Robicheaux (Dave Robicheaux 21)

Not bad.

“Clete’s not your guy,” I said.

“How about you? The word is you might be up on a murder beef.”

“You must know an Iberia detective named Spade Labiche.”

“I try to stay upwind from dog shit,” she said.

The coroner’s car turned off the asphalt road onto the dirt track that led to the trailer.

“You need me for anything else?” I said.

“Nope.” Her mouth formed into a button.

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“You haven’t bagged anything from inside?”

“Not till the coroner gets here,” she said.

“There’s a gold cigarette lighter in a corner, right by the mop.”

“Yeah, I saw it.”

“I’d handle it with special care,” I said.

She looked at me blankly.

“You might have to get downwind from dog shit after all,” I said.

I WENT TO helen’s office and told her what I had seen at Kevin Penny’s trailer. I didn’t mention the gold lighter. She leaned back in her chair. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

“We lost the one guy who could cut me loose on Dartez’s murder.”

“Who would have that kind of motivation?” she said.

“Take your choice.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

“The person who did it is a psychopath. Penny was tortured for reasons of information or revenge. That leaves lots of possibilities.”

“How about Tony Nemo’s nematodes?” she said.

“I think Maximo Soza might be a candidate,” I said.

“How about JuJu?”

“He does what he’s told.”

She rubbed her forehead. “I wanted Penny for the Dartez killing. We’re going to have trouble with the DA. This stinks.”

“There was a gold cigarette lighter on the floor of Penny’s trailer.”

It took her a second. “Why didn’t you say that?”