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

by Gen Anne Griffin

  “Any chance you want to share your theory?” Wally asked him.

  “Not yet,” Cal shook his head. “I’d hate to look like an idiot and accuse an innocent person by jumping to conclusions.” Cal narrowed his eyes purposely at Eddie. “I need to check out a couple of things. If I find something concrete, I’ll be coming right back here.” He took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Well, let me know if you find out anything,” Wally said with a nod.

  “What?” Eddie yelped. “You’re just going to let him take evidence?”

  “He’s not going to hurt it,” Wally said calmly. “Even if he does. It was a digital photo. We can print us off another one. Besides, the most important thing is catching our killer. Right Eddie?”

  “Yes, but.”

  “No buts. Learning how to work together is a crucial part of this job.”

  “With civilians?” Eddie demanded, still stunned.

  “Even with civilians,” Wally confirmed with a visible sigh. “Good luck, Cal.” He turned back to Eddie as Cal was preparing to walk out of the building. “Why don’t you go be a good rookie cop and spend the rest of the afternoon pulling over speeding tourists on Highway 77?”

  *

  Two hours after David had woken her up for the long boring drive to Baker County, Gracie found herself standing in line at the Gas N Go. She had David’s credit card and a couple of energy drinks in her right hand. She was waiting for Anna Eliza Cromwell to figure out how to use the lottery machine and allow the man three customers ahead of Gracie to claim his free ticket.

  Gracie didn’t particularly care for Anna Eliza. She had been a year ahead of Gracie in high school and currently spent a significant amount of time naked on her back in the front seat of Addison’s truck. Not the brightest girl Gracie had ever met. Gracie once again reflected on her brother’s lousy taste in women as the lottery machine let out a deafening squeal that indicated all the wrong buttons were being hit in quick succession. The machine continued its squeal as Anna Eliza shrugged uselessly at the rest of the line. She had her hands clapped over her ears.

  “Oh my goodness. Someone should help that poor girl.” A very familiar voice spoke from somewhere in the line behind her, freezing Gracie mid-irritation. A quick glance behind her confirmed her worst suspicions. Her mother was in line a couple of customers behind her.

  Jane May Malone was dressed in a peach-colored sweater and blue mom jeans. Apparently she wasn’t working today. Bad news because it meant that she likely wouldn’t have any reason not to spend several hours interrogating Gracie as to why she wasn’t at State University. Since she wasn’t chewing her out or asking what the hell her daughter was doing in Shiner’s Bayou, Gracie assumed she hadn’t been spotted yet. She doubted that would last long.

  She pulled Cal’s camouflage baseball cap down tighter on her head and prayed like hell that Anna Eliza would figure out the register before her mother noticed her.

  Her prayers went unanswered as David came through the store door, looking supremely annoyed. He cringed as the squealing machine reached his ears. Without blinking and with every customer in the store looking on, David cut through the line, walked around the counter and snatched the lottery machine’s plug out of the wall. The squealing stopped instantly.

  There was a mild applause from several people who were waiting in the line.

  “Nice work,” an older man in front of Gracie said. “Can you perform the same trick on wives?”

  David shook his head with a half-smile on his face as the woman standing beside the man began smacking him with a resounding thump.

  Anna Eliza was looking at him gratefully. “Thank you, baby. I owe you one.”

  “Good. Go ahead and turn on the damn pump, so I can get on my way,” David shot her an irritated look, drumming his fingers against the counter in irritation at being held up.

  Anna Eliza rolled her eyes at him. “I was thinking something a little more personal Breedlove, but it’s whatever you want.”

  “I want to get back to my shop before Addison attaches someone’s brake lines to their transmission or puts another water pump in backwards.” He gestured for Gracie to step around the line and hand him his credit card. She shot him a desperate look, but it was too late. Her mother had followed his line of sight and seen her.

  “Gracie?” Jane May opened her mouth and closed it again as Gracie sighed and handed David both the drinks and the plastic.

  “Hi Mom,” Gracie pasted the biggest fake smile on her face that she could muster.

