Feeding Gators: Book 1 in the Shiner's Bayou Series

by Gen Anne Griffin

  “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t lie to me,” Loretta stepped between Cal and the door. She had to look up to him because she was only a hair over five feet tall. She gently touched one of the cuts on his cheek. “You’re limping. You’ve got a split lip. You’re all cut up. What happened to you?”

  “I fell.” Cal shrugged and pushed her hand aside. He could tell she was worried but her concern annoyed him instead of comforting him. He just wanted to be left alone. He wondered what it would be like to just get in the truck and drive away from this place. He wondered what it would be like to leave behind everything familiar and just start over from scratch.

  Cal had been born in Coastal County. Cal’s parents had been in born in Coastal County. Cal’s grandparents had been born in Coastal County. His grandfather had named streets after all his children and donated the land J.L. Walker Elementary School sat on. Cal’s mother was the ‘Loretta’ who had inspired Loretta Avenue. Cal had a hundred years of family history that was tied to every brick and tree in Shiner’s Bayou. Family ties that ensured a solidly upper-middle class life had already been laid out for him by the time he was potty trained.

  He’d never worked anywhere besides Pappy’s hardware and building supply store. He probably never would. His Dad never had. He already owned a 20-acre parcel of land, just north of the city limits. The land had been his high school graduation present from his mother’s parents. His cousin April Lynne had received an identical parcel directly beside it when she’d graduated. There was a third parcel waiting for April Lynne’s younger brother, Leroy, when he walked the stage two years from now.

  Cal planned on building the house with his own two hands, one brick at a time. So far he’d managed the foundation and most of the framing. He hadn’t told anyone about it. Not even his father or Jo Beth.

  Especially not his father or Jo Beth. He didn’t want to tell them. They would both be marching him down the damned church aisle so fast he would hardly have time to sign over the title to his truck for the mini-van Jo would probably want to buy as a souvenir on the honeymoon.

  “I see.” Loretta wasn’t letting him off the hook so easily. Her voice jarred him back to the present. “Why are you driving David’s truck?”

  “I. Uh. Don’t worry about it, Mom.” Cal scowled. He’d forgotten about the Toyota being parked front and center in the driveway. He’d completely and totally forgotten about his brand new 25-year- old truck, courtesy of David feeling guilty.

  “Don’t tell me your truck broke down again?” His mother’s concern was starting to get on his nerves.

  “I said don’t worry about it.”

  “You know, I think Jo Beth is right. It’s time for you to trade the Chevy in on a newer truck. Your Dad looked at your odometer the other day, and he told me you have over 400,000 miles on that thing.” She seemed nonplussed. “You know, when we bought it for you at 16 and told you that you had better be grateful, we didn’t intend for you to take that as meaning that you had to drive it until the wheels fell off. We just wanted it to last through graduation.” She chuckled softly. “We don’t mind co-signing for you if you want to go down to the dealership and get a brand new truck.”

  “It’s fine Mom.” Cal wasn’t in the mood for listening to her. “I’ve already had this discussion once in the last 24 hours. I like my truck, and you sound like Jo Beth.”

  “Jo Beth has a good head on her shoulders,” Loretta smiled sadly. “Cal, quit being so stubborn and tell me what’s going on.”

  Cal shook his head, which only succeeded in making his headache 20 times worse. “Just leave me alone, please. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Loretta frowned at him worriedly. “I wish you would talk to me sometimes. I worry about you.”

  “I’m fine, Mom. I had a lousy night, okay?”

  “Did something happen between you and Jo Beth?” she asked.

  It took Cal a minute to remember how he’d even managed to go from date night with Jo Beth to fighting with David. He frowned. “Yes. No,” he shrugged. “Maybe. Hell if I know. It was just a bad night all around.”

  He definitely wasn’t in the mood to discuss with his mother Jo’s opinion on how he’d had everything in life handed to him because he was a Walker. Come to think of it, he wasn’t in the mood to relive that conversation ever again.

