Gators and Garters

by Jana DeLeon

  “I will confess that I did some checking on Mr. Nutters after she left my office,” he said. “I suppose I felt somewhat parental even though she’s grown, but Lord knows she’d never had an adult who took her interests into account. I have to say that I found him particularly unsuitable and that was only after a very cursory investigation.”

  “Did you tell Molly what you’d found?”

  “I didn’t have a chance to. She left after our discussion, promising to call, but she hedged on leaving me any contact information. I found her business address and sent her a letter, asking her to contact me at her first convenience. We were supposed to meet next week and I hoped she wouldn’t be angry enough with my overstepping to ignore the information.”

  “What did you find?” I asked.

  “The usual lot that comes with his sort—bad debt, bankruptcy, history of assault and domestic abuse. But the one that concerned me the most was money owed to a drug dealer. I didn’t come by that information through usual channels, but I know someone who has a bent for pharmaceuticals that add muscle…anyway, Mr. Nutters is highly sought-after for collection reasons in New Orleans.”

  I looked over at Ida Belle and Gertie and could tell they didn’t like that bit of information any more than I did.

  “Do you think that man hurt Molly?” Paul asked.

  “I think it’s possible,” I said. “He seems to be under the impression that Molly was going to make him a partner and if anything were to happen, she was leaving the business to him. But to the best of our knowledge, he hasn’t been able to produce proof of those claims.”

  Paul flushed with anger and he shook his head. “I loathe men like him. My wife comes from a wealthy family, so I’ve spent years watching people try to take advantage. But it wasn’t until I left criminal law and opened a family law practice that I realized it wasn’t just the plight of the wealthy. You see, it’s all relative. What one person might not lift a single finger to gain, another would go to great lengths to attain.”

  “So the less a con brings to the table, the lower the score they’re willing to go for,” I said.

  He nodded. “My experience has led me to observe that it’s usually one or a mix of three different things that dictate the extent to which a con will go—his current financial position, the risk and amount of effort associated with the con in relation to the payout, and the ability of the con to make a larger score in the future.”

  “Interesting,” I said. “I hadn’t thought about future earnings but I suppose it makes sense. Most people never hit the one that sets them for life, so if the risk of things going south isn’t worth the payout they would leave for greener pastures.”

  “But where does that leave us with Molly?” Gertie asked. “Dexter seems to think he’s due the business but has no proof and sounds like his money situation borders on desperate.”

  “And on the other hand, it seems that Silas is due her business and his situation borders on desperate as well, since he owes back property taxes,” Ida Belle said.

  I sighed. “I don’t want to see any of them get anything. I really wish Molly had followed up on creating a will.”

  Paul gave me a sad nod. “So do I.”

  We climbed back into Ida Belle’s SUV with more information but no closer to having an answer on what happened to Molly than we were before. Ida Belle started the SUV and fired up the AC, then guided it toward the highway.

  “What now?” Gertie asked, voicing all of our thoughts.

  “It does seem as if we’re at a draw,” Ida Belle said. “All three had motive and opportunity.”

  I nodded and stared down the street, rolling everything over in my mind. Unfortunately, one of the missing pieces could only be filled in by the man who’d drawn a shotgun on us before we’d even introduced ourselves.

  “We have to talk to Silas again,” I said. “Now.”

  Ida Belle took a left instead of a right onto the highway and headed toward Silas’s place.

  “I don’t think Silas is interested in talking,” Gertie said.

  “He might be if I tell him my investigation is holding up his insurance benefits,” I said.

  “Or he might just shoot you, figuring they won’t bother sending a replacement,” Ida Belle said.

  “I hope he’s a good shot then,” I said. “Because he’s only going to get one.”

  “What is it you think you can get out of him?” Ida Belle asked.

  “The name of the insurance company he claims Molly had a policy with,” I said. “If there really is a policy, I want to talk to the issuing agent.”

  “You think he faked the policy?” Ida Belle asked. “But how?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I just know that everyone who ever knew Molly has said that without a doubt there is no way she’d leave her father anything. So this whole insurance business is shady.”

  “If Silas really has an issued policy, he has more motive than Dexter,” Ida Belle said. “Dexter doesn’t even have any legal documents to back up his claims.”

  “True. And there’s that business with Molly’s brother,” Gertie said. “It all stinks to high heaven. I really wish there was a way to connect the three of them.”

  “I can’t imagine Silas partnering with anyone, even for money,” I said. “I don’t think he has it in him. And even though he went to Molly’s house that day, how would he follow her in the bayou? Dexter had access to Molly’s boat keys and could have taken her smaller boat out or given them to Marissa, but I can’t see Molly allowing Silas to dig around her drawers.”

  “If they were hanging on a hook, he could have slipped a set in his pocket when she wasn’t looking,” Gertie said.

  “But that would assume he knew she was going out in the other boat,” I said.

  “What about Johnny?” Gertie asked. “No one seems to think that was an accident either, but we know for certain that the only person who benefited from his death was Silas.”

