Free Murder in the Marsh by Ramsey Coutta Page A

be evacuated to safer ground.”
                  Rachel turned to Adele. She looked distraught. In her mind, Rachel knew Daniel was right, and she needed to stay.
                  “Mrs. LeBlanc, I need to leave immediately if I’m going to help your husband. Is there another boat that can be used for your evacuation?”
                  “We have another small boat, but de engine break down last week. Claude, he say he can’t fix it. We have to get another one.”
                  “What about your neighbors? Did they leave any boats behind?”
                  Adele thought and then said, “Ah tink so. Across de canal is de home of our neighbor Paul Landry. He leave a boat here in his boat shed. He winched it up out of de water. He say de motor doesn’t work dat good.”
                  “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. I’ll take Rachel over to the Landry home, and we’ll see if we can get the boat. We’ll have to explain to Mr. Landry later. Mrs. LeBlanc, you pack some food and water and check the weather on your TV. Hopefully, we won’t take long.”
                  Rachel and Daniel took their boat over to the Landry home almost directly across the canal. Landry had a green boat shed and a dock next to it. They tied up to the dock and found the door to the shed unlocked. Inside the shed, just as Adele said, hung a twenty-foot flat bottom boat winched up out of the water.  Daniel slowly turned the hand winch and let it down far enough to put in the plugs. He then lowered it the rest of the way into the water and loosened the straps that held it. He checked for the key, but it wasn’t in the boat. They looked around, but couldn’t find it.
                  “I think I can hot wire it,” Daniel said.
                  He laid down under the aluminum dash and found the wires to the ignition and pulled them loose.
                  “Okay, Rachel, squeeze the fuel bulb near the motor several times.” She did so until the bulb became firm with gas.
                  “I’m going to try to start it now.” He touched two wires together. A spark flew, the engine coughed and smoked, then finally sputtered to life.
    He twisted the two wires together and showed how he did it to Rachel. To cut the engine off she would have to pull the wires apart. He then stepped to the back of the boat to unlatch the shed bay doors. He then backed the boat out of the shed.
    “Can you take it from here?” he asked Rachel.
    “I think so,” she replied, looking over the steering and throttle mechanism of the boat.
    Daniel stepped out and Rachel sat down in the driver’s seat. Daniel loosened the lines to his boat, and they both headed back across the canal to the LeBlanc’s. Rachel’s boat continued to cough, sputter, and smoke, but made the trip.
    They tied up once they reached the LeBlanc dock and went inside. Adele had a bag of sandwiches ready and some water. She was watching the weather. The local weather forecaster out of New Orleans had a grim look on his face and was giving stern warnings. It was 1:00 in the afternoon and he was providing the latest update. Hurricane Katrina had significantly strengthened since Daniel watched the weather that morning. Winds were up to 115 mph and tropical storm force winds extended 120 miles out from the center. She was now a Category Three storm only 340 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. The weatherman confirmed that the hurricane was still making a track in a westerly direction, but weather hurricane models predicted it to turn northwest towards New Orleans. Daniel, Rachel, and Adele knew that if it did so it would hit Plaquemines Parish first.
    “I better get going,” Daniel said. “Rachel, I want you and Mrs. LeBlanc to pack and evacuate just as quickly as possible. Mrs. LeBlanc, is Andre going to be okay to move?”
    “He’s not doing so