4. Beau
BEAU
“ H ey, Beau!” Leland, my youngest employee, came jogging toward me from the building in the back where we kept the special vehicles we were working on.
I didn’t like the way the color had drained from his face. I really didn’t need more trouble today.
“What’s up?”
“You know the car that just came in?” His voice shook, and he looked ready to pass out. This was bad.
“The one Marley sent yesterday morning?” Marley had assured me he had no idea about any note. I wasn’t convinced, but I also wasn’t ready to cut off our association.
“Yeah, that one.”
“What’s wrong with it? Marley said it was in pretty good shape.”
Leland shuffled from one foot to the other. “Well, it is. I mean the engine is and the inside is gorgeous. It’s what’s in the trunk that’s the problem.”
The hair on the back of my neck rose. “What do you mean?”
“There’s a… um… body, and it’s…” He put his hand over his mouth and swallowed hard. “It’s been there a while.”
“So that’s what the hell’s been smelling it up back there. I thought Leland had been eating tacos again.”
That was Joey. How the hell had I not heard him and Sam come in?
Leland glared at him. “Dead people don’t smell like?—”
“Shut up.” I yelled. Everyone stopped speaking instantly and looked at me. “Sam and Joey, close things down up here. Leland, come with me. We’re going to take a look.”
Leland glanced toward the door. “I… um… I don’t know if I can?—”
“You’ll manage. Let’s go.”
Leland hadn’t been kidding when he said the body had been there a while. When I opened the trunk, the smell was overpowering. I had to turn away and gather myself. Leland ran back outside to be sick. I probably shouldn’t have forced him to come back.
When I’d composed myself, I turned back to the contents of the trunk and froze. The hat on the corpse’s head belonged to my brother. It was one my grandmother had bought for him at Jazz Fest.
The body looked too muscular to be Travis, but I hadn’t seen him in years. Bile rose in my throat as I forced myself to turn the body over.
“Oh, thank God!”
“What?” Leland called as he rushed back inside.
“I thought…” I couldn’t even say it. “It’s not who I thought it was.
” I did know the man, though. It was Rob Dumaine.
A long time ago we’d been close friends, then he’d betrayed me.
He must have betrayed someone else too because the bullet wounds in his forehead and chest let me know he hadn’t died of natural causes.
I grabbed the hat off his head and slammed the trunk.
Leland jumped. “Sorry… uh… I… Should I go?”
“Yes, go on home. Have a drink or several. I’m sure you need it.”
He glanced toward the car, then back at me. “Don’t you need some help… uh… dealing with this?”
“I’ll handle it.” I might be willing to believe Marley didn’t know about the note, but the body?
The fucking asshole had set me up. I had no doubt whoever had sent the threat wanted to escalate things by making me the number one suspect in Rob’s murder.
He’d visited me at the shop about a month ago, and I’d threatened him in front of plenty of witnesses.
Whomever it was, I’d make them pay. I really didn’t need this shit right now—as if anyone ever needed a murder rap.
I’d finally gotten my—mostly legal—business going solidly after my stint in prison.
I’d even made a few connections while I was in there.
The only good thing that had come from being locked up.
I liked my job. Working on cars was soothing to me.
Sure, sometimes I was involved in what was basically stealing from the rich to sell to the also rich, but I was okay with that.
I was careful, though. I never intended to set foot in prison again, so I sure as hell wasn’t going to let some asshole try to pin a murder on me.
I shoved Travis’s hat in a plastic bag and stuck it under the sink in the bathroom.
No one would look in there, and I’d grab it as soon as I was back that night.
I knew I should just get rid of it along with the car and the body, but I wanted to figure out why he’d been wearing my brother’s hat.
Had it been done on purpose to scare me?
Was it a coincidence? Had Rob ended up with it after he’d dumped my brother once he was no longer useful?
I headed back to the office. Leland and Joey were gone, but Sam was there waiting for me.
“I want details.”
I’d known she would. “It’s Rob.”
Her eyes went huge. “Oh fuck.”
“Yeah, but I’m going to take care of it.”
“I can help you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to involve you anymore than you have to be.”
She scowled. “I know how stubborn you are, so I won’t offer again, but I hope you know you can call on me.”
“I do. Thank you.”
She held my gaze. “Be careful. I mean it.”
“Always.”
She headed out the door. I waited until her car pulled out of the lot before going out to close the front gate and secure it.
Then I called one of the few other people I trusted implicitly.
Ambrose was Corbin and Remington’s cousin, but he didn’t regularly take part in the family business.
We’d gotten to know each other as kids because he liked to exasperate his twin brother, Dax, by spending lots of time with their uncle, who was known to all of us out in the bayou as Crazy Etienne.
We remained close in our teens, then Ambrose joined the army right out of high school, impressed the hell out of his commander, and served on a special forces team for eight years.
I don’t know what happened to him in those years, but ever since he’d returned home, he’d hid out in the bayou in Etienne’s old shack, rarely talking to anyone other than Dax.
Even though Ambrose preferred to keep to himself, we still helped each other when necessary. I delivered supplies and worked on his truck and boats, sometimes without even laying eyes on him. It was thanks to him that Remington had made me the offer that had resulted in my early release.
The drive to Ambrose’s place took a while, and I was really glad I’d put an air freshener in the car.
Even if I hadn’t needed to ditch the car along with the body, there was no way in hell I would drive this vehicle all the way back to town smelling the way it did.
