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Behind them, the shouted questions of the reporters rose to a crescendo.
Annie dashed ahead of them, through the ER waiting area and down the hall, knocking on the door of an examination room then swinging the door open and motioning for them to come.
“I had to hear it on the radio,” Kiki said angrily as Nick ushered her into the room. “That there was a body found practically down the road from us. You stood right there in our place and didn’t say a goddamn thing!”
“I didn’t say anything because we don’t know anything, Mrs. Mercier,” Nick said. “I’ve got an unidentified body. I don’t know if it’s Marc. I don’t know who it is.”
“Let me see him!” she shouted. “I know my own son!”
“No,” Nick said. “That’s not how this is happening.”
“You went to Melissa,” Luc said. “Has she been here? Where the hell is she? Or can’t she be bothered?”
“I’ll be blunt with you,” Nick said. “This victim took a shotgun blast to the face.”
Kiki gasped as if she’d been struck. “No!”
“No one is identifying him by sight,” Nick said. “This body was dumped. I don’t have a vehicle; I don’t have an ID of any kind. Yes, I went to Marc’s wife. She is his legal next of kin. I had to get the information from her for Marc’s dentist in Philadelphia to send his dental records for comparison.”
“Oh, my God, she’s killed him!” Kiki wailed, falling against the exam table. “I told you she killed him. Her and Will Faulkner. And now they gonna take my grandbaby away from me!”
“Mrs. Mercier,” Annie said, reaching out to lay a hand gently on her shoulder. “Why don’t you take a seat and we’ll talk about your concerns.”
Kiki jerked backward. “Who the hell are you?”
“Detective Broussard.”
“I don’t want totalk about my concerns, Detective Broussard,” she said, sneering at the idea. “I want to see my son!”
She shoved Annie hard into the cabinets and bolted for the door.
Nick blocked her, grabbing her by the shoulders and trapping her back against the exam table. Fueled by rage and panic, she was shockingly strong.
“Let me go!” she screamed, twisting in his grasp. “Let me go, damn you!”
“Stop it!” Nick ordered. “Be still, or I’m putting you in handcuffs!”
He glanced over at Annie. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said, even as she pressed her fingertips against her eyebrow to stem the flow of blood from a cut.
“Jesus Christ, Ma!” Luc Mercier exclaimed. “What are you doing? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m here to fight for your brother,” she said. “What are you doing? Nothing!”
“Fight for him how? Fight for him for what?”
“You don’t love your brother!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake! You’re out of your damn mind!”
“C’est assez!” Nick barked, pulling Kiki’s attention back to him. “Enough!”
She went still, and he loosened his hold on her shoulders, not trusting her enough to let go altogether.
“I understand that you’re upset, Mrs. Mercier,” he said. “But you just assaulted a sheriff’s detective. You’re intoxicated and violent, and I would be well within my rights to arrest you. Is that what you want? You want to go sit in jail? I will happily accommodate you.”
Kiki huffed a sigh, still agitated. “You’ll arrest me, but you won’t arrest Prissy Missy, and I’m telling you she killed my boy!”
