Savage Nature - Christine Feehan [149]
“Gilbert was goin’ to break in, but then we heard glass shatter on the second-story balcony. We ran, afraid if you saw us, you’d think we started the fire. But when we got down to the lake, both of us couldn’t just leave, knowin’ there were people maybe burnin’ in the inn, so we ran back.”
Again, there was that ring of truth in Beau’s voice that Drake couldn’t ignore. He glanced at Remy, who nodded. He thought they were telling the truth as well. They were guilty of taking drug money, but neither man was a killer—certainly not a serial killer. And Drake doubted if either possessed the brains to mastermind placing opiates in perfumed soaps.
“Your old man never told you who came up with the idea to put opium bricks in the soaps?” Drake asked, already knowing the answer.
“I didn’t even know that was what was in the boxes,” Beau said. “I didn’t want to know.”
“Where do they manufacture the soaps, lotions and perfumes?” Drake asked.
Beau frowned and looked at his brother. “The factory is in town, not out in the swamp. The laboratory where Charisse works is on their property, but everything is made in town. We pick up our deliveries there.”
“And your special ones?” Remy prompted.
“They’re waitin’ at the Mercier dock for us, already loaded in the boat.”
“Beau, how dumb can you be,” Remy burst out in disgust. “Runnin’ drugs, for God’s sake. What the hell’s wrong with you?”
Beau hung his head. “We were losin’ everythin’, Remy. The house, the boat, everythin’ and we’ve always done what pa told us to do. We got good money for makin’ the deliveries and workin’ for the Merciers gave us great benefits. They’re fair employers.”
“Other than you have to run drugs for them,” Drake said.onet>
Beau didn’t reply.
“What are you goin’ to do with us?” Gilbert asked.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Drake said. “For now, go home and keep your mouths shut. If you get another call, you’d better let us know immediately. And then take Evangeline to the Boudreaux home. You understand me? Don’t make me come looking for you.”
Remy bent down and unlocked the cuffs on both men. “You were damned stupid to get into this mess,” he repeated. “And you’re lucky Drake is leader.”
“Oh, they’ll be punished,” Drake said. “I have to give it some thought.”
“Tell the boy . . .” At Drake’s scowl, Beau cleared his throat, “Renard’s son, we’d still like to talk with him. If he’d like.”
“I’ll tell him.” Drake pinned him with his predator’s stare. “Don’t make the mistake of running away or going to the Merciers. I’d hunt you down and I’d never stop until I found you and I killed you. You don’t want me for an enemy.”
Beau nodded. “This is my home. I was born here and I’ll die here. I got nowhere else to go. Gilbert’s the same. And we’ve got Evangeline and the boys to see to. We’re not goin’ to be lookin’ over our shoulders the rest of our lives.”
Drake watched the two men walk heavily toward the boat before he turned to Remy. “We didn’t get much on our killer.”
“Drugs? You didn’t think maybe that might be important to tell me?” Remy demanded.
“Sorry. We were going to talk to you first thing after we rested. Someone drugged us and tried to kill us all with smoke. I have to talk to Pauline. She set the security alarm and someone turned it off and disabled the smoke alarms. They blocked all the balcony doors from the outside.”
“And you think it was the killer?”
“It has to be someone familiar with the inn’s security system. The Merciers were here and all of them heard Pauline say she was leaving for the day. Any of them could have done it.”
“Charisse or Armande. Damn it all, Drake, it always comes back to them. Mahieu is taken with that girl.”
“So is Saria.” Drake shook his head. “But she’s got the brains, knows chemistry and certainly is always around when something goes wrong.”
“Just damn it,” Remy said.
18
“HURRY, Drake, hurry,” Saria chanted in a whisper. She repeated his name over and over, a mantra to save her.
The bathroom was quite small, much smaller than her room, but it was at the farthest