But Not Foretold: A Clint Wolf Novel (Clint Wolf Mystery Series Book 26) Read online

  BUT NOT

  FORETOLD

  A Clint Wolf Novel

  (Book 26)

  ___________________

  BY

  BJ BOURG

  www.bjbourg.com

  BUT NOT FORETOLD

  A Clint Wolf Novel by BJ Bourg

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the author, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

  Copyright © 2022 by BJ Bourg

  Cover design by Christine Savoie of Bayou Cover Designs

  PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  CHAPTER 57

  CHAPTER 58

  CHAPTER 59

  CHAPTER 60

  CHAPTER 61

  CHAPTER 62

  CHAPTER 63

  CHAPTER 64

  CHAPTER 1

  Monday, December 12

  Mechant Loup, Louisiana

  Zena Thomas smiled as she stepped through the door of the pharmacy. It was a little before eight in the morning, but Mable Broussard had already restocked most of the shelves.

  “Good morning, Mable,” Zena said, gently pushing a strand of long blonde hair behind her ear. “How was your weekend?”

  The elderly woman sighed heavily. “It was tiring. Max and I set out to clean the shed and we found a huge rat’s nest in the corner. They scattered and we spent all weekend trying to trap them.”

  Zena shivered. “Gross! I hate rats.”

  “Me, too! Max caught six of them by the time I left for work this morning.”

  Zena shivered again and headed for the back of the store. As the only pharmacist for Mechant Pharmacy and Food, which was the only pharmacy in town, Zena stayed busy. This Monday was no different than any other. There was already a line by the window when she pushed through the employee entrance. She had two assistants—Meg Ledet and Lacy Martin—and they were running and gunning, but they were as cheerful as ever.

  “Hey, Zena,” Meg said with a smile. “I’ve got a ton of refills that need your attention.”

  Zena smiled back, but there was a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she knew Meg could tell the smile was fake.

  A look of concern fell over Meg’s face. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ll tell you about it later.”

  Meg nodded, removed a prescription bag from the bin, and returned to the register. Zena glanced in that direction and saw Clint Wolf standing in line. When she had first met Clint, he was the chief of police for Mechant Loup, but he was now the chief of detectives, while his wife, Susan, served as the police chief. Clint was four customers back, but he caught her eyes and smiled. She waved for him to meet her at the consultation window.

  “How’s that new baby boy?” she asked, her mood instantly improving at the thought of a newborn. She thought it was funny how babies seemed to brighten a person’s day, regardless of what he or she was going through.

  Clint’s brown eyes seemed to sparkle. “He’s growing like sugar cane in the rain. If he doesn’t stop, he’ll be full-grown by the end of the year.”

  Zena laughed. “What can I do for you?”

  He lifted a paper he’d been holding. “I need to pick up a script for Susan, but I’ll wait at the back of the line.”

  Zena started to object, but she’d had that argument with him before, and she knew she wouldn’t win. “Bring him by the store when he’s old enough to get out of the house.”

  “Oh, he goes out now,” he joked. “When I left the house, he was changing the oil in my truck.”

  Zena laughed and shook her head before returning to her work station. She glanced up once as Clint made his purchase and waved as he left. She wondered if he could tell she looked guilty, but shrugged it off. It was impossible for anyone to know.

  After four hours of almost nonstop action, they finally closed the pharmacy for lunch. The employees all shared a small break room toward the back of the store, but because everyone in the rest of the store staggered their breaks, Zena, Meg, and Lacy usually ate alone. The same was true on this day.

  “What’d y’all do this weekend?” Zena asked once her food had finished heating in the microwave and she was seated across from her employees.

  “We stayed home for a change,” Lacy said. “It was too cold to do anything anyway.”

  Meg laughed. “If you call fifty-two cold, you’d better never leave the state.”

  “I don’t plan on it,” Lacy retorted.

  The three women laughed.

  “What about you?” Meg asked Zena. “What did you and Freddy do?”

  Zena sighed. “Freddy left yesterday for a conference.”

  “Lucky him.” Meg cocked her head to the side, frowned. “Why didn’t you go?”

  “No spouses allowed.” Zena twirled her spoon in the frozen meal she’d prepared. She didn’t feel hungry. “Of course, he says that about every conference.”

  “What do salesmen even do at conferences?” Lacy wanted to know, a smirk playing across her face. “When you go to a conference, you learn about the latest drugs to make men hard or help them keep their hair a little longer—”

  Zena and Meg burst out laughing and cut Lacy off in mid-sentence. Once they quieted down, she continued.

