by Frankie Bow
Santiago looked at his glass.
“I can’t drink on duty,” he said. “But you ladies might want to pour yourselves a glass of something good about now.”
“I have some Chardonnay.” Ally got up to get the wine from the fridge.
“That’ll do. You ladies are acquainted with the Roche family?”
“I’ve met Desiree Roche,” I said warily.
“She’s a friend of Justin’s,” Ally added.
“You know the little one, Aimee?”
“Desiree’s spoken of her,” I said. “What about Aimee?”
“Aimee is the last.”
“The last what?”
“Since the spill, not one of the families has had a live birth to speak of. Not one that’s lasted more than a few hours.”
“That’s not true,” I said. “I’ve seen families around here with little babies. In fact at that Nutria fair…wait. Which families are you talking about?”
“Ohhh,” Ally glanced at me. “I know what you mean, Detective.”
“It’s okay, Ally,” I said. “I already know all about it. Wait. Justin was saying something about how the hydrocarbons in the environment were more harmful to organisms with fast metabolisms.”
“Bingo,” Santiago said. “Shifting from one form to another in a minute is about as fast as it gets. So Justin’s research is going to be very interesting to various parties, including those who have been…blessed with a peculiar gift.”
“So this is real? This werewolf thing?”
“They prefer ‘shifter’,” Ally said. “It’s not politically correct to call them werewolves anymore.”
“Sorry. I knew that.”
“So you’re saying Desiree and her people, they were looking at some kind of Children of Men scenario?”
“Some what?” I asked.
“It’s a book about when people stop being able to have children.” Ally gave me a funny look. “How can you not have heard of it? You’re a librarian.”
“So Detective,” I said. “Why would Desiree Roche approach some inexperienced grad student for help and not someone like Toby LaRoquette? Isn’t Toby a genetics expert?”
“Ah. LaRoquette. Now this brings me to my main point. No, I don’t believe LaRoquette can help them.”
“But he checks out,” I said. “He’s a world class genetics researcher. I looked him up on the university website. He’s legit. In fact, he seems to be one of their stars.”
“Oh, that he is. Brings in millions in grants. Mostly from an outfit called The Alliance for a Better Tomorrow.”
“That’s their actual name?”
“Sounds nice,” Ally said.
“No it doesn’t,” I said. “It sounds suspicious. So who exactly is behind this Alliance of Happy Yellow Smiley Faces?”
“It’s a consortium of chemical and petroleum companies,” Santiago said. “If LaRoquette wants to keep his grant money coming in, he can’t officially acknowledge that the spill caused any problems at all. He’s definitely not going to put his name on any research that incriminates them.
I sighed, the sound of my magical evening deflating. “Great. Now I understand why LaRoquette was so eager to discourage Justin from working on this. He said if he were in Justin’s shoes, he’d turn around and go back to Hawaii right now. I’m sure he intended for me to pass that along.”
“What a jerk!” Ally crossed her arms. “And Justin trusted him too. Meanwhile all along LaRoquette just wanted to discourage him from doing his research.”
“So Detective, what’s your interest in this?”
Santiago’s expression turned opaque.
“I’m investigating a murder,” he said.
“Are you working with Carter?” Ally asked.
“We’re not involving local law enforcement at this point in time.”
“LaRoquette’s involved in a murder?”
“I can’t tell you that. Officially. But I do want to tell you to be careful. Keep your doors locked, call the police at any sign of intruders. Although you do seem to be able to look out for yourself, Miss Morrow.” Santiago massaged his throat.
“Is Justin in danger?” Ally asked.
“I don’t know. One thing in his favor is that LaRoquette’s two hours away in New Orleans.”
“No he’s not.”
I looked from Ally to Santiago and back.
“Toby LaRoquette just took me to dinner. He dropped me off about fifteen minutes before you came by.”
It’s a testament to the man’s distracting charm that it was only now that something occurred to me.
