Rumble on the Bayou by Jana DeLeon Page A

waved one hand in the air. "Go on then. I'm going back to bed." She gave Richard one last lingering look. "Tell you what," she said. "I'll let you have one bottle of brew for the road. If you like it, you know where to find me." She reached for a table next to the door, picked up a bottle and handed it to Richard. "Come back soon. Plenty more where that came from." Maylene stepped back into her house and slammed the door behind her.
    Richard looked at the bottle and sniffed the top. His eyes began to water. "What the hell is this stuff?"
     
    Dorie laughed. "Maylene's man-catching brew. But don't throw it away. I use it to strip the paint off my boat, and Maylene won't give any to women."
     
    They walked behind the house to the pool and Richard took a look around. "How far away is the nearest water supply?" he asked.
     
    "About a mile in any direction you choose. You got the Gulf south of here and a number of bayous every other direction."
     
    "A mile?" Richard said, obviously surprised. "That alligator traveled a mile out of the water?"
     
    "Yeah. Surprised me, too, until I found the drugs. Gators run fast, though. I figure when the initial high hit him, he took off and ended up at Maylene's before he crashed."
     
    "So you definitely think the alligator was from around here?" Richard asked as they began walking back toward the jeep. "Could he have come from outside Gator Bait?"
     
    "Could have, but he didn't."
     
    "How do you know?"
     
    "I recognized him. He's a local."
     
    Richard stared at her, clearly amazed. "You've included alligators in the local population?"
     
    She climbed into the jeep. "Not really. It's just that this one had a scar on his leg from getting caught in a broken trap at the shrimp house. I remembered the scar."
     
    Richard shook his head. "So do you have any idea where this alligator's hangout might be?"
     
    Dorie started the jeep and gave him a broad smile. "Why, Dick? You planning on questioning him?"
     
    ***
     
    Because it had been a long day and because Richard needed to consider the information he had so far to know which direction he wanted to go next, he asked Dorie to call it quits. She looked more than happy to dump him in front of the motel and sped off without a word.
     
    He stared at the retreating lights on the jeep for a moment and shook his head. Dorie Berenger was a study in psychology. Helpful one minute and sarcastic and brooding the next. Richard didn't quite know what to make of her, and wasn't sure he had enough years left of life to figure it out. He looked at the run-down motel and thought about the long night ahead of him.
     
    The neon light from Pete's Bar flickered in the comer of his vision. What were the odds of making it in and out of that place twice? Everyone in town probably knew he saw the sheriff about Dorie before they even got back to Gator Bait. Was all that hassle really worth a beer?
     
    He'd just have to take his chances. Boredom was a bigger threat. Loneliness was the biggest threat of all. No one had told him how lonely this job would be. It was his only regret about his chosen profession. Hoping his luck would hold another night, he pulled open the door to the bar and stepped inside.
     
    The night crowd hadn't made it in yet, so the room was sparsely populated. Richard recognized the same bartender from the other night and took a seat in front of the register.
     
    The bartender, who was pouring peanuts into plastic baskets, looked up as Richard sat down. "You need a menu again?" he asked.
     
    Richard held in a sigh. "No, I'll just have a beer."
     
    "Regular beer or light beer?"
     
    "Regular beer. It's been much too long of a day to drink light."
     
    The bartender gave him a satisfied look. "Now you're coming around. We mostly stock the light beer for women. They like to watch their figures. No self-respecting man in Gator Bait would be caught dead drinking light beer. Except, of course, if there was nothing else."
     
    The bartender