“You’re kidding me!”
“Well, why didn’t you say so!”
They both spoke at once.
“Of course we’ll help,” Jeb said. “Do we need weapons? Camouflage? I still have my sniper rifle.”
“I don’t have one of those,” Wyatt said. “I flew copters.”
Gertie smiled. “’Nam?”
“Any man our ages worth his salt did his duty,” Jeb said.
“Ida Belle and Gertie did their duty as well,” I said.
They both stared.
“Really?” Jeb asked. “Isn’t that something. I knew there were ladies overseas but I didn’t see any.”
Wyatt nodded. “Now we know why we liked you guys straight off. What about you?” He looked at me.
“Former spook,” I said.
They both stared for a couple seconds, then laughed.
“CIA? Good Lord Almighty, Silas doesn’t stand a chance,” Wyatt said. “Let me go put on my boots and hook up the boat.”
“I’ll get my rifle,” Jeb said. “This might be the most exciting thing that’s happened since that buffalo fragging of 1964.”
“When all this is over, you might have to tell me about that over a beer and one of those hot dogs,” Gertie said as she followed him to the door.
He gave her a shy smile. “I’d love to.”
“Lord help us all,” Ida Belle said.
Wyatt shook his head as Jeb walked off. “He always gets the women with that sniper rifle thing. Nobody cares about helicopters.”
“It’s not the rifle,” Ida Belle said. “It’s the fragging. Gertie has a thing for explosives.”
“Really? She looks so sweet,” Wyatt said.
“Don’t look in her purse,” I said.
Wyatt looked a bit confused but nodded and headed for the store. “I don’t have a sniper rifle but I’ve got a good shotgun.”
“Load ’em up then,” I said.
“They’re not going to need weapons,” Ida Belle said.
“I know, but they’re too excited for me to say no.”
Ida Belle grinned. “Maybe you should work in senior services instead of this PI thing.”
“I’d have everyone in jail inside of a week.”
“Bet they’d all be happy about it.”
I watched as Jeb and Wyatt came back, both of them stepping lively and grinning as though they’d just won the lottery. There was something to be said for not growing old gracefully.
“How well do cell phones work on the bayou?” I asked.
“Usually pretty good,” Jeb said. “But sometimes it can get sketchy.”
“I have a CB in my SUV,” Ida Belle said.
Wyatt perked up. “We have one in the boat.”
“Put it on 1-9,” Ida Belle said.
Jeb grinned. “I’ve always wanted to say ‘Breaker 1-9.’ My call name’s Bullseye.”
“Mine’s Annie Oakley,” Ida Belle said.
“I’m Vapor,” Wyatt said.
“Vapor?” Ida Belle asked.
“What he was usually running on before landing,” Jeb explained.
“I’m Hurricane,” Gertie said.
I laughed. “That’s appropriate.”
They all looked at me.
“What?” I asked. “My real name’s not Fortune. I got that in the CIA—soldiers of fortune…”
“You said that was your nickname and you made it legal,” Ida Belle said. “But that doesn’t mean it was your call name.”
“Out with it,” Gertie said.
“Keyser Söze,” I said.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
“Don’t suppose you need that rifle after all,” Wyatt said to Jeb. “Looks like we got a younger pro on the job.”
“Just when I thought you couldn’t get cooler,” Gertie said.
Ida Belle grinned. “I like it.”
“Then let’s get this show on the road,” I said. “Ida Belle, you and Gertie head for Silas’s place in the SUV but don’t get close enough for visual. You’ll have to stop and hike it for a bit to get line of sight for his place. Just try to position the SUV for a quick getaway if you need it.”
“Silas isn’t going anywhere quickly with his back and knees,” Gertie said.
“He doesn’t have to when he’s pointing a gun at you,” I reminded her. “Just shooting randomly into the brush he could get lucky. If you use the bottle rockets, position them somewhere, then light and leave the area as fast as possible. Same for the dynamite. I’ll signal when I’m in position and wait for the discharge before I move in.”
“Then what?” Gertie asked. “We can’t just leave you there.”
“I’m hoping a large enough explosion will send him into the woods to investigate,” I said. “I don’t need much time—only a couple minutes.”
“I don’t suppose anyone figured on just calling the police?” Wyatt asked.
“And tell them what?” I asked. “They can’t get a search warrant on speculation and if they ask questions, Silas will get rid of the evidence.”
“To hell with that,” Jeb said. “Let’s do this.”
“Don’t worry,” Gertie said. “We’ve done this sort of thing lots of times. I’m practically an expert with explosives.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jeb and Wyatt didn’t look convinced of Gertie’s claim to expert explosives knowledge and Ida Belle knew better, but no one was willing to let Silas out of their grasp now that I might have a fix on him. Heck, Jeb and Wyatt didn’t even know what I knew but were still willing to stick their necks out, which just proved the point of how much people hated the man.
I climbed into an old Ford with Jeb and Wyatt and we headed for the marina. Ida Belle and Gertie took off for the road to Silas’s house, figuring traipsing through the woods to find the perfect spot for the diversion might take a bit of time. Wyatt and Jeb were quiet as we drove, passing looks to each other that were both hopeful and fearful at the same time.
“You really think you can pin Johnny’s death on Silas?” Wyatt finally asked.
“I hope so,” I said. “That’s what all this risk is about.”
“What made you go on this search?” Jeb asked. “I thought you were checking into Molly’s disappearance.”
“I was,” I said. “But I kept hearing the same things over and over again from people who knew Johnny well and I couldn’t stand the inconsistencies. I never even knew the man but I have a hard time believing he had an accident.”
“Me and Jeb always said as much,” Wyatt said. “But we couldn’t figure out how it could have been any other way. Did you figure out anything on Molly?”
“Oh yeah,” I said. “Her boyfriend and his side piece were arrested for her murder Thursday.”
They both hooted at once and then sobered. I understood exactly how they felt. Happy that someone was going to pay and yet somehow guilty for celebrating when a good person was gone.