Chapter Ten #2
Still, he wasn’t willing to take a chance with Monique’s life. He glanced down at her. She was on her back beneath him, and her eyes were wide with fear and full of tears.
“We’re close enough to the back door that we should be able to crawl inside. I’ll raise up some more, and you turn over so you can crawl. Once you get inside, stay away from all of the windows.”
She nodded, and within minutes they were safely inside the shanty. He closed and locked the door and then stared out the window for several long minutes. Seeing nothing amiss, he turned back to her. She had collapsed on the sofa where she still visibly trembled.
“I’m going to call Daniel,” he said. Once the call was made, he sank down in his chair.
“That bullet was meant for me,” she said faintly. Tears welled up in her eyes. “I… I thought it was over. Since nothing had happened for so long, I really thought the danger was over.” Her tears spilled down her cheeks as she began to cry in earnest.
He didn’t want to touch her, he definitely didn’t want to hold her close to him. But there was no way he could just sit in his chair and watch her weep. She’d had a terrible scare, and it was no wonder she was crying.
He got out of his chair and sat down next to her on the sofa. He couldn’t help but pull her into his arms.
She leaned into him and cried into the front of his shirt while he stroked up and down her back in an effort to sooth her.
She didn’t cry for long, and then she leaned back from him and wiped the last of the tears from her cheeks. “I… I’m sorry. I…just… It’s not every day I get shot at.”
“There’s no reason to apologize for being scared. Hell, I was scared,” he replied. He got up from the sofa and returned to his chair.
“I really believed the killer was done attacking me,” she said.
“I was beginning to believe you were safe, too,” he admitted.
It was true. As time had gone by and nothing had happened to give him pause, he’d assumed the killer had gone back underground and was no longer worried about Monique.
He’d even started to think about her going back to her own shanty.
But now that certainly wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
“How did anyone even know we’d be out back fishing today?” she asked.
“I can only guess that once again somebody has been eavesdropping at my windows.” Perhaps George Trahan? He’d been caught once before at the back of the shanty. Or was it somebody else altogether?
“I’ve completely changed my mind. I now believe the killer lives here in the swamp,” he said.
“That’s even more frightening than him being from town. That means I may know the killer fairly well.” Her chocolate-colored eyes flashed with a combination of fear and confusion. “We were so focused on the killer being from town and now we need to rethink everything.”
“We don’t need to rethink anything. We need to leave things up to Daniel and his men now,” he replied firmly. A knock sounded on his door. “And that should be him now.” He got up from the chair and went to answer the door.
It was Daniel and four of his men. Jacque ushered them all inside and then told them about coming back to the shanty after fishing and the gunshot that had dropped them in their path.
“Is it possible the shot was an errant one from a hunter in the area?” Clay Caldwell, one of Daniel’s right-hand men asked.
“Impossible,” Jacque replied quickly. “Nobody ever hunts that close to a shanty, and that bullet was definitely directed at Monique’s head.”
“Why, Monique? You have to know some reason why somebody wants you dead.” Daniel gazed at her with a pointed intensity. “Someone beat the hell out of you, and now this… You have to have a clue about what’s going on.”
Monique was still for a long moment, and then she released a deep sigh.
“It’s Mama’s killer.” To Jacque’s surprise, she told him everything.
She explained to him about going into people’s homes on the ruse of getting book donations for Jacque and then her snooping around for her mother’s missing client book.
When she was finished, Daniel turned his angry attention to Jacque. “And you were a part of this, Jacque? You couldn’t find some way to stop her?”
“Believe me, I tried to stop her. But when I realized she was going to do it with or without me, I went along in hopes of protecting her from any harm.”
Daniel turned his attention back to Monique.
“I swear, you Santori women are going to be the very death of me,” he exclaimed.
“No more investigating on your own, got it? If I get word that you’re doing anything like that, I swear I’ll lock you up to keep you safe .
A lot of things now make sense. Stay out of the investigation. ”
“Trust me, I’m done. But it’s too late, because the killer wants me dead,” she replied in obvious misery.
“I’ll keep her safe here, and you find the killer,” Jacque said.
“Now on that note why don’t you take me outside, and we’ll see if we can find any kind of evidence. Maybe he dropped something or at least left us a shell casing.”
The officers followed Jacque out the back door, and he pointed to where he thought the shooter had been located.
“There’s a narrow path that leads around this pond.
If you follow that, it will take you to the area where I believe the shooter was,” Jacque explained as he pointed to a spot across the pond.
“I’d go with you, but right now I’m not leaving Monique. ”
“Understood,” Daniel replied and then instructed his men to follow the path while he and Jacque went back inside the shanty. Jacque gestured for Daniel to sit on the sofa with Monique.
“Now the note that was in the box left on your doorstep the night of your beating makes much more sense,” Daniel said. “You should have come to me with everything that night.”
“I was hoping I would never have to come clean about what I was doing,” she replied. “I just wanted… I needed to find the killer.”
“For what it’s worth, I now believe the killer is definitely from the swamp,” Jacque said.
He then went on to explain how he believed the killer had to have eavesdropped at his windows.
“That’s how he knew what Monique and I were doing with the book donation scheme and that we would be fishing this afternoon. ”
The idea that somebody had been sneaking around his house and listening to their conversations filled Jacque with a wealth of anger.
From now on his windows in the kitchen would be closed.
It might make the shanty a little stuffy, but nobody would be able to hear any more of their conversations again.
“You might want to check out George Trahan again. I caught him snooping around the back of my house not too long ago,” he said to Daniel.
“Anyone else you consider a suspect?” Daniel looked first at Jacque and then at Monique.
A frown danced in the center of her forehead. “I need time to think about it. I was so certain the killer was somebody prominent in town, but after this attack today everything has changed.”
“Your sister isn’t going to be pleased by what you’ve been doing,” Daniel said.
“Oh Lordy, Daniel, do you really have to tell her?” She looked miserable. “I would appreciate it if all this could stay with the three of us. Surely you don’t want to cause a fight between me and my sisters.”