Chapter 8 #3
“That’s way too many good deeds today before having a decent meal,” I said. “Let’s go have lunch and you can tell me who Petey is and why I just encouraged a man to be arrested for assault.”
“Let’s get back into the café and get the gossiping over with,” Ida Belle said, “then I’ll fill you in.”
We headed back into the café, where, as Ida Belle predicted, we were besieged by patrons wanting to know what happened.
Ida Belle told them all that Quincy had some issue he was unhappy over and Carter was attempting to fix it, but neither had told us what the problem was.
As Ida Belle had been blocking my body from café view when Quincy grabbed me, no one had seen the alleged assault.
The patrons gave Ida Belle a disappointed look, then went back to their conversations and meals. Ally came over with a huge tray of our lunch and started putting plates of hot food on the table.
“This sat on the hot plate for a bit,” she said, “but I figured better a little dry than cold.”
My mouth was already watering at the sight of the chicken-fried steak in front of me. It could have been as dry as cardboard and I wouldn’t have cared. I grabbed the ketchup and poured it over the top, that whole gravy thing never catching on with me.
“I’ll moisten it up,” I said. “No worries here.”
“None with me either,” Ida Belle said. “I’m so hungry, I’d eat boiled tires if it had a decent sauce on top of it.”
Ally laughed and set the last of the plates on the table. It was a four-top, and there was barely a square inch that wasn’t covered. “The two of you are going to need a ride home on a flatbed trailer if you eat all of that,” Ally said.
“I plan on eating all of it,” I said, “and then ordering dessert.”
Ida Belle nodded. “Plenty of folks with flatbed trailers around here.”
Ally nodded her head toward the window. “What was that about?”
Ida Belle looked around to make sure no one was within listening distance and leaned toward Ally, explaining what had happened. Ally’s expression shifted from shocked, to outraged, to concerned.
“Poor Petey,” Ally said. “I’m glad Quincy will be in with him. If there’s anything I can do…”
“Maybe some lunch for Quincy, Petey, and Carter,” Ida Belle said. “Put it on my tab.”
“That’s a great idea,” Ally said. “The special today is pot roast and that’s one of Petey’s favorites. I’ll make up some to-go orders right now and carry them over.”
Ally hurried off to the kitchen, and I swallowed a bite of chicken-fried steak and looked over at Ida Belle. “Not to delay your eating process,” I said, “but in between bites, can you please fill me in?”
Ida Belle nodded and downed a huge gulp of soda. “Petey is Quincy’s son. He’s nineteen but he’s not quite right, so he’s a very immature and sensitive nineteen.”
“Autism?”
“No. I mean, not the traditional kind I don’t think, although you’d need a doctor to explain it. He was in a horrible accident about six years ago and he’s never been right since. He avoids people and rarely speaks when he comes across them, and he gets really upset at change.”
“And I assume he wasn’t like that before?”
“Not at all. Petey was one of the nicest, most outgoing kids you’d ever met. He was in every sport offered, made good grades, and spent every other waking moment fishing.”
“What happened to him?”
“He and his best friend Reece Barron were in the bayou, cast-netting for bait fish. Reece threw the net over a submerged log and it got hung on the bottom. They couldn’t get it undone from the boat, so Reece jumped in to get it loose from the log.”
My heart thumped a bit harder as I braced myself for what was coming. “He drowned?”
“That was the official cause of death, but the drowning was caused by an alligator.”
I sucked in a breath. “But you and Gertie said they mostly avoid people.”
“They do, but this was a female with a nest nearby. Reece didn’t stand a chance, really. She grabbed and rolled. By the time she let go and Petey got Reece back into the boat, he was already dead and Petey had been underwater for longer than a person should be.”
“Oh my God. That poor kid.”
I’d seen some horrible things as an adult, but I couldn’t imagine, at thirteen, seeing your best friend mauled by an alligator and knowing there wasn’t a thing you could do.
Ida Belle continued, “Petey tried CPR—most kids around here learn it fairly young—but he couldn’t get a heartbeat.
He heard a boat nearby and fired off a flare.
It was Sheriff Lee, out fishing on his day off.
He tried to resuscitate the boy as well, but couldn’t get a pulse.
He put them both in his boat and hauled it back to town.
The doctor met them at the docks, but he pronounced Reece dead right there. ”
I shook my head. “No wonder Petey lost it. What a horrible thing.”
“I think he might have been okay if his mother hadn’t passed from cancer about six months before.
He’d been a real trouper through her entire illness.
The first and only time I saw him cry was at her funeral, but despite his brave front, I know it was a huge blow.
Petey and Reece had been best friends since the crib.
I don’t think Petey was capable of handling two huge losses in such a short time. ”
“And one in such a horrific manner that he was witness to.”
Ida Belle nodded. “Add to that the amount of time Petey was underwater and you have something doctors haven’t been able to fix.
I have never felt as bad for someone as I did for that boy and his father.
Two lives were effectively lost that day.
The Petey that remained was nothing like the boy before, and anyone who knows him knows good and well he’s not capable of poaching. ”
I frowned, considering Ida Belle’s words. “But given what happened, wouldn’t Petey have more reason than most to hate alligators?”
“Sure, and I see where you’re going with that, but there’s one problem—Petey’s scared to death of water now.
He hasn’t set foot in a boat or even on a dock ever since it happened.
He won’t even take a bath. Quincy had to convert Petey’s bathtub to a walk-in shower.
He had to wash him down outside with a hose until the construction was done.
That boy won’t so much as walk in a puddle. ”
“Then what in the world kind of evidence could the game warden have on him? Some of those lines we found couldn’t have been baited from the bank. Betting on some of those limbs to hold an adult, especially that far out, would have been a huge risk for someone afraid of puddles.”
“I know. That’s what worries me.”
“You think someone’s setting him up?”
Ida Belle shook her head. “I don’t want to think it, but I can’t come up with any other logical answer.”
“But who would do such a thing?”
“I have no idea.” Ida Belle looked at me, her expression grim. “I know we were investigating this poacher just to try out your detective legs, but things just got more serious. And personal. We’ve got to catch the poacher before the state puts that boy on trial based on trumped-up charges.”
“We’ll catch him. You have my word on that.”