I wanted to call Marley and describe in detail what I intended to do to him, but the wiser part of me knew it would be better to let him sweat.
I wanted him wondering why I hadn’t called or why he hadn’t gotten word of my arrest.
Despite the horrible smell in the car and the spikes of fear racing through me that I would be caught before I could get rid of the body, every few miles my mind returned to thoughts of Corbin and the moment when he’d looked at me like he wanted me, like he’d be willing to do anything I said.
He was arrogant and rude, and he pushed all my buttons, but there was something that told me he had an underlying layer of sweetness.
I wanted to bring it out. I’d seen it in the moment when he’d held the door open for Lottie and her kids.
He might be a spoiled brat, but he had manners when he wanted to use them.
I was sure his mama had seen to that. From everything I’d heard, she was not a woman to be messed with, and that—on top of his father’s murderous tendencies—meant I had no business messing with Corbin.
Finally, I reached the turnoff that would lead me to the little shack where Ambrose lived.
I’d called once I was on the road and left him a voicemail, but the signal was spotty out in the swamp, and I had no idea if he knew to expect me.
If he didn’t, there was a decent chance I’d be shot before I got close enough for him to identify me.
I really didn’t want to die today, but of all the people I trusted, he was best equipped to help me.
Ambrose was standing on the porch when I pulled up near his shack.
There wasn’t a weapon in his hand, so I knew he’d gotten my message.
Not that I thought he wasn’t armed. I was quite sure he carried multiple weapons at all times, mostly because I did too, and I couldn’t blame him.
The bayou was as dangerous as the city. The threats were just different.
I parked the car and hopped out. The bayou had its own unique smell, but I welcomed it compared to the stench inside the car.
Without offering any greeting, Ambrose said, “What’s the emergency?”
He’d never been one for small talk, even before his stint in the army had done a number on him.
“Marley sent me a car yesterday. One of my men went to check it out and found Rob’s body in the trunk. My guess is he’s been dead for days.”
“And now you need to get rid of him and the car.”
“Yes.” He didn’t even react to the fact that a man we’d both known well and had worked with was decomposing in the car I’d shown up in.
“You’ve come to the right place. Head about a mile that way. I’ll take the boat and meet you.” He pointed through the trees where there was no visible path. “There’s a great place to push the car into the water, and that area is full of gators. Gerard likes to hang out there.”
Gerard was a huge gator Ambrose had somehow befriended.
Maybe they were more frenemies. I was sure either of them would eat the other if given the right opportunity.
I started to ask how I was supposed to find this place, but Ambrose had already turned and headed away.
He was a good friend, but he drove me fucking insane.
I somehow managed to weave my way along the bank of the bayou without going in, though there were a few moments when I was sure I was going to be gator food along with Rob.
When I reached an area with few trees and land that sloped down to the water, I heard a boat motor.
I hoped like hell it was Ambrose and I was in the right place.
The boat stopped and a man pulled it onto the shore. Once I was sure it was my friend, I got out of the car.
“Put it in neutral, and let’s get rid of this bastard,” he commanded. I was happy to do as he said.
I liked the way Ambrose never wasted time. He wouldn’t ask many questions, though he had to be as curious as I was about Rob’s killer, and I had every intention of enlisting his help to figure out what the fuck was going on.
He was right about this being the perfect location. Only the smallest push started the car rolling, and the slope of the bank took it right into the water. We watched as it slowly disappeared below the surface, leaving nothing but a few bubbles.
“The alligators will take care of the body quickly,” Ambrose said.
“And the car? If it were to be found?”
“It won’t be, but if it were, is there a paper trail that leads to you?”
I shook my head.
“The authorities will look for the owner it’s registered to, assuming they’re able to get any information from it by the time it’s found. You did the right thing by calling me.”
I reached out my hand, and he shook it. “Thanks. You got any idea who did this, or why they want to set me up?”
“Where’d you get the car?”
“Marley, but I think he’s just a middleman.”
Ambrose nodded. “It’s not his line. I’ll poke around and see what I can find out. If you need help, contact my family, otherwise, act like nothing happened.”
I couldn’t just ignore this, and I didn’t want to be in debt to Remington again. “But I need to know?—”
“I didn’t say don’t look for an answer. I just said don’t spend all your time doing it. If another body shows up, then maybe you move faster.”
I wanted answers, but I knew Ambrose was right.
If somebody had set me up, the worst thing I could do was make them think they were getting to me.
I had to continue business as usual. I might ultimately have to go to the Theriots.
If I couldn’t find the killer, I had no doubt they could with their connections.
Ambrose laid a hand on my shoulder. “You’ve got to have some patience on this one.”
“That’s not something I’m good at.”
“I know. I’ve been on stakeouts with you, remember?”
I smiled thinking of things we’d pulled off when we were younger, many of them involving long waits before we could move in and take what we wanted.
I was always restless and constantly checking the time.
“True, but you know if you need me to watch someone with you, I’ll be there by your side, even if I hate it. ”
“I know. Now go home.”
“I was hoping I could borrow one of your boats to get out of here or that you’d give me a ride.”
He nodded. “I guess you can’t leave the same way you came in.”
“Right,” I said, looking out at the murky water. “And I knew better than to have somebody follow me to your place.”
He huffed. “Damn right. I don’t like anybody out here. I’ve even had about enough of you.”
“Then help me get out of here.”
He rolled his eyes. “Come on. Get in the boat. I’ll take you as far as the general store. You can get someone to pick you up there.”