “You didn’t tell me there would be fat snacks.”

“That’s because there never have been,” Gertie said. “At least, not of the professional sort. Used to, it was limited to whatever you brought in yourself.”

“Well, then I think our hard work here deserves funnel cake,” I said.

“Darn straight,” Gertie said and popped up from the bench.

“I’ll stick around here,” Ida Belle said. “There’s a couple kids near the bonfire I want to chat with. Get me a bubble gum snow cone. Maybe it will cool me down.”

 
Gertie hopped up from the bench…well, maybe “hop” was a little strong. She sort rolled off of it and into a standing position, then we set out for food. The girl I’d met at the festival was serving up funnel cake and her husband was working the snow cone end of things.

“Kayla, right?” I asked when it was our turn.

She brightened. “Yes. I met you yesterday. And hello again, Gertie. I didn’t expect to see you guys here.”

“We’re chaperoning,” I said.
 

“It’s good of you to volunteer,” Kayla said. “When I was in high school, we wondered every year if the dance would be canceled because no one would volunteer to chaperone.”

“It was our time in rotation,” Gertie said. “We dragged Fortune along for the ride. We’re surprised to see you here as well. I figured you’d be halfway to your next gig.”

Kayla nodded. “We have a couple days before it starts. Normally we would have cleared out this morning. But Celia asked all the food vendors if they would work the dance, and get this, she’s paying us a flat fee to do it on top of what we’ll make from selling.”

Gertie’s expression shifted from pleasant to annoyance. “That woman. After the debacle she made of the sheriff’s department and Francine’s menu, she’s trying to get brownie points by doing something for the kids.”

“Will it work?” I asked.

“Not a chance,” Gertie said. “Some funnel cake and snow cones can’t make up for the mess she’s made. No offense to your food, dear.”

“None taken,” Kayla said. “The whole mayor thing has been the buzz since we’ve been here. It doesn’t sound like anyone’s happy.”

“No,” Gertie said. “At this point, I’m pretty sure the people who voted for her are unhappy, and the people who didn’t vote for her are ready to kill her.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far,” Kayla said. “What can I get you ladies?”

“Two funnel cakes and a bubble gum snow cone,” I said.
 

“Coming right up.” She turned around and doctored up two fresh funnel cakes with a load of powdered sugar and put them on the counter just as her husband handed Gertie the snow cone and gave her a wink.
 

“On the house,” Kayla said.
 

“No,” Gertie started to protest.

“I insist,” Kayla said. “You’re working. It’s the least we can do.”

“Thanks,” I said and lifted the funnel cakes from the counter.
 

“I can’t believe Celia,” Gertie said as we walked back to the picnic table. “Trying to buy people off.”

“And doing a really poor job of it,” I said. “She’s not overly bright, is she?”

“No. Never has been. She’s in charge of her group because there’s no end to her mouth, and she’s a bully. Always was.”

“If people know that, then why did they vote for her?”

“Some did only because Marie is Baptist and Celia is Catholic. Others, I don’t know. Probably, they don’t know her like we do, or maybe since she hasn’t ever set the world on fire with anything, they thought she’d leave things well enough alone.”