by Gen Griffin
“Are you sure they were dumping a body?” Sully directed the question at David.
“I'd love to be wrong,” David said. “Unfortunately, yeah. I'm sure.”
Sully finished off his beer and stared into the fire. “I reckon we'll find out who it was soon enough. I don't think Ian and Joe have enough brain cells between them to successfully play hide and go seek on a playground. They're going to screw up. We'll bust them when they do.”
“I can't wait to see Ian in handcuffs,” Katie spoke for the first time since the conversation had started.
David and Addison both shot her skeptical looks. “You're not going to bail him out?”
Katie frowned at them. “Why would I bail him out?”
“You always bail him out,” David said. “Always.”
“Not this time.”
“She can't bail him out even if she wants to,” Addison said. “He drained her bank account.”
“I'm not going to bail him out.” Katie sat up straight and poked Addison in the chest. “You believe me, don't you?”
He kissed her instead of answering.
“Putting Ian in jail would definitely make the divorce go a little smoother,” Trish mused. “Hard to contest a divorce if you're in county lock up.”
“Spoken like a true lawyer,” Sully said.
“Well, it's my job to look out for Katie's best interests,” Trish said with a smirk as she took another sip of her wine. “It's in Katie's best interests for Ian to wind up in jail. He won't be able to get custody of Hannah Mae if he's serving time. No worries about weekends with step-mommy April Lynne.” Trish winked at Katie.
Katie stared at her in surprise. “How did you know that was my worst fear?”
“I've met April Lynne,” Trish reminded her. “I'm a child of divorce too. Lousy step-parents come with the territory for most of us. I was fairly lucky but my step-sister lived with us full-time because her bio-mom married an abusive drunk who liked to beat her.”
“That's terrible.” Katie offered Trish a small, brave smile. “Promise me we'll keep Hannah Mae away from April Lynne?”
“I can only do so much.” Trish pointed to Sully and Addison. “These two are the ones who really have to come through and make an arrest. I can only work with what they give me. Otherwise, it's going to be your word against Ian's.”
Katie pursed her lips at Addison. “We need to find that body.”
“I'll work on it first thing Monday morning,” Addison promised.
“Monday?” Katie frowned. “Tomorrow is Sunday.”
“Tomorrow is your birthday,” Addison reminded her.
“And?”
“I'm off duty.”
“And?”
“I have plans for you that don't include searching the bayou for a missing corpse. I'm turning my phone off tomorrow.” Addison smiled reassuringly at her. “Don't worry. Sully can spend his day searching for the corpse. ”
“Like I won't have a million other calls to go on,” Sully muttered. “I'm the only cop on duty for the entire county tomorrow. Who am I supposed to call for backup if you're turning your phone off?”
“I usually call David when I need backup and can't get a hold of any actual cops,” Addison said. “He's the best backup you can ask for. All the local criminals are afraid of him.”
“Ever thought of becoming a cop?” Sully asked David.
“You couldn't pay me enough,” David said with a shake of his head. “Though I might make an exception if it means I get to arrest the asshole who shot me today.”
“Police work has its rewards,” Sully told him.
The five of them sat in silence for several minutes. David grabbed hold of several of the drawers from what had previously been Addison's dresser and tossed them into the flames.
“We almost out of furniture to burn?” Addison rubbed his hand down Katie's spine. She leaned into his side. “It's getting late.”
“Yeah. Almost.”
“Y'all still have to get up the flooring,” Katie informed them.
“I'm not pulling up the linoleum tonight,” David informed her in a tone that left no room for arguing. “It's late. Mak's ass may have been on that floor, but it's not carpeting. You can take care of any residual cooties with a bottle of bleach.” David bit his lip as the last word came out of his mouth. “Motherfucker.”
“What?”
“Bleach.”
“Bleach?” Sully asked.
“Bleach.” David chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. “Ian and his buddies committed a murder inside the sheriff's house.”
“What?” Sully and Addison both gaped at him.
