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“Who knows? It’s their signature.”
“Why do they do it that way? Just to be thorough?”
“More likely because most of them are degenerates and sadists. But maybe I say that just because I’m tired.” I tried to smile.
“How’s your shoulder?”
“All right. I’ll put some ice on it.”
“I scraped a blood specimen off the corner of the garage. It might help you later.”
“Thanks, doctor. I’d appreciate it if you’d send me a copy of the autopsy report as soon as it’s ready.”
“You’re sure you’re all right? It got pretty close in there, didn’t it?”
“The bottom line is I should have figured someone was in that bedroom. He’d just started to toss it when he heard me in the hallway. I’m lucky I didn’t get my eggs scrambled.”
“If it’s any consolation, the guy you wounded probably has a sizable slice of wood in his neck or face. He might show up at a hospital. My experience has been that most of these guys are crybabies when it comes to pain.”
“Maybe so. Goodnight, doctor.”
“Goodnight, Dave. Drive carefully.”
The fields were white with mist as I drove back toward New Iberia. My collarbone throbbed and felt swollen and hot when I touched it. The pink neon sign over the roadside bar gleamed softly on the oyster-shell parking lot. In my mind I kept repeating something told me by a platoon sergeant during my first week in Vietnam: don’t think about it before it happens, and never think about it afterward. Yes, that was the trick. Just put one logical foot after the other. I yawned and my ears popped like firecrackers.
BACK AT THE OFFICE, I called Weldon at his mother-in-law’s home in Baton Rouge. I had woken him up, and he kept asking me to repeat myself.
“Look, I think it’s better that you drive back to New Iberia in the morning and then we’ll have a long talk.”
“About what?”
“I don’t think you listen well. The inside of your home is virtually destroyed. Three guys tore it apart because they were looking for something that’s obviously important to them. Meanwhile they murdered a sheriff’s deputy. Do you want to know how they did it?”
He was silent.
“They shot him through the back, probably when he came down the basement stairs,” I said. “Then they put one under his chin, one through his temple, and one through the back of his head. Do you know any low-rent wiseguys named Eddy or Jewel?”
I heard him cough in the back of his throat.
“I’m tied up here with some business for the next few days,” he said. “I’m going to send some repair people out to the house. You’ve got this number if you need me.”
“Maybe it’s about time you plug into reality, Weldon. You don’t make the rules in a murder investigation. That means you’ll be in this office before noon tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to leave Bama by herself, and I don’t want to bring her back there, either.”
“That’s a problem you’re going to have to work out. We’re either going to be talking in my office tomorrow morning, or you’re going to be in custody as a material witness.”
“Sounds like legalese doodah to me.”
“It’s easy to find out.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll check my schedule. You want to have lunch?”
“No.”
“You’ve sure got a dark view of things, Dave. Lighten up.”
“The warrant gets cut one minute after twelve noon,” I said, and hung up.
