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“What happened, then?” she asked, turning back to Nick. “What are you doing here?”
“What’s your name, ma’am?” Nick asked, opening his notebook and clicking his pen.
“Kiki Mercier.”
“And how old is your son Marc?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“What’s he look like?”
She hooked a thumb in the direction of her other son. “Like this one, but taller.”
“How tall?”
“Six foot two,” Luc said, his straight, thick brows drawing together in suspicion. “Why would you ask that?”
Tall enough, Nick thought. He would have brown eyes, like his mother and his brother and the corpse.
“What kind of vehicle does he drive?” Stokes asked.
“He’s got a brand-new flat black Ford Raptor truck,” Luc answered.
“Sweet ride! You know the tag number?”
“No.”
“What kind of tires on it?”
“BFGoodrich all-terrains,” he said, looking from one of them to the other with growing suspicion. “What the hell kind of questions are these?”
“If he’s missing, we need to be looking for him, right?” Stokes said. “Have you reported him missing?”
“No. We figured he’d turn up. He ain’t been gone that long,” Luc said irritably.
“Marc don’t ever miss work,” Kiki said. “We didn’t hear from him yesterday—and they were supposed to go duck hunting.”
Luc rolled his eyes, impatient with the whole conversation. “I was late getting there. He left without me just to be an asshole. I guarantee it.”
“Maisyeah, Marc being gone is all about you,” Kiki said sarcastically.
“Duck season ain’t started yet,” Nick said.
“We was just going out to get the blind cleaned up and ready, and work the dogs some, that’s all,” Luc said. “Shoot some geese, maybe, or snipe. I was supposed to meet him at the Corners at five thirty in the goddamn a.m.”
“And?”
He made a face. “I was late, because fuck that shit. I had a hangover.”
“You ain’t never been on time in your whole goddamn life,” his mother remarked, “including when you was born.”
“Yeah, well, that wasn’t no surprise, then, was it?” Luc shot back. To Nick he said, “He’d done gone by the time I got there.”
“Did you call him?”
“So he could chew my ass? No, thank you. I turned around and went home.”
“And he didn’t call you, ask where you’re at, when you’re getting there?”
