CHAPTER 7
Despite the instability of her current situation, Aurelie enjoyed breakfast with the Boyette family.
The conversations were lively, ranging from gossip about neighbors in Bayou Mambaloa to the pros and cons of airboats versus pirogues for navigating the bayou’s channels. They even discussed the best bait to use fishing off the coast of Louisiana. Aurelie was surprised by how much Beau’s mother had to contribute to the conversation about fishing bait.
She learned why soon enough.
Helen smiled across the table at Aurelie. “Are we boring you with talk about fishing?”
“Not at all,” Aurelie said.
“Good,” Helen said. “Before we had children, I helped Louis on da fishing boat. We went out every day from early in da morning until late in da evening, fishing for shrimp during da shrimp season and everything else in da off-season. Sometimes, we would charter da boat out to wealthy fishermen.”
“Maman’s fishing days weren’t over when she had children,” Beau said. “There were many times she would pack us all up, along with a lunch, and go out and help my father for the day. She wanted us to understand what our father did.”
“Most of my children have not shown an interest in carryin’ on deir father’s business,” Helen said. “Except Pierre. He’s out now with Louis. I wouldn’t let him join his father on da fishing boat until he got a useful college degree. But he loves fishing and being outdoors. Fortunately, he chose a degree in financial management, which he uses for himself and day trading. He isn’t totally reliant on da fishing industry for his income.”
“Yeah, Pierre is a lot like me,” Beau said. “He doesn’t like sitting in an office all day long any more dan I do.”
Helen smiled at her son. “Dat’s why Beau joined da army.”
“But there are many occupations in the army that require sitting behind a desk,” Aurelie said.
“My test scores gave me the option to choose a desk job in the army, but that’s not what I wanted,” Beau said. “I went into the infantry and then applied for Ranger school immediately.”
“Rangers are the ones who parachute in?” Aurelie asked.
Beau smiled. “Sometimes. On many occasions, we dropped in by repelling from helicopters. Or we drove into hostile situations in armored personnel carriers. Another option was to go in on foot.”
“Army versus civilian life must be so different,” Aurelie said.
Beau nodded. “Very different in many ways.”
“Was it hard to transition back to civilian life?” Aurelie asked.
“Yes.” Beau laid his fork on his plate and looked at his mother. “How soon can we check out Robbie Pearson’s house?” He had effectively ended that conversation.
Aurelie suspected he had a reason for not wanting to talk about his time in the army or his transition out. This only made her that much more curious about him.
Helen had finished her breakfast. She collected her plate and pushed back from the table. “I can be ready in five minutes,” she said. “I just need to grab my purse and my car keys.”
“No hurry,” Beau said, but there was no mistaking the tension in him. He collected his plate and Aurelie’s and carried them to the sink, where he rinsed them off and placed them in the dishwasher.
“Don’t worry about the dishes,” Genevieve said. “We’ll take care of them. You go with Maman.” She smiled at Aurelie. “Nice to meet you.”
“If you two move into the Pearson house,” Elise said, “can I come visit?”
Helen was halfway out the kitchen door when she paused and looked around at her youngest daughter, a frown denting her forehead. “Now, Elise, don’t bother Miss Anderson.”
“I won’t bother them,” Elise said. “It’s just that Old Man Pearson’s house has a dock on the bayou. It’s a great place to swim.”
Aurelie blinked. “Aren’t you afraid of swimming in the bayou with the alligators?”
Elise grinned. “I enjoy a challenge.”
“Elise!” Her mother looked at her with a stern glance.
Elise rolled her eyes. “People up north don’t quit going into the woods because of bears. They have a whole campaign on being ‘bear aware,’” she said, her eyes narrowed. “We have a similar attitude in the bayou,” she said. “We just don’t have a cute slogan like bear aware. I’ve been working on it, though.” Elise grinned. “What do you think of ‘gator radar?’”
Having just had an encounter with an alligator, Aurelie wasn’t inclined to use gator radar and tempt the deadly creatures by swimming in the bayou.
Beau directed a narrow-eyed glance at his youngest sister. “I hope you’re not swimming in the bayou alone.”
Elise gave him an exasperated look. “I’m not that dumb. I usually swim with friends, and we are very aware of alligators.”
Helen Boyette re-entered the kitchen, carrying her purse and keys. “I’m ready when you are.”
Beau dipped his head. “We’ll follow you there.”