  “If you want to talk about it, you know I’m here for you.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” He gently took her by her rounded shoulders and guided her out of his way. “I need to go clear my head for a while, okay?”

  Loretta frowned at him. “You remind me so much of your Pappy when you get like this. You can’t handle everything in the world all by yourself, Cal.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Cal muttered as he grabbed the door knob in his hand and pulled it open.

  “I love you, son.”

  “Love you too.” Cal slipped out the door and into the morning without any idea of where he was headed.

  *

  “I wish I knew what was wrong with this piece of shit. I swear it’s possessed,” David said as he leaned on the side of the engine compartment and scowled down at the engine of Cal’s Chevy.

  “Possessed?” Gracie desperately wanted to curl up in the passenger seat of the truck and go to sleep. Preferably until this entire nightmare was over. She’d wound up in the bed with David because she hadn’t been able to stand the thought of being alone with Austin’s memory. David had tried to distract her by telling her about Twitchy Eddie’s return to Shiner’s Bayou. She’d immediately brought the conversation back to reality by pointing out how much riskier getting rid of Austin’s car and body were going to be with a paranoid, vengeful deputy watching his every move. David had admitted that he actually hadn’t gotten that far in his planning yet, but avoiding Eddie was definitely something he was going to have to give priority to. Getting rid of Eddie was going to become top priority once Gracie was taken care of.

  Gracie was almost too tired to be nervous, but she kept scanning the roadways in either direction. The last thing they needed was Twitchy Eddie pulling up to hassle them about what they were doing with Cal’s truck.

  “It’s getting worse all the time. I swear this SOB has a mind of its own. It only runs when it wants to. It quits when it wants to. I can’t ever find a damned thing wrong with it, and I’ve already replaced every part that I can think of.” David threw up his hands in irritation and glared at the truck.

  “I thought you said something about the alternator last night.”

  “I did,” David scowled. “But I took that off of it last week and had it checked when I went into Canterville. Not to mention it’s less than a year old.”

  “Oh.” Gracie stared at the truck for a moment and decided David was probably right about the truck being possessed. “What do you think the chances are it wants to run right now?”

  “Hell if I know. I don’t see anything obvious wrong with it. Give it a try and see if it’ll fire up. If it bursts into flames, it’ll be doing us all a favor.”

  Gracie located the spare key in the ashtray and sent up a silent prayer the truck wouldn’t burst into flames as she stuck the key into the ignition. She loved Cal’s truck. Most of her good memories from high school had occurred while riding around in the middle of the bench seat, snuggled up against Cal’s side. She’d lost her virginity in this truck. She closed her eyes and tried her best not to think about the memories of scented candles on the toolbox and Cal’s beat up old fiddle playing Dixie in the moonlight.

  Their entire relationship had been redneck romantic, but it seemed a lot more genuine than generic red roses and cards written by a stranger who had never met the recipient. She had to fight a lump in her throat as Cal’s fury from the previous night flashed front and center into her mind. Cal would forgive David eventually, but Gracie wasn’t certain he’d ever be willing to forgive her.

  Wondering if life would ever be okay again, she straightened in the seat an
d twisted the key. The engine grunted for a moment and then turned over with a growl. The Chevy belched blue exhaust into the early morning air.

  “I’ll be damned.” David slammed the hood shut and walked around to the passenger side of the truck as Gracie started to get back out of the driver’s seat. He shook his head. “Just drive it back to the house. Don’t give it a chance to reconsider.”

  Gracie nodded and settled into the seat, blinking back an unexpected rush of tears as she shifted the familiar gearshift down into drive and pulled out onto the highway.

  “Can’t believe this fucker started right up,” David grumbled under his breath. “I swear to God this piece of shit truck is out to get me.”

  “How do you figure?” Gracie rubbed her fingers across the worn steering wheel cover.

  “Last time it broke down, I had to spend two hours sitting in the 100 degree heat with Jo Beth and her Momma.” David explained. “This time it craps out in front of my house on the one damned night of my life when it would be better for everyone involved if Cal wasn’t around. The other 364 days this year it wouldn’t of mattered.”

