Proving Grounds: A London Carter Novel (London Carter Mystery Series Book 2)

by BJ Bourg

  I’d never thought of working with kids, but the idea appealed to me. What if I could make a difference in a young life? I could think of nothing more rewarding that helping young people blossom into decent and productive adults. I smiled and fished one of my cards from my wallet. “That sounds great.” I handed him the card. “Call me whenever and we’ll set something up.”

  When Eric walked off, Dean frowned. “It’s hard seeing Roger go. I left the military for him, and now he’s leaving me for the military.”

  I only nodded. Like Sergeant Boyd, I had no idea what it was like to send a child away to war. Dean had gotten out of the military after only serving four years to be close to his family, so I knew how much they meant to him.

  “It’s not the same military I left, London. These days, things are a lot worse.” Dean took some fish out of the fryer and tossed them into a large dish. “Anyone and everyone can be a terrorist out there, and they’re more evil than ever. In fact, I saw on the news that one of our military snipers turned on his own men. Killed twelve of our boys over the course of a month before they even realized he was the shooter. It was so unexpected. That never would’ve happened back in my day. We could depend on each other.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “I saw a report where some terrorists strapped bombs to little kids and sent them in the midst of our troops to beg for candy. According to the news anchor, eleven of our guys were killed and twenty others wounded. You can’t trust anyone these days.”

  Dean’s bottom jaw was jutting out at an odd angle. “You’re supposed to be telling me I’m being paranoid, and that everything will be just fine—not agreeing with me and one-upping my stories.”

  I winced. “Sorry. At least he’ll be up in the air where it’s safer.”

  “Do you know how many military planes are shot out of the sky every year?”

  “I’m going to let you finish up here,” I said, realizing I should probably leave Dean alone to fight with his demons. “I’ll go catch up with some of your other guests.”

  Dean grunted and turned back to the fryer, muttering something under his breath.

  I then began mingling, stopping often to visit with some of the officers I knew. There were some new faces, but I knew most of the people there. I had just turned away from one of my old buddies when I saw her. My eyes widened and my heart cut a flip in my chest.

  CHAPTER 16

  Dawn seemed to float in slow motion as she broke from one of the small groups of people socializing and stepped into the glow of an overhead light. She was searching the various groups, her brown hair flowing over her bare shoulders. Her face was set as though she were on a mission. She finally turned toward me and flashed a perfect smile. She waved and headed in my direction. The blue dress she wore was thin and clung to her sculptured body. As she walked, I could see the toned muscles of her legs and thighs ripple beneath the fabric.

  I knew if I tried to speak I’d probably stammer, so I just kept my mouth shut and smiled when she reached me.

  “Hey, sorry I’m late,” she said. “The sheriff called and kept me on the phone for thirty minutes.”

  “I haven’t been here long.” I felt a stirring in my chest when I looked into her brown eyes. They sparkled in the light and seemed to penetrate through to my soul. I looked away for fear she might be able to read my thoughts, asked, “What’re you drinking?”

  “Water,” she said, moving to stand beside me and scan the crowd. “What about you?”

  “Same. I’ll be right back.” I walked to a table that was set up as a bar and asked for two waters. The girl twisted the cap off of two plastic bottles and handed them to me. As I turned to go back to where I’d left Dawn, I couldn’t help but notice that every man within viewing distance was staring at her as though she’d just stepped off of a cloud. If she noticed, she didn’t pay it much attention. I figured a girl like her was probably accustomed to men gawking at her.

  “Thanks,” she said when I handed her one of the bottles. “Why don’t we grab some food and find a place to sit?”

  My stomach was growling again, so I readily agreed. When we had filled up two plates with fried shrimp, barbecue chicken, and three or four side dishes, we found a quiet table at the edge of the property near a row of round bushes, and took our seats.

  We talked about the case while we ate, and we both admitted to having no clue who killed Norris. I asked if there’d been any word from Melvin on Patrick’s fingerprints, but she said no.

