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“No, I have to make cake now.” Agnes went into the pantry and then began taking ingredients off the shelves—cake flour, sugar, baking powder, coconut, plus the supplies that Shane had brought back from Savannah—and then brought them out and dumped them all on the counter.
Lisa Livia caught one of the tubs of icing as it almost rolled off.
“Ick,” she said. “What’s on this? It’s sort of sticky.” She looked closer. “This is blood.”
“Well, Shane picked it up for me.” Agnes got a paper towel and wiped off the tub.
“Thoughtful of him.” Lisa Livia went to wash her hands several times and then poured herself another shot of bourbon. “So, you serious about him?”
“No,” Agnes said. “I’m not even going to sleep with him anymore.”
“Right.” Lisa Livia tossed back her drink, tried to sit down on the stool, and fell on the floor.
“So how we doin’ here?” Agnes went around the counter and helped her up.
“My mother is a liar and a cheat and a murderer,” Lisa Livia said when she was back on the stool. “And she’s had her face lifted. Twice.”
“Well, now I’ve lost all respect for her,” Agnes said.
Lisa Livia regarded her seriously. “You really have changed.”
“I’ve matured,” Agnes said, looking out the kitchen window at Brenda’s yacht. I have a lot on my plate right now and I’m holding on by my fingernails. But as soon as I get a grip here, which is going to be shortly, I swear, Brenda and her boat are going down.
That’s a felony, Agnes. You’ll need a really good plan.
Dr. Garvin?
“Agnes?”
“We’re going to be all right, LL,” Agnes said, and took the glass away from her.
“This ain’t such a good idea,” Garth said, peering around the Defender at the swamp.
Another critic, Shane thought as he opened the back of the truck. “I just want to talk to your grandfather.”
“He ain’t the talking type.”
Shane looked down the thin trail, too narrow to drive down, squinting to see where it disappeared into the gloomy green. Slightly higher forested ground competed with lower areas covered with black water full of reeds, trees struggling to stay alive, and who knew what kind of nefarious wildlife. Besides the Thibault clan.
He opened the locker in the back of the truck and lifted out a plastic case. Flipping it open, he pulled out a gun that resembled a submachine gun, except it had a large plastic hopper on the top.
“You going to use a paintball gun?” Garth asked in disbelief as Shane screwed a C02canister on below the barrel and poured small round balls into the hopper. “My cousins ain’t gonna think that’s funny. They use real guns.”
Shane cocked the weapon. “This isn’t loaded with paintballs.” He picked up one of the small round balls and held it out for Garth to see. “These are pepper balls. They hold hot pepper and break on impact. Stings to get hit by the projectile in the first place; then the hot pepper is an irritant that causes coughing and a burning on the skin in the eyes and mouth. Pretty much incapacitates anyone it hits. You don’t want me killing all your relatives, do you?”
Garth seemed to take the question seriously for a few moments. “Nah.” He was still looking at the gun. “You got one for me?”
Shane surveyed Garth. He appeared lost in the coveralls Carpenter had given him, the cuffs rolled up around his ankles, his bony arms sticking out. Reluctantly, Shane pulled out a paintball pistol and loaded it. “You’ve got ten rounds,” he told Garth as he handed it to him. “So don’t waste your shots. And use it only if someone’s threatening you. And don’t shoot unless I do.”
“I’ve shot a gun before,” Garth said indignantly as he brought the gun up and aimed into the swamp. “Pow, pow, pow.”
“Let’s go.” Shane moved forward toward the trail. He had the stock of the gun tight against his shoulder, scanning, the muzzle following his eyes, finger on the trigger.
“I’ve got to tell you something,” Garth said in a harsh whisper.
“What’s that?” Shane was sliding his left foot forward when he sensed something. He looked down and noted a thin piece of fishing wire across the trail. “There are booby traps,” Shane said without looking over his shoulder. “That what you wanted to tell me?”
“Yeah.”
