Rumble on the Bayou (27 page)

He was not amused.

***

Richard walked out of the motel prepared to pay Sheriff Berenger a visit, but stopped before he got to the parking area. There were two problems with that idea. The first was that if Dorie were in on things with Roland, then the sheriff was likely involved too. By talking to him, Richard would just tip his hand. Plus, he had no car. He'd completely forgotten that his rental, slashed tires and all, was still out where Dorie's boat used to be.

"Damn it," he said and looked up and down Main Street as if a car was going to magically appear. Deciding that he was stuck until he could get four new tires, he blew out a breath and crossed the street to the cafe. Maybe Jenny would know who to call about getting his car fixed.

Jenny was busy with a table in the corner when he walked in the cafe, but she looked up and nodded in acknowledgment. Richard took a seat at the counter. A minute or so later she stood in front of Richard, a worried expression on her face.

"Is Dorie all right?" she asked. "People have been talking this morning about the explosion. Then, when neither she nor Joe showed up at the sheriff's office this morning, I really started to worry."

"Dorie's fine," Richard said. "We weren't in the boat when it exploded."

Jenny looked at him in obvious surprise. "We? You mean you were there when it happened?"

Richard nodded. "Yes. I was there to protect her. A hell of a job I did on that one."

Jenny gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm sure no one is blaming you. Well, except maybe Joe and Sheriff Berenger."

Richard blanched at the accuracy of the statement. "I'm having a bit of a problem with my car. I need to have it towed and get four new tires. I don't suppose there's anyone in Gator Bait who handles that sort of thing?"

"Sure," Jenny said and wrote a number and address down on her pad. "He works out of his house, but he could probably get you fixed up enough to make it to lake Charles for a better job. Did the bad guy get a hold of your car, too?"

"I'm afraid so."

She shook her head in obvious dismay. "this guy you're chasing is something this town has never seen. I never thought we could have such goings-on in a place like Gator Bait."

"Gator Bait is definitely not what 1 had in mind for a drug deal, either, but apparently business worked out here. It's just a matter of finding out with whom."

Jenny's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh. You think someone in Gator Bait is in on things with this guy?"

"There's no other explanation for his being here."

She considered that fact for a moment then narrowed her eyes at him. "Then who is it? You've got to have an idea."

He sighed. "That's just it. We don't have an idea at all. It could be anyone." He gave her a small smile. "It could even be you."

She was clearly taken aback for a moment but quickly realized he was trying to make a joke. "I guess you've got a point," she said and gave him a smile. "Of course, if I was really a suspect, I don't suppose you'd be sitting here letting me know that."

"I don't know," he said, considering her words. "I guess I would if I wanted to study your reaction."

“
I never thought of it that way before. You must find it hard to trust people."

He crinkled his brow. "Why would you say that?"

She shrugged. "I just figure that if you take your job as serious as Dorie, then you probably work more than anything else. And if you're always in some strange city looking for a bad guy, then everyone you talk to is a potential criminal. It's sort of depressing."

"You have no idea," he said, then quickly continued with the line of questioning he'd been holding back before he lost his nerve. "Jenny, you've been here your whole life, right?"

She nodded. "My family's been here three generations."

"I want to ask you something, but I need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone what I asked."

Her eyes widened and she nodded solemnly at Richard. "Okay."

Taking a deep breath, he made the plunge. "What do you know about Dorie's mother?"

"Whew," Jenny said and rocked back on her heels away from the counter. "That wasn't along the lines of the question I was expecting at all." She stepped back next to the counter and stared at him, indecision written clearly on her face. "l suppose it wouldn't do me any good at all to ask why you want to know?"

He shook his head.

She thought for a bit longer, then sighed. "I guess I can't see what it would hurt to tell you what I know. But you have to make me a promise, too."

"Depends on the promise."

"You have to promise to never tell Dorie that I said anything about this to you."

Richard nodded. "'That's one promise I'm definitely interested in keeping."

Apparently satisfied, Jenny leaned against the counter and lowered her voice. "Now, what I'm gonna tell you is all hearsay, 'cause I wasn't even born when the sheriff brought Dorie home, but I've heard my momma and my aunts talk through the years."

He nodded and motioned for her to continue.

"Momma says it all happened so fast. The sheriff was gone from Gator Bait for a couple of days. Back then, one of Buster's cousins was the deputy, and the sheriff left him in charge. 'Course everyone knew that Buster actually called the shots when the sheriff was gone, but they were all polite and everything to the deputy anyway. Momma says the first anyone knew of Dorie was when the sheriff called Buster's wife to come over and help him with learning to prepare a bottle and diaper. Well, you could have knocked everyone over with a feather. Why, the sheriff didn't even have a special lady friend as far as folks in Gator Bait knew, much less someone serious enough to have a child with."

She stopped for a moment, in obvious thought, then continued. "Momma says when the ladies of Gator Bait heard about Dorie and the sheriff, they all pitched right in. Took turns watching her while the sheriff worked and each of them spent time with the sheriff in the evenings and on weekends teaching him how to take care of a baby. Momma says it beat all she had ever seen. There was the sheriff, so strong and gruff and such a confirmed bachelor, and you only had to look at him when he was holding that baby, and you could tell he was in love. Momma says it was the sweetest thing she'd ever seen."

Richard smiled, thinking of the sheriff with Dorie as a baby. "But no one ever asked about Dorie's mother?"

