Fortune Hunter (A Miss Fortune Mystery Book 8) (19 page)

He lifted the gun and I looked down and saw the red line move up my chest. I knew it stopped on my forehead. “Goodbye, Sandy-Sue Morrow. You were too smart for your own good.”

I dived off the couch as a shot rang out. I hit the ground and rolled, expecting the shock to hit me at any moment. Instead, I instinctively popped back up, gun drawn, and looked over to see Nolan lying on the floor, a single bullet through his forehead.

I whirled around and spotted Carter standing at the window I’d used to climb in.

He shook his head. “I keep having to kill people when I’m around you.”

Crap. Nolan was dead and I was breaking and entering. There was no good way to arrange that story.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Get out of here before someone reports that shot,” he said.

“But what about Nolan?”

“I heard everything. I’ll handle it, but I can’t do that if you’re in the middle of it, so go.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I headed to the window and bailed out. When I landed on the ground, I threw my arms around Carter, momentarily startling him.

“Thank you for…everything,” I said, then dashed off through the hedges.

I
’d barely made
it home when my cell phone started ringing. It was Ida Belle.

“Shots fired at Nolan’s house,” Ida Belle said. “Peaches heard it this time and called the police, then Marie, because she was afraid she was still staying there.”

“Yeah. I kinda have inside knowledge on that.”

“I knew you were up to something! What the hell have you done? Do we need to raise bail money? Get Harrison in gear to find you a safe house?”

“Nothing that dire. Carter’s covering for me. Again. It’s no wonder he doesn’t want me as a girlfriend. I present enough trouble as a resident.”

“Well, don’t just stand there lamenting. Get your butt over to Gertie’s house and fill us in.”

She disconnected the phone call and I smiled. They were going to be pissed that I’d left them out, but it wasn’t a mission that required two, so why run the risk?

Until the end. If not for backup, you’d be dead.

I shook my head, refusing to dwell on the facts. They were too inconvenient.

I grabbed my Jeep keys and headed for Gertie’s house. They were going to have a stroke when I told them who the real villain was.

When I walked through the doorway to Gertie’s house, they were ready for me. Ida Belle stood in the middle of the room, hands on her hips and a disapproving look on her face. Gertie was sitting, so the hands-on-hips thing wasn’t a good option. Instead, she wagged her finger at me, looking totally disappointed.

I held my hands up in the air. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But I wasn’t sure and if I was right, I didn’t want you implicated in what I was doing. The worst Carter could do to me is have the CIA move me to a farm in Idaho, but the two of you would be left here to deal with Celia hounding him to arrest you.”

Ida Belle looked over at Gertie. “Should we forgive her?”

“Hell yeah,” Gertie said. “Now get those lips to flapping. Start with who’s dead. We heard the paramedics carried out a body bag.”

“Nolan is dead,” I said.

“What?”

“Oh no!”

Their expressions reflected shock and horror.

“Before you start feeling bad,” I said, “Nolan killed Gail.”

For the first time since I’d met them, Ida Belle and Gertie were absolutely speechless. If they’d been required to utter even one word at that moment, I don’t think they would have been capable. They both stared at me, eyes wide, jaws dropped, waiting for the punch line. When it finally dawned on them that none was forthcoming, they looked at each other, probably ensuring they’d heard me correctly, then Ida Belle sank onto the coffee table and they both looked back at me.

I sat on the couch and started telling them what I knew and what had happened. When I got to the part about Nolan standing, Ida Belle jumped up from the coffee table and both of them shouted an impressive number of expletives. It took several seconds for them to calm down, but finally Ida Belle sat on the coffee table again and gestured for me to continue. When I told them about Carter saving me from being the one in that body bag, they both sobered.

“That was a close call,” Ida Belle said.

“Too close,” Gertie said. “You shouldn’t have taken such a risk.”

“Probably not,” I said, “but what could I have done? I only had suspicion. No proof. And on the surface, it was a wild idea. Who would have believed it?”

“How did you put all of it together?” Ida Belle asked.

I frowned. “I don’t know exactly, and there’s parts that I still don’t have answers for, but I’m sure Carter will get it all sorted out. I think the biggest part of it centered around people not being who others thought they were. That’s been the biggest issue in my life lately, and something about all of this—the catfish, Gail’s murder, and whatever Brandon is up to—kept pushing me back to that point.”

