Bayou Paradox (20 page)

He turned Vincent to face him. “You have the right to remain silent…”

“H
ave you seen Tara?” Bubba asked Luc and Jacks, hovering in the ICU hallway.

Luc turned to him first. “She's with her grandmother, CoCo and Alyssa.” The smile he wore looked suspiciously secretive like CoCo's and Alyssa's had earlier. What was going on around here?

“I need to talk to her.”

“I'd wait a few minutes,” Jacks advised, a small smile sneaking onto his face.

Was he missing something? Something everyone else was in on but him? “Why?”

A pregnant pause.

He couldn't stand it any longer. “Will someone please tell me what's going on?”

“They're inside praying,” Luc said.

“What?” Tara, with three praying women? Very unlikely. Even though she'd been contrite when she'd sought him out in the ER waiting room, he didn't think she'd go so far as to stand with a group of women praying. Even if they
were
her family.

Luc flashed the cocky grin he reserved for times when he knew something no one else did. “They're praying—
together.
”

Surely he was missing something. “Tara?” The idea was preposterous.

Jacks threw a mock punch at Bubba's shoulder. “CoCo and Alyssa found Tara in the chapel when they got here.”

Tara? “In the chapel?” Bubba's knees suddenly felt weak. He'd taken down Vincent Marsalis without a quiver, but this…this took the wind right out of him.

Luc laughed and led him toward the waiting room. “I think you need to sit down and process, man.”

“Yeah, pardner, you aren't looking too hot,” Jacks added.

Bubba dropped into a chair. “I don't understand.” Confusion muddled every coherent thought he could possibly form.

Tara, in a chapel. Praying.

Jacks gripped his shoulder. “Tonight's definitely a night for miracles, my friend.”

“Has Tara…?”

“Become saved?” Luc finished. He smiled and nodded. “This very night. In this very hospital.”

Jacks squeezed Bubba's shoulder. “Isn't this an answer to prayer?”

“You have no idea how hard CoCo and I've prayed for her.” Luc's eyes glistened with moisture. “And you should have seen Mrs. LeBlanc's face when Tara told her.” He shook his head. “I thought the woman was gonna hop outta that bed and dance a jig.”

Jacks picked up the story. “That woman cried buckets. I was afraid she'd become dehydrated.” He chuckled.

“I just can't believe it.” Bubba couldn't wrap his mind around the concept.

Tara, a believer.

“Believe it, buddy. And praise God for touching her heart.” Luc patted his back.

“Oh, I definitely praise Him. It
is
a miracle. I just don't know what to say.” Or to feel or think. This had totally thrown him for a loop.

Luc gave him a friendly nudge. “Don't say anything. Just be thankful our Father gives us miracles every day.”

“Amen,” Jacks added.

Amen and amen. Bubba's heart quickened and he felt his own eyes fill with grateful tears. Tara, saved.

Could this mean there was a future for them? Had God given him a sign that she
was
the one for him?

Thank You, Father. Thank You!

 

“To try and get a recipe to cure cancer, he was willing to kill Grandmere and Tanty?” Tara sat on the edge of her grandmother's hospital bed, picking at the edge of the blanket.

The private room accommodated the group, as well as provided a more comfortable atmosphere. No machines beeping and whirring. A window. Pictures on the wall.

“I don't know that he intended to kill them, but he admitted to slipping them both the paraldehyde. Which, incidentally, was the medication under testing that the lab technician mentioned to me. The FDA pulled the testing and is investigating the whole testing process.” The sheriff shook his head. “From what I've learned since arresting him, the man was determined to make his mark in the pharmaceutical-research industry.”

“Whatever the cost to innocent people?” Tara's heart contracted with the enormity. Had he harmed others in his quest for success?

“Apparently. Winn Pharmaceuticals is now looking into every drug testing Vincent had ever been in charge of.”

“What is that drug, the one he gave Grandmere and Tanty, used for? When it's used properly, I mean,” CoCo asked.

Bubba glanced at his notes. “Initial research gave the pharmaceutical company hope that it could be altered from its original state to be a short-term anesthesia for simple procedures. It seemed to promise fewer side effects than what's currently on the market.”

Tara's head ached as she tried to clarify the jumble of information. “So here are two proven instances when he'd put others at risk. For what?”

“Fame and fortune, of course.” Alyssa shifted on Jackson's lap in the corner chair. “Can you imagine being the person responsible for finding the cure for cancer? The glory and recognition?”

The sheriff stared at Tara. “Is there anything in the bayou that could do that? Cure cancer, I mean.”

“I don't think so.” She let out a soft sigh.

Her grandmother patted her hand. “There's nothing in that bayou that hasn't been tested a million times over during the last couple of decades. If there were such a plant with those properties, research teams would've found it a long time ago.”

“That's what I thought.” Bubba scribbled something on his papers.

Tara still couldn't understand the logic. It just didn't make sense. “What about Hannah? What was
she
doing?”

“She claims to be in love with Vincent, and believed in his abilities as a research chemist.” Bubba set down his clipboard. “She posed as a nurse and injected Mrs. LeBlanc and my aunt with a medication that would cause severe cramping, knowing that the policy in the ICU, if a patient is in that much pain and on the critical list, is to medicate the patient so much she's barely coherent. Hannah couldn't risk either of them stating Vincent had tried to buy the potion. She used a drug that is almost undetectable in bloodwork, and that's why the hospital couldn't find any reason for Mrs. LeBlanc here to be in such pain.” He shook his head. “The sad part is, she'd planned to obtain more of the paraldehyde to inject in them.”

