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He trailed off, looking down toward the bayou. The memories clearly bothered him. “Nothing was the same after Robbie got hurt. Not for any of us.”
“Did you and Marc stay in touch after graduation?”
“Oh, not really,” he said. “We went in different directions. Literally. He was in school in New Orleans. I was here in Lafayette. I’d see him time to time in Bayou Breaux, but not very often. Say hey. Have a beer. We didn’t have much in common anymore. When we’d see each other all he wanted to do was play Remember When. And not to say we didn’t have some good times, but that was high school. Grow up, dude, move on. Then he got married and moved up north somewhere. I was in Houston…”
Annie watched his body language. He seemed a little agitated, uncomfortable. Under the table, he was tapping his toe like he was keeping time to some music only he could hear.
“Marc’s been back in Bayou Breaux about a year now, helping with his family’s business,” she said.
“Yeah, I know. It’s been hard to escape the Saint Marc stories from home,” he said with a forced smile. “Marc always did like to be a hero. Good for him.”
“What?” Annie asked. “Do you think it’s not genuine?”
“No, no, I’m sure it is.”
“But…?”
He shrugged. “After a while, it just starts looking like a politician kissing babies, you know? My dad once said, Marc’s the kind of guy who would knock a bird’s nest out of a tree so he could save the baby birds and get his picture in the paper.” As soon as the words were out, he clearly regretted them. He made a face and said, “That’s not fair. Forget I said it.”
But hehadsaid it, Annie thought. And not for no reason.
“And now he’s missing or maybe dead, and here I am saying something like that. Jesus. Annie, you have permission to pistol-whip me for being an asshole,” he said, his bright smile splitting his wide face.
“Being honest isn’t a crime,” Annie said. “I’d rather have you be honest than tell me some pleasant lie that doesn’t help anyone.”
“Most people think the opposite,” he said. “Better a good lie than a hard truth.”
“That philosophy might keep the peace at family gatherings, but it never solved a crime,” Annie said.
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Caleb told me you ran into Robbie recently.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I did, a month or so ago.”
“How was that?”
“Awkward. I hadn’t seen him in years. He looked good, though. He looked healthy. I was surprised. I didn’t think he’d ever get clean. Frankly, I thought he’d be dead by now.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Nothing. The standard pleasantries—how you doing, what you doing, where you living. I’m standing there feeling like a shit because what did I ever do to help him, and he’s standing there feeling whatever because what’s he ever done with his life but fuck it up? What’s he supposed to tell me? That he just got out of rehab and he’s working at the lamp factory? I made some stupid joke about him being an investigative reporter, and he said yeah, that he was deep undercover investigating police corruption in Bayou Breaux.”
Annie’s heart skipped a beat, and she sat up a little straighter. “Why would he say that?”
Eli shook his head and shrugged. “It was just a dumb joke. I said, what’s that amount to? Them taking free day-old beignets at the back door of Melancon’s Bakery? He laughed. I wanted to crawl in a hole. Next time I saw him, I just ducked around a corner.”
“When was that?”
“At Monster Bash. I saw him talking to Dozer, and I thought, I don’t want any part of that, another drunken trip down bad memory lane. No, thanks.”
“What time was that?” Annie asked, her heart beating a little faster. Dozer Cormier had flatly denied seeing Robbie. Why would he lie about that?
“Must have been eleven fifteen, eleven thirty.”
“Where?”
“Around Fifth and Dumas. I was leaving. I was parked in that lot down past Canray’s Garage. I walked an extra block just to avoid them. I’m coming off here like a real asshole, aren’t I?” he asked.