  “But what on earth could a salesman learn—some new bullshit line to feed a client? Give me a break!” She grunted. “I can’t even believe an office supply store could afford to send someone to Las Vegas to learn the art of bullshit.”

  “Yeah,” Lacy agreed. “It’s not like Combat Office Supplies has thousands of clients. Besides, it’s the only office supply store in all of Chateau Parish, so—other than Walmart—it really has no competition. Why would they need to send someone to bullshit school?”


  “I bet he’s lying,” Meg continued. “Did you check the flight?”

  Zena nodded. “He left New Orleans yesterday afternoon at five-thirty and landed a little after midnight.”

  “But are you sure?” Meg pressed.

  “I tracked the flight online, from the moment it left to when it landed.” Zena set down her spoon. She had offered to drive Freddy to the airport yesterday, but he had said it would cost too much in gas to go back and forth. When she’d explained it would cost more to park his truck at the airport for a week, he’d argued the point. While she had no real evidence that he’d even gone to the airport, there was the pamphlet at home advertising the conference, he’d given her the flight number, and she’d even verified it with her best friend who worked at Combat Office Supplies. “Besides, he texted me when he landed.”

  Meg grunted. “I don’t know if I believe him, Zena. Maybe you should drive to the airport and see if his truck’s really there.”

  “I’m not wasting a trip to New Orleans,” Zena said, but she was tempted to make the drive. After all, she hadn’t seen a ticket. Sure, Freddy had given her the flight number and Karen had verified it, but couldn’t he have simply researched the flight and then lied to both women? “There has to be another way…”

  All three women were thoughtful. Finally, Lacy piped up. “Call his hotel. Tell them you need to talk to him, that it’s an emergency from home.”

  “Hmm, that might work, but I don’t know where he’s staying.”

  “Would Karen know?” Meg asked.

  Without answering, Zena pulled out her cell phone and called her best friend. It rang and rang and rang until it went to voicemail. Instead of leaving a message, she ended the call. Karen was usually busy on Mondays, so she wasn’t surprised she hadn’t answered. She was about to put away her phone when Karen called back.

  “What’s up, Sister?” Karen asked cheerfully.

  “Nothing much.” Zena swallowed, suddenly unsure of herself. She had never been paranoid before, but after she’d caught Freddy in a lie a few months ago, she was starting to doubt everything he said or did. It didn’t help matters that he was pulling out during sex so she wouldn’t get pregnant, and they were supposed to be trying to have a baby. Was he about to divorce her? She bristled. It should be the other way around.

  “Hey, you wouldn’t know which hotel Freddy’s staying in, would you?” she asked Karen. “He’s not answering his phone and I need to get a message to him.”

  There was a pause, and she could hear Karen humming in the background. “Not right off, but I know it’s written somewhere at the office. I’m shopping with my mom right now, but I can check when I get back in tonight. I don’t remember if I told you or not, but my parents are in town for the week. We’re celebrating Christmas early, because they plan on spending it with my sister in Utah. It’s a bummer.”

  Zena nodded idly.

  “What’s up?” Karen asked when Zena didn’t say anything more. “I can tell something’s wrong.”

  “I don’t know,” Zena said. “I’m thinking about going to the airport to see if he’s really there.”

  “Well, let me know if you need anything. I can slash tires with the best of them.”

  Zena laughed briefly, but stopped dry after ending the call. She felt sick to her stomach, so she packed up her lunch and tossed it in the trash. Freddy never did talk to her much when he attended conferences and she usually understood, but ever since that lie, she had viewed things through different eyes.

  CHAPTER 2

  Zena tried to force Freddy from her thoughts as she pushed through the hectic day. She was grateful for the distraction, but as soon as she knocked off at five, her mind began to wander again. She stopped at Mechant Groceries before heading home to make dinner. Once home, she threw together a grilled chicken salad and ate it on the back patio. Well, she picked at it, anyway. She had lost her appetite.

  Although it was chilly outside, her wool sweater and the last of the afternoon sun helped to keep her comfortable. She checked her cell phone a dozen times, but she hadn’t received any messages from Freddy all day. She was about to call his phone again when she suddenly realized the time difference between Las Vegas and Louisiana.

  “Oh, shit!” she said aloud, looking at the time on her phone. “It’s six o’clock here, but it’s only four over there. He’s still in class!”

  Feeling a little more relieved, she polished off her plate and walked inside to clean up. Once that was done, she ran a bath and slipped into the hot water with a glass of wine. As she lay soaking, she involuntarily glanced at her phone. She would give him until eight o’clock her time, and then she would put her plan into motion. She was through playing games with him.

