Page 79 of Beau

Remy turned and let it chase them until it almost caught up.

Beau saw a stump ahead and shouted, “Watch out!”

With the bass boat so close on their tail, they were headed for disaster.

Beau wrapped his arms tightly around Aurelie and Lady and braced himself.

Seconds away from impact, Remy turned the airboat and hit the throttle, missing the stump by a mere foot.

The bass boat wasn’t so lucky. The driver didn’t see the stump until too late.

The bass boat hit the huge cypress stump, and the stump split the boat in half, catapulting its occupants. Some slammed into the stump. Others crashed into the debris, sinking beneath the bayou’s surface.

Remy circled back and approached the wreckage at the same time as the other boat arrived.

Remy cut the engine on the airboat and glanced across at what turned out to be a sheriff’s boat. “About time you got here,” he called out.

Remy’s fiancé, Deputy Shelby Taylor, eased her boat closer to what was left of the bass boat. “Took a minute for Swede to push the tracking app to my cell phone.” The deputy with her shined a spotlight into the water.

Gerard held another spotlight, searching for the passengers.

Beau stood and scanned the dark water. A movement caught his eye at the base of the stump. “There!”

Shelby grabbed a long pole with a shepherd’s hook at the end from the side of her boat and positioned it close to the man holding onto the roots of the stump. “Grab the hook,” she yelled.

The man batted at the hook until his hand closed around it.

Shelby dragged him through the water to the platform on the back of the boat. The other deputy pulled his gun and aimed it at the man.

“It’s Jason Gousman,” Aurelie said. “He’s unarmed.”

The deputy laid down his gun and hauled the man aboard, helping him into a seat.

“Got a live one over here!” Lucas shouted from the front of the airboat.

With the engine off, the airboat wasn’t going to get any closer. Beau kicked off his shoes, slid over the side and dropped into the water. He swam toward a man holding onto a piece of the wreckage with one arm. From behind and mostly submerged in the water, he wasn’t identifiable.

Beau approached cautiously.

As he came close, the man spun around, bringing the AR-15 rifle around with him.

Beau dove down.

The muffled sound of a shot being fired reached him. He surfaced next to the man, realizing it was Slash, the man who’d thrown Aurelie into the bayou. His eyes were wide open, staring into space. The rifle was gone now.

Beau felt the man’s neck for a pulse.

“I shot him. He’s dead,” Shelby said as she drove her boat up close to where Beau treaded water. “We’ll still need to load him into the boat.”

After searching for another twenty minutes, they found the other passengers.

“That’s all of them,” Aurelie said.

All the bodies were loaded onto the sheriff’s boat. Jason Gousman sat quietly, shaking and in shock.

They headed for the Bayou Mambaloa marina, where they were met by ambulances and the State Police.

Aurelie used Remy’s cell phone to call her father and let him know she was all right. The senator was so relieved he cried. Aurelie cried. Beau’s eyes became suspiciously moist as he held her in his arms throughout the call.

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