Trish flicked her long black hair back over her shoulder and looked up at her fiance through serious gray eyes. “Are you sure?”
“The house smelled like someone had poured an entire bucket of bleach on the dining room floor. They had the table pushed all the way over to the far wall.”
“That's not necessarily proof of murder.”
“They shot me when I walked into the dining room and refused to leave.”
“Ian killed someone in Frank's dining room.” Addison looked thoughtful.
“We need that warrant,” Sully said. “Unless you think Frank would give us permission to go in now?”
“Not a snowball's chance in hell. Frank isn't going to let us get shit on Ian. He'll block the warrant.” Addison lit another cigarette. “He's such a fucking coward.”
Sully raised one eyebrow at Addison. “He's your Uncle. You're not defending him?”
“Why would I?” Addison asked. “He's let me down more times than I can count.”
“Good to know.” Sully reached into the cooler and helped himself to a second beer.
Addison looked over at him. “You blame yourself for Kerry getting hurt when your Jeep rolled into the creek. You shouldn't. Neither one of y'all would have ever been in that position if Frank had any balls. Kerry should never have been hired on full time. He should have been fired months ago when the complaints started rolling in.”
“You blame Frank for me rolling my Jeep?”
“I blame Frank for you having Kerry in your Jeep when it rolled,” Addison corrected. “He should have been taken to Baker County in a squad car like any other prisoner.”
“I was driving. I handcuffed him to the rollbars. It was my fault.” Sully stared down into his beer. “Nice of you to blame Frank, but I take responsibility for my own mistakes.”
Katie sat up and took a deep breath. “Frank's got no less than three complaints on his desk accusing Kerry of stalking and harassment. David's not the only person Kerry has been following around. He's been keeping himself pretty busy. Frank knows it, too. Kerry's called him dozens of times since he was put on medical leave.”
“What?” Addison stared at Katie with surprise. He turned to Sully. “I didn't know that. Did you?”
“First I've heard of any of this,” Sully said.
“Frank said he'd fire me if I told anyone,” Katie said with a small sigh. “Especially the two of y'all. He said he didn't want any more bad blood stirred up within his department and that he'd handle it. Then he went on vacation for a week.”
Addison rubbed his chin. “Sully, when did Ian tip you off about Joe and Lowery?”
“Friday.”
“Same day Frank left town.”
“What are you thinking?” Sully asked.
David answered Sully's question for Addison. “He's thinking that Kerry told Frank what he'd discovered about Joe, Lowery and Ian being the thieves who have been terrorizing every business in town. Frank must have taken the report himself and then told Kerry to leave Ian out of it and he'd handle it. Kerry probably lost his patience when Frank left town without making an arrest.”
“Which is when he gave the information to Sully,” Addison finished.
“Holy shit,” Sully muttered. “That actually makes sense.”
“We're crazy. Not stupid.” David grinned wickedly as he
prodded the fire with the end of a metal shovel and then leaned on the handle. “Question is, what good does any of this knowledge do us?”
“None,” Addison said. “No good at all. Frank's not going to let us have Ian. He'll protect him.”
“Unless we get the warrant before Frank gets back from New Orleans,” Sully said.
“Fat chance of that happening,” David said. “Your only prayer of getting a warrant is if you can find that body. Damn, I wish I could have stopped them from going out into the bayou.”
“You would have gotten yourself shot again,” Trish sounded distinctly annoyed as she said the word 'again'.
“I think I'm going to call it a night.” Sully stood up abruptly. He'd only half finished his beer.
“You okay?” Addison asked.
“I'm great. It's just late and I've got an awful lot of loose ends to tie up before Frank gets back to town and ruins all of my cases. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day for me.”
Addison nodded. “Maybe I'll just put my phone on silent. You can call me if you need me. Be sure to leave a message.”
“If I need you, you better answer your damned phone,” Sully informed him as he tossed his beer into the nearest trash can, said the last of his goodbyes and walked out into the night.
Chapter 52
“Good morning, gorgeous. Happy birthday.”
