The Miss Fortune Series: Nearly Departed (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Shari Hearn Page B

Gertie said. “I never had anything to do with the rocket
club.”
    “Of course
that was you. You was my science teacher. You was the head of the rocket club.
I could show you the exact page in the yearbook and show you your name as the
science teacher.”
    “I taught
English,” Gertie said, unclasping her purse.
    “English?”
    Gertie
nodded as she stuck her hand inside. “Bertie Hebert taught science. No
relation. I’m Gertie Hebert. I’m the one who said you couldn’t read.”
    Jo-Jo’s
face fell. “Ahh, hell! It’s those damn Bs and Gs again.”
    Gertie
grimaced. I could see her hand fishing around inside her messy purse for her Glock.
“Yeah, you always had a problem with those two. Not to mention your Ms and Ns.
And Os and As.”
    “No wonder
you didn’t look anything like what I remembered. I just thought it was because
you was old. But now I’m startin’ to remember you. You was always the one
harping at me to proofread my work.”
    Ida Belle
scooted a little more to the right. I noticed his eyes following her. “I’d stop
if I was you,” he said to Ida Belle. His eyes shifted to Gertie. “And I would
drop the purse.”
    “I’d like a
breath mint, if you don’t mind,” Gertie said.
    “I do
mind,” he said, pulling his hands out of his pockets, revealing a cell phone in
one hand and a lump of what appeared to be explosive connected to another phone
in his other hand. “Trigger,” he said, holding up his cell phone, “and bomb,”
he said, holding up the explosive. “Drop the purse now. And if anybody moves,
we’re all going to the great beyond together.”

CHAPTER TEN
     
     
    “Why are you doing this?” I asked
Jo-Jo. “She’s not even Bertie.”
    “Yeah, I
know. Pretty stupid of me, huh? All this time I thought it was a ‘G,’ but now I
remember it was a ‘B.’ Stupid, stupid, stupid!” he said shaking his fists.
    “No you’re
not!”
    “You’re a
smart guy!”
    “Spelling
is overrated!”
    We all
talked at once.
    “Quiet!” he
shouted. “So where is this Bertie now? I want you to take me to her. Me and her
has a date with destiny.”
    “Uh…”
Gertie said, looking over at Ida Belle.
    “Yeah…
Bertie… She’s…”
    In all
likelihood Bertie had died and they were too afraid to tell him, not wanting to
set him off.
    “Jo-Jo, why
don’t you put the bomb and phone down and we’ll forget about all this, okay?”
Gertie said gently. “I mean, think about all you have to live for. You have a
great job on a film—”
    “Great job?
I’m a grunt. I work for the explosives technician and all I get to do is fetch
him stuff. And why? Because Miss Bertie held me back, that’s why.” Jo-Jo shook
his head. “Being in that club coulda opened doors for me. Who knows, maybe I
coulda been a scientist. Instead I quit high school to go to work. And now I
can’t even do anything more than be a grunt! And it all started with her. Well,
I’ll show everyone what I’m capable of doing! I blew up a casket, now I’m going
to go blow up old Bertie Hebert. So where is she?”
    Gertie
shrugged. “Um…”
    “She lives
along the bayou,” I said.
    Gertie’s
eyes narrowed while Ida Belle’s brows pulled together. I couldn’t communicate
my reasoning to them, but we needed to stall for time until we could overpower
him. If he knew the real Bertie had already died, he might freak out and blow
us all up.
    “You can
take the boat and go.”
    Ida Belle
mouthed, what?
    “Leave you
here to call the cops? I don’t think so.”
    I exhaled. In
reality I didn’t want him to go off without us, not with him carrying a bomb
all over town. At least if we were all together we could try to overpower him
and take the bomb away. But I wanted him to think I wanted him to leave us.
    “We’re all
going. When we get to her place I’ll let you all go.”
    “Sounds
fair enough,” I said.
    “Any funny
business and we’re all going kaboom.”
    “No funny
business,” I said.
    “And