Page 120 of Poison Wood

“People talking, wanting to believe she was a ne’er-do-well like her brother. Rumors about that patient who died. About Rosalie blackmailing someone and that she was sitting on a stack of cash out there.”

“What do you know about Archibald Crowley?”

Big Al’s lip curls up. “I know he never paid off his tab here.”

“Did you ever see him in here with Rosalie Adair?”

He shakes his head.

“Did you ever see him in here with any of the Poison Wood students?” I say.

Big Al chokes. “What? That guy? No way he’d hang out with students. All he ever said was there was nothing worse than a teenage girl.” He makes a face. “No, that’s not right. What was the word he used?” He snaps his fingers. “Diabolical. There’s nothing more diabolical than a teenage girl.”

I cock my head to one side. Sounds about right.

“Best I remember, he’d come in here, order a chardonnay, and sit in the corner alone,” Big Al says.

I glance in the corner at Bones, who is sitting there alone now; then I look back at Big Al. “What do you know about the eco-lodge Bones mentioned?”

“The state and the historical-preservation society have been at odds for years over that school. I think it goes back fifteen years. At the time, we finally had a governor interested in this part of the state and Ms. Tandy had to go and fight her on it. Governor Chamberlain had a vision. Would have been a good one too. But Ms. Tandy was a dog with a bone.”

I smile and shake my head at the exact phrase Tandy used when referring to Summer’s mother.

Big Al looks toward the pool table and yells at the guys whose arguing has reached fevered pitch. “Hey! Knock it off.”

He walks around the end of the bar and takes their pool cues from them, and I take that as my cue to move on.

The sunlight, although muted, is bright enough after I was in the dark bar to make my eyes water. I shield them as I walk toward the truck. I pull out my phone and text Summer and Katrina.

Where are you?

Kat replies:

Presidential suite at The Chateau hotel.

Are your parents here?

Yep. Heard your dad is coming too. United front and all

I start to type back that my father will be doing no such thing. No way he’d come down here. He just got back home. But I stop before I send it. My father’s behavior lately has been the exact opposite of what I expect. Instead I type:

Should we meet there?

No. Crazy here with media. It will just be me. Summer’s going somewhere.

I’m about to ask where when the gift shop door chimes and I look up. A man in an expensive cashmere sweater and dark sunglasses walks out of Oui Oui. He looks familiar. I scroll through images in my head; then he steps out into the cobblestone street and takes the hand of the young girl at his side. I inhale so quickly I cough and choke.

I race for the truck and get behind the wheel as the man and his daughter pull away from the curb. I flip a U-turn in front of a dump truck, which lays on its horn, but I don’t care.

No way I’m letting Marshall Sanders and his daughter out of my sight.

Chapter Thirty

Natchitoches, Louisiana

Monday, February 18, 2019

12:32 p.m. CST