Swamp Team 3 (10 page)

Satisfied with my position, I loaded a shell and got into a prone position, the 12-gauge at my side. Now the waiting was all that was left. And the waiting was always the worst, but at least I had a time limit on this one. I was giving the creeper two hours to show up before calling it a night.

To keep from dozing off, I launched into my usual routine of mentally reciting every weapon in my private collection back in DC. If I got to the end of the weapons list and the creeper still hadn’t shown, I’d move on to the disassembly-reassembly process for each of the rifles and pistols.

It was close to midnight when I saw movement below me at the side of my house. I reached into my pants pocket for the sight I’d removed from one of Marge’s rifles and took a peek. It was the creeper all right, makeshift ski mask in place. How many beanie hats did the guy own?

I pulled the shotgun from my side and into a shooting position, but as I placed my finger on the trigger, a dark cloud rolled in front of the moon and the light disappeared, leaving me in the pitch black. It was only for a couple of seconds, but each one of them ticked by as if it were an hour. When the dim glow finally encompassed the yard again, I could just make out the back of the creeper as he inched around the corner and headed for the bushes that ran across the back of the house.

Perfect!

I sighted his rear and moved my finger to the trigger.
 

Now or never.

I squeezed the trigger and the
boom
from the shotgun shattered the utter silence of the night. A split second later, I heard yelling and knew my shot had been a good one.
 

I lifted the scope again, expecting to see the creeper running the opposite way, but instead he whirled around and headed straight for me. And that’s when I realized he wasn’t wearing a mask. And he wasn’t the creeper.

I’d just shot Carter.

Chapter Eight

I jumped up and ran across the roof in the opposite direction of my house. With any luck, the echo from the shot wouldn’t alert Carter that the shot came from above…at least not right away. If I could get to the other side of the house and find a way down, I could double back and sneak into my own house and pretend I knew nothing about all of this.

I was almost to the opposite edge of the roof when the lights on Ronald’s back porch flicked on and I heard a gunshot.

“Damn it!” Carter yelled. “It’s Deputy LeBlanc. Put that gun down.”

I took a second to gauge the distance between the roofline and a branch of an oak tree, then jumped, praying the branch was sturdy enough to hold me. I overjumped and crashed into the trunk, but managed to get my hands up before my face collided with the thick bark. I could still hear Carter and Ronald arguing, so I wasted no time scrambling down the tree. The lowest branch was still a good fifteen feet off the ground, so I readied myself and jumped, prepared to roll when I hit the ground.
 

Unfortunately, the strap from the shotgun caught on a limb behind me and instead of hurtling to the ground, I ended up hanging in the tree like a wind chime. I reached back, frantically trying to release the strap from the gun, but my weight had the strap and buckle pulled so tight I couldn’t.
 

I heard running feet and my heart sank. Carter was finished with Ronald and was back in pursuit. I kicked my legs out, thinking a swinging motion might dislodge the strap from the branch. As I swung out a second time, the strap came loose and I flew into a set of bushes.

It took far less time for me to get up than it did to fall. I leaped out of the bushes as if they were on fire, grabbing the shotgun as I whirled around. Then I sprinted across Ronald’s front lawn and to my house, where I threw open the window I’d left unlocked earlier. I tossed the shotgun through the window, then dived in after it. I cleanly completed my somersault but as I started to rise, something hit me on the back of the head.

Pain exploded on my skull and in my eyes, and I heard the sound of ceramic shattering.
 

“It’s me,” I hissed.

“Fortune!” Ally’s voice was a mixture of frightened and bewildered. “I thought you were the creeper. Why did you come in the window?”

I ran to the wall to push the window down and lock it, relieved that Ally hadn’t turned on any lights when she’d come downstairs to clock me. Dim light from the kitchen was the only light in the room. I’d no sooner clicked the window latch in place when I heard running in front of the house. “No time to explain. Answer the door and make up a lie about the vase. You never saw me.”

I grabbed the shotgun and dashed upstairs, leaving Ally staring wide-eyed behind me. I pulled off my clothes as I ran, and by the time I got to my bedroom, I was down to sports bra, underwear, and socks. I yanked off the socks, pulled on yoga pants and T-shirt, and grabbed my headphones. I paused long enough to check myself in the dresser mirror and was glad I had. Several leaves and some small branches stuck out of my hair. I plucked them out, redid my ponytail, and prepared for the showdown that was about to come.

I could hear Ally talking to Carter as I started for the stairwell.

“I don’t know anything at all,” Ally said. “I was asleep and heard a gunshot. I could hear a commotion outside, but couldn’t see anything. I’d left my pistol and my cell phone downstairs, so I hurried down here to grab both, intending to call the sheriff’s department.”

“So what happened to the vase?”

“I didn’t want to turn on the lights and make it easier for someone to see inside. I thought I could make it to the kitchen in the dark, but I guess I don’t know the house as well as I’d hoped. I jammed my leg into that decorator table and wasn’t able to catch the vase before it hit the floor. Then you started knocking and here we are.”

I pulled my headphones around my neck and skipped down the stairs. “What’s all the racket?”

Carter looked up at me, his expression a mixture of incredulity and suspicion. “You’re telling me you’ve been upstairs sleeping this whole time?”

“It’s after midnight. What am I supposed to be doing?”

Carter narrowed his eyes at me. “You didn’t hear anything that just happened outside?”

I pointed at the headphones. “Remember my problem with the frogs? I can only handle a few days of bad sleep before I resort to these. They’re pretty good. I heard some noise downstairs, but it was faint. At first I thought I was dreaming, but then I figured it was Merlin messing with something so I came down to check.”

