Page 20 of Fish and Chip

The café door bursts open, and Georgie and Ree blow in like a hurricane made of Halloween spirit and absolutely no brakes.

Georgie’s wearing an orange-and-black-striped caftan that makes her look like a very fashionable bumblebee, complete with a cat-ear headband topped with a tiny pumpkin. Ree’s gone for a more subdued look—black cardigan with embroidered spiderwebs, orange scarf, and her signature feathered red hair looking particularly ’80s today.

“I am so disappointed,” Georgie announces, dropping into a chair as though she’s just lost everything but her lipstick. “I stayed up until two in the morning reading the cozy mystery Ree lent me, and do you know how many steamy scenes were in it?”

“How many?” I ask, although I’m afraid I might have a clue.

“Zero! Not a single one! The detective and the bakery owner held hands once. Once! I’ve seen more action at a church potluck!”

Ree rolls her eyes. “Georgie, it’s called a cozy mystery. Not a romance novel.”

“Well, it should be called a boring mystery,” Georgie grumbles. “What’s the point of solving murders if nobody’s getting any action?”

“The point is solving the murder,” Ree says.

Georgie grunts. “Nobody is hopping in bed and everybody is ending up dead. Sounds fake, but okay.”

“Preach it, sister!” Savvy holds up a palm, and Georgie slaps it five without either of them so much as glancing at the other. They’re pretty much a well-oiled machine at this point.

“Agatha Christie is about to crawl out of her grave and slap you both,” Ree mutters.

She ignores Georgie’s affronted gasp and turns to me, practically pulsating with excitement. “Josie! Delora and I have been texting all night and all morning about today’s events! There are so many authors we want to meet! We made a list!” She pulls out a notebook covered in Halloween stickers. “I have questions prepared for each one!”

“Fine. Have it your way.” Georgie slumps further in her chair. “If I can’t have men, I want murder.” She pounds her fist on the table, rattling the coffee cups. “Give me something to investigate before I die of boredom and all my girl parts dry up and wither away.”

Ree and I blink over at her.

“You’re in luck,” I say, glancing down at my planner. “Murder is the order of the day when it comes to this crowd.”

I scan today’s Boo Crew schedule. “Let’s see, we’ve got ‘Poisoning 101: A Cozy Writer’s Guide to Arsenic’ at ten⁠—”

“Ooh.” Georgie perks up. “Put me down for the poison one.”

“Absolutely not,” Ree and I say in unison.

I clear my throat before going on. “‘Setting the Scene: How to Write a Corpse Discovery’ at eleven-thirty, book signings at Storybook Hollow and Gold Rush Hollow, and—” I pause. “Here we go. ‘Southern Charm and Deadly Harm: A Reading and Discussion’ with Eulla Bell Nightwind, Felicity Graves, and two other authors in Bayou Bend Hollow.”

Savvy straightens. “That’s the one we should go to first!”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because, honey, that girl is Southern, and a good Southern girl always has something to hide.”

Fish flicks her tail. Finally. Someone at this table talking sense.

I tuck that away, right next to the alligator, before checking my watch. “The event starts in twenty minutes.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Georgie grabs a danish off the tray and shoves half of it in her mouth. “Let’s go interrogate some witches posing as writers.”

We collect our pets, shove as many pastries into our pieholes as physically possible, and bolt out the door. Kevin swings for my head one last time on the way past. I duck. Round one to me.

On the way out, I give the life-size skeleton baker a nod. Nice to know one dead body in this park is exactly where it’s supposed to be.

Turns out, the only thing more dangerous than a Southern belle with a secret is a Southern belle with a pen and a motive for murder.

CHAPTER 5

Bayou Bend Hollow is dripping with atmosphere, and I mean that literally.