“We’re talking about Corina Cormier, right?” I said.
“Who’s it sound like?”
“Where can we find her?”
“I wouldn’t know.” He was looking at Bailey now. “If she’s alive, she’s probably a hag. The man that slept with her had to tie a board across his ass so he didn’t fall in, and that was forty years back.”
“You need to dial down the language, Mr. Patout,” I said.
“Don’t you lecture me, boy,” he said. “In fact, it’s time for you to git. I got work to do.”
“Git?” I said.
“This is St. Landry Parish. You got no authority here. Come back with a warrant or stay the hell away from me. That means you drag your sorry asses out of here.”
There are times you hold your ground, and there are times you walk away. In this instance we were off our turf. There was another factor involved. Patout was not the kind you took down easily. He was the kind you sometimes ended up killing.
His hands still hung at his sides, curled like an ape’s, the nails half-mooned with dirt and grease. “Why you staring at me?”
I could feel my old enemy flickering to life like a flame working its way up a cornstalk in late summer. “See you down the road,” I said.
I winked at him. It was a poor mask for our defeat at the hands of an ignorant and obviously violent man. We got back into the cruiser and drove away.
• • •
“SEE YOU DOWN the road?” Bailey said.
I didn’t reply. One mile down the road, she said, “Turn around.”
“What for?” I replied.
“Either you turn around or I’ll get out and walk.”
“Bad idea.”
“Then stop the car.”
The flasher was already on. I U-turned in the middle of the two-lane and drove back to Patout’s wrecker service. Bailey and I got out at the same time. Patout was inside the shop, under a truck hood. He lifted his head. “What now?”
“You see this?” Bailey said.
“Your badge?” he said.
“It’s not just a badge. It’s a symbol of honor and integrity. You will respect it. You will not use profanity in speaking to an officer of the law, and you will not tell him or her what you will and will not do. And you will never again disrespect anyone from our parish who carries this badge. That starts with calling an adult ‘boy.’?”
His eyes shifted on mine. “She for real?”
“Why don’t you man up and apologize?” I said.
“All right,” he said.
“All right, what?” I said.
“I apologize. You come at me hard. I ain’t up to it. I got a bad heart and a bad temper. Don’t pay me no mind. How’s Desmond doing?”
“Go ask him,” Bailey said.
“I doubt he’d want that.”