by BJ Bourg
Within a few minutes, Dawn closed in like a mountain lion stalking its prey. Just when I thought she was going to drive right up the stern of their boat, she slowed to their speed and began keeping pace with them. The siren screamed at them, but Shannon refused to stop. I snatched up the bullhorn and hollered, “Shannon Reed, this is London Carter with the sheriff’s office. Stop the damn boat…now!”
Trees and camps zipped by as we continued to pursue Shannon northward. I was holding on with one hand and working the bullhorn with the other, repeatedly commanding them to stop. I glanced at Dawn. Her dark hair was wet and flowing in the wind and her jaw was set.
“I’m going around them!” she said.
“Give me one second.” I hollered into the bullhorn, “Shannon, you’re under arrest! If you don’t stop this boat, we’re going to force you over and your people might get hurt. I’m going to count to three and then I’m going to start shooting. One…two…”
The bow of Shannon’s boat dipped suddenly and it decreased speed at a dangerous rate. Dawn jerked the Boston Whaler into the stern wave—just barely missing the corner of their boat—and we jostled about, our shoulders slamming into each other. With the skills of a woman who’d spent a lot of time on the water, she quickly recovered and circled Shannon and his people. I dropped the bullhorn and drew my pistol, training it on Shannon.
“Show me your hands!” I commanded. Shannon hesitated and I yelled, “Now!”
Shrugging as though bored with me, Shannon slowly lifted his hands and said something to his companions. They also raised their hands and sat there waiting as Dawn navigated our boat next to theirs. I was about to board the vessel when the posse showed up. I recognized a couple of the men as alligator hunters I’d seen yesterday at the launch. One of the men pointed toward Shannon.
“He cut all of our lines—every one of them!”
I holstered my pistol and boarded Shannon’s boat, shaking my head when I saw dozens of large hooks littering the bottom of his boat, along with some sneakers and a bikini. A short length of rope was attached to each of the hooks. Some of the hooks were black, some were silver, and the ropes were different colors, all of which identified different hunters.
“So, you’ve graduated from protestor to criminal. I thought you were smarter than that.”
Shannon grinned. “Wouldn’t you sacrifice yourself for something you love?”
I pulled a pair of cuffs from my beltline and placed them on his wrists. I told his passengers to move to the front of the boat and then I nodded to Dawn. “I’ll follow you back to the landing.”
As I followed Dawn and the posse followed me, I read Shannon his rights and asked him if he was willing to talk to me about what happened.
“I’m proud of what I did, law man,” Shannon said defiantly. “I may not have brought an end to the atrocities that are taking place here in the Deep South, but this I know for sure—no alligators are going to lose their lives today.”
I sighed. “They’re simply going to replace their lines and get back to work. All you did was delay the inevitable, as well as cost yourself a hefty fine and, perhaps, some jail time.”
“Ah, but there’s more…I brought awareness to this dire situation. I will go down in the annals of animal rights history as a martyr for the cause.” He lifted his head high in the air. “Go ahead and persecute me, law man. I will not bow to you or your oppressive rules.”
I cast a sideways glance at Shannon, wondering if he was crazy or just a good actor. As I watched him, I also wondered how far he might go to save the alligators. Would he resort to murder? He did seem to know a bit about sniper work, which was rare, and he picked up his cigarette butts like a sniper would. I nodded to myself. Yep, it’s time to interrogate Shannon about Norris Simoneaux’s murder.
CHAPTER 19
We reached the boat launch thirty minutes later, having to travel at a slower speed on the return trip because of the no wake zones in front of the many camps that lined the bayou. Norm was pacing back and forth along the pier—his phone to his ear—when we arrived. He ran to the ramp when he saw us. “I had backup coming,” he said, huffing. “I didn’t know what the hell was happening.”
Dawn tossed him her line and he tied it around the dock cleat. He then did the same for me and reached down to help me get Shannon out of the boat.
As he and Dawn secured Shannon and his friends in their vehicles, I walked to where the alligator hunters were docking their boats. “How’d y’all know they cut the lines?”
One of the hunters, a leathery-faced man with no teeth, spat a stream of tobacco into the water and said, “I caught the bastards red-handed.”
“How?” I asked.
“Well, I checked four of my lines earlier and they were all cut. They weren’t popped, they were cut clean. I knew something was wrong, so I shut my engine down and went undercover, paddling around the edge of the lake to check the rest of my lines.”
One of the other hunters nodded his head. “All of my lines were cut, too, and when I saw Donnie chasing that sum-bitch, I filed in with him. Lucky you got to him before we did. You mess with my lines, you mess with my livelihood, and I need my livelihood to take care of my family. Yep, I would’ve beaten him stupid if I would’ve caught him first.”
I knew he was right. You don’t mess with an alligator hunter’s lines without suffering his wrath. I waved for them to follow me, and they spilled out of their boats, joining me on the pier. I pointed to the hooks and rope at the bottom of Shannon’s boat. “Can y’all identify who each of these lines are for?”
They all nodded and Donnie, who was late walking up, stopped in his tracks and pointed to the numbers displayed on the boat. “That’s one of Wellman Boudreaux’s boats.”
