by Sam Cheever
A car approached slowly on the winding road, veering around the haphazardly parked truck. I glanced toward the dark sedan, the craggy profile of its driver igniting a spark of memory that I couldn’t quite grasp.
“It doesn’t look like anybody’s home,” Dorrie Tae whispered.
Irene pushed past her and pounded on the weathered door. “There’s only one way to find out.”
A long moment passed. Irene knocked again, harder the second time. I caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. When I turned my head, I saw the curtain in one of the front windows of the house drop back into place. “Someone’s in there.”
Dorrie Tae eyed the window. “You’d probably fit through there, Felicity. Irene and I could heft you up…”
I shook my head. “I’m still concussed from the drive over. I’m not letting you two throw me through a window.”
Irene murmured something that sounded a lot like “wimp” and Dorrie Tae giggled.
“What did you call me?”
“I called you a wimp. Deal with it,” Irene told me.
I was saved from my impulse to batter an old lady when the door opened, and a man stepped out.
I sucked in a gasp.
“Hi, honey.”
I was rooted to the spot, shocked beyond words. I’d come to the cabin hoping to find my father. But after all the months of wondering and worrying… I’d never dreamed it would be that easy. I swallowed hard, tears filling my eyes. “Daddy.”
He looked pretty much like he always had, except for the chin-length wavy, dark blond hair, and the bristly cheeks from not having shaved recently. He also looked a bit thinner than I remembered.
He opened his arms and I ran into them, burying my face in his flannel shirt as he squeezed me tight. “I missed you, Felly.”
I sniffled, scrubbing my eyes. “I thought you were dead.”
“I know. I’m really sorry about that...” He stiffened at the sound of a car coming up the road. “Let’s get inside. It’s not safe out here.”
My father ushered me and then the ladies inside the dark cabin. It smelled musty and was sweltering despite the heavy tree cover.
I quickly realized both the heat and the smell were due to the fact that he had all the windows closed and covered.
Irene turned to him, hands on hips. “What in the world have you been up to, Bubba? You scared your poor girl half to death.”
“And you got that homeless guy killed,” Dorrie Tae added.
Felonius Chance eyed the two women, a perplexed look on his handsome face, then turned to me. “Felicity, would you like to introduce me to your friends?”
“I think we’re way beyond pleasantries,” Irene said.
I nodded. “I have to agree with Irene. What have you gotten mixed up in? Why are you here? And who killed poor Bubba?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Felicity. Manners are never extraneous.”
I expelled air. “These are my friends, Irene and Dorrie Tae. Ladies, this is my father, Felonius Chance.”
“Nice to meet you, ladies.” He offered them his hand, but Irene just glared. Dorrie Tae gave in and shook it.
“Shall we sit?”
“No, dad. We shall not sit. I need some answers!”
“You’re right. I owe you that. First of all, let me just say that I disappeared because I was trying to keep you safe. I figured if I wasn’t in Indy, they’d leave you and Breze alone.”
Irene looked at me.
“Breze’s my evil stepmother, a.k.a. trophy wife number three.”
“Ah.” Irene nodded in understanding.
Dad frowned. “I’d hoped with me gone, you two would have found a way to get along.”
“Nope. So go on. Why did you leave Indy?”
My father walked across the house, heading for a short line of cabinets that probably represented the kitchen. There wasn’t much to it. I followed, not wanting to let him out of my sight.
He took a kettle off the stove and filled it with water. “I can’t tell you why I left.” He glanced my way as I bristled. “Believe me, it’s better if you don’t know, Felly.”
“You have gators!”
Dorrie Tae stood a few feet away, bent over a long, glass aquarium on the floor. I walked over and looked down and, sure enough, two baby alligators snapped and slithered inside the glass. They were about three feet long, from their snouts to the tips of their tails.
Like miniature death.
Or shoes on the hoof.
“Ish!”
Dad turned the flame up under the kettle and joined us at the aquarium. “I found them in the yard when they were just a foot long. I couldn’t resist taking them in. Their mother had been hit on the road.”
