“Did you find anything?”
“We didn’t get a chance to look for long,” Ida Belle said. “But I figured you, me, and Gertie could head out and do our own check. Hermes can’t tell us where to fish. I printed off some aerial shots of the bayous there and marked the nearest camps.”
“Good. And I want to talk to Kenny.”
Gertie grinned. “Can’t stop us from taking a casserole to a friend in need either.”
I looked at Harrison. “Do you know if there’s been any progress on identifying the girl?”
He shook his head. “I checked before we headed out into the bayou but there are still no kids reported missing that match her description. At this point, we need her to wake up and give us a name.”
“Worst case, if they can’t find her parents, what do they do with her?” I asked.
“The hospital will release her to a Children and Family Services caseworker when she’s got medical clearance. They’ll place her in temporary foster care or a group home, depending on where they have a space.”
“And who makes the decision to release her?”
“I’m guessing, given she’s a minor and this could involve a crime, they’re going to pass that call up the line at the hospital. Maybe even to the chief of staff. But they’re probably going to rely heavily on what Cassidy says to make that decision. They always rely on her when it’s calls about children.”
I nodded, feeling a tiny bit of relief that Cassidy would have some input. “I’m not going to borrow trouble on that one. Until we know something happened to her parents, we’ll assume the best.”
Harrison nodded, but I could tell by his expression that he was worried about the parents as well. The girl wasn’t a teen who’d lied about her whereabouts so she could sneak out and drink with her boyfriend. This was a young child who had no reason or means to be where she’d been found. And so far, no one had reported her missing.
Which begged the question—where were her parents?
CHAPTER SIX
Harrison left for traffic duty, and Ida Belle, Gertie, and I decided to pay a visit to Kenny first to make sure we had all the details from him, then we’d head out into the bayou and see if we could pick up anything new. Gertie always had a casserole on hand, so she grabbed one from her freezer and we stopped off at Ally’s bakery to pick him up a box of cookies. Kenny’s middle section gave away his sugar addiction, so I figured we’d be well received.
It took Kenny a while to answer his door, and I wondered for a minute if he had even made it home yet, but finally, we heard shuffling inside. When the door swung open, I saw immediately what the problem was—Kenny had been treated to too many rounds the night before at the Swamp Bar. He stared at us and blinked a couple times before appearing to focus. Then he gave us a tiny smile, which looked like it hurt to manage, and gave us a slow and deliberate wave inside.
“We brought you a casserole and some cookies from Ally’s bakery,” Gertie said.
He grimaced. “I appreciate it, but it might be a bit until I get around to them. The boys took care of me a little too well last night, I’m afraid. At least Whiskey gave me a ride home this morning.”
We followed him into the kitchen, and he waved toward the counter. “I just put on a pot of coffee and got out a bottle of aspirin. Can I offer you either?”
We declined both but insisted Kenny sit before he fell over. Gertie stuck his casserole in the refrigerator, and Ida Belle got him a cup of coffee and the aspirin bottle.
“I really appreciate you taking over with the girl,” he said. “Didn’t get to thank you last night. What a shock…I keep wondering if God is trying to tell me to stop fishing.”
“Fish are one of the most popular dishes in the Bible,” Gertie said. “I think maybe God’s just using you because you’re there and you’re a good person.”
“That makes me feel a bit better. Have you heard anything about the girl? Is she all right? Do you have any idea what happened?”
“The girl is stable but still unconscious. But no one has come forward to claim her, so we have no idea what happened.”
“That’s the darnedest thing. How do you just lose a kid that young and you’re not looking for them?”
“We’re a little concerned about that as well. We’re going to head into the bayou after we leave here and see if we can find anything—maybe the parents were using someone’s camp or something? Anyway, we wanted to check with you first to make sure we have the locations right and see if you remembered anything else since you talked to Deputy Harrison.”
He described the location where he pulled the girl in, and Ida Belle nodded. That was the same location he’d given last night.
“Did you see any other fishermen? Any boats at all? Someone who might have seen something?”
He shook his head. “I mean, I saw several of the regulars a couple hours before, but not many are going to choose night fishing over a good party, and there’s plenty of that going on right now. I can drink any time and figured that meant the good spots wouldn’t be crowded. Guess it would have been better if they had been.
“But now that you mention it, I did hear a boat right before I hauled in the girl. Not sure how far away it was. Sounded fairly close, but you know how sound carries.”
“You couldn’t see any running lights?”
He frowned. “No. And I should have. The trees don’t start until farther up that bayou. Everything in front of me was open marsh, and the light reflects back off the water pretty good, even small lights.”
Someone had been running without lights, which was foolhardy at best, deadly at worst.
“Do you know any of the people with camps in that area?” I asked.
“Probably know them all, or the families at least, since those places get passed down. But I didn’t recognize the girl. Not that I know every child or grandchild attached to someone in Sinful, but grilling out is a big deal around here in the summer. You see a lot of peoples’ extended families over a hot dog and a burger.”
I nodded. Even though I was people-averse and rarely had reason to be around kids, I still knew I’d never seen the girl before. And with Ida Belle, Gertie, and Ronald all agreeing, I was convinced she wasn’t related to any locals, at least not close enough to make the summer rounds.
I was just about to wrap things up when someone banged on Kenny’s front door, causing him to grimace.
“Who the heck is knocking like that?” He rose from the table, and we followed since we were done talking with him.
“Everyone I know has better manners than to bang on the door of a man with a hangover. That’s the problem with the world today—we’ve lost all sense of propriety.”
I nodded. There was plenty wrong with the world outside of a loss of manners and propriety, but it was definitely a contributing factor to the decline.
The banging started again, and he threw his hands up in the air as we headed for the door.
“Whoever this is better have something good to make up for all that racket.”
I glanced back over at Ida Belle and Gertie and could tell we were already on the same page. And I didn’t figure the man on the other side of that door had anything but attitude. Kenny didn’t manage the angry door swing he was going for—his balance was still off—but he did accomplish an Oscar-level dirty look.