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"It's a terrible thing."
I held the truck door open for her and didn't answer.
She sat with her back at an angle to the far door, her legs slightly apart, and moved her eyes over my face.
Oh boy, I thought. I drove out of the shadows of the pecan trees, back onto the bayou road.
"You look uncomfortable," she said.
"Long day."
"Are you afraid of Bubba?"
"I don't think about him," I lied.
"I don't think you're afraid of very much."
"I respect your husband's potential. I apologise for not asking you in. The house is a mess."
"You don't get backed into a corner easily, do you?"
"Like I said, it's been a long day, Mrs. Rocque."
She made an exaggerated pout with her mouth.
"And you're not going to call a married lady by her first name. What a proper law officer you are. Do you want a gin rickey?"
"No, thanks."
"You're going to hurt my feelings. Has someone told you bad things about me?"
I watched a sparrow hawk glide on extended wings down the length of the bayou.
"Did someone tell you I was in St. Gabriel?" she said. Then she smiled and reached out and ticked the skin above my collar with her nail. "Or maybe they told you I wasn't all girl."
I could feel her eyes moving on the side of my face.
"I've made the officer uncomfortable. I think I even made him blush," she said.
"How about a little slack, Mrs. Rocque?"
"Will you have a drink with me, then?"
"What do you think the odds are of your having a flat tire by my front lane?"
Her round doll's eyes were bright as she looked at me over her raised drinking cup.
"He's such a detective," she said. "He's thinking so hard now, wondering what the bad lady is up to." She rubbed her back against the door and flattened her thighs against the truck seat. "Maybe the lady is interested in you. Are you interested in me?"
"I wouldn't go jerking Bubba around, Mrs. Rocque."
"Oh my, how direct."
"You live with him. You know the kind of man he is. If I was in your situation, I'd give some thought to what I was doing."
"You're being rude, Mr. Robicheaux."
"Read it like you want. Your husband has black lightning in his brain. Mess around with his pride, embarrass him socially, and I think you'll get to see that same kid who wheeled his crippled cousin into the coulee."