Jenny shook her head. "Not really. Folks around here might seem a little off to someone like you being from a big city and all, but when it comes to certain things, we mind our own business. That's just good manners. I guess everyone figured that if the sheriff had wanted them to know the situation, he would have told them. Momma and the other women always figured it was a one-night stand sort of deal. Someone who didn't want the inconvenience of a baby. They figured whoever she was just signed Dorie over and disappeared."

"So no one knows who Dorie's mother is," he said and considered this for a moment. "I wonder if Dorie does."

"No way. I remember her catching flack at school one time over not having a mother. One of the Miller twins was ribbing on her pretty bad. Dorie got in a good left hook and he stopped his talking, but I came across her on my walk home from school. I used to cut across the marsh even though Momma told me not to, and there she was, sitting up against a clump of brush, crying her eyes out. Now, I really didn't know her, mind you. I'm a couple of years younger and at that age, a couple of years is a lot."

Jenny took a deep breath and swallowed. "I stopped in front of her and told her that if she needed a friend, I'd be proud to be one. I remember her looking up at me and I thought for a moment that she might just stomp me right there in the marsh. But instead, she smiled and stretched out her hand. We shook on it, and ever since then, there is little or nothing that I wouldn't do for Dorie Berenger. Or her for me. You know she cosigned on the loan for me to open this place? Without her help, I couldn't have done it." She brushed one hand across her cheek, catching a teardrop.

"Dorie only said something that one time to me about her mother. She said that she didn't really understand why anyone cared who her mother was, because she didn't care at all. She said any woman that ran out on her baby was no use to anyone. I think that's why she gets so worked up over the animals that way. You know, like the baby gators the other day."

Richard nodded, completely confused. Jenny's story didn't line up at all with his thoughts on Dorie's parentage, but one look at Jenny's face, and he knew that she was speaking the absolute truth, at least as far as she knew it. Was the person she described really capable of joining up with the likes of Shawn Roland? Even if they were somehow related? Everything inside of him felt it couldn't be true, but there was one person left to speak to before he could put that thought to rest, even if it put Roland on notice.

He put one hand on top of Jenny's and smiled. "I appreciate what you've told me. And I want you to know that you did nothing to hurt Dorie at all. Everything you've told me only makes my opinion of her better."

Jenny sniffed and nodded. "Thanks. I appreciate that. I hate to think I was breaking a confidence, but I don't know where you're going with all this. I guess maybe if it all works out then you can tell me. Or maybe not. I just know that I want this guy out of Gator Bait. And I want Dorie back in the cafe griping about everything and Joe too scared to speak to me."

She looked directly at him. "What I'm trying to say is I want my life back. And if talking to you helps things along then I'm willing to do it."

He nodded in understanding. "You've helped me make up my mind on a very important issue, Jenny, and for that, I'm in your debt. I want nothing more than for your town to get back to normal." He rose from the counter and started toward the door, certain that the next conversation he needed to have was with Sheriff Berenger.

***

Joe dropped his cup of coffee to the table with a bang, and narrowly missed sloshing his hand. "I don't believe it," he said.

Dorie sighed and set her coffee mug on the table, the hot liquid doing nothing to calm her nerves. "Do you think I want to believe it? This is my worst nightmare, Joe. All this time I've been worrying about having to arrest someone in Gator Bait, and the way it stands, my dad and Buster are the prime suspects."

His eyes flashed and he stared intently at her. "Are you planning to tell Richard about this?"

She shook her head, feeling miserable. "I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think they're involved with Roland this time, but it wouldn't look good for them anyway. If I thought the information would help Richard at all, I'd tell him, but I don't see how it could." Could it?

Joe considered this for a moment then nodded in agreement. "I'm with you. I don't see how it could help at all, but it certainly could hurt a lot. If this got out in Gator Bait, the sheriff would be ruined, which affects you."

Joe took a deep breath and ran one hand down the side of his face. "I don't know where it would leave Buster. People around here gotta make a living. But I still say it could be made miserable enough for him that he takes an early retirement or sells out completely to one of the big commercial firms."

“
I know. No matter how you slice it, if this got out, it would cause a lot of problems in Gator Bait. And I'll admit-problems I'm not ready to deal with."

"Me either. And I don't want you feeling guilty about this, Dorie. It's too far in the past to be an issue now, and there's nothing we could do to change it anyway."

She blew out a breath. "I know. But it doesn't stop the hurt, Joe. My own father." She pounded the table with one fist and brought a few looks from the other diners. "For Christ's sake," she said, lowering her voice a bit, "it was his job to keep anything like this out of the town, and instead, he covered it all up and pretended it had never happened. All for money. It makes me sick."

Joe shook his head. "It wasn't really for money. It was to protect a friend. Besides, if they'd kept the money, some of it would still be around. Your dad did what he thought was best for Buster and Gator Bait. I don't agree with his decision, but I don't see where it was motivated by any personal gain."

"The reason still doesn't change the facts. By not reporting Roland to the authorities, they committed a crime. Because of what they did, that man felt safe enough to come back to Gator Bait, and the rules are different now." She looked Joe straight in the eyes. "With the attempts that have been made lately, I can't help wondering just how close I am to the person involved with Roland. Someone doesn't like where I'm headed with this investigation, and they apparently have a bigger problem with my involvement than yours or Richard's."