“What did he do for a living?” Manseur asked. “Clubbing people isn’t a full-time occupation.”
“Some kind of fisherman or trapper. They said that’s all he talked about. He used that pipe to kill things like animals he trapped.”
“Was he in the same ward as Sibby?” Alexa asked. Lead pipe…nutria hair…salty water.
“He was in one of the violent wards.”
“Ward fourteen?” Alexa asked.
“Maybe it was.”
“Trapper with a pipe,” Manseur said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, I remember…”
“You know who she’s referring to?” Alexa asked him.
“About two years ago some fisherman beat another fisherman half to death in front of a bunch of witnesses. Two other people in the area had been found with crushed skulls, so they figured this guy did all of them. He was strong as an ape. Took half a dozen deputies and three stun guns to restrain him. I can’t remember his name, but the case fell apart because the witnesses got amnesia, and the man he beat couldn’t remember who’d done it. They had to release him.”
Veronica shrugged. “People get released all the time that shouldn’t. That’s all I know.” She looked at the papers on the table. “I guess Dr. LePointe has to find out about these?”
Manseur frowned.
“Maybe he won’t need to know,” Alexa told Veronica. “You’ve been a big help.” Even though you are a criminal. Maybe this will straighten you out before you end up in jail…or dead.
“I think that’s all for now. Stay near your phone,” Manseur told her.
“Go home,” Alexa said. “Don’t even think about discussing this with anybody. If you do, we’ll find out, and we won’t be nice about it.”
“I’m going to my parents’ in Lafayette until next week. The hurricane and all…”
“Go,” Manseur said, waving his fingers at her. “Keep your cell phone hot, and we’ll call if there’s anything further.”
Veronica grabbed her purse and left the room like there was a bomb on the table, pulling the door shut behind her hard enough to rattle the opaque glass panel.
Manseur went directly to his computer and started typing. Thirty seconds later, he looked at Alexa. “Leland Ticholet was twenty-three. The instrument he was suspected of using to pound the victim’s head in was never recovered, but the medical examiner speculated that the attack was most likely committed with an instrument consistent with a section of pipe. Lead pipe is a relatively common item among commercial fishermen. Not sure why.”
Alexa said, “A lead pipe is both heavier than wood and softer than galvanized, so it does more deep damage without splitting skin against the bone.”
“How’d you know that?”
“I spend a lot of time talking to crime techs about cold cases. Or maybe I read it in a novel. Got an address on him?”
“I guess no address could be established. Ticholet was released without any probation or restrictions.”
“I guess the swamp is a nonspecific address. He was locked up in River Run’s violent ward while Fugate was there. He might have harbored a grudge. Got even with her,” Alexa said.
“With a meat-tenderizing hammer, not a pipe,” Manseur said.
“Perhaps the hammer was a weapon of convenience. Maybe he knew the pipe would point to him. He could have attacked Gary West with a lead pipe. Maybe he was hired by Fugate to do the West grab and he wanted to up his percentage.”
“Money could have been his motive for attacking Gary West?”
Alexa said, “You’ve never been open to considering that LePointe might be directly involved. A blind spot.”
“No. I still can’t see it.”
“Maybe LePointe knows Leland from the hospital and hired him to kill Fugate.”
“Alexa, think about this. Dr. LePointe hired a retarded giant mental patient to kill Nurse Fugate and abduct Gary West?”
“It’s easy for me to imagine Fugate knew far too much about him and Sibby. Maybe he wanted to get rid of Fugate and stuck her with the responsibility of springing Sibby, and he got Leland to get rid of one or both of them. Maybe he worked all of it through Decell. Arm’s-length transaction. And if he did that, why is it unimaginable that he grabbed West while they were settling family business. Whoever was in an old green panel truck was in both places. They took Sibby out of Fugate’s and they abducted Gary West using it. What are the chances two such trucks were involved?”
Manseur nodded slowly. “I’ll concede that point. Somebody did both. I can’t picture LePointe risking everything by leading a conspiracy, because he knows enough about people who conspire to know they rat out each other.”
Alexa picked up the handwritten list of staff Veronica had furnished and read it.
Ward 14 Staff:
Nurses:
Judi Bodiker
Vicky Lane
Kerry Hamilton
Abbey Dunn
Jamie Smith
Orderlies:
Bunky Bouvier
Bob Waller
Andrew Tinsdale
Terry Fourchet
Jack Warden
Janitorial:
Tommy Dogrel
Raymond Carrouth
Joe Jefferson
“Sometimes very smart people don’t think they can be foiled by what fells lesser men. We’re not dealing with a man who believes normal rules apply to him. Arrogance, a sense of entitlement, intelligence, and power can make for a deadly combination. No guns or knives-all blunt force. We find Mr. Ticholet, we’ll know the truth. What do you suppose Swamp Boy is driving these days?” Alexa asked.
Manseur shrugged. “I can find out easy enough.”
“Fifty dollars says it’s something old and green.”
53
Except for a few fish camps scattered along the bayou-owned by people who didn’t live in them-Doc’s house was in a very isolated area. There was a seldom-used parish road that ran parallel to the water that made the camps accessible by land or water. Leland thought that made the sites unacceptable to someone like him, who appreciated privacy.
Leland carried Doc’s sleeping man over his shoulder up the gentle slope to the house. Once inside, Leland dumped his burden into a chair and, after peeling back the bedsheet he’d wrapped him in, watched while Doc used rolls of duct tape to secure the bastard to the chair, looping the whole deal to a wooden six-by-six post that held up the center roof beam.
“He don’t look barely even alive,” Leland said. “Ought to put him out his misery.”
“Dear boy, he’s in acceptable physical condition. Mr. West is a remarkable example of youth and virility,” Doc
