Throughout Daniel’s teen years, his father would drink himself stupid and then sit at the kitchen table and weep until he eventually passed out. The murders had absolutely broken his father beyond repair.
So, in reality, like Angelique, he had pretty much grown up without a father. But that was then and this was now, and Daniel rarely allowed himself to wallow in the tragedies of his past.
There had been a time when he’d hoped to have a woman to love and to fill his house with children. He had hoped to build the family he’d never really had, but he just didn’t see it happening for him anymore.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t incredibly drawn to Angelique. He was, and the more he learned about her, the more he wanted to know about her. He wanted to gift her with the solving of her mother’s murder and the identity of who had attacked her, but at the moment, much to his frustration, both cases were definitely at a standstill.
When Luke and Clay came in, the three of them sat in the murder room where the whiteboard taunted Daniel with its relative emptiness.
“I still put my money on Pierre,” Luke said. “I think it was a crime of passion. I believe that he wanted to get back with Mystique and when she refused, there was a fight.”
“The coroner did say the knife used was one like a fishing knife,” Clay added.
“Like a fishing knife, but he couldn’t say for certain that it was a fishing knife,” Daniel reminded them both.
“I’d love to arrest Charles Landry just for being an arrogant ass,” Luke said, his distaste for the man obvious in his tone.
“If he mentioned one more time how expensive his things were, I was ready to puke all over those expensive things,” Clay replied, making both Luke and Daniel laugh.
“He is a condescending jerk for sure, but what we need to figure out is if he’s a cold-blooded killer,” Daniel said. “It’s hard to believe he killed Mystique because the love charm didn’t work for him.”
“But we all know people murder for crazy reasons,” Luke said. “Maybe he didn’t want it to get out that he’d gone to Mystique’s for a love charm. Maybe he was embarrassed by the whole thing.”
A deep frustration ate at Daniel’s very soul. “Any more thoughts on who might be after Angelique?”
“I don’t have a clue,” Luke replied.
“Me, neither,” Clay said. “I think the only one who can solve that is Angelique herself.”
“And so far that’s not happening. She has no clue who might want to hurt or kill her.” Daniel took a drink of the cup of coffee before him and then slammed the cup down. “Damn, I’m so frustrated right now.”
“Maybe we should pull Pierre in here and sweat him a bit,” Luke suggested.
“Maybe you’re right,” Daniel agreed. “The only time we’ve spoken with him was during our search warrant.” He looked first at Clay and then at Luke. “You two want to bring him in?”
Both officers stood. “It would be our pleasure,” Luke replied.
Moments later the two were gone. Daniel kicked himself for not bringing his number one suspect in for more intensive questioning earlier. Pierre would be out of his element here at the police station, and Clay and Luke had a mean bad cop/good cop routine. Maybe it was possible they could sweat him enough to get an admission of guilt from the gator hunter who professed his deep love for Mystique.
It was almost an hour later when the two officers returned with an unenthusiastic Pierre between them. “Let’s head to an interview room,” Daniel said.
The four of them sat at the small table in a conference room. Pierre was clad in a pair of worn jeans and a stained white T-shirt. He smelled of fish and the swamp waters. Luke sat on one side of him and Clay on the other. Daniel remained standing next to the door.
“I don’t know why this is all so necessary. I already told you I didn’t have anything to do with Mystique’s murder,” Pierre said in a surly tone.
“We just wanted to ask you some more questions,” Daniel replied. “And it’s more comfortable to do it here rather than standing in the heat outside your shanty.”
“Well make it fast. I got important things to do,” Pierre said.
“Now, exactly where were you at around ten on the night of Mystique’s murder?” Luke asked.
Pierre’s thick eyebrows drew together. “I told you before I was out in the swamp gator hunting.”
“Are you sure you weren’t fishing that night?” Luke asked. “I thought you told us when we spoke to you earlier that you were out fishing.”
“Hell, I don’t know,” Pierre replied in obvious irritation. “It was either one thing or another. That’s all I do… I fish and I hunt big gators. All I know for sure is I wasn’t anywhere near Mystique’s place that night.”
Luke leaned forward. “There’s a lot of gator hunters in the swamp. You mean to tell me nobody saw you out and about on that night?”