“When Toby invited me to dinner, I mentioned that you were tailing me. And he said, if this Nick Santiago follows us, I’ll just invite him to pull up a chair and explain himself.”
“That sounds rather civilized,” Santiago said.
“Here’s the problem. I never told Toby your first name.”
Santiago and I rose out of our seats at the same time.
“Ally, call Ida Belle. Tell her LaRoquette might be coming after Justin. Then call Carter. Santiago and I are heading over to Ida Belle’s now.”
The whole dinner date must have been a ruse, so that Toby LaRoquette would have a plausible excuse for driving out to Sinful. He was after Justin. I was just the means to an end.
I could feel sorry for myself later. Right now, Detective Nick Santiago and I had a murder to prevent.
I ran upstairs to my bedroom and tucked my nine-millimeter into the waistband of my jeans. Not best practice as far as safety, but it’s always worked for me in a pinch. I led the way out, Santiago behind me. I picked up speed, then broke into a run. I could hear him wheezing behind me. I wasn’t going to wait for him. He’d have to keep up.
I heard a snarl coming from the side of the road. I slowed to a walk. Santiago had heard it too. Both of us were holding our guns now.
A tawny shape shot out of the bushes, straight at Santiago. It was a flashback to the night that Justin was attacked. I aimed, but before I could get a clear shot, another cougar came sailing out of nowhere. I aimed at it, and then lowered my gun.
The second cat sank its teeth into the neck of the first one. Nick Santiago rolled away from the fighting cats, stood up, and for the second time that evening, brushed gravel and crushed shells off his suit.
The two cougars struggled for a few moments, but the one that had attacked Santiago had been seriously wounded. We backed away slowly down the dark road, not wanting to draw the carnivores’ attention with sudden movements.
“I think this is what happened to Thibodeaux,” Santiago whispered.
“That’s exactly what the Medical Examiner said. Thibodeaux was attacked by a…”
The words dried up on my tongue. As we watched, the mortally wounded cougar shimmered and shifted.
A naked, bleeding man lay by the side of the road. He looked a heck of a lot like Toby LaRoquette.
A highlight reel ran in my mind. Toby bonding with Merlin, my cat. Toby holding Merlin’s catnip toy next to his face, inhaling the scent. Toby clutching his left shoulder, still sore where Ida Belle had shot him while he was attacking Justin. Of course he hadn’t been feeling well when Celia invited him to the Annual Sinful Nutria Jamboree. He’d been recovering from a gunshot wound.
How could I not have seen it? The only way he could have made it more obvious is if he’d coughed up a hairball at dinner.
Now, standing over Toby, was an equally naked Desiree Roche, her face smeared with blood.
She said something that sounded accusing, but I couldn’t understand the words.
“Can you translate for me?” I whispered to Santiago. He nodded.
“She says I’m sorry, Toby, but this stops now. Now he says you’re on the wrong side. I was gonna find an answer. She says No, you were never gonna give up the money. You don’t care about anything else. He says don’t tell me I didn’t care. I’m the one…” Santiago’s voice trailed off, and he crossed himself.
“What
? Detective Santiago, what did he say?”
Santiago took a deep breath. “He says I’m the one who had to open a specimen bag and find my own daughter in there.”
Desiree was weeping now, shouting at Toby as he lay there and bled.
“She says Justin was the only one who could help us,” Santiago translated. I heard a catch in Desiree’s voice, and saw the glint of tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Now she says I’m sorry Toby.” Santiago whispered. “I’m sorry.”
Desiree bent down as if to kiss him. As her blonde curls covered Toby’s face and neck, his body convulsed, and then lay still.
I heard the siren, and Carter’s truck pulled up with an impatient crunch on the gravel.
Toby LaRoquette breathed his last in the glare of Carter LeBlanc’s headlights.
Chapter 14
Gertie, Ida Belle, Justin and Ally had missed the previous night’s excitement, so I had to fill them in over breakfast the next morning at Francine’s Diner. Ally was working the breakfast shift, so she hung out at our table, listening to my account of the evening’s events.
