Blown Away (21 page)

“Like freakin’ twins,” Hershel muttered, then eyed Mike curiously. “Where do you fit into this mess?”

“Someone notified me that my personal assistant, Susan Blackwell, was in the hospital, unconscious. I rushed there, only to find an impostor. I was all ready to call the police on her myself, then she woke up. I realized she was Susan’s cousin, who I’d heard about for years but never met, then I heard her story and…well…”

“He took me home with him,” Cari said. “He’s fed me and clothed me, and helped me bury my family. I haven’t legally committed any kind of fraud because I haven’t spent any of Susan’s money—or any of mine. I’ve made no legal claims on Susan’s property in Baton Rouge. I’ve just been waiting to be well enough to start the search.”

“The search for what?” Hershel asked.

“The body. I’d just lived through a tornado. I’d seen my parents dead. My cousin dead. I had a hole
in my head that took eleven staples to close. I figured no one would believe me. You know what he is…Bordelaise’s golden boy. The heir to Morgan’s Reach. I figured I would need the body or no one would believe a thing I was saying.”

Hershel was beginning to understand the dilemma she’d faced.

“So did you find it?”

“Not yet. We just got back yesterday. I spent the day going through the debris, trying to find some keepsakes. As for finding the body, even without looking, I know it’s not where I saw him digging. Lance isn’t stupid. I saw him climbing out of the hole to give chase, and I took off running and didn’t look back. I don’t know what happened, but I’m guessing he went back and covered up the hole, then hid the body somewhere else. Thinking that if I did go to the authorities, it would be my word against his. And you know our history…he could have claimed I was just trying to pay him back for the stunt he pulled that broke our engagement.”

Hershel’s frown deepened as he began to understand her reasoning. “Okay. I get that. But why didn’t you say something to me at the funeral? I’d just told you about a man going missing, remember?”

“And once again, I had no body to show you. But what I did have, and still do, is a head full of staples. Wrap your mind around what a good defense attorney could do with that. Besides, Lance showed up
last night with a gun. Said he was looking for lost cattle, but I didn’t believe him.”

“Damn, woman. Your mess is bigger than anything you write about in your books.”

Cari smiled. “You read my books?”

He shrugged, then looked a little embarrassed. “Now, Carolina, you know everyone in Bordelaise reads your books. It’s kinda like blowing out the candles on a birthday cake and shooting off firecrackers on the Fourth of July. You’re one of us. That makes it tradition…you know?”

Cari looked away as a fresh set of tears began to flow.

Mike sighed. “Oh hell. Now you’ve done it.”

Hershel looked rattled, then cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“So what made you come tell me now? Before you have a body?”

“Lance knows I’m not Susan.”

“How do you know that?” Hershel asked.

“It’s a long story, but trust me…he knows.”

“Which means her life is in danger again,” Mike pointed out.

Hershel shook his head. “I just don’t get it. Why would Lance kill this man? If the man you saw him burying was, in fact, the missing attorney from Chicago, why did he kill him? We know he owed money on the property, but it’s been paid. And he didn’t owe it to the lawyer, anyway.”

“I don’t know why. And it doesn’t matter. He still
did it,” Cari said, then turned to Mike. “Tell him about what your security team discovered?”

Mike stood. Without thinking, he began to pace.

“This is what we know, and how we figured it out. Right after hearing Cari’s story, I ran a background check on Lance Morgan. Found out he owed a Chicago loan shark named Dominic Martinelli almost a quarter of a million dollars, and that he’d defaulted on the loan. Then we found out a lawyer named Austin Ball, who represented Martinelli, had come to Bordelaise to serve foreclosure papers and disappeared. With his connection to Morgan and what Cari had seen, we guessed he was most likely the dead man Cari had seen, but we couldn’t prove it.”

Hershel sighed. “But the loan’s been paid. What reason would Morgan have to kill the man if the loan got paid?”

Cari picked up the story. “The loan wasn’t paid off until after the lawyer disappeared, since he was coming down here to serve foreclosure papers. I doubt Joe Morgan found out about the foreclosure until after the fact. The family has always bought Lance out of every mess he’s been in, and everyone knows it. Joe is the only one left now. The job fell to him.”

“Do you think he knew about the murder?” Hershel asked.

“Lord no!” Cari cried. “And I know when he finds out, it’s going to devastate him.”

Hershel nodded, then remembered something
Mike had said earlier. “Cari, you saw a car at the site where Morgan was burying the body, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me what kind of car it was?”

