A Crying Shame (28 page)

You're a well of information, you know that?”

Mike gritted his teeth. He calmed himself, saying,
If Paul Breaux did research on the ... creatures, he must have told you enough to pique your interest. It's a long drive out to Despair—I'd like to hear your theories on the matter.”

You won't like them.”

I don't like anything about this case.”

Very well. If you insist.”

Jon's theory brought the sheriff up short, stomping on the brake pedal, the patrol car slewing to one side, onto the shoulder. Sheriff Saucier's mouth worked silently, like a fish out of water. Finally he blurted,
What in the name of God did you say, Badon?”

Jon smiled at Saucier's reaction.
I said: ‘The Links are after selected women of the parish—a few at a time—for breeding purposes.' ”

Good jumping Christ! Are you serious, man?”

Yes. My slight surprise when you spoke of the journals was simply that you even knew of them. Linda must have told you. Paul did more than a few months' research on this parish. Two or three years. Maybe more. The subject—for whatever reason or reasons—fascinated him; became an obsession with him. What he put together was ... gruesome, to say the least.” Jon waggled his fingers toward the road.
May we continue on our way?” The sheriff rolled back on the blacktop.
Thank you,” Jon said politely.

Mike wondered if the man had any nerves at all. How could any person be so calm when discussing something so ... disgusting as monsters breeding with human women?

Jon said,
If you will check old records in your office, Mike, I think you will find—if they haven't been destroyed, and there is a good chance they have—that every twelve to fifteen years, beginning about 1840 or 1850, women began vanishing, mysteriously, from this area. Back then, it probably was no big mysterious event; people disappeared for a number of reasons: bandits, sickness, lost in the swamps and bayous, or suddenly pulled out, heading west. I would imagine, as did Paul, that back then it was one woman at a time, once a year. Maybe even a longer time space than that. And bear this in mind: back then there were Indians and slaves in this area; no one paid much attention to what happened to them.