“That someone wasn’t what or who they were pretending to be,” Gertie said. “I can see how you’d be sensitive to that, especially in your current state, but how do you fix on Nolan? It still seems such a leap.”

“Not really,” I said. “Think about it. Who was on site when Gail was murdered? Nolan. Who had easy access to the house and knew her schedule? Nolan. Most importantly, who benefited from her death? Again, the answer is Nolan.”

Gertie nodded. “The spouse is always the first suspect.”

“Exactly,” I said, “but no one suspected Nolan because everyone thought he was disabled.”

“And if you take away the disability,” Ida Belle said, “it changes everything.”

I nodded. “So I removed that from the equation and then thought about the remaining facts of the case. Who repeated the private messages between Gail and the catfish? Who did Florence Thompson overhear saying Gail was having an affair? Who said the lights went out and there was a scream? Who said someone shoved him down and ran out the front door? The answer was always Nolan.”

“So the affair was all Nolan’s invention,” Gertie said.

“I think so,” I said. “Remember when we looked at Gail’s Facebook account? She hadn’t posted on her wall in months. It would be easy for Nolan to claim he saw something and for Carter to assume it was deleted. It would be equally easy for him to create messages between the catfish and Gail the night she was murdered, supporting his claim about the earlier correspondence, and I bet he did.”

“And the insurance?” Ida Belle asked. “I suppose Gail never took out a policy.”

“No. That was all Francesca,” I said. “Remember Marie said Gail had claimed the policy was too expensive to purchase. I did some checking and she was right. A luxury car would have cost less. Then there was the part where Nolan said they had a joint bank account, but claimed he didn’t know about the policy. Surely he would have noticed an amount that large leaving the account.”

Ida Belle shook her head. “So Francesca processed the policy and paid for it. And I bet when Carter checks, he’ll find that Gail’s signature was forged.”

“I’m sure of it,” I said.

“I still can’t wrap my mind around it,” Gertie said. “You’re saying Nolan and that woman intended to kill Gail from the beginning? That the disability was his cover to prevent him from being accused of murder?”

“I think Nolan is a con man,” I said, “and the long con is his trade. When Carter figures out who he really is, I’ll bet Gail isn’t the only victim. And while the disability turned out to be a great alibi for the murder, I think it was originally intended to explain the large amount of insurance purchased. That’s something the police look into at great length, especially when people haven’t been married for very long.”

“But if you want to ensure your disabled partner is taken care of in case of your demise,” Ida Belle said, “people don’t think as much of it.”

I nodded. “Especially when the insurance agent is claiming the benefiting spouse wasn’t even aware of the policy.” I frowned. “In fact, if you think about it, I bet they were hoping no one ever found out about the insurance. Remember when Ida Belle took the phone call from the insurance agency? It was a man. Then Francesca showed up and claimed her assistant jumped the gun and made the call. She seemed a little aggravated.”

“They hoped the police wouldn’t find out about the policy,” Ida Belle said, “but just in case, Nolan set himself up in the beginning so that he wouldn’t draw suspicion.”

“They had a plan to back up a plan and an answer for everything,” I said.

“But how could Nolan know Gail would fall for him in the first place?” Gertie asked.

“He didn’t know,” I said. “My guess is he went to that charity event looking for a mark, and he found Gail. A lonely, middle-aged woman who knew how to cope with the disabled and according to you guys, had a penchant for trying to rescue men.”

Ida Belle shook her head. “She was practically flashing in neon.”

“So how do you think Nolan actually did it?” Gertie asked. “I mean, he had so little time…”

“But did he?” I asked. “Again, no one else heard the shot because he used a suppressor. Nolan is the one who gave us the original timeline, and we know he lied. I think when he heard gossip about the catfish, he knew the gig was about to be up and he needed to form an emergency exit plan. So he tested the trellis and jimmied the window, figuring if things went further than gossip, he had a quick way out.”

“Gail spent the night in New Orleans two nights before the murder,” Ida Belle said. “Based on the damage to the ivy, he must have tested the trellis then.”

