The Miss Fortune Series: Overdue (Kindle Worlds Novella) (10 page)

But she didn’t. She calmly unzipped the fanny pack she wore around her waist. The pack Ida Belle had said not to let her open.

“No, Lila Rose, look at me.”

She dropped the gun inside the pack and smiled as she pulled out the syringe that was meant for her dog to calm him down. “I came prepared. You won’t be forced to linger on life support, luv. Nurse Vickie won’t let you suffer. Don’t worry, your trip to the afterlife will be painless, I can assure you.”

Nurse Vickie
? Then it struck me. The story Gertie had told me. In the
PB&J Murders
, Nurse Vickie was a crazy nurse who considered herself the angel of mercy. She was the character who killed Jelly in Lila Rose’s last book.

“I’m not dying,” I said to her. “See, I’ll just get up.” Before standing I turned away from her to reach for the phone I had dropped.

“Pleasant dreams, Jelly.”

I felt a jab in my shoulder. Felt the sensation of something being injected in me.

“Damn!” I reached behind and grabbed the syringe with one hand, pushing her away with another. “You are one bat-shit crazy lady!” I yelled as I yanked the needle out of my shoulder and threw the syringe under a table. “What was in that?”

“A tranquilizer. You should feel the effects soon.”

“Why? Why did you do that?” I wasn’t sure if it was the power of suggestion or if the tranquilizer was starting to work, but I felt a little woozy.

“I had to,” she answered calmly. “So you’ll be asleep when I inject you with the heart-stopping drug. So you won’t feel any fear.” She looked inside her fanny pack. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, where is the other syringe?”

She looked back at me. “You just relax and go to sleep now, luv. I’ll have to go to the nurse’s station for the other syringe. But, don’t worry, I’ll be back shortly and soon this will all be behind you.”

She turned and walked back to the break room. I tried to lunge for her, but stumbled. I could already feel my muscles succumbing to the effects of the drug.

No gun. And half a syringe of tranquilizer in me. Not a great position to be in. I looked around for my phone.

“Well, will you look at that?”

I stopped. Mayliss Darby peeked over the circulation desk and stared down at me. It was then I realized how much she looked like Francine. Seconds later, CJ Banks appeared.

“Waddell was right,” CJ said. “Lila Rose is insane.”

I struggled to pull myself up, working against the strength-draining effects of the drug. “Call the hospital.”

“And ruin a golden opportunity to kill you and frame Lila Rose for two murders?” Mayliss said. “I’m afraid we can’t do that… Luv.” She laughed.

CJ nodded in agreement. “You stuck your nose where it didn’t belong and now you’re going to have to pay for it.”

“I knew we were going to have trouble with you when I saw you at Lila Rose’s house yesterday. You spoke with her and she told you the same things she told me, didn’t she?”

“You said you didn’t talk to her.” I grinned. I couldn’t help it. I felt as if I had just downed an entire bottle of SLS cough syrup.

“I lied. Sue me. I knew it wouldn’t be long before you pieced it all together and called your friend, the deputy.”

I pointed my finger at them. “You killed Waddell.”

CJ sneered. “He threatened to tell the world about our little arrangement if I didn’t start paying him more for Lila Rose’s pages. It was self-defense.”

Mayliss smiled. “Luckily I stumbled upon Lila Rose’s file drawer filled with her treasures while redoing her office. I read some of the pages and instantly recognized them as CJ’s
Pancake Junction
. Never one to let an opportunity slip by, I approached CJ with my findings and offered a better service.”

“They’re not your books,” I said to CJ, finally pulling myself into a standing position. I felt dizzy. Wobbly. But oh-so-relaxed. “You’re a two-bit hack. A thief. And a murderer.” I laughed as I wiggled my finger at him.

“And soon, you’re going to be a dead Yankee,” he said.

Mayliss opened her purse and pulled out a syringe and held it up. “I’ve already planted the syringe that killed Waddell in Lila Rose’s house,” Mayliss said. “My original plan was to ‘discover’ it tomorrow while painting her walls and call the police. But after seeing you at her house, I realized you had to be put down as well. Lucky for us Lila Rose is crazier than anyone imagined, another fact I stumbled upon, having overheard her daughter talking to Lila Rose’s doctor on the phone.”

“You’re the one who called Lila Rose tonight,” I said. “You pretended to be Jelly.”

Mayliss nodded. “I needed her here so she could kill you.” She laughed. “We’ll tell the police Lila Rose turned into that crazy nurse from one of her books and we tried to save you by calling the paramedics.”

“Unfortunately for you,” CJ said, “you’ll be dead by the time they get here. Poor thing.”

Though all I wanted to do was drop to the ground and sleep, I put up my hands to fight. What more could I do? “Lady, there’s no way you’re going to get that needle in me.”

