"That was all so long ago."

"She doesn't want anything from you, Mrs. Boudreaux. She simply wants to know the particulars of her medical heritage. Does breast or uterine cancer run in the family? Is the family long-lived? That kind of thing."

"My mother's dead."

"We know. And we know that your father is ill. That's why we came to you. Won't you help us?"

She was still making the little rocking moves, and then she said, "I have to call my husband. I need to speak with him."

She went out through the curtain without looking at us. Lucy blew out a loud sigh and took a cup of water from the cooler. "What's wrong with this picture?"

"Somebody scared her. Probably Jimmie Ray."

Lucy crumpled the cup, didn't see any place to toss it, put it in her pocket. "With what? All we're talking about here is an adoption."

It didn't take long for Edith Boudreaux to talk to her husband, and it didn't take long for him to arrive on the scene. We waited maybe eight or nine minutes, and then the outer bell tinkled and a tall, florid man about Edith's age came through the curtain ahead of her. He was thick across the shoulders and b.u.t.t, with small eyes and a sun-reddened face and large hands that looked callused and rough. He was wearing a crisp khaki Evangeline Parish sheriff's uniform open at the collar, and he was the same cop I'd seen with Jimmie Ray Rebenack at the crawfish farm.

He said, "My name's Jo-el Boudreaux. I'm the sheriff here in Evangeline Parish. Could I see some identification, please?" As he said it he looked over Lucy and then he looked over me. His eyes stayed with you without blinking. Cop eyes.

Lucy showed her driver's license and gave him a business card. When he looked at my investigator's license he said, "California."

I nodded.

"You carrying?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Not licensed in Louisiana."

"Why don't we see?"

He pointed at the wall and I a.s.sumed the position and he patted me down. Lucy Chenier looked surprised and then angry. She said, "There's no need for that. I'm an attorney, this man is a licensed investigator. This is a legitimate inquiry." She was breathing quickly, confused by his manner. Everything had suddenly risen to a level she wasn't used to.

I said, "It's okay."

The sheriff copied some information off the license into a little notepad. After that he flipped back the license, and he didn't much care if I caught it or not. He said, "Yeah, well, we'll check on that. We'll see. Now that we know where we stand, why don't you tell me what you're after." He squared himself off at us, the way he'd front a kid he'd stopped for driving too fast on a back road.

Lucy didn't like it, but she went through it again for Jo-el Boudreaux, telling him about the sealed state doc.u.ments, about the possibility that our client was the child given away by Pamela Johnson, about our client's desire not to contact her long lost family but simply to establish her medical history.

Jo-el Boudreaux was shaking his head before she finished. "You got any proof that this baby and your client are the same person?"

Lucy said, "No, sir. But they were born on the same day, and they're both female, and they were both given up to the state. That's why we need the records opened."

He was shaking his head again. "Not interested. I want you people to leave my wife alone. Whatever you're selling, we don't want any."

Edith Boudreaux looked like she wasn't as sure. She said, "Jo-el, maybe we should -"

He cut her off. "Edith, what's there to say? The past is the past, isn't it?"

Lucy said, "Our client doesn't want anything from you, Mr. Boudreaux. She simply wants to know her medical history. You can understand that, can't you?"

He said, "I understand that a lot of my wife's family's dirty laundry is going to be stirred up again. You people go around town spreading c.r.a.p about my wife's family, it'll go hard on you."

Lucy stiffened and the court face appeared. "Is that a threat, Sheriff?"

"Yes, ma'am. I've just threatened legal action. As an attorney, I'm sure you understand that." He handed back her card. "We've got nothing to say to you."

Lucy looked at Edith Boudreaux. She was small behind her husband. Her eyes looked hurt. "Is this what you want?"

Edith repeated it. "What's past is past. Let's not stir things up." Nervous.

Lucy stared at the other woman for a time, then carefully put her business card on a stack of Anne Klein boxes. "I can appreciate your confusion. If you change your mind, please call me at this number."

Sheriff Joel Boudreaux said, "There's no confusion, counselor. If you leave the card, I can cite you for littering."

Lucy picked up the card, thanked Edith for her time, and walked out.

