Chapter 26

26

“Cody Parcelle isn’t in Houston,” Stokes said as he walked into the bullpen. “I talked to the uncle running that auction. Cody was supposed to be there Sunday afternoon. The uncle got a text from him late in the day Sunday saying he wasn’t going to make it after all. No explanation, just that something came up and sorry he wouldn’t be coming. The uncle was pissed—is still pissed. He said he tried to call him a couple of times, but the calls went to voicemail.”

“Did he call the wife?” Nick asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“No. He said she’s useless, that she’d just say whatever Cody told her to say, so no real point bothering. He says he’s too busy getting ready for this auction to give a shit what his asshole nephew is up to—those are his words, not mine.

“Border Patrol doesn’t have any record of him going into Mexico,” Stokes said. “I put a BOLO out on his truck.”

“What’s he drive?”

“A black Dodge Ram 3500 truck.”

“Have you gotten anything back on those tire casts?”

“In two days? Get real, man. We’ll be lucky if we get something back in two months.”

“True enough,” Nick said. “Come with me.”

He rounded the counter and started for the front door.

“Where we going?” Stokes asked, falling into step.

“Going over to the jail. Sergeant Rodrigue has a couple of our reluctant potential witnesses in custody.”

“No fucking way!” Stokes said. “Just like that?”

“I told you,” Nick said. “Rodrigue and Mr. Arceneaux only had to go and wait. The thieves delivered themselves.”

“They came right back to the same damn place?”

“Of course they did. They’re like little racoons getting in the garbage. They’re gonna keep coming back until somebody stops them.”

“Not a rocket scientist among them, I’m guessing.”

“ Mais non . Lucky for us. Couple of dumb kids,” Nick said. “I had Sergeant Rodrigue bring them over here so we can put the fear of God into them.”

“Juveniles?” Stokes said with an evil chuckle. “This is gonna be like shooting fish in a barrel! Unless they’ve called lawyers,” he added, frowning at the thought. “Have they called lawyers?”

“They’re not under arrest,” Nick said. “This is a noncustodial conversation. Their parents will be notified…eventually.”

They went into the building, signed in, and surrendered their weapons at the desk. Rodrigue was babysitting the two thieves, standing on one side of the table in the interview room with his hands jammed at his waist. The overhead light gleamed off his bald dome. His massive mustache emphasized his ferocious scowl as he stared at them.

They couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen, Nick thought, scrawny, scraggly-looking with bad haircuts. They were dressed for hunting, their faces streaked with green camo paint as if they were going to war in the jungle. The pair of them sat on the far side of the little white table with their backs literally up against the wall. Their eyes went wide as Nick and Stokes walked in. Stokes pulled out a chair and sat down, leaning on the table, staring at them.

“ Bonjour , Sergeant Rodrigue. ?a viens? ” Nick said. “What have we here?”

“ ?a va , Lieutenant Fourcade! Thieves is what we got here. Couple’a goddamn thieves. Caught ’em red-handed, me and Alphonse, raiding his traplines, stealing his nutria.”

Nick shook his head, staring at the boys. “That’s low. Stealing a man’s livelihood. There was a time, was there not, Sergeant, when a man could shoot a thief and dump his body in the swamp?”

“ Mais oui . Some still might, if no one’s looking. Who would be the wiser?”

“ C’est vrai . That’s for true. Good thing you were with Mr. Arceneaux. Do they have names?”

“Me, I call them Couillon One and Couillon Deux. Couillon One, on the left, he’s named Jimmy Munroe. And the other one is Owen Olivier, who, I am sad to say, is Alphonse’s nephew’s stepson.”

“ Bon à rien ,” Nick muttered. “Stealing from your relatives. What you got to say for yourself, pischouette ?”

“I want a lawyer!” the kid blurted out.

Stokes let out a belly laugh, making them both jump.

“A lawyer?” Nick said. “Why you need a lawyer, pischouette ? You’re not under arrest. Is he under arrest, Sergeant Rodrigue?”

“ Mais non . Not until you say so, Lieutenant.”

“Have you called their parents?”

“Not yet.”

Couillon One decided to get bold. “We weren’t doing nothing!”

Stokes slapped the table hard and barked, “Shut your mouth, Li’l Rambo!”

The kid tried to jump back, hitting the wall.

“Don’t waste my time with lies, boys,” Nick said quietly. “That will not work out for you. Do you understand me?”

They looked up at him like a pair of owlets. The Munroe boy was trying unsuccessfully to grow a goatee. His whiskers looked like strands of dirty cotton candy stuck to his little knob of a chin.

