“My guess is it would still look the same even if he’d never gone to prison.” Ida Belle looked at the house and frowned. “How do you want to do this?”
I stared at the dilapidated structure for a moment, considering our options, which were severely limited by terrain for both approach and escape. We hadn’t driven all this way to turn around and go back to Sinful, but I wasn’t interested in putting any of us in more danger than was necessary.
“Here’s the plan,” I said finally. “I’m going to turn the Jeep around so that it’s ready to roll. I’m going to go up to the house. Ida Belle, I want you to take the driver’s position in case things go south and we need to make a getaway.”
“What about me?” Gertie asked.
I pulled my backup pistol from my ankle strap. “As much as it pains me to do this, if I have to make a run for it, I need you to cover me.”
Gertie took the pistol with a little more glee than I found comfortable.
“Remember,” I said. “No shooting unless someone is shooting at us.”
Ida Belle nodded. “And for God’s sake, don’t shoot Fortune.”
Gertie gave us a dirty look. “Just take care of your end of things and I’ll take care of mine. He’s probably not in there anyway given that the raccoon was in residence.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Really? Says the woman who let an alligator live in her house?”
I backed the Jeep up and got it turned around and ready to roll, then hopped out and let Ida Belle take over the driver’s seat. “Keep it running,” I said. “If everything’s clear, I’ll call you in.”
Ida Belle nodded and I pulled my nine-millimeter out of my waistband and headed for the house, scouting every inch of the surrounding forest as I went and checking the one window that wasn’t boarded up for any sign of shadow movement inside. The regular sounds of birds chirping and wind blowing through the trees were the only things I could pick out, but that didn’t mean Willie wasn’t inside. He could just be sitting there waiting to see what we were doing. That’s what I would do if I were him.
I crept onto the porch, trying to pick my way around the worst of the rotted spots. The boards creaked with every step, and I winced and moved as quickly as possible for the door. I lifted my left hand and knocked, my back against the wall to the side of the door. If Willie was inside and decided I was the enemy, he’d likely open fire through the front door. Standing to the side gave me an opportunity to avoid being shot and get the heck out of there.
If he opened the door and didn’t appear as if he was going to shoot me, I’d hide the nine and launch into our car repair story. It wouldn’t get us what we came for, but it would probably get us out of there without incident. I didn’t hear anything inside, so I knocked again, but the house was silent. I decided to change tactics.
“Mr. LeDoux. My name is Sandy. I got your address from the lady at the convenience store. She said you did repair on old automobiles.”
I waited a bit, but nothing stirred inside. I inched toward the doorframe and slipped my elbow around the edge, then pressed it against the door. The door creaked open a bit and I frowned. Granted, you couldn’t exactly sneak up on the place with a vehicle, but someone could easily hike through the woods and come up on the cabin without Willie knowing. Leaving the front door unlocked was an odd thing for a con to do, especially if he was back in his old line of work.
I moved over and pressed my elbow harder against the door and opened it enough to see inside. The front room was kitchen and living room. It looked more abandoned than occupied, but a stack of beer cans and a new pack of smokes on the end table indicated that Willie had been around at some point, raccoon or no. There was an opening on the back wall of the living room that I assumed led to the bedrooms.
I slipped across the living room, thankful for the hideous worn rug that masked the worst of my passage, and peered into the opening that led to a hallway that ran the width of the cabin. I counted three doors and decided it was probably two bedrooms and a bathroom. I crept down the hallway and poked my head into the first bedroom. It was tiny and had probably been Willie’s when he was a child. It had since been turned into a sewing room. The only furniture was a sewing desk along the back wall and a table along the front wall, piled high with old fabric.
The next room was the bathroom, with crumbling tile and rusted fixtures. I lifted my pistol into ready position as I inched toward the last door. When I reached the doorway, I paused and listened, but the only thing I heard was the steady buzz of insects. I had a good idea what I was about to discover, but I went through the motions anyway. I whirled around the opening, gun leveled, and cursed when I got a good look at the inside of the room. The smell had been a dead giveaway, so to speak.
Chapter Thirteen
Willie LeDoux, or at least I assumed it was him, wasn’t going to threaten anybody. A single bullet hole through the center of his forehead had cemented that fact. He was sitting partially upright in the bed, leaned back against the headboard and slumped to the side. His eyes were wide open, and I figured he knew the bullet was coming before it was fired. I turned around and headed back outside to the Jeep.
“It’s clear,” I said, and motioned to Gertie. “Give me the pistol.”
She grumbled a bit but passed the weapon back to me and I secured it on my ankle. I opened the glove compartment and grabbed latex gloves.
“Put these on. We can’t afford to leave fingerprints.”
Ida Belle and Gertie climbed out of the Jeep and pulled on the gloves as we walked.
“You think Willie is going to lift fingerprints and come after us?” Gertie joked.
“Willie’s not going after anyone,” I said. “He’s dead.”
“What?”
“No!”
They both spoke at once.
“Single bullet through the forehead,” I said. “In bed. He was probably asleep when the shooter sneaked up on him. Looks like he woke up in time to die.”
“We should do something,” Gertie said.
“Like what?” I asked. “It’s a little too late for CPR and since Willie can’t talk, we need to go through his stuff and see if we can figure out what that key unlocks. He’s not going to get any deader. An anonymous phone call to the police once we’re long gone from here is the best idea. It’s bad enough that we were at the convenience store asking for directions to his house.”
“She’s right,” Ida Belle said. “Once the police know, it won’t take a minute for the news to sweep through the entire town. The woman at the convenience store will tell them about us and they’ll be knocking on your door in Sinful.”
Gertie’s eyes widened. “They’ll think I killed him. Oh my God! I can’t go to prison. They won’t even allow me knitting needles.”