He hooked Aurelie’s elbow, and together, they followed his mother out the front door.
Aurelie liked the way his hand felt on her arm, strong but sensitive to her needs. He walked her to the passenger side of his truck and opened the door, waiting for her to climb in before he closed it behind her.
He slid into the driver’s seat, started the engine and pulled out behind his mother’s graphite-gray SUV. He followed her through town to the opposite end, where the road curved along the shore. She pulled off the public road onto a private driveway leading to a small cottage perched on the bayou’s edge.
A plain, white clapboard house with a deep front porch stood in a clearing surrounded by colorful hydrangeas and towering cypress trees. Rocking chairs beckoned visitors to sit and enjoy the morning sunshine. The house reminded Aurelie very much of her little cottage in Bayou Miste.
“It’s got good clearance around it,” Beau said. “No one can sneak up without coming out into the open. If you stay here long, I can install some security cameras.”
Aurelie shook her head. “I really don’t think I’ll be here that long.”
“You might consider staying here while your cottage is being repainted.” Beau pushed open his door and dropped to the ground. He rounded the front of the truck to open her door for her.
Aurelie stared at the cottage, not liking the fact that her own cottage had been violated. She itched to get back inside of it and clean up the mess that had been made. “I’ll probably do my own painting,” she said, thinking out loud. “It was on my list of things to do after I bought the house. I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.”
“You might hold off painting until you know for sure who did the damage,” Beau suggested. “You don’t want to paint and have them come behind you and damage it all over again.”
Aurelie’s lips pressed into a tight line. “Why do people have to be such assholes?”
Beau chuckled. “I don’t know. Hopefully, whoever is causing you grief won’t find you anytime soon here in Bayou Mambaloa.”
Helen Boyette ascended the steps ahead of them and worked the combination on the lockbox hanging on the doorknob. Once open, she extracted the key from inside and handed the key to Beau. “I’ll let you do da honors. I’ve already seen da inside.”
Beau fit the key into the lock, twisted and then pushed open the door. He stepped back and allowed Aurelie to enter first.
As she stepped across the threshold, she was met with the same musty smell she’d encountered when she’d first walked into her cottage. She’d purchased her house from an 80-year-old woman who’d decided to move in with her daughter in Atlanta. This home, like hers, had to be between seventy and eighty years old and just needed a little TLC to brighten it up to date. And like Helen had said, the furniture was dated but in surprisingly good shape.
Helen flipped a light switch, and an overhead light blinked on. “Dey left the utilities on, so you should have water and electricity. I know dere’s a washer and dryer in the laundry room, and Mr. Pearson had a dishwasher installed in da kitchen a couple o’ years ago.”
“That will be nice,” Aurelie said. At least she wouldn’t have to find a laundromat to do her laundry. Again, she didn’t plan on staying there long. Hopefully, the sheriff would have some news for them soon regarding who had attacked her at the chateau. She was interested in seeing the video footage they would be reviewing from the cameras posted around the exterior of the chateau.
In the meantime, she had to come up with more clothes to wear besides her costume and Beau’s boxer briefs. Hopefully, she could get into her house soon to see whether she could salvage her clothing.
Helen walked with them through the house, pointing out the different things that needed to be sorted and either donated to a thrift store or taken to the dump. “You might set all da photographs and any jewelry or memorabilia aside for da family to go t’rough. But dey didn’t want to keep his clothing, bedding or furniture for dat matter.”
“I do have a day job,” Aurelie said. “But I’ll do what I can in the evenings. Please thank the Pearsons for their hospitality.”
“I will,” Helen said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a showing of a business on Main Street I need ta get to get ready for.”
“Thank you, Maman.” Beau kissed his mother’s cheek. “I knew you could help.”
His mother stared up into his eyes. “Now that the other children are not around, perhaps you can tell me what’s going on…?”
Beau lifted his chin toward Aurelie. “Miss Anderson was attacked at the chateau last night, and her house in Bayou Miste was ransacked.” He held out his hand toward Aurelie.
She placed her palm in his. “What your son is not saying is that he rescued me from the bayou and now feels responsible for me.”
Helen Boyette smiled. “He’s a good man like his father.” She patted him on his arm. “I’m sorry to hear about da attack, and I’m glad you’re OK. Stick with Beau. He’ll take good care of you.”
Beau’s lips twisted. “Thanks for the vote confidence.”