I turned my head toward him. “What? Are you sure?”
“Positive.” He shot a thumb over his shoulder. “The bastard either stole the boat or that prick Wellman hired him to destroy our lines to put us out of business.”
My brow furrowed. “You think Boudreaux would do that?”
“There’s not a damn thing that piece of shit won’t do to get what he wants,” Donnie said. “The worst thing that happened to any of us out here is his daddy dying. Old Man Boudreaux was barely in the ground when Wellman started messing shit up. I swear…his dad would stand up in his grave and vomit if he saw what was happening to his friends, thanks to his son.”
“Okay,” I said, starting to turn to walk toward Dawn. “We’ll bring them to the office and find out what’s—”
I caught my breath when I saw it, unsure if what I was seeing was real.
“What is it?” Donnie asked.
Without saying a word, I boarded the boat and stepped to the aft end, squinting. There, sprayed onto the side of the dark-colored outboard motor, was a fine mist of what looked like blood.
“We’re ready to go,” Dawn called from the pier behind me. “Do you want me to have Norm tow the boat?”
“Look here,” I said, waving her over. I stepped aside when she boarded the boat and sidled up beside me. She put a hand on my shoulder to steady herself from the rocking of the vessel.
“Is that what I think it is?” she asked.
I nodded. “It looks like high velocity spray. Do you have a presumptive blood kit?”
“I do.” She hurried off and returned a few minutes later with her kit and her camera. After swabbing the suspected blood and testing it, she pursed her lips. “It’s blood and it’s human.”
I looked toward where Shannon was sitting in the back of Dawn’s car. He was staring at us and there was a weird look on his face.
“None of Shannon’s people are bleeding,” Dawn said.
“That’s right.”
She chewed on her lower lip the way she did when she was thinking. “Then whose blood is that?”
My eyes locked on Shannon’s. “I guess he’s got some explaining to do.”
CHAPTER 20
When Dawn and I were seated across fr
om Shannon in the interview room, I read him his rights and asked if he’d tell me how he ended up with the fishermen’s hooks.
He tossed back his greasy red hair and cupped his hands over his mouth. After a few long seconds, he threw his hands up in the air. “I must’ve blacked out, because I don’t remember a thing.”
“Fair enough,” Dawn said, leaning forward and resting her tanned arms on the desk. “Where were you early Thursday morning?”
Shannon glanced toward the ceiling, seemingly giving it serious thought. “Well,” he said when he lowered his eyes. “I was at the boat launch that morning. This nice gentleman”—he shot a thumb in my direction—“can vouch for me.”
“Earlier than that,” I interjected. “Much earlier.”
“I was there earlier than that and later than that. I was there all day.”
“Can anyone verify you story?” Dawn asked.
“Oh, it’s no story, and, yes, my friends can all verify my whereabouts on the day in question.” Shannon stood to his feet and lifted his hands. “May I please get back to saving God’s creatures, thus allowing you two to direct your time and resources in a more productive manner?”
“Look, Shannon, cut the act.” I stood, too, and approached him with purpose. I didn’t stop until we were nose to nose. “I understand you want to save the alligators—I get that—but a man’s dead and a war’s about to break out between two families. If you don’t tell me what you know, a lot of good people could die.”
His eyes never wavered and he only nodded slightly. “I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t know anything about Thursday morning and I know nothing about this dead man. God is my witness and my conscience is clear.” He sighed. “Look, I cut the lines and I’m willing to pay the price for violating your oppressive and petty laws in order to save a few precious alligators—if only for a day—but I would never hurt anyone…animal or man beast. I’m a life saver, not a destroyer. So, if there’s nothing else, I’d like to be returned to my friends, who are waiting for me—”
“You’re going to jail, Shannon,” Dawn said from across the desk. “And so are your friends.”
“Madam Detective, damage to property when the value is less than five hundred dollars is a misdemeanor. You should know that. The total cost of the lines I cut would barely come to twenty bucks.” He held out his hand. “I’ll accept my summons now and be on my merry way.”
“You ran from us,” Dawn countered. “Since it was foreseeable that lives were in danger during the chase and you blew through at least three no-wake zones and operated the boat in a careless manner, that’s aggravated flight.”
I nodded. “You’ll be spending the weekend in jail, my man.”
Shannon’s shoulders drooped. “You can’t be serious! I was running from those vigilante hunters who were trying to kill me and my friends. Anyone in his right mind would do the same as me. I didn’t know you were behind me until you got close enough for me to hear the siren.” He gave Dawn a wink. “Very impressed with the way you handled that boat, by the way.”
“Nice try, but you’re toast.” Her expression remained hard. “You’re also being charged with felony theft of the boat.”
“I didn’t steal that watercraft!”
“So, you admit that Wellman Boudreaux let you borrow the boat to help kill off his competition?” I asked.
Shannon’s face scrunched up. “Who’s Wellman Boudreaux?”
“The man who gave you the boat,” I said.
“No one gave me the boat. We found it floating near the mouth of the lake.”
Dawn and I traded glances. “How’d you come to be in the mouth of the lake in the first place?”
