Free Murder in the Marsh by Ramsey Coutta

then waited for a reply. After a minute or two, Claude spoke again, but he only repeated his earlier mayday. He didn’t appear to have heard Daniel. Daniel tried again and the same thing happened. He could hear Claude, but Claude couldn’t hear him. Claude sounded like he needed help immediately. Unfortunately, all the boats on the water would have already evacuated.
                  “Mrs. LeBlanc, what bay did he say?”
                  “Bye Batiste.”
                  “Hold on a minute.” He ran out of the house to his boat and pulled out some laminated maps he purchased earlier. He brought them back in and unfolded the one for the Port Sulphur area on the folding table. He leaned over the map and scanned it, quickly locating Bay Batiste. It was one of the larger bays on the map, about ten miles out through several canals, bayous, and smaller bays. It was a large rounded body of water. On its southwest end, the bay opened up into a much larger body of water called Barataria Bay. On the map, Bay Batiste looked to be about three miles wide at its widest point. It would be a very dangerous place during a hurricane. The large open surface of the bay would allow the wind to push mountains of water up in it, and the wave size would be tremendous. No one in a crippled boat would survive very long.
                  “Mrs. LeBlanc, I’m going to call the Coast Guard. They can get a helicopter out there in no time to rescue Claude. May I use your phone?”
                  She showed him where her phone and phone book were. He looked up the Coast Guard number at the nearby Belle Chasse Naval Air Station. After dialing, a man picked up on the other end, “US Coast Guard. How may I help you?”
                  “Yes. My name is Daniel Trahan. I’m with the US Department of Interior. I have picked up a mayday call from a shrimper named Claude LeBlanc. His vessel is taking on water somewhere in Bay Batiste. I would like to request a search and rescue.”
                  “Okay, Mr. Trahan. Let me take down what information you have. We’re currently responding to an offshore helicopter crash. Both of our helicopters are in the air responding. This is top priority at this time, and it may take a while before we can respond to your call.”
                  “How long?”
                  “It depends. Probably tomorrow, if the weather holds up. Our helicopters will not respond after nightfall.”
                  Daniel understood that the crash would take precedence over a slowly sinking shrimp boat. But tomorrow would be too late, and by that time the winds would have picked up. The Coast Guard would be unlikely to fly in high winds. He went ahead and gave the information, thanked the official, and hung up.
                  Daniel explained to Adele and Rachel the situation. Adele began to cry and Rachel attempted to comfort her.
                  “Okay, we’re going to have to do this ourselves,” Daniel began to plan. “My boat is fast. I can get out there quickly. When Rachel and I went out yesterday, we went as far as Bay Sansbois. I’ve got GPS mapping on my boat, so I believe I can find Bayou Dulac on the other side of Bay Sansbois. If I can find Bayou Dulac, then I know it opens up into Bay Batiste. The only problem is Bay Batiste is big. It may be difficult to track him down, but given enough time, I think I can do it.”
                  “That’s the problem, Daniel,” Rachel said with concern.  “There isn’t much time before the hurricane hits. What if you can’t find him? What if you run into trouble?”
                  “I feel like I at least need to try.”
                  “You’re going to need help. I’ll go with you.”
                  “Mrs. LeBlanc and her children need you more right now. They need to