Feeding Gators: Book 1 in the Shiner's Bayou Series

by Gen Anne Griffin

  “It’s okay. Cal’s been completely useless since you left.”

  Gracie looked at Cal in surprise. He shrugged and pulled her closer to his chest. “I missed you. Badly.”

  “I missed you, too.” She gently kissed his lips, savoring the taste of him.

  “Okay. Okay. We get the picture,” David brought them back on topic as he turned to face Cal. “You called me and said you thought you knew who Eddie’s real killer is.”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore,” Addison interrupted before Cal could speak. “I’ve got it all taken care of.”

  David and Cal exchanged a cautious glance. David frowned, visibly concerned.

  “What did you do?” Cal asked, trepidation clear as day in his voice.

  “Turned in a report that pegs Twitchy Eddie as the killer,” Addison grinned. He appeared to be rather pleased with himself. David groaned.

  “What on Earth possessed you to come up with that half-assed theory?” he asked.

  “Twitchy Eddie is the one who found the body. His prints were all over it. He’s the one who claims he saw it dumped.

  “Okay,” David tapped the toe of his boot against the concrete. “Not particularly compelling evidence.”

  “I’m not trying to land the guy on death row. I’m just trying to get him out of our hair.”

  “Accusing him of murder does that how?”

  “If we accuse him of murder then his accusations against David are going to be even more worthless than they are now. Plus, if he’s a suspected murderer then Wally is justified in not hiring him on full-time and Alex will have the job.”

  “You came up with this idea all by yourself?” David asked doubtfully. His skepticism about the plan was obvious in the way he was staring at Addison. “You realize we’re no better than he is if we turn around and do the exact same thing to him that he tried to do to us.”

  Addison’s smile faded a little bit as he shook his head no. “It was Perkins who suggested it. He told me exactly what to write.”

  “Oh Jesus,” Cal cursed under his breath. “I’ll bet Richard Perkins did suggest it. He’s the killer.”

  “What?” Addison’s mouth gaped open as he stared at Cal with a stupefied look on his handsome face.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” David echoed the doubt but not nearly as firmly. The wheels were already turning inside his head and the pieces of the puzzle fitted themselves together.

  “Are you sure?” Gracie asked Cal.

  He nodded and pulled the picture he’d taken off Addison’s desk earlier out of his pocket. “You know how I’ve been feeling like I was missing something?” he asked her. She nodded.

  “I finally figured it out this morning while I was dealing with Pappy.” Cal held out the picture to David. “Friday night when I was drinking at Leon’s I saw this guy. An extremely plastered woman was hanging all over him; she was licking him, biting his neck. Leon and I were making small talk. I remember him saying that her husband would freak out if he caught her cheating on him. We laughed about it.”

  “Are you saying the dead guy slept with Richard Perkins’ wife?”

  “I drove back to Leon’s earlier with the picture. He didn’t know his name.” Cal held up the picture. “But he said the woman was Sharyn Perkins.”

  “Good God,” David was shaking his head. “I should have known.”

  “How would you have known?” Addison asked. “I work with the guy and didn’t have a clue.”

  “Eddie was telling the truth when he said he saw a Toyota just like mine out in Johnson’s pasture when the body was dumped.”

  “I saw it too,” Cal confirmed. “I just forgot about it with, well, everything else that has been going on.” They exchanged a look that Addison missed completely.

  “It’s an old red hunting truck. Looks the way mine would if it had gone through a crusher,” David seemed to almost be speaking to himself. “I had to work on it a couple of years ago when Sharyn guzzled down a fifth of Wild Turkey and rammed it into a tree going about 70 mph. Busted the radiator. Twisted the frame a little bit. I recommended Perkins total it, but there was no police report because of how drunk she’d been when she did it. She would have gotten a DUI if she hadn’t been a cop’s wife.”

  “Oh this is not cool.” Addison raked both his hands through his curly blonde hair, looking positively nauseous.

  “What possessed you to accuse Eddie of the murder, again?” Cal still seemed hung up on the details of Addison’s screwball plan.