  As she soaked in the hot water, she poured another glass of wine and sipped on it as the time slowly ticked by. She glanced at her cell phone several times, waiting, growing ever impatient. Thrice, she’d had to turn on the hot water to warm up her bath. She was about to do it a fourth time when the sudden ringing of her phone caused her to bolt upright in the tub and dump half her wine in the water. Cursing, she balanced the glass on the edge of the tub and checked her phone. It was Freddy!

  “Hey, honey,” she said as casually as she could. “How’s the conference?”

  “It’s boring so far,” he said amidst some loud noise in the background. “We didn’t learn anything new yet, but it’s supposed to get better.”

  “What time is it out there?”

  “Eight o’clock.”

  Damn, I’ve been in the tub for hours! she thought, moving the phone from her ear and checking the time. She had planned on calling Freddy at eight her time, but it was now ten. I must’ve fallen asleep!

  “Where’re you staying?” she asked, putting the phone back to her ear and raising her voice so he could hear her over the background noise.

  “I’m at the hotel lounge right now,” he shouted back, “but it’s insanely crowded. I’m trying to get a hamburger. I’m hungry.”

  “What hotel are you at?”

  “When will I be back? Saturday. Remember?”

  “No, I want to know what hotel you’re staying at—which one? What’s the name of it?”

  “Zena, I can’t hear you. Can you speak up?”

  “Where are you staying?” She had raised her voice so high to ask the question that she was sure the neighbors heard.

  “I’m at the hotel,” he repeated. “Look, I’ll call you back when it’s not so noisy.”

  “No, don’t—”

  But it was too late. He was gone.

  Zena cursed and dropped her phone to the floor beside the tub. Angry, she stood and snatched a towel from the hanger. As she dried off, her mind raced. It had been three short months ago when he had told her he was working late delivering special-order calendars to the district attorney’s office. Figuring he would be hungry when he got home, she had cooked a roast, some carrots, and homemade dinner rolls, but he’d told her he wasn’t hungry, that he’d grabbed a burger from McDonald’s after work. She’d had no reason to think otherwise until the next day, when Karen had called wanting to know who Freddy was having dinner with in Northern Chateau on the previous night. She had posed the question to him as soon as he had gotten home later, and he had immediately begun laughing.

  “What are you talking about?” he had asked. “I ate a Big Mac and some cold fries.”

  Unlucky for him, Karen had sent her a picture of him sitting at a table with a brunette woman in a purple dress. They were leaning close and laughing in the picture.

  He stammered when she showed him the picture, and she’d promptly kicked him out of the house. He had spent the next two nights with his brother. On the third night, he had called and come clean about the dinner date. He claimed he was having dinner with a “bitch named Leslie from the DA’s office,” because she was threatening to start ordering their supplies from Amazon if he didn’t buy her a steak dinner. Zena wasn’t buying his story, but she
’d eventually let him come back home, because Karen had told her she’d followed Freddie and Leslie out of the restaurant that night and they hadn’t so much as hugged in the parking lot, so she was convinced it had been nothing more than dinner. Still, the lie was there, and it had cut deep.

  Now, as she trudged into her bedroom and pulled on some shorts and a T-shirt, she was starting to regret letting him come back home. The one thing she had asked of him when they first started dating was to never lie to her.

  “If you don’t want me anymore, just be a man and say so,” she had warned. “Don’t ever lie to me and don’t ever cheat on me. If you do, so help me God, I’ll—”

  She hadn’t been able to finish her sentence, because he had kissed her and sworn he would never do anything to hurt her.

  “My, how the times have changed,” she grumbled, heading for the kitchen carrying the empty wine bottle. Her lips felt a little numb, but the wine had done nothing to improve her mood. She paused at the sink and looked back toward the living room, contemplating her next move, and thinking back to her last one.

  “I wonder if it’ll work,” she muttered, dropping the dish rag she had been holding and stomping toward the entertainment center. She opened the middle drawer as far as it would go and removed her workout DVDs. She smiled when she saw what was hidden behind them. “There you are.”

  She was about to pull it out when she heard a creak in the floorboards. It sounded like it was coming from the hallway that led toward the bedrooms. She froze in place and listened, but the sound didn’t repeat itself. Theirs was an old house, and it talked a lot—mostly complaining about its aching joints—but it still made her jump from time to time. She was about to turn back toward the drawer when she heard another creak, but it wasn’t coming from the hallway. Instead, it came from the area near the back door.

  “Hello?” Zena called, rising slowly to her feet. “Who’s there?”

  She heard no sound but that of the wind blowing outside. She shivered. Since the house was an older one, it wasn’t as insulated as modern homes, and she could feel the coolness of the night air seeping in through the cracks.