  “I didn’t think about that.”

  “I could have handled shit with him if he’d shown up this morning. Just my luck that he’s got to show up drunk and pissed the hell off over this damned truck. Of course he’s gonna flip out when he sees me with you and neither of us have half the clothes on that we’re supposed to.”

  “David, I didn’t mean for-.”

  He held up his hand and smiled faintly. “Trust me Gracie, sex was the furthest damn thought from my mind last night. Fuck, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with your boyfriend’s damned body when Cal came crashing in like the No. 1 car in his personal demolition derby.”

  Gracie sighed and tightened her grip on the Chevy’s steering wheel. “I’ve never seen him like that before.”

  “Yeah, well, if he’d ever found out about what you and I did at that field party last year, you would have seen him lose it a whole lot sooner,” David trailed off and tentatively touched his grotesquely swollen nose. “I probably had this coming. It was just delayed.”

  “What we did was our own damned business.” A familiar irritation temporarily wiped away the guilt she’d been feeling. “We were drunk. We both agreed afterward that having sex was probably a bad idea, but I don’t belong to Calvin Walker. He broke up with me. That means that what I do isn’t up to him. Including who I sleep with.”

  “Please tell me that wasn’t the point you were trying to prove when you decided to go out to dinner with our dead boy?” David asked as he leaned his head back against the passenger’s side head rest and closed his eyes.

  Gracie opened her mouth and then closed it again without saying a word. “I won’t tell you,” she said so quietly David barely heard the words over the roar of the exhaust.

  *

  “This is asinine,” Addison complained as he stared at the unfortunate idiot who had somehow managed to hogtie himself in front of his own pickup truck. “I should arrest you just for wasting my time.”

  “Oh come on, Addy. Help me out here.”

  Addison continued to survey the situation. “Reg, do you really expect me to go knee deep in swamp mud before 10 a.m. just to save your sorry ass?”

  Reggie Gunther considered for a minute and then nodded the affirmative. “You’re gonna have to. If I could get my own self out of this mess, none of us would be here right now.” The poacher had a point.

  “You do realize that you’re under arrest, right?” Eddie stared skeptically at the scruffy poacher. The man was knee deep in mud, tangled in a length of thick rope and staring at them through bloodshot eyes. His late 1990s Ford truck was hopelessly mired in the mud directly in front of him. It appeared he had been trying to hook up a rope to the truck when he’d gotten himself stuck right beside the Ford.

  Reggie looked back over at Addison. “Tell me this twerp isn’t serious?”

  Addison yawned. “Tell me I didn’t get drug out of bed to deal with this bullshit. Where’s Kevin?”

  “He turned tail and left me as soon as he saw them damned lights. I done told him it wasn’t you. Your lights ain’t green and red and orange. He was so darned worried about violating his probation that he hauled ass and left me here even though he knowed both me and the truck were stucker than shit.”

  Reggie glared at no one in particular. “He said there wasn’t no sense in both of us getting busted.”

  “Well, if you admit he was poaching with you, I can still arrest him using your testimony,” Eddie announced, looking thoughtful. Reggie groaned loudly. He had a look of horror on his face.

  “Tell me he wouldn’t.” Reggie looked up at Addison with pleading eyes. “I’m already in enough trouble as is once Maureen finds out we took her truck and got it stuck. I wasn’t supposed to go nowhere but the store for a gallon of milk. She had to be at work by 8 o’clock this morning.”

  “Hope she found another ride,” Addison said mildly. He felt sorry for stupid, hopeless Reggie. Neither of the Gunther boys were bad people. They were just hopelessly dumb. Addison spent a fair amount of time saving the pair of them from themselves. The last time he’d had to save them their homemade boat had up and decided to sink with them in it. They’d been floating in the middle of the lake, clinging to a beer cooler, and waiting for rescue. Turned out neither of the Gunther boys could swim.

  “Oh shit. It’s after eight, ain’t it?”

  “It’s almost 9:30.”

