With Mannie standing there, arms crossed, and not even a hint of a smile, Hermes must have decided that this wasn’t the hill to die on. He glared at all of us before stomping into the house. Blanchet looked up from the floor, tears streaming down his face.
I extended my hand to him. “It’s not over yet. Hurry.”
Blanchet managed to crawl up from the floor, and we all ran through the house and made it to the front window just as Hermes stepped off the porch and got a good look at his truck.
Sitting on cinder blocks and missing all four wheels.
A man and woman I didn’t recognize were in the back seat. The windows were down and the man was swinging a red bra out of it.
“Hey, Uber guy!” he yelled. “We’ve been waiting forever. She’s got her bra off, man. Have a heart. Let’s get this going!”
Gertie rushed into the living room—finally back from her reign of terror—and stared out the window.
“Who the heck is that?”
I started laughing so hard tears came to my eyes. “I have no idea. That one wasn’t me, I swear.”
“Looks like the Parkers’ grandson,” Ida Belle said. “Makes sense. He’s had a couple DUIs.”
Blanchet started laughing until he shook all over again. “How does it make sense? He’s sitting in a truck with no wheels.”
“It’s Sinful,” Ida Belle said, as if that explained everything.
And really, it kinda did.
Hermes looked back at the house, spotting us all looking out the window, and shook his fist. “You’re all going to jail for this.”
I opened the door and yelled out of it. “How the heck are you going to pin that one on us when you were standing right there with us when it happened? Sounds like the town is out of control. Stuff like this never happened on Carter’s watch.”
I closed the door and right as Hermes reached for his handcuffs and took a step toward the house, a huge bolt of lightning came down and struck the front of his truck so hard, the hood flew right off it. Hermes went sprawling onto the sidewalk. The couple in the back seat jumped out, half clothed, and scrambled across the yard and down the block.
Mannie, anticipating that Hermes had fallen off the ledge of sanity, stepped out the front door and just stood there, arms crossed. Hermes, who’d started up the walkway again, paused, gave Mannie a cautious look, then pulled out his phone.
“Breaux! I need you to pick me up right now!” he yelled as he started walking off.
We all collapsed in the living room, laughing so hard our ribs were certain to hurt the next day. Even Mannie worked up a laugh, although if I was Hermes, I’d try really hard to avoid him for basically the rest of my life.
Since most people were too drunk to notice Hermes had even been there, the party had never stopped. Once we picked ourselves up from the living room, we headed back out to resume Mardi Gras business. I ran down Scooter and Dixon and thanked them for their roles, and then spent the rest of the night chatting with friends, drinking beer, and eating cookies. I was seriously going to have to exercise for a month to get rid of the calories I’d consumed. Nora, who’d been on hostess overtime all night, finally passed out in a lawn chair along with Ronald and the cat, who’d apparently elected to keep living with her. All three of them were wearing more jewelry than Liberace.
When everyone had mostly trailed out, we did our best to restore a little order to her house. Then since everyone else was paired up and could head directly home, Blanchet offered to drop me off.
“So what exactly did you do with those wheels?” he asked as he drove.
“I didn’t do anything with them. I was right there on the porch with you the whole time.”
He laughed. “Touché.”
“The unnamed party put them in Farmer Frank’s pasture. He has llamas.”
Blanchet raised one eyebrow.
“Ever been around llamas? They’re more territorial than a Malinois. And they spit. Farmer Frank gives his llamas tobacco when he sees someone trespassing. He has crap night vision, but by the time I send an anonymous tip in about those wheels, it will be daylight, and the llamas will be locked and loaded.”
Blanchet chuckled. “You know, your résumé is impressive enough, but watching you work is like seeing a magician perform. You’ve really made a place for yourself here. These people love you and, more importantly, they trust you to act without question. That’s huge, especially in the South. People don’t give that kind of respect lightly.”
“And I don’t take it lightly, which is why I’m always trying to do what’s best for this town and its people.”
He nodded as he pulled into my driveway. “It’s a good fit for both of you. Guess I’ll see you tomorrow for fishing.”
“I’ll send a text when we’re on our way to pick you up.”
I jumped out and gave him a wave from my porch as he drove off. I sighed as I let myself in the house. Blanchet was a nice guy. I really hoped we could get him some answers about Maya, but at the same time, I worried what those answers might be. If cults couldn’t control members with threats, they tended to eliminate the problem. I really hoped Maya hadn’t been subject to an elimination.
I grabbed a bottled water from the kitchen before heading upstairs for the shower. I spent a good amount of time under the stream of hot water, then dried my hair and headed to bed. It was close to 2:00 a.m. but I already knew sleep would be elusive. With everything going on here and worrying about Carter over there, it was really hard to quiet my mind enough to rest. But I needed to try. Operating at 100 percent capacity was more important now than ever.
I plumped up my pillows and hopped into bed. I was just reaching to turn out the lamp when my phone signaled an incoming text. It was Carter! I grabbed my phone and my heart dropped when I read the two words.
I’m sorry.
I let the phone go and it dropped onto the floor. He didn’t have to explain. I knew exactly what those words meant. Carter wasn’t going to be safe on an aircraft carrier. He was going to be on the ground, right in the middle of whatever Force Recon was doing.
I picked up my phone and saw a second message.
I love you.
I texted back.
Stay safe. I love you.
The message showed Delivered but didn’t show Read. Ten minutes later, the status hadn’t changed. Nor had it an hour later when I finally gave up and turned off the light.
The only thing I could do now was pray.
CHAPTER TEN
I was up before dawn the next morning, after a night filled with awful dreams. I’d expected as much. Even Merlin seemed to clue in that I wasn’t doing all that well and didn’t give me his usual amount of grief over breakfast. Instead, he waited politely in his eating corner while I made coffee and even stuck to casual observation while I downed a cup standing in front of the pot and stared at the cabinets. Finally, I made up his breakfast. He ate it all without a single sound, then sat by the door and waited quietly until I let him out to do his business.
I shook my head as he walked out. If the cat had zoned in on my malaise, then Ida Belle and Gertie would be all over it. I knew I’d have to tell them, at least as much as I knew, which was basically nothing. I sat at the table wondering if Carter had said anything to Emmaline. When my phone rang twenty minutes later and I saw her name in the display, I had my answer.