miss fortune mystery (ff) - sinfully delicious

• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• About the Author
  
• Sneak Peek
  

Text copyright ©2014 by the Author.

This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Jana DeLeon. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements of The Miss Fortune Series remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Jana DeLeon, or their affiliates or licensors.

For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

Town café owner Francine’s prize winning secret banana pudding recipe has gone missing the week before the town festival. Now, Gertie, Ida Bell, CIA Assassin in hiding Fortune Redding, and hunky Sheriff Carter LeBlanc know they had better solve the mystery of the missing pudding fast, because if they’ve learned anything since Fortune came to town, it was that the simplest of mysteries could end in murder… especially where Francine’s pudding was concerned.

                        
Sinfully Delicious

                       By

                Anna Snow

               Chapter One

Ida Bell pressed the sunflower decorated hand towel against Fortune’s nose while I tried my darndest to ignore the spew of obscenities spilling out of Ida Bell’s mouth.

Now, she’s not normally one to curse, but I have to admit, I kind of pushed her to her limits this time.

“Tell me again how this happened, Gertie.” She demanded as she pulled the towel away from Fortune’s nose to reassess the damage.

There was still plenty of blood flowing from her usually perfectly shaped smeller.

“We were watching a Chuck Norris movie and eating some of the cookies that Ally brought over when Fortune said the nunchucks were a weapon she didn’t have much experience with. I was surprised because you know, Fortune has experience with almost every weapon known to man. So, I grabbed mine out of the kitchen drawer to show her my skills.”

“What skills? Are you Jackie Chan now?” Ida Bell demanded, then slapped the towel back on Fortune’s face with a
thunk
. Fortune hissed in a breath.

“Sorry,” Ida Bell muttered.

“I have skills.”

They both rolled their eyes. This was a common occurrence. Nearly everyone in Sinful thought I was some kind of dolt. The truth was quite the opposite, but they didn’t need to know that. The goofy old lady act allowed me to gather more information than anyone realized. So what if I was a little accident prone, that wasn’t my fault and it had helped us out more in the past than it had hurt us. At least that’s what I thought.

“Anyway,” I continued, “I whipped them around my back but lost my grip and bam! They flew out of my hand and smacked poor Fortune in the face.”

“Where on Earth did you get your old-as-the-ark hands on nunchucks anyways?”

“Walter’s yard sale last weekend.”

Ida Bell’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head. “
Walter?
You mean to tell me that Walter sold them to you? He knows that you’re half blind and the odds of you killing someone or yourself are sky high. What was that old goat thinking? What were you thinking?”

“I’m not blind and I needed a silent weapon to defend myself ever since Carter took my throwing stars and mace away from me. This town’s been crazy since Fortune arrived.”

“Enough,” Fortune growled as she removed the towel, folded it, then replaced it on back her nose. “You can yell at Gertie later. My nose is broken and it needs to be set.”

“Can you go to the hospital? Considering you’re still hiding and all?”

She glared at me again. “Yeah, but I’d rather not so soon after my last visit.”

“Why don’t you just have Gertie smack you in the nose again? Maybe it’ll snap back into place.”

Fortune shook her head and this time I rolled my eyes.

I felt terrible for having hurt the woman who’d become like a daughter to me, but what was done was done and there was no changing it now.

I only hoped that Fortune’s nose didn’t heal with a big lump in the center of it. Not only would I never hear the end of it from Ida Bell, but I’d never forgive myself.

“I’ll call the doctor and see if he’ll make a house call.”

“That new Doctor that just moved to town?” Ida Bell called behind me. “He can’t be more than thirty.”

“He’s still a doctor. Unless you want to take a crack at fixing her face? Besides, Carter seems to like him, and if he’s good enough for the sheriff, then he’s good enough for me.”

The mention of Sheriff Carter shut her up.

Finally. Something to close her trap, I thought as I picked up the phone and dialed.

                               
Chapter Two

Thirty minutes later Dr. Miller had set Fortune’s nose and was enjoying a cup of coffee and cookies at my kitchen table. He was a handsome man with blue eyes, blond hair, and a nice smile, but he was nowhere near as handsome as Fortune’s main squeeze Carter.

“We really appreciate you coming to help us out.” Ida Bell said.

“It’s my job.” He shrugged. “But, I have to ask. Does this kind of thing happen often?”

“Only where the three of us are concerned.” Fortune answered.

He laughed, then realized that she was serious and shook his head. “Well, I’m here if you need me. It’s nice to work in a small town. The city was just too much for me. Sinful is more my speed.”

I couldn’t help but think that his speed must be that of a snail because Sinful moved much slower than most places… usually. There had been some flare-ups in crime since Fortune arrived, none of which were her fault. However, things seemed to be slowing down this week.

We all nodded and sipped our coffee.

The doctor stood. “I should be going. I’m still working on getting the new clinic set up and if I’m not there I’m pretty sure nothing will get done.”

“If you hired ol’ Jep and his boys to do the construction, then you’ll end up doing most of the work yourself.” Ida Bell took the words right out of my mouth. “That boy’s been lazier than the day is long ever since the day he fell out of his mama at the Wal-Mart. Hell, I’m surprised he wasn’t too lazy to do that.”

The doc laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. I can show myself out. You ladies have a nice evening and stay out of trouble.”

He had no idea how much he was asking of us.

He gave us all a two fingered salute as he headed toward the door.

“What do you say we all head down to Francine’s and grab an early dinner? My stomach’s growling.”

Fortune frowned at me. Her shiny silver nose brace glinted in the kitchen light, and around both of her eyes were now black and blue.

“Sure. Why the hell not. It’s not like I’m going to be able to keep this hidden from Carter. Half of the town probably already knows.”

“You’re right. Besides, you need to debut your new raccoon look to the town before the Fall Festival.” Ida Bell grinned and made a circular motion with her finger around her eyes.

Fortune glowered.

“I’ll drive.” I said.

“The hell you will. You already caused enough damage today. We can walk. It’s only a couple of blocks, and you could use the exercise. You’re out of shape.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my shape.” I defended myself but Ida Bell was on a roll. The old coot.

“Yeah, if you were a beach ball, you’re shape would be perfectly fine. Now, let’s get down to the café. We also need to check and make sure the booths are set up for tomorrow. Especially the dunk tank.”

The three of us stepped out of the house, off the porch, and headed down the sidewalk toward the center of town.

“Just imagine all of the money we’d raise if we could shove Celia in that thing!”