Creole Belle (Dave Robicheaux 19)

The rain had stopped and the clouds had broken up in the west, and there was a tiny glimmer of purple melt at the bottom of the sky. Gretchen got out of the truck before Alafair did, and walked across the lawn toward Varina Leboeuf. The windmill palms were rattling in the breeze, rain dripping out of the tree limbs overhead. “I’m sorry to disturb you,” Gretchen said.

“You’re not disturbing me. That’s because I’m going into my house now. That means I will not be talking with you, hence there is no reason for you to think you’re disturbing me.”

“Ms. Leboeuf, that boat you were on was used in a kidnapping, maybe even a homicide,” Gretchen said. “A girl named Blue Melton was forced onto that boat. The next time anybody saw her, she was inside a block of ice.”

“Then please go back to town and report all this to the authorities.”

“That’s not why I came out here. I wanted to ask you to leave Clete Purcel alone. He has nothing you want, and even if he did, he wouldn’t use it to hurt you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“No, I don’t know what you’re saying. Are you confirming he burglarized my apartment and my father’s house?”

“I’m saying he doesn’t have anything in his possession that can injure you.”

“I want you to take the wax out of your ears and listen carefully, you stupid little twat. If I didn’t have to go inside and care for my father right now, I’d make you cut your own switch. Actually, I feel sorry for you. You look like you were injected with steroids that went to the wrong places. Now get out of here before I kick those two watermelons you call an ass down the road.”

Alafair stepped forward and slapped Varina Leboeuf across the face. “Where do you get off talking to her like that, you lying whore?” she said. “You want another one? Give me an excuse. I would love to rip you apart.”

Varina Leboeuf’s eyes were watering, her cheek flaming. She started to speak, but her mouth was quivering, and her voice clotted in her throat.

“You’re not only a liar, you’re an accessory to murder after the fact,” Alafair said. “By the way, how’s it feel to be a porn star? I wonder if your video will make YouTube.”

Varina’s face looked like a balloon about to burst. The whites of her eyes had turned red as beets. “If you come here aga

in, I’ll kill you.”

“I told you to give me an excuse,” Alafair said. And with that, she hit Varina across the mouth, so hard the other woman’s chin twisted against her shoulder.

“YOU DID WHAT?” I said.

“It was the way she treated Gretchen,” Alafair replied. “She said her ass looked like a pair of watermelons.”

We were sitting in the living room. Outside, the street was wet and glazed with pools of yellow light from the streetlamp. Lightning that made no sound flared and died in the clouds over the Gulf. “It was her fight, not yours. Why mix in it?” I said.

“Because I doubt she ever had a real friend or that anyone cared what happened to her.”

“Varina Leboeuf could have you charged with assault.”

“She won’t.”

“Why not?”

“The boat with the sawfish on the bow. She’s hooked up with the people who kidnapped and murdered Tee Jolie’s little sister.”

“We don’t have any proof of that.”

I thought she was going to argue with me, but she didn’t. “I did something dumb, Dave. Varina has confirmation that Clete took the memory cards out of her nanny-cams.”

“Clete destroyed them.”

“She can never be sure of that. What if there’s somebody on them she doesn’t want anybody to know about?”

“Don’t worry about that. You did the best you could. Don’t make a burden out of tomorrow,” I said.

“I think I set a bad example for Gretchen tonight. She kept telling me she wanted to handle Varina Leboeuf in the way I would. A few minutes later, I slapped Varina’s face into next week.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“Really?”