“And obviously River loves the work,” I said.
“She’s always preferred horses to people,” Gertie said.
“Well, this visit didn’t tell us much,” I said. “The butcher shop is closed today, right?”
They both nodded.
“Maybe we could keep an eye on Tiffany’s house,” Gertie said.
“I don’t think that would do any good,” I said. “Unless we were planning on following her if she left. If Tiffany and Liam have anything going on, they’re not going to meet at her house, especially now that all of Sinful is focused on her.”
“You think they’d meet at Liam’s place instead?” Gertie asked.
I shook my head. “That seems risky as well. What if Carter has more questions and shows up or even worse, has a search warrant? Unless Liam lives in a busy apartment where Tiffany could hide her car and exit out a back window, it would be a big risk.”
“What about your microphone thingy?” Gertie asked. “We could listen in and see if she calls him.”
“Phone calls and email would be the kind of thing an amateur would do,” Ida Belle said. “Especially now that Carter is sniffing around. My guess is that’s why Tiffany showed up at the butcher shop. Either she knew better than to call or Liam was refusing her calls.”
Gertie threw her hands in the hand. “So what now?”
“Oh, to heck with it,” I said. “I’m not interested in going back home, especially with Merlin there plotting ten ways to kill me. Let’s find out where Liam lives and see if we can listen in on him watching television or whatever else he’s doing on his day off.”
I pulled out my phone and did a quick search. Sometimes you didn’t get a good hit but this time, we lucked out. At least, there was a physical address. Assuming Liam still lived there, then we were in business. I pulled up the address on maps and passed the phone to Ida Belle.
“It’s near the butcher shop,” she said. “Looks like a small neighborhood of houses—maybe twenty or so, and his is on the outside perimeter.”
“That’s good,” I said. It would be a lot harder to watch the house if we had to park in the middle of a neighborhood. People in small towns were very aware of what was going on down their street. A strange vehicle just sitting would attract attention. And since Liam had seen Ida Belle’s vehicle, we couldn’t afford to jaunt around in full view of his entire neighborhood.
“Maybe we should switch cars,” Gertie said. “I’ve had my Cadillac forever so Liam might recognize it, but he wouldn’t know Fortune’s Jeep. Or wouldn’t know it belonged to Fortune anyway, even if he remembered Marge had one.”
“What’s across the road from his house?” I asked.
“Woods,” Ida Belle said. “There’s a Laundromat a little farther down but it wouldn’t have a clear view of his house.”
“But we could park there and hike it,” I said.
“You think the microphone will reach across the road?” Ida Belle asked.
“We won’t know until we try,” I said.
“I suppose we don’t have anything better to do,” Ida Belle said.
Gertie shook her head. “The two of you are something else. Ida Belle is recently married and Walter closes the store on Sundays. Fortune has a hot boyfriend and he’s got the day off. And yet the two of you claim you have nothing better to do than stalk around among the red bugs and mosquitoes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be out stalking, but I don’t have a man waiting for me since Jeb’s got his hip thing going again.”
“If I go home, Walter will want to talk about replacing the kitchen floor,” Ida Belle said.
“That floor is as old as you are,” Gertie said. “Why not do it?”
“Because it’s working just fine, that’s why,” Ida Belle said. “I can’t see wasting money on something that isn’t necessary.”
“Didn’t you just pay several thousand dollars for hop-ups on that motorcycle I gave you?” Gertie asked.
“Exactly my point,” Ida Belle said. “Necessary.”
“You’re going to fall right through that floor one day,” Gertie said, then looked over at me.
“Don’t drag me into this,” I said. “I’m still trying to avoid the third degree on the alien-moped thing. Trust me, I only got off last night because he was soaking wet and tired. Besides, we need you to stay far away from Carter until midnight at least since it’s Sunday, so better that we stick around and buffer just in case we cross paths.”
Gertie sighed. “Mosquitoes it is.”
Chapter Nine
We collected the equipment, then headed back out. Since we were planning to park at the Laundromat, we stuck with Ida Belle’s SUV. It had more room for the equipment and unless Liam didn’t have a washer and dryer in his house and decided he needed clean clothes, we were probably okay. We’d just park as far off to the side as possible, and next to a large truck. The beautiful thing about Louisiana is that there is always a large truck.
We were halfway to Liam’s house when my cell phone rang. Carter. Crap! I tried to come up with a good cover but Sundays in the South limited things somewhat.
“Hello,” I finally answered, still searching my mind for a reason to not be home.
“Hey,” Carter said. “I came by earlier to drop off that food but you weren’t home. I let myself in and left it in the kitchen.”
“That’s great! Thanks.”
“So what are you up to today?”
“On my way to New Orleans with Ida Belle and Gertie,” I said. “Gertie has a date coming up with Jeb and had a wardrobe emergency.”
“And she thought you and Ida Belle were the best people to help?” he asked.
“No, probably Ronald is, but she can only handle him in small doses,” I said.
“Uh-huh. Walter said Ida Belle tried to pass off that story too. But when he pressed for details, she wouldn’t give them.”
I glanced over at Ida Belle, who put her hands up. Great minds, but this time it wasn’t flying.
“Fine,” I said. “You want details—we’re shopping for bras and undies. Sexy stuff. But when you get old, things start to droop so you need a lot of support. And without trying things on, you don’t know if that support is going to return you to 1980 or 1940. We’re looking for 1940, even if it has steel braces to go along with the lace.”
There was complete silence on the other end, then he cleared his throat.
“Then I’ll talk to you later,” he managed, then disconnected.
“That was a thing of beauty,” Ida Belle said.
“I wasn’t even wearing a bra in 1940,” Gertie protested.
“You’re not wearing a bra now,” Ida Belle said.
“I have this heat rash—”
“No one wants to hear about your heat rash,” Ida Belle interrupted. “The point is, Fortune is a genius. Carter and Walter won’t dare ask about your underwear, so we won’t be asked to prove anything.”
Ida Belle exited for Liam’s neighborhood and pulled into the Laundromat parking lot. As predicted, an enormous pickup truck with tires the height of Gertie was parked close to the end. There was a shrub on the other side, so the only thing visible would be the back end of the SUV. Perfect.