Schooled
CIA operative Fortune Redding signs up for night classes, hoping to ease the boredom of her undercover assignment and update her computer skills. But an unfortunately-timed murder on the campus of Mudbug Technical College sends shock waves through the town of Sinful. And Fortune’s life is turned upside down when she discovers who the prime suspect is. Now Fortune has to choose between lying low to avoid the ruthless arms dealer who’s put a price on her head, and doing everything in her power to save someone she can’t bear to lose.
Excerpt
Celia Arceneaux had recently won (or “won”) the Sinful mayor’s office in an election with a margin so thin that the town was now in the middle of a recount. In the meantime, Celia was allowed to stay on as mayor-elect. It turned out that the only thing worse than Celia Arceneaux was Celia Arceneaux with a little bit of power. She could now enforce Sinful’s arcane laws (or not) as she pleased, declare holidays on a whim, and drain the city coffers by hiring her idiot relatives and generally mismanaging everything. It wouldn’t have surprised me if she started printing money with her picture on it and renaming the months of the year after herself.
“So Celia filed another complaint about me?” I asked. “What is it this time? Washing my car on a Tuesday? Wearing off-white before Labor Day?”
Sheriff Lee fidgeted and cleared his throat. Come on, Sheriff, spit it out. How bad could it be?
“Celia Arceneaux is dead, Fortune.”
I could almost feel my jaw hit the top of Lee’s desk.
“What?”
“I said Celia Arceneaux is dead,” he shouted.
“No, I heard you the first time. She’s dead? How? What happened?”
“She was the victim of a hit-and-run last night.”
“Oh. That’s terrible. But what does this have to do with—”
“In the upper parking lot of Mudbug Technical College.”
I instinctively went on high alert. Someone had killed Celia Arceneaux and was trying to pin it on me. But who?
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This story is a licensed work in Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune world.
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