I nodded. “Then Beulah reported the catfish to Carter, so Nolan put his emergency plan into action. Gail went up to bed. He waited for her to fall asleep, then he walked upstairs and shot her. Then he went outside to cut the power and passed off the murder weapon to Francesca, who was probably waiting nearby. Then he went back inside, flipped himself over in the wheelchair, and pressed the paramedic alarm.”

Gertie shook her head. “You’re right. When you remove the disability and assume that nothing Nolan said was true, what actually happened is simple to deduce. So Beulah’s police report forced him to act sooner than he’d planned. I wonder what the original plan was?”

“I don’t think they intended for Gail to die in Sinful,” I said. “It was riskier, and because they had to move up the timeline using the catfish as the scapegoat, Nolan knew he had to get away before Carter started taking a hard look at everyone in town. My guess is they intended for it to happen in New Orleans—maybe a robbery or carjacking.”

“Something that wouldn’t draw any attention to Nolan.” Ida Belle blew out a breath. “It’s ingenious.”

“It’s evil,” Gertie said.

“Oh, no doubt,” Ida Belle said. “But all the trouble they went to…I guess I’ll never understand why people don’t just get a job.”

“Sociopaths aren’t burdened with a conscience,” I said. “And most jobs don’t pay a half mil a year. Two years with Gail and a million-dollar payout, plus what he made catfishing the locals.”

Gertie sighed. “I understand it in theory, but I’ll never be able to grasp it emotionally. So much pain inflicted and without a care for anyone who was hurt in the process.”

“None of us can ever understand it,” Ida Belle said. “We’re simply not made that way.”

“I just wish there was some way we could have saved her,” I said.

“Me too,” Gertie said, “but at least there won’t be a next victim.”

“The other good news,” Ida Belle said, “is that Brandon isn’t the killer. I guess it wasn’t his flashlight we saw in the bedroom.”

“No,” I agreed. “It had to have been Nolan. Remember, when he answered the door he was out of breath. He said he’d been in the bathroom, but I bet it was from running downstairs to get into the chair and answer the door.”

“I wonder what he was doing in there,” Gertie said.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe retrieving something he thought would incriminate him or something he had stored in there that he forgot to take beforehand. He told me he had cameras in the house. Maybe he was checking the footage to see what the cops did when they worked the room. We may never know.”

Ida Belle frowned. “So why
was
Brandon walking around his house with a flashlight?”

“Poor Brandon,” Gertie said. “We practically accused him of murder.”

“Well, he still has to answer for something,” I said. “Maybe once this settles down we can figure out what.”

“No leaving us behind this time,” Ida Belle said.

I looked down at the floor, then back at the two of them. “The truth is, I think I needed to do something on my own. In the past, I’ve always had a partner or a team to support me. I think I wanted to see if I could go it alone. You know, just in case I have to.”

Gertie smiled. “You’ll never be alone, Fortune. Not as long as we’re alive.”

Ida Belle shook her head. “Way to scare the girl.”

* * *

T
he next day
, Sinful was buzzing with the news, and a second wave of shock passed over the town as they reveled in Carter’s exposure and takedown of the most diabolical criminal Sinful had ever seen. Francine’s Café had people waiting outside on the sidewalk and residents were packed shoulder to shoulder in the General Store. Main Street was so crowded with people trying to get the news that Carter finally closed the street down to through traffic.

I chose to remain out of the fray. It wasn’t a difficult decision. Crowds of people weren’t the kind of frays that I took interest in. Gertie and Ida Belle, on the other hand, were down in the thick of it along with Marie, everyone exclaiming over how lucky they were that Nolan hadn’t killed them as well. Clearly, the general population didn’t understand the mechanics of the professional criminal.

I spent my morning updating a disbelieving Harrison on my latest brush with death and figuring out how to work the gas grill, in case I decided to splurge and cook a burger. I was just about to grab a book and climb into my hammock when my phone sent me a signal that the GPS tracker on Brandon’s truck had activated. I picked up my phone and checked. Sure enough, the dot was moving on the screen. I had no idea what had caused the tracker to fail the day before, but it appeared to be working fine now.

I grabbed my keys and dashed out to my Jeep. Brandon was our only unresolved item, and I really felt like starting tomorrow with a clean slate. I dialed Ida Belle’s number as I drove.