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

by Gen Anne Griffin

  “Does this mean that I get to keep my job?” Alex interrupted the Sheriff. “I mean, I know Cal technically solved the murder, but I did catch the guy. Well, okay, David tracked him and Addison tackled him. But?” He was watching his almost step-father with a distinctly hopeful expression on his face.

  “Alex knocked him unconscious.”

  “Alex was the one who found the car in the first place.”

  “When he saw the Toyota, he put it together right away that Perkins must have been the one who dumped that body.”

  Eddie’s hopes sunk a little further into the pit of his stomach as he heard Alex’s friends chiming in support of his hiring. Eddie wondered what it would be like to have friends that would go to bat for him. Friends willing to give up their own accomplishments so that he could benefit from them.

  The Sheriff frowned and gave his mustache a tug. “Actually-”

  “Alex deserves the job,” Eddie said the words so suddenly he surprised himself. “He’s a good cop. He did a good job catching the killer.”

  The rest of them stared at him in various stages of shock. Eddie knew how he must look. His uniform was caked in mud. He smelled like pee. He had bloody scratches all over his arms and face. According to David, his throbbing shoulder was probably dislocated. “Give the job to Alex,” he told the Sheriff. “He did a better job bringing Perkins to justice than I did.”

  “Wow. Gee. Thanks, Eddie,” Alex said. “That means a lot to me, coming from you.”

  “Actually, you’re both going to keep your jobs,” the Sheriff said.

  “What?” Eddie looked up in surprise.

  “How?” Alex asked.

  “Perkins is fired,” David pointed out, saving Wally Hall the trouble. “I mean, really, what did y’all expect?”

  Addison snorted back a laugh. Alex grinned and turned to Wally. “Is he right?”

  Wally nodded, releasing his grip on the mustache. “He’s right. Perkins is obviously fired. Since there are now two job openings and we have two candidates, it makes sense that y’all each get a job.”

  “Thank God,” Alex’s shoulders slumped in obvious relief. He turned to David. “Now you don’t have to hire me.”

  “I didn’t particularly want to hire you,” David was smiling when he said it. “You are a mechanical disaster. Everything you repair shorts out and catches fire.”

  “You still would have hired me. I’m your favorite cousin.” Alex was grinning now.

  “You’re also my only cousin.”

  “Still. I’m family. You wouldn’t let family starve.”

  “I would have hired you,” Cal said, earning another grin from Alex and an unexpected spurt of jealousy from Eddie. He was certain absolutely no one would have hired him if he hadn’t made the cut as a sheriff’s deputy.

  He looked over at Alex and the other deputy grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up. Eddie tried to hold onto his momentary resentment and couldn’t. He sighed. “I’m going to go back to my house, get cleaned up, and then go down to the station to file my report on all this.” He considered Alex for a minute. “You want me to just write about the entire incident and make a copy for you to sign as well?” he asked. “It would save Addison the trouble of rewriting it for you.”

  “Sure. Thanks,” Alex said gratefully.

  “That would be fantastic,” Addison said as he thumped Eddie hard on the shoulder and grinned down at him, “because I’m going home, getting a shower, and going to go get laid.”

  “No, you’re not,” Cal interrupted him before Eddie could even process what Addison had said. “You’re coming to dinner at my parents’ house. All of you are. Even Eddie, if he wants to.”

  “Okay. For what?” Alex asked.

  “Cal thinks he might be able to prevent his own murder if there are enough witnesses around when he tells my Dad that Gracie is dropping out of college to marry him,” Addison supplied with a sigh. “You realize I’m going to get my ass chewed out, again, right?” he asked Cal.

  “Suck it up.”

  “As long as Katie’s invited, we’ll be there,” Alex was grinning. He acted like he’d already forgotten that he’d been within seconds of being shot and buried in the swamp just hours ago.

  “Of course Katie’s invited. Everyone is invited,” Cal looked over at the Sheriff. “You going to be able to make it?”

  “If I leave for Baker’s County now.”