“So she put two women in danger and says her reason for doing so is being in love with someone and wanting to help him?” CoCo shook her head and smoothed Grandmere's hair. “That's insane.”

“Partially, but she probably would've gotten some credit if they'd discovered a cure for cancer.” The sheriff sighed. “They are both of the philosophy that the ends justify the means.”

“Sad.” Luc laid a hand on his wife's waist.

“Yeah.” Bubba stood. “And that about wraps it all up.”

“
Merci
for letting us know, Sheriff,” Grandmere said.

He nodded, but didn't leave. Tara's back burned. She looked at him. Her heartbeat skipped.

“May I see you for a moment, Tara?”

She kissed Grandmere's forehead and then followed him from the room. In the hall they stood on opposite sides, silent and staring.

He moved first, holding out his hand. “Walk me out?”

Her heart accelerated as she tucked her hand into his. Warmth spread up her arm and into her chest. She had so much she wanted to tell him, needed to tell him, but the words wouldn't work loose from her knotted emotions.

Once outside the hospital, under the canopy, he motioned toward the stone bench. “Sit with me?”

Not an order or even a suggestion, just a question.

As if she could say no.

She took a seat next to him. The rain drilled against the canopy, steady and rhythmic. The air smelled cleaner, lighter. As if Lagniappe had also been redeemed. Tara smiled to herself.

“Tara, about Suzie Richard…”

She pressed a finger against his lips. “Shh. Forget it. None of my business. Just like it wasn't my business about the mayor.” She dropped her hand into her lap. This doing the right thing was going to take some getting used to. “I just stormed my way through suspects, and I had no right. I'm sorry the mayor chewed you out because of me.”

“And Suzie came crying to me in my office.”

She felt a sinking sensation. “I'm so sorry.”

Would she be apologizing until the cows came home? Surely not. CoCo had promised to give her some information about Christianity when they got home, and Tara vowed to scour the information. Now that she'd accepted Jesus, she wanted to live her life the right way. No more side trips. No more voodoo. And no more spirits—except what she could learn about the Holy Spirit.

“Tara, there's something else we need to talk about.”

Here it came, the dissecting of the hug and everything. She wasn't ready to put all her cards on the table about what she'd grown to feel for him, only for him to apologize for embracing her after she'd told him not to touch her. She couldn't take that kind of rejection. Not right now. Her emotions were too raw.

He took her hand and caressed her knuckles with his thumb as he spoke. Little tingles shot all the way to her toes. “I've been trying to figure out how to say this, how to even explain it, and I can't make the pretty words.” His eyes clouded with emotion.

Her stomach let the butterflies loose again. Dared she hope?

“What I'm trying to say, rather badly, I might add, is that I have feelings for you. Real feelings. Romantic feelings.”

Oh, she was going to cry. Just when she thought her day couldn't get any better, he spoke directly to her heart.

“I know we make each other crazy, but no other woman has ever made me feel the way you do. I can't get you out of my head. Or my heart. And believe me, I've tried.”

Tears burned her eyes. Yep, she was gonna turn into a pool of mush, and she didn't even care.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I didn't mean to upset you.” He wiped her tears away with the pad of his thumb, his hands cupping her face.

She smiled and sniffed. He was such a
cooyon!
“Oh, you didn't upset me. Can't you tell that I have the same feelings for you? That I was so scared you were about to tell me these feelings—our connection—was a mistake.”

He smiled and leaned forward. His lips touched hers softly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and poured every inch of her feelings for him into the kiss.

All too soon, he ended the kiss, but kept cupping her face. “You weren't very good as a voodoo queen if you thought that.”

She inhaled sharply. Were people always going to remind her of her past? Then she recognized the teasing in his eyes and laughed. “Kiss me again, or I'll turn you into a toad.”

Instead, he swatted her playfully on the arm, stood in one fluid motion and took off running toward his truck. She hesitated a moment and then took off behind him, her feet making splashes on the wet pavement. The rain continued to pour, but it felt good. Cool and refreshing.

Tara caught up to him just as he reached his truck. She wrapped her arms around his waist and drew him to her. He encircled her with his arms and smiled down at her. The rain matted her hair against her face. His gentle fingers pushed the locks away. Standing on tiptoe, she pressed her lips to his.

When he pulled back, he wore a mock frown. “You're going to be a handful, aren't you?”

She smiled. “And you're going to be a by-the-book type all the time, aren't you?”

He dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose. “You're too head-strong for your own good.”

“And you're too legalistic for your own good.”

He chuckled, his chest rumbling, and she could feel his arms vibrating around her. “Tara LeBlanc, I love you.”

Shock held her tongue hostage. She never dreamed she'd be in the arms of the man she now knew she loved, hearing him profess his love for her. New tears spilled from her eyes, mixing with the rain.

“Now, I don't expect you to tell me you love me just because I told
you.
Just whenever you know it's the truth. I'm a patient man. I'll wait.”

No, she didn't want to wait. Not for one more minute…not for one more second. Life was too precious to waste. Love was too powerful an emotion to be denied. She should know—she'd been fighting it.

“
Je t'aime
, René Theriot. I love you.” She kissed him soundly on the mouth. When she drew away, his expression was one of such shock, she couldn't help but laugh.

Laying a hand on his cheek, she grinned. “Is that evidence concrete enough for you, Sheriff?”