Vampire Billionaire of the Bayou: Miss Fortune World: The Mary-Alice Files, #8

By Frankie Bow

The Sinful Ladies' Detective Agency has just scored a cushy gig: Doing surveillance for a businessman who claims business rivals are after his trade secrets. But just as Fortune, Gertie, Ida Belle, and Mary-Alice are deciding how to spend their easy money, the unthinkable happens. The Sinful Ladies find themselves teaming up with the bewildered Sheriff Robert E. Lee...only to find that what looks like a ritualistic murder is far from the strangest thing about this case. 

In this modern adaptation of the classic tale The Circular Study, the Sinful ladies encounter a bloody business, a haunted plantation, and an unspeakable family secret.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J&R Fan Fiction
• Release date: Aug 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386056782

Frankie Bow

Frankie Bow teaches at a public university and writes two mystery series: The Professor Molly Mysteries, and licensed works in the Miss Fortune World. Unlike Professor Molly, Frankie is blessed with delightful students, sane colleagues, and a perfectly nice office chair. She thinks if life can’t be fair, at least it can be entertaining. From the author: Thank you for taking the time to read this book. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends and posting a short review. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated. Sign up for Island Confidential, Frankie's mystery newsletter, at subscribepage.com/ProfessorMolly

Book preview

Chapter One

MARY-ALICE ARCENEAUX marveled at her good fortune. If she were still living back in Mudbug, the high point of her week would be Crafting Circle or Bingo Night. But since she had moved to the town of Sinful, Louisiana (population 253), her life had become far more exciting. Her new friends, Fortune, Gertie, and Ida Belle, had led her into all kinds of exciting adventures. Even better, the four had recently combined forces to form the Sinful Ladies’ Detective Agency.

Like Mary-Alice, Ida Belle and Gertie were on the sweet side of seventy. This was an advantage in the world of detecting, as people tended to let their guard down around harmless-looking old ladies.

Young Fortune Morrow, the leader of the agency, claimed to be a children’s librarian and retired beauty queen, although Mary-Alice had her doubts about that. Fortune looked like Barbie, but she walked, shot, and swore like G.I. Joe.

And here we are. Fortune pulled off the road and parked on the patchy grass underneath a spreading oak. The haunted Polk Plantation. At least according to the Sinful Sprits Ghost Tours website. Everyone have your client files?

Now, don’t make fun, Fortune, Gertie chided. Lots of folks around here genuinely believe there are ghosts here. Do you know, back when I was still teaching, I tried more than once to take my class to the Polk Plantation for a field trip. It would have been a fascinating history lesson. But so many of the parents refused to sign the permission slips that I could never manage it.

My daddy always said that ghost stuff was a bunch of superstitious nonsense, Ida Belle said. Although he never would eat both ends of a loaf of bread, and practically had a stroke one time when a bird tapped on our window. Mary-Alice, did you ever come here for the tour when you were a girl?

I never dared ask. My parents believed it wasn’t proper for a good Catholic girl to take an interest in ghosts and spirits. Mary-Alice did not mention that her father was too busy chasing the help to be bothered to take his daughter anywhere. And her mother did take an interest in spirits, but only the kind found in a Sazerac cocktail.

Alright. Are we ready to leave the air conditioning and brave the mosquitoes? Fortune opened the door and swung her long legs out for an effortless dismount. She then went around the Jeep and helped the three others down.

Gotta love eccentric billionaires, Ida Belle said. Of all the places this guy could live, he decides to hole up at an old tourist trap in the middle of nowhere.

Unlike the movie version of Tara from Gone with the Wind, the Polk Plantation’s big house was not particularly impressive. It was white with gray railings, and two dormer windows sticking out of the shake roof. There was no grand, pillared entrance. Only upper and lower floors of equal height, with wooden stairs connecting the two.

I think having too much money turns your brain, Gertie said. Like Howard Hughes. Oh, my goodness, we’re not going to walk into a house full of pee bottles, are we?

I doubt it, Fortune said. Blood bottles, maybe.

Mary-Alice had never met a billionaire before. She trailed behind the other ladies, tugging her sequined t-shirt straight and wondering whether she was underdressed. Then again, Fortune was wearing jeans, Ida Belle had on a track suit, and Gertie was strutting along in an oversized off-the-shoulder tee and slightly baggy leopard-print leggings. As Fortune lifted her hand to knock, the doors swung open.

In here, a man called out from somewhere in the back. Behind the workout station.

Oh my! Gertie pressed her hand to her chest. Now this is what I call an extreme makeover!

The inside of the house had been gutted and painted stark white. In the center of the sparsely-furnished, warehouse-sized room stood an assembly of workout machines with a mirrored wall behind it. There were no visible light fixtures; instead, the entire ceiling glowed.

It could do with a bit of color, Mary-Alice whispered. Maybe some nice throw pillows.

Should I close— Fortune started to call out, but the doors snapped shut behind them.

SLEMCO must be making a fortune off this guy. Ida Belle muttered as they made their way to the back of the house. It feels like a freezer in here.

They made their way around the gym, past an open kitchen with stainless-steel fixtures, to a wide doorway that opened into a compact office.

Come in, Raymond Fosca called out. He sat behind a cluttered desk as a young man in a white Hemo-Vital jumpsuit ministered to Fosca’s extended arm. Mary-Alice caught