Cari frowned. “I’m not good with makes and models, and I was looking at the body in the rug and Lance standing in the grave, but I know it was a black, newer model car, and I’m pretty sure the tag indicated a rental.”

“Son of a bitch,” Hershel said, thinking of the car they’d found in the treetops on Morgan’s Reach and traced to Ball. “I wish you had come to me with this from the start.”

Cari sighed. “You were in the middle of a disaster area. You have missing prisoners, a missing child and you didn’t even know about Austin Ball being missing until days later. If I’d walked into this office with a hole in my head and blood all over me and told you this story, what would you have thought?”

Hershel’s shoulders slumped. “That you were hallucinating and sent you to the hospital.”

“And I can promise you, Lance would have found a way to silence me permanently before I ever got out.”

“It’s hard to wrap my mind around this,” Hershel said. “Morgan is from a good family. He just isn’t the killer type. Besides that, he was the one who found the bodies at your family farm, and he seemed absolutely devastated.”

“Just what’s the ‘killer type’? And what do you
suppose Lance was doing at the farm so soon after the tornado hit? I’d bet cash money he was looking for me,” Cari said. “He must have thought he’d just won the lottery when he found everybody dead. Lance is a man who believes he’s entitled to whatever he desires, and he feels no remorse for anything. All he gets is pissed when he’s caught. And trust me, I can attest to that personally.”

Hershel flushed, remembering the big stink when Cari had caught Lance in bed with a stripper from Baton Rouge, and the uproar that had followed when she’d thrown her engagement ring in his face.

“Okay. I’m in,” Hershel said. “I’ll have him brought in for questioning, so he doesn’t have a chance to run. In the meantime, I’ll find a judge and get a warrant to search his house. We’ve already got cause to search the property, given where the car was found.”

At that moment there was a knock on the door, then Vera poked her head in. “Sorry to disturb you, Chief, but after what’s going on, I knew you needed to see this.”

Hershel frowned. “What? Were you listening at the door?”

Vera glared. “Read the report,” she said, then winked at Cari as she left the office.

“Excuse me a minute,” Hershel said, as he scanned the text. Cari saw his eyes widen, then he looked up. “Talk about timing. Yours is pretty good.”

“Why?” Mike asked.

“This is a report from the state crime lab where we sent the car for testing. They found traces of blood in the trunk that matches Austin Ball’s DNA. Not in the front seat. Not in the backseat. Just in the trunk.”

Cari got it immediately. All her years of weaving clues through her stories had given her quick insight into a lot of the way the police worked.

“They would have been expecting Austin Ball’s blood to be anywhere inside the car—
except
the trunk. I mean…if he was supposedly driving the car when the storm caught up with him and he got hurt. But not in the trunk.”

“Exactly,” said Hershel. “With this report and what you’ve just told me, I have all evidence I need for a warrant. What I do need from you is a written statement attesting to everything you’ve just said.”

Cari pulled several folded sheets of paper from her purse and laid them on Hershel’s desk. “Signed and dated,” she said, then smiled. “Police procedure…right?”

Hershel shook his head.

“If you ever decide to go into a business other than writing mystery stories, you might want to give me a call.”

Cari grinned. “That’s the second offer I’ve had in two days. I might have to rethink my career.”

“Oh…hell…no,” Mike said, then thought to add, “Please.”

Cari looked at him, then burst into laughter.

All Mike could think was that this was the first time he’d made Carolina laugh. Really laugh. It was a good way to end a stressful morning.

L
ance was pulling out of the bank parking lot when he happened to look across the street toward the police department. What he saw sent him into a tailspin of disbelief. This couldn’t be happening!

Cari North and Mike Boudreaux were on their way inside, and she wasn’t wearing bandages or sunglasses or anything else that would disguise who she really was. He hit the steering wheel with the flat of his hand. She was going to tell what she’d seen! He just knew it. But why now? What should he do? Walk in and face her down? Blame it all on her head wound? No. That wouldn’t be smart. It would appear too defensive. He would just go home. There was no reason for Hershel Porter to believe her. Why would he? A murderer needed a motive, and thanks to Joe, he no longer had one.

A new wave of panic hit as he remembered the missing person’s report and the car they’d found on
his property. What if they got suspicious and found out Ball had been on his way with foreclosure papers—
before
Joe had paid off the loan? Then sanity surfaced. Why would they bother? The man had died in the tornado. End of story.