  “Aw man, this sucks.” Reggie wiggled in the mud. “At least get me outta here.”

  “You’re going straight to jail when we do,” Eddie said a little more forcefully than necessary. “You realize that, right?”

  Reggie looked Eddie up and down for a moment. “Aren’t you the kid who used to twitch all the time back in high school?”

  Eddie gritted his teeth. “That has nothing to do with the current situation.”

  Reggie grinned and started to giggle. “Yeah man, I remember you. Didn’t you run across the football field naked during homecoming one year?”

  Eddie turned to Addison, his face flushing a bright red. “How about you get that truck out now? And impound it.”

  Addison struggled to keep a straight face.

  “Aw man, come on. I can’t afford no impound fees,” Reggie stared up at the two of them. “Addison, you know me.”

  “I’ll pull it out of the mud but I don’t tow vehicles on the highway,” he said to Eddie. “You want to have something towed and impounded then you’ll have to call David Breedlove and set it up with him.”

  “Y’all don’t even have an impound lot.” Reggie was looking rather miserable as he realized the truth of his fate.

  “Of course we do. Every law enforcement agency has some kind of impound lot.” Eddie then turned to Addison. “Right?”

  “Actually, Reggie’s got a point.” Addison was busying himself hooking a winch chain to the rear hitch on Maureen Gunther’s truck.

  Eddie stared at Addison, completely stupefied. “What do you do with cars you tow?”

  “We don’t.”

  “You don’t?”

  “Tow cars. Not very often anyways. We typically just let the owner call someone else to come get them.”

  “David doesn’t like to waste his time towing cars,” Reggie chimed in. “He really don’t. He charges an arm and a leg to tow anything that isn’t going to his shop for repairs.”

  “Yeah, and knowing Wally he’ll take it out of your paycheck.” Addison studied the stuck Ford for a moment. “The towing bill for coming way out here on a Saturday morning will probably be close to $500. You have enough hours on your check to cover that, Eddie?”

  “Why on Earth would I have to pay it?”

  “Wally doesn’t keep any money in the budget for towing or keeping citizens’ vehicles. Whoever makes the call to keep them has to literally keep them,” Addy explained with a shrug. “David picks up the ‘impoun
ded’ vehicle, drives it to your personal residence, drops it in your yard, and sticks you with the bill. Just to give you a heads up, he likes to leave the car in the most inconvenient place possible.”

  “That’s ridiculous.” Eddie shot the truck and Reggie a frustrated look. “I guess you can just let whoever comes get it, but I’m still taking him to jail.” He pointed at Reggie.

  “Why? Can’t you just write me a ticket and let me go?” Reggie looked at Eddie in total disbelief. “That’s what he always does.” He gestured towards Addison.

  “That’s not how things are supposed to be done,” Eddie said. He shot Addison a scathing look. “You’re going to be arrested, charged, and sit in jail until Monday morning when the judge sets bond. If you can afford to pay it, you can leave.”

  “I’ll miss work,” Reggie’s jaw was nearly on the ground. “Come on now. I can’t be missing work. I’ll lose my job.” He looked over at Addison. “Can’t you do something about him?”

  “Not really.” Addy shook his head and shrugged helplessly at Reggie. “There’s a new kind of law in town. If you don’t like it, talk to the Sheriff.”

  “I think I’ll be doing that,” Reggie muttered under his breath with a frown as Eddie began reading him his rights.

  *

  The Chevy was parked front and center in David’s driveway when Cal finally worked up the nerve to pull up to his best friend’s house. The hood was closed and the spare key was in the ignition. Cal turned the key just to see what would happen. The big V8 engine cranked on the first try. David had promised to fix Cal’s truck and he had.

  Cal almost wished David had left the Chevy broken on the side of the road. It was easier to stay mad when he had a tangible reason to be mad. Cal really wanted an excuse to stay mad at David. He’d tried to clear his head by driving in circles around Coastal County for two hours. The only conclusion he’d managed to come to was that he wasn’t sure he could stomach seeing David and Gracie together in the light of day, but he was going to have to try.