“I liked it when he flattered me. I didn’t want him to go. If he’d stayed longer, I don’t know what would have happened. That’s not true. I would have let him—”
“You don’t know what you would have done, so stop thinking like that,” he said. “Listen, it’s natural to feel the way you do. We want to believe people when they say good things about us. We also want to believe they’re good people.”
“Something happened to me in the park in Lafayette. A little boy almost fell into the pond. His father was supposed to be watching him, but he had fallen asleep. Maybe I saved the little boy from drowning. Then I drove the family home. They’re real poor and having a hard time. I felt different about myself afterward. There was something about the family that made me feel changed inside. Or maybe it was because I helped them that I felt changed inside, I’m not sure.”
Clete put a stick of gum in his mouth and chewed. “Then Dupree shows up, and you don’t know if you’re supposed to forgive him or kill him?”
“That pretty much says it.”
“Don’t trust him. He’s no good.”
“He says he’s changed.”
“He had a woman at his house in the early A.M. today.”
She stared at him. “How do you know?”
“I was looking through his kitchen window with a telescopic sight at four this morning. The woman had a gold belt on. I couldn’t see her face. I don’t know who she was. She left with Dupree.”
“She was at his house all night?”
“That’s what it looked like.”
“What were you doing there?”
“I was thinking about taking out the old man. I was thinking about taking out Pierre, too. Right now I wish I had.”
“You’re not like that.”
“Don’t bet on it,” he said.
“I think maybe I should leave town, Clete.”
“Where will you go?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m causing trouble between you and your best friend. I made Alafair mad, too. If I stay here, eventually I’ll be arrested. I feel like my life is permanently messed up, and there’s no way out.”
“You’re worried because of the Jesse Leboeuf shooting?”
She nodded.
“Leboeuf was in the act of raping a female sheriff’s deputy. Whoever popped him probably saved her life. Don’t look out the window, look at me. Jesse Leboeuf was a bucket of sh
it, and everybody around here knows it. End of story.”
“You think Pierre was lying to me, all those things he said to me?”
She could see Clete trying to think his way around her question. “You’re beautiful and a great person on top of it,” he said. “He’s not telling you anything that anyone with eyes doesn’t already know. Don’t go near the bastard. If I see the guy, he’s going to have the worst day of his life.”
“I don’t want to hurt people anymore. I don’t want to be the cause of them getting hurt, either.”
“I let you down, Gretchen. There’s nothing worse than for a girl to grow up without a father. I’ll never forgive myself for letting that happen. This guy isn’t going to get his hands on you.”
She stared emptily at the floor. “How do you think all of it is going to play out?”
“The guys who are behind all this think Dave and I know something we don’t. The same people think you’re a threat to them. If they have their way, we’re going to be bags of fertilizer.”
He took a Kleenex from a box on his desk and spat his gum in it and put the Kleenex in the wastebasket.