  For a moment Jane May just stared at her only daughter with a mixture of surprise and annoyance. Then she turned and looked at David. Gracie could see the wheels turning inside of her mother’s head as her eyes went back and forth between the two of them.

  “Lovely,” Jane May muttered under her breath, making the word sound like an obscenity. “We need to talk.” She grabbed Gracie by the arm and towed her outside to the parking lot, far away from the prying eyes of the other store patrons. Jane May’s minivan was parked directly outside the store’s double doors. Gracie’s mother released her arm when they reached it.

  “Mom,” Gracie tried her best to sound soothing as David reluctantly trailed after the two of them. “I can explain. Kind of.”

  “I can’t wait to hear it,” Gracie’s mother gave her a glowering scowl. “Olivia told me she had seen you and David together cuddling and holding hands at Italiano’s last Saturday night. I told her that was ridiculous because of two reasons. My first reason was that you were away at college. My second reason was that I couldn’t imagine a circumstance where you and David would have been going out to a nice restaurant alone. Or cuddling.”

  “About that,” Gracie started to talk and then looked helplessly at David. He had followed them out of the store and was now standing awkwardly to the left of them. Social situations weren’t exactly David’s forte. The boy could cope with dead bodies but not mad mothers.

  “It’s not quite like that,” David said with a frown. “I mean, it’s not the way it looks.”

  Jane May blinked at him for a minute. “David, I don’t give a flying flip about what the two of you want to do in your spare time. If I cared about my kids’ sex lives, I’d have castrated my son by now.”

  David choked on the biscuit he’d just taken a bite out of.

  Gracie gaped at her mother. “But then?”

  “Oh my God. What is that?” Jane May’s eyes widened to the size of baseballs and her jaw nearly hit the asphalt parking lot. Gracie spun around, trying to figure out what her mom was looking at. She caught sight of David shaking his head at her, looking vaguely amused.

  “What?” Gracie asked as she turned back towards her mother.

  “On your hand.” Jane May caught hold of Gracie’s left hand and held the huge diamond ring Cal had given to Gracie up in front of her own face. “What do you have on your hand?” her mother demanded.

  “A ring,” Gracie made a small gulping noise as her mother examined the three-carat diamond with obvious unhappiness.

  “An engagement ring?” Jane May demanded.

  “Yes,” Gracie replied with a tentative smile.

  “No,” Jane May said flatly. “No. I’m sorry, but absolutely not.”

  “What?” Gracie gaped at her mother in shock.

  “You are not blowing your future on whatever it is you’ve decided matters right this instant,” Jane May was visibly flustered and rapidly flushing with anger. “I’m sorry David, but no. Gracie is absolutely not dropping out of college to marry you.”

  It was David’s turn to look completely dumbfounded. Gracie blinked at him in surprise and then back at her mother, suddenly realizing that Jane May thought the ring was from David, not Cal.

  “Mom, it’s not-”

  “Do either of you two have any idea how much money it’s costing us to send you to State, Gracie?” Jane May was beside herself with aggravation. “I’ve had to take on three extra shifts a week to
cover the cost of Gracie’s college education,” she informed David flatly. “I’d appreciate it if she’d go to class. Which she’s clearly not doing if she’s here – with you – in the middle of a Thursday afternoon.”

  “Right. I can understand that.” He gnawed the edge of the biscuit and exchanged a look with Gracie as her mother let out a loud sigh and closed her eyes for a minute.

  “Gracie, we need to have a serious talk. History is repeating itself, and I don’t like it. No, correction, I hate it. I hated it when Addison flipped out within his first few weeks in the Navy, but a part of me had always suspected that Addison wouldn’t function too well outside Coastal County. You, on the other hand, the only reason you’re behaving this way is because you do everything Addison does. Everything. Does your brother know what you’re up to?”

  “Uh. Well. It’s kind of complicated.” Gracie couldn’t decide if it would be better to admit Addison was at least somewhat involved or to claim he was innocent. She took too long to respond, and her mother saw right through her.

