“I’ve got this.” He hadn’t raised his voice, but he’d been emphatic. Then he’d clapped his hands and said to Andrew, “Let’s haul, buddy! I want to see that rabbit I’ve heard so much about.”
He didn’t go into those details with John but told him that he’d gotten his point across to his mother-in-law.
John asked, “How was the bunny?”
“White fur, pink eyes, you know.”
“And Andrew?”
Mitch grinned. “He’s a rock star.”
Barbara Nix approached them in time to overhear that. “Who is?”
“My boy,” Mitch said.
She smiled. “So you’ve said. About ten million times.”
“Anything new on the double murder?” John asked.
“Nil. There was a discussion about dragging the bayou in search of the murder weapon, but it will take time, money, and manpower that Darcy is short on already. He’s doing his best, but it’s a shit show with no finale. The kill site remains unknown, as does the place where the assumed boat was put in. Cohorts of both victims have been interviewed. Nobody knows nothing about nothing, or so they say. No suspects, ergo no motive.”
Before continuing, she paused and looked at Mitch and John in turn. “I’m glad I caught you two together. What I said yesterday about the girl, about Mandy Adams, being a disaster waiting to happen? That was an awful and inexcusable thing to say. I apologize for my insensitivity.”
They accepted the apology with as much grace as she’d extended it, then, once she’d moved away, John asked Mitch how the child abuse case was shaping up.
Mitch gave him a rundown of the charges the couple would be indicted for. “The child who was in the hospital has been released. CPS is trying to find a foster family willing to take all three.”
“That may take time.”
“Yeah.” He waited a beat, then said, “You know, John, someone else could be doing the follow-up with the caseworker on this.” He looked around the room. “Clarence could do it. What’s he doing up here anyway? When I came in, he was lugging a box up the stairs.”
“A new coffeemaker. The old one went on the fritz this morning. He volunteered to replace it.”
Mitch muttered, “He’s doing about as much police work as I am.”
The way things had ended with Dylan last night had left him troubled, disappointed, and horny. Add to that the friction between him and Mary and what might come of it. Frustrated to the max and needing to vent, he ran his fingers through his hair.
“John, my time would be much better spent out there assisting Darcy. You know that. I’d be an asset to his investigating team because the MO of that Bayou Coeur crime matches Randy Nelson’s execution to a tee.”
John sighed. “I explained to you why. You—”
“I know, I heard it,” he interrupted curtly. “Forget I mentioned it.” He yanked his chair from beneath his desk, dropped into it, and turned on his computer.
“What about Dr. Reede?” John asked.
Mitch noticed that her name captured Clarence’s attention. He stopped fiddling with the new machine and turned to better overhear.
Mitch grumbled, “What about her?”
“You had to miss this morning’s session.”
“I’ll reschedule. So long as I get in two a week, right?”
“That was our agreement.”
Mitch turned his chair around and looked up at John. “It wasn’t an agreement. It was an order with anor elseattached.”
John looked as though he wanted to counter. Or maybe slug him. Instead, he muttered, “I’m going to lunch.”