“A friend of a friend named Gary took us out in his little aluminum hull, but when we found that boat, we decided to use it to free Mother Nature’s lizards. You know, just in case someone spotted us.” He smirked. “We weren’t trying to get caught. That bastard just sprung up out of the marsh grass and started chasing us. Before we knew it, there were at least a dozen of them on our asses.”
“So,” I said slowly, “you just found the boat floating in the water? All alone?”
“Yep. It was pushed up against the bank of the bayou and it was still running.”
“Didn’t you find that kind of odd?” I pressed. “A boat idling in the middle of nowhere…”
“I’ve seen stranger things.”
“Where was the driver?”
“I have not the faintest clue, and we didn’t wait around for them to come back.” Shannon shrugged. “Probably some crazed hunter who left his boat to murder one of our helpless four-legged friends.”
“I’ve never met a hunter who could fit the bikini in the bottom of the boat, and most men can’t fit a woman’s size six.” I shook my head. “Nope, there was no crazed hunter in that boat. Just a small female out there on the water, probably trying to catch what little sun she could find. What’d you do to her, Shannon? Did you rape her? Why’s her bikini at the bottom of the boat?”
“What in the hell are you talking about? I don’t know anything about some girl and I’m offended that you would accuse me of rape!”
Dawn left the interview room and returned with her camera. She activated the display screen and pulled up one of the pictures she’d taken of the bikini and sneakers. “This doesn’t look like your color, and your female companions were all clothed when we stopped y’all, so who does it belong to?”
“I swear I don’t know. I didn’t even realize what it was.”
Dawn flipped through the pictures until she landed on one depicting the blood spray on the boat. “Can you explain how that blood got there?”
“Blood?” The skin around Shannon’s eyes tightened just a bit, but he quickly recovered. “I didn’t see any blood when we borrowed the boat.”
Dawn chuckled. “Oh, so now you borrowed the boat?”
“I had no intent to keep it permanently, so it can’t be considered theft.”
“What about unauthorized use?” I asked. “Or murder?”
“Murder? I already told you I would never hurt anyone—even those who are most deserving of execution for their crimes against humanity.” Shannon took his seat and sighed. “Look, I realize now that it was a bad move on my part taking that boat. I had no idea it was involved in something as sinister as murder. I just thought it had been abandoned by some alligator hunter. It was harmless error. I swear it. You can ask anyone in my group.”
“Did the bikini and shoes belong to anyone in your group?” I asked.
“They had to have been there when we entered the boat.”
I shot my thumb toward the door. “Did one of your buddies hurt the girl? If so and you helped cover up the crime, you’re going down for accessory.”
Shannon took a deep breath and exhaled forcefully. “I already told you we didn’t do anything with any girl. You’re wasting your time—”
“London, Dawn…come quick!” Becky had burst through the door and was breathing hard from running down the hall. “I’ve got a caller on line two who needs to speak with y’all.”
Norm walked into the hallway from the kitchen area and glanced in our office. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Can Norm handle it?” Dawn tossed her head in Norm’s direction. “We’re busy interrogating this fellow.”
Becky shook her head from side to side. “You’re going to want to take it—there’s been another sniper murder.”
CHAPTER 21
“That damn Frank Simoneaux sent someone to try and kill my son!” It was Wellman Boudreaux and he was bellowing into the phone. He broke into an unintelligible tirade, but there was no mistaking the threat to march down to the Simoneaux camp and kill the whole bunch of them.
“Whoa,” I said. “You don’t know that Frank had anything to do with the attack on your son.”
“That’s bullshit! He accused me of killing Norris and now he’s playing eye for an eye with my family.”
“Jus
t calm down and tell me what happened. Is your boy hurt?”
Dawn was sitting at the corner of Becky’s desk staring up at me. “What’s going on?” she mouthed.
I tilted the handset toward her, and she stood to lean her head close to mine, placing her ear next to the speaker.
“Clayton was out on the water with his girlfriend when somebody took a shot at him. They missed him, but hit her right in the head.” Wellman paused and I could hear him taking a breath. “I know it was Frank and his people. I swear, London, I’m going to take my men down there and I’m going to burn his place to the ground!”
“Look, Mr. Boudreaux,” I said, my voice calm. “If you planned on going after them you would’ve already done it. You called me because you’re not positive Frank shot this girl—just like Frank’s not positive you killed his son—and you want me to figure it out.”
I heard Wellman breathing heavily on the other end, as though thinking over what I said. I didn’t wait for him to object. “This shooting…where’d it happen?”
“Near the Cut. Clayton was out on the water with his girlfriend when it happened.”
“Was he in a boat?”
“Yeah, but it’s missing. Clayton got knocked out of the boat and it ran off. Why?”
“Can you describe it?” I asked.
Once he described the boat, Dawn and I turned to face each other, our noses less than an inch apart. I then looked down the hallway where Norm was standing outside of Dawn’s office guarding Shannon. That son-of-a-bitch had to be lying!
I pushed my ear back toward the speaker. “We’ve got your boat here at the office and we’ve got a suspect in custody.”
“You what?”
“We caught someone driving one of your boats—the one you just described—and we took him into custody,” I explained. “We found blood on the motor.”