  “We need to go ahead and haul that truck up there too,” David said. He stood up and walked over to the wrecker. “I’ll follow you,” he told the Sheriff. The Sheriff and Alex were moving towards Alex’s cruiser. Perkins was glaring at them from the backseat of the car. Eddie was glad he wasn’t the one who had to transport the man.

  “How about you?” Cal asked, surprising him. “I meant it when I said you were welcome to come to dinner.”

  Eddie hesitated and then shook his head no. He didn’t fit in with Cal Walker and his friends. He appreciated what they had done for him today, he really did, but he wondered how close they had come to letting Perkins kill him.

  And then there was the matter of Josie.

  “Thanks for the invite, but I really just want to get a shower, write that report and go to bed.”

  “I understand,” Cal said. “See you around.”

  He walked over to the passenger seat of Addison’s truck and the two of them got in and drove away, leaving Eddie standing alone on the side of the road beside his own cruiser.

  *

  “As I relieved as I am to have a murderer off the streets, I know Richard Perkins isn’t why y’all insisted on having this dinner party,” Jane May waited until the last pork chop was sitting alone on the center dish and the potato salad was almost completely gone from the serving dish before she changed the topic from Richard Perkins’ arrest to the real reason Cal had asked his mother to host this celebratory dinner party.

  Addison groaned under his breath.

  David sighed and laid his head down on the fancy tablecloth. “Wake me up when I’m done getting my ass chewed,” he muttered. Loretta Walker neatly reached across the table, pinched him by the scruff of the neck, and pulled him back upright the same way she had when he’d been a bratty 8- year-old who had never eaten a meal that hadn’t come out of the microwave or a drive thru bag until he’d found himself seated at the Walker’s table staring at three different-sized forks. “Mind your manners, son.” She glared at him pointedly.

  “Oww.” He sat up and rubbed the back of his neck as she released him. “I hate that,” he said.

  “You’re not too old to get a whupping,” Loretta informed him with a teasing glint in her eye. “I don’t care how tough you think you are.”

  “You still going to make him pick his own switch?” Joshua Walker was sitting at the head of the table and smirking benevolently at the assembled crowd of Gracie and Cal’s closest family and friends. “Or do I get to?”

  “No, thank you.” David inched away from Joshua. The old man had literally beaten David onto the straight and narrow path when he had been a kid. As an adult, he was grateful for the morals and work ethic that Cal’s family had instilled him, but he had no desire to repeat the process.

  “I’ll never forget the first time you got your hands on him, Loretta,” Alex’s tiny, diminutive mother was laughing. “I don’t remember what he got in trouble for, but I do remember that he was horrified that you’d made him do housework as punishment for his crimes.”

  Loretta laughed. “He’d never seen a bottle of bleach before in his life. I made him scrub the grout with a toothbrush. Him and Cal both. They had painted my bathroom red trying to make fake blood for Halloween. After I’d specifically told them not to.”

  “We got into a lot of trouble back then,” Cal admitted with a chuckle. Gracie’s chair was almost touching his and her cheek was nearly resting on his shoulder.

  “Y’all still get in a lot of trouble,” Jane May pointed out bluntly and without humor. Her eyes flashed grimly.
Gracie’s and Addison’s mother had not smiled even once during the entire dinner. “Too much trouble, if you ask me.”

  “Good thing nobody is asking you,” Addison shot off with a snarky grin. He was sitting as far away from his mother as humanely possible while still being at the same table.

  “Addison!” Loretta shot him a warning glare and shook her head at him. “I don’t know what has gotten into you boys tonight.”

  “I think it was the part where we nearly all died,” Alex chimed in, not entirely helpfully. He was on his third helping of baked beans and was the only one still eating. “I don’t want to look at the barrel of a gun that close again. Ever.”

  “I think we should all just count our blessings that no one was seriously injured,” Granny Pearl said mildly. She cast a slightly nervous glance at where Jane May was still stewing. “We do have a lot to be thankful for.” Granny Pearl grinned broadly at Gracie, who had her chin resting on Cal’s shoulder.

  “Speaking of grateful,” Cal shifted his weight slightly and moved to draw everyone’s attention.

