American Heroes Series - 03 - Purgatory by Kathryn Le Veque Page A

call you over to help out Ms. Ellie.  But this….”
    He looked over at the dead body,
his words trailing off. Beau looked at the body, too, and the scene in general,
before sadly shaking his head.
    “This is going to be trouble,” he
muttered.
    Nash scratched his cheek. “I
know,” he mumbled in return. “That’s Femmie Loreau.”
    “I know,” Beau glanced around to
see if the cops were listening. “Do they know that?”
    Nash shrugged. “I’m sure the
sergeant does,” he said, looking to see where Rollens was. “I’m sure he’ll want
to talk to me about it.”
    Beau sighed heavily. “When the
Loreau boys hear that their daddy has been killed, they’ll be all over this
place. Ms. Ellie and her kids need to get out of here.”
    Nash already knew what Elliot was
going to say about that.  “Their daddy was trying to murder a young man,” he
pointed out. “I have no doubt that Femmie was responsible for the fire bomb
last night, too, only this time, he picked on the wrong person to attack. Alec
had every right to defend himself.”
    Beau nodded, shrugging, thinking
that it was going to get real ugly around here. He scratched his head and
turned back to the house.
    “Well,” he said. “I’m going to
finish with that front window. I have a glass company coming first thing
tomorrow to replace it, at least temporarily.  This whole place is falling down
so I told Ms. Ellie that we shouldn’t do anything too permanent or expensive
until we can figure out what, exactly, needs to be done. First thing I’m going
to do is have an electrician and a plumber here in the morning so we can start
figuring out the electrical and plumbing of this place. It’s a goddamn mess.”
    Nash turned away from the body,
looking up at the tall, imposing house that had once housed pirates and
mystery. Even though it belonged to Elliot, still, his blood ran through it. It
was a part of him.
    “She’s not going to leave it,” he
told his brother. “You’d better do what you can to make this house livable as
fast as you can.”
    Beau looked at him. “That’s
impossible.”
    “Then you’d better figure out something.
I don’t want Ellie living in a derelict old house.”
    Beau stared at his brother a
moment, his brow beginning to furrow. “Ellie?” he repeated.  “What do you mean
that you don’t want her living in a derelict old house?”
    Nash peered down at his brother.
“I’m going to assume you’ve had some conversations with her, at least enough to
see what she’s like.”
    Beau shrugged. “Enough, I guess,”
    “What do you think?”
    Beau gave him a knowing look. “I
should have guessed there was something going on when you called me this
morning,” he said. “And when you ask me a question like that, I’m thinking that you think she’s something pretty nice.”
    “She is.”
    “I know she is. I don’t disagree
with you at all. But you haven’t had a serious relationship since you and Julie
divorced. You don’t have time. All you do is work.”
    Nash gave him a half-grin and
looked back at the house. “I may have just found a reason not to work too much.
God knows, I’d sure like to come home to someone like her every night. Hell, I
might never leave the house again if she was in it.”
    Beau looked surprised. “You?” he
shook his head. “What about the commissioner job you’re taking at the end of
the summer?  You’re going to be in Baton Rouge.”
    He shrugged. “Only to work. I
don’t have to live there.  It’s only a thirty mile drive from here.”
    Beau shook his head, this time in
resignation. “I don’t believe it.”
    “Believe it. I’m going to marry
that woman.”
    Beau rolled his eyes. “And I’m
going to be sick,” he muttered, waving his brother off as he headed towards the
house. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
    Nash grinned as he watched his
brother go.  But his grin faded when he thought of Femmie Loreau lying dead
behind him and how the Loreau family