Carter looked back and forth between the two of us. I could tell he was caught in a struggle between wanting to believe us and thinking there was no way in hell that he could.

“What’s going on?” I asked, figuring that’s the exact question an innocent person would have.

Ally looked over at me. “Carter saw the creeper outside of the house, and there was a gunshot.”

I widened my eyes, feigning a look of surprise. “He came back? Seriously? I didn’t think he’d be that stupid.”

Carter blew out a breath. “Apparently, he didn’t get your memo on what constitutes intelligent behavior.”

“So you shot him?” I asked. “Who is he?”

“No. I didn’t shoot anybody. Someone else fired a shotgun, which is why I’m here.”

“Wasn’t me this time,” I said, crossing my fingers behind my back. “Hey, maybe it was the creeper?”

Carter looked aggrieved. “At this point, it could have been John Gotti.”

Ally frowned. “Isn’t he dead?”

“Who’s John Gotti?” I asked. Gertie wasn’t the only one who could play the ignorance card.

Carter sighed. “You swear neither of you saw or heard anything?”

“Nothing beyond what I’ve already told you,” Ally said.

I shook my head. “Not until I came downstairs and heard the two of you talking.”

“Then I’ll let you get back to sleep. Make sure all the windows and doors are locked.”

He looked so defeated, and I couldn’t stop the wave of guilt that coursed through me. When he turned around to leave and I saw the white marks on the back of his jeans, my guilt ticked up a hundred more notches.
 

Ally closed the door behind him and locked it, then watched out the window for several seconds. Finally, she turned around and stared at me, hands on her hips. “What the hell is going on here? What did you do that I just lied about to cover up?”

“I…uh, might have shot Carter.”

###

After swearing Ally to silence, I headed upstairs to take a shower and hit the bed. Convincing Ally to stay quiet about the entire fiasco had been easier than I’d thought it would be, but then technically, she’d just lied to cover up a felony. I supposed that might factor in.
 

With all the running, shooting, hanging around trees, and getting hit with vases that was going on, I hadn’t had time to process the facts of the night. But under the hot stream of the shower, my mind finally slowed down and I started at the beginning, focusing on when I first saw the creeper.

Initially, I considered that I might have been wrong and had confused Carter for the creeper from the get-go, but that couldn’t be right. The creeper had been wearing a beanie mask, just like the night before. And obviously, Carter had seen him too or he wouldn’t have been tracking him around the back of my house.

Crap!

That also meant that Carter had been watching my house again. Stupid. I should have known he’d be nearby. One, because he wanted to nab the creeper before he could finish whatever nefarious thing he had planned, and two, before I shot the beanie-wearing freak myself. The interesting thing is that I hadn’t seen Carter at all when I’d left the house, and the moonlight had the yard lit up pretty good all the way across the bayou.

I’d checked the street when unlocking the living room window and hadn’t seen his truck, so either he had it tucked away somewhere else, or he’d walked over from his house and had been hiding across the street. None of this boded well for any future creeper hunting. I’d already expensed more lives than Merlin had. At some point, I would run out, and the last place I wanted that to happen was in front of Carter.

I shut off the shower and dried off. Settling for underwear and T-shirt, I dressed and headed into the bedroom and slid in between the cool sheets with no intention of leaving for a good eight hours or more. Ally had to be at work early and would be up and gone with the chickens, but hopefully, I’d be able to sleep through it.
 

First thing tomorrow, I’d check in with Gertie and Ida Belle and formulate a plan to go to the Swamp Bar. At some point, I had to check in with Walter, who would be expecting an update. He wasn’t going to be thrilled with the one I provided, but that was his own fault for making me promise. Then I wanted to sit down with Ally and have another talk about who could be out to get her.
 

The timing of the arsonist and the creeper couldn’t be a coincidence.
 

Someone in Sinful had an agenda. And I was going to find out what it was.

###

Given that it had taken me two hours to slow my mind down enough to fall asleep, I surprised myself when I popped out of bed at 8:00 a.m., completely rested and ready to go. Ally had prepped the coffeepot for me and left a note that said to press Brew. Unfortunately, we’d polished off the blueberry muffins the day before so I stood looking inside the refrigerator for a while, deliberating between a bagel and a protein shake. Finally, I closed the door and poured a cup of coffee, having decided I’d finish off the pot, then head into town for breakfast at Francine’s.
 

I inhaled two cups of coffee like a true addict then, in keeping with my vow to exercise every day, pulled on my tennis shoes and set out at a good jog to the café. It took me about a block for my breathing to relax into rhythm, and my thighs complained a bit, but finally my body settled into its normal pace and it wasn’t very long before I hit Main Street. I slowed to a walk, wanting to get my heart rate and breathing slower before I consumed breakfast.
 

That run had consumed a good bit of calories. Maybe enough calories for me to splurge at breakfast.

The usual crowd of locals were already seated in the café and digging into their breakfast. I snagged my usual two-top table in the corner at the back of the café, and Ally cruised by a minute later and pushed a cup of coffee in front of me.
 

“I bet you’re starving,” she said. “Special today is chicken-fried steak and eggs.”

My stomach rumbled and my mouth was well on its way to blurting out “Hell, yeah” when I remembered my new fitness plan. “Not today. I’ll have an egg-white omelet with spinach and mozzarella.”

Ally raised one eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah, I have this whole fitness thing. When yoga pants start to get tight in the waist, you’ve got a real problem.”

She laughed. “I get it. Ever since I’ve started all this testing to open my own bakery, nothing in my closet fits right. I guess you’ve consumed some of everything as well.”

“Maybe a bit more than ‘some’ in most cases.”

“I’ll put this in,” she said and headed toward the kitchen.