“He thought it was some weird swamp thing. Archie, not Zep.”
Armie chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve already heard the term ‘rougarou’ bandied about. A whole lot of nosy people around town think radios don’t work both ways. I figured out what channel they talk on, so I know what the crazies are going to hit me with next. Gene Boudreaux is already trying to call in a cryptozoologist to investigate.”
“Zep said it was like the bayou version of a werewolf.” She needed to understand. She’d spent way too long keeping to herself in this town. Her grandfather had taught her that the first most important thing a police officer could know was the people he or she protected. She’d forgotten that.
Armie pulled up a chair and sank down. “Only in that it’s completely made up by people with way too much imagination and not enough sense. It’s kind of a catchall for anything weird that happens out here. Some people think it’s a werewolf. I’ve heard it referred to as a bayou Bigfoot. In other lore it shows up as a bloodsucking bunny rabbit. It’s a story to keep Cajun kids in line. Follow the rules or the rougarou will hunt you down.”
“Archie isn’t a kid.”
“Yeah, but he’s old school. He still has a priest bless his flock,” Armie said with a chuckle. “You should have seen Father Frank’s face when we told him he had to pray over a bunch of goats.”
This place was strange and mysterious. “Well, I think the goats got spooked by the asshole who dumped his dog in the middle of the woods.”
“Yeah, Zep told me about her. Cute thing.” Armie sat back. “Did everything go all right out there? Guidry didn’t try anything, did he?”
“Of course not,” she said quickly because she wasn’t going to reward the man by throwing him under a bus. “He was fine. He was actually pretty helpful.”
“So you don’t have trouble working with him?”
She snorted. She wished she could sound all delicate and feminine, but that wasn’t who she was. “I didn’t have trouble with him. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I handle him fine.”
“You handle him a lot.”
“Well, he gets into a lot of trouble.”
“A lot of young men get in the kind of trouble he does, and I don’t see you hauling them all into jail,” he pointed out. “I read your report on the tussle that happened at Dive. You didn’t bring any of those men in. You gave them warnings. They got in an actual fight. You brought Zep in the other day for jaywalking.”
She had her reasons for that. “Well, I could have given him a ticket, but we all know he won’t pay it.”
Armie was quiet for a moment. “I’ve never talked to you about this, but it might be time because I think we’re going to need him. I know this sounds silly to you, but there will be some folks out here who get real jumpy if they think there’s a rougarou around.”
She groaned. “Come on. They can’t honestly think there’s a werewolf running around the bayou.”
“Most of them won’t, but there will be some. Especially a couple of the more isolated families. I would expect we’ll need to go out and check on them. I think it’s also time we had a person on staff who can deal with some of our animal issues. We’ve got some construction going on, and that means we’ll have problems. I know I don’t particularly want to deal with them.”
A sinking feeling hit the pit of her stomach. “Are you telling me you want to hire Zep Guidry?”
“I’m asking you if you would mind.”
This was what got her about Armie. Her boss was always considerate. He cared if she would be uncomfortable having Zep around. Which was precisely why she would lie to him. She didn’t want to work with Zep. Being around him was the very definition of uncomfortable since she didn’t want to want to be around him. But she did. She wasn’t going to explain that to Armie since she couldn’t honestly explain it to herself. It wasn’t logical. “Of course not. Let him handle the animal stuff.”
“Well, he’ll be working with us to handle animal-related calls,” Armie corrected. “We still have to respond to any and all calls. We’ll ask him to join us if we think he can help. I’ve talked to Remy about it and he’s agreed to let Zep go if we get a call and he’s working at the restaurant. He can always shift around his staff.”
“Like Zep works. He flirts with the women and hopes they leave a big tip.” She usually sat in the bar at Guidry’s since he worked the main dining room. She would avoid the place altogether, but there weren’t a ton of places to eat and Guidry’s was excellent. She certainly didn’t go to watch him smile at every female in town.