Rumble on the Bayou (28 page)

Joe nodded and looked miserable, clearly wanting to disagree but unable to argue with the facts. "So what do you think is going on?"

Dorie blew out a breath. "I think that Roland's partner is scared I'm on to him and he's sent Roland into action to rectify the problem. Which can only mean it's someone close enough to me to think I'd figure them out."

Joe nodded.

"I don't think he's going to quit until I'm dead," she said. 'There's too much on the line for them to screw this up."

Joe stared back at her and nodded once. "Then we'll have to see that he doesn't get a shot at you. And that means we have to hunt him down. I know how you feel about justice, Dorie, but I have to tell you that this is one case where I will not shoot to injure."

Dorie stared out the window at the highway, realizing that Joe had just suggested they hunt a man down and kill him in cold blood. "The worst part is," she said finally, "that's the best idea I've heard all week."

***

Richard waited at the small garage while the young man pulled the tires off of his car. "Whew," the young man blew out a breath. "Someone did a real number on these. I can't patch this at all. Whoever did this knew what he was doing."

"Lucky for me," Richard said. "I always wanted a car with no tires."

The young man laughed. "I'll see what I can find for you. We don't have anything like this and definitely not in a set of four, but I can probably find something that will get you to Lake Charles so you can get a matched set, although it might ride a bit rough."

Richard nodded. "That would be great. When I get them changed, I'll bring the others back. Charge me double whatever you normally do. My company's footing the bill for this one."

The young man's eyes widened in surprise. "Cool. Thanks a lot, man."

Giving the man a smile, he stepped out of the garage, pulled the cell phone from his pocket and dialed the agency. "This is Agent Richard Starke," he said to the woman who answered. "I need all the information you have on Dorie Berenger."

"Oh, yes, I pulled that file this morning. Do you want it faxed?" she asked.

"No. I don't have access to a fax at the moment. Just read me what's in the files and I'll take notes on anything important."

"Agent Starke, there are over twenty pages of information in this file."

Richard looked into the garage. The young man had at least forty different tires scattered on the floor, trying to find anything remotely matched. He pulled a small pad of paper and a pen from his pocket. "I've got time," he said. "Go ahead."

***

Dorie and Joe spent most of the afternoon attempting to salvage anything from Dorie's boat. They made it back to the sheriff's office toward evening. The message light blinked on the antiquated phone system and Dorie pressed the button on the machine. Sherry's voice immediately poured out. "Dorie, I just want you to know that DEA agent is here talking to the sheriff. Now, I don't know what got you so upset this morning, and I couldn't exactly refuse him a visit, but I don't like all these goings-on. It's not good for your daddy's heart."

The message stopped and Dorie gave Joe a frightened look. "What is Richard talking to Dad for? He didn't say anything to me about talking to Dad."

He slowly shook his head. "I don't have any idea, but I don't like it."

"Neither do I. You don't think Dad would be stupid enough to tell him about Roland, do you?"

He blew out a breath. "God, I wouldn't like to think so. But then, if he thought Richard would make you leave town like he wants, he might."

"Damn it!" She banged her hand on the desk. "What the hell is Richard doing?"

C
HAPTER THIRTEEN

Richard knocked on the sheriff's apartment door and was told to enter. He pushed the door open and stepped inside the living room where the sheriff sat in his favorite spot. Sheriff Berenger looked surprised to see him and continued to stare at the door, even after Richard closed it behind him.

Was he expecting Dorie? Doubtful. She and Joe had been there that morning, but based on the anxious expression on the sheriff's face, Richard knew something was definitely up. Studying the man in front of him, he wondered exactly what had transpired between Dorie and her father that made the man so nervous.

"Dorie's done been and gone if you're looking for her," the sheriff said and took his gaze away from the door.

"No," Richard said and took a seat on the couch. "Actually, I came to talk to you."

Sheriff Berenger stared at him for a moment and nodded. "Go ahead, then."

Taking a deep breath, he began. "I need to know about Dorie's parentage."

Sheriff Berenger stared at him in obvious surprise. "Ain't nothing to know about her parentage. I'm her father and her mother is long gone and irrelevant."

Richard shook his head."That's not good enough, Sheriff. The DNA results on the hair samples from Buster's camp came back this morning. There were two matches-a full on Shawn Roland and a partial on Dorie."

Sheriff Berenger gave a start and the blood drained from his face. "That's impossible," he said, his voice barely a whisper.

“
They ran the tests twice to be sure. Blood tests too. There's no mistake." He stared at the sheriff and was fairly sure the man wasn't breathing. For a moment, he wondered whether the sheriff was about to have another heart attack. That would be a nightmare. But just when Richard began to rise from the couch to call for help, the sheriff waved a hand to stop him.

"I'm fine," he said, coughing a little. "Well, as fine as I can be, given what you just told me."

"Sheriff, I need to know what this means. You understand my position here? How this looks to me and my superiors?"

Sheriff Berenger nodded. "I understand. I just can't believe this is happening. What are the odds, right?" He gazed past Richard and stared at the wall, his face full of sorrow.

"Can I get you anything?" Richard asked, still worried about the pale color in his face.

"No, no. I best just tell you since you're all off in the wrong direction. It's not gonna get any easier with a drink" He gave Richard a small smile. "Especially since I had to get off the good stuff a long time ago."

Richard nodded and settled back on the couch, hoping if he looked relaxed, it would encourage the sheriff to tell his story.