She smiled. “You’re a little unsteady on your feet. Give it ten more minutes and the doggie tranquilizer will have you where I want you. You won’t really have a choice. Waddell didn’t have a choice either because of the sedative that CJ slipped in his coffee. He didn’t put up much of a fight when I came to polish him off.”

CJ pulled out a small pistol from his pocket. “If you decide to put up a fight, my little friend here will put an end to that.”

But Lila Rose had other plans.

“Your ‘little friend’ might want to say ‘hello’ to my big friend,” she said as she sauntered out of the break room, holding my nine. Pointed directly at CJ.

CJ stared at the gun Lila Rose clutched, the color draining from his face.

“Poppy Boone, PI,” she said. “In case you’re wondering, I haven’t had my quota of shooting bad guys for this little story we find ourselves in today.”

“No no, you’re Nurse Vickie,” he said, obviously hoping he could get her to change from the Poppy character to the crazy nurse. “We’re your assistants, don’t you remember? From the hospital.”

I commanded my over-relaxed self to muster up the energy to save my life. “You’re not a nurse,” I said, looking her in the eye. “You’re badass PI, Poppy Boone. And they’re bad people.”

Mayliss held out the syringe. “Don’t you remember? You went to look for your other syringe. I have it right here. You need to help poor Jelly to the other side.”

Lila Rose’s face was a mixture of confusion.

“Poppy,” I croaked. “They stole Lila Rose’s books. They killed Waddell. They’re trying to frame you.”

I began to sway.

“Look, Nurse Vickie,” Mayliss said, again offering up the syringe. “She’s in bad shape. End her suffering. Now.”

From the changing expression on Lila Rose’s face, their appeal to one of Lila Rose’s internal characters seemed to be working. I grabbed onto a desk for support as my rubbery legs began to give way. It felt as if my body were melting. My mind as well. If I couldn’t bring back the Poppy character quickly, I was going to share the fate of Jelly.

Lila Rose took a step toward Mayliss. Then another. One hand held my gun. The other was reaching out toward the syringe that Mayliss let dangle from her fingers. Her eyes remained on me the whole time. “Your suffering will be over soon,” Lila Rose said with Nurse Vickie’s Irish brogue.

Pushing through my haze, I looked into her eyes. “Poppy, it’s me, Jelly. You remember me, don’t you? You took me in when I was three. Raised me like your own… your own daughter. Don’t let them kill me, Poppy. Don’t let me die again.”

Lila Rose stopped. Blinked several times and then lowered the hand that had been reaching for the syringe. The Irish brogue disappeared. Her voice deepened. “I’m not going to let you down this time, Jelly.” She pointed my weapon at CJ and Mayliss and shot. And missed. But it sent them scrambling for cover. CJ fired at us from behind a shelving cart. Luckily he was just as bad a shot as Lila Rose.

“We have to get out of here,” I said to Lila Rose as she started to pull me up.

“Can you walk?” she asked.

“Barely. My legs are like rubber. That was strong stuff you put in me.”

“Then sit on the chair. I’ll push you.”

She pulled me up and dropped me in one of the chairs on wheels.

“Time to blow this taco stand, Jelly,” she said as she began pushing my chair around the circulation desk.

I spotted my phone on the floor. “My phone. Need my phone.” I dropped my hand to the floor and scooped it up. “Keep firing to cover us,” I said, fumbling with the phone, hoping I had just dialed Ida Belle.

Lila Rose fired several shots back at CJ as she pulled me toward the entrance doors.

“What the hell?” Lila Rose said. A small bike lock had been secured around the door handles. Mayliss must have attached it when she entered the library.

“They locked the doors,” Lila Rose said, pulling frantically on the lock.

CJ fired again. This time the bullet whizzed inches past us and into the wall. Lila Rose shot back and then yanked me toward the children’s section, several yards from the library entrance. “There’s more cover in there.”

She pulled my chair under the archway to the children’s library. Curious George, Winnie the Pooh, the Grinch, and characters I didn’t recognize, all smiled down at me from the archway. And I bet any one of those papier–mâché characters could have shot better than Lila Rose. As soon as we passed through the archway, one of the bullets she shot to provide us cover struck Curious George, slicing him in half. He was curious no more.

“Bye-bye, monkey,” I said, waving. By now the tranquilizer had me feeling pretty good. I had to fight the feeling, telling myself to buck up or die.

I heard Ida Belle’s voice on my phone as I held it to my ear. “Fortune. We just pulled up in front.”

“Doors locked,” I said, hoping my words weren’t too slurred for her to understand. “Come to window of children’s section.”

“Are you okay?”

“CJ has gun. Nurse Vickie shot me with tranq…” I took a breath, “…uilizer.”

“Nurse Vickie? From Lila Rose’s book?”

Lila Rose wheeled me behind the papier–mâché Harry Potter, since repaired by Lucy, and released my arm.