I said, "A litter bust. That'd probably make your month."

The cop eyes clicked my way. "You wanna push for the prize, podnuh?"

I said, "How'd a guy like Jimmie Ray Rebenack get you so scared?"

The big sheriff looked at me, and a single tic started beneath his left eye. The blocky hands flexed, and Edith Boudreaux touched her husband's arm, and it was suddenly still in the little room. Outside, the doorbell tinkled, and I wondered if it was Lucy leaving. Edith said, "Joel?"

Boudreaux went to the curtained door and pulled the curtain aside and held it for me. "You'd better leave now, podnuh. That'd be best for you. That'd be best for everyone."

I wished Edith a good day and then I walked out past the blond clerk. She smiled brightly and told me to have a good day. I told her I'd try. When I got to the door I looked back, but the curtain was drawn again and Joel Boudreaux and his wife were still in the stockroom. I thought I heard a woman crying, but I could have imagined it.

It was supposed to be a simple case, but cases, like life, are rarely what they seem. I walked out of Edie's Fashion Boutique wondering at the pain I'd seen in their eyes.

Chapter 10.

L ucy was waiting on the sidewalk, her arms crossed and her face set. A couple of teenagers were behind her, looking at the sheriff's shotgun through the driver's side window of his highway car, the older of the two sneaking glances at Lucy's rear end. He cut it out when he saw me approach. Lucy said, "I've been doing this for almost eight years and I've never had a reaction even close to that. Something's wrong." "They're scared. Him, maybe more than her." As we walked back to our cars, I told her about Jim-mie Ray Rebenack and the two goons who'd come to his office. "I followed them to a place called Rossier's Crawfish Farm. Boudreaux was there, and some older guy with a Panama hat who was probably Milt Rossier. Boudreaux didn't look thrilled to be there, but he and Rebenack are connected.""Do you think that Rebenack has seen these people about Jodi Taylor?"

"Looks that way."

"Maybe he's working for them, just like we're working for Jodi."

"Maybe."

When we reached the cars, Lucy leaned against her Lexus and shook her head. "I don't believe it, but even if he were, so what? All we're talking about is a child who was given away for adoption. It's a simple matter to unseal the files and confirm the biological link. It's done all the time."

I looked at her. "Maybe the problem is coming from an altogether different place."

She squinted at Edith Boudreaux's dress shop, thinking about it. Frustrated. "Well, it can't just end here. They say no, thanks, so that's the end of it. Jodi still has a right to find out about herself, and I'm still going to help her do that."

"All right."

Jo-el Boudreaux came out of his wife's store, got into his highway car, and roared away. He didn't look at us, but perhaps he didn't know that we were across the square. I said, "Does Sonnier, Melancon practice criminal law?"

"Yes."

"Have someone run a check on Rebenack and also on that guy LeRoy Bennett. I don't know Ren+!s last name, but he might be listed as a known a.s.sociate if Bennett has a sheet. And run the paper on Milt Rossier, too." I thought about it. "And Edith Johnson."

Lucy said, "I guess you're serious."

"While you're doing that, I'll look up Jimmie Ray again."

She crossed her arms at me. "What does that mean?"

"We were interrupted last time, and Jimmie didn't have a chance to answer my questions. Maybe I'll go see him again and see if he's more forthcoming."

She held up a hand. "If you do anything illegal I don't want to know about it."

I grinned. "You won't."

Lucy made a big deal out of sighing, then got into her car and drove away.

The trip from Eunice to Jimmie Ray's office in Ville Platte took thirty-six minutes, but when I got there Jimmie Ray's Mustang was not in evidence and neither was Jimmie Ray. I double-parked behind the fish market and ran up to see, but the office was empty. I could have rifled his files again, but I didn't expect that there would be anything different in them from yesterday.

I drove to Jimmie Ray's duplex, circled the block, then eased to a stop. No Mustang here, either.

Jimmie's duplex was a shotgun with two doors coming off a common porch and the whole thing sandwiched on a long, narrow lot that was overgrown and kind of crummy beneath a dense oak canopy. I went to Jimmie Ray's door and pressed the bell. I pressed the bell again and knocked loudly, and again no one answered. No sounds came from the adjoining apartment. I went around the side of Jimmie Ray Rebenack's house as if I had been doing it every day for the past ten years and let myself in through his kitchen door. I called, "Hey, Jimmie, what's going on, man?"