Katie blinked in confusion as the last bits of sleep faded from her slowly waking mind. Addy had spent the night with her in her new bedroom at David and Trish's house. Now he was sitting on the edge of the bed wearing nothing but a pair of plaid pajama pants. He held a plate of somewhat lumpy, slightly crispy pancakes out to her.
“Morning?” Sun was pouring in through the windows, so she supposed it was morning. She had surprised herself by falling asleep the minute her head had hit the pillow the previous night. She felt better than she had in weeks. It was the first time she'd slept worth a crap in weeks.
“Morning. Your birthday.” He waggled the plate at her.
“Pancakes?” Katie took the plate before he dropped it on the bed. He'd drowned the pancakes in butter and syrup. “You don't cook.”
“I can cook. I just choose not to most of the time.” He winked at her. “You wanted me to prove I could be domestic so I made you pancakes. These were the least burnt.”
She giggled. “Didn't you just say you could cook?”
“I can good. Not well, but it's edible.” He stood up and twirled around and then curtsied as if he were wearing a pretend apron. “Happy birthday baby.”
She had to laugh. “Thank you. I think.” She poked at the pancakes with the fork he'd laid on the edge of the plate. She took a tentative bite. “Not too bad.”
He grinned and then made a point of shaking his booty in her direction. “High praise.”
“You're adorable.” She meant it as she ate another mouthful of pancake. It wasn't half bad and he made for excellent eye candy. “Breakfast in bed and a show.”
He pounced on the end of the king size bed and landed on his hands and knees on the puffy down comforter. His curls fell into his bright turquoise eyes. “You're actually happy with me?”
Katie nodded. She wasn't quite sure why he seemed so surprised. “I wasn't expecting anyone to even remember my birthday.”
“I wouldn't forget your birthday.” Addison crawled across the bed until he was only a few inches from her face. He leaned forward and gave her a quick peck kiss on the lips. It took her by surprise and he laughed.
“Are you eating?” Katie asked him.
“David, Trish and I already ate all my failures.” He licked his lips and winked in the direction of her plate. “There were quite a few of them. You only got the best.”
“They're pretty good,” she offered.
“Cool. Eat them and get dressed. I brought all your clothes in from the truck. They're in the living room because I didn't want to wake you up.”
“Are we going somewhere?” Katie asked. “Because I honestly need to spend the day getting Hannah Mae's new room ready for her. It's still full of crappy 40-year-old furniture and storage boxes from Trish's old apartment.”
“Trish is going to handle that for you,” Addison said.
“She is?” Katie eyed him curiously.
“She is,” he confirmed. “She told me to take you out and make sure you had fun today. She said for you not to worry about Hannah Mae's new nursery. She'll get it ready for y'all. She also gave me a set of keys to give to you. She said she might have to go out later and she wanted to make sure you had access to the house if you wanted it.
“Trish is such a sweetheart.” Katie was nearly moved to tears.
Addison nodded in agreement. “I still have no idea how she wound up with Breedlove.”
“They're good together. They balance one another out.”
“I never said they weren't good together. I'm just still baffled as to how they figured out they would be good together.” Addison bounced on the edge of the bed. “Finish your breakfast and we'll go.”
“You're always so impatient,” she said with a cluck of her tongue. “Where are we going?”
“I figured we'd take the boat out.” He grinned, obviously pleased with himself and his plan.
“The boat?” Katie bit the inside of her cheek. “Isn't the high for today like 40 degrees?”
“Forty-four,” he said. “Come on. It'll be fun.”
“It'll be frigid.” Katie was smiling even though she knew it was a stupid idea. “Are you going looking for the body you swore you weren't going to spend today searching for?”
“Naw. We're going fishing,” he lied. “I'll fry up anything we catch for dinner tonight. If we catch enough then we can feed Trish and David.”
“You know we're going to freeze, right?”
“We can cuddle together for warmth,” he offered. “You like cuddling.”
