Kelly said, slapping the table. “I’m telling you I think we should consider selling and getting out while we still can. Someone’s going to figure out who you are. I feel it coming. That cousin of your friend, Reb, is always looking for dirt to put in that miserable little newspaper of hers. I’d say you’d give her enough to last a long time.”
The cousin was Lee O’Brien and she lived out at Cloud’s End, the Girard estate, while she ran the Toussaint Trumpet, the town’s one paper.
“You don’t know half of what’s gone on in this quiet backwater, do you?” Kelly said.
Max figured he knew about everything that was worth knowing, and some of it he didn’t like, but that didn’t change Toussaint into a metropolis. “They’ve had their share of bad luck—of the criminal kind—but it’s over now. Finally. Sooner or later my history will come out. I’m betting everything on having some champions who will speak up, and on winning over the folks who live here. So far, I’m doing okay.”
“Yes,” Roche said. “I think you really like it here, and I sure do. What have you got against the place, Kelly?”
That bought him an unblinking stare. “I love it. Especially when I feel like seeing a first-run play.”
Max laughed. “If you knew how you sound, you’d change the subject. You can get to a play anytime you want to, or whatever—or whomever—you have an itch to see in a hurry. You don’t have to be here at all if you don’t want to be.”
“So you don’t want to reconsider?” Kelly asked.
“No.”
“Neither do I,” Roche said.
A smile, all unaffected charm and guaranteed to disarm, transformed Kelly. He laughed and flipped back overlong, dishwater blond hair. “Just checking.”
Roche was first out of his seat and shaking Kelly by the shoulder. “Rat. You don’t change. Outside. I want to beat the crap out of you.”
Reason stopped Max just in time and he sank back into his seat, but he chuckled watching the other two wrapped in a mock-ferocious embrace. “Nice language from the gentleman shrink,” he said. “You’ve been listening to our clown act here for too long. That wasn’t funny, Kelly, but you always did have a cruel sense of humor.”
“Just wanted to get us together for once,” Kelly said, punching Roche good-naturedly. “I’m relieved to hear you say you’re not wearing rose glasses, though, Max. Hell, I worry about you and so does Roche, you know that. You got a rotten deal and we don’t want to see it happen again just when you think you’re safe.”
Max’s stomach revolved but he kept the corners of his mouth turned up. “My eyes are open,” he said. He never intended to share some of the thoughts that went through his mind. Green Veil would work. He and Roche made a great team and together with a hand-picked staff they were going back to what they loved. Kelly’s financial skills made everything easier and maybe it was a good idea to have him keeping everyone’s feet on the ground.
Pappy’s was busier than usual today, not that it was ever too quiet. Every few moments the front door opened to admit more customers. Then it opened and Annie came in. Carmen went to her at once and they shared a few words before she went directly into her office and shut the door.
Max tensed. She hadn’t looked to see if he was there, but she probably assumed he’d be gone by now. He would hang around until his brothers drove away, then come back and talk to her. The tension in his shoulders relaxed. There was nothing to worry about.
Not far from where Max sat, someone watched his reaction to Annie Duhon. Pleasure, the watcher thought, the good doctor felt real good at the sight of her. He wanted her—it showed in his face. How convenient.
Chapter Four
Gator Hibbs and his wife, Doll, proprietors of Toussaint’s one hotel, the Majestic, arrived at the table. He shifted his round body uncertainly and took off a battered, sweatstained Achafalaya Gold Casino baseball cap, revealing his sweating bald head. Doll stood behind him as if she were shy, which was anything but the truth from Max’s dealings with her. Nondescript, with fine brown hair held by a rubber band at the back of her head, Doll’s eyes were her one notable feature. They were incongruous. Light gray and wide, as if in perpetual surprise, they didn’t reflect a thing about Doll’s acerbic personality.
“Hi, Gator, Doll,” Max said.
“Nice day,” Gator said, fastening his attention on the rain-splattered windows. “I like this kinda day.” He winced and jerked—and Max figured Doll had elbowed her husband.
“Y’didn’t have to do that,” Gator said, turning his back on Max. “What d’you do that for? Pokin’ me in the kidney like that. Me, I already got water troubles—you heard Dr. Reb—”
“We come to talk to Dr. Savage,” Doll said, her eyes still wide open and blank. “He’s not interested in your waterworks, Gator. I hear tell he does the faces and stuff.”
Max raised his eyebrows at Kelly and Roche and stood up. He tapped Gator’s shoulder. “Let’s find somewhere quieter.”
“We can say what we got to say here,” Doll said. “Ain’t nuthin’ private.”
“The hell it ain’t,” Gator said, and turned red. “Thanks, Doc. Appreciate your understandin’.”
They moved outside under the covered entry. Gator shoved his hands in the pockets of his washed-out overalls and spread his feet to brace his weight. Doll stared at him.
“Relax,” Max said. “Just tell me what’s on your mind.”
“We’re real fair folks,” Gator said after a pause. “Give anybody anythin’, we would. Ain’t that right, Doll?”
“Right.”
“You can ask anyone in this town and they’ll tell you how the Hibbses is generous.”
Max smiled. He felt sorry for the man. “You’re uncomfortable with whatever you need to tell me. You can’t say anything I haven’t heard before, so why not get it over with?”
Gator took a deep breath and gave a bronchitic cough. “It’s the damp,” he said, indicating the rain beating into a layer of fog resembling ice vapor. “You did say your Miz Riley was only stayin’ one night?”
“Yes.”
“And she was goin’ to pay when she left this mornin’?”
“She didn’t pay,” Doll said rapidly. “And extra days is extra pay. She’s takin’ up a room even if she ain’t sleepin’ in it.”
These two didn’t amuse Max anymore. “When I made the booking, I told you to send the bill to me.”
“You said it would be one night but check-out’s at eleven. We’re owed for two nights now—as long as she’s gone by tomorrow mornin’.”
His throat tightened. “Miss Riley is still