  “Of course he does.” Jane May shook her head in disgust as she let out a loud sigh. “I swear to God. You two will be the death of me.”

  “What?” Gracie was getting genuinely confused. Her mother was clearly extremely upset.

  “Your counselor from school called me. She said you’re failing all of your classes. Now I see why. You’re home in the middle of the week even though your father expressly forbade you from coming home from college. Even worse, you’re apparently engaged to David. Are you doing this just to make your brother happy?”

  “I’m not-”

  Jane May cut her off again, her face flushed as red as a tomato. “I feel like I must be a horrible mother. Neither one of my children has any ambition. No goals. No standards. You can’t throw your future away for Addison. You can’t throw your life away because it makes him happy. I mean, Gracie, what is Cal going to say?”

  “He’s-”

  “And you?” Jane May turned on David. “You think it’s a good idea for her to miss school? You think it’s a good idea for us to throw our hard-earned money away on classes that she isn’t attending?”

  David took a step back away from Jane May. Pissed off mothers were high on the list of reasons he didn’t date.

  “Mom, will you please listen to me?” Gracie stepped between her mother and David. It had been a long, shitty week. She was tired of being pushed around by her mother’s morals. “I’m getting married,” she told her. “There is nothing you can do about it. I’m legally an adult, and you can’t stop me.”

  “Oh really?” Jane May’s face flushed with indignation. “Last time I checked you don’t have a job, missy.”

  “I can get one,” Gracie crossed her arms over her chest.

  “You better. As of right now you are cut off.” Jane May made a scissoring gesture with her hands. “Don’t even try to use your debit card. You better start figuring out how to pay for your own cellphone and car insurance.”

  “Fine,” Gracie snapped. “I will.”

  “Gracie, I don’t think that was the best way to-” David frowned and then stopped mid-sentence.

  “David, I’m having a conversation with my daughter. If you know what’s good for you, you will stay out of it,” Jane May snapped at him. “Gracie, get in the car. You’re going back to college if I have to drive you there myself. Now.”

  “No. I’m not, and I won’t.” She glared at her mother and took a step backwards so that David was between them. “I’m not going back to State. Not even if hell freezes over.”

  “And where do you think you’re going to live?” Jane May countered. “I’m not making the same mistakes twice. I may have enabled Addison, but you aren’t going to be so lucky.”

  “With Addison,” Gracie snapped. “I’ll live with Addison.”

  “Not if I have anything to say about it you won’t. I’ll talk to your Granny Pearl.”

  “Granny Pearl will never-”

  “That’s enough.” David stepped between the two of them. “Enough. Both of you. Y’all are making a spectacle of yourselves.”

  Gracie glanced towards the front of the store and realized that several people had gathered next to the door and were watching her mother yell at her.

  Jane May opened her mouth to say something else and then she abruptly shook her head, clearly noticing the same crowd of gawkers that Gracie had. “Get in the car,” she told her in a much softer tone of voice. “Get in the car or you will be cut off. Completely. I mean it. You won’t see another dime from your father or I.”

  “Not happening,” Gracie repeated, swallowing the lump that had unexpectedly risen up in her throat. She grabbed David’s arm to steady herself. After everything that had gone wrong in the last week, fighting with her mother was the icing on the ‘oh shit’ cake. “I hate college. I’m not going back,” she said firmly.

  “I hope you have a plan for how you’re going to survive on your own,” Jane May snapped as she opened the door of her battered minivan. “Don’t think this conversation is over, either.” She pointed directly at David. “You are not marrying your brother’s best friend.”

  She got into the van and slammed the door.

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” Gracie muttered under her breath as she watched her mother crank the minivan and drive away, nearly bald tires squalling on the pavement.

  *

  Eddie had pulled over two minivans and one ancient Chevrolet when a red Toyota flew past him going nearly 80 mph in an area with a speed limit of 45.

  Hitting his lights, he took off after the offending vehicle. He wondered if David had decided to paint his truck. He quickly decided a fresh paint job was highly unlikely. The truck he was following had giant chunks flaking off of the rusted-out body as it slowed down ahead of him.

  Eddie grabbed his radio and attempted to call into dispatch to let them know he was in the process of pulling over a speeder. The radio didn’t work. Again. He glanced underneath it and saw wires dangling. An Addison Malone special, undoubtedly.

  He sighed in disgust as the truck in front of him continued to slow but failed to stop. Instead of pulling over onto the shoulder of the road, the driver was ambling down the slow lane. Eddie clicked the buttons on his dead radio again as he committed the truck’s license plate to memory: N91 PQA. He couldn’t even raise static. He watched in surprise as the Toyota turned off the main road onto a narrow dirt trail. It was moving no faster than 5 miles an hour as Eddie turned the cruiser onto the trail after it.

  He had an uneasy feeling in his stomach as the truck eased to a stop just out of sight of the main road. Eddie knew the cruiser was just barely visible from the highway.

  As he sat and stared at the rusty bumper of the old truck, he considered using his cellphone to text the license plate number to someone. There were two problems with the idea; the first was that he would look like an insecure dork. The second was that none of the other officers had ever swapped numbers with him, and he had no one to text.

  Trying his best to ignore the danger signals around him, Eddie opened the door of his cruiser and prepared to write the driver of the truck a nasty, expensive speeding ticket.

  *

  Addison was finishing up an oil change when David and Gracie returned to the shop. Cal’s Chevy was already parked in an open garage bay.

  “Well it’s about time one of y’all showed up,” he grumbled as he dumped the old used oil into the 50-gallon drum David stored it in. “Gracie, you need to watch out for Mom. She’s on the warpath.”

  “Too late.” Gracie grimaced at him and they exchanged a look of pain only siblings can understand. “She caught us at the gas station. I’m moving in with you. Just to give you a heads up.”

  “Moving in with me?” Addison did a double take. “Why? Wait. What?”

  Gracie held up her left ring finger, displaying the diamond for her big brother to see. “Cal asked me to marry him,” she said with a grin. Cal walked over to h
er, and she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his shoulder.

  Addison grinned at them. “Awesome,” he told her. “I’m happy for y’all. Really.”

  “Good, because your Mom ain’t,” David grumbled as he walked over to the refrigerator on the back wall of the shop and pulled out a bottle of water.

  “What got her all worked up?” Cal asked.

  “She thinks Gracie wants to marry me. No one wants their precious baby girl to grow up and marry me.” David grumbled. “You know, I’m getting really tired of getting chewed out for my non-relationship with your wife.”

  “Again?” Cal shook his head at David. “Maybe I should be concerned.”

  “Eh, he’ll find a nice girl of his own eventually,” Addison looked down at Gracie with a puzzled look in his bright turquoise eyes. “Just out of curiosity, if you’re marrying Cal shouldn’t you be moving in with him?”

  “Cal still lives with his parents,” Gracie pointed out. “I just got kicked out of Mom and Dad’s. And cut off financially. I don’t suppose you’re willing to pay my cellphone bill this month, are you?”

  “Anything for you, baby girl.” Addison smirked. “Besides, I got a whole lecture on how you’re turning out just like me. It wasn’t flattering to either one of us.”

  “We got that lecture too,” David shook his head and double checked the tightness of the oil filter on the car Addison had just finished working on.

  “You got kicked out?” Cal asked, visibly surprised. “What happened?”

  “Mom’s on the warpath, like Addison said. She saw me at the gas station with David. She completely flipped out on us.”

  “You didn’t exactly play nice,” David pointed out.

  “She ordered me to get in her car so she could drive me back to State. Like I already told y’all, I’m not going back.”

  “Whoa. You’re dropping out of college?” Addison actually seemed surprised.

  “I’m failing everything anyway. I’ve spent most of my classes staring out the window hoping I’d see Cal’s truck outside and fantasizing about him coming and saving me. I probably should have been paying a little bit more attention to what the professors were saying.”