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“He’s not a man with enemies?”
“Hell no. Nice guy, fun guy, give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back kind of a guy. Everybody knows he moved back here to help out his family.”
“You know him well?”
“I know him to say hey. He was Eli’s friend. I was just the little brother. They were the big men on campus at Sacred Heart, that football team. Marc led them to the state championship. They were my idols.”
“They all knew each other?” Annie said. “Eli and Robbie Fontenot and Marc Mercier? They were all friends?”
“Eli and Marc were always tight. And Robbie to a lesser degree before his life went south. I remember Robbie was more of an introvert—quiet, serious.”
“Was Marc Mercier into drugs?” Nick asked.
“No,” Caleb said. “Him and Eli were student leaders of the DARE program, and they took it to heart. Not that they didn’t drink their share of beer back then, but drugs? No. If I remember right, Marc had lost a cousin to an overdose or something like that. He was dead set against drugs.”
“So when Robbie went down that path, his friends weren’t going with him,” Annie said.
“Not Eli’s crowd, that’s for sure.”
That had been the start of the Robbie Fontenot life avalanche, Annie thought: the injury that had taken away his sport, the drugs he had become dependent on to numb the pain, the social isolation of losing his peers and disappointing his family. Down the slippery slope he went.
“Have you seen Marc recently?” Nick asked.
“I saw him on Halloween at Monster Bash,” Caleb said. “He was dressed up as Hawkeye, you know, from the Avengers, with the bow and arrows and everything.”
“Was he with anyone?”
“The Incredible Hulk. Dozer Cormier.” He rolled his eyes. “That was some typecasting there.”
“Dozer. That’s a nickname?”
“Yeah. The Bulldozer. Then it got shortened and everyone just called him Dozer. They still do. I don’t even remember what his real name is.”
“Does he live around here? Do you know what he does for a living?”
“I don’t really know him other than by sight. You can’t miss him. Bald head like a cinder block and he’s the size of a farm implement.”
“You didn’t see Robbie Fontenot by chance that night, did you?” Annie asked as Nick stepped away to look at his phone.
“I don’t think I’d know him,” Caleb said. “It’s been years.”
Annie pulled up the photo on her phone and showed it to him.
He frowned and shook his head. “Sorry.”
“Merci, Caleb,” Nick said, turning toward Annie. “We’ve got to go. Gus is back.”
10
“Is hein a badmood?” Annie asked as they headed back down the hall toward the ER.
“He’s got the caps lock on,” Nick said, showing her his phone screen.
GET YOUR ASS TO MY OFFICE ASAP.
“Shit,” Annie said. “He’s heard from Johnny Earl.”
“That’s a good bet, though he’s just generally in a bad mood these days.”