  “The way Perkins explained everything, it made decent sense,” Addison mumbled. His normally tan complexion had turned a sickly shade of green.

  “Framing Eddie conveniently clears Perkins of the murder he did commit.” David was visibly disgusted. “Fuck, Addison. You’re not stupid. Why the hell did you fall for that?”

  “It made sense.”

  “No. It doesn’t.” Cal shook his head. “You know damned well Eddie has absolutely zero killer instinct.”

  Addison was saved from replying because David’s phone started ringing. He glanced down at the screen and frowned. “This has to be for you,” he said as he tossed the phone to Addy.

  Addison glanced down at the display. He blinked in surprise when he saw the name and number listed. He pressed the answer button and turned the phone onto speaker mode.

  “What’s up beautiful?” he asked. His tone was flirtatious despite the recent turn of events.

  “Oh goody. I was hoping I could track you down by calling David. You haven’t seen Eddie lately, have you?” Katie Cluster sounded more annoyed than concerned as her overdone southern drawl echoed through the cavernous shop. Katie, in addition to being Alex’s fiancé, was also the daytime dispatcher for almost all of Coastal County’s emergency services.

  “I try to avoid him. Same way I avoid Granny Pearl’s brussel sprout and liver casserole, if you know what I mean. Why? What’s up?” Addison asked.

  “He’s been missing-in-action for a couple of hours now. Y’all didn’t turn off his radio or cut the cord to it again, did you?”

  “I, uh. Shit. I honestly don’t remember if we did or didn’t,” he admitted. “I mean, I know we were going to, but I don’t know if Alex actually got around to it.”

  “He must have. I can’t get a hold of Eddie and haven’t been able to all afternoon.” Katie was sounding decidedly pissy now.

  “Nice. Shit. I’m sorry babe.”

  “Yeah well, we just took a call through dispatch saying that there’s a CCSD Sheriff’s car parked out on the side of Highway 77 with someone sleeping inside of it.”

  “You’re kidding me?” Addison made a gesture for the others to stay quiet as he turned up the volume on his phone. “You sure it’s Eddie?”

  “It has to be. Alex is down at the Happyville Trailer Park on South Lewisburg Road. Perkins is off duty. You’re off duty. Mooney is in Baker County testifying on that big drug bust he did in conjunction with the Canterville PD.”

  “Okay. Um, wow.” Addison chewed his lip thoughtfully. “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “Use your brain, Addison.” Katie sounded almost giddy. “I called the Sheriff and told him what had been called in. He’s up in Baker County dropping off the homeless guy Joshua Walker nearly shot this morning. . He said to call you and tell you to get your tail over to Highway 77 with a digital camera.”

  “With a camera?” Addison repeated.

  “Yeah. He wants pictures of Eddie snoozing in his cruiser in uniform. He says that if you get some decent shots he can absolutely fire Eddie and give Alex the job. Alex was going to try to head over that way as soon as he finished up at the trailer park, but I’m scared he won’t make it in time.”

  “Oh. I get it,” Addison smiled despite the news he’d just gotten about Perkins.

  “Thank God,” Katie’s sweet voice was thick with sarcasm. “Now do me a favor and haul ass, please and thank you.”

  “I’m already getting in my truck. I’ll drive
90 mph,” he promised as he headed towards his Ford. He looked over at David and was amused to see he’d set down his tools and was moving towards the passenger side of the state truck. “You riding?” he asked as he hung up his phone.

  “Seeing Twitchy Eddie get fired?” David grinned. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. It’ll be the highlight of my whole shitty week.”

  “Um, guys, what about Perkins?” Gracie asked.

  David looked over at Cal. “Katie just said the Sheriff is in Baker County. Why don’t y’all go down to the Sheriff’s Department and wait for him to come back? He shouldn’t be gone that long. We need to catch up with him just as soon as we can. He needs to know he has a murderer running around Coastal County wielding a Sheriff’s badge.”

  “I’m on it,” Cal promised. “Not that I think he’s going to kill anyone else before Wally gets around to arresting him.”