The sheriff sat in silence a moment longer, as if deciding how to start, then cleared his voice and began. "Of course, it was over thirty years ago when it happened. I was a hell of a lot younger then and still full of piss and vinegar-like most young men are when they come back from the war a decorated hero. There wasn't a woman who could hold me. Everyone called me The Heartbreaker, and the name was well-deserved."

He gave Richard a broad smile. "Man like yourself ought to understand that." His smile faded and he shook his head. "Still, I had no intention of settling down. My mother hadn't been any prize. She ran around on my father back in the days when women just didn't run around. When I was six, she left completely. I've never seen or heard of her since."

He looked at Richard, a hollow expression on his face. "It makes a man think twice," he continued. "You know, about women, relationships. I had plenty try to get me, but I wasn't having any of it. I had my work and an occasional woman in Lake Charles, and that was more than enough for me." He nodded. "Yep, that was more than enough for me. Until that Tuesday-the day my life changed forever. That was the day I met the girl I would love for the rest of my life."

Richard shifted to a more comfortable position and nodded for the sheriff to continue, sure he was about to reveal the truth about Dorie's mother.

"I'd been out in the marsh most of the day. Gators had been breeding in some odd areas that year, and I was doing my best to keep them contained. Didn't want some unsuspecting fisherman to hap pen across a female and her nest. We'd already had two attacks that year, and I wasn't wanting a third.”

"'The day had been long and hard," the sheriff said, "and there was nothing I wanted more at that moment than a hot shower and a cold beer, but they were going to have to wait. It was late evening by the time I got home and I could see something next to my door when I pulled in the drive. Hell, I was always ordering something by mail, so I didn't think nothing of it until I got out of the car and heard the crying."

"Dorie?" Richard asked.

Sheriff Berenger nodded. "'There she was, all wrapped up in a pink blanket and sitting in a cardboard box next to my door, wailing like the dickens."

"What did you do?"

"I grabbed her up right away, thinking maybe she was hurt and that was the reason for all the noise. As soon as I got her inside I checked every inch of her, but didn't find so much as a scratch. There was a small bag in the box with her and I opened it up. Inside was a can of formula, a couple of diapers and the letter."

Richard sat up straight. "What did it say?"

The sheriff looked Richard eye to eye. "I remember the exact words to this day. It said 'I can't keep her safe. Please find someone who will.’ That was it. No signature, no indication of who the mother was or why she couldn't care for the child." Sheriff Berenger shook his head. "I'm not a fanciful sort of man, but something about those words gave me a chill and I wondered what in the world that woman had gotten herself into. And why an infant would be at risk."

"Did you try to track down the mother?" Richard asked.

Sheriff Berenger narrowed his eyes. "Of course I did. What kind of lawman do you think I am? Any woman who's got to give up a part of herself has bigger issues than raising an infant alone. I aimed to help her if possible, but couldn't find a thing. I checked the hospitals for recent births, but everyone on record was happy at home with their families. Meantime, I left the baby with a friend of mine in Lake Charles who worked for Social Services. He and his wife fostered kids, and they were more than happy to help."

"So you never found anything?"

"Not a thing. It's as if the woman appeared in Louisiana by a puff of smoke and disappeared the same way."

Richard nodded. "So how did you manage to keep her?"

Sheriff Berenger blew out a breath and lowered his head. "I lied. I broke the law, pure and simple." He looked up at Richard, his eyes beginning to redden around the edges. "After a week with absolutely no success on locating the mother, I went to my friends, intending to take the baby and make her a ward of the state. When I walked in the house, she was wailing, just like she had been that day on my doorstep. Linda was trying to soothe her, rocking her slowly in a chair, but it wasn't doing a bit of good. I stepped next to the chair and put one hand on her head."

Sheriff Berenger cleared his throat and took a deep, unsteady breath. "She looked up at me and stopped screaming," he said. "She stared at me with those big blue eyes and tried to grab my hand with her tiny fingers. I lifted her from Linda's shoulder and held her in my arms. I knew right then that I had fallen in love for the first time and the last time in my life. And I was willing to do anything to keep her."

The sheriff paused a moment and dropped his gaze to the floor. Richard remained quiet, giving the man time to compose himself and his thoughts.

Finally, he continued. "I had my friend at Social Services do the paperwork for me. A fake birth certificate got me a social security card, and Dorie was mine. With all the time I'd spent away from Gator Bait trying to locate Dorie's mother, the townfolk thought I had some woman on the side that I'd gotten pregnant. They figured she didn't want the baby and I had been gone to get her and make arrangements to keep her. No one ever asked, and I never offered to tell. Not even Buster knows. My best friend."

"And the couple in Lake Charles," Richard asked. "You didn't worry about them telling?"

"Hell, no. They were happy enough to see the baby going to someone who would love her. Having dealt with the foster care system for so many years, they weren't exactly eager to see an infant go into it."

Richard nodded. "So you kept her, and all the women in Gator Bait pitched in to help you care for her."

The sheriff looked at Richard, his eyebrows raised. "Who told you that?"

"Jenny. She's worried about Dorie. She had no idea why I was asking her questions, but if it was going to keep Dorie safe, she was willing to tell me what she knew."

Sheriff Berenger nodded. "Jenny's a good girl. She looks after her own and still feels like she owes Dorie. Dorie doesn't feel that way, mind you, but it hasn't stopped Jenny from trying to repay her all these years. She's a good girl. As good as my Dorie."