Silence. Just think of all the fun Lucy Chenier was missing. And I couldn't even tell her about it.

Jimmie Ray's home smelled of fried food and dust. The kitchen was small. There were dishes piled in the sink and on the tile counter, and the grout between the tiles looked like it hadn't been scrubbed since 1947. A Formica dinette set with mismatched chairs filled the dining area, and a monstrously large overstuffed couch took up most of the living room. The couch was upholstered in a kind of black and white cowhide fabric, and there was a single matching chair and a square gla.s.s coffee table. The couch and the chair and the coffee table were too big for the room and ended up jammed together. A Sony home entertainment unit was stacked in the corner, and there wasn't enough room for that, either. Everything except the Sony looked low-end and cheesy, as if the local discount store had run a clearance sale: COMPLETE BACHELOR PAD - ON SALE NOW.!! "Taste," I said. "You can't develop it; you have to be born with it."

There were two rooms on the second floor, along with a bath and a linen closet. Jimmie Ray Rebenack was using the front room for his bedroom and the back room for a study. I went into the back room first. Two cardboard cartons sat against one wall, and a flimsy red card table with a single folding chair stood in the center of the room. A poster of the Bud Light models was pinned to the wall along with a couple of posters of bikinied women dressed up like commandos and holding machine guns. Ah, the bachelor life. One of the cardboard cartons held old copies of Penthouse and Sports Ill.u.s.trated and a single VHS videotape called Seymore b.u.t.ts and The Love Swing, but the other was where Jimmie Ray kept his bills and receipts. I lifted the stuff out, turned the stack upside down, and went through it back to front, returning the items to the box so that they'd be in their original order. I didn't think Jimmie Ray would be able to tell, but you never know. Guys like Jimmie Ray can surprise you.

There were Visa card bills going back eight months, and receipts for his office rent and the rent he paid on the duplex. The Visa charges were incidental. Most of the paperwork in the box had to do with buying the Mustang. He had purchased it used for $29,000 three months ago from an outfit called High Performance Motors in Alexandria, Louisiana. It had 8200 miles on the odometer at the time of purchase, and he had made the purchase for cash with a check drawn on his personal account. Three months ago, exactly two days before he bought the Mustang, he deposited $30,000 into his checking. Prior to that he held a balance of $416.12. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Further on in the box there was warranty information and auto insurance papers and phone and utility bills. I didn't bother with the utilities. The phone bills went back five months, and during that time he had made seven phone calls to Los Angeles, California, at two different numbers. Two of the calls were lengthy.

I went out past the bathroom and into the front room and looked out at the street. Still clear. The front bedroom was as well appointed as the rest of the place, with an unmade oversized futon against the wall opposite a yard-sale dresser and a couple of lamps. Two thin pillows had been used as a backrest at the head of the futon, and a black sheet and a quilted spread were kicked to the side. The black sheet highlighted the hair and the lint and the crud in the bed nicely. That Jimmie Ray.

There was a closet beside the dresser, but I didn't have to go into the closet or look through the dresser or dig around under the futon to find what I was looking for. Jimmie Ray had what looked like the entirety of the sealed state files on the relinquishment of Maria Sue Johnson and the adoption of Judith Marie Taylor, and he had left them scattered on the bed. There were nine separate doc.u.ments, at least two of which appeared to be originals, and all of the doc.u.ments were complete. They were mixed with more articles and clippings about Jodi Taylor, and with yellow legal pages of what were probably Jimmie Ray Rebenack's handwritten notes. I whistled between my teeth and knew that I could not leave it here. Oh, Jimmie. How'd you get this stuff?

Maybe Jimmie Ray Rebenack wasn't the world's worst private investigator after all.

I gathered everything together, went back into the other room for the phone bills, then let myself out and drove back to the motel. Jimmie would know that someone had been in his house and he would probably know it was me, but if things played out the way I thought they might, Jimmie and I would be discussing these things soon enough.

