Chapter 10 #2
“Why didn’t you let me know they were on their way to the cabin?” I asked.
“Because we didn’t know,” Ida Belle said.
“We heard the door when you left and figured they were still in the lobby, but since we were holding cover at the time, I didn’t figure I could go put my ear on the door to listen or the Barbies might think that was a little odd.
Then we heard the door slam again and figured they’d left, so Gertie claimed a bathroom break and headed up to check. ”
Gertie nodded. “But it was that idiot Calahan. Carter and Zion must have left quietly sometime before because Calahan was the only one I saw on the path to Zion’s cabin.
So I sent you that text but was afraid it would be too late for you to get clear.
So I yelled back to the others that I was going for a walk and ran for the bayou, figuring an explosion would send them running my way and give you a chance to get out if you were trapped inside. ”
“Yeah, your message came through seconds before Carter and Zion appeared at the door. It’s a good thing you had that stick on you.”
Ida Belle sighed. “Now she’ll be carrying dynamite everywhere.”
“You act like I wasn’t already,” Gertie said. “So is the bug going to work?”
“I hope so,” I said. “But we’re going to have to get closer to hear anything.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Gertie asked. “I want to know what Carter is looking for.”
I shook my head. “Calahan will be patrolling the woods around the cabin like a game warden. We can’t get close enough without him spotting us. I had one narrow escape already. If Calahan gets it in his head that someone else is interested in that cabin, he’ll push until Carter has to do a sweep.”
Gertie sighed. “And Carter will definitely find the bug because he’s good at his job. Oh well. If Sapphire doesn’t come back, we’re not going to get anything unless Zion calls someone or talks to himself. Hey, maybe he talks in his sleep.”
Ida Belle stared. “Are you going to sit in the woods all night, sweating and itching, in case he might say something?”
She sighed. “This whole proximity thing is for the birds. We need some better equipment.”
“I’ll get some better equipment,” I said, “but the high-grade stuff doesn’t come cheap. And you end up losing pieces along the way.”
Ida Belle nodded. “It’s not like you can just stroll back into a private residence and ask people to let you remove it.”
“Exactly,” I said. “And once the police have locked onto someone, they’re hyper protective and aware.
Anyway, it’s beside the point. Even if I’d had better equipment, I probably wouldn’t have brought it.
This whole thing looked like a suicide, remember?
And when it comes down to it, I still can’t see how it’s anything else. ”
“But we need to prove that Zion is shady or he’ll take the cabins from Mildred,” Gertie said.
“Oh, he’s shady,” Ida Belle said. “But if he’s not criminally shady, it won’t matter.”
“We could shoot him,” Gertie said.
“Tempting,” I said, “but for all we know, that might just send the cabins even further down the line to Sapphire.”
Gertie frowned. “So what do you think Carter is looking for?”
“Drugs probably,” Ida Belle said. “If Mildred is standing firm on Eleanor never taking downers and there’s no prescription on the books, then she got them somewhere. Given that Zion is the clear beneficiary in Eleanor’s death and shady as all get-out to boot, it makes sense to start looking there.”
I nodded. “I wonder about the gun as well. Obviously, it’s possible that it was Eleanor’s as most people with any common sense have more than one, but verifying ownership will also be a priority.”
“That might not be as easy as one would hope,” Ida Belle said. “Too many guns around here are passed around to family and friends or sold at gun shows and pawnshops. Heck, I bought a thirty-year-old cast-iron skillet and a .38 special at a garage sale last week.”
“Only in the South do both of those make perfect sense,” I said.
“Well, what do we do now?” Gertie asked. “I assume we’ll try to hear something after Carter leaves, but what about tomorrow? Do you think Zion’s going to clear us out early since the cops showed up and basically called him a suspect right there in front of us all?”
“A normal person would,” I said. “But Zion is anything but normal. And besides, he’s interested in my cabins. The smart thing would be for him to tuck tail and run but thank God for us, most criminals aren’t all that smart.”
Ida Belle nodded. “Not only is he too interested in what Fortune has to offer, if he can scam her into a deal, it would allow him to get out of Louisiana. And that’s probably sounding like a really good idea about now.”
“So we listen tonight and hope Sapphire comes back or he makes a juicy phone call,” Gertie said, “and then tomorrow you do some more pushing on the inheritance thing, but what about after that? Even if Carter got proof that Zion gave Eleanor the drugs, can he charge him with anything? Ultimately, it’s still a suicide. ”
“There’s laws for criminal assistance of suicide, and it’s a felony,” I said. “I did some googling earlier. It wouldn’t be a picnic to prove, but if Zion supplied the drugs or the gun, then a case could possibly be made.”
Ida Belle raised one eyebrow. “But?”
I huffed. “Something isn’t right. Or I guess I should say something else isn’t right. Don’t get me wrong, I think Zion is sketchy as heck, and I have no doubt he preys on women, but there’s an undercurrent to all of this…like there’s something even bigger moving below the surface.”
“Like what?” Gertie asked.
“I have no idea. I just don’t feel like this is as straightforward as we think it is.”
“So what do we do to raise the kraken?” Ida Belle asked.
I considered this for a bit. “I think we need to dig deeper into all the major players. Not just what happened in the last couple days or even months, but altogether. Who is Zion? Where did he come from? And I need a bigger picture of Eleanor. If we move forward on the premise that Eleanor was prompted into her action, then the question is how and by whom. Was Zion the only one with something to gain? What about Sapphire? For that matter, Kim isn’t exactly on the perfectly innocent list as she clearly had a thing for Zion as well. We’ve seen women do more for less.”
“That’s true enough,” Ida Belle said. “And as much as I hate digging up dirt on a dead woman when we’re working for her grieving sister, it needs to happen. I agree with you that something bigger is going on than what is currently on display.”
But what?