Chapter 3
Gerard retrieved the tools from the barn and went to work with his team dismantling the corral panels.
Bernie disappeared for a few minutes. The rumbling sound of an engine starting made Gerard abandon the team and go in search of her.
Though she’d insisted she could hitch the trailer to the tractor by herself, Gerard knew from experience it was easier to hook up a trailer with two people—one driving, the other directing from the ground.
He found Bernie perched on an ancient red tractor, making a circle in the barnyard. She slowed to a stop, shifted gears into reverse and backed toward a long flatbed trailer parked in the middle of a row of various tractor implements.
Gerard hurried forward and stopped beside the trailer hitch. “A little more to your left,” he called out.
She adjusted her direction accordingly, backing slowly toward him until she was as close as he needed to match the trailer hitch to the ball on the back of the tractor.
Gerard pulled the hitch, trailer and all, until it was directly over the ball and cranked the handle, lowering the trailer hitch until it covered the ball.
He continued cranking until the jack beneath the hitch was up as high as it would go.
Then he locked the hitch in place, stepped back and gave Bernie a thumbs-up.
While she drove the tractor and trailer around to the back of the barn, he kept pace on foot, arriving at the same time.
Gerard and his team stacked the heavy metal panels onto the trailer one by one. When they were done, they followed the tractor and trailer to the front of the barn.
Lucas brushed dust from his shirt and jeans. “I’m glad we didn’t change clothes after finishing up at the boat factory.”
“Same,” Beaux said.
Gerard stood beside his new boss, Remy Montagne. “Did Shelby give you an idea of who the foot might belong to?”
Remy shook his head. “Haven’t heard a thing. I’m not sure she knows I’m here. I just walked into the Crawdad Hole when you called to say you needed our help.” His lips twisted. “Who knew a dead goose would lead to a foot in a pigpen.” Remy frowned. “Speak of the devil.”
A lone figure dressed in a uniform tromped across the field toward them.
Gerard recognized Deputy Shelby Taylor, making her way around the watermelon patch.
Remy hurried forward to greet his fiancée with a kiss. “Hey, babe, how are you holding up?”
She leaned into him for a moment. “I’ll be glad when I get past the first trimester. I’m always so tired.”
“The doctor said your body is adjusting to your pregnancy.” Remy tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
“I know,” she sighed. “But the nausea...and the smell from the pigpen.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “It was all I could do not to lose my lunch.”
“You’re due to get off in…” Remy glanced down at his watch, “thirty-five minutes.”
She nodded. “I can last that long.”
Bernie climbed down from the tractor and joined Remy, Shelby and Gerard. “Did they find anything else near the pigpen?”
Shelby shook her head. “No, but Sheriff Bergeron said last night’s shift on the bayou was looking for illegal fishing and ’gator hunters and ran across a couple of guys carrying guns near the shore not far from here.
When the deputy called out for them to raise their hands, they shot at the deputy. ”
“Did the deputy get hurt?” Bernie asked.
Shelby frowned. “No. He landed his boat and chased after the men on foot.”
“Did he catch them?” Remy asked.
“No.” Shelby sighed. “They got away in a vehicle. The deputy didn’t get close enough to get the plate number.
On his way back to his boat, he found another car half-sunk in the bayou.
He ran the plates and discovered they had been stolen in New Orleans earlier that evening.
They’ve dusted the car for prints. We’re still waiting to hear if they found a match. ”
“Might be the foot’s owner,” Gerard said. “The guys who got away could’ve put him in the pigpen.”
“That’s what we’re thinking,” Deputy Taylor said. “We’ll know more if we get a hit on the prints. The crime team said you can set up the temporary pen now. They need to get into the pen to continue their search.”
Bernie’s gaze met Gerard’s.
His pulse quickened, and heat flooded his groin. Not good. He couldn’t get hot and bothered by this woman. She was his client.
“Ready?” Bernie asked.
Boy, was he. Gerard tamped down his reaction to her and nodded. “We’ll follow you out there.”
She turned and hurried to the tractor, climbed into the seat and shifted into gear. The tractor lurched forward, jerking the trailer along with it.
Remy frowned down at his fiancée. “Are you coming?”
She covered her nose and mouth, shaking her head.
“No way. I barely kept my stomach down the first time. I’m heading back to the station to work on my report and see if they’ve come up with a match on the fingerprints.
” She leaned up on her toes and brushed her lips across his. “I’ll see you later.”
“You call that a kiss?” Remy caught her around her waist and captured her mouth in a crushing kiss before turning her loose. “Better?”