“This could be the worst day of your young lives,” Nick said. “Or this could be your lucky day. Me, I’m not officially interested in your thieving. I’m looking for information. Y’all were raiding those same lines Monday morning, yeah?”

They glanced at each other, trying to decide if this was some kind of trap.

“Yes or no,” Nick snapped. “Don’t try my patience here. Were you there on Monday morning?”

The Olivier boy nodded. The Munroe boy hit him on the arm. “Don’t tell him! We’ll go to jail, dumbass!”

Olivier shoved him. “He just said he don’t care about the stealing!”

“He’s prob’ly a fucking liar!” Munroe said. “You can’t trust cops!”

Stokes stood abruptly and started to reach across the table toward him. “You want me to take this one in another room, boss?”

“Not yet. Me, I’ll give them one more chance,” Nick said. “Were you in that same area early Monday morning?”

“No!” Munroe said. “I wasn’t there.”

Nick gave him a hard look. “If you’re gonna ass up and lie to me, I could very easily change my mind about booking you today, Mr. Munroe, and leave you to sit in jail while the district attorney decides if you’re worth his time. Is that what you want? All I have to do is say the word. Sergeant Rodrigue would be all too happy to see it done.” He turned his attention back to the Olivier boy. “Did he tell you Mr. Arceneaux is a relative of his by marriage? Which makes him a relative to you, too, pischouette. ”

Olivier tried for a scowl that only managed to look like a pout. “Why do you keep calling me that? What’s that mean?”

Nick shook his head and sighed. “Stealing from your relatives and you don’t even speak the language of your own people. You have got a lot of improving to do, pischouette . You ask your nonc Alphonse what that word means after you apologize to him for raiding his traplines.

“Now, let’s start again, shall we?” he suggested. “The two of you were out there Monday morning. You were in a boat, yeah?”

Olivier nodded, looking down at the table.

“I didn’t hear you say yes, sir .”

“Yes, sir.”

“What time were you there?”

“Five, five thirty. Alphonse, he plays cards with my uncles on Sunday night. He don’t get up so early on Mondays.”

“You know where we found that dead body, yeah?” Nick asked.

Olivier’s eyes went wide again. “We didn’t do that!”

“I didn’t say you did. I want to know did you see anything?”

“It was dark!”

“There was a good moon still up then. Did you see anything at all?”

“We were a ways off,” Olivier said. “There was a truck with its lights on, but we couldn’t tell what they were doing.”

“What kind of truck?”

“Couldn’t tell. A pickup.”

“Light or dark?”

“Dark.”

Nick turned his gaze on the Munroe boy. “You can pipe up anytime, tête dure . Or I can let Detective Stokes take you and question you separately. You’re not joined at the hip here.”

The boy chewed a dirty thumbnail, weighing his options. Nick watched him, unblinking.

“Maybe he wants to spend the night here,” Stokes said. “I’m sure we can find him a nice cellmate. Do you like big hairy guys, Li’l Rambo?”

Munroe gave Stokes the side-eye, then looked back at Nick. “There was two trucks,” he said. “We come around the bend and I could see the dark truck off the road. It had its lights on. And there was a light one farther down on the road. Maybe white or silver. Hard to say.”

“We figured it was drug business,” young Olivier said. “We didn’t want no part of that. I cut the engine when I saw ’em, and then we was in the tall grass and couldn’t see nothing. I was afraid maybe they’d come and shoot us, but they didn’t. They took off.”

“Did you see them dump that body?” Stokes asked.

“No, sir. I swear.”

“Did you see the people at all?”

They both shook their heads.

“Would you know these trucks if you saw them again?” Nick asked.

“No,” Olivier said. “It was too dark, and we were too far away.”

“One was a diesel,” Munroe offered. “The dark one, I think. It was closer, louder. The other one had a gas engine.”

Two trucks. Nick exchanged a look with Stokes. What the actual hell?

“You know your engines?” Nick said.

“My dad’s a mechanic.”

“You wanna be a mechanic, too?”

The boy nodded.

“You think you gonna get to be a mechanic if you keep stealing?” Nick asked. “You gonna learn to be a mechanic in prison, spend your time fixing farm equipment at Angola penitentiary. Would that make your daddy proud?”

“No, sir.”

“What about you, pischouette ? Why you think it’s okay for you to take things don’t belong to you?”

The boy hung his head. “Alphonse, he runs a hundred fifty traps. I didn’t think he’d miss a few.”

