Water Witch Read Free Page B

little white lie. Better that than have her think I had a
few brain bulbs burning out. “I could just tell from your voice.”
She let out a little sob, and my knees weakened. Jesus, something was wrong. I leaned against the wall. “Talk to me.”
    Angelle sniffled and let out a shaky breath
that I could hear even over Fritter’s howling. “I don’t even know
where to start.”
    “Try the beginning.”
    “That would take too long.” Another sniffle.
“Dun, I need . . . I need your help. I need you to come out to
Bayou Crow.”
    My palms grew slick with sweat. “What’s the
matter? Are you sick? Hurt?”
    “No, not that. I really don’t want to get
into everything over the phone. It would take too long and sound
too . . .too weird. I’ll tell you all about it when you get here .
. . if you’ll come.”
    “Wait, I don’t understand. You need my help
but can’t tell me why?”
    “No . . .well, yeah, I can tell you the most
important part—a couple of kids from my class are missing. An
eight-year-old boy named Nicky Trahan, and a seven-year-old girl,
Sarah Woodard. They’ve been gone for over twenty-four hours now,
and people here are starting to think they’ve either drowned or got
lost in the swamps.”
    I frowned.“I can understand drowning with all
the water out there and everything, but how does a seven and
eight-year-old get lost in a swamp? It’s not like wondering off in
the woods. You can’t just walk through a swamp, right?”
    “Not really. But there is a good bit of land
out there, though.”
    “Okay, but don’t you have to get to that land
by boat?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Did either of those kids know how to drive
one?”
    “I don’t think so. I mean they’re only seven
and eight.”
    “That’s my point, how would they have gotten
out there?”
    “Someone could’ve easily taken them.”
    What came immediately to mind was, Why? But I didn’t ask. The question was stupid. There were
no real answers when it came to child abduction. Just sick assholes
with personal agendas. “Gelle, I don’t—”
    “B-15!”a woman shouted in the background from
Angelle’s end of the line.
    “Who’s that?” I asked.
    “Poochie, Trevor’s grandma. She does that
every once in a while, call Bingo numbers I mean. Not sure why.”
Angelle lowered her voice. “She’s a sweetheart, but has always been
a little off. Started getting worse over the last two, three weeks.
You know, forgetting things, like taking her meds, leaving the
stove on, stuff like that. Trevor thought it best to move her out
here for a while.”
    “You mean she’s living with you?”
    “Yeah. She lived all the way out in St.
Martinville, over an hour and a half away. It was hard keeping tabs
on her from that distance. She doesn’t have any other immediate
family but us, and Trevor isn’t ready to put her in a nursing home
yet.”
    “Man, that’s got to be tough, having her
around all the time, huh? I mean you’ve only been married a little
over a year. Isn’t that sort of still in the newlywed phase?”
    “Yeah, well . . . you’ve gotta do what you’ve
gotta do for family, right?”
    I tsked. “No fair. That’s a set up if I’ve
ever heard one.”
    “Dunny, those kids . . .”
    I knew what was coming and didn’t want to
hear it. I wanted to go back to earlier, when opening a can of beef
stew for a mangy mutt was my only concern. Right then, I almost
wished for a tornado or to be driving around and have some
pimply-face kid broadside my truck. Anything but what Angelle was
about to ask.
    “You have to come out here and help find
them.”
    I shook my head. “I can’t, and you know why.
What about the police? Haven’t they been called in? Haven’t they
sent out search parties?”
    “Everyone’s been looking, neighbors,
teachers, other students. Bayou Crow only has one cop, so they sent
a couple of deputies from Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Department
yesterday. Problem is they already had to pull them out