I shared a look with Irene. “Yeah, I think we almost ran over one of their relatives a minute ago.”
Father nodded. The kettle started to whistle. He moved back into the kitchen, gathering cups and spoons, cream, and sugar. I frowned when he reached for a bag of cookies.
“Dad, this isn’t a tea party. You still haven’t explained what’s going on.”
“If he’s smart, he won’t say anything,” said a strange voice.
We all jumped and turned toward the newcomer standing in the door. He had a gun pointed at my dad.
As soon as I saw him, the memory I’d been trying to glom onto outside fell into place. “You!”
The thug from the Backwater glanced my way, one eyebrow cranking upward from the middle. “I knew you’d lead me to him eventually.”
“You know this guy, Felly?”
“Unfortunately, we’ve met. Sort of.”
“Your daughter and her boyfriend are staying at the same motel where I was.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“You’re sharing a room,” the thug snitched.
Felonius scalded me with a look, his jaw tightening.
Irene and Dorrie Tae gave me thumbs up. ‘
“Cal is not my boyfriend!” I glared at the rat fink thug.
He shrugged.
“It’s not important,” Dad said. “What is important is that these ladies have nothing to do with this, Rouse.”
The thug smiled, the gun unwavering. “I’m afraid they’ve made themselves part of it, Chance. And I have to say I’m glad they did. I’d have never found you out here in the swamp otherwise.”
Eyeing the gun the thug was holding, my father eased himself in front of me.
The ladies stepped back.
“Everybody stop moving!” Rouse yelled.
Like a bad game of Simon Says, we all stopped mid-motion.
The thug reached for something in his back pocket and came up with a pair of handcuffs. My gaze slid toward Irene and jerked downward.
She narrowed her gaze for a moment and then nodded.
I prayed she’d gotten my silent message.
Rouse moved closer. “Put your hands behind your back, Mr. Chance, and turn around.”
My father widened his arms, shielding me. “No. Let them go, Rouse. This is between Nicolai and me. I don’t want them harmed.”
Rouse moved closer. “I got my orders, Chance. If you cooperate, nobody else needs to get hurt.”
When Rouse was a foot away, I yelled, “Now!”
Dorrie Tae and Irene each grabbed a corner of the aquarium and pulled, knocking it over with a thud.
The two gators shot out of the thing, hissing angrily, and I hit the nearest chair, squealing as they headed right for me. My father launched himself at the guy with the gun, both of them dancing around the snapping jaws of the gator babies.
I realized pretty quickly that my father—a man who’d made a killing in the financial world but who couldn’t kill much else outside of a few bugs—didn’t have a chance against the muscular thug.
So I did the only thing I could think to do. I grabbed my twenty-pound alligator purse and swung it toward the thug’s head. It landed with a meaty-sounding thwuck, and he went very still, his eyes rolling ba
ck into his head before he toppled to the floor like a giant redwood.
One of the babies snapped angrily at his arm and missed and then turned and hightailed it out of the cabin just behind its sibling.
Dorrie Tae and Irene came up on either side of me. We all looked down at the unconscious thug.
“I think you killed him,” Dorrie Tae said.
“Serves him right,” Irene responded.
“I panicked.” I looked at my dad. “Is he dead?”
Felonius dropped to one knee and felt the guy’s throat. He frowned and I braced for bad news. A few beats later, I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. “Well?”
My dad blew out a frustrated breath, dropping his hand. “How the heck do I know? I can’t feel anything.”
“He’s dead!” I wailed.
Felonius lifted his hands, climbing to his feet. “I didn’t say that, Felly. I’ve never been able to feel a pulse, not even on myself. It’s not as easy as they make it look on TV.”
“His chest is moving,” Dorrie Tae observed.
I pulled air into my lungs. “Thank heaven!”
“Here, help me get him in a chair,” Dad said. “We’ll use his cuffs to keep him there.”