  “True,” I agreed. “But that bad hip and knees of his have been around for a while. While he could have used a hoist to get Johnny from the boat into the bayou, how did he get him on the boat to begin with? That fisherman said he only saw one person getting on board and that was Johnny.”

  “He could have been hiding on the boat waiting for him,” Gertie said.

  “How did he get there?” Ida Belle asked. “The nearest marina is a good ten miles away. He couldn’t have made a ten-mile walk with those medical conditions and if he’d been hiding there, his truck would have been in the parking lot. That fisherman said the parking lot was empty.”

  “And even if he could have walked the distance, he still made that call to the tax assessor’s office just before Johnny was spotted at the marina,” I said. “He couldn’t have run there that fast, even with perfect knees, and if he’d driven there, the fisherman and Jeb and Wyatt would have seen him. So would Johnny, for that matter.”

  Gertie threw her hands in the air. “I need someone to be guilty. Actually, I need everyone to be guilty. I don’t like any of them.”

  “Me either,” I said. “Which is why I am looking for more dirt on Silas. If Carter can keep that suspicion on record, then maybe he can keep Silas from claiming Molly’s property before that five-year mark.”

  “What about Dexter?” Gertie asked.

  “Carter might not find enough to get a conviction, but Dexter isn’t coming out of this with any of Molly’s assets,” I said.

  “Not good enough,” Gertie grumbled.

  “We’re doing everything we can,” Ida Belle said. “People like Dexter get theirs in the end. They don’t know any other way but the wrong one and eventually they step on the wrong back.”

  Ida Belle turned off onto the path leading to Silas’s shack. “Hang on.”

  The SUV dipped and bumped along the makeshift road for what seemed like forever. Silas’s truck was parked in the same place as before.

  “Let me go by myself,” I said. “But maybe angle the SUV so
you’re ready to haul it out of here. And cover me. If he doesn’t feel like answering my questions, I’m going to push.”

  Ida Belle nodded and swung the SUV around in a circle, angling it where they could see the cabin and where it was easy for her to launch for the road. I climbed out of the SUV and headed for the porch. As expected, Silas stepped out with his shotgun before I was halfway there.

  “Thought I made myself clear on visitors last time,” he said.

  “I’m not a visitor. If you have any thoughts of collecting that insurance money, you’ll answer my questions. Or I can just tell the company that you won’t comply, and they can sit on the claim for a while before they assign it to someone else and start this process all over again.”

  He glared at me but I could tell he was considering my words.

  “What do you want to know?” he finally asked.

  “You said you hadn’t seen Molly in years, but people saw you driving to her house the day she disappeared.”

  “Still doesn’t mean I seen her. Look, she called and said I needed to sign some stuff and she didn’t have the time or inclination to make the drive out here. Said to meet her at her house that afternoon at three. So I did what I was told but she wasn’t there.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I banged on that door for a good ten minutes. Didn’t no one answer.”

  “Did you go down to the dock to see if her boat was there?”

  “Didn’t even know she had a dock and I’m not interested in walking much, especially across uneven ground.”

  “But her van was there?”

  He nodded. “There was a van parked in front. Why are you asking all these questions?”

  “Because the police have ruled her death as suspicious.”

  He narrowed his eyes and I saw his hand twitch near the trigger. “You saying I did something to Molly?”

  “I’m not saying anything, but the insurance company needs to make a decision on her death before they’ll pay out. The policy was new. That always brings questions, and the way Molly disappeared and with no body, it’s hard to wrap these things up.”

  “Look, I don’t know what kind of game that insurance company is playing, but I went to that agent’s office and signed those papers. He said Molly took out the policy herself. I didn’t know nothing about it.”

  “Hmmmm. And you signed those documents in Stan Morgan’s office?”

  “No. That wasn’t his name. Last name Kent. His office was just off the highway before you get into New Orleans. Has a big Coastal Insurance sign right there on the front. Now, I’ve told you everything I know about this. I suggest you put all that in your report and get to cutting me a check.”

  He turned around and limped inside.

  I headed back to the SUV, unable to keep from smiling.

  “I take it we’re making a stop at this insurance agency?” Ida Belle asked as she pulled away.

  “Definitely,” I said. “But first, let’s swing by that marina and see if there’s anyone around who can talk about Johnny. I would like to make sure everyone has their stories straight.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  We waved at our friends in front of the convenience store as we passed. I could tell by their expressions that they were disappointed we didn’t stop, but I was like a dog on the trail of a scent. The turnoff for the marina was halfway between where Silas lived and the NOLA city limits and on the east side, like Silas’s house. The road to it was maintained much better than the path to Silas’s house, with a topping of rock to help fill in the holes that all the trucks and trailers created. When we exited the trees, we were in a decent-sized parking lot. Three docks stretched into the bayou in front of us, shrimp boats tied to pylons lining each side. A couple of older men were fishing at the end of one of the docks and looked back as we started down the pier.

  “Nothing’s biting but the heat,” the first man said as we approached.

  “Then why are you fishing?” Gertie asked.

  “Because it beats sitting in the house with my wife,” he said. “Been married to the woman for fifty-six years. There’s nothing we need to say that hasn’t already been said at least ten times.”

