Butterfly Bayou (Butterfly Bayou 1)

“Yes, it is, and it looks like we won’t have to go looking for the house. Hello, Mrs. Petrie.”

A stern-looking woman stood on the dock, a shotgun by her side.

It was a testament to how she’d settled in that Roxie didn’t put a hand on her gun. It had been a habit he’d had to rid himself of when he’d come home. Out here, shotguns were a necessity of daily life.

“Sheriff. Deputy. What can I do for you?” Mrs. Petrie had steel-gray hair and a look that could freeze the balls off a man at forty paces.

He had to handle this properly. “I wanted to come out and check on your daughter-in-law. I heard she took a pretty hard fall.”

He couldn’t come out and ask the woman if her son was abusive.

Lorna Petrie frowned. “That girl is always falling or walking into something. She’s fine. We sent her to see Doc yesterday. He knows how clumsy she can be.”

“Didn’t you hear? Doc retired.” Roxie stepped out of the boat and tied it off with an expert hand. She’d learned how to handle a boat. It was required training out here. “We have a new person running the clinic.”

“Mabel?” Lorna turned on her heels and started back up toward the house. “She’s the only one left with any kind of medical training. I might as well send her to Miss Marcelle and see if her hoodoo can fix the problem.”

Armie stepped off carefully and followed behind. It was interesting that Carrie hadn’t mentioned she’d seen the new nurse practitioner. “No need. We’ve got a nurse practitioner working under Doc’s supervision.” A lie, but he would keep it up or they could lose their only clinic. “Her name’s Lila Daley. She’s from Dallas. She used to work at a big trauma center there. I think she can certainly handle Carrie’s mishaps.”

Carrie was younger than he was. Considerably. He’d never thought about it, but she was a lot younger than Bobby, too. They’d married before he’d come back to Papillon.

“There’s some city girl running the clinic now?” Lorna asked.

“Doc wasn’t going to work forever.” He wasn’t sure what people had thought. Doc had been getting on up there in years. There wasn’t anyone else in town even vaguely interested in medicine.

Except his daughter, and that wasn’t something she could do online.

“We should have found someone like us. We shouldn’t have to go outside the town when we’re hiring.” She pointedly looked at Roxie.

“We’re lucky to have experts who are willing to come here and work with us.” It was obvious Lorna Petrie needed to get out more.

“Ms. Daley is very nice,” Roxie said, letting the obvious insult slide off her. “I think she’s going to be a great addition to the community. And she’s got strong ties to here. She’s Remy Guidry’s sister-in-law.”

Lorna turned her nose up at that. “His new wife is from the city as well. I’ve heard she’s making all kinds of changes at the restaurant. And she’s paying less for our hauls. All in all, I don’t think the new people are making a positive change.”

Good for Lisa. He’d thought that a lot of people had taken advantage of the Guidrys over the years. They were excellent restaurateurs, but none of them had been to business school like Lisa had. Her taking over the business end of Guidry’s likely meant it would be healthy and serving the community for years to come.

“Carrie! Get on out here. You have visitors.” Lorna strode up the porch steps.

The house had been standing for years, and he had to admit the Petries built houses to last. Despite their isolation, the house looked solid and well kept. Carrie stepped out on the porch, her left arm in a sling. She looked older than she had the last time he’d seen her. Not in a timeworn, normal way. Her youthful cheeriness had been replaced with a weary, haunted look.

When she smiled his way, the expression didn’t come close to her eyes. “Hello, Sheriff. Is there something I can do for you?”

Her tone didn’t waver. There was no look of surprise in her eyes. When he showed up unexpectedly, it was almost always bad news. One of the worst parts of his job was the look that came over a person’s face when they opened the door and saw him. There was none of that in Carrie’s expression.

“I heard you broke your arm.” He needed to get her away from Lorna. She wouldn’t talk honestly around her mother-in-law.

“Yeah, I fell. I was feeding the chickens and tripped,” she explained.

“You have chickens out here? Those coops better be up to code.” Roxie turned and walked off the steps.

“There’s no damn code out here.” Lorna took the bait fast, nearly running after Roxie as she started looking for the chicken coops.