“You can pay me back by cleaning the gutters on my house dis coming weekend,” his mother said with a grin. She winked at Aurelie. “Be careful. If you need anything, you know where I live.”
Helen left the cottage, climbed into her SUV and drove to her next showing.
Aurelie stood in the middle of the little living room with the floral couch bearing shades of burnt orange and brown and said, “It’s really nice of your mother to find this for me. But I’d much rather be in my own place.”
“Like you said, it shouldn’t be for long.” He entered the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator. It was empty. “You’ll need a few groceries to last a couple of days at least. Can you cook?”
Aurelie chuckled. “Most things I burn. Even water.”
Beau shot a glance her way, his eyebrows rising up his forehead. “You burn water?”
Aurelie grimaced. “I was actually boiling water and forgot that I was boiling water.”
He shook his head. “All the water burned out of the pan, right?”.
“Pretty much.” She entered the kitchen with him and opened what appeared to be a pantry door. Inside were a few cans of soup and several canisters labeled flour, sugar, cornmeal, and coffee. Half a bag of dog food lay on the floor.
Aurelie frowned. “I wonder what happened to Mr. Pearson’s dog. Do you think it passed before he did? And if not, did the family take it? Or did they dump it at a shelter?”
Beau lifted the bag of dog food. “I’d like to think the family adopted it.”
Aurelie pointed to the half of a bag of dog food. “If they took the dog, why didn’t they take the dog’s food?”
“Good question. I’ll ask my mother to check with the family.” He met her gaze. “Now that we have established a place for you to stay, let’s see about getting our phones restored.”
Aurelie nodded. “You don’t realize how much we rely on our phones until we don’t have them. Like, I feel naked without mine.” Her lips twisted. “And at the same time, I feel free. Since last night, I haven’t received a single death threat.”
Beau escorted her to the door. “Do you want to keep the key, or do you want me to hold onto it?”
“You are insisting on accompanying me everywhere and staying at the cottage; you might as well keep the key,” Aurelie said. “That way, when I can go back to my own cottage, you can return the key to your mother.”
“Fair enough,” Beau said. “I’d suggest going to a smaller town, but we’ll probably have a better selection and quicker service if we go into New Orleans to get the phones.”
“Agreed,” Aurelie said. “I need to check in with my father. My abrupt departure from the masquerade ball last night probably has him worried.”
“Then, New Orleans it is.” He locked the door behind them and walked with her out to the truck.
Aurelie looked around the cottage and out toward the bayou. “This is a nice place,” she said. “It just needs some updating. How many acres did your mother say came with the house?”
“I think she said ten acres.” He glanced around. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to look behind the house. It’ll only take a second.”
“I’d like to as well,” she said and followed him as he rounded the outside of the building.
The back of the house had another wide deck with a porch swing hanging on either end. A stone walkway led down to a dock with a small boat tied to one side. The dock appeared to be in fairly good condition, if slightly weathered.
“Mr. Pearson must’ve had the dock reworked in the last few years,” Beau said. “I wonder how Elise knew about it. I suspect my young sister is a bit of an adventurer and finds her way around the bayou.”
“I like her.” Aurelie smiled. “She appears to be full of grit and sass.”
“Sass is a given when it comes to Boyettes.” Beau grinned. “I hope I get to know her better now that I’m back home. I joined the army when she was little. So, I missed out on most of her life.”
“Like you said, now that you’re back, you can make up for lost time.”
Beau nodded. “If she lets me in. After all, she’s a teenager.”
“You are very fortunate to have so many siblings.”
“I didn’t think so growing up,” he said. “Peace and quiet were not in our cards. But it was nice to know they were there for my folks when I left. There’ll always be somebody here to help my mother and father.” He glanced her way. “Ready?”
“I am.” Aurelie walked with him back to the truck and climbed in.
Soon, they were on their way to New Orleans. Traffic wasn’t bad, and they made it to the cell phone store in under an hour. Fortunately, the store was able to set them both up with new cell phones and transfer all their data.
As soon as Aurelie’s cell phone was up and running with the old phone number, multiple texts came through, and she had several voice messages. She started with the voice messages. Three of them were from her father, who was worried that she wasn’t answering her phone. He wanted an update.
While Aurelie checked her messages, Beau listened to his. After one message, he turned and walked a few steps away from her to place a call. He spoke softly into the phone, where she couldn’t make out his words or who he was talking to.
