miss fortune mystery (ff) - jewel of the bayou Read Online Free

both Gertie and Ida Belle were staring at me without any subtlety at all.
    “Where are my manners?” I said with a smile that I trusted looked sincere. “Ida Belle, Gertie, I’d like you to meet Jack.”
    “We already met,” Gertie said. “In church. This morning.”
    “That’s right. You’re the poor guy who has to take all our pictures without breaking the lens,” Ida Belle said, and then she shot me another one of her patented looks. “Though I’m a little surprised the two of you have already met,” she said under her breath.
    “Then it doesn’t take much to surprise you,” I said out of the side of my mouth, and turned again to Jack with a smile. “Anyway, don’t let us keep you, Jack.”
    Gertie was cranking the engine as I was speaking, and Jack held out a hand to help me back into the cab. I took it, and settled myself in with as much dignity as possible as he slammed the door after me, choking me in yet another cloud of dust.
    “See ya later, alligator!” Gertie shouted, and with a roar we were off. I could see Jack in the rear view mirror, one hand lifted in farewell, and that darn grin on his face.
    “You want to watch out for those football players,” Ida Belle said. “Too much glory, too young. It goes to their heads.”
    She shook her own head of white hair.
    “Not that it takes a lot to puff up a man,” she continued. “Buncha idiots, mostly.”
    “Mostly,” Gertie agreed, and we headed on down the road.
     

Chapter Four
     
    We rumbled down the oak allée to the Langstrom house, Spanish moss blowing above us in the breeze, and Gertie pulled up in front of the porch and slammed on the brakes. The engine choked and died with a loud bang as it gave a final backfire, and the truck jerked to a stop. It didn’t take a small explosion to get Mrs. Langstrom’s attention, though. I imagined she had been keeping an eye on us from the moment we had turned off the main road, and the twitch of a curtain confirmed my opinion. She was well aware that we were there.
    “I’d better go in first,” I said.
    “Nonsense,’ said Ida Belle. “Gertie will go with you.”
    “Oh she will, will she!” Gertie said as she opened her door and stepped out. “We’re all going. You’ve come along this far, Ida Belle. No backing out now.”
    “That’ll teach me to get into a pickup truck with you,” Ida Belle said.
    “If you haven’t learned that lesson by now, you never will,” Gertie said. “Now come on!”
    We all trooped up to the rambling Victorian like girl scouts selling cookies, and I tapped on the door before opening it and going inside.
    “I’m back, Mrs. Langstrom! And these lovely ladies were nice enough to give me a ride.”
    There was a moment of silence, and then a soft thud as the door to the parlor was thrown open, hitting the heavy velvet curtain draped behind it. Mrs. Langstrom had made her entrance.
    “These ladies weren’t lovely back when they were young enough to have a chance to pass it off, and there’s no reason on God’s green earth to think they’re lovely now.”
    “It’s great to see you, too, Gladys,” Gertie said. “Good to see you’re still yourself.”
    “And who else would I be?”
    “Now that’s a question,” Ida Belle said.
    “But we’re not here to dredge up old memories,” Gertie smoothly went on. “We’re here because Lindy seemed confused about who’s who at church, and we want to make sure that she gets the latest copy of the Church Directory. Of course, she asked when you would be getting your picture taken, and we realized that we just weren’t sure about that. So I figured we should give Lindy here a ride back, and take the opportunity to see when you’ll be able to come in to town for your portrait session.”
    This was all news to me, and I was in awe. Full frontal assault seemed to be Gertie’s mode of operation, but if anything was going to take down Mrs. Langstrom’s defenses, it would probably have to be something along