  “I’ll have to call that little shit first thing in the morning,” she said. “He probably forgot about it or just put it off. You know how it goes with some of these guys—the only case that’s important to them is the one they’re working.”

  I glanced over my shoulder. “Is he here?”

  “He’d better not be. If he is, I’ll make him leave to run the prints.”

  I laughed, but knew she would.

  I finished eating before she did, as she appeared to be mostly picking at her food, and I asked where she was from. “You don’t have the typical Cajun accent.”

  “Thanks…I think?” She grinned. “I’m from Arkansas originally. Haven’t been home in a while, though.”

  “Yeah, the word around the campfire is you’re married to your job.”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  “Not to me,” I said. “It’s just what I’ve heard.”

  “Yeah, I guess they’re right. I think it’s why I’ve never settled down and gotten married.” Dawn began using her fork to play with what was left of her food. “I’ve seen too many families torn apart because the job is so demanding. It’s what happened to Brandon. His wife just didn’t understand the commitment. Instead of respecting what he did and supporting him, she always viewed it as a competition—a competition she was constantly losing.”

  I’d never considered getting married and having kids, and I said as much.

  “Why not?” She looked up from her food, her brown eyes curious.

  I hesitated.

  “What is it?” she pressed. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “I don’t like talking about myself,” I said. “It’s all rather boring anyway. Let’s talk about why you—”

  “London Carter, if you think you’re going to get off that easy, you grossly underestimate me.”

  Grinning, I said, “Maybe some other time.”

  Dawn leaned across the table and didn’t stop until she was about three inches from my face. “Truth or dare,” she said in a sultry voice.

  I knew if I said truth she would ask me to tell her the truth about why I’d never been married, so I smiled coyly and said, “Dare.”

  Dawn settled back in her seat and plopped her elbows on the table. Grinning wide, she said, “I dare you to tell me why you never considered getting married and having kids.”

  “Wait, is that legal?”

  “Absolutely. Now, spill it.”

  “I guess I just don’t want to be tied down.”

  Dawn’s brow furrowed. “I’m thinking it’s more than that. Come on, you took the dare.”

  Sighing, I told her I didn’t want to be that close to anyone again. “If you love someone that much, it makes you weak. Folks can use them against you.” I was quiet for a moment, and then said, “Plus, it sucks when you lose them.”

  “What happened to your family? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “No, it’s okay. I was competing in an amateur boxing match in Texas. I rode up with my coach and some of the other fighters. My dad was following us. My mom, sister, and brother were with him. It was late on a Friday night and we were driving through this little town west of the Louisiana-Texas line when a car ran a red light. It just missed my coach’s car, but it sideswiped them. The car was so messed up. There was blood—”

  “Hey, London, how are you?”

  I cringed when I heard the voice behind me. I detected a look of amusement on Dawn’s face as I turned toward Sally, who was hanging on Staff Sergeant
Eric Boyd. Sally’s blouse was open wide, exposing a healthy dose of pale cleavage. Eric’s eyes were glassy and he seemed a bit tipsy as he stood there swaying and enjoying the attention he was receiving from such a beautiful woman. Sally was swaying, too, and her voice was a little slurred.

  “I’m great.” I smiled up at them, relieved she had found someone else to sink her claws into. Sally was a nice woman, but she and I wanted different things from each other. She envisioned a house with a white picket fence in a crowded neighborhood and three screaming kids, while I envisioned something quite different. I wasn’t sure what I wanted in the long term, but there was nothing about her future plans that appealed to me—and she hated it when someone told her no.

  “Did you know Eric here trained Dean’s son, Roger?”

  “That’s what I hear.” Roger and a young girl with short black hair stood beside Eric and Sally. I introduced Dawn to Roger and then smiled at the young girl. While Dean had brought Roger around the range a few times, I’d only seen his daughter a handful of times. “Hey, you were about six inches tall the last time I saw you. What’s your name again?”