But he wasn’t happy. He felt as if he were standing on swampy ground and waiting to sink, even as he gunned the engine and sped out of Bordelaise. He kept an eye on the rearview mirror all the way home, for fear he would see police cars on his tail. He didn’t know what had prompted Cari to come forth now, but he suspected that what he’d done last night had been the push she’d needed. Damn his bad luck and that stupid panther for messing everything up.

As he turned off the highway and sped down the driveway to Morgan’s Reach, he couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the last time he would ever be here. His reign as heir to Morgan’s Reach was already over, thanks to Joe. And Morgan blood was too blue to endure a life behind bars. He would rather die than go through that kind of humiliation. Should he take his chances and wait and see what happened? Should he run? He had a friend who could get him to Mexico. It would be a simple thing to get from there to South America. He had a passport and—

Then he remembered. If he used the passport, they would just stop him at the border. All of a sudden he realized how ill-prepared he was to be a man on the run. In that moment he was overwhelmed by a vis
ceral longing for his parents. If only they hadn’t died, none of this would be happening.

As he turned the corner, his vision blurred. The magnificence of the fine old house was like a diamond against the verdant green of the trees and grass. And if that wasn’t enough of a reminder of what he had to lose, a pair of white cockatoos lifted off from a tree and flew across his line of vision. This had been his own Garden of Eden. He’d killed to keep from losing it, and now, in a horrible twist of fate, in order to stay alive, he might have to leave it.

“Ah, God,” Lance cried and burst into tears.

Hershel Porter was at the Quick Stop gassing up his cruiser while waiting for his deputies. He’d sent Mike and Cari back to her home place with a promise that he would call just as soon as they had Lance Morgan in custody. After that, they were free to do what they could to find Austin Ball’s body. And with that thought, he remembered he hadn’t notified that Chicago detective about the latest break in the case.

He reached for his cell phone, and within moments, they were connected.

“Chief Porter! What can I do for you?”

“It’s what I can do for you that matters,” he said. “We have news.”

“You’ve found Austin Ball’s body?”

He heard the lilt of hope in her voice and hated that he was going to ruin it.

“No.”

“Damn,” Sandy Smith muttered.

“But we had a big shift in the investigation. We have a witness attesting to the fact that your missing man was murdered. We’re about to go out and pick up our suspect. Oh…and you should be getting a report from the forensics lab at the Louisiana State Crime Bureau with another interesting development.”

“What?” she asked.

“They found blood in the trunk of that rental car that matched Austin Ball’s DNA.”

“In the trunk? But—”

“Yeah. Hard to figure out how a guy’s blood would be in the trunk if he was supposed to be driving when the tornado hit, right?”

“I’ll be damned,” she said. “How did all this break?”

“Eyewitness came forward claiming she’d seen Lance Morgan trying to bury a body out in the woods between his place and hers.”

“Where the hell has she been all this time?” Sandy snapped.

“It’s a long story, but she’s the only survivor in her family and still has a headful of staples to show for what the tornado did to her.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Me too, ma’am.”

“Keep me posted.”

“Will do.”

He dropped his cell phone back in his pocket just
as the pump kicked off, hung up the hose and was about to get in the car when a police cruiser pulled up beside him with two of his deputies inside. Lee Tullius was behind the wheel.

“We’re ready,” Lee said. “The warrant is forthcoming, and someone from the parish crime lab is meeting us at the residence.”

Hershel sighed. “Then let’s go. The sooner we get this over with, the better I’ll feel.”

“We’ll follow you,” Lee said.

A few moments later, the two police cruisers headed out of town.

Cari was sitting on the step of the motor home, staring out across the debris to the pasture beyond. Mike was inside on the phone, dealing with a glitch that had occurred during the proposed buyout of a telecom company. She’d urged him to do what he needed, even if it meant going back to Baton Rouge and flying out to San Francisco himself. He’d given her a look of disbelief, then kissed her senseless before getting on the phone. She had to admit, it was reassuring to know she wasn’t doing all this on her own.

It hurt to look at the devastation around her, and know that everything and everyone in her entire family was gone. Even though she would have the debris cleaned up, she didn’t want to rebuild here. There were too many ghosts, and too many ugly memories of how they’d died.

As she sat, a mockingbird flew up and landed on the ground beneath what had once been a willow tree, then proceeded to squawk at her from a distance, as if to complain about his lot in life.

“Yeah, well…my day hasn’t been so hot, either,” she said back, then grinned when the bird turned its tail to her and began pecking at the ground. “Just like a male. No interest in you if he can’t get what he wants.”