“So do you.” She had to laugh. “But okay. Fine. Just promise me we'll be home by late afternoon. My mom is supposed to bring Hannah Mae home after dinner and I need to be here when she gets here.”
“Not a problem,” he promised. “We'll be home well before dark.”
Chapter 53
“You ain't Addison.” A short, burly man in a camouflage jacket was standing on the edge of an older boat dock. “I was expecting them to send Addison.”
“Addison's off duty,” Sully said as he walked across the creaking wooden boards. The entire dock wobbled as if it were going to collapse at any minute. “Dispatch called and said you'd found a body?”
The man nodding, bobbing his camouflage baseball cap. “Sure did.”
“Mind if I ask where at?” Sully tucked his hands into the pockets of his own jacket. The high for today was only supposed to be in the low 40s and it was downright frigid by the water.
“Mind if I ask who you are?” The man countered grumpily.
“Sullivan Briggs. Deputy Sullivan Briggs.” He put extra emphasis on the title. He held out his hand in an offer to shake with the other man.
The man wrinkled his forehead and squinted his already narrow eyes as he took Sully in. “You're Tate Briggs' brother.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You look like him.”
“I know.” Sully didn't feel like addressing genealogy right this minute. “Tell me about the body?”
The man nodded again. “I run a couple of trotlines a little ways on down the bayou. I come out this morning to check on 'em. I got catfish on three of them and dead feller hooked on line number four.”
“You leave him in the water or did you bring him in with you?” Sully had tried to call Addison on his way out to the landing, but his call had gone straight to voicemail. He was going to have to track Addison down if the man had left the body in the water. Sully didn't own a boat that was suited to hauling corpses.
“I brought him in. I was afraid the gators would get him if I didn't.” The man hopped back down into his boat and picked up the tarp that had been l
oosely draped over a large lump in the bottom of the boat.
A very dead, slightly bloated body was lying on the metal deck of the boat. The head looked like it was made of hamburger meat and the victim's face was unrecognizable. Luckily, Sully didn't need to see his face to be able to identify him. He recognized the ratty clothes and crude, poorly drawn tattoo of a naked woman on the victim's right forearm.
The fisherman had found Joe Carmucci dead in the bayou.
“Son of a bitch. That was not the body I was expecting,” Sully muttered under his breath as he reached for his cell phone so he could call in the coroner.
“You was expecting to find a body?” The fisherman who had found Joe was eyeing Sully with suspicion.
Sully nodded grimly. He didn't see any harm in telling the truth. Maybe the fisherman had seen something useful when he was recovering Joe's body. “We got a tip last night that someone might have dumped a body in the bayou.”
“Well, there you go then. The tip was good. Here's your body.” The fisherman jerked his thumb at Joe's corpse.
Sully scratched his chin unhappily. “It's the wrong body,” he said. “This guy was supposed to be the one dumping the body.”
The fisherman frowned down at Joe's corpse. “Well, that sucks. Sounds like your job just got a whole lot harder.”
“Tell me about it,” Sully agreed with a scowl.
Chapter 54
“Where's your boat, son?”
Ian jammed his frozen hands deeper into the pockets of his damp blue jeans. He couldn't stop shaking. He hadn't stopped shaking since April Lynne had blown her brains out. “I-I-I didn't have an anchor with me. I thought it would be okay on the sandbar, but the tide came up. I guess it floated away.”
“Do you want to try to find it?” Paul Shepard was one of Frank Chasson's oldest friends. It was only by sheer luck that he'd been the one to find Ian wandering aimlessly in circles on a small island in the middle of the swamp.
Ian thought for a minute and then realized that it would be very, very bad for him if Paul saw the boat in its current condition. There was blood all over the side from where he'd shot Joe and thrown him overboard. Ian had planned on washing the boat and soaking it down in bleach the minute he'd gotten home with it after burying April Lynne's body in her gloomy, shallow grave. “No, sir. It's all right. It'll turn up eventually and I'm awful cold. I just want to go back to my truck. A hot shower and a warm meal are sounding real good.”