“That’s not an answer,” Nick said. “I don’t care if he runs five hundred traps. He’s doing the work, and he doesn’t owe you anything. Why do you think you’re entitled to his profit?”

“Just wanted some pocket money, is all,” the kid mumbled, close to tears now.

“You want money, you earn it. You can’t just take it out of someone else’s pocket, son. How has no one taught you this?” Nick asked. “You’re gonna be men soon. You need to learn the responsibility that comes with that. Now, me, I don’t wanna see either one of you back in here. You understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” they mumbled.

Munroe looked up. “Will we have to testify in court? Against killers?”

“Probably not,” Nick said. “You didn’t see anything with any detail. You didn’t see any faces. But this information is a big help to my investigation nevertheless, and I thank you. Sergeant Rodrigue will call your parents, and they can come get you.”

They both looked horrified at the prospect.

“Can’t we just go to school?” Olivier asked.

“No. We have to tell them we brought you in and why.”

“Oh, man,” Munroe groaned. “My old man is gonna whup my ass.”

“Can’t do the time, don’t do the crime, Li’l Rambo,” Stokes said.

“I’ll tell them you were helpful to me,” Nick said. “And I’ll put in a good word with the Wildlife agent.”

“What?” Olivier asked. “You said you didn’t care about the stealing!”

“I’m not putting you in jail,” Nick said. “I’m not charging you with anything. But you don’t get off scot-free for stealing.”

“But we helped you!” Munroe whined.

“And I thanked you for it. You do the right thing because it’s the right thing, not because you think you should get something for it,” Nick said. “I’ll put in a word for you, but you’re still gonna deal with the Wildlife agents, and you’re gonna have to make it up to Mr. Arceneaux. That’s only fair. No arguments. I’ll see that done, myself if need be.”

He turned to Rodrigue. “Thank you, Sergeant. They’re all yours. Maybe you can explain to them how karma works while you’re waiting for their mothers.”

He nodded to Stokes and turned for the door.

—

“You’re getting soft in your old age, Nicky,” Stokes said as they collected their weapons and started back to the Pizza Hut. “You could have at least made them pee their pants.”

“Well, God forbid you should ever become a parent,” Nick said. “But if you do, you’ll look at things different. They aren’t bad kids. They’re just dumb, thinking they’re growing up to be badasses.”

“Well, they’re half right,” Stokes said, chuckling.

“But look what they gave us,” Nick said. “Two trucks.”

“Yeah. What the fuck?”

“Cody Parcelle drives a black Dodge Ram truck. Luc Mercier drives a black Dodge Ram.”

“But who the hell is the light-colored truck?”

“Dozer Cormier drives a white Chevy pickup, but I don’t see how he would fit in that scenario. He doesn’t get along with Luc. He knows Cody Parcelle, but if Cody killed Marc, I don’t see Dozer helping him out. Marc’s his best friend. Although he’s certainly keeping secrets. I need to lean on him a little harder today.”

“Oh, shit,” Stokes said, stopping in his tracks.

Nick held up, looking at him. “What?”

“There was a white pickup parked outside the Parcelles’ barn last night,” he said. “Now, I know you can’t swing a dead cat by the tail in south Louisiana without hitting a white pickup, but…This could explain why the body was half naked and why the lover hasn’t spoken up. We know what time Marc Mercier left Outlaw. Tulsie Parcelle says she went home about that same time, but what if she didn’t? What if she went and met Marc? Cody follows her, catches them together, BOOM! Then he beats the shit out of her and makes her go with him to dispose of her lover’s body. He tells her to keep her mouth shut or this is what happens to her, too.”

“That’s a lot of puzzle pieces fitting together,” Nick conceded.

He’d been looking at the possibility of a love triangle. Just maybe the wrong one.

“There’s still loose ends,” he said. “Where’d this murder take place? And where’s Marc’s vehicle?”

“They could have gotten rid of the vehicle after they dumped the body.”

“A truck and a boat?”

“Let’s ask her. Should I go pick her up?” Stokes asked. “Bring her in for questioning?”

“No,” Nick said. “Not yet. Double down trying to find security video from the road between Luck and Bayou Breaux. Now we know the trucks we’re looking for, and we have a tight timeframe for early Monday morning. I’d rather have that evidence before she comes in. If that’s what went down, it’ll be a lot easier to get the truth out of her if we can put proof right in front of her face.”

“On it,” Stokes said.

“Call me when you find something.”

“You’ll be the first to know.”

Nick watched him go, then pulled out his phone and texted Annie.