Hurricane Force (A Miss Fortune Mystery Book 7) by Jana DeLeon Page B

phone on the picnic table, my mind trying to focus on so many things at once. Was Ahmad in New Orleans? Would he show at the Jamison compound? Who was the connection in Sinful? Had we already met?  
    Then a far-fetched thought flashed through my mind. What if Max was Jamison’s man? The money had appeared in Sinful at the same time he had, and someone had killed him and I knew it wasn’t Celia. He had a fake ID and he had to have been doing something for money all this time. Something illegal made a lot of sense and explained why he’d never been located.  
    You’re reaching.
    I blew out a breath. Was I? Sure, it would be convenient if Max were Jamison’s man. No one liked him, he was already dead, and it explained why the money was in Sinful. But it didn’t explain why he’d come back to Sinful to begin with. All these years since he’d disappeared, no one had seen Max in Sinful. Why come back now? It couldn’t be personal. His business with Celia was over long ago, and wasn’t the kind worth revisiting decades later.  
    I had a feeling that if I could figure out the answer to that question, I could bust this mission wide open. I had a name and address for Max. Hopefully, the address wasn’t as fake as the name. That was the first place to start. Just as soon as I could get away from Sinful.
    Feeling better now that I had a course of action, I stepped off the picnic table and startled myself when water came right up to the ankles. I shone my flashlight at my feet and saw the bayou swirling around me. The tide must have started coming in while I was talking to Harrison. Something moved to the right of my feet and I directed my penlight that way, praying it wasn’t an alligator.
    My prayers were answered. It wasn’t an alligator.  
    Unfortunately, it was a snake. A really big snake.
    It must have been looking for a place to land because it darted straight for my legs. I tried to jump back onto the picnic table, but it was too late—the snake wrapped around my ankle and clenched as if it had just secured the last raft on the Titanic .  
    I tried not to panic, but all those stories Gertie had told me about water moccasins jumping into hunters’ hip waders ran through my mind like the credits to a movie. If that snake headed up my yoga pants, Ahmad wouldn’t have to kill me. I’d have a heart attack and die on the spot.  
    I shook my leg a little, but the snake just tightened more.  
    Think.  
    My phone was right where I’d left it on the corner of the picnic table and out of my reach, unless I took a stroll, which didn’t seem like the best option given the circumstances. My pistol was in my sports bra, but I couldn’t shoot it without shooting myself, so that was out.  
    I watched as the water moved up another half inch. The snake shifted.  
    That was it! The snake was trying to get out of the water. If I waded in deeper, he might take off.
    Or crawl up higher.
    Shit.
    There was only one thing left to do. Call for backup.
    I wasn’t sure yelling would work and I didn’t want to take a chance of aggravating the snake, so I did the only smart thing I could do. I shot a round through the bedroom window where Ida Belle was sleeping. I only had a little bit of moonlight to work with, but it was enough to illuminate the outline of the window. I aimed high, and the bullet pierced the glass at one of the top panes. I heard the tinkling of glass and mentally added that to the list of things I had to repair.
    I waited to hear commotion from inside the house, but aside from my heavy breathing, it was like a cone of silence had descended on the backyard. Since Merlin had decided to start prowling the house yowling, I knew Ally had put in earplugs before she went to bed, but I had no idea why the other two hadn’t responded. I was just about to fire again when I heard the back door creak open.
    “Ida Belle?” I half yelled, half cried.
    “Fortune?” Ida Belle’s voice sounded back. “Where are