“Well, I don’t. Just cry sometimes.”
“So Sam’s gone, your mother’s sleeping. Anybody else inside?”
Gabriel started to say something but then stopped.
Sean said, “It’s really important that we know who’s here.”
“So are you the police or what?”
Michelle snaked out her PI creds and showed them to him. “We’re working with the FBI and the Secret Service on Willa Dutton’s kidnapping. You got a Koasati Indian around here who goes by the name Eugene?”
“No, but there is one. His name’s Fred.”
“Is he in the house?”
“No, he lives in an old trailer on the property, just over that way,” he said, pointing to the west.
“So who else is inside?”
“Tippi was, but she’s not there now.”
“Who’s Tippi?”
“Mr. Sam’s daughter. He brought her home from the nursing home not too long ago.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
“She got sick a long time ago. Hooked her up to machines to breathe and all. Was in the nursing home for years. Mr. Sam and me would go and read to her. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. You read it?”
Michelle said, “Why’d he bring her home?”
“Don’t know. He just did.”
“But now she’s not here?”
“She’s not in her bedroom. I checked.”
“Was that why you were crying? Because you thought something had happened to her?”
Gabriel looked up at Michelle. “Ma’am, Mr. Sam is a good man. He took me and my ma in when we didn’t have nowhere else to go. He helps people, lots of people. He wouldn’t do nothing to Miss Tippi. He’s done everything for her.”
“But you were still crying. There must be a reason why.”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Because we want to help,” she said.
“That’s what you say, but I don’t know if that’s what you really mean.”
“You’re a smart young man,” said Sean.
“Mr. Sam said don’t trust nobody till they give you a good reason why you should.”
“What you doing here?” snapped a voice.
They turned to see Ruth Ann standing there in her old bathrobe. They didn’t focus on the robe, though. Their attention was occupied by the single-barrel shotgun she was pointing at them.
CHAPTER 76