“You know, this gives me an idea for my next book,” Gertie said.
“Your next book?” I asked.
“I’ve been self-publishing my erotic romance novels.”
“They’re pretty steamy,” Ida Belle added.
“Novels, plural? Gertie, I’m impressed.”
“The first one was called Sinful Moments,” Gertie said.
“Isn’t that the name of Celia’s website?”
“And then the sequel was Sinful Interludes. I think my next one is going to be about a handsome but wicked university researcher who can transform himself into a deadly wild animal.”
“You should call it Sinful Science,” Ida Belle said.
“I don’t know,” Gertie frowned. “That doesn’t sound very sexy to me.”
Everyone was relieved that the ruthless Toby LaRoquette was out of the picture. Only Justin seemed troubled.
“So you’re saying Desiree was with Professor LaRoquette?” he asked. “They were, together, like?”
“Looks like it,” I said.
“So Desiree really was just interested in my research then?”
“Did she tell you any different?” Ida Belle asked.
“Well no, not exactly, but…shoot. And I sent LaRoquette his own dead baby in a specimen bag?”
“Justin,” Ally rested her free hand on his shoulder. “You couldn’t possibly know.”
“Aw man. No wonder he tried to take a bite outta me.”
“I don’t think it was personal,” I said. “I think he just wanted you to stop nosing around. How are you feeling, by the way?”
“We had a little episode last night,” Gertie said. “Right around the time all of your excitement was going on.”
Justin rested his face in his hands. “I’m so sorry Aunty.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ida Belle said. “I’ll just add the repair costs to your rent bill. We had Doctor Broussard come by. He said the condition will fade over time. His episodes will get further and further apart.”
“How long will that take?” I asked.
“At least a year,” Gertie said. “And Doctor Broussard advised against air travel. Especially that long flight over the ocean back to Hawaii. Just to be on the safe side.”
I shot a wary glance at Ally, who was still standing there, holding the coffee pot.
“I know all about it, Fortune.” She smiled at Justin.
“You do?”
“I told her everything,” Justin said. “About my, you know, whatevers.”
“It’s nice to know what’s going on around here for a change,” Ally said. “You know, I thought it was kind of weird when he started eating vegetables. Justin, I’m glad you’ll be sticking around for a while.”
Justin blinked at her as if coming out of a fog. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, me too, Ally.”
Ally smiled, blushed, and hurried away to attend to the other diners.
After breakfast I went across the street to Walter’s General Store. I thought I might pick up a fresh catnip toy for Merlin. He’d already loved the first one to death.
I didn’t see Walter behind the counter. But I noticed someone lurking in the candy aisle. I slipped out my cell phone and started filming. Then I jogged home and uploaded my footage to Sinful Moments, The Official Crowdsourced Video Channel of Sinful, Louisiana.
I showered and changed, and with nothing else on my agenda for the rest of the day, I thought I might check in on Deputy Carter LeBlanc. It had been a while since I’d seen him socially, so I called first. He was home and sounded reasonably happy to hear from me.
I found Carter and his uncle Walter sitting at the kitchen table, staring at an open laptop.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Carter just called me over here,” Walter said.
“I had some free time, and I thought I’d have a look at our town’s new video channel,” Carter said, “and first thing I saw was footage of the General Store.”
“Now Carter, don’t you do anything rash,” Walter said. “She’s still your boss.”
“Look at this,” Carter said. “There’s so many hits, they crashed the server. I can’t even get in now.”
“What about Carter’s boss?” I asked innocently.
“You won’t believe it,” Carter said. “Celia Arceneaux is Walter’s candy thief.”
“There she is, Fortune, plain as day, standing in my candy aisle, dressed to the nines and scooping peanut tortues into her handbag like a starving woman. Must have happened when I was back in the stockroom. I do wonder who could’ve filmed it.” He squinted at me.