“Who are you talking to, Jelly?” she asked.

“Reinforcements,” I said, feeling the goofiest, tranquil grin forming on my face.

“Nurse Vickie,” CJ’s voice called from outside the children’s section. “Can you hear me?”

Lila Rose lifted her head, listening.

“Don’t listen to him, Poppy,” I said. “Give me the gun so I can defend us.”

“You’re in no position to hold a gun, Jelly. You can’t even stand.”

“Nurse Vickie,” Mayliss said cheerfully, “I have the syringe you’re looking for.”

“And I have a bullet with your name on it,” Lila Rose said, firing toward the archway. Pieces of Winnie the Pooh rained down on the floor. Lila Rose ran to the archway and took cover behind one of the pillars, sticking her arm out and firing blindly.

Tapping on the window caught my attention. While Lila Rose was preoccupied with guarding the archway to the children’s library, I rolled my chair over to the window and pulled myself up to the ledge that sat several feet up from the floor. Though everything appeared to swim in my vision, I managed to unlock the window before falling back in the chair. Ida Belle was the first one through, followed by Gertie.

“Oh my God,” Ida Belle said, her face blanching. “You look like crap.”

I slumped in the chair. The Calvary had arrived. I could relax.

“Stay awake, Fortune.” Gertie rushed over and knelt next to me, lifting me up and placing my head on her shoulder.

“Take your hands off her,” Lila Rose said, pointing the weapon at Gertie.

“Shhhh,” Ida Belle whispered. “They don’t know we’re here. We’d like to keep it that way.”

I looked up at Poppy. “It’s okay. They’re friends.”

“Like hell they are. They’re the old witches. The leaders of the coven.”

Gertie looked up at Lila Rose. “We converted, Poppy. We’re Baptists now.”

“Baptists? Do you trust them, Jelly?” Lila Rose asked.

I nodded. “They’re our friends, Poppy.”

“I called Janice,” Ida Belle whispered to me. “She said the dog’s syringe was a mild tranquilizer and not a sedative, so it won’t put you out.”

“Nurse Vickie,” CJ called out. “It’s time to put an end to this. Time to put Jelly out of her misery. You can do this.”

Gertie looked at me, puzzled. I explained how CJ and Mayliss were trying to get Lila Rose to inject me with a lethal solution, the same solution that killed Waddell.

CJ fired into the children’s section, striking the ceiling, knocking chunks of acoustical tiles onto the floor.

“How many weapons do they have out there?” Gertie asked.

“Just one,” I said. “CJ has it. And he’s a bad shot.”

Gertie opened her purse and retrieved her handgun. Ida Belle pulled hers from her waistband.

Lila Rose eyed the weapons. “I didn’t know Baptists carried so much firepower.”

“We’re not your average Baptists,” Gertie said.

“We need you to surrender to them,” Ida Belle told Lila Rose.

“What?” She shot a look at me. “I thought they were our friends.” She shook her head at Ida Belle. “I will not. Poppy Boone and Jelly never surrender.”

“It’s a ruse,” Ida Belle said. “They don’t know we’re in here with you. We’ll jump them as soon as they come in.”

I laughed. Who knew why. I just found it funny.

“You did it in book seven,” Gertie said. “Remember? You and Jelly were in that bank that was being robbed, and you let the bank robbers think you were two scared women. Then, BAM, you turned the tables. Saved the day.”

Lila Rose smiled, nodded. “Yeah. We did, didn’t we?”

“Okay, ladies, we’re going to give you one last chance,” Mayliss called out. “We need for Nurse Vickie to give Jelly her shot. If you don’t give up, CJ will have to shoot his way in. You don’t want that.”

Lila Rose sneered, winked at me, and puffed out her chest like the middle-aged badass PI she thought she was. “Looks like someone’s overdue for an ass-whoopin’.” She nodded to me. “Jelly, your line.”

“Huh?”

“Time for this Jelly to roll,” Gertie said, clapping. “I love that line.”

Ida Belle rushed to one side of the archway, Gertie the other. Ida Belle nodded to Lila Rose.

“Okay, I surrender,” she called out. “Time for Jelly to be put out of her misery.”

Moments later CJ and Mayliss stepped through the archway. Mayliss held out the syringe.

“You won’t regret this,” CJ said.

“You’re right about that.” Ida Belle stepped up behind him and placed her gun against his skull. “I’m not regretting this at all.”

“Damn straight,” Gertie said as she jammed her pistol into the back of Mayliss’ head. “Drop the syringe.”

Mayliss did.

Lila Rose sauntered up to Mayliss. “Justice is served.” She then slapped Mayliss hard across the face. “Medium well, with a dollop of whoop-ass. Just the way I like it.”

Gertie looked at Ida Belle. “I really need to come up with some stock lines for us.”

Ida Belle rolled her eyes. “Do and I’ll have to shoot you.”