Shelby swayed. “Much. As long as Sheriff Bergeron didn’t witness that.
He read me the riot act about public displays of affection in uniform.
” Shelby looked past Remy. “Good thing he’s otherwise occupied with the crime scene investigators.
” She shot Remy a stern glance. “Don’t do that again unless you want to get me fired. ”
Remy held up both hands. “I definitely don’t want to get you fired. You know how I love a woman in uniform.” He growled low in his chest. “Especially when I get to help her out of that uniform.”
Gerard coughed. “Seriously? You two need to get a room.”
“We have one,” Remy and Shelby answered simultaneously and laughed.
“Later,” Deputy Taylor said.
Gerard followed the trailer. His team fell in step with him, Remy on one side, Lucas on the opposite. The others trailed behind.
“Your mission has gone from the murder of a goose to the mystery of a human foot missing its body.” Lucas walked beside Gerard. “Makes your assignment more interesting.”
Gerard shrugged. “What gets me is that the goose had a broken neck, yet it ended up on Bernie’s front porch.”
“How did a goose with a broken neck get onto her front porch?” Beaux asked.
Gerard snorted. “Good question. If someone murdered the man who’s missing his foot, why risk being caught putting a dead goose on her front porch?”
“Could it be that the goose and the foot are unrelated?” Valentin asked.
“Maybe,” Gerard said.
“She’s not an heiress or a princess in hiding, but she’s not bad-looking,” Romeo commented from behind Gerard. “Is your client married?”
Gerard shot a frown at his teammate. “Widowed.”
“Ah, a widow.” Romeo’s eyebrows rose. “Recent?”
“Leave her alone.” Gerard glared at his friend.
“She’s got enough on her plate. She doesn’t need you stalking her.
Not only does she have to deal with a potential murder on her property.
..” Gerard waved at the field of watermelons, “these watermelons have to be harvested in the next day or two, or they’ll rot on the vines.
Her pickers were supposed to pick today but couldn’t do the work with the place being turned into a crime scene. ”
“Are they coming tomorrow?” Remy asked.
Gerard shook his head. “They can’t get back to her farm for three weeks.”
“Which means her crop will rot in the field,” Lucas concluded.
Gerard hadn’t yet brought up his offer to have his team harvest the melons. Now was the perfect segue into that topic. “Not if she finds another crew of pickers to bring them in.”
Romeo’s eyes narrowed. “Where are you going with this, man?”
Gerard shrugged. “I have an assignment. What do you have?” He turned to the others. “What do any of you have to occupy your time now?”
Remy grinned. “Nothing, yet. We aren’t needed at the boat factory. The contractor will begin work on Monday, and we’ll just be in the way. We can harvest those melons for Ms. Bellamy.”
A collective groan sounded from the rest of the men.
Gerard’s lips twitched but managed to keep from grinning. He’d hoped Remy would make it sound like his idea. Gerard would help harvest whether or not the others decided to help.
“I’ll get more information from Bernie—Ms. Bellamy—about how we should go about picking watermelons,” Gerard offered.
“After we erect a pigpen,” Romeo grumbled.
“Join Brotherhood Protectors…” Beaux said.
“Save the world…” Valentin added, “one pig at a time.”
The men were still chuckling when Bernie brought the tractor to a stop near the pigpen.
“Wow.” Lucas covered his mouth and nose. “I say we get this pen up as quickly as we can.”
Beaux dragged the collar of his T-shirt up over his nose. “I second that motion.”
Bernie shut off the engine and climbed down from the tractor.
“Sorry, guys. I’m past due for cleaning out the pen, and it rained recently.
Of course, the pigs love the mud, but it compounds the odor.
” She gave them instructions on how and where to construct the panels to form an enclosure for the herd of swine.
With the help of his team, Gerard was pleased with how quickly they got the pen up and the animals moved into it.
Once the job was done, Bernie double-checked the enclosure, tugging on the panels to make sure they wouldn’t give way if bumped by a four-hundred-pound hog. Her smooth brow dented. “It will have to do. And I’ll have time to clean their pen after the crime scene team finishes their investigation.”
“Clean their pen?” Gerard asked.
“I go in with the tractor and front-end loader and scoop out all the yuckiness, deposit it in the compost pile at the opposite end of the pen and use the natural fertilizer on my field.” She clapped her hands together. “That will have to wait until after I harvest the melons.”
“Looks like you’ll have a little help,” Gerard said.
Her brow wrinkled. “Oh yeah? Who?”