Mystery on the Bayou

                                                                                         Chapter 16

                                                                                            Changes                                                                                             

     Deputy Clark Cruise drove Jessie, Esther, Grace, Ron, and Grant back to Jessie's house.  Grant was going to bunk temporarily with Ron.  Doogie and Floyd walked home since they both lived near the Hotel Breaux Bridge.  

     Jessie and her friends had not slept well the night before and so went straight to bed after thanking Deputy Cruise for the ride home.  When Frank arrived at the Sheriff's Office, he found that his old friend, the F.B.I. Agent, Tony Free, had learned that Alfie Cobb the leader, or boss of the other two crooks was the one who had killed Ron's brother Randal.  

     Alfie claimed it was an accident.  As he and Randal were talking heatedly, Randal started to take something out of his pocket.  Alfie assumed it was a gun, so he quickly grabbed the golf club from a nearby tree where Randal had left it, and swung.  Alfie said he was panicked, so didn't even check to see if Randal was alive.   He just beat it out of there.

     Alfie told Tony that Carl Masters had ordered the hit.  He assured Tony that his cohorts, Dave Mapes and Donald Locks had never killed anyone.  Carl used them to get money from gamblers who wouldn't pay their debts.  But other than a black eye once in a while or a twisted arm, no one was ever seriously hurt.

     "Do you believe him?"  Frank asked his agent friend.  "I do.  Only because I called the Coroner before you got here, and he told me the evidence does back up Alfie's story.  "Well, that will be some consolation to Ron that his brother's death was an accident," Frank said, with half a smile.  "Well, friend," Tony said,  "If you have no objection I'll take these three to the main office in New York," the agent ended.

     "Nope.  No objection," Frank said with a grin, "What's going to be the charge for Alfie and the other two?"  Frank asked him.   "Oh, Alfie will probably get Second Degree Manslaughter, if his story holds up in court.  Dave will be charged with aiding and abetting, and so will Donald, and they all will be charged with one count of kidnapping, for holding Madeline the desk clerk against her will."

     "Did any of the three say where Carl Masters had gone?"  Frank asked hopefully.  "No.  But they did say a couple of guys who worked at the trucking Company where Ron and his brother Randal worked, lit out with Carl on the day he left. "Don't worry Frank, we'll get Carl and the two truckers and the rest of Carl's gang too.  We'll shut Carl and his illegal operations down for good," Tony assured his friend. 

     Then Tony motioned to the agents he'd brought in with him, to get the three prisoners and move them out into the S.U.Vs.  Frank waved a goodbye from his office porch.  He knew that Jessie and the others were probably asleep, so he would wait until after lunch time to speak to them, specifically Ron, about how his brother had died.

     The sheriff's opportunity to talk to Ron came around one o'clock in the afternoon that day.  Ron came to Frank.  He told Frank that Jessie, Esther, Grace, and Grant were still asleep, so he thought he'd take the time to come and asked if any of the three men had killed his brother.  Frank sat him down and handed him a hot cup of coffee.    

     "Thanks Frank," Ron said, taking a liberal drink from the cup.  Frank didn't keep Ron waiting.  He told him what his friend Tony the agent told him.  When he was done, Ron said, with a tear in his eye, "At least he didn't mean to kill him," he said, taking another drink of the hot coffee.  "I hoped that would give you a little bit of peace, that the coroner confirmed Randal's death could have occurred in just the way that the prisoner Alfie said it did."