  She blushed at the sudden and unexpected attention. “Um, I’m Lily.”

  “That’s my favorite sister,” Roger said. “She’s a senior at South Magnolia High this year—the big girl on campus now.”

  Lily smiled and her face turned even redder.

  “What’re you going to do after high school?” Dawn asked. “Do you want to join the military like your brother or will you get into law enforcement like your dad?”

  “Oh, God, no,” Lily said, shaking her head. “None of that stuff for me. I’m going to be a biologist and I plan to supervise the reintroduction of wolves into the Smoky Mountains. They tried it a few years ago and failed, but I’m going to succeed.”

  “That’s very interesting,” Dawn said. “I like your spunk and your vision.”

  Lily smiled and nodded her thanks, but Sally’s giggling caused the smile to quickly fade from her face. She turned toward her brother and mouthed the words, “Let’s get away from them.”

  Roger waved her off and she crossed her arms in anger, obviously not impressed by Sally and her new fling.

  Sally rubbed her hand on Eric’s chest and whispered something in his ear. It was his turn to blush and Sally smiled wickedly in my direction. Lily rolled her eyes as Eric and Sally stumbled off, both obviously drunk.

  “Why are we even hanging around them, Roger?” Lily’s bottom chin was jutting out. “They’re drunk and they’re acting stupid.”

  “Oh, stop, Lils,” Roger said. “He’s the whole reason I got into to military.”

  “Then I hate him already,” Lily said as she and Roger walked off to catch up with Eric and Sally. “I don’t want you to leave. I’m going to miss you.”

  Dawn frowned. “That’s sad.”

  “What is?” I asked.

  “Lily doesn’t want Roger to go away.”

  I just nodded as I stared after them, thinking back to my own siblings.

  After we were seated around the table again, Dawn looked over at me. “You know she was trying to make you jealous.”

  “Who?” I scowled. “Sally?”

  “Yep.”

  “Well, it had the opposite effect. I’m relieved she moved on to someone else, but I do feel sorry for Eric.”

  “Isn’t the man married?”

  I nodded.

  “Then I feel sorry for her.” Dawn waved her hand in the air. “Someone should send his wife a picture of Sally hanging all over him…see how long he survives in his sleep.”

  I laughed and then changed the subject. We sat there talking late into the night, and the conversation never turned back to work. I couldn’t remember having that much fun in a long time. It must’ve been around midnight when I looked up and noticed we were virtually alone. What had once been a party buzzing with activity now looked like a scene right out of the Walking Dead. The only evidence there had even been a party was the empty beer cans, paper plates, and other random trash strewn about the yard.

  “Where’d everybody go?” I asked. “It looks like we shut down the party.”

  Dawn turned her head and gawked. “Did people seriously leave their trash scattered around the yard?”

  There was movement across the way and I saw Dean trudging around with a trash bag. After helping him clean up the mess, we thanked him for inviting us and I turned to Dawn. “Ready to go?”

  “Wait, have y’all seen Sergeant Boyd?” Dean asked, looking around. “Roger was looking for him earlier. He thinks he left without saying goodbye.”

  Dawn raised her eyebrows and pointed to a dark corner of the property, where a white swing was hanging from a low-lying oak tree branch.

  When Dean looked where she pointed and saw Eric making out with a blonde-haired woman, he gasped. “Is that Sally Piatkowski?”

  I grinned and slapped Dean’s shoulder. “She’s his problem now.”

  “But…he’s married!”

  We left Dean standing there in shock and I walked Dawn to her car. She hit the unlock button on her keyless remote and didn’t protest when I opened the door for her. She seemed to hesitate in the doorway, inches from me, but then quickly turned away and slipped into the driver’s seat. She was sitting with one leg in the car and the other out of it, and her position caused her skirt to ride up a little on her tanned thighs and expose her well-defined leg.