Aurelie chose that moment to respond to her father’s voicemails using the callback number. His phone didn’t ring but went straight to voicemail. He was probably on the line with someone else. She left a brief message telling him she was fine and that she’d call him again soon.
She dreaded looking at her text messages. After all that had happened, she knew for sure there would be more from her tormentor. She drew a deep breath and touched the icon for her text messages. Three of them were from her father, demanding she call back immediately. Two of them were from the contact she’d been using to get information about a certain corporation that was suspected of dumping toxins into the Bayou. The last text message was the one that made her gut knot.
YOU SHOULD BE DEAD
Her pulse quickened. Heat rushed up her neck into her cheeks. “Bastard!”
“What’s wrong?” Beau appeared at her side.
She held up her cell phone with the text message.
“Bastard,” Beau said.
Aurelie chuckled. “My thoughts exactly. Are you all caught up?”
“I am,” he said.
“I’d like to head back to Bayou Miste,” Aurelie said. “We can stop by the sheriff’s office for an update on the damage done to my house. Hopefully, he can find out if the sheriff near Gautreaux Chateau made any headway through the video footage from the security cameras.”
“I have a friend with connections in law enforcement,” Beau said. “I can have him check on the sheriff’s office that’s looking at the video footage from the chateau. That way, we can focus on Bayou Miste and the damage done to your house.”
“Sounds good,” Aurelie said. “I’d like to get a change of clothes. As hip as I am in this outfit, I’ll need some things for the next few days, including conditioner for my hair.”
“Okay,” he said as they walked out of the parking lot to his truck.
After she settled into the passenger seat, she waited for Beau to get in. “Do you mind if I call my father?”
“Not at all.” He started the truck engine and drove out of the parking lot, heading west of New Orleans.
Aurelie called her father and waited as it rang.
He answered on the second ring. “Sweetie, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Dad.” She wondered how much he knew about what had happened the night before. She didn’t want him to get upset.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about the attacks,” her father railed.
Aurelie sighed. So much for him not knowing. “I didn’t want to disturb your fundraising event,” she said. “Who told you about the attacks?”
“I have my sources,” her father said. “The point is that you aren’t safe. You need to move back home.”
Aurelie shook her head. “I don’t need to move back home. I need to make a life of my own.”
“Well then, you need a bodyguard 24/7,” her father said.
“I kind of have one,” Aurelie said. “He might not want to be, but he’s insisting.”
“Is he that guy you were dancing with last night?” her father asked.
“Yes, sir.” As usual, he’d been watching her. Her father would never stop worrying about his only daughter.
“Is he taking care of my little girl?”
Aurelie frowned. “Dad, you have to stop calling me a little girl. I am a grown woman.”
Her father snorted. “You might be a grown woman to everyone else, but to me, you’ll always be my little girl.”
She couldn’t argue with the man and didn’t want to. “All you need to know is that I’m okay. I have someone looking out for me.”
“You tell Beau to take care of my little girl.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” she said. “I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too,” he said softly. “You’re all I have.”
“Bye, Dad.” She ended the call, frowning. “My father knew about both attacks. The one in the bayou and the one at my house.” She glanced toward Beau. “How the hell did he get information about the one at my house?”
Beau raised both eyebrows and glanced her way. “You should’ve asked him.”
“Yeah,” Aurelie said, “I should have. Sometimes, that man knows more about my business than I do. You’d think he had someone spying on me at all times.”
Beau didn’t respond, his attention on the road in front of him.
Aurelie knew her dad loved her and only wanted the best for her. After losing his wife in an accident and almost losing his daughter, he could be overly cautious. She couldn’t blame him. Her father was her only family. She’d be devastated if something happened to him.
“Have you always worked for your father?” Beau asked.
“No,” Aurelie said. “I lived and worked in Memphis for a year after I graduated from college with a degree in marketing.”
“Why did you leave Memphis?”
She glanced out the side window. “I got into a relationship with a guy I thought I knew. Then I found out I didn’t know him at all. He was married and didn’t bother telling me.”
“That sucks,” Beau said. “How did you find out?”
She gave a brief, humorless laugh. “I expected him for dinner one night. I’d roasted my first chicken, made scalloped potatoes, broccoli and cheese casserole and set the table with wine and candles. When I opened my apartment door, a pretty blonde stood there. She introduced herself as his wife. She showed me photographs of their children.”
