Free Under the Cajun Moon by Mindy Starns Clark Page B

no one could ever bother him while he was down there. Now you’re telling me that he made not one but two calls from there this morning? What happened? Did a new cell tower go in or something?”
    Kevin shook his head.
    “No, he called from the marina a few miles away. That’s how I first knew he was so excited, because he had gotten in his boat and driven it all the way there just to contact me.”
    I looked at Sam, who shrugged.
    “When Julian left the message for your mama, he was somewhere out on the water, from what I understand. Anyway, your mama made a bunch of calls and finally learned that he had been found alive but unconscious. She wanted to go down to the hospital at Morgan City, but they told her they would only be stabilizing him there and then airlifting him up to New Orleans, so she drove to Oschner’s and waited for him there instead. She called me from the car to tell me about the message and asked me to go by the house and listen to it myself and see what I thought.”
    “And?”
    “And it was pretty garbled. I listened to it about ten times and finally gave up. I ended up bringing the tape to a friend who has professional sound equipment, and I’m hoping he can clear up the noise and let us hear what your daddy actually said. My friend didn’t know how long fixing the sound might take or how much he would be able to recover, but he said he’d do the best he could. After I dropped the tape off with him, I drove onto the hospital so I could see your daddy and be with your mama. When I knew you were coming here, I thought I should come and tell you all this in person. Once we find out what else is on that tape, we’ll know a lot more about what happened.”
    “I wish I could hear it.”
    “Well, here. For right now you can look at this. I wrote down what I could make out from it.”
    Sam dug in his pockets, finally retrieving a folded piece of paper and holding it out to me.
    “Thanks, but I don’t understand,” I said, taking it from him. “What difference does the tape make now? Can’t my father just tell you who shot him?”
    “Oh, Chloe, I thought you knew. Your daddy’s still unconscious, baby. He has been since the paramedics got to him.”
    “But my mom said he survived the surgery and was in recovery.”
    “I’m sorry, Chloe. She should have told you. He’s alive, but he’s back in intensive care. He’s still in a coma, honey.”

EIGHT
    The detective suddenly breezed back into the room, and I was about to tell him about Sam and my father’s phone message when he sat, looked me deeply in the eye, and spoke.
    “Okay, why don’t you tell me how this all really happened, Ms. Ledet? I’m thinking this Peralta guy drugged you and brought you here to his hotel room. He tried to take advantage of you but you woke up, and in defending yourself you accidentally killed him. That’s how it really happened, isn’t it? You fought him off, knocked him out, and then smothered him with a pillow?”
    I gasped, putting a hand to my mouth.
    “Is that how Kevin died? He was smothered with a pillow?”
    “Come on, let’s not play games. He was drunk, you were hysterical, it happens. You were only trying to defend yourself, right?”
    Looking into the detective’s eyes, I was silent for a long moment, wondering how so much could go so horribly off track so fast. This man was so sure I was guilty, but in my gut I knew I wasn’t. I couldn’t even kill a spider or a fly. How on earth could I possibly have taken the life of another human being?
    The phone message. My mind kept spinning around that phone message, the one my father had left for my mother, that Sam had then written down and shown to me last night.
    “I have to think,” I whispered, closing my eyes and pressing my hands against my temples.
    Last night. The restaurant. Sam had given me the piece of paper on which he had scribbled down what he had been able to hear of the message. Graze had shown up with my coffee at that