  *

  “You should have left everything well enough alone,” Richard Perkins informed Eddie as he slammed the door of the rusty old Toyota directly into his midsection. Eddie was knocked backwards by the blow. He let out a loud oomph as the air was knocked out of his lungs.

  “You just don’t know when to leave things alone, do you?” Perkins was glaring at Eddie through his mean, beady eyes. The 20-year law enforcement veteran was dripping sweat despite the late afternoon breeze. He leaned against the door of the truck as he hefted his bulk out of the old truck. Eddie was startled to see Perkins had a huge handgun clasped in his right hand.

  “What are you talking about?” Eddie gasped, struggling to force air back into his lungs. He had been about to put his ticket pad back in his pocket and apologize to Perkins when the door had caught him in the ribcage. His ticket book was lying in the dirt beside him. Perkins purposely set one of his heavy booted feet on it as he advanced on Eddie, a scowl on his jowly face.

  “They aren’t going to come looking for you,” Perkins waved the gun in Eddie’s face. “You know that, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know-,” Eddie started to protest again when suddenly he looked up at the red truck Perkins had just gotten out of and realized he did know. “I was right,” he was so stunned he hardly realized he’d said the words out loud. “It was a Toyota,” he whispered. “Your Toyota?”

  “My whore of a wife’s Toyota,” Perkins clarified with a smirk. “Funny how it worked out. It always pissed me off that she put this fucking truck in her name – her maiden name- mind you, when I bought and paid for it with my own hard-earned money.”

  “One of the trucks on my list belonged to a woman,” Eddie gulped and tried to force himself to swallow the bile that was starting to well up in the back of his throat. “Sharyn Greene.” He remembered her name.

  “Sharyn Perkins,” Richard Perkins corrected him almost without thinking about it. “Not that I’m proud of that no good, cheating, lying drinking bitch. I told her the last time that if I ever caught another man in my bed again, someone would be fixing to die.” He lifted up the gun and pointed it at Eddie’s chest, almost casually. “She didn’t believe me.”

  “You killed him,” Eddie was having an almost impossible time making himself accept the reality that his murder suspect had been killed by one of the two senior officers of the Coastal County Sheriff’s Department. “You actually killed him.”

  “You just catching on?” Perkins let out a loud snort that sounded halfway like a laugh. “Shit fire, boy; I figured you’d caught on when you pulled me over. Give me your gun.” Perkins gestured at the sidearm Eddie had all but forgotten about.

  He shook his head no. Eddie didn’t know whether to be terrified or embarrassed. Or both. He was leaning towards both.

  Perkins rolled his eyes and kicked Eddie straight in the breastbone with the sole of one of his massive boots. Eddie gasped in an overwhelming rush of pain and rolled onto his side involuntarily. Stars were flashing in front of his eyes as he struggled to pull enough air into his lungs to keep himself from passing out. He dimly realized Perkins was unsnapping the button that held his gun holster closed and removing the weapon, but he was powerless to stop him. Perkins laughed.

  “Guess I overestimated you,” Perkins shook his head, keeping the gun steady on Eddie as he spoke almost conversationally. “I figured all those degrees of yours meant you’d have the brains to solve a basic domestic murder. The case itself is classic. Damn near textbook,” Perkins let out a loud snort and used his gun-holding hand to wipe sweat off his cheeks. “If I lived in a real city, I’d have been worried about getting caught.”

  Eddie swallowed and tried to figure out what the odds were that he could make a run for the highway without getting shot. His cruiser was barely visible from the road. He doubted anyone who happened to come down the irregularly traveled highway would even notice the cruiser or wonder why it was sitting on the side of the road.

  “I called this stop in, you know,” Eddie decided to bluff. “Dispatch has your plate number. They’ll know I pulled you over.”

  “Don’t waste my time by lying,” Perkins waved the gun at him. “You don’t even have a working radio in that cruiser. You didn’t call a damn thing in. Want to know how I know?” Perkins smirked at him. “I do have a working radio. Police issue.” He gestured back towards his own pick-up truck. “If you had called me in, I would have heard every word you said.”