Beau winced. “Ouch.”
“No kidding.” Aurelie stared down at his hands. “I was shocked. I was young and stupid. I never considered he might be married. Married guys aren’t supposed to ask a girl out who isn’t his wife.”
“Sounds like a real jerk.”
“He was. The problem was that I worked with the guy. I promised never to see him again, which was a no-brainer. But I saw him every day in the hallways. I was so angry that it was affecting my work. After a week of trying to avoid him, I turned in my resignation, tucked my tail between my legs and moved back to Baton Rouge to look for work. I wasn’t finding much of anything for someone with only a year’s experience.”
“In Baton Rouge? What about New Orleans?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t find work in either place. Then, the woman who’d been in charge of my dad’s philanthropy project announced that she was pregnant and wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. She handed in her resignation. My father offered me the position. I took him up on it.”
“The project to save the bayou?” Beau asked.
Aurelie nodded. “It was supposed to be an advertising campaign to save the bayou. We would educate the public and work with the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure companies were doing right by the bayou. I didn’t see the companies doing right. I got tips from insiders telling me some companies were ignoring regulations and allowing toxins to seep into the bayou. I sort of became the bayou police, though that was not my intention.” She gave him a weak smile. “Anyway, that’s how I ended up working for my father. All because of a man.”
“The guy was a jerk,” Beau said. “He didn’t deserve you. For that matter, he didn’t deserve his wife.”
“Oh, I agree with you one hundred percent. If I were a more vindictive person with a violent streak, I would’ve cut off his balls. That would be the only way to keep him from screwing the next woman because you know that if he cheated on his wife once, he’ll do it again.”
Beau nodded. “Remind me not to piss you off, especially if you’re anywhere near a knife.”
She laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not the violent type. Though the thought did cross my mind.”
Beau pulled into the sheriff’s office parking lot and shifted into park.
Aurelie didn’t wait for him to open the door for her. Instead, she met him at the front of the truck. They walked into the sheriff’s office together.
The sheriff emerged from a door behind the reception desk. “I’m glad you came in this morning.” The sheriff held out his hand to Aurelie. “They finished lifting prints earlier this morning. We’ve already isolated yours. We got a good set of prints off the bedroom doorknob. We’re running it through the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System. If this guy has had his fingerprints processed before, we should be able to find a match.”
“Is it okay for me to go back to my house?” Aurelie asked.
The sheriff nodded. “We’ve done all the evidence gathering we can. Since the suspect is still at large, be careful. He might come back. I’d change the locks before you stay there for any length of time.”
“I’ll be careful,” Aurelie said. “You’ll let me know if you find anything?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the sheriff said. “And I’ll let the senator know as well.”
Aurelie’s brow dipped. “Has he been in touch?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the sheriff said. “He was worried about you—and we’re checking to see if this attack has anything to do with the attack at the Gautreaux Chateau. We’ll be working closely with the sheriff of that parish.”
“Thank you.” Aurelie turned to Beau. “Let’s go.”
She walked out to the truck, her thoughts spinning. “I really hope they find a match on that fingerprint. Because I have no clue who’s after me, and it’s bugging the crap out of me.”
“Same,” Beau said. “Makes you wonder if the same guy who attacked you at the chateau came here to destroy your home?”
“I had that thought as well.” Aurelie climbed into the truck and buckled her seatbelt.
Beau got in and started the engine.
“We went from the chateau to the parish sheriff’s office before coming to Bayou Miste. Would that have given him enough time to do all the damage he did?” she asked.
“It probably gave him a thirty to forty-five-minute lead on us.” Beau rested his hand on the gear shift. “You would think the paint on the wall might still be wet. I touched it. It was dry. Your point?” Beau cocked an eyebrow.
“It’s bad enough if I have one person chasing after me.” A shiver rippled down Aurelie’s spine. “Lord help me if there’s more.”
They drove the short distance from the sheriff’s office to Aurelie’s cottage. She sat for a moment, staring at the place she’d so lovingly decorated over the past several weeks since she’d moved in. “It doesn’t feel right anymore.”
“It probably won’t for a while.” Beau stared at her cottage. “In effect, your house has been violated.”
That was exactly how she felt.
Violated.
A shiver rippled down her spine.
She refused to let some bastard scare her away from everything she’d worked so hard for. Aurelie squared her shoulders.