  “Want to meet at the substation in the morning?” she asked.

  Keeping my eyes focused on her face, I nodded. “Does Norm work on Saturdays?”

  “He would if I asked him to. Why? Do you want to go back out to the scene?”

  “I want to visit with Mr. Simoneaux again and I want to go back to the sniper’s hide—see if we missed anything.”

  “Sounds great. I’ll call Norm and set it up.”

  “See you in the morning then.” Once Dawn put her leg in the car, I closed the door and watched her drive away.

  “Get that shit out of your head right now, boy,” I said to myself as I began to wonder what it would be like to be with her. I walked to my truck and muttered out loud that I needed a cold shower.

  CHAPTER 17

  Saturday, September 1

  Clayton Boudreaux stared at the girl sitting across from him in the boat. She wore tight jean shorts and a white T-shirt. Her dark hair was straight and long, just how he liked them. A surge of excitement coursing through him, he grabbed onto a nearby branch and pulled the boat deeper into the shadows of the trees that lined Bayou Magnolia. The early morning breeze rustled the leaves overhead. Clayton slowly studied his surroundings. He hadn’t seen a boat or heard a motor in about ten minutes. Plenty of time to have some fun, he thought. He turned to Joyce Cole and nodded. “All’s clear.”

  With a wicked grin, she bent over and slowly began untying her sneakers. Once the strings were loose and dangling, she pulled one shoe off and then the other, tossing them to the side. After taking a quick glance around, she smiled and pulled off her T-shirt, exposing a bright pink bikini top that popped against her bronze complexion. Her stomach was lean and her breasts stretched the fabric of the skimpy top to the point of ripping.

  “Wow,” Clayton said, feeling the excitement build in the pit of his stomach. “You’re so hot.”

  Although she had been painted brown by long hours in the artificial sun of one of Seasville’s few tanning salons, Clayton could see a bit of red bleeding through Joyce’s cheeks as she blushed. “Thank you,” she said, her voice a nervous whisper. “I’ve never done it in a boat before. Are you sure we’re alone out here?”

  “Just us and the gators.”

  Joyce kicked off her shorts next and Clayton sucked in his breath. She was wearing one of those low-riding bikini bottoms that always made him weak in the knees. He’d met Joyce at the marina restaurant where she worked and it had taken him about a month to convince her to take a boat ride with him. He’d heard from some of his buddie
s that she was easy, but he didn’t care. I don’t plan on marrying you, he thought. I just want to—

  “I heard something!” Joyce squatted low in the boat and turned to look over her shoulder toward the opposite side of the bayou.

  Clayton steadied himself by holding onto some of the surrounding branches and peered through the leaves. He saw the remnants of a ripple of water near the far bank. “It’s a redfish,” he said. “Nothing to worry about.”

  Joyce sighed and stood. “Where was I?” she asked with that devilish grin, reaching behind her back to untie the bikini top.

  Clayton felt like a kid at Christmas unwrapping the best present ever. He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips as Joyce pulled the string from the bikini top and allowed it to fall to the floor of the boat. She smiled as she stood there topless, her perky breasts exposed for the world to see.

  Clayton’s mouth was dry and his hands shook. He could see she was excited—or cold—and he knew she could see his excitement. While he talked a good game, truth was he’d only been with one girl, and he’d had to drink a pint of vodka to work up the courage to make a move. He smiled at the thought of Lauren. She had been his first—and his last—girlfriend. They’d dated all through high school and into her first year of college before she dumped him for some soft kid from the city. He had cursed himself for wasting so many years of his youth on one girl. He should’ve been more adventurous, sowed more oats—run up a tally on the local talent. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so nervous around the opposite sex. No matter. That was then, and this is now. He’d decided to jump in with both feet and, although his buddies confirmed that Joyce was a sure thing, his newfound confidence was already paying off.

  Well, maybe confidence isn’t the right word, he thought. More like desperate not to be a one-hit wonder.