  “Oh,” Eddie frowned and felt the skin on his face flushing. He had to think. He had to focus, or he was going to die. “Still, they’ll look for me.”

  Perkins scoffed at him. “Eventually they’ll notice their cruiser is missing,” he clarified. “By the time the Sheriff rides Addison’s ass hard enough that he goes out into the swamp looking for it, your body is going to be so rotted they’ll have to make identification using dental records.”

  Eddie gulped. “You can’t do that.”

  “Why the hell not?” Perkins countered.

  Eddie was disturbed to realize he didn’t actually have a good response to the question. “They’ll know I’m gone,” he said finally.

  “True. But they’re not going to care.” Perkins shook his head at Eddie. “Now, if you were Addison, or even Alex, I’d have a real problem on my hands. If either one of them boys got lost on their own hunting lease and didn’t make it back by dark then their people would have the whole damn county out searching for ‘em. Not you. You ain’t got no people.”

  “It doesn’t matter how long it takes for them to find me. Eventually they’ll find me, and someone will investigate,” Eddie felt stupid trying to justify the value of his own existence to a killer. He glanced back towards the road again. He had to escape. He’d never be able to overpower Perkins. The man outweighed him by at least 250 pounds and had probably been in plenty of fights. Eddie had barely managed to pass his police physical and had nearly failed self-defense. His power was all in his brain, but right now he couldn’t even seem to think coherently.

  It was going to cost him his life.

  “No one wastes time investigating suicides.”

  “Suicide?” Eddie repeated.

  “Sure,” Perkins gave him a snaggle-toothed grin. “Ain’t no one going to think too much when a law school drop out who’s stuck spending the rest of his life wiping his vegetable Momma’s ass and couldn’t even land a job on a podunk police force blows his miserable, depressed brains out right before he was going to get fired.”

  “Oh God,” Eddie whispered. The full horror of his situation was starting to sink in. “You don’t have to do this,” he said miserably, knowing he sounded like every bad movie cliché he’d ever heard.

  “Maybe I want to,” Perkins replied calmly. “Get up.”

  “If you’re going to kill me, just get it over with.” Eddie tried to calculate his odds of making it to the road. If he didn’t escape, and quickly, then he was going to die. He had no doubt about that. Perkins had killed Jarvis Marquette, and he showed absolutely no more remorse than he might over killing a trophy buck during hunting season.<
br />
  Perkins laughed. “You don’t think I’m stupid enough to kill you right here next to the road, do you?”

  Eddie didn’t bother answering as Perkins grabbed him by the arm and forcibly yanked him onto his feet. He tossed Eddie against the side of the truck so hard that Eddie’s teeth clacked together. He groaned in pain as Perkins roughly jerked his arms behind his back, handcuffed him with his own cuffs and then proceeded to roughly search him from head to toe. He yanked Eddie’s cellphone out of his pocket and dropped it purposefully under his boot, crushing the device into pieces against the hard packed dirt. Eddie felt his last fragile hope of being rescued or somehow managing to save himself fading away as Perkins grabbed him by the arm and began half-marching, half dragging him into the depths of the old hunting lease that took up the entire left side of Highway 77 all the way through Coastal County.

  *

  If Alex hadn’t been standing next to the road leaning against the side of his own cruiser, Addison doubted he ever would have noticed Eddie’s cruiser tucked back into the pig trail. Or at least it would have taken him a couple of days to find it.

  Addison eased his truck onto the shoulder of the road and rolled down his window. “Tell me you already got the pictures?” Addison asked.

  “Um, no. I think we,” he glanced back at David in the passenger’s seat, “I think we may have a real problem on our hands.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You need to see what’s parked in front of the cruiser.” Alex wrung his hands together unhappily.

  “What?” David asked.

  “In front of the cruiser?” Addison frowned and stared at the narrow opening in the trees.

  Alex nodded.

  “Where’s Eddie?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He’s not in the car?”

  “No. He’s not.” Alex shook his head. “I found his phone. It was lying crushed in the dirt.” He held up the broken device. David took the smashed phone from him and turned it over in his hands a few times.