Page 62 of Cursed
The front door rattled. Then footsteps hurried across the hall. The door opened, and Janet was speaking to someone.
He had pulled on his jeans and tee shirt. He saw Morgan doing the same.
“Stay here,” he tossed over his shoulder as he scuffed his feet into his shoes. He was thinking that he was probably wasting his breath by giving Morgan Kirkland orders. One of the basicthings he’d learned about her was that she did what she thought was best. He could only thank the Lord that she’d had sense enough to stay out of the bayou last night.
As he dashed from the room, she followed a few paces behind. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, He found Janet standing against the wall, pushed to the side by a whole crowd of men—Sheriff Jarvis, Dwight Rivers, Bob Mansard. And Rick Brevard. Relief flooded through Andre when he saw Rick standing there. He was one of the missing men, apparently alive and well.
The feeling of relief evaporated like water on a scalding griddle as Jarvis got right to the point. “Where were you last night?” he demanded.
“Why do you want to know?” Andre asked.
“Because Henri Dauphin is dead,” Jarvis said, his voice flat.
Morgan stepped up beside Andre and put a hand on his arm. “If you’re here, I suppose you suspect Andre. He was here all night,” she said in a firm voice. “With me.”
All eyes shot to her. From the way the crowd was looking at her, it was pretty clear that they knew Morgan Kirkland and Andre Gascon had just climbed out of bed. The question was—how long had they been there?
Apparently, Jarvis’ had already considered that line of inquiry. “All night?” he asked, tipping his head to one side, looking her up and down, taking in her tousled hair, rumbled clothing and sleepy face.
She kept her face turned toward the sheriff, and Andre waited to see if she was going to back down on the lie.
“Yes. All night,” she answered,
“So, you’re doing more out here than just cataloguing the books in the library?”
“My personal relationship with Mr. Gascon is none of your damn business,” she said.
“It is when it’s tangled up with a murder investigation.”
“You’re saying Henri Dauphin was murdered,” she asked carefully.
Carl Brevard answered. “Yeah. I was there. I couldn’t see nothin’, but I heard a big cat growl. Heard Henri scream. Heard the claws tearing at him.”
“But you didn’t see anything?” she clarified, her voice cool and collected, and if he had ever doubted her abilities as a detective, Andre could see now that she was a thorough professional in her job.
“I didn’t see nothin’,” he admitted. “Henri, he got up to take a leak. I was in the tent.”
“What were you doing camping in the bayou?” she demanded.
He looked down as he scuffed his foot against the Oriental rug, leaving a track of mud which Janet eyed with distaste. “After we dropped the car off, we was plannin’ to do some fishing.”
“You mean alligator poaching, don’t you?” Dwight Rivers muttered, voicing what Andre had been thinking.
“And you didn’t bother telling anyone you’d be gone,” Morgan clarified. Which means you’ve had people running around looking for you since you left here.”
Rick looked defiant. “I don’t have to tell no one my business, Anyways, that’s not the point. The point is that the big cat killed Henri.”
Everyone else knew where this was going. But Morgan, who had been here less than a week, asked the obvious question. “And what does that have to do with Mr. Gascon? Are you accusing him of having a pet jaguar in the bayou?”
Andre felt his heart block his windpipe as he waited to hear how the man would answer.
The sheriff cleared his throat. “We found a leather jacket near the campsite. A jacket people in town have seen Mr. Gascon wear.” He turned to Andre. “I’m going to have to take you in.”
Even as he felt panic threaten to swallow him up, Andre struggled to keep his voice even. “Was the jacket worn at the elbows?” he managed to ask.
“What about it?” Jarvis said, not exactly answering the question.
“That jacket was in my SUV. I was taking it to a church sale. But with everything that’s been going on out here, I didn’t get a chance to drop it off.”