Mike had just hung up and was about to rejoin Cari when his cell phone rang. He answered without looking at caller ID, only to hear Aaron’s voice. It was the thread of panic in it that made the hair rise on the back of his neck. Aaron wasn’t the kind of man to panic without cause.

“Boss! I just found Trent. He’s unconscious, with a lump on his head the size of an egg, and Morgan is nowhere in sight.”

“Call an ambulance,” Mike said, as he glanced out the window to make sure Cari was all right. She was still sitting on the steps. “I’ll notify Porter. It’s probably going to be a wasted trip to Morgan’s Reach, now. Lance must have gotten wind of what’s up and gone on the run.”

Aaron disconnected. Mike scanned through his call list, found the sheriff’s number and hit redial. Porter picked up on the second ring.

“Hershel Porter.”

“Chief. This is Mike Boudreaux. One of the men
I sent to keep watch on Morgan’s property has been found unconscious with a big knot on his head. I’d lay odds Morgan is on the run. Cari is determined to begin the search for the body, although now that I know this, I’m going to suggest we go back to Baton Rouge until you have that S.O.B. in custody. Problem is, I’m not sure she’s going to go for that.”

“If she’s determined to start her search, tell her to wait until we get there,” Porter said. “It won’t take long to determine if Lance is gone, and then we’ll be on our way.”

“Will do,” Mike said, and clicked off, then hurried outside to fill Cari in. She looked over her shoulder as he opened the door behind her. “Hey,
cher
…got room for me on that step?”

Cari smiled as she scooted to the side.

Mike sat down beside her, then slid an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug. “Feelin’ okay?”

She shrugged. “It’s hard to put how I feel into words.”

Mike pulled back, then lifted a stray lock of hair from near her eye before he leaned over and kissed her.

The pull of his lips mirrored the ache in her belly. If they weren’t in such a mess, she would have made him take her to bed.

“That was nice…very nice,” she said softly.

“I have news,” he said.

Her eyes narrowed. “So was that a ‘you feel
sorry for me’ kiss or a ‘balm for what you’re about to tell me’ kiss?”

“You forgot the ‘just because I love you’ kiss.”

Cari’s eyes narrowed as she studied the expression on his face. “No. In this instance, I don’t think it applies.”

“You’re probably right,” Mike admitted.

“Talk to me.”

“I just got off the phone with Aaron. He found Trent unconscious, with a goose egg on his head. I told him to call an ambulance, then I called Porter. Cari…I hate to say this, but Morgan is probably already on the run.”

“Oh my God,” she breathed, and stood abruptly. “What are we going to do? What
can
we do?”

“We aren’t going to do anything about Morgan,” Mike said. “That’s up to Chief Porter. What I want to do is take you back to Baton Rouge until the danger has passed.”

The disbelief that spread across her face was not unexpected.

“No. Hell no. I came to find a dead man, remember? As sad as I am, and as terrible as all this is…there’s a woman back in Chicago who needs to bury her husband just like I buried my family. And since I was probably the last person, except for Lance, to see him, I can’t turn my back on that. I have to look for his body.”

Mike didn’t bother to argue or to point out that the
police would also be looking for Austin Ball’s body. But his appreciation of Carolina kept growing. “You sure you’re up for that?”

Cari looked at Mike, then reached for his hand. “I am up for whatever it takes.”

A surge of pride swept through him. With her determination to see this through, he felt anything was possible, even finding a dead man in the middle of the Louisiana swamps.

“That’s what I figured you’d say. I told Porter you would probably want to start the search, but he asked you to wait for him and his men. They’re on the way.”

“Then we wait,” Cari said, despair for what was happening almost overwhelming her as Mike went back inside for supplies.

Within fifteen minutes, four police cars were pulling up near the motor home. Cari watched as Hershel and his deputies got out.

“I hear you’ve got some ideas about where we should look, Cari,” Hershel said, as he approached.

Mike exited the motor home with a backpack slung over one shoulder.

“We’re ready when you are, Chief, but as far as I’m concerned, this is Carolina’s search. I have a man coming down from Savannah with a cadaver dog, but he won’t be able to get here until late this evening.”

Hershel’s eyes widened as he looked at Cari. “You’re still serious about doing this?”

She nodded, ignoring the slight tremor in her muscles.

“I don’t see how I have any other choice. Just give me a minute to change my shoes and I’ll be ready to go.”

She went inside, leaving the men to talk among themselves.