Butterfly Bayou (Butterfly Bayou 1)

“Has he been married before?”

“Yes,” he replied. “He married a woman he met when he was working a job in Biloxi. He’s got some relatives who run a fishing charter business there. He used to spend his summers helping out before he graduated and he and his brother took over the shrimping business from their father. Susie moved here, but it didn’t work out. She divorced him after a few years and moved away.”

“Why?”

“The divorce decree merely cited irreconcilable differences. That’s all I know. There’s nothing else official. When I got back from the visit, Roxie and I looked through old records and couldn’t find anything beyond a couple of traffic tickets and some complaints about Bobby’s boat waking people up at odd hours of the morning, but that’s how the family gets around. I know it might sound weird to be on a boat at three in the morning, but shrimp don’t catch themselves.”

Lila leaned in. “How did she react to you showing up?”

“Her mother-in-law certainly wasn’t happy to see us, but that’s not unusual. Lorna comes into town as little as possible. I think she sees herself as the queen of that particular kingdom.”

“If she’s the queen, is Carrie a princess or her servant? They’re the only two women out there? You mentioned a brother.”

“Yeah. Bobby’s got a brother but he’s never been married. Carrie didn’t handle it well when I asked her if everything was okay. I’m afraid I might have made things worse since she immediately realized you were the reason I was out there.”

“There’s nothing else you could do,” Lila said. “I was the reason you were out there. I wish you could have caught her alone, but I understand. She was angry with me?”

“She said she would find another doctor to help her next time.”

“And her mother-in-law was there?”

“No, I had Roxie distract Lorna, but I didn’t have long,” he explained. “Her words didn’t match her initial reactions, in my mind. My gut tells me you’re right and something is going on out there.”

“But you can’t do anything without proof.” She sat back with a long sigh. “I know how this game is played, Sheriff, and you’re the one in a bad position. Carrie is very likely going to take the brunt of it, but we can’t force her to talk to us. It’ll be worse now. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut, but I’ve seen what happens.”

He hated that he couldn’t give her more. “I’m sorry if I made things tougher for you.”

“I hate the thought of her not getting the medical attention she needs, but honestly, even if she did everything right, she could still end up getting hurt.” She glanced out at the street, seemingly lost in thought.

He wanted to get her mind on something better, but he had one more thing to get out of the way. Perhaps if he apologized, they could talk about more than all the ways he’d screwed up. “I’m sorry Miranda confronted you like that. I went out with her on a few dates. Nothing serious.”

Her eyes were back on him and there was no question she was curious. “Before the accident?”

“Yes.” He didn’t want to talk about that time, but she should know since she was dealing with his past. Not that he’d really known his past was a problem.

“I got that feeling. She seems to think that once Noelle is out of the house, you’ll resume your previous affair.”

“It wasn’t an affair.” He knew he didn’t owe her an explanation and she hadn’t seemed angry about the incident. He was discovering that not much got to her. Still, he found himself nearly falling over trying to explain. “It was a couple of dates. Three, maybe. It never got past a single good-night kiss. I knew there wasn’t anything between us. It was . . . boredom, maybe. I was restless when I first got here. I never intended for it to become a relationship.”

“But you never had that discussion with her? Because she did not sound like a woman who’d been dumped.”

“I was going to talk to her,” he explained. “It’s sad, but I planned that conversation with far more care than I ever planned a date with her. But then Noelle was in the accident and the problem pretty much faded away.”

Lila’s eyes widened. “I don’t understand. Your daughter was in a horrible accident. Where was Miranda?”

“She backed off.” He’d been relieved. The last thing he’d needed was to have to deal with the situation in the middle of all that chaos. She’d stopped calling and given him some space. It was only in the last couple of weeks she’d started being overly friendly again. Now that he really thought about it, he could see Roxie was right. Miranda had been slowly but surely trying to work her way back into his life. “She knew I needed to concentrate on Noelle.”