“Gosh, could’ve been anyone. Carter, mind if I grab myself something to drink?”
Carter started to stand up.
“I got it. I’m right here.”
I opened the refrigerator and reached for a can of Diet Coke, but paused at the sight of the stacks of white pastry boxes filling the bottom two shelves. I leaned down and sniffed one of the boxes. The aroma was unmistakable.
“Carter?” I closed the refrigerator door and popped open the can. “Why do you have a fridge full of Ally’s nutria pies?”
“You liked those pies?” Walter asked his nephew incredulously.
“Tiny loves them,” Carter sighed. “But please don’t tell Ally I’m feeding them to my dog. I’m sure she intended them for human consumption. I probably shouldn’t have bought all of them, but no one else was, and I didn’t like seeing her so depressed about no one liking her pies.”
“Well that was a fine thing that you did, Carter LeBlanc,” Walter said.
“I agree.” I smiled at Carter as he pulled out a chair for me and I seated myself. “Like Gertie says, it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
“Well,” Walter stood up. “Looks like I better get back to the store. I guess if I leave it too much longer I’ll come back to find it stripped to the studs, and Celia walking off with my cash register.”
“You don’t have to get going too?” Carter asked me.
“Not right away,” I said.
Walter flashed me an approving grin on his way out.
“So what’s the occasion?” Carter seemed wary.
I took a sip of cola to brace myself. Carter deserved at least some honesty.
“I was angry at you,” I said.
“No kidding. What for?”
“I don’t like the way you talk down to me. It reminds me of my father.”
“Your father? I know that’s not a compliment.” He sighed. “Fortune, have you ever watched someone die because of a stupid mistake?”
I opened my mouth, then shut it again. The answer was yes, but the details didn’t exactly fit with my school librarian backstory.
“If I have a choice between hurting someone’s feelings and watching them lose their life, I’ll go with the hurt feelings. Especially if it’s someone I�
�care a lot about. Fortune, if anything happened to you…look. I understand what you’re saying. I do. I’m sorry. I really am. And thank you for being honest with me. Honesty’s the most important—are you okay?”
I was choking on my iced tea, but I just nodded my head quickly and swallowed.
Carter’s phone rang.
“Sorry Fortune, I have to get this. It’s Detective Santiago.”
Chapter 15
That evening Nick Santiago, Carter LeBlanc, and I were sitting in Carter’s office, drinking terrible burned coffee out of Styrofoam cups. Santiago’s cheap brown suit looked shabbier than ever under the fluorescent light, caked with ground-in dirt where he’d hit the ground the night before. I guess he’d only packed the one suit.
“Now why would Toby LaRoquette want to kill a hunter he’d never met?” Carter was asking Santiago.
“I believe LeRoy Thibodeaux may have happened upon something that LaRoquette wanted kept secret.”
“And LaRoquette was prowling around the woods, waiting for people to stumble across things they weren’t supposed to see?”
“LaRoquette had divided loyalties,” Santiago said. “The consortium that was funding his research was also responsible for the pollution that was causing the health issues in his community.”
Carter rubbed his temples.
“Health issues. You mean the fact that since the spill, none of them could have kids.”
“None that survived. Correct.”
“And why did you request Fortune be present at this meeting?”
“Miss Morrow was the only witness, besides myself. She was with me when we came upon the male victim, who was suffering from injuries related to an animal attack when we found him.” Santiago slid his gaze to me. “I thought her recollections might be useful, at least as corroboration.”
So we weren’t going to say anything about seeing two cougars fighting and then turning into naked people and arguing with each other. Fine with me. That version of the story certainly made everyone’s job easier, especially Carter’s.
“I had gone to Miss Morrow’s house in the course of my investigation. She informed me that LaRoquette was not in New Orleans as I had believed but was in the immediate vicinity and that Justin Lao might be in danger. She agreed to accompany me to Mr. Lao’s residence.”