Perilously Fun Fiction: A Bundle by Pauline Jones (best fiction novels of all time .TXT) 📕

then up again. “Ones, Benny? Are they all ones?”

“All of ‘em, boss. Jane, she never placed this big before. Small bills, small bets, but not this small.” He looked bewildered by his own logic and added, “But not this big, if you know what I mean.”

Dante gave him a quick resigned look, his long fingers playing with the pile. “These good? They aren’t queer?”

“I never been suckered with no queer bills, Boss. Not now, not ever.” Benny spoke with a seedy dignity.

Dante let the bills flutter back to the pile, then leaned back again. “What’s the bet?”

“Saints. Sunday.”

“Excuse me?” Dante straightened again. “She bet on the Saints?”

Benny nodded mournfully. “To win.”

“Sucker bet,” Max said.

Dante nodded, leaned back in his chair and stared at the money. “Why all single digits? Kind of bulky.”

“Dunno, Boss. But... “ Benny looked even more mournful. “They’s more where this come from.”

“Really?” Dante’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”

“Cause she tole me so.”

“She told you?”

“That’s right, boss. Said it were too many to carry all at once.”

“Well, well.” Dante picked up a handful of the bills and let them shower back down while Max and Benny watched. “That’s very interesting, Benny. Very interesting.”

“You got something, Ross?” Delaney topped off his coffee cup then relaxed back in his chair.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Mickey sat back, arching his back to relieve the stiff area, his fingers beating a tattoo on the table. They’d been going over their notes and the statements collected by the uniforms canvassing the neighborhood while they waited for Unabelle and Velma to return. “Since we don’t know who, I’ve been trying to concentrate on why. Why hose him? Why put him in the freezer? Why keep him at all? Why a gazebo?”

“A gazebo?” Delaney gave Mickey a skeptical look. “Would you like some more coffee?”

Mickey grinned, albeit tiredly. “Stay with me on this. I think I can tie it all together. We agree he was probably stripped and hosed to remove forensic evidence. But then why freeze him? The smart thing would be to get him decomposing as fast as possible, right?”

“Right,” Delaney agreed, “unless you’re a wacko—”

“Or you don’t have a good place to stash a body. This is the middle of the city. It’s not that easy to find bare ground and bury someone. Unless you have a garden and just happen to be putting up a gazebo.”

“Ah, I see where you’re going. You think Reggie planned on inserting our John Doe into the foundation?”

Mickey shrugged. “Him or someone in the neighborhood. There are mostly old ladies on this street, but we’ve got three possibles also away right now. Jacob Arthur supposedly is visiting his daughter. Arthur Will is away on a singles cruise. And Arturo Degas is visiting family in Mexico.”

Delaney looked amused. “Three Arthurs? Pretty unlikely sounding suspects.”

“Yeah, but my scenario could stretch to include them. We’ve got a perp who kills, probably unpremeditated or the body would already be stowed. If it was Reggie, he talks Miss Hermi into installing a gazebo for him to stash the body under, but gets sidetracked when he has to go to Cleveland. If it was a neighbor, same thing, unplanned killing. Sees Seymour ladies starting a gazebo, but then the work is interrupted so he stows the body in the unused freezer.”

“And then leaves town, too? Pretty thin, Ross.”

“Hey, I didn’t say it was a good scenario. Just that it was one. Personally, old Reggie’s got my vote. Everybody we’ve talked to expects Reggie back for the party this weekend. A local perp would know that and could plan for it. What they couldn’t plan for was Miss Theo deciding to restart the freezer for her cakes.”

“True. Hey, if nothing else, it gives us something to plump up this report to the Captain. Hopefully Miss Velma will be able to tell us more about Reggie. I’ll admit he’s got my vote, too, and if she doesn’t, well, if she doesn’t, maybe her muse—or whatever it is psychics use—will be able to—” Delaney grinned.

There was a knock on the door and a uniform poked his head in. “Captain’s been trying to get a hold of you two. “

Mickey and Delaney looked at each other, then checked their cell phones.

“Mine’s dead,” Mickey said.

“Mine, too,” Delaney said.

“He wants a progress report before PR issues a statement to the news boys.”

“My suggestion would be a brief, succinct, no comment,” Mickey said.

“To the news or the Captain?” Delaney asked.

Mickey thought for a moment. “Both. No one’s gonna like what they hear anyway.”

Captain Henry Pryce was an erect, stern-featured man with dark, graying hair, hazel eyes and a straight, humorless mouth. Fortunately for the men under him, it was only the mouth that lacked humor. A healthy sense of humor was a necessary ingredient for surviving the roller coaster that was the New Orleans Police Department.

While Delaney delivered their Laurel and Hardy report, Mickey prayed for that sense of humor to surface. Delaney finished and the silence stretched beneath the Captain’s cool assessing stare.

Mickey tugged at his tie. Delaney swallowed, the sound echoing around the silent room.

“You call this a report?” Pryce looked at Mickey.

“A—preliminary report, sir.” Mickey punctuated this with a large swallow of his own.

Pryce turned to Delaney.

“An extremely preliminary report,” Delaney added.

“Really?” He wheeled to stare out the window, his hands clasped behind his rigid back. “And which part do you think we should share with the press?”

“As little as possible, sir,” Mickey said with heartfelt conviction.

Pryce wheeled around. Mickey flinched back—until he saw the humor melting the ice in the Captain’s eyes.

“Had an interesting time with the Seymours, did you, gentlemen?”

Mickey and Delaney exhaled at the same time.

“Yes, sir,” Mickey agreed. Interesting was the non-profane term for their time with the Seymours.

“We do have a viable suspect, sir,” Delaney pointed out.

“I hope so. The Seymours have connections all over this state. They helped arrange or were present at a lot of prominent weddings. Some for people presently sitting on the bench.”

The