A Crying Shame (66 page)

I'll just take this into a guest room.” Jon indicated the suitcase.

Linda spoke to him in rapid-fire Cajun French. She told him it mattered not what he did with the suitcase. And he could put it somewhere else if he so desired.

Jon declined, also in French. He then beat a hasty exit from the room.

Yeah, lady,” Tammy said.
We did have a good time watching the bulls.”

I'm sure that's not all you did with them.”

Hey, your highness! This may come as a shock to you, since you almost rusted your chastity belt watching me flirt with Badon last evening, but I really did not ask for this assignment. I was glad to get it, but Governor Parker sent me out here. And by God, whether you like it or not, I'm here for the duration, or your man there gets rousted out of this parish and this state and the State Department can go kiss a duck!”

Neither you nor Governor Parker has the right to tell me who
I
shall entertain in my house!” Linda shouted.

Wrong, lady. This is the scene of a crime . . . an unsolved crime. Murder. And Sheriff Saucier can damned sure rescind his permission for you and Badon to stay out here. And furthermore—”

Oh, shut up!” Linda yelled.

Jon slipped out the back door just as the two ladies were squaring off in the den. He chuckled softly as he walked to the shed, carrying two bags of ice he had taken from the back-porch ice machine. He had placed the dead Link in a large packing crate after first lining it with heavy plastic. As soon as Linda and Tammy—and he could not figure out why the governor had sent her—had finished mopping up the blood after their battles, they would all ride into town and arrange for the delivery of several large freezer units—industrial types, if possible. Then he would call Drs. von Pappen and Lewis. They would come running, he felt sure.

Something crashed inside the home. Jon cringed, hoping it was not one of those lovely old vases.

Who'd you have to screw to get on the governor's staff?” Linda screamed, her words blasting through the humid air.

Screw?” Tammy squalled.
I got on the staff because I hold a master's in political science and am a damned smart woman, that's how!”

In a pig's ass!”