Murder in the Marsh by Ramsey Coutta

case.
                  Once out of the village, he pushed the throttle further forward. The two powerful engines roared in obedience and rapidly propelled the boat through the water. He made sure to stay near the center of the canal. If he strayed too far to either side, he could easily get trapped in the thick marsh mud. He didn’t need to get any mud sucked up into the cooling line of his engine. This would prevent the water from circulating around the engines and the motors could overheat.
                  Daniel double-checked his marine radio to make sure it was set on the channel that Claude had radioed on. Though he couldn’t hear anything over the engines, he would eventually stop for a moment to see if he could make contact. He thought possibly the closer got to Claude’s location, the better the chance he would be able to clearly hear him and respond.
                  After a few minutes, he veered to the right into Socola Canal. The canal was two miles long, and wider than Grand Bayou. A few forgotten crab trap floats bobbed on the surface, but nothing else moved in the normally heavily traveled canal. On both sides grew flats of marsh grass, which extended far into the distance. Every now and then a side canal branched off leading to some indeterminable destination. A few large skeletons of  cypress tree stood frozen in death off to the right, but it would not be long before time claimed even these remnants. As he observed the marsh habitat, he failed to notice the boat trailing him approximately a quarter mile behind.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Sixteen
     
    Sheriff Holet sat in the wheelhouse of the shrimp boat he had boarded, and waited for Trahan to pass by. After some time passed, and he didn’t see him, he began to question whether he would return his way. If Trahan decided to head north on Grand Bayou Canal, he could take any of the numerous dredged canals branching off to the west. Depending on Trahan’s destination, those canals could take much longer to travel. Holet didn’t think Trahan was familiar with these canals, so he stayed put, gambling he would retrace his route
    From his position, Holet could observe whether Trahan really was rescuing somebody. If so, he would be able to see the extra persons in the boat, and they would head back toward Happy Jack Marina. After what seemed like a long wait, Holet finally heard Trahan’s engines, and saw his boat go by. Holet lowered himself in the wheelhouse and peered over the wheel. No one else rode in the boat with Trahan, not even the teacher. Trahan didn’t look his direction, so the Sheriff felt confident he hadn’t been seen. If Trahan really was rescuing a mother and her two children, he should have been able to see them. He wondered what happened to Trahan’s teacher friend, but didn’t have time to investigate it. Trahan sped along rapidly. Holet needed to get in his boat and trail Trahan wherever he was going. He would look for the opportunity to deal with this problem once and for all.
    As Holet pulled out of the side canal, he could see that Trahan was not turning back toward Happy Jack Marina. He headed south on Grand Bayou Canal. Holet allowed him some lead-time, and then followed. Several minutes passed, and Trahan took Socola Canal heading west. As he followed Trahan, the current situation seemed reminiscent of an earlier time. Holet found it hard to suppress thoughts from that fateful night James Trahan was murdered.
    He remembered that after they rolled James Trahan into the boat tied up in the net, they set off for one of the deeper areas of Bay Batiste. Lauzon’s camp was located at the mouth of where Bayou Dulac opened up into Bay Batiste. Bayou Dulac was a short, but wide natural canal that connected Bay Sansbois to Bay Batiste. The distance had not been far to travel that night. However, even with a bright moon, they had trouble finding