A few minutes and much huffing and puffing later, we all took a step back, panting. We’d pulled his arms between the slats in the back of the chair and cuffed them together. Then we’d bound his ankles to the legs of the chair with two of my father’s belts.
“That should hold him,” Dad said.
I pulled out my cell phone. “I’ll call Cal.”
Felonius placed a hand over my phone, pulling it away from my ear. “No, Felly.”
“What do you mean, no? This guy killed Bubba.”
“And he would have killed me too.”
“But we got him,” I argued.
“Yes. But he’s just one small cog in a huge, dangerous machine. Once his bosses find out where he is, they’ll come to Bent looking for me.”
“Then we’ll give you a head start,” Irene said. “Get your stuff together and hit the road.”
My father held my gaze for a long moment, his dark blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “I’m sorry, honey. I wish it could be different.”
I sniffled. “Okay. Yeah. Irene’s right. Go get lost again. But let me know how you’re doing okay?”
He nodded.
The thug groaned.
“He’s coming to.” Dorrie Tae reached for my purse. “Give me that thing. I’ll do it this time. That looked like fun.”
I jerked my purse away from her. “We’re not hitting him again. He’s tied up, he can’t do anything.”
“Keep an eye on him. I’ll be right back,” Felonius said. My father left the room through a door that I suspected led to a bedroom.
Rouse’s head snapped up, and fire lit his gaze. “Let me go. You idiots are making a horrible mistake.”
Irene made her hand into a fist and took a step in his direction. “I wouldn’t start with the name-calling if I were you. You don’t exactly have the upper hand here.”
“She’s right,” I told him. “You’re the one tied to a chair.”
“Check my right pants pocket. You’ll find a badge.”
I shared a shocked look with Irene and Dorrie Tae. “You’re lying.”
“Check my pocket.”
I grimaced. “I’m not sticking my hand down there.”
“I’ll do it!” Dorrie Tae jumped forward and jammed her hand into the man’s jeans. He jumped, wincing. “Hey, watch what you’re grabbin’, lady!”
Dorrie Tae’s hand came out clutching a small, leather wallet. She was grinning when she returned to Irene and me. I took the wallet from her and grimaced. He hadn’t been lying.
Our thug was Detective Paul Rouse from the Indianapolis police.
“Yikes! He is a cop,” I said.
“This is not good,” Irene murmured. Dorrie Tae expelled air like a pierced balloon.
“I’m here to take your father into protective custody. We want to offer him a deal…put him into witness protection.”
“What exactly is he mixed up in?”
“He was managing the finances of a man named Nicolai Ruchoff. Nicolai is the oldest son of one of the leaders in a local band of Russian Mafia. A key player. We’ve been watching Ruchoff for several months now. I was embedded deep in the organization when I got word that your father had overheard something he shouldn’t have. I was sent to kill him.”
I blinked. “Wait, I thought you were a cop?”
“I am. Try to keep up. I don’t like to repeat myself.”
Irene nodded. “Word.”
“I offered to take the hit because I was trying to save your father’s life.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “I don’t believe you. I think you’re scamming me.”
My father reappeared and headed toward us, slinging a backpack over one shoulder. “Nicolai trusted you like a brother, Rouse.”
“That’s called good undercover work, Chance. Now release me and let me take you back to Indy. We’re prepared to give you a sweet deal in exchange for immunity and witness protection.”
“I don’t need immunity. I didn’t do anything illegal. If he was funneling dirty money into his accounts, that’s not my responsibility.”
Rouse cranked a slow arch into his eyebrow but didn’t comment.
“Dad, maybe you should take him up on it.”
“Listen to your daughter, Chance. You won’t last a year out here without protection.”
My father kissed me on the forehead and headed out the door. “Funny. I’ve done all right for eight months on my own.”
“And you got an innocent man killed.”