  The other man shook his head. “That’s why I never remarried when my Jenny died. Shouldn’t be a reason for fishing other than wanting to fish.”

  The first man reeled in his rod with a sigh. “And unfortunately, it’s about time I head back. Got that thing at my daughter-in-law’s this afternoon. Grandkid’s birthday party. Bunch of screaming kids and sitting around in the heat. My daughter-in-law won’t even let us have beer.”

  “That’s just wrong,” the second man said.

  “Was there something you were needing?” the first man asked as he packed his tackle box.

  “I was hoping to find someone who could tell me about the day Johnny Broussard disappeared,” I said.

  Both men frowned.

  “That was bad news,” the second man said. “Why do you want to go stirring it up again?”

  I pulled out my card and handed it to him. “Because I have a client who asked me to stir things up again.”

  Both men’s eyes widened.

  “This is because of what happened to Molly, isn’t it?” the first man said. “I said straightaway that it wasn’t right—brother and sister going the exact same way. I don’t believe in coincidence. Not that much of one, anyway.”

  “Neither does my client,” I said.

  The first man nodded. “Well, the guy you want to speak to about Johnny is sitting right here. Mel was the last one to see him. I best get going.”

  He took off with his tackle box and Mel motioned for me to take a seat. I figured it was more polite than standing over him and grilling him so I sat. Ida Belle and Gertie each sat on a piling.

  “I told the police everything I could at the time,” Mel said. “What is it you want to know?”

  “You were here that day when Johnny took his boat out,” I said. “Was anyone else here?”

  He shook his head. “The commercial guys didn’t even bother coming out, not with that kind of weather coming round. And the fishermen that thought they’d give it a try anyway had all packed up and left before I did.”

  “You weren’t ready to give up?” I asked.

  He gave me a sheepish look. “To be honest, as soon as everyone left, I reeled in and pulled out a book. I’d rather read than fish anyway, but you can’t let this lot know things like that. When the storm clouds started rolling in, I packed up.”

  “And you saw Johnny when you were in your vehicle,” I said. “Where were you parked?”

  “I was parked at the back of the lot over there in the corner,” he said. “My doctor gets onto me about walking, and since I’m not one to go walk around for no reason, I started parking away from things. Probably doesn’t make a bit of difference but it gets the doctor off my back.”

  “And where did Johnny park?”

  “Right close to the dock. I thought at first that maybe he’d come to grab something off his boat. I mean, the weather wasn’t fit for shrimping and Johnny knew that better than anyone.”

  “Was it raining by then?” I asked.

  “Not yet but it was dark like evening and it was sure coming. The wind had already picked up. But when he got on the boat, he untied it from the dock. I started my vehicle and he looked my direction and lifted a hand. Then he went to the wheel to start her up and left. I watched him go up the bayou a ways and then it started to come down, so I got out of there myself before the road got muddy.”

  “And you’re sure it was him?”

  “’Course. I know everyone’s truck and their boat and Johnny’s a big guy. Biggest guy on the docks. Besides, he was wearing that slicker his sister bought him. Bright purple stripes. Took a lot of razzing from the guys but couldn’t no one talk him out of wearing it. Every time someone tried to make something of it, he just grinned and told them they were jealous. That boy and his sister were thick as thi
eves.”

  “Could you see his face?”

  “Don’t suppose I could exactly but who else would it be? It was his truck, his slicker, his boat, body size was right, and he waved.”

  “Was he carrying anything? Pulling a cooler maybe?”

  “Nothing that I could see.”

  “Did you take part in the search?”

  He frowned. “Yeah. That was a bad deal. I still don’t understand. I guess I thought maybe he needed to move the boat. Take it for a repair or gas it up, even though I’m sure those things could have waited. But I never thought he’d head into the lake. Nobody did.”

  “But that’s where the boat was found?”

  He nodded. “Got hung up on a sunken boat along the bank. Tide pushed it in and then it got wedged on top of the wreckage.”

  “How far is the lake from here?”

  “Not far. Just take this channel north about two miles, then you come around right another mile or so and you hit the lake.”

  “What do you think happened?” I asked.

  “They said he must have hit his head on something. They found a bloody glove in the bathroom in the sink and it was Johnny’s blood on it. They figure he cracked his head and went to check it then went back out on deck and fell over somehow. Could have been dizzy, balance off, if he’d cracked it good.”

  “And is that a reasonable assumption?”

  “Sure. Plenty of things on a boat that a head wouldn’t fare well against. And most people don’t think a lake can get rough, but I’ve seen waters out there look like the Gulf when a storm is pushing against the tide. Anything is possible, even for an experienced man like Johnny.”

  I nodded. “Your friend didn’t seem satisfied with that conclusion.”

  “None of us are, really. But truth be told, that’s probably more about how much we dislike Silas than anything else. He was never a good daddy to those kids. We all knew it but wasn’t nothing we could do about it. Johnny being so young, I figure he never thought about things like inheritance but I sure wish he would have. Angel should have gotten his things. Not Silas. That’s what Johnny would have wanted.”