Voodoo River

I looked at Jodi Taylor. 'Sound familiar?'

'What?'

'You didn't want to pay extortion, either.'

Jodi pursed her lips, then leaned toward Edith. 'Can't your husband do something?'

'He wants to, but he doesn't know what. This is killing him.' The skin around her eyes and mouth was tight, and showing the strain.

Jodi said, 'I think it's killing both of you.'

A car turned into the drive and Edith went to the door. 'That will be Jo-el. I want you to meet him.'

The front door opened and Sheriff Jo-el Boudreaux walked in, campaign hat in one hand, a rolled copy of Sports Illustrated in the other, looking the way you look when you're calling it quits after a long day. He stopped when he saw us, and said, 'What's going on here?' Calm and reasonable, like you walk in every day to see a detective and a TV star sitting in your living room. Only not. His eyes flicked to Jodi, then came to me, and the calm look was the kind guys get when their hearts are pounding, but they know they've got to cover. Every cop I ever knew could get that look.

Edith stood. 'Jo-el, this young lady is named Jodi Taylor.' She wet her lips. 'She's my daughter.'

Jodi stood and offered her hand. 'Hello, Mr. Bou-dreaux.'

Edith said, 'She's the one on TV, Jo-el, She's the little girl I gave away.'

Jo-el Boudreaux took Jodi's hand without apparent feeling, shaking his head and making out as if all of this was sort of benignly confusing. 'I don't understand, hon. Your mother gave away a baby.' Like she had made a mistake recalling which day she'd gone to the market.

'We don't have to pretend, Jo-el.' Edith put a hand on his arm. 'They know. Those people were blackmailing her, too, just like they're doing to us.'

Jo-el's eyes got wide and he wet his lips and his eyes flicked nervous and frantic. One minute you're coming home to take it easy with the new Sports Illustrated, the next you're watching your life go down the toilet. 'No one's blackmailing us.'

I said, 'We're not going to hurt you, Jo-el. It's okay.'

Sheriff Jo-el Boudreaux waved the Sports Illustrated at me. 'I don't know what you think you've dug up, but we don't want any part of it.' He squared himself toward me, making himself large and threatening. Cop technique. 'I think you should leave.'

Edith jerked at his arm. 'You stop that! We need to talk about this. We need to start dealing with this.'

Jo-el was frantic now and didn't know what to do. He said, 'There's nothing to deal with, Edie. Do you understand me? There's nothing to talk about here, and they should leave.'

Edith's voice grew harder. Insistent. 'I want to know what's going on. I want to know if you're involved in a murder.'

Jo-el Boudreaux's left eye ticked twice, and he took a single step toward me and I stood. Edith was pulling at his arm, her face red. I said, 'I saw you with Milt Rossier. We know about Leon Williams and Edith's father. Rebenack was extorting Jodi and her studio, and Rossier is extorting you.'

Boudreaux's eye ticked again and he shook his head. 'No.'

Edith said, 'He says that Rossier killed that redheaded man. Do you know about tliat? Are you covering up for him?'

Boudreaux blinked hard, and he looked at his wife. 'You know better than that.' He squinted at me to stop the blinking. 'If I knew who murdered Jimmie Ray Rebenack I would make an arrest. Maybe you did it. Maybe I should take you in for questioning.'

I said, 'Sure. That would look good in the local papers.'

He shook his head again, and now the eye was ticking madly, like a moth caught in a jar. 'I don't know what Edie's been saying to you, but she's been confused. She's not making sense.'

Edith made a sudden, abrupt move and slapped her husband on the side of the face. There wasn't a lot on it, but the sound was sharp and clear, and Jo-el stepped back, surprised. Edith grabbed his arm and shook him. 'Don't you dare speak about me that way! We have been living in a way that makes me ashamed, and I want it to stop. I want it to stop, do you hear?'

Jo-el took his wife by her upper arms. You could barely hear him. 'You want me to go arrest your father? That's what will happen, and won't that be fine? You can even testify at his trial.'

Edith was crying.

Jodi said, 'We're on your side. Maybe we can help you. Maybe we can work together.'

Jo-el Boudreaux said, 'There's nothing to talk about. I don't know anything about this, so you take care of your business and let me worry about mine.'

Edith was crying harder. 'I want to stop lying. I want this to end.'

Jo-el said, 'Edie, Goddammit. There's nothing to talk about.' Denying it to the end.

Edith pulled away from him and ran back through the house, and a door slammed. For a long moment no one moved, and then Boudreaux went to the front door and held it open. He was breathing hard, and it took him a minute to control it. He looked at me and said, 'Do you have a statement that you wish to make in the murder of Jimmie Ray Rebenack?'

'Let us help you, Jo-el.'

He looked at Jodi. 'I'm glad Edie had a chance to meet you, but there's just been a misunderstanding here. We don't know anything about Milt Rossier, or about the murder of Leon Williams.'

Jodi said, 'You're being a fool.'

Boudreaux nodded and looked back at me. 'Where's it go from here?'

I said, 'Jesus Christ, Boudreaux.'

He blinked hard once. 'I want to know.' I thought he was about to cry.

I took a deep breath. 'It starts here, it stops here. We won't give you up.'

Sheriff Jo-el Boudreaux stood at the door, the big hand holding it open, the soft sounds of the neighborhood drifting in with the moist scent of cut grass, and then he simply walked away, back across the living room and through a door and after his wife.

Jodi and I went out through the door, closed it behind us, and drove away. The late afternoon had given way to the evening, and the sky in the east was beginning to purple. Fireflies traced uneven paths in the twilight.

Jodi huddled on her side of the car, arms crossed, staring out the window and chewing her lip. The lip started bleeding so she stopped with the lip and chewed at a nail. We drove in silence.

I said, 'So say it.'

'They're good people. He thinks he's protecting her because he's a big dumb goober, but he's making it worse for both of them.'

'Uh-huh.'

She glanced at her watch and her right knee began bouncing. Nervous energy. 'I have to go back to L.A. to finish the show, but I can't just walk away. I want you to stay here and find out what's going on and see if you can help them.'

The air had cooled, and smelled sweet, but I didn't know from what. 'I have found that, in cases like this, the only way to escape the past is to confess it. They don't seem anxious to do that.'

'I want you to try. Will you?'

'What about you?'

She looked at me. 'What does that mean?'

'Who are you, Jodi? Do you want these people in your life?'

She stared at me for what seemed like years, and then she crossed her arms and settled back into the shadows. 'I don't know what I want. Just help them, okay?'

'Okay.'

CHAPTER 22