My dad stopped in the doorway, his hand on the frame. “I’m deeply sorry for that. It was…unexpected.” He finally turned back, glowering at Rouse. “I figured you killed him because you thought he was me.” He shook his head. “I didn’t know what to do when I found out Bubba was dead. I wanted to run…but I thought you were still out there.” He fixed Rouse with a disgusted look. “And when Felicity showed up, I couldn’t leave her here with you.”
“I didn’t kill nobody, you moron.”
“Then how did you find me?”
Rouse looked at me, his eyes narrowing in speculation. “I was on that stinky island when he was killed. Got there too late to save your guy. But I saw someone…”
I was uncomfortable with the way he was looking at me. “Who did you see?”
“You. At least I thought it was you. Nicholai has a woman on his payroll who does wet work. I’ve never met her, but I heard she was pretty, blonde. So when I saw you on the island that day…” He shook his head. “I figured I’d follow you until you found the right guy.”
“It wasn’t me. I wouldn’t try to kill my own father.”
“Yeah. I know that now.” Rouse shook his head. “But that means the killer is still out there.”
A sick feeling had moved into the pit of my stomach when Rouse described the killer. I glanced toward Irene and she was frowning. She shook her head. “I don’t like the look on your face, girl.”
I chewed my bottom lip. “You know I’m right.”
Dorrie Tae looked from one to the other of us, frowning. “What? Who?”
I jerked my head toward Rouse. “Let him go. I’ll call Cal.”
11
Lena Borne was just locking up her shop when we arrived. I was relieved to see that Sheriff Wyatt Erk hadn’t ridden his half-dead nag out of town for the arrest. Instead, a younger Deputy, good-looking with light brown hair and a piercing gray gaze, climbed out of the biggest truck I’d ever seen and approached Lena. He didn’t look happy, and his hand was on his gun as he walked up to her.
I assumed I was finally looking at the elusive Deputy Mark Cooper.
Lena took one look at the deputy and burst into tears. “I saw the gold, and I just…” She sucked in a shaky breath. “I don’t know what came over me. We needed the money so ba
d.”
She hung her head as Cooper stated the charge. “Lena Borne, I’m arresting you for the murder of the man known as Bayou Bubba.” He read Lena her rights.
I rubbed tears from my cheeks. Lena had seemed like such a nice person. She’d done something terrible, yes. But I couldn’t help feeling bad for the woman who’d given in to a moment of desperation and would live with the result for the rest of her life.
Lena continued to babble, her guilt apparently too much for her. “I just wanted a few of the pieces of gold. But he…” She sobbed. “He tried to swallow them to keep them from me.” She shuddered, her gaze sliding to me. “I’m so sorry.”
Irene stood with her arms crossed over her chest, frowning at Deputy Cooper as he led Lena away. Her expression seemed to imply it was his fault Lena was getting arrested.
I gave in to an impulse to drop an arm around Irene’s shoulders and hug her. She felt so small and insubstantial. Her oversized personality made her seem invincible, but at that moment she was struggling just as hard as I was to deal with the tragedy. “I’m sorry about your friend,” I told her.
Her lips quivered and she nodded. Then she dragged the back of her hand, ruthlessly over her wet cheeks and stepped away from me. “Dorrie Tae and I will go find Lyle. I don’t want him to hear this through the gossips.”
I nodded. “I’ll catch a ride back with Cal.”
Dorrie Tae gave me a hug and patted my cheek. “Make sure you say goodbye before you leave town.”
“I will. I promise.”
Cal stood beside me, silently supportive. I felt his heat like a warm binky on a dreary day. Once Lena was loaded into the deputy’s massive truck, Cooper flicked his intense gaze over me and settled it on Cal. “Let’s debrief in the morning.”
“See you then.” Cal dropped an arm around my shoulders as the deputy pulled away. “You all right?”
I nodded, sniffling.
Lena was barely visible through the back windows. She looked like a child sitting in the back seat. Her teary gaze caught mine as Deputy Cooper backed the truck around to pull into the road.
I gave her a smile. It felt so inadequate, but she put her fingers on the glass in a kind of farewell gesture.
“You ready to head back to town?”
