her skin. The wounds: gruesome, hideous, so at odds with what she had been like in life. The expression in her eyes as she stared up through the mask-stark, hopeless, filled with a kind of terror that couldn't be imagined by anyone who hadn't faced a brutal death.
And when the images came to him, so did the sense of violence that must have been thick in the air at the time of her death. It hit him like a wall of sound, intense, powerful, poisonous rage that left him feeling sick and shaken.
Rage was no stranger. It boiled inside him now.
'I think about what she went through,' Stokes said. 'What she must have felt when she realized… what he did to her with that knife. Christ.' He shook his head as if to shake loose the images taking root there. 'He's gotta pay for that, man, and without that ring we got shit for a bill. He's gonna walk, Nicky. He's gonna get away with murder.'
People did. Every day. Every day the line was crossed and souls disappeared into the depths of an alternate dimension. It was a matter of choice, a battle of wills. Most people never came close enough to the edge to have any knowledge of it. Too close to the edge and the force could pull you across like an undertow.
'He's probably sitting in his office thinking that right now,' Stokes went on. 'He's been working nights, you know. The rest of his firm can't stand to have him around. They know he's guilty, same as we do. Can't stand looking at him, knowing what he did. I'll bet he's sitting there right now, thinking about it.'
Right across the alley. The architectural firm of Bowen amp; Briggs was housed in a narrow painted brick building that faced the bayou; flanked by a shabby clapboard barbershop and an antiques store. The same building that housed Bayou Realty on the first floor. Bowen amp; Briggs was likely the only place on the block inhabited tonight.
'You know, man, somebody ought to do Renard,' Stokes whispered, cutting a wary glance at the bartender. He stood at the end of the bar, chuckling over the sitcom.
'Justice, you know,' Stokes said. 'An eye for an eye.'
'I shoulda let Davidson shoot him,' Nick muttered, and wondered again why he had not. Because there was still a part of him that believed the system was supposed to work. Or maybe he hadn't wanted to see Hunter Davidson sucked over to the dark side.
'He could have an accident,' Stokes suggested. 'It happens all the time. The swamp is a dangerous place. Just swallows people up sometimes, you know.'
Nick looked at him through the haze of smoke, trying to judge, trying to gauge. He didn't know Stokes well enough. Didn't know him at all beyond what they had shared on the job. All he had were impressions, a handful of adjectives, speculation hastily made because he didn't care to waste his time on such things. He preferred to concentrate on focal points; Stokes was part of the periphery of his life. Just another detective in a four-man department. They worked independently of one another most of the time.
Stokes's mouth twisted up on one corner. 'Wishful thinking, pard, wishful thinking. Idn' that what they do down in New Orleans? Pop the bad guys and dump 'em in the swamp?'
' Lake Pontchartrain, mostly.'
Stokes stared at him a moment, uncertain, then decided it was a joke. He laughed, drained his beer, and slid off the stool, reaching into his hip pocket for his wallet. 'I gotta split. Gotta meet with the DA on Thibidoux in the morning.' The grin flashed again. 'And I got a hot date tonight. Hot and sweet between the sheets. If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'.'
He dropped a ten on the bar and clamped a hand on Nick's shoulder one last time. 'Protect and serve, pard. Catch you later.'
Protect and serve, Nick thought. Pamela Bichon was dead. Her father was sitting in jail, and the man who had killed her was free. Just who had they protected and what purpose had been served today?
'Pritchett's fit to kill somebody.'
'I'd suggest Renard,' Annie muttered, scowling at her menu.
'More apt to be your idol, Fourcade.'
She caught the sarcasm, the jealousy, and rolled her eyes at her dinner partner. She had known A. J. Doucet her whole life. He was one of Tante Fanchon and Uncle Sos's brood of actual nephews and nieces, related by blood rather than by serendipity, as she was. As children, they had chased each other around the big yard out at the Corners-the cafe/boat landing/convenience store Sos and Fanchon ran south of town. During their high school years, A.J. had taken on the often unappreciated role of protector. Since then he had gone from friend to lover and back as he proceeded through college and law school and into the Partout Parish District Attorney's Office.
They had yet to agree on a description for their current relationship. The attraction that had come and gone between them over the years seemed never to come or go for both of them at the same time.
'He's not my idol,' she said irritably. 'He happens to be the best detective we've got, that's all. I want to be a detective. Of course I watch him. And why should you care? You and I are not, I repeat,
'You know how I feel about that too.'
Annie blew out a sigh. 'Can we skip this argument tonight? I've had a rotten day. You're supposed to be my best friend. Act like it.'
He leaned toward her across the small white-draped table, his brown eyes intense, the hurt in them cutting at her conscience. 'You know there's more there than that, Annie, and don't give me that 'we're practically related' bullshit you've been wading in recently. You are no more related to me than you are related to the President of the United States.'
'Which I could be, for all I know,' she muttered, sitting back, retreating in the only way she could without making a scene.
As it was, they had become the object of speculation for another set of diners across the intimate width of Isabeau's. She suspected it was her blackening eye that had caught the other woman's attention. Out of uniform, she supposed she looked like an abused partner rather than an abused cop.
'It's not the cops Pritchett should be pissed at,' she said. 'Judge Monahan made the ruling. He could have let that ring in.'
'And left the door open for appeal? What would be the point of that?'
The waitress interrupted the discussion, bringing their drinks, her gaze cutting from Annie's battered face to A.J.
'She's gonna spit in your etouffee, you know,' Annie remarked.
'Why should she assume I gave you that shiner? I could be your high-priced, ass-kicking divorce lawyer.'
Annie sipped her wine, dismissing the subject. 'He's guilty, A.J.'
'Then bring us the evidence-obtained by legal means.'
'By the rules, like it's a game. Josie wasn't far wrong.'
'What about Josie?'
'She came to see me today. Or, rather, she came with her grandmother to see Hunter Davidson in jail.'
'The formidable Miss Belle.'
'They both tore into me. '
'What for? It's not your case.'
'Yeah, well…' she hedged, sensing that A.J. wouldn't understand the strong pull she was feeling. Everything in its place-that was A.J. Every aspect of life was supposed to fit into one of the neat little compartments he had set up, while everything in Annie's life seemed to be tossed into one big messy pile she was continually sorting through, trying to make sense of. 'I'm tied to it. I wish I could do more to help. I look at Josie and…'
A.J.'s expression softened with concern. He was too handsome for his own good. Curse of the Doucet men with their square jaws and high cheekbones and pretty mouths. Not for the first time, Annie wished things between them could have been as simple as he wanted.
'The case has been hell on everyone, honey,' he said. 'You've done more than your part already.'
Therein lay the problem, Annie thought as she picked at her dinner. What exactly was her part? Was she supposed to draw the boundary at duty and absolve herself of any further responsibility?
She had already gone above and beyond the call involving herself with Josie. But, even without Josie, she