I phoned Lucy Chenier at her office, but she wasn't back yet. I told Darlene to have her call me as soon as she returned, and Darlene said that she would. I hung up and went through what I'd found. As near as I could tell, everything was there. All of the doc.u.ments were either original or were new clean copies of the originals. The original birth certificate showing Pamela Johnson as the mother of Maria Sue Johnson was attached to the complete original doc.u.ment showing that the Johnsons had relinquished all rights to the child to the state of Louisiana. A Louisiana State Department of Social Services doc.u.ment showed that Steven Edward Taylor and Cecelia Burke Taylor, lawfully wedded man and wife, were adopting the child known as one Maria Sue Johnson. A Louisiana juvenile-court doc.u.ment showed that Maria Sue Johnson's name was henceforth changed to Judith Marie Taylor. Each of the doc.u.ments had a file and case number. The handwritten notes were mostly about Jodi Taylor and were probably culled from magazine articles: where she was born, her birth date, the name of her studio and agency and personal manager. Edith Boudreaux's name and address and phone were written on the back of one of the sheets. Jimmie Ray had been to see her, all right. On another sheet the name LEON WILLIAMS was written in big block letters and was the only name I didn't recognize. Six phone numbers were scrawled in no particular order on two of the sheets, two of them with Los Angeles area codes. The name "Sandi" had been written a half dozen times around the page. I checked the numbers against the numbers from the phone bill, and the numbers matched. I picked up the phone and dialed one of the Los Angeles numbers, thinking maybe I'd get someone named Sandi. A young man answered, "Marko-witz Management. May I help you?"

"Jesus Christ."

"Pardon me, sir?"

"Is this Sid Markowitz's office?"

"It is, sir. May I help you?"

I didn't know what to say.

"Sir?"

"Does someone named Leon Williams work there?"

"No, sir."

"How about someone named Sandi?"

"No, sir. Who's calling, please?"

I said, "Tell Sid it's Elvis Cole, the Lied-to Detective."

"Pardon me?"

I hung up and dialed the other L. A. number. A young woman's voice said, "Jodi Taylor's office."

I went through it again. No Leon Williams. No Sandi. I hung up.

In the past three months, Jimmie Ray Rebenack had made seven calls to Sid Markowitz, one of the calls lasting almost an hour and one of the calls lasting thirty-five minutes. They were lengthy calls implying meaningful conversation. The longest call was made just three days before Jimmie Ray Rebenack deposited $30,000 in his checking account. My, my.

I put down the phone and stretched out on the floor and thought about things. A large monetary payoff seemed to imply the "B" word. But if Jodi Taylor was in fact being blackmailed, why not tell me that and hire me to find out who was doing it? Of course, since Sid had spent so much time on the phone with Jimmie Ray, it looked as if they already knew who was doing it and, besides that, what was there to blackmail her with? That she was adopted? That had already been in People. Jodi Taylor spoke of it publicly and often. Maybe they wanted me to get their money back. That seemed reasonable. Then again, it would seem even more reasonable if they had told me the score. I went back to the phone and called Sid Markowitz again. The same young man answered. I said, "This is Elvis Cole. May I speak with Sid?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Cole, but he's not in." Great.

"Would you have him call me, please?"

"Of course."

I left the motel number and I called Jodi Taylor again, but she, too, was unavailable. I was getting angry at having been lied to and I wanted to know what was going on. I got up and paced around the room, and then I called Lucy's office again. Still not in. n.o.body was in. Maybe I should leave and then I wouldn't be in, either. I looked up Jimmie Ray's office number, dialed, and hung up on the twenty-sixth ring. Another one. I decided to go back to Jimmie Ray's house and wait for him.

I gathered together the doc.u.ments and the articles and hid them between the mattress and box spring. The Dan Wesson was too big to wear at my ankle, so I clipped the holster on the inside of my waistband and pulled out my shirt to hang over it. Neatness counts, but bullets often count more.

I had locked my room and was getting into my car when LeRoy Bennett and his sidekick Ren+! drove up. LeRoy showed me a Colt Government .45. "Get in," he said. "We goin' f' a little ride."

I guess Jimmie Ray would have to wait.