  Jane May beat him to it. “No. I’m not going willing to condone your actions any longer.”

  “What?” Addison blinked at her.

  “No.” Jane May crossed her arms over her chest and glared down at the fancy china place settings that were sitting around the elaborate formal dining room table in Cal’s parents’ house. “I’ve had quite enough of your behavior.”

  “Mine?” Addison asked. “Or Cal’s?”

  “Addison. Stop provoking your mother,” Granny Pearl kicked him under the table.

  “Stop enabling him.” Jane May glared at her mother-in-law. Gracie purposely sunk back into the wall and tried to blend in with the wallpaper. Cal squeezed her fingers under the table, and she twisted her arm so that the entire length of it was in contact with his warm skin. Cal was sitting back in the chair looking relaxed, despite Gracie’s mother’s ever increasing frustration.

  “Jane.” Miles Malone frowned at his wife. “I don’t think this is necessary. Not here. Not in front of everyone we know and care about.”

  “Oh, so you think we should just sit here and smile and nod while our daughter ruins her life?” Jane May turned on him viciously. “You want me to sit here and pretend I’m happy while she destroys her future just to please Addy?”

  “I’m not destroying my future,” Gracie snapped.

  “To please me?” Addison was baffled. He looked to David for parental translation, but David just shrugged his shoulders and snagged one of the last few pieces of garlic bread out of the basket.

  “She’s doing this to make you happy,” Jane May practically spit the words at him. “We all know how mad you were at her when she broke up with Cal. I know you made her life a living hell. Now she thinks she’s getting married just to get back in your good graces, and I won’t have it.”

  “I did not,” Addison glared at his mother. “Where the hell did you get that idea?”

  “It was obvious.”

  “To who?”

  “Me.”

  “Gracie, did I make your life a living hell?” Addison pouted at his kid sister.

  “No,” Gracie was telling the truth. She shrugged at Addison. “Mom, stop blaming Addy for me dropping out of college. It’s not his fault, and I didn’t even ask his opinion.”

  “You’re blowing this out of proportion, Jane.” Miles Malone was a man of few words but he was watching his flustered wife with a mixture of annoyance and exhaustion. “I, for one, am relieved to know that I won’t have to stay up at night worrying about how to pay the bill for her tuition for another three and a half years.”

  “Thank you, Daddy.”

  Miles narrowed his eyes at Gracie. “I do, however, have a problem with the lying, sneaking around and general disrespect you’re showing towards your mother.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Gracie swallowed a lump in her throat. Addison kicked her ankle under the table and gestured for Gracie to shut up. Gracie sunk down in the chair, leaning even closer to Cal’s side.

  “I’d like to know how you plan on supporting yourself?” Jane May glared at her daughter, her battle lines drawn. “Or where you think you’re going to be living?”

  “With Addison,” Gracie crossed her arms over her chest. “And as for a job,” she turned and glanced down the table at Joshua Walker. “Pappy, can I come work in the store with y’all? Please?”

  Pappy laughed. He’d always had a soft spot for Gracie, and she knew it. “You know you have a job any time you want it, baby girl.”

  “Thank you,” she smiled sweetly at Cal’s grandfather and batted her eyelashes at him. Pappy laughed as Gracie turned back towards her mother. “Next threat?” She demanded.

  “You just lost your car, young lady.”

  “Fine. Keep it. The transmission keeps getting stuck in third gear.” Gracie crossed her arms over her chest and glared defiantly back at her mother.

  “And as for you,” Miles turned on Addison.

  “Why do I keep getting drug into this?” Addison asked.

  “Because you’re a bad influence,” said David as he grinned at Addison, unable to hide his amusement at the turn the conversation had taken. “You know, like I usually get accused of being.”

  “You’re an even worse influence,” Jane May glared at David pointedly. “And you’re not marrying my daughter. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Not with my blessings.” She turned to Loretta, apparently mistaking the other woman’s calm demeanor for acceptance of a reality that didn’t exist anywhere besides in Jane May’s own mind. “I just don’t understand how you can sit here and be so calm, Loretta. You’re acting like this – ridiculous idea – is okay?”

  “I’m fine with the decisions the children have made,” Loretta spoke calmly and with a small smile carefully plastered on her rounded face. “I think it really is for the best, all things considered.”

  “For the best?” Jane May choked on the last word. She cast a glance from David, to Cal to Gracie and then on to Addison. “For the best?” she repeated. “I know that you love David just like he was your own son, but this is ridiculous. You can’t possibly think it’s a good idea for Gracie to drop out of college and marry David.”

  “Oh for the love of God,” David grumbled under his breath. He cast a sideways glance at Cal. “Can we set the record straight yet?”

  “I’m waiting for everyone to shut up first,” Cal said pointedly.

  “Why would David marry Gracie?” Granny Pearl sounded genuinely perplexed. “It’s obvious that Gracie and Calvin have resolved their differences.” She gestured to where Gracie was watching the argument with her chin on Cal’s shoulder. Their fingers were tightly intertwined.

  “Olivia Barker said Gracie and David were kissing in the middle of Italiano’s last weekend,” Jane began.

  “Oh good God, Jane. Olivia Barker said?” Wally choked on his spiked sweet tea. “Jane be reasonable. Olivia Barker is a lying nuisance.”

  “I didn’t believe her at first. Then I found out that Gracie really has been skipping her classes. Obviously she’s here now, even though she isn’t supposed to be.”

  “I have no-” David stopped when Loretta put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently.

  “Enough, all of you. Jane is clearly upset and you children – and yes I’m calling all of you children, because that is what you’re acting like -” Loretta shot a purposefully reproachful look at Addison, “need to stop tormenting her.”

  Loretta took a deep breath and looked purposefully at Cal. “Do you and Gracie have some news you would like to share with everyone, son?”

  Cal smiled slowly and held up Gracie’s left hand with his own right hand. The diamond ring glinted in the warm light that was being cast by the chandelier. “David’s not marrying Gracie. I am.”

  “Well, that makes a lot more sense,” Granny Pearl grinned. “Congratulations. I’m so happy the two of you have worked things out.”

&nbs
p; “Gracie and Cal?” Jane May stared at the two of them, her mouth hanging open. She was visibly deflated as she took in the way her daughter was leaning against her childhood sweetheart.

  “Right,” Addison eyed his mother warily. “For the record, I’m pretty sure they worked things out between themselves because they were miserable without one another. Not because of me.”

  “Addison had nothing to do with anything,” David grumbled.

  “Right,” Addison agreed, then frowned at him. “Was that supposed to be an insult?”

  “Moving right along.” Pappy smiled at Gracie and Cal. “I think this is the best news we’ve had all year. I’d like to propose a toast to Gracie, Cal, and the bright future ahead of them.”

  Everyone except for Jane May lifted their glasses.

  *

  “Hey, what are you still doing here?” Alex stuck his head in the doorway of the Sheriff’s Office and gave Eddie a curious glance. “I figured you would be home in bed by now.”

  “No. Not yet. I was just finishing my report,” Eddie frowned down at the discarded report in his hand, struggling to comprehend what he was reading. He hadn’t been sure how he felt about the days’ events when he had walked into Sheriff Hall’s office and set his finished report front and center in the middle of the Sheriff’s desk. “It took me four hours to write out my full account of what happened with Perkins today.”

  “Wow.” Alex looked suitably impressed. “Better you than me.”

  “Yeah. Your copy is on your desk. All you have to do is sign it,” Eddie told him distractedly. He had put his report on the Sheriff’s desk and turned around to walk back out of the office when he caught sight of a report sticking out of the wastebasket next to the desk. Without thinking about it, Eddie had reached down and picked up the packet of papers. Certainly, the Sheriff was aware that official police reports should always be shredded before they were disposed of. He’d wondered if the report had fallen off the desk and landed in the trash by accident. Eddie had been about to set the report back on the edge of the desk when his own name caught